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Orchard Project at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site

Two people kneel on a mound of soild and press around the base of a newly planted young fruit tree.
Staff and volunteers planted apple and pear trees in the historic orchard at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site in April 2024.

NPS

In the first week of April 2024, park staff from Martin Van Buren National Historic Site, Roosevelt-Vanderbilt National Historic Site, and the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation worked with volunteers to plant 81 apple and pear trees in the three acre north orchard at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site. The planting marks the culmination of many years of planning and preparation to rehabilitate the historic orchard. It is also an excellent example of collaboration between the National Park Service and the Tribal Historic Preservation Office during the project’s design and compliance process. By next spring, when the planting is complete, 136 fruit trees will grow in the orchard.

Landscape History

Martin Van Buren purchased the Lindenwald estate in eastern New York while serving as the eighth president of the United States. After completing his presidential term in 1841, Van Buren moved to the property where he remained active in national politics and engaged in progressive agriculture as an extension of his political beliefs. Attempting to prevent the expansion of slavery into the western territories, Van Buren used farming to demonstrate that soil in the northern states was not “spent” and could be worked economically without enslaved labor. Though his 1848 bid for the presidency as a third party candidate of the Free Soil Party was unsuccessful, Van Buren continued promoting and practicing progressive farming throughout his life.

Orchards have a long history at Lindenwald. Early in Van Buren’s tenure at the property, his employees planted several thousand apple and pear trees in orchards to the northwest and southwest of the mansion where Van Buren lived. Evidence of the north orchard survives in estate records like a 1841 sketch map and July 1843 deed. The orchard trees are also referred to in correspondence, including a suggestion that Van Buren may have propagated and sold fruit trees at a fairly large scale.

Painting of the agricultural landscape at Lindenwald showing tree-lined driveway, orchards, garden, fields, and mansion.
Artist's depiction of the Van Buren era Lindenwald landscape, showing the north orchard in the bottom right.

Original by S.N. Patricia (1996), updated in 2016 by Eric D. Whiting (NPS / Martin Van Buren National Historic Site Collection)

A drawing of a landscape layout shows a mansion on a curving driveway, fields, and streams. The orchard to the right of the house is highlighted.
The c. 1841 sketch map of Lindenwald documents the entry drive, location of the mansion, farm roads, outbuildings, creeks, gardens, and fields. By the mid-1840s, the north orchard expanded to include a portion of the former north field on the upper terrace, labeled "rye fields" to the left of the mansion on the sketch. This area is shaded red in the bottom right of the sketch.

NPS/Martin Van Buren National Historic Site. Original is part of Van Buren Papers, Pennsylvania State University.

A detailed watercolor illustration of two green-yellow apples with notes, dates, and locations written in the margins
Malus domestica: Newtown Pippin. An example of one of the common apple varieties that were likely grown in the historic orchard.

Ellen Isham Schutt, USDA Pomological Watercolor Collection

Van Buren's focus on apple production was rare for his time. Although fruit growing later became the major agricultural activity of Kinderhook, the commercialization of the industry was just beginning in the 1840s. Specific varieties were grafted onto standard rootstock to produce apples and pears for eating. In early commercial orchards, trees were planted in regularly spaced grids, spaced from 20 to 35 feet. Trees were grafted close to the ground and allowed to grow wide on tall trunks, without pruned canopies.

The exact composition of the orchard is not known today. Given his connections to urban markets and his interest in horticulture, it is probable that Van Buren grew some of the more popular, commercially-grown apple varieties of the time, such as Newtown Pippin and Esopus Spitzenburg, which were among the first apples sold in New York City, or Baldwins. Pears may have included Seckel, an American variety developed near Philadelphia, and other varieties imported from Germany.
An aerial perspective of a mansion on a curved driveway in an agricultural setting. A dense woodlot, the former site of the orchard, is to the rear right.
Aerial view of the landscape looking towards the west, 1978. The woodlot to the right of the mansion has grown in the location of the former orchard.

NPS / MAVA Archives, 78-2801

Planning for Landscape Rehabilitation

An unpaved road beside a maintenance building with brown siding, in a leafy wooded area
The north woodlot and non-historic maintenance building in 2016.

NPS / OCLP

The orchards remained intact until the mid-1900s, when successional woodland growth gradually overtook the northern orchard.

Martin Van Buren National Historic Site was established in 1974. Beginning in the 1990s, the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation has worked with the park to provide landscape management guidance. A 1997 Cultural Landscape Report for the park recommended re-establishing the north orchard as part of a holistic cultural landscape treatment plan. This work, also recommended in the 2016 Cultural Landscape Report Volume II: Updated Treatment Plan and Record of Treatment, was put on hold for almost 25 years. In 2019, the park reinitiated interest in orchard rehabilitation and sought funding for the project.

A site plan shows conditions and features during the 1839-1864 period. An extensive orchard is right of the mansion. A site plan shows conditions and features during the 1839-1864 period. An extensive orchard is right of the mansion.

Left image
Period Plan: 1839-1864
Credit: NPS / OCLP

Right image
Landscape Conditions: 2016
Credit: NPS / OCLP

The 2016 Martin Van Buren National Historic Site Cultural Landscape Report documents the history and changes of the landscape. 

A multi-disciplinary team assembled. Two primary concerns guided project decision-making: protection of archeolocigal resources and sustainable orchard management. The park has built a strong working relationship with the Tribal Historic Preservation Program of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Indians, a tribal government whose traditional homeland includes the Hudson River Valley. Before planning started, the park worked closely with the Mohican Tribal Historic Preservation Officer (THPO) to understand the tribe’s perspectives on soil disturbance and artifact collection and ensure that orchard development did not impact artifacts related to their cultural heritage.

From Plan to Planting

The goal of the project was to plant, with limited ground disturbance, a sustainable, historically authentic orchard that met Martin Van Buren National Historic Site’s interpretation and management goals. The plan addressed orchard management, resource sensitivity and preservation, and environmental sustainability.

The design factors included orchard location, fencing, tree spacing and arrangement, orchard design (tree spacing and arrangement), variety and rootstock selection, and planting techniques to restore the historic landscape character through the introduction of a historically authentic and environmentally sustainable orchard to better evoke Van Buren’s progressive farming legacy.

A replanted orchard, with a grid of soil mounds and deer fencing, from inside a second-story window framed by drapes.
A view of the replanted orchard from the house at Lindenwald, where Martin Van Buren lived from 1841 until 1862 (April 2024).

NPS

Two people operate ground scanning equipment in an open field, driving a cart with a radar device attached to a trailer on the back.
The archeology crew scanned the site using ground penetrating radar in late September 2023.

NPS

While the newly planted orchard is not an exact replica of Van Buren’s orchard, since replanting Van Buren’s 2000 trees in a changing climate would not be sustainable, the orchard replicates Van Buren’s zeal for employing the most relevant agricultural practices of the time.

Fruit trees in the new orchard are spaced in a thirty-foot grid pattern which mimics Van Buren’s tree layout. The design team adjusted the number of trees, size and shape of the orchard, and arrangement of tree varieties were of the field and number and arrangement of tree varieties to protect archeological resources and follow contemporary organic orchard management practices. While the exact apple and pear cultivars grown in the orchard during Van Buren’s time are unknown, the park selected cultivars representative of the range of varieties grown in the mid-1800s in the Hudson River Valley, with some exceptions to provide a continuous harvest.

High angle view of orchard site before planting. Mounds of soil form a grid around a one-story maintenance building
In late October 2023, the soil mounds are in place and cover crop is growing to prepare the site for planting. Trees will be spaced in a grid that reflects the historic conditions. Note the same maintenance building in the 2016 image of the woodlot. The building has since been removed.

NPS

A round blue plastic pool is used as a mold to shape soil into a mound, part of a grid of soil mounds in a field.
A plastic pool with the bottom removed was used to form soil mounds for the orchard planting, October 24 2023.

NPS

In 2022, as part of the creation of the Martin Van Buren National Historic Site Orchard Rehabilitation Plan, orchard design alternatives and an implementation strategy were developed through meetings with stakeholders, site visits, and expert interviews. The park met with local orchardists to develop a successful strategy for planting an orchard with little or no ground disturbance. Farmscape Ecology, a local research and education program, connected the park with two experienced local orchardists. The orchardists at Threshold Farm in Philmont, New York suggested the park use hügelkultur, a historic technique of planting in mounds, to avoid soil disturbance.

Local orchard expert Mike Biltonen, of Know Your Roots, was hired as a consultant to guide the team through this unusual planting process. Planning meetings brought together staff of Martin Van Buren National Historic Site including Superintendent Megan O’Malley, Facility Manager Michael Orapello, and Archeologist Jared Muehlbauer; staff of the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation including Historic Landscape Architect Jennifer Hanna and Horticulturist Brooke Derr; the Northeast Archeological Resources Program; and local orchardists.

Detailed diagram for planting young fruit tree into a mound, showing dimensions and the relationship between graft, mulch, soil, and pruning cuts.
Mounded planting detail shows measurements and specifications for planting a bare-root fruit tree with minimal soil disruption.

NPS / OCLP

One of the most challenging aspects of the project was designing planting specifications that would minimize soils disturbance to less than two inches, following recommendations of the consultation process and archeologists. In the resulting design plan, young trees are planted into mounds and staked for support. This is a highly unusual practice and will be monitored as an experimental design.

Deer fencing, now a necessary component of orchard maintenance, was selected to minimize visual intrusion, and post location was determined using GIS and archeology layers to avoid areas of sensitivity. Likewise, the irrigation system was designed to minimize soil disturbance and avoid interference with sensitive areas.

The success of this project represents the dedication and flexibility of park and regional staff that worked toward a creative solution for rehabilitating the orchard at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site. The park hopes that the fruit trees will offer more opportunities for visitor and volunteer engagement with the agricultural history of the site.

A fence surrounds an orchard of young trees, planted in rows in soil mounds. A 2.5 story mansion with a tower is in the back right.
Orchard rehabilitation at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site in April 2024.

NPS

Project Details

Schedule

  • Removed trees from woodlot on orchard site.

  • Ground tree stumps.

  • Mowed brambles.

  • Sprayed herbicide to clear area for new orchard.

  • Installed orchard fence. 

  • Removed remaining vegetation and stump debris using a York Rake attachment.

  • Loosened the top two inches of soil surface using a lightweight tiller.

  • Aerated fields (as an alternative to deeper tillage to protect potential archeological resources).

  • Planted cover crop. 

  • Created soil mounds, using a round plastic wading pool with the bottom cut out. 

  • Allowed soil mounds to settle.

  • Planted 81 apple and pear trees.

A group of 19 NPS staff, volunteers, and partners in hats, coats, and work gear pose in the orchard area in front of the mansion.
The orchard planting group at Martin Van Buren National Historic Site on April 2, 2024.

NPS

Tags

Martin Van Buren National Historic Site

Last updated: April 18, 2024