Restored Trellis Returns to the Grounds of the Longfellow House

Alice's Garden with newly reinstalled trellises

NPS Photo / Chris Beagan

Longfellow House-Washington’s Headquarters National Historic Site is thrilled to announce the restoration of the “Alice’s Garden” trellis! The structure returned to the site in September 2020 after four years of off-site repair work. Restoration of the trellis was made possible by collaboration among site maintenance staff, site resource management staff, and partners with the Student Conservation Association.

Early Landscape Design and Preservation

Conscientious preservation of the Longfellow House grounds began in earnest during Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's residency (1837-1882). The also poet enlisted two landscape designers, his brother, Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow Sr., and the English landscape architect Richard Dolben, to enhance the landscape. The poet’s eldest surviving daughter Alice Longfellow continued his legacy of landscape preservation and improvement.

During her residency (1850-1928), Alice Longfellow continued to preserve the enduring features of the forecourt landscape that date to the Colonial era. At the same time, Alice Longfellow made changes to the gardens on the property to evoke an idealized and idolized view of the property’s Colonial past.

In the early twentieth century, she hired leading landscape architects Martha Brookes Brown, (later Hutcheson) and Ellen Biddle Shipman to redesign the Formal Garden in 1904 and 1925, respectively. While drawing on historical precedent, their design work was nonetheless new and made the grounds an important exemplar of the Colonial Revival style.

Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters NHS Buildings & Grounds Photograph Collection (3008/3-#35)

“Alice’s Garden”

Around the time that Martha Brookes Brown redesigned the Formal Garden, Alice Longfellow also employed her cousin, Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow Jr. (1854-1934, known as Waddy), in 1905 to design a more intimate garden space. Located next to what had been the Longfellows’ billiards room (now the park visitor center). “Alice’s Garden” is a small sitting garden, which invites visitors to sit and view the oldest tree on the grounds, a majestic littleleaf linden tree.

Waddy Longfellow was a trained architect. He attended both Harvard and MIT and worked in several architecture offices, including the office of the premier interpreter of American Romanesque Henry Hobson Richardson. Waddy Longfellow’s built works are located throughout the northeast and include the Harvard Semitic Museum, numerous large summer homes in Maine and New Hampshire, and the Carnegie Institute and Library in Pittsburgh.

Waddy Longfellow maintained a close relationship with the Brattle Street Longfellows throughout his life. During his time at Harvard, he was frequent visitor to his uncle, aunt, and cousins’ home. In 1887, Waddy designed a Colonial Revival style home for his aunt Anne Allegra Longfellow Thorp two doors down from the Longfellow House, with the Colonial details of her childhood home in mind.

Waddy also shared an interest in Colonial history with his older aunt Alice Longfellow. It is no surprise that she chose him to design her garden sanctuary on the east wall of the former billiards room.

Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters NHS Museum Collection (LONG 24600)

Now known as “Alice’s Garden,” the defining feature of this small garden is a wide bench sheltered by a thirty-foot-wide tri-part arched trellis structure. The design of this structure is both distinctively Colonial Revival and Classical Revival in character; it modestly evokes triumphal arches and Romanesque church architecture.

A terracotta and metal-reinforced concrete bas-relief sculpture of the Madonna and child once adorned the apse above the central bench. The panel, visible in historic photographs, is preserved in the museum collection today.

Trellis Preservation

By 2016, the original trellis structure, now stored in the park collections, had long since been replaced by a replica. But even the replica showed its age. Careful inspection revealed extensive wood deterioration, some beyond repair. The structure was removed to the park maintenance shop for restoration work. Existing material was repaired where possible, and replacement components were crafted where needed. The team chose Spanish cedar and mahogany for the repair work on account of the woods’ durability.

Alexander Wadsworth Longfellow Jr.'s original measured drawing provided key information for preservation carpentry work recreating the structure.

Architectural Drawings and Blueprints Collection (LONG 16172), Longfellow House-Washington's Headquarters NHS

Using archival materials, fragments from the original trellis and bas-relief sculpture in the site’s museum collections, and the site’s Cultural Landscape Report, all involved learned about the significance of the garden and its centerpiece, the trellis. The maintenance team applied this knowledge though hands-on work in wood crafting and preservation carpentry to painstakingly restore the trellis.

Preservation carpentry interns at work on the arched top in the maintenance shop.

NPS Photo / Chris Beagan

Over the summer of 2020, two preservation carpentry interns from the Vermont Woodworking School and the University of Virginia worked in partnership with the Student Conservation Association and alongside skilled National Park Service facilities staff to bring the project to completion. The trellis was reinstalled on the park grounds in September 2020.

Today, visitors to the property can appreciate the history, craftsmanship, and cultural legacy of this special retreat on the Longfellow House grounds. Visitors are invited to sit and enjoy the view of the majestic littleleaf linden that endures in this outdoor sanctuary.