The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV, Part 79

Author: Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, ed; Jewett, C. F. (Clarence F.), publisher
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Boston : Osgood
Number of Pages: 760

USA > Massachusetts > Suffolk County > Boston > The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV > Part 79

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Next to be named are the garden and fruit-houses of Samuel G. Perkins, which were presented to him by his brother, Colonel Perkins. The spot was selected on account of its being situated between the Colonel's and the beautiful estate at Pine Bank of James Perkins, an elder brother (and where now lives his grandson, E. N. Perkins), and as a favorable place where

1 Mr. Winthrop's Address at the Dedication of the New Town Hall of Brookline. VOL. IV. - 79.

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Samuel might indulge his natural taste, and exercise the skill which he had acquired in horticultural science by residing in foreign lands, and by his acquaintance with experienced cultivators of both fruits and flowers. His fruit-houses were two hundred feet in length; in and around them were grown the choicest varieties of grapes, peaches, and plums ; there the Golden Nectarine was produced by him from the stone. Mr. Perkins was the in- troducer from France of the Duchesse d'Angoulême pear, the Franconia raspberry, and other fruits.1

In Brookline is the old Aspinwall estate, the birthplace of our beloved citizen the late Colonel Thomas Aspinwall, where still remains the same old house2 in which he and his father, Dr. William Aspinwall, were born. Here were planted by Dr. William Aspinwall extensive orchards of Bald- win and Roxbury Russet apples, and other fruits. A few trees are still remaining near the old house. So plenty were peaches that the pigs were turned into the orchard to eat up the surplus; and this ground is still called the "old peach orchard." On a portion of the Aspinwall estate, Mr. Augustus Aspinwall, a distinguished merchant and horticulturist, one of the first board of counsellors of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, devoted a part of his time to horticultural pursuits, erecting two extensive graperies. He was eminently successful as a cultivator of the rose, of which he made frequent exhibitions.

The most extensive and elegant estate in Brookline is that of the vener- able Ignatius Sargent, whose success in grape culture forty years ago was so great that he exhibited bunches of the Black Hamburg grape weighing from four to six pounds. On these grounds is the beautiful cottage of his son, Professor Charles S. Sargent, on the site of the residence of the late Thomas Lee, who was thirty years ago much interested in the growth of rhododendrons, azaleas, and other plants. Under the supervision of Pro- fessor Sargent, this place, with its magnificent landscape, its conservatories of plants, and its extensive collection of conifers, rhododendrons, and aza- leas, is every year thrown open to the public. With its extensive and rare collection of native and foreign trees and shrubs, and its wide and grand embrace of one hundred acres in extent, this estate is one of great interest for the study of landscape and ornamental culture.

General Lyman, to whom we have alluded, expended in 1842 large sums of money in the erection of his house, of which Richard Upjohn was the architect. He improved the premises by grading the lawn, planting trees, and building graperies; all of which have been further improved by

8 Letter of Augustus T. Perkins. " He attend- ed personally to the pruning and cultivation of his trees; and his success was greater than that of his brother. He usually wore a button-hole bouquet in the lapel of his coat, and was fond of surprising his brother with superior fruits. One day he came with a basket of gorgeous grapes, peaches, and apricots, and said : ‘Brother

Tom, I know you love fine fruit; and fearing you do not often get it, I have brought you some- thing worth having.' - 'Thank you, Brother Sam; I try to be contented with what I have ;' and I certainly should be, if you were not always bursting in and giving me something that makes me envy you.'"

2 [See Vol. I. p. 221. - ED.]

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his worthy son, Colonel Theodore, who still resides there, and whose son of the same name, a promising lad, we hope may live to perpetuate the memory of Theodore Lyman. Here remain some of the grand old trees planted by the father of our venerable citizen Jonathan Mason, who still lives at the advanced age of nearly ninety years. General Lyman was a patron of horticulture, agriculture, and moral reform.1 He gave ten thou- sand dollars to the Massachusetts Horticultural Society.

· In Brookline, also, is the elegant villa, with its splendid avenues and grounds, of the late John Eliot Thayer, left by him to Mrs. Thayer, now Mrs. Robert C. Winthrop, where a most generous hospitality and cordial welcome are extended by Mr. and Mrs. Winthrop to their numerous friends both of our own and foreign lands.

Here, also, are the fine estate and extensive glass structures of John Lowell Gardner, to whom we have referred already, by whose liberality for a long course of years the exhibitions of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society have been graced and enriched by elegant plants and products from the hands of his experienced gardener, Mr. Atkinson. Mr. Gardner's mother was sister to the Hon. John Lowell, and he inherits the same taste for rural life and culture for which Mr. Lowell was so well known. His father, as we have seen, also possessed like tastes when he lived in Sum- mer Street, where foreign grapes and pears were grown in open air. The Saint Germain pear was very large; and of the Brown Beurré Mr. Gardner says, " I have never seen finer specimens."

The elegant estate of the Hon. Amos A. Lawrence, at Longwood, was once the farm of Judge Sewall, on which there are relics of pear culture. One of the trees, a very large one, was destroyed by a gale several years ago. The largest which remains, though with lessened proportions, now measures, at six inches above the ground, nine feet two inches in circum- ference. Thirty years ago it bore what is called the Button pear, but has since been regrafted with another variety. Judge Sewall, in his diary between 1680 and 1700, mentions grafting some pear-trees at his house in Boston with "Button pears." The grafts were probably taken from this tree.2

Cambridge was celebrated for her gardens and the ornamental culture of her grounds even before the beginning of this present century. "At the close of the Revolution, Andrew Craigie purchased the Washington headquarters, enlarged the house,3 and laid out the grounds in the taste of that period. On the western side of the mansion, the tall hedges and clumps of lilacs are all that remain of this early garden. Mr. Craigie had a greenhouse on the grounds, where the dormitory of the Episcopal Semi- nary now stands. This structure was burned about 1840. He also had an ice-house, an almost unknown luxury in those days. Some people thought

1 [See Mr. Bugbee's chapter on " Boston under the Mayors," in Vol. III .- ED.]

2 The Hon. Amos A. Lawrence's Letter.

8 [See a view of it in Vol. III. - ED.]

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a judgment would befall one who would thus attempt to thwart the designs of Providence by raising flowers under glass in winter, and keeping ice under ground to cool the heat of summer; which now seem to have been the forerunners of two great institutions in Cambridge, -ice in summer, and flowers in winter."

Thomas Brattle, of whom mention is elsewhere made,1 returning from exile in 1784, took possession of his patrimony, the house which now bears his name, and began to improve his grounds according to the taste of a century ago; and from that time until his death, in 1801, his garden, pos- sessing a profusion of fruits and flowers, was the boast of Cambridge. 'His house was built by his father in 1742, when was planted, probably, the square of English lindens which so long formed a green canopy around it, but which have all fallen, the last one disappearing about fifteen years ago. Mr. Brattle, with a native taste for horticulture, and with observa- tion of foreign lands, no doubt laid out his grounds in the latest styles of Europe, having a spring of pure water, a marble grotto, a pond for gold- fish, and a parterre for aquatic plants on a lower level, where the Uni- versity Press now stands. His lawn was so velvet-like that it was said it could only be improved by combing it with a fine-tooth comb.

The most remarkable fruit garden in Cambridge during the last century was that of Bosenger Foster, who lived on the estate occupied by the late venerable and worthy Samuel Batchelder, who died a few years ago at the age of ninety-two. This estate is now occupied by Mr. Thomas P. James and his accomplished wife, the daughter of Mr. Batchelder. The garden is still partially enclosed by a brick wall, which has been a landmark on Brattle Street for the last one hundred and fifty years. Here was probably the first extensive collection of pear-trees in a region now famous for its fine fruits. Mr. Foster imported the most celebrated French pears, some trees of which attained great size; a few of them, with a most beautiful black mulberry- tree, ornament the place and still bear fruit. Here are still large hawthorn- trees which it is believed were planted by the Vassalls in 1730, and which still produce a profusion of white blossoms, and are a harbor for winter birds, who feed on the ripe haws.2

Cambridge has been conspicuous for the culture of fruits, especially of the pear and plum, as the exhibitions of the last fifty years have shown. Here were the experimental grounds and nurseries of Samuel Pond, Henry Vandine, and numerous gardens of fruit-trees. It has also possessed the most extensive nurseries and plant-houses of any place in New England. Here Mr. P. B. Hovey, with his brother Charles M. Hovey, established more than forty years ago, upon a piece of wild woodland, the famous nursery of Hovey & Co., for the sale of trees and plants ; and here, under the supervision and direction of the latter gentleman, associated with their sons in the profes- sion, he has supervised and carried on the raising and testing of fruits, the producing of seeds, and the hybridization and acquisition of plants, which

1 [See Vol. III. p. 110 .- ED.] 2 Letter of Mrs. Isabella James.

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have given him and his brother a wide reputation as horticulturists both at home and in foreign lands. Mr. Hovey's love of nature and his am- bitious and enterprising disposition have inspired him to prove under his own personal inspection everything in the way of horticulture that seemed desirable. In the department of pomology there have been fruited and proved on these grounds more than fifteen hundred varieties of fruits; and from them there was exhibited, on a single occasion, three hundred varieties of pears. Here were raised, by the crossing of the strawberry, the Boston Pine and Hovey's Seedling strawberry, -the last named being still, after almost fifty years of trial, one of our finest varieties in cultivation.

Their collection of plants contains grand old specimens, which are the result of many years of patience and toil. Some of the Chinese and other palms are fifty years old and twelve feet high. Here was early begun the hybridization of plants, by which have been produced some of the most re- markable camellias of which our country can boast,-such as the Mrs. Anne Marie Hovey, Charles M. Hovey, Charles H. Hovey, and others, for some of which they received the gold medal of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and also a first-class certificate by the London Horticultural So- ciety. Many of these Mr. C. M. Hovey exhibited in London in person. The camellia-house of Hovey & Co. is one hundred feet long, fifty feet wide, and twenty-five feet high, and it contains some of the largest camellias in the country, all planted in the ground. Here are twenty other houses for the growth of plants.

The collection of Hovey & Co. contains hundreds of species and vari- eties of ornamental trees and shrubs, among which are remarkable speci- mens of elegant and curious trees, worthy of the long life which it has taken to produce them: Mr. C. M. Hovey was for four years president of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, and the editor of the Magazine of Hor- ticulture for thirty-four years, - the whole period of its existence. These volumes contain a vast amount of horticultural and kindred matter, and as books of reference are of very great value to all lovers of the art. Tri- umphing over all obstacles, and working with a zeal that never tires, he still lives to promote the great cause to which he has devoted his life.

The city of Newton, with her eight villages, and with a numerous popu- lation of active business people, has made, perhaps, as great advances in horticultural science as any other area of the same size around Boston. Here are numerous beautiful residences, with highly cultivated gardens, orchards, and well kept grounds; and just beyond, in Natick, where the Apostle Eliot planted his apple-trees, are cultivators of the rose, whose sales amount to thousands of dollars annually.

Newton and Brighton have been noted for their cultivation of fruits, trees, and plants for nearly a hundred years. The first nursery of any considerable note in New England was begun by John Kenrick, of New- ton, in 1790, by the raising of peach-trees from the stone, to which he

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THE MEMORIAL HISTORY OF BOSTON.

added in a few years the apple, cherry, and other fruit-trees. In 1797 he began a nursery of ornamental trees, two acres of which were planted with the Lombardy poplar, then a most esteemed, but now despised, tree. His nurseries became the most extensive in New England. In 1823 Mr. Ken- rick took his elder son, William, into partnership, and continued the busi- ness until his death in 1833. Peaches and currants were here extensively cultivated; and there were made in 1826 three thousand and six hundred gallons of currant wine. William Kenrick's nursery at Nonantum Hill, in Newton, established in 1823, continued for twenty-seven years; and for a part of this time he imported and sold more fruit-trees than any other nursery-man in New England. John A. Kenrick, brother of William, also pursued the nursery business on the old estate until his death in 1870.1 William Kenrick was one of the founders of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, a zealous, enterprising citizen, the author of the New American Orchardist, and a public writer. He entered largely into the Morus Multi- caulis speculation, propagating hundreds of thousands of this tree both on his own grounds and other land which he had taken up in the South.

James Hyde established a small nursery of fruit-trees about the. year 1800, when he was eighteen years old. This was enlarged from time to time; and in 1842 our respected friend, James F. C. Hyde, since President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, became a partner with his father, and for many years carried on the business with success. To this day he possesses the same love of rural life and interest in fruits and flowers, especially in testing by personal experience the new varieties which come to his notice, and in writing of them for the press.

In Brighton there was a nursery established in 1816 by Jonathan Win- ship, also a founder of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. In 1826 he associated with him his brother Francis, and carried on the general nursery business on an extensive scale for many years. They also had greenhouses for the propagation of plants, being among the earliest growers of ornamental trees and plants for sale. They furnished the city of Boston largely for planting its Common and streets; also other cities, and many of the cemeteries, having at that time the largest collection in this section of the country; and they were among the first to send cut flowers to the Boston markets for sale. To their collection Admiral Sir Isaac Coffin made valuable donations which he gathered in Europe.2

The nursery and plant business was in later years carried on in Brighton by Joseph Breck and James L. L. F. Warren, and now by William C. Strong and Charles H. B. Breck & Sons. Forty years since Mr. Warren was largely interested in the cultivation of ornamental and greenhouse plants, and had public exhibitions of the tulip and other bulbous plants. Having possessed himself of the stock of the Camellias Wilderi and the

1 History of the Massachusetts Horticultural

Society, PP. 33, 34.

2 Letter of Lyman F. Winship. [See also the chapter on "Brighton," in Vol. III .- ED.]

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Mrs. Abby Wilder, he propagated them largely, and went to Europe with them, where he made considerable sales. Mr. Warren is now in Cali- fornia, and has been editor of the California Farmer for thirty years.

Joseph Breck, afterward president and one of the original members of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, had grounds in Brighton for the culti- vation of ornamental plants and the production of seeds; and his name is still continued in the firm of Joseph Breck & Sons, the oldest seed-house in New England, it having existed more than fifty years, succeeding that of John B. Russell, the only survivor of the original corporators of the Mas- sachusetts Horticultural Society. Mr. Breck was one of the foremost pro- moters of the culture of fruits and flowers, and wrote frequently for the press. He was proprietor, and for some years the editor, of the Horticul- tural Register, which passed through several volumes; and he also produced other works. His Book of Flowers has passed through many editions, and has a very wide circulation.

The nurseries and plant-houses of William C. Strong, ex-President of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, are worthy of special notice for the enterprise and intelligence of their proprietor. Here, under one con- tinuous roof of glass of eighteen thousand square feet, is an enclosure where plants are grown as in the open ground; where immense quantities of the rose and other flowers are daily cut for the market. The estate of Mr. Strong, about forty years ago, was possessed by Horace Gray, of whom we have spoken in connection with the establishment of the Public Garden in Boston. He erected on these grounds the largest grape-houses then known in the United States, in which were grown extensively numerous varieties of foreign grapes. For the testing of these under glass, in cold houses, Mr. Gray erected a large curvilinear-roof house, two hundred feet long by twenty-four wide. This was such a great success that he built two more of the same dimensions.

In addition to these, Brighton, in the early part of this century, was the residence of several celebrated agriculturists and horticulturists. Here were the orchards of Gorham Parsons, who also had others at Byfield; of S. W. Pomroy, Mr. Faneuil, Samuel Brooks, and others; and here for many years were held with great success the exhibitions of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, under the patronage and supervision of such leaders as John Lowell, John Welles, Peter C. Brooks, General Dearborn, Josiah Quincy, John Prince, and the gentlemen above named.

We owe to a Boston banker one splendid illustration of the wonderful progress of horticultural improvement, as shown in an estate in Wellesley, which may, without detraction from any other, be placed at the head of all others in New England, if not in our country. This is the property of Mr. H. Hollis Hunnewell, comprising in all, with its fields and forests, about five hundred acres, on which he began his operations about thirty years ago. The ornamental part contains about forty acres, from which

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he cleared the wild growth of scrub-oaks, pitch-pines, and other worthless trees and shrubs before he began work upon it. He then laid out his splendid avenues and plots, and undertook the planting of his most inter- esting and instructive collection of hardy trees and plants, natives not only of our own country, but also such of California, Japan, and other lands as would endure our climate.1

The avenues to this estate are planted on either side with most beautiful pines, spruces, beeches, maples, magnolias, and other trees, intermixed here and there with the rarest and costliest conifers, rhododendrons, azaleas, and other flowering shrubs, - all of which have grown up within the last thirty years. Its meandering walks, also planted on either side with the rarest and newest conifer and other evergreens; its various vistas giving here and there delightful views, -are most charming. The magnificent velvet lawn in front of his house, the lovely Lake Waban in the rear, the Italian Garden, the parapets, balustrades, statues, and vases, with the clipped trees of various forms, lead one to suppose, as Mr. Henry W. Sargent says, " that we are on the Lake of Como." Here are fruit and vegetable gardens en- closed with ornamental hedges; a conservatory attached to the house; six plant-houses, and six fruit-houses ; and numerous and varied illustrations of ornamental beds of flowers.2

Nor must we omit some record of the famous Ridge Hill Farm of Wil- liam E. Baker, containing eight hundred and fifty acres, with its ten miles of avenues, its artificial lake one and a half miles in circumference, its grotto underground one fourth of a mile in length, and several greenhouses; every- where affording, under the care of his gardener, Mr. Greaves, illustrations of the artistic bedding of plants.

And just across the water, opposite Mr. Hunnewell's, is the fine country- seat of Benjamin Pierce Cheney, whose love of horticulture and the Fine Arts induced him to contribute the grand statue of Ceres which crowns the temple of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society,-Mr. Hunnewell and Mr. Charles O. Whitmore at the same time, also, presenting the statues of Flora and Pomona which adorn the corners of this building.

1 His collection of rhododendrons and aza- leas, the largest in our country, embraces many thousands of plants, to which he is constantly adding everything new and rare, demonstrat- ing, beyond doubt, that a very large number of varieties grown in Europe may be successfully cultivated with us. Of such as are somewhat tender he has the choicest varieties, which he stores in cool pits in the winter, planting them out in the spring under an immense canvas tent of seven thousand square feet. The whole of his magnificent estate is opened to the public, once a week, gratuitously. A few years since he made, in the name of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society, an exhibition of hun- dreds of these under an immense tent on Boston Common. The exhibition lasted for several

weeks, and was visited by throngs of gratified spectators ; and the income from it was gener- ously given to constitute a fund for the Society, to be used in encouraging the growth of these plants.

2 The whole, for twenty-seven years, has been under the charge of Mr. F. L. Harris, his gardener, and constitutes a place unsurpassed in this country for the acquisition of everything new or old in horticulture to please the eye, charm the senses, or gratify the taste; and affording also, with the contributions and bene- factions of Mr. Hunnewell to the Horticultural Society, a noble illustration of his love of the ob- jects which he has sought to promote, and which, by his untiring interest and personal attention, have been brought to the highest perfection.

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THE HORTICULTURE OF BOSTON AND VICINITY.

Watertown and Waltham have been celebrated for the residences of wealthy citizens of Boston, as far back as the last century. Belmont, at Watertown, formerly the residence of John Perkins Cushing, now the home of Samuel R. Payson, has been and is still one of the most celebrated places in New England, if not in the United States, for its horticultural taste and improvement, having been thoroughly kept up for more than half. a century. Here, for the last fifteen years, Mr. Payson has indulged his natural taste in the pleasures of rural life, by the acquisition and cultivation of the most beautiful fruits and flowers of the age.1

Mr. Cushing was a great lover of the works of Nature; and with lavish expenditures he improved this estate, in the highest sense of the word, by the laying out of the grounds and by the erection of numerous plant and fruit houses. He contributed largely to the exhibitions of the Massachu- setts Horticultural Society, and opened his grounds once a week to the public in the summer season, making his place the most famous at that time for horticultural progress in New England.

The present estate of Mr. Payson embraces about two hundred acres, and its fine avenues bordered with old oaks, walnuts, and tulip-trees (one of the last is eighty feet in height), with other ornamental trees, rhododen- drons, azaleas, and different shrubs, make it one of great interest. Here is a large conservatory, sixty feet wide, with fourteen other houses devoted to the cultivation of certain classes of plants, fruits, and vegetables. Among these houses may be named a large greenhouse, two pelargonium, two orchid, one palm, one azalea house, with several others devoted to grapes, peaches, nectarines, figs, and vegetables.

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The memorial history of Boston : including Suffolk County, Massachusetts. 1630-1880, Vol. IV, Part 79

Author: Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, ed; Jewett, C. F. (Clarence F.), publisher Publication date: 1881 Publisher: Boston : Osgood Number of Pages: 760

Author: Winsor, Justin, 1831-1897, ed; Jewett, C. F. (Clarence F.), publisher
Publication date: 1881
Publisher: Boston : Osgood
Number of Pages: 760