Orange County NC Website
Browse       Search
23 <br /> United States Department of the Interior <br /> National Park Service/National Register of Historic Places Registration Form <br /> NPS Form 10-900 OMB Control No.1024-0018 <br /> Moorefields (Additional Documentation) Orange County, N.C. <br /> Name of Property County and State <br /> North Parterre Garden <br /> By 1963, when Draper-Savage opened Moorefields to the public for an annual garden tour known <br /> as the "Spring Pilgrimage," Draper-Savage had completed the formal garden north of the house. <br /> However,historic photographs show that Draper-Savage was constantly changing elements in the <br /> garden design: while photographs taken in 1962 show low, rubble-stone walls around the north <br /> parterre garden terrace,by 1965 these had been replaced by vegetal borders(Figure 11).And while <br /> the north parterre garden had been open to the vista and focused on topiary and flower beds, by <br /> 1968 it had been enclosed by tall privet hedges and was minimalist in design,mostly a greensward <br /> marked by a central statue of a Japanese pagoda (Figure 12). A 1972 aerial photograph depicts a <br /> long, rectangular landscape feature bounded by shrubbery. Today, the garden appears much as it <br /> had at the end of Draper-Savage's tenure. Three pebble walkways north of the house terminate at <br /> a small, rectangular rubble terrace which steps down into the garden. At the center of the terrace <br /> is a patch of grass with a wooden bench (its back designed in a Chinese lattice pattern similar to <br /> that found in the house's stairwell)oriented north.Flanking the terrace are small,rectangular hedge <br /> greenswards; shaped hedges and flower beds also frame the terrace. To the north is the formal <br /> garden's primary feature, a flat greensward edged by shaped privet hedges. The hedges have <br /> openings in the center points of all four sides. Remnants of a longitudinal walk are visible on the <br /> grassy plane. At the center is a circular planting bed outlined in rubble stones. The planting bed <br /> includes small topiary and a birdbath. The axiality and symmetry of the garden reflects the <br /> formality of Renaissance garden designs as they were reinterpreted in the 19th and 20th centuries <br /> by landscape architects school at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. While some of the planting materials <br /> may have changed over time,the current owners have maintained the integrity of the north parterre <br /> garden's location, design, setting, workmanship, materials, association, and feeling. <br /> t x mi <br /> -- . � <br /> �" --- <br /> Figure 2(left):North Parterre Garden, 1965.Figure 12(right):North Parterre Garden, ca. 1968.Mary Claire <br /> Engstrom Photographic Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Wilson Library,North Carolina <br /> Collection:P0050,Print Box 3,folder 152. <br /> Cedar of Lebanon Allee <br /> Between 1964 and 1972, Draper-Savage planted a double allee (i.e., four rows) of Cedar of <br /> Lebanon trees north of the house and on the west side of the north parterre garden.25 While some <br /> Section 7 page 21 <br />