Uncovering an American Story
Pres e r v i n g t h e Ve rn a cu la r La n dsca p e of Edwa rd Di cki nson
Martha H. Lyon, ASLA
The robin is the one
That speechless from her nest
Submits that home and certainty
And sanctity, are best.
- Emily Dickinson
The majority of America’s historic landscapes were
not designed by professionals. The domestic gardens
and yards, farms, burying grounds and town commons
across the country were the work of ordinary people, who
rarely put their visions down on paper. These “vernacular”
landscapes speak loudly about what it means to be
American, but because little historical record of them
exists, preservation poses challenges. The home of Emily
Dickinson is the largest tourist attraction in Amherst.
The poet resided in the western Massachusetts college
town her entire life, and between 1855 until her death
in 1886 wrote nearly 1800 known poems
mostly on a small desk in her bedroom. The
property’s grounds were the vision of Emily’s
father, Edward, who created and operated a
gentleman’s farm. A successful attorney, state
legislator and landowner, Edward Dickinson
exemplified the mid-19th century American
patriarch. From the house’s perch ten feet
above Main Street, he could look down on
passersby traveling to the center of town just
500 yards to the west. By the late 1990s the
family had long since gone and only fragments of the farm remained.
2013 Boston Society of Landscape Architects Fieldbook
89