The Story
Preserving this vernacular landscape
involved more than reconstructing an
historical plan, as no drawings of the property in the mid-1800s are known to exist.
Even if Dickinson had made a drawing, it
may not have shown what he actually built.
Piecing the landscape together meant
reading through letters, studying photographs
and sketches, and examining remnants left
on the property. It also meant developing an
understanding of Edward Dickinson’s motivation and capturing his intent. It required
knowing Edward Dickinson’s story.
Uncovering the Story
Historic photographs and drawings
showed a spindled fence separating the
two-story house from the street and Emily, in
a letter to her sister, expressed delight with
her father’s new hedge. Tall hemlock trees
still stood in a line along the front property
edge, and in the basement lay heaped
shards of a wooden fence, gates and posts.
A toppled granite retaining wall framed the
front lawn. From this unlikely mix of artifacts,
both historic and contemporary, a story
90 BSLA
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unfolded. Edward Dickinson constructed a livestock
barn, cultivated a hay meadow, laid out vegetable
and flower gardens, and maintained a fruit orchard.
He also enclosed his property with a picket and spindle-style fence and backed it with a hemlock hedge.
At a height of six feet, the enclosure skirted the base
of the house’s first floor windows. Passersby could look
up from the street and see the columned portico and
cupola and at the same time, the hedge and fence
assured privacy for his wife and children. Dickinson
wanted to be seen but also sought refuge. This seeming
contradiction was Edward Dickinson’s story – an American story – told through the landscape.
Telling the Story
Neglect had led to the fence’s decay and eventual
removal in the early 1900s and the hemlocks, no longer
pruned, grew into gangly, diseased trees. Photographs
showed placement; remaining fence pickets provided