Cultural Landscape Report for the Buttrick House Gardens, Minute Man NHP

Foulds, H Eliot; Marques, Rose; Johnson, Jacqui

Located within Minute Man National Historical Park in Concord, Massachusetts, the Buttrick Gardens are a unique feature within the park. The gardens are a small portion of the twentieth century Buttrick Designed Landscape, so-named in National Register of Historic Places documentation. This area includes the Stedman Buttrick House, now the North Bridge Visitor Center, caretaker’s cottage, carriage house, and surrounding grounds. Walkways and terraces throughout the gardens provide varied views to the nearby Concord River and the commemorative, reconstructed North Bridge, where, in April 1775, the British soldiers marched at the Battle of Lexington and Concord. The Buttrick Gardens reflect the influence of a number of designers, including landscape architects Charles Wheeler and Harold Hill Blossom, and homeowner Stedman Buttrick Jr. Prior to the construction of the Stedman Buttrick House, the site was primarily used for agricultural purposes. The earliest garden features on the site date to 1911, when construction on the Stedman Buttrick House began and the first plan for the landscape was drawn. Over the next fifty years, the gardens expanded and became nationally renowned for their beauty and as a showcase for prize-winning iris and daylily cultivars. In 1962, the National Park Service purchased the Buttrick Estate, including the designed landscape, to be included in Minute Man National Historical Park for the site’s association with the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775 and the Buttrick family. While the primary mission of the park is to interpret the events of April 19, 1775, the Buttrick Gardens represent the Buttrick family’s development of the site up to 1959. The gardens were maintained to reflect the influence of the Country Place Era, dating from the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century, during which wealthy landowners commissioned designers to create large formal estates. During the past several years, the gardens have deteriorated. The once lush plantings have become sparse and unattended. Being an atypical twentieth century feature of Minute Man National Historical Park, the Buttrick Gardens do not easily fit into the park’s commemorative and interpretive themes that focus broadly on the origins of the American Revolutionary War. The perceived inconsistency with established park themes has resulted in park resources being directed toward other priorities, leading to a decline in the appearance of the gardens, with deteriorating walls, overgrown plants, and haphazard pathways. Through recent funding efforts, the park is taking action to return the gardens to their former well-maintained character. The purpose of the Cultural Landscape Report for the Buttrick Gardens is to serve as the primary treatment document for the gardens and as the primary tool for their long-term management. It provides treatment guidance within the context of the site’s history and significance, extant historic features, and current planning objectives and management goals. In addition to providing specific, targeted treatment tasks to address immediate identified issues, this document recommends an overall treatment philosophy and principles to guide future treatment decisions. The study area of this report, referred to here as the Buttrick Gardens, is a portion of the larger twentieth century Buttrick Designed Landscape. This report is organized into four chapters beginning with a detailed history of the evolution of the Buttrick Gardens, followed by documentation of the existing conditions, an analysis and evaluation of the integrity of the formal gardens with respect to the historic period of 1635 to 1959, and treatment guidance for the ongoing management of the garden. Additional detailed information is included in appendices.

Cultural Landscape Report for the Buttrick House Gardens, Minute Man NHP

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