Cultural Landscape Report for Aspet, Vol. II, Saint-Gaudens NHP

Nowak, Lisa; Coffin Brown, Margie

A cultural landscape report is the primary document used by the National Park Service to document the history and significance of cultural landscapes and guides their treatment. Typically comprised of multiple volumes, the first volume of a cultural landscape report describes the history of property’s physical setting. The first volume of the Cultural Landscape Report for Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site was published in 1993 by the National Park Service and authored by Marion Pressley and Cynthia Zaitzevsky. Volume I documented the history of the Aspet landscape during Augustus Saint-Gaudens’ ownership of the property from 1885 until 1907, his wife’s tenure until 1926, the Saint-Gaudens Memorial period until 1965, and National Park Service ownership until 1992. Volume II of a CLR focuses on the existing conditions, analysis and evaluation of the landscape to provide information needed to complete Volume III, a landscape treatment plan. Volume II of the Cultural Landscape Report for Saint- Gaudens National Historic Site contains these sections as well as the recent history to serve as an update of the history presented in Volume I. The park consists of four distinct landscapes: Aspet, Blow-Me-Down Mill, Blow-Me-Down Farm, and the former Heim property, also known as the Johnson farm, hereafter referred to as the Saint-Gaudens farm property. This Volume II focuses on Aspet. The first chapter briefly describes the major changes that have occurred at Aspet between 1992 and 2009 to document the site’s evolution since the completion of Volume I of the cultural landscape report. For this chapter the research team gathered historical information from park archives, maintenance and administrative files, and conducted interviews with park staff, and trustee members. As defined by A Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports: Contents, Process and Techniques (NPS 1998), the level of investigation for the recent history is “limited.” The second chapter describes existing conditions for the landscape in a narrative, photographic, and diagrammatic format to capture the current state of the park’s varied resources. This serves as a base for comparison with historic conditions. Maps are based on GIS map layers and site investigations. Contemporary site functions, visitor services, interpretation, park operations, and maintenance are described where they relate to the appearance of the landscape. The analysis chapter of the report draws on a comparison of historic research and existing conditions to document contributing and non-contributing cultural landscape features using National Register of Historic Places criteria. This project builds upon a draft analysis completed in 1994 by Marion Pressley and Cynthia Zaitzevsky. The findings of the analysis will inform the next phase of the cultural landscape report, Volume III, to provide direction for the short-term and longterm treatment and management of the park’s cultural landscape. Included in the analysis chapter is an examination of the park’s existing National Register documentation, followed by recommendations for amending the current listing to encompass all of the park’s significant landscape resources. Notably, this discussion includes a recommendation for establishing the park’s period of significance, or the span of time when the property was associated with important events, activities, or attained the characteristics which qualified it for the National Register.2 Essential to the analysis is a discussion of landscape integrity. This examination of integrity informs the remainder of the analysis chapter, a determination of the contributing status of the park’s landscape characteristics and features. Each significant feature is listedand a determination of whether it contributes to the period of significance is made.

Cultural Landscape Report for Aspet, Vol. II, Saint-Gaudens NHP

Series

Collections