During the early decades of the 20th century, symmetrical layouts were in fashion, along with topiaries, fountains, ornaments, and sculpture. At Vernon Court, the main axis of each salon and its vista is the centerline of the room. This design concept, L’oeil du plan, means a proportion and balancing of the parts - a tying together of the entire site. The great drama of the Sunken Garden stems from the west façade addressing Bellevue Avenue— the formal building front, while the actual main Entrance Court is the rear side. Original sculptures have long since been removed or were lost to neglect over the decades. Consistent with the ‘Gilded Age’, our founders placed sculpture at critical points. Otherwise, the Gardens have remained primarily the same from 1898 until the 1980’s, when a previous owner replaced a central 40' circular fountain with a swimming pool and two tennis courts replaced a bowling green and a croquet court. The Gardens are still very close to their original state; they are in fact, "nature perfected."

Stoneacre, sited on three acres opposite Vernon Court between Ruggles and Victoria Avenues, was named for the mansion designed in 1884 by architect William Potter for John W. Ellis. Potter recommended Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903) to his client as “a garden designer.” Stoneacre became Olmsted’s first commission after he named the new profession “landscape architecture.” The Stoneacre mansion was demolished in 1963 and the grounds lay dormant for decades thereafter. It is the last privately held open space on Bellevue Avenue. Stoneacre was purchased in 1998 by Judy and Laurence Cutler, where they created a memorial park honoring its designer, Frederick Law Olmsted, America’s first and most noted landscape architect.

Olmsted conceived of Stoneacre as a “parklike setting” with a variety of exotic trees to protect the Ellis family from viewers. Stoneacre was furnished with native and exotic trees including London Plane, Fern Leaf Beech, Japanese Maple, Zelkova, European Linden, English Oak, and Tulip Trees, as well as Silver Maple, Cucumber, and Sweet Gums. Manmade earthen forms and contours were designed to give a rolling and more interesting perspective to the overall site, which had been flat prior to Olmsted’s naturalistic design.

Olmsted designed the nations most beloved parks and grounds including: New York’s Central Park, The White House, Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, the Biltmore, Winterthur, Detroit’s Belle Isle, Boston’s Franklin Park, Newport’s Master Plan, and many estate grounds. He conceived of Boston’s first park system known as The Emerald Necklace. Olmsted’s office went on to create the National Park System and designed a plethora of campus plans including Stanford University. Frederick Law Olmsted was a social activist and reformer, artist and engineer, a man of epic vision. His work during the thirty years following the Civil War created an American landscape that is enjoyed today and forevermore.

Judy and Laurence Cutler, founders of The National Museum of American Illustration at Vernon Court, honor Olmsted’s legacy with his design for a small private park as a perpetual memorial to America’s first landscape architect: The Frederick Law Olmsted Park.

Museum | Collection | Visit | Support | Shop | Press