Bartram's Garden
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| John Bartram House | |
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| (U.S. National Historic Landmark) | |
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| Location: | 54th St. and Lindbergh Blvd. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
| Coordinates: | Coordinates: |
| Built/Founded: | 1728 |
| Architect: | John Bartram |
| Architectural style(s): | Colonial |
| Added to NRHP: | October 15, 1966 |
| NRHP Reference#: | 66000676[1] |
Bartram's Garden (46 acres) is the oldest surviving botanic garden in North America, including an historic botanical garden and arboretum (8 acres, established circa 1728), located on the west bank of the Schuylkill River, near the intersection of 54th Street and Lindbergh Boulevard, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The grounds are open daily except for holidays; admission is free, and guided tours are given for $5 adult, $4 senior (62 and over) and student, children (12 and under) free.
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[edit] The garden
The garden is on the site of noted American botanist John Bartram's stone house and farm on the Schuylkill River. He built the original house between 1728-1731; then greatly expanded it, adding a kitchen ca. 1740, and a Palladian-inspired, carved facade between 1758-1770. The house still stands, as does his original garden (circa 1728) and greenhouse (1760). Three generations of the Bartram family continued the garden as the premier collection of North American plant species in the world.
The current collection contains a wide variety of native and exotic species of herbaceous and woody plants. Most were listed in the Bartrams' 1783 broadside Catalogue of American Trees, Shrubs and Herbacious Plants and subsequent editions.
The garden also contains three notable trees:
- Franklinia alatamaha - John and William Bartram discovered a small grove of this tree in 1765 by Georgia's Altamaha River. William subsequently brought seeds to the garden for propagation, and named the tree in honor of John Bartram's friend, Benjamin Franklin. Franklinia was last seen in the wild in 1803. All Franklinia growing today are descended from those propagated and distributed by the Bartrams, and they are credited with saving it from extinction.
- Cladrastis kentukea - A notably old tree, possibly collected by French plant explorer Andre Michaux in Tennessee or Kentucky, and sent to William Bartram in the 1790s.
- Ginkgo biloba - This male gingko is believed to be the last of three original ginkgoes introduced to the United States from China, via London, in 1785.
[edit] Landscape history
Bartram's Garden is the oldest surviving botanic garden in the United States. John Bartram (1699-1777), the well-known early American botanist, explorer, and plant collector founded the garden in September 1728 when he purchased a 102-acre farm in Kingsessing Township, Philadelphia County. John Bartram’s garden began as a personal landscape, but with a lifelong devotion to plants grew to become a systematic collection as he devoted more time to exploration and the discovery of new North American species and examples. Its evolution over time both reflected and fostered Bartram’s vital scientific achievements and important intellectual exchange. Although not the first botanic collection in North America, by the middle of the eighteenth century Bartram’s Garden contained the most varied collection of North American plants in the world, and placed John Bartram at the center of a lucrative business centered on the transatlantic transfer of plants.
Following the American Revolution, Bartram’s sons John Bartram, Jr. (1743–1812) and William Bartram (1739–1823), continued the international trade in plants and expanded the family’s botanic garden and nursery business. Following his father’s lead, William became an important naturalist, artist, and author in his own right, and under his influence the garden became an educational center that aided in training a new generation of natural scientists and explorers. William’s Travels, published in 1791, chronicled his own exploration efforts and remains a milestone in American literature. After 1812, Ann Bartram Carr (1779-1858), a daughter of John Bartram, Jr., maintained the family garden and business with her husband Colonel Robert Carr (17781866) and his son John Bartram Carr (1804-1839). Their commercial activities remained focused on international trade in native North American plants, although domestic demand also grew under their management.
In 1850, financial difficulties led to the historic garden’s sale outside the family to Andrew M. Eastwick (1811–1879), who preserved it as a private park for his estate. Upon Eastwick’s 1879 death, a campaign to preserve the garden was organized by Thomas Meehan (1826–1901), in Philadelphia, with national assistance from Charles S. Sargent of the Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1891, control of the site was turned over to the City of Philadelphia and it remains protected as a city park. Since that time, the John Bartram Association, formally organized in 1893, has overseen preservation efforts and historical comprehension of the garden, the John Bartram House, and a number of surviving outbuildings.
Presently, the garden’s plant collection includes only a few extant examples dating from the Bartram family occupancy; however, documentation for what was once in cultivation is rich. More importantly, despite wanting care and interpretation during the first century of public ownership and the disappearance of a number of subsidiary physical elements in the landscape, the garden’s rectilinear framework designed and laid out by Bartram during the second quarter of the eighteenth century is still recognizable. Bartram’s Garden’s physical endurance and resonant associative meanings make the site an unparalleled location for comprehending an array of historical facets related to John Bartram, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century botanic studies, the North American plant and seed business, and period domestic life in Philadelphia.
[edit] Rambo's Rock
Rambo's Rock was a large boulder on the edge of the Schuylkill River directly across from Bartram's Garden on the plantation of Peter and Brita Rambo just south of what is now known as Grays Ferry. The rock no longer exists and has been replaced with a wharf.[2] [3]
[edit] Further reading
- Joel T. Fry, “An International Catalogue of North American Trees and Shrubs: The Bartram Broadside, 1783,” The Journal of Garden History, vol. 16, no. 1 (January-March 1996), p. 3–66.
- _____, “John Bartram and His Garden: Would John Bartram Recognize His Garden Today?” in Nancy E. Hoffmann and John C. Van Horne, eds. America’s Curious Botanist: A Tercentennial Reappraisal of John Bartram 1699-1777. The American Philosophical Society, 2004, Philadelphia, p. 155-183.
- _____, “Historic American Landscapes Survey, John Bartram House and Garden (Bartram’s Garden), HALS No. PA-1, History Report,” MS report, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, HABS/HAER/HALS/CRGIS Division, Washington, DC., 2004.
- James A. Jacobs, “Historic American Landscapes Survey, John Bartram House and Garden, House, HALS No. PA-1, History Report,” MS report, U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, HABS/HAER/HALS/CRGIS Division, Washington, DC., 2001.
[edit] See also
- Schuylkill River Trail
- Bartram Village
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ National Register Information System. National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service (2007-01-23).
- ^ Governor's Profile
- ^ Road from Fish House to Maiden Lane, Rambo's Rock V9-LS32.30
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