Enclosed Gardens

The Fountain Terrace

The Fountain Terrace

Farrand described the Fountain Terrace as the one real flower garden of the terraces leading east from the house. Two paths from the Rose Garden terminate in iron balconies suspended over the borders of the Fountain Terrace ten feet below. Twin sets of flagstone steps lead to a landing with an oak and metal bench set beneath a lead and iron baldacchino. Above the bench is a plaque commemorating Matthew Kearney, the Irish-born superintendent of the gardens from 1949 to 1973. On the stone walls at the base of the staircases are reinforced concrete jardinières made in the 1920s by Maine potter Eric Ellis Soderholtz.

For the beds within the stone walls surrounding the Fountain Terrace, Farrand recommended a combination of flowers in shades of yellow, bronze, blue, and primrose, beginning with tulips in the spring followed by annuals in the summer and ending with chrysanthemums in the autumn. In the central lawn are two limestone pools, each featuring a lead sculpture of a putto holding a fish that spouts water from its mouth. In contrast to the earlier flagstone of the Rose Garden and the brick walkway of the Beech Terrace, the walkways within Fountain Terrace are turf.