Beatrix Farrand’s first plan of the gate in the Rose Garden dates to 1931. It is likely that the gate was designed in collaboration with designs from Parisian designer Armand Rateau, whom the Blisses had commissioned for various ornaments throughout the gardens as well as furniture in the house. The gate guards the opening along the northern perimeter and leads to a path descending to the Orchard and the Herbaceous Border.
The iron gate is crested by the Bliss monogram, also a Farrand design based on work by Rateau. The gate with its flanking piers was installed in 1932. The pineapple finials on the piers were designed by Rateau and carved by artist Frederick Coles in the early 1930s. Due to rust and deterioration, both gates were restored in 1982, by Thomas G. Bredlow in Tucson, Arizona, and again, in 1997, by Black Rose Forge in Rockville, Maryland.
Image: Beatrix Farrand, Bliss estate, south gate of Rose Garden (C Terrace), ca. 1931. Garden Archives, LA-GD-N-2-03.
More Exhibit Items
Oral History Interview with Holly Shimizu, undertaken by Anna Bonnell-Freidin, Clem Wood, and Joe Mills in the Dumbarton Oaks Guest House (Fellows Building) on August 7, 2008. At Dumbarton Oaks, Holly Shimizu was involved with the restoration of the Rose Garden in the 1990s.