Page 42 - The Hunt - Fall 2021

40 THE HUNT MAGAZINE
fall 2021
As overgrowth is removed, thousands of once-dormant bulbs have begun to slowly reappear.
design while Louise did the plantings. They also employed craftsman from the surrounding community.
After almost a decade, the Crowninshields saw their vision come to fruition. While the garden isn’t easily classified, it’s based loosely on some of the architectural features the couple had witnessed on trips to Rome. Some might call it neoclassical,
and it’s plantings recall English gardens. “The couple channeled centuries of human fascination with ruins into their work, drawing from ... such artists as Hugo Robert, Claude Lorrain and Poussin to create a garden unlike any other in the United States, with an unsettling yet provocative sense of hyperreality,” wrote Katharine T. von Stackelberg in her book, Housing the New Romans: Architectural Reception and Classical Style in the Modern World.
Hagley Museum was created in 1957 to display and celebrate American industry—not American gardening. So Crowninshield Garden was left to nature. When Louise passed away, it was taken apart, and some of the statuary was given away. Since then, weeds and invasives have overtaken the columns and terraces. “The Roman gates and bathhouse on the Brandywine were removed, as