Adolph Strauch's Landscape Lawn Plan

Spring Grove: 150 Years Adolph Strauch's Spring Grove's landscape and suburban Village of Clifton and Landscape Lawn the story of its design would be the decision to create primary res- Plan very different today if a young idences, not just summer "cot- Prussian landscape gardener, tages," proprietors built grand Adolph Strauch (1822-1883), had baronial houses of diverse archi- not arrived in Cincinnati in the tectural styles which they wanted fall of 1852 by a fortuitous acci- to surround with the sort of rural dent. On his way to Niagara Falls landscape that would make the from Texas, Strauch missed a village a naturalistic showplace. train connection and suddenly Strauch worked on Bowler's found himself in Cincinnati. The seventy-three-acre "Mount young Strauch found in his Storm" and the properties of pockets the calling card of Bowler's neighboring friends: Queen City resident Robert Henry Probasco's thirty-acre Bonner Bowler whom he had guid- "Oakwood," William Clifford ed through London's Crystal Neff's twenty-five-acre "The Palace Exhibition and various Windings," and George Krug English gardens in 1851. Schoenberger's forty-seven-acre Bowler greeted the visitor "Scarlet Oaks." Strauch worked warmly and persuaded him that on each individual estate but cre- his expertise could be well applied ated a unified landscape between in Ohio. Strauch proceeded to win them. His sinuous roads wound the respect of Cincinnati's horti- through the undulating, hilltop culturists by designing the land- terrain, extending the procession- scapes of their new Clifton al onto curving estate drives. He estates. With incorporation of the created "a sequence of carefully

Adolph Strauch in 1838 with an appointment guiding foreign visitors to the in the Imperial Gardens in Crystal Place Exhibition Vienna, where he developed a through the Royal Gardens friendship with Prince where he met Cincinnatian Hermann Fiirst von Piickler- Robert Bowler. Muskau, the "great European In i860, he designed the park reformer," who influ- grounds of the Longview enced Strauch in his develop- Lunatic Asylum near ment of a taste for magnificent Carthage. In 1869, he took pastoral spaces and spatial time away from Spring Grove sequences along clearly defined to lay out Highland Cemetery sightlines. He preferred the across the Ohio River in "beautiful" to the "pic- Covington, Kentucky. Strauch turesque," well-groomed also contributed to the "green- expanses of lawn carefully ing" of the burgeoning metrop- framed by masses of trees and olis with design of major new shrubs rather than overgrown, pastoral public parks in the woodsy landscape. Strauch 1870s. Strauch served as learned from Piickler that "the Superintendent of the Park indispensable foundation for Board from 1871 to 1875 and the building of a park or land- designed the 270-acre Eden scape" is to "develop a control- Park on the city's eastern ling scheme" and then to carry heights, the 170-acre Burnet it out with consistency. Woods near Clifton, and Strauch worked for the Lincoln Park. CHS Strauch was born on August summer in Ghent and in Paris 30, 1822, in Eckersdorf in the until the 1848 Revolution, Prussian province of Silesia then found employment in where his father managed a London's Royal Botanical model farm. After an educa- Gardens at Regent's Park until tion in botany, he began his 1851. There, the multilingual career in landscape gardening Strauch also busied himself Adolph Strauch's Landscape Lawn Plan

designed, gradually unfolding views," the essence of the "picturesque," for those arriving by carriage. He maximized dramatic distant vistas over the Millcreek Valley with "its varied spectacle of village and farm, cultivated fields and distant forest-covered hill," a panorama these gentle- men had already preserved by founding Spring Grove. Rambling paths formed an internal system on and between properties, con- necting Buchanan's "Greenhills" and William Resor's "Greendale" along minor ridges and through orchards. Clifton's "rural" drives and paths contrasted markedly Strauch gave Bowler's proper- with gridded city streets. ty, Mt. Storm, a lake with Inevitably, horticulturists swans, a waterfall, orchards, took Strauch to Spring Grove and gardens, and greenhouses. Irrigation came from a reser- listened to his unexpected criti- voir camouflaged under the cism that their Cemetery resem- highest hill topped by a Temple of Love, similar to one bled "a marble yard where monu- in Marie Antoinette's romantic ments are for sale." Strauch gardens at Versailles. The hill declared, "All that glitter and around the temple, the focal point for major social occa- parade exhibited about the graves sions, was "covered with of the dead in modern cemeteries English and Norway pines, besides maple, willow, English is much to be regretted." His elm, Tartarian maple, and vari- ideal cemetery would combine eties of the linden" by 1875. "cheerfulness . . . luxuriance of There Susan Pendleton Bowler threw gala receptions for the growth, shade, solitude, and likes of Emporer Dom Pedro of repose in such a manner as to imi- Brazil and the Prince of Wales who called Clifton and Mt. tate rural nature." Too much art Storm the "Eden of Cincinnati and artifice would result in Aristocracy." CHS "ennui and disgust." The precari- ous balance between nature and artifice had tipped away from the pastoral. Strauch scolded that "Gaudiness is often mistaken for splendor and capricious strangeness for improvement. When once the dazzling glare of this feeling possesses the fancy, every soft and delicate impression loses its effect." He declared it "a pity [that] the beautiful reposing place of the dead was not . . . developed on a scientific plan." Spring Grove: 150 Years

To break up the linear appearance of property lines among the Clifton estates, Strauch eliminated fences and created lawns called "greenswards." Carefully planted bosks of trees framed palatial houses, foun- tains, statuary, and distant vistas, giving the new suburb the appearance of a single property. CHS

Strauch convinced Directors that Spring Grove's landscape needed reform. "Good taste" suggested "that a rural cemetery should partake more of the character of a cheerful park or garden than of a common graveyard, where everything has a gloomy and dismal appearance/' or where "gaudiness" or "capricious strangeness" entered with each passing vogue. Spring Grove could serve as "the most interesting of all places for contemplative recre- ation" if only he were permitted to make everything in it "tasteful, classical, and poetical."

Strauch Appointed On October 9, 1854, Strauch became the Cemetery's Landscape Gardener with full authority to implement his "landscape lawn plan" to produce "the pictorial Geo. K. Shoenberger Henry Probasco union of architecture, sculpture, and landscape gardening," blend- The wealthy country gentle- ing the "well-regulated precision men of Clifton built grand baronial houses of diverse of human design with apparently architectural styles which they wild irregularities of divine wanted to surround with the sort of landscape that would creation." For his first three make the village a showplace. years Strauch served under CHS Superintendent Dennis Delaney. Adolph Strauch's Landscape Lawn Plan 33

With the hiring of Strauch, the more — a talented, cosmopolitan Tensions arose which related Board temporarily suspended the individual they hoped to retain in to the lack of discipline among work and salary of surveyor and their midst. Strauch was not just Cemetery workers and to their engineer Henry Earnshaw. another employee or local bud- informal work habits. The Sons of Strauch received a salary of $700 ding talent to be used and discard- Temperance of neighboring a year, compared to Earnshaw's ed, and he knew it. He could do Cumminsville had complained in former $900. A new, unprecedent- without them, he implied, threat- 1849 to the Board of the blatant ed regime had begun. ening to move on. Could they do "use of ardent spirits" on Within a year personality without him? As any elite, they Cemetery grounds by laborers, conflicts over work to be done respected his authoritarianism, permitted and even shared by and authority over it emerged. colored as much by his Prussian Superintendent Delaney. Not only One Cemetery worker, E. manners as much as his intellect, could Strauch provide valuable O'Conner, protested improprieties experience, and design expertise. design expertise, he would also and difficulty between himself and the Landscape Gardener. Strauch insisted that the dispute was "not pleasant to him, and not what he expected" when he took the job. He declared, "mowing grass, cleaning avenues and walks require no great skill; any farmer can do this." He thought his employment "would be to design and lav out the avenues and walks, plant and arrange those parts of the grounds not already surveyed and recorded." When completed, he presumed "his duties on the place would cease and he be at liberty to engage else- where," work "he had hoped to accomplish in three years," never intending to remain permanently at Spring Grove. Strauch asked to Strauch stated that the be relieved from routine, supervi- Cemetery resembled "a marble sory duties "and permitted to go yard where monuments are for on with the work of designing, sale." He convinced the Directors that Spring Grove's laving out and planting." landscape needed reform and Insistence that this statement be "scientific management." CHS recorded in the Board's minutes, complete with underlined emphasis, indicates Strauch's strong personality. Certainly, Strauch had not planned to visit Cincinnati, let alone to stay on to design Clifton estates or to begin a second phase of Cemetery design. He was entirely confident of having won the complete respect of the local elite as their social equal, if not 34 Spring Grove: 150 Years

make employees get down to Strauch Takes Charge but even that seemingly egalitari- work. Duly persuaded by Strauch Bolstered by friends on the an relationship and division of and his chief advocate Andrew Board, Strauch took complete managerial responsibility did not Ernst, the Board agreed "at once charge, directing his attention last. Strauch gradually acquired so to comply with his wishes and first to the low grounds on each much authority that, in 1859, assign to him as much help as side of the railroad, laying out directors retitled Earnshaw's job the financial condition of the new avenues, and making his own Superintendent of Burials and Cemetery will admit of/' meet- planting decisions and plant pur- Surveyor, a demotion to little ing Strauch's demands in recog- chases. His decisive management more than a sexton. Justly indig- nition of his "talents." style was unprecedented. For a nant, given his engineering exper- Directors acknowledged "the time at least, the Board stipulated tise and record of service, great benefit of having them that he "confine his superinten- Earnshaw resigned. The Board secured to the development and dence exclusively" to Spring named Strauch Superintendent of embellishment of the natural Grove. In 1856, "intent on procur- the Grounds and Landscape beauty of the grounds." They ing harmony and pleasantness" Gardener with a salary of $1,400 concluded, "Time passes and and on retaining Strauch, direc- and employed Charles Moon as no one can foresee what may arise tors wrote new job descriptions, his assistant to perform routine to deprive us of his skill and tal- limiting Superintendent Delaney's lot work, which freed Strauch to ent. He has proven himself com- duties to selling lots, arranging devote himself to general land- petent to our wants, possessing a burials, paying workers, and scape improvements. capacity to make Spring Grove maintaining related records — Strauch insisted that he the most beautiful burying place essentially office work. Landscape alone rather then committees in the country. Shall we hesitate Gardener Strauch was to superin- make major decisions on land- and thereby perhaps jeopardize tend all improvements and main- scape design, and the Board com- the best interests of our trust?" tenance — "grading, planting, plied, rewriting his job description The answer was a unanimous trimming the plants and trees, as controlling "all improvements "no" — again, underlined with keeping the grounds, lots, and in the Cemetery, such a grading, their emphasis. avenues in order," making related planting, pruning the plants and rules, maintaining his own trees, laying out avenues, and records, and employing his own keeping the grounds, lots, and workers. With duties separated, avenues in proper order"; main- both men answered directly to the taining "entire control of the Board, which alone was to field hands and subordinate officers" he complaints and disputes between alone hired; and controlling all the two. equipment. He was to create and Delaney, displeased with the maintain detailed records and give new arrangement, resigned. The monthly accounts of "the various Board hired Henry Earnshaw as departments under his care," his replacement, reinstating his including expenditures, weather, old job description to include sur- plantings, changes in plant mate- veying and platting of the rials, tools and equipment on grounds, work he had formerly hand, workers employed, and done as Engineer and Surveyor. amount of work performed. They paid him $800 per year, Directors maintained control of including use of a cottage at finances, and a second official Spring Grove, and increased oversaw burials. Strauch's salary to that level. Directors willingly delegated Initially, both Earnshaw and authority to Strauch. After all, Strauch submitted "their views they served voluntarily and with- on the general improvement of out compensation. Strauch later the Cemetery" for Board approval; observed that until he assumed Adolph Strauch's Landscape Lawn Plan 35 full control of Spring Grove, it suffered from a "constant doing and undoing which has caused not only great waste of money, but also what is more valuable, loss of time." Directors listened to Strauch's criticism of the osage orange hedges of which they had been proud and eventually let him remove many of them. Strauch eliminated some of the clutter accumulating in the burial area which he described as a "mosaic" of scattered trees and multiple stones set in a tight system of roads entangled with paths. He eliminated the six- to ten-foot- wide gravels and marble-chip pedestrian paths that wound through Cemetery sections, com- plaining that they were "a perpetual trouble to keep clear of weeds" and contributed to the visual segmentation of the landscape although characteristic of the older eastern "rural" cemeteries. Strauch was able to do this with minimal opposition because the paths belonged to and were maintained by the corporation, not by individual proprietors. Strauch then urged proprietors to remove cast iron fences and other "ornamental puerili- ties" from their lots. In 1855, ne banned the addition of any more as "a blemish to the whole." He declared, "the fear of wasting a trifle," the reluctance to remove a -wmmmmm cherished funerary artifact, Cemetery rules only stipulated "should not be suffered to destroy that railings, chains or fences not exceed two feet eight inches the effect of the whole." Stone in height nor hedges be over posts, iron bars, and chains pro- three feet tall. By 1855, about twenty-five percent of the lots duced a "sight which is repulsive were fenced, others had hedges in the extreme, as it conveys the of buckthorn, privet, box or idea of rudeness and confine- arborvitae, some over four feet tall. CHS ment" or of "exclusion and neglect." Strauch lectured, "Iron railings around burial lots dero- gate from the sacredness of the scene, by supposing it possible, 36 Spring Grove: 150 Years that the Cemetery would be visit- fences, that it is hereby the desire included in his reports. ed by persons incapable of con- [that] ... all fences and obstruc- Strauch refused to plant ducting themselves properly, or tions be removed within the next flower beds under Cemetery aus- that the grounds were pastured by 12 months." Despite Board agree- pices, rejecting an 1865 suggestion cattle, which, fortunately, is not ment with the resolution, some that he cover "sloping banks of the case at Spring Grove." From fences remained into the twenti- the approach with petunias, verbe- the point of view of efficient oper- eth century. nas, pocolatas [sic], etc.," as at ations and managerial economics, Strauch also ruled that grad- Louisville's Cave Hill Cemetery Strauch added that fences "also ing of the grounds be done only (1846). Without "the little formal- cause considerable inconvenience under his direction and not by lot ities of artificial borders and when interments are made, as owners, adding that the system flower beds the cemetery will pre- well as in the erection of monu- saved proprietors the expense. sent the graceful undulations of ments, and cost the corporation Whole sections would be graded nature," vistas defined by trees more labor than most persons are at one time rather than only indi- and beautiful green turf. aware of." Always ready with vidual lots as sold to avoid the Horticulturists agreed with multiple rationale to stress the appearance of "grounds always in Strauch's disdain for "the gaudy practicality of his rules, not just an unfinished state." Thus the parterre of transitory blooming." their aesthetic motivations, landscape would appear "always Strauch allowed no beds of eye- Strauch added, "lots not enclosed clean and in order." Strauch catching color to distract from the are not as much trespassed upon received praise for his desire to unity of his naturalistic landscape; as those surrounded with stone eliminate permanently mounded his would be a primarily green posts, iron bars, and chairs, for graves that "do not allow a free cemetery. there really seems to be a disposi- use of the scythe, and therefore Strauch's most controversial tion in the human mind to disre- weeds are apt to collect around decree was that future gravestones gard useless restrictions." Four and the grass to deteriorate." His could rise only a few inches above simple, inconspicuous corner plan created a lawn "uncheckered the turf. Many owners com- stones or "land marks", no more by anything that is incongruous." plained that this infringed on their than six inches high but prefer- Strauch realized that even rights to commemorate their dead ably "even with" the ground, plants could clutter his ideal land- traditionally as individuals engraved with family name and scape, especially when hundreds on their lots, their property. lot number, sufficed to define lot of proprietors could introduce Appealing to status, Strauch coun- boundaries. them indiscriminately on individ- tered that head and foot stones Despite Strauch's intense ual lots. By the late 1850s, many created the appearance of single opposition, the "fencing bar- lots had become "so crowded with interments in a public lot where barism" disappeared only gradual- trees, shrubs, and flowers, that the poorer sort buried their dead, ly at Spring Grove. To economize, they actually destroy each other, rather than a more prestigious some owners tarred rather than hide the monument, and leave "family burial place." The cost of painted their fences, incurring the hardly a place for interment." eight gravestones, he argued, wrath of visitors who leaned upon Strauch particularly aimed to could better be spent for a single them on hot days. Strauch eliminate weeping willows, a tree family monument, more durable remained dismayed that he had dropping a good deal of debris, and more tasteful. Strauch permit- no arbitrary authority to remove substituting other weeping tree ted existing small markers to decaying fences, even around varieties still conveying the popu- stand, although in later years, the abandoned lots, since they lar symbolism of melancholy. In administration took the liberty of remained private property. In 1861, he prohibited wooden trel- resetting them in an inconspicu- 1870, the Board agreed with pro- lises on lots. Strauch urged that ous, horizontal position. prietors' demands that "inasmuch trees and shrubs "be so arranged Strauch ordered that outside as the economy of taking care of to form a background to the mon- contractors erecting family monu- the grounds . . . and the beauties ument" placed in the center, thus ments had to schedule work so of the same can be improved by creating a tableau like the that prolonged, messy building the removal of the few remaining engraved images of ideal lots would not disturb the Cemetery's Adolph Strauch's Landscape Lawn Plan 37 appearance and tranquillity. His advised that the "Head of the Cemetery would not become a Family" and his wife occupy the perpetual construction site. front positions with other mem- Henceforth, all monuments had bers on the sides and rear. An to be placed on foundations of average of eight burials fit onto mortar or concrete ideally laid by the standard lot. With the found- Cemetery workers "below the ing of "rural" cemeteries, action of frost and the grave-dig- Americans gave up the traditional ger" to avoid the eventual tipping practice of burying all bodies with and tilting of tall obelisks and feet facing east, based on the columns that gave many older belief that at the Resurrection the cemeteries a chaotic, ruinous dead would rise to face the rising appearance. sun of judgment. Strauch further With only one major monu- institutionalized the change. ment centered in each family lot, Rather than diminishing direc- graves had to be distributed tors' respect for Strauch, contro- around it, not in linear fashion versy over his aesthetic decrees facing the front of the lot. Strauch and new rules only increased it;

The "beautiful"

Implementation of Strauch's "landscape lawn plan" was not simply subtractive and regula- tory -- the erasing of previous mistakes or preventing new ones -- but creation of a system to apply design principles to development of new Cemetery sections peripheral to and blending in with Daniel's origi- nal plan. As an artist with a preconceived sketch of pic- tures to be created, he aimed to make the entirety of the landscape exhibit "a preponderance of gently flowing lines, round- ness and regularity, balance and symmetry, perfection and repose." Unlike the tangled, wilder, woodsier style of the picturesque" associated with the first "rural" cemeteries, Strauch favored the aesthetics of the "beautiful" character- ized by the elimination of small detail, with the emphasis on rounded expanses of lawn framed by masses of foliage, and more freely flowing curves of avenues and lake shores. SG Spring Grove: 150 Years and they were happy that he, rather than they, could take responsibility for unpopular decisions. Strauch did not attempt to persuade proprietors to abandon the traditional practice of cover- ing individual graves with beds of ivy, holly, or myrtle, a practice that remains even today at Spring Grove in contrast to other cemeteries of its vintage which dis- couraged the practice. He did not crusade avidly against the "grave blankets," because the mounding of graves served a function. Unless the coffin was placed in a vault or brick grave, the natural process of decay would shortly cause the earth over the burial to sink, creating not only a disagree- able sunken irregularity of the turf but also a tangible reminder of decomposition. Mounded graves did not produce such an effect and also kept visitors from walking over spaces that might Strauch reserved prime corner cave in. Over time, the mounds lots at the junction of avenues for forest trees rather than for 1 simply blended into the land- "j burials to create "places of scape, camouflaged amid the sur- delightful shady repose and / \ n rounding greenery, indeed adding pleasant drives" for visitors. / i \ CHS 1 y, i to the lushness of the place. j VJ I Strauch's "landscape lawn MUNUWENT plan" required major changes in maintenance policy—the mowing j of the grass about twelve times per \ i \ \ i \ season rather than just twice in \ order "to have it of a uniform \ 1 height . . . never longer than an inch, except on those lots" that Strauch argued for a single remained too cluttered. The family monument centered in the lot with the head of the Superintendent hired a crew family and his wife occupying of twenty-five to thirty men, the front positions and other members on the sides and rear. and some women, "constantly Under such an arrangement employed in attending to the eight burials would fit into the grounds," mowing and watering standard lot. CHS the avenues in dry weather to keep the dust down. In 1863, the Cemetery purchased a primitive "mowing machine" fit for large expanses of lawn, although it did Adolph Strauch's Landscape Lawn Plan 39 not work in tighter spaces between sores. In 1853, the Board estab- from leased "Garden Lands" for monuments and the smaller hori- lished a permanent fund to be cultivating plants for sale to lot zontal stones; and Strauch insisted accrued from a portion of lot owners—an outside contractor on another one in 1871. Otherwise sales, "the interest of which shall and precursor of Cemetery workers provided their own be appropriated to keeping up the greenhouses. Other outside con- tools—hoes, rakes, and scythes Cemetery after the revenue from tractors had to apply to the although the Cemetery rented the sale of lots shall be insuffi- Superintendent before erecting horses and carts for carrying cient to defray the expenses." monuments and mausoleums or debris; but in 1868, Strauch fur- The General Fund, "the reservoir doing horticultural work on lots. nished free uniforms to workers into which go profits or to which While many of Strauch's officiating at funerals. In autumn, losses are charged," provided for opinions ran counter to many pro- Strauch took on more workers — routine operations for the whole; prietors' tastes, asking removal of one year twenty men and thirty the Trust Fund, for perpetual care treasured objects or plants from women to gather leaves "as soon of individual lots. Both were their lots, their property, he tried as they fall." When not on the invested in high grade bonds and to stress that his tastes were cor- new, intensive regime of routine stocks. rect, based upon his professional maintenance, these workers Some proprietors entered expertise. He argued, "My views extended avenue construction, into limited perpetual care agree- are the result of experience and using granite chips to make them ments with the corporation. observation, during my travels on more durable. Annual days of labor David B. Lawler, whose sphinx the continent of Europe, England increased from an average of 8,000 was one of Spring Grove's most and the United States." He told in the 1860s to over 10,000 in the celebrated and controversial mon- of examples of good landscape 1870s. Through the 1870s, labor uments, established an endow- design as well as mistakes made costs exceeded $20,000 per year, ment of $250 in 1866, but direc- in others. He could always cite a not counting Strauch's salary. tors agreed only "to keep the diversity of writers and theorists With improved maintenance ground in order perpetually" to support his suggested reforms, and institutionalized efficiency in through "interest accruing" on skillfully using many forms of mind, Strauch introduced the idea that amount. Lawler's lot had an persuasion to effect the changes of perpetual care for lots newly ornate fence, which has since dis- he intended to make, if only grad- purchased at a higher initial price appeared. Hiram Clearwater's ually shifting public tastes and and for existing proprietors who estate set up a $4,000 trust with practices he could not immediate- would pay a one-time fee for the the corporation for his lot mainte- ly alter by decree. service, thus eliminating for some nance. In each case, the Cemetery the practice of paying for annual drew up a contract detailing care. He only stipulated that the exactly what plantings and struc- corporation would not assume tures would be covered. care of flowers or flower beds, let Through the trust funds for alone fences and other small perpetual care, Strauch gradually objects. The perpetual care plan limited the work by private gar- aimed to minimize the number of deners and "casual workmen." lots inevitably abandoned as heirs He wanted all labor performed by disappeared and that became Cemetery workers he supervised, unsightly visual intrusions on his stipulating that any "improve- ideal of a unified, "beautiful" ment be in harmony with the sys- landscape. tem adopted by the Board." Work Strauch realized that a sys- judged improperly done by out- tem for perpetual care of lots siders or incompatible with would not suffice to insure the Strauch's criteria was redone. integrity of design and mainte- Strauch appointed a "skillful" gar- nance of the general grounds but dener, Joseph Schappals, to do all would only eliminate small eye- grading, sodding, and planting Spring Grove: 150 Years

With his plantings Strauch logical zone for plants unable to wanted to create a sequence of grow in dryer upland areas. spaces and a sense of landscape Private philanthropists donated unity. He described his use of $1,000 to form the first "artifi- plantings as well as the layout of cial" lake in 1856. Using only avenues as structural elements in hand tools and mule-drawn wag- landscape architecture: "A judi- ons, workers dug some swamp cious location of avenues, the areas up to twenty-five-feet deep opening and closing of thickets, for the lakes. Crews laid a exhibiting the largest and finest drainage system that promised to specimens of trees, and the sud- keep Central Avenue dry and to den transition from light to shade maintain the lakes' water level. always produces a pleasing The rich dirt that was removed effect." In 1869, he articulated his created low-swelling banks, design philosophy : "By an artistic peninsulas, and islands suitable calculation, exercised in the for burials. These "ornamental employment of trees and of vari- waters fed by copious under- ous colors and forms, nature ground springs" were "so arranged always speaks a new and exciting as to be in view from the principal language." drive and other prominent Strauch actually built the points." So pleased was the Board landscape to appear entirely nat- that it awarded Strauch a family ural. He fulfilled the Cemetery burial lot 300' x 175' in size on founders' dreams that Spring the largest island, although the Grove be embellished with reflec- transaction involved Strauch's tive ponds by banishing the cattle exchange of his previous prime lot pastured by Cemetery employees with the wealthy Dexter family. and turning the swampland along the eastern front of the Cemetery into over five acres of "ornamental waters" that provided an eco-

David B. Lawler our Cemeteries." When he came to Spring Grove, Adolph Strauch noted that the sphinx In June 1850, David B. Lawler relieved the monotony of (1786-1869), a businessman obelisks, columns, and Gothic active in Spring Grove's found- pinnacles. CHS. ing, erected a bluestone sphinx on a gray granite base to honor his parents Matthew and Ann of Philadelphia who died in the 1830s and two brothers who died young, (sec. 45) Later inscriptions record the deaths of Lawler and his wife Augusta. One director protested that the monument's hea- then symbolism was offensive in a Christian nation; but other critics praised its colors as sober and somber, more to "suit the taste of some who complain of the too great prevalence of white marble in . 4'' '

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With a series of small, irregu- lar, "wooded" peninsulas and To facilitate Strauch's work Although some considered islands, the serpentine lakes Strauch primarily an efficient provide an unmeasurable mid- in closing the footpath system, dle ground of curving spaces opening new avenues, and creat- manager, in writing about land- complementing those created ing space for the clustering of scape design he often sounded by plantings and lawn. Their shape and size play tricks with trees, the board occasionally more like a poet, philosopher, and perceptions of distance, scale, arranged to buy back lots and relo- artist celebrating pantheism. For and space. The limits of the water are never quite percepti- cate burials and monuments, pay- instance, he wrote that "sylvan ble, so the lakes seem much ing proprietors a premium for the scenes," such as those he created larger than they are. Strauch inconvenience; and it paid lot at Spring Grove, were "places of continued work on the waters for decades, constructing a pic- owners for damages incurred worship and sepulcher in olden turesque grotto and cascade in when removing or planting trees. times, and by no improbable sup- 1878. BL An outside consultant reassured position gave rise to temples, and the Board that money thus favored the religion of our forefa- "invested" had been "judicious," thers." He stressed the memory and would augment the assisting characteristics of various Cemetery's value, and assure "an plants that harmonized with increasing source of revenue." Victorianism. He wrote of ancient Strauch installed fountain jets in Egyptians who "considered the the lakes in 1876 to aerate the pine as emblem of the soul" and water and help the swans and of the symbolic significance of the ducks keep the water from becom- weeping willow, the oak, and the ing stagnant. They added dynamic "venerable elm." His writings elements of visual interest to the gave detailed descriptions on how landscape. Over Strauch's first to create new sacred space in decade the look of Spring Grove cemeteries by melding human changed dramatically. design "with the apparently wild 42 Spring Grove: 150 Years

irregularities of divine creation." expanded through correspondence The monuments and mausoleums with other naturalists, designers, he favored would ideally seem and cemetery superintendents. like organic outgrowths of nature Spring Grove's directors helped itself, highlighting his landscape Strauch foster these contacts. architecture. In 1863, the Board allotted Strauch believed he could $600 to send him on the three guarantee Spring Grove's perma- month trip to Europe for "his nency by making the grounds a health," continuing his salary in park or garden "so attractive, so his absence. But it was a working useful they would never be over- vacation to visit cemeteries, major turned" like the old urban grave- public and royal parks, zoological yards. Appropriately, Strauch's gardens, and agricultural grounds work at Spring Grove coincided to gather information "useful to with a change in American funer- the Association." Strauch made ary taste in which the landscapes only minimal mention of the of other "rural" cemeteries experience in his 1869 history of became so modified by new crite- the Cemetery, characteristically ria of maintenance and aesthetics more interested in doing than that people began to refer to them writing, in applying what he had as "garden" cemeteries. learned rather than publishing a Strauch's national reputation travel narrative. Cemetery direc- as a landscape designer grew tors remained pleased with the rapidly. His already extensive net- product. work of international contacts

The Model cation: "No man has done more for the correction and cultivation of public taste in At the dedication of Buffalo's this particular [cemetery Forest lawn in 1866, designed design] than Adolph Strauch; by Strauch, the Honorable under his guidance and care Lewis F. Allen, declared, "Were Spring Grove rose to be the L of all cemeteries within my model cemetery." knowledge, to point you to one Mt. Auburn ceded its taking precedence as a model, place as a model to Spring it would be that of Spring Grove because of Strauch's Grove. Entrusted to [Strauch's] work. Spring Grove became superintendence and guided by the ideal, park-like cemetery his genial taste, hundreds of landscape others wanted to individual lot enclosures with emulate for the next half forbidding gates and locks were century. SG voluntarily swept away by their proprietors and in their places broad undulations of green turf, stately avenues, and tasteful monuments, intermin- gled with noble trees and shrubbery, meet the eye, con- ferring a grace and dignity which no cemetery in our country has yet equaled, thus blending the elegance of a park with the pensive beauty of a burial place." After Strauch designed Detroit's Woodmere Cemetery (1869), the Honorable C. j. Walker proclaimed at its dedi- Adolph Strauch's Landscape Lawn Plan

Strauch's services were in in 1873 to the cemetery in Press correspondent wrote from a demand to design new cemeteries Dublin, Ireland, on request. Given cross-country inspection tour in or suggest "landscape lawn" mod- the international demand for doc- the early 1870s that Cincinnati ifications. Recognizing the impor- umentation on Spring Grove's had become "a center of correct tance of his work, Spring Grove's landscape, the Board allotted $200 taste in rural architecture, land- directors often granted him time in 1876 for engineer Joseph scape gardening, and the various off and repeatedly raised his salary Earnshaw to produce a detailed arts that are associated with sub- to keep him based at Spring Grove plan of the Cemetery showing urban and more rural life;" that — from $1,400 to $2,000 in 1864, houses and other details. Strauch and the local horticultur- to $3,000 in 1865, and then to Strauch submitted four land- ists made the city "a long way in $5,000 to counter an offer he scape photographs for display advance of Philadelphia, New received from an unnamed east- at the 1876 Philadelphia York, or Boston;" and that ern cemetery. In 1867, the Board Centennial Exposition. Strauch's name was "as highly voted to send maps and other Occasionally, as in 1877, the cherished in this line as is that of information to twenty-five of the Board granted Strauch time off to Olmsted in New York, in the principal cemeteries in the United "travel and examine such parks, Central Park connection, or States and Canada, perhaps hop- cemeteries, and objects of interest Agassiz or Gray in science in ing that that would suffice to as may be agreeable to him." Boston." lessen demand for Strauch, per- Repeatedly, the press lauded In 1875, Frederick Law haps encouraging it. In 1869, it Strauch. Scribner's Monthly Olmsted praised Spring Grove as mailed ten copies of Strauch's (1871) called him "the most the best cemetery in the nation new book on Spring Grove "to accomplished landscapist in "from a landscape gardening some of the principal cemeteries America"; and the Atlantic point of view" — a compliment in Europe and America," in 1871 Monthly (1879), a "Natural from a designer who personally to zoos in Berlin and London, and Artist." One Philadelphia believed that only parks should 44 Spring Grove: 150 Years

In 1900, Spring Grove won the gold medal at the Paris International Exposition as the best designed landscape in the United States. CK

Other Projects

Opened on July i, 1870, Eden Park commanded dramatic views over the river from "graceful," curving drives "opening up an ever-changing view of the city," the distant Kentucky hills, and the sub- urbs of Mount Adams, Mount Auburn, and Walnut Hills, "a panorama of great scope and rare beauty." As in the Cemetery, Strauch refused to create a separate footpath system, encouraging visitors to walk at will over grassy hill- sides and among the groves of trees. CHS Adolph Strauch's Landscape Lawn Plan 45

be picturesque and that cemeter- ing some very special and ies should be more expressive of attractive features of Spring function. Olmsted observed, "I Grove would be well receiv- know of no cemetery in the coun- ed by the English public. try in which there are any natural Appleton's Encyclopedia declared effects of landscape gardening, that Spring Grove "ranks as the properly so called, except at first park in the world." Spring Grove." In 1900, Spring Grove won Despite his extensive accom- the gold medal at the Paris plishments in American land- International Exposition as the scape design, Strauch's name has best designed landscape in the generally passed from the historic United States. record. One explanation is that Superintendent for a quarter Strauch was too busy designing century until his death in 1883, and building landscapes to devote Strauch made Spring Grove one of time to documenting his reputa- the nation's finest and left an tion for posterity. inspiring legacy to cemetery In the last five years of directors and other landscape Strauch's life, international designers. As early as 1867, the acclaim poured in. An official Annual Report noted that through commission from the French gov- his landscape Strauch was "build- ernment judged Spring Grove "the ing a monument for himself most beautiful of all cemeteries" which no granite can equal and no in America. In 1883, the Directors riches imitate." Strauch was of Abney Park Cemetery in buried on an island he created in London requested information one of his rambling, beautiful from him so they could lay out an lakes; the corporation donated it additional eighty acres on the in recognition of his services. "American System" developed in Only low simple stones mark his "the finest cemetery in the grave and those of his family. world." They thought that copy-

For Burnet Woods Strauch col- In 1873, Strauch began work on laborated with civil engineer the older Lincoln Park. He Joseph Earnshaw, experienced made a miniature lake with a from Spring Grove work, in small waterfall, a tiny island in grading, filling deeper ravines, the middle, and a rustic grotto and sodding a "greensward." by its side — picturesque ele- They created a pond, fed by a ments like those at Spring creek, where small pleasure Grove but of diminutive scale. boats were rented. CHS He introduced swans and other "rare foreign aquatic birds" and planted new trees. Viewing this as a public garden, he planted beds of geraniums, fuchsia, ver- benas, and other flowers he would not have tolerated at the Cemetery as destructive to the unity of its more expansive, pastoral landscape. CHS