National Park Service Cultural Landscapes Inventory 2010 Aspet Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site Table of Contents Inventory Unit Summary & Site Plan Concurrence Status Geographic Information and Location Map Management Information National Register Information Chronology & Physical History Analysis & Evaluation of Integrity Condition Treatment Bibliography & Supplemental Information Aspet Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site Inventory Unit Summary & Site Plan Inventory Summary The Cultural Landscapes Inventory Overview: CLI General Information: Purpose and Goals of the CLI The Cultural Landscapes Inventory (CLI), a comprehensive inventory of all cultural landscapes in the national park system, is one of the most ambitious initiatives of the National Park Service (NPS) Park Cultural Landscapes Program. The CLI is an evaluated inventory of all landscapes having historical significance that are listed on or eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, or are otherwise managed as cultural resources through a public planning process and in which the NPS has or plans to acquire any legal interest. The CLI identifies and documents each landscape’s location, size, physical development, condition, landscape characteristics, character-defining features, as well as other valuable information useful to park management. Cultural landscapes become approved CLIs when concurrence with the findings is obtained from the park superintendent and all required data fields are entered into a national database. In addition, for landscapes that are not currently listed on the National Register and/or do not have adequate documentation, concurrence is required from the State Historic Preservation Officer or the Keeper of the National Register. The CLI, like the List of Classified Structures, assists the NPS in its efforts to fulfill the identification and management requirements associated with Section 110(a) of the National Historic Preservation Act, National Park Service Management Policies (2006), and Director’s Order #28: Cultural Resource Management. Since launching the CLI nationwide, the NPS, in response to the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), is required to report information that respond to NPS strategic plan accomplishments. Two GPRA goals are associated with the CLI: bringing certified cultural landscapes into good condition (Goal 1a7) and increasing the number of CLI records that have complete, accurate, and reliable information (Goal 1b2B). Scope of the CLI The information contained within the CLI is gathered from existing secondary sources found in park libraries and archives and at NPS regional offices and centers, as well as through on-site reconnaissance of the existing landscape. The baseline information collected provides a comprehensive look at the historical development and significance of the landscape, placing it in context of the site’s overall significance. Documentation and analysis of the existing landscape identifies character-defining characteristics and features, and allows for an evaluation of the landscape’s overall integrity and an assessment of the landscape’s overall condition. The CLI also provides an illustrative site plan that indicates major features within the inventory unit. Unlike cultural landscape reports, the CLI does not provide management recommendations or Cultural Landscapes Inventory Page 1 of 83 Aspet Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site treatment guidelines for the cultural landscape. Inventory Unit Description: Aspet, the main parcel of the Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site, is 101.5-acre property in the town of Cornish, Sullivan County, New Hampshire. Aspet includes the house, studio, and gardens of Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of America’s preeminent sculptors of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. The study area includes an 83-acre parcel representing the original boundary of the national historic site authorized in 1964 as well as 18 additional acres of adjacent land. Set in an open landscape that offers views to distant Mount Ascutney, the main house and studios are surrounded by a series of garden rooms defined by distinctive evergreen hedges, including a formal perennial garden and a birch grove. The classically-inspired landscape designed by Saint-Gaudens during his twenty-two year residence is representative of a popular design style from the turn-of-the-twentieth century. Several prominent sculptural works of Augustus Saint-Gaudens are on display in the landscape. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW Augustus Saint-Gaudens, one of the most celebrated sculptural artists of the late 1800s and early 1900s, rented a farm in Cornish, New Hampshire, from his friend, Charles C. Beaman, in the summer of 1885. Saint-Gaudens and his family continued to rent from Beaman every summer until 1891 when he purchased the property. The farm, which Saint-Gaudens renamed Aspet after the village in France where his father was born, was located in a bucolic rural setting with wide-open views of the adjacent rolling terrain and the distant hills of Vermont on the west side of the Connecticut River. After purchasing the farm, he continued modifying the home, which he had begun while renting, and designed a series of classically-inspired gardens surrounding the house. Saint-Gaudens’s landscape design included a series of garden rooms defined by clipped hedges. Classical sculpture was located in axial and geometric arrangements within the landscape to complement the buildings and other vegetative elements. Saint-Gaudens also created a terraced flower garden with elaborate flower beds, a garden room called the Pan Grove, complete with gilded statuary, a water feature, a white-painted bench, a white pine boundary hedge, and architecturally-inspired white birch trees. His gardens did not adhere to a rigid formality but relied on loosely geometric patterns. For example, the semi-circular carriage drop-off at the main door of the house was slightly asymmetrical and the Bowling Green was slightly off perpendicular from the adjacent cutting and flower gardens. Saint-Gaudens commissioned the construction of several studio buildings after the original farm buildings proved to be inadequate to meet his needs. These included the Little Studio, the Studio of the Caraytids, and a structure known as the Large Studio, that only survived a few years before being destroyed by fire. The studios had classical styling and ornamentation, creating a cohesive site-wide character. Light façade colors, applied statuary and bas-relief sculpture, and columns were common design elements. He also built several features for relaxation and enjoyment of the outdoors. He, his family, and his assistants enjoyed a swimming pool behind the Little Studio, a swimming hole on the Blow-Me-Up-Brook, and a golf course in the meadow west of the house. Saint-Gaudens died in 1907, leaving the property to his widow Augusta. She became active in Cultural Landscapes Inventory Page 2 of 83 Aspet Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site promoting his legacy and set about preserving his art works and home as a commemorative effort. After an unsuccessful attempt to interest the State of New Hampshire in taking over the management of the property, she formed a private memorial group, the Augustus Saint-Gaudens Memorial, in 1919 to preserve the home, landscape, and art of her husband. At the time of her death in 1926, the Aspet landscape remained largely in the same condition that Saint-Gaudens had left it twenty years prior. The improvements Augusta made, including the construction of a Caretaker’s Cottage and Garage east of the main house, were utilized by the Saint-Gaudens Memorial for their expanded operations. Visitation increased as the site was marketed to garden clubs, women’s groups, and the general public. The Saint-Gaudens Memorial Association the Aspet landscape during their forty-six year tenure but made some changes to increase the amount of exhibited outdoor sculpture and to simplify the gardens. A redesign of the flower garden resulted in a simplified bed arrangement, with the same defining spatial arrangements. The Studio of the Caryatids burned in 1944. In subsequent years, the Memorial constructed new exhibition space by adapting several existing outbuildings to create the New Gallery Complex. Sculptural elements were added to the outdoor spaces in the New Gallery as well throughout the larger landscape, including the Shaw Memorial in the Bowling Green and the Adams Memorial in the former cutting garden. A birch allée was also planted between the Little Studio and the New Gallery Complex. In 1965, the Memorial Association donated the property to the National Park Service, and Saint-Gaudens National Historic Site was established. Over the forty years that the National Park Service has operated the site, they have engaged in long-term planning projects, routine maintenance, replacement of aged plant material, and several construction projects to improve visitor and operational services, including a new visitor center and maintenance facility. SIGNIFICANCE SUMMARY Aspet is significant for its association with Augustus Saint-Gaudens’s professional and creative accomplishments as a sculptor; for his role in the establishment of the Cornish Colony; and for his landscape designs at Aspet. The period of significance is 1885 to c.1950, beginning with Saint-Gaudens’s residency on the property and ending when the Augustus Saint-Gaudens Memorial had accomplished the majority of their physical improvement goals. The park