The Iconic Blue Garden of Newport
By Arleyn Levee, Landscape Historian and NAOP Trustee
In Newport, RI, the largest project designed by the Olmsted firm was for railroad and copper
magnate Arthur Curtiss James and his wife, Harriet Parsons James. Starting in 1908, Frederick
Law Olmsted, Jr., began planning for what would become a 125-acre estate amid the boulderstrewn moors surrounding the highest hill of Aquidneck, with expansive water views. The
original landscape, planned around a commodious and well-settled mansion (no longer extant),
consisted of several individual garden rooms, the most notable of which was the iconic “Blue
Garden.” Planted entirely with herbaceous material of blue and purple with a touch of white and
gray, this garden was a shimmering evocation of sky and water, in an area of the estate’s terrain
without direct ocean views. Incorporating both Italianate and Persian themes in its axial design,
it was planned along a central water feature of blue-tiled pools connected by a water runnel,
which were surrounded by formal planting beds. Terminated at each end by artistic pergolas and
enclosed by vine-covered walls, with an outer layer of richly textured shrub and tree plantings,
this garden was intended to be a hortus conclusus, a secret garden. The device of multi-layered
enclosures protected this room’s special character, as a floriferous sanctuary, from incongruous
conflict with the rest of the rugged terrain. Read more.
Inaugurated in 1913, in the heyday of Newport spectacles, with “The Masque of the Blue Garden,”
a musical fête of nymphs and satyrs dancing under twinkling blue lights, this garden was
celebrated over the next two decades for its unusual beauty. As the setting for major social and
charity events, including the entertainment of visiting royalty, this garden was frequently
photographed, heralded in the national press and in professional literature for its skillful design,
its intricate craftsmanship and its horticultural triumphs.
With the deaths of both Jameses in 1941, and the subsequent gifting of this property to the
Diocese of Providence, who could not maintain such a labor-intensive estate, the Blue Garden
gradually disappeared under a mantle of brambles and weeds. Of its original defining walls and
pools, remnants endured to speak to its once iconic architectural elegance. In 2012, Dorrance
Hamilton, a noted philanthropist with an abiding interest in preservation and in Newport,
purchased the property. Working with a team led by Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture
of Cambridge, MA, together with Parker Construction of Providence, RI, a firm skilled in historic
property rehabilitation, and with NAOP board member Arleyn Levee as Olmsted historian, this
garden was rebuilt based upon the original Olmsted plans, photographs and documents from the
Olmsted National Historic Site and the Prints and Photograph Division of the Library of Congress..
Rather than a restoration, this renewed garden, while retaining its historically intended
character, has a new mission — to be maintainable according to environmentally sustainable
21st century standards. Without the original bevy of gardeners to keep the garden continually at
peak condition using “bedding out” methods, the new plantings are influenced by the original
plant palette, but with an eye to decreased maintenance, water needs and longevity of bloom and
texture.
The renewed Blue Garden was inaugurated with an elegant celebration in August 2014, 101
years after the opening of the original. It will be managed as a private garden, under the direction
of Sarah Vance, who had worked on the rehabilitation planning with Reed Hilderbrand. It will be
open by appointment on Thursdays, from mid-June through early October. Please visit the
website for more information: http://thebluegarden.org/.