Shelburne Farms: House, Gardens, Farm, and Barns by Rizzoli International Publications

TEAROOM  In the tearoom hangs a  portrait of Lila and Seward’s daughter, Frederica, by Benjamin C. Porter. The American Empire-style chest, minus its top shelving, is the same that is pictured in the period photograph below.  The tearoom is at the intersection of the original house, built in , and the new wing that was added a decade later. It served as the Webb’s temporary dining room while the marble dining room was being completed in . This elegant space, with its decorative boxed ceiling and classical arched doorways, became both a passage way and a living space known as “corridor hall.” Today, it is the room at the Inn where guests are served tea in the afternoon or socialize over cocktails before dinner.   A circa- portrait of Lila Webb by George Chickering Munzig.   Over the mantle is a lithograph portrait of Lila’s grandfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt.

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several courses of French cuisine and fine wines. The house enjoyed decades of private use by Lila and Seward’s decendants, but slowly, parts of the structure began to slip into decline. Damage due to the long, harsh winters combined with the unrelenting financial demands for the upkeep of such a large house in the twentieth century, required the family to make hard decisions about the building. Some of its original features, including the glass conservatory joined to the dining room and the entire servant’s wing, were eventually removed. Parts of the house were boarded up, altered, and repurposed. Later, leaking roofs caused considerable water damage to the interior rooms, wallpapers, furnishings, and floors. Some of the furnishings and artwork were dispersed or disappeared. As the private estate transitioned to become a nonprofit organization in the s, plans to restore the house were underway. A combination of grants and private funding provided the organization with the capacity to recreate Shelburne House for a new era. Starting in  Shelburne House went through a major and sensitive two-year restoration, which revealed many of the original architectural and decorative features. Over seventy-five percent of the original furnishings and objects were restored or returned and placed in or around their original settings. Relinquishing what was a private family home for a century, the Webb family and its nonprofit organization opened Shelburne House to the public in , not as a museum, but by reestablishing the magnificent residence as The Inn at Shelburne Farms. Like the residential schedule that Lila and Seward followed each year, The Inn is open from May to October. The

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LIBR ARY  Lila Webb was an avid reader and is alleged to have read every book in the library. Subjects vary and include literature, art, philosophy, history, science, and poetry, and more.   The library is located in the public area of the house between the main receiving hall and the south porch. It was designed to be an informal living space for reading and conversation. Today, the same low sofas and several upholstered chairs provide Inn guests with many choices of comfortable places to sit.   The library contains about eighty percent of its original furnishings: reading tables, chairs, sofas, side tables, and benches. Many of the sumptuous chairs have been reupholstered; such as the chair illustrated in silk and velvet fabric by Scalamandre.

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BEDROOMS The Louis XVI room is one of the most elegant bedrooms in the house and today retains the characteristic charm from the time when it was designed. Like the Empire room, it was reserved for special guests—visiting politicians or social luminaries. Soft, blue-green, gray, and white colors, rococo-carved furniture, and gilded bronze light fixtures all characterize the cheerful Louis XVI style. The wallpaper is a reproduction of the original pattern, which, by mid-twentieth-century, had been badly damaged. Painted copies of oil paintings of European nobility, such as the portrait over the bed of the infanta María Theresa (who married Louis XIV) by the Spanish painter Velázquez, lend a regal air to the room.

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FORMAL FLOWER GARDENS

When it came to design, the Webbs hired experts such as architect Robert H. Robertson to design the major and many minor buildings on the estate, and Frederick Law Olmstead to create the overall landscape plan for the property, but no professional designer is credited for the formal gardens and no original architectural plans for the gardens are known to exist. Lila Webb was a well-traveled, well-read, creative individual, who was keenly interested in formal gardens and gardening. Lila mentions the development of her garden in her personal correspondences with family and friends and in her journals. Many agree that the design for the formal gardens was chiefly her creative expression. The formal gardens as they exist today are the result of a substantial restoration project begun in  with the intention of reestablishing the original features: overall structure, materials, style, and plantings. Through research and careful attention to details that appear in period photographs, the essence of Lila’s garden design has been sustained and carries on under steady cultivation and development. The work is not over; the restoration will continue until the majority of the original structural and architectural features are completed. The garden’s celebrated importance, the sheer beauty of the garden design, and its unparalleled, stunning site are critical to garden history in the nation. As a strong visual and social component of Shelburne House, the formal gardens may be one of the many factors that contributed to the property’s designation as a National Historic Landmark. The formal gardens at Shelburne Farms are among the most beautiful historic country gardens in America.

  The formal flower gardens today are an expression of Lila Webb’s original design and vision.  The garden began to deteriorate due to neglect after Lila’s death in . By the s much of the physical structures had crumbled into the earth, plants had overgrown and were ultimately lost to time. Over the past four decades, the original, brick retaining walls and steps leading to and from the terraced garden “rooms” were restored or removed and slowly rebuilt, following the conceptual plan that Lila Webb had composed many decades earlier. Optimum soil conditions and hardy plant materials were also reestablished. Lila Webb continually experimented with and altered planting schemes. Today, the gardens are planted in the spirit of Gertrude Jekyll, the turn of the twentieth century garden designer and garden book writer, who advocated movement through color and an informal mix of perennial and annual flowers in a formal, structured setting.  The photograph taken by James Watson Webb around  clearly illustrates the second of Lila Webb’s major garden designs, an Italianate plan consisting of multileveled terraces and garden “rooms.” In the distance (far left), the original north pergola can be seen. Today, the north pergola is one of the remaining structures to be reinstated as part of the decades-long restoration.

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The structural elements of the gardens as they look today are from the second stage of Lila’s design, completed around . In the late s she had first introduced a large French parterre-style garden consisting of a series of geometric shapes that she filled with plantings. “Bay trees and pyramidal boxwoods that surrounded the beds were dug up every winter and placed in the greenhouses.” “From about  to , Lila gathered ideas for further garden expansions and alterations during travels in Italy, France, Spain, England, and the western United States.” “She also drew influence from contemporary publications purchased for her extensive library, including Charles Platt’s Italianate Gardens (), Edith Wharton’s Italian Villas and their Gardens (), and Gertrude Jekyll’s Wall & Water Gardens ().” Lila’s garden design is Italianate in style—a distinct nineteenth century chapter in architecture and design that was inspired by classical antiquity and aesthetics. It took popular form in America in the design of many civic buildings and private residences, as well as in garden design. Five distinct levels consisting of several garden “rooms” are delineated by low brick retaining walls and stone capped balustrades, connected to one another by stone steps. The gardens were at one time connected to Shelburne House by a terraced walkway from the north porch. It can be well imagined that the Webb family and their guests would, after breakfast or dinner, leave the dining room or terrace for a stroll through the garden. The walkway would have been an inviting and easy transition from the rooms of the house to the outdoor rooms of the garden. Formal gardens

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Strawberry Gazpacho The major ingredients that compose this colorful spring soup come fresh from the Farms’ market garden. Strawberries develop early in the market garden’s hoop greenhouses and prosper well into late June. Fresh strawberries are the predominate player in this orchestral gazpacho, giving the soup a complex, yet light, sweetness. The sweet Moscato wine harmonizes the flavors of the traditional vegetable gazpacho ingredients, while enhancing its combination with the sweet, red strawberries. For a more rustic gazpacho, try puréeing the mixture for less time, leaving discernable small chunks of strawberries and vegetables. In a bowl, combine: ¼ quarts strawberries  jalapeño pepper (seeds removed if less heat is desired)  shallot  tomato  red pepper, de-veined, seeds removed  bulb fennel spring oinions, roughly chopped ¼ cup sunflower seeds, toasted ¼ cup almonds, toasted  clove garlic ¼ cup candied ginger  tablespoons salt ½ bottle Moscato or other sweet sparkling wine Roughly chop all the strawberries, vegetables, and nuts and combine in a large bowl with the salt. Cover and let sit out for one hour (this lets the flavors combine and allows the salt to soften the vegetables). Working in batches, combine the strawberry mixture with a little bit of the wine and blend in a blender or food processor until smooth. Cool soup in the refrigerator. Serve cold with a little chopped mint and crushed almonds.   Place cold gazpacho in a soup bowl. Garnished with: a drizzle of Green Herb Oil (see Pantry, page ) almonds, finely chopped fennel frond

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Maple and Star Anise Tart Made fresh with the season’s maple syrup and tahini ganache, toasted black sesame seeds, and maple candy, this dessert tart is a glorious stage for tiny, spring-green, paint-brush-like spruce tips to shine.    In a bowl, combine:  cup brown sugar  tablespoon cornmeal ½ cup maple syrup  eggs ½ cup buttermilk ½ cup butter, melted  teaspoon vanilla pinch of salt Whisk together until smooth. Using a sieve, strain the batter into a pitcher, pressing the last thick bits through with a spoon.   In a food processor, combine:  grams flour  grams powdered sugar ¼ teaspoon salt  grams butter, cold Process until the ingredients have sandy texture. Add:  egg yolk Process until dough begins to come together. Portion the into individual tart tins. Freeze for  minutes. Preheat the oven to °. Blind bake the tart shells until lightly brown, approximately  to  minutes. Cool. When the tart shells have cooled, fill with the maple filling and bake until the filling is set, approximately  minutes. Cool.   Using a pastry palate knife or spatula, make a smear on a plate of: Tahini Ganache (see Pantry, page ) Garnish the ganache with: Crushed maple candy Toasted black sesame seeds Place a cooled maple tart on the Tahini Ganache and carefully place on top a few: Candied Spruce Tips (see Pantry, page ) Serve immediately.

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