Landscape Tour Stop 4

This potting shed and boiler house was originally behind a large glass greenhouse, which seasonally housed interior and exterior plants on the estate. The chimney is the last remaining part of the heating system that once warmed the greenhouse when the sun was insufficient to maintain the plants. The greenhouse was taken down after World War I, when the shortage of supplies and labor made it too difficult to maintain the building.

The greenhouse was a particular favorite of Paul Johnson and he describes it in his autobiography:

I remember walking through cold weather to the glass house. We would enter the potting shed at the center of the greenhouse, and then we opened the door into a kind of wonderland. We were bathed in warm, moist air, loaded with the fragrance of many flowers of various sorts and colors. I could never get enough of this. Every chance I could get, I would enjoy happy hours in the glass greenhouse learning how things were done and the names of all the plants and flowers. (One Man’s Story, by Paul Johnson, 1991)

Continue down the allee and, at the clearing, walk toward the pond.