American Mile – Dan Gordon Landscape Architects

Perched atop a hill in the American Mile historic district of Concord, Massachusetts, is a spectacular Georgian Revival residence that had been restored to historical perfection.

Patterned after the Longfellow House on Brattle Street in Cambridge, this circa-1900 home had been built for Charles Hovey Pepper, a renowned landscape and portrait painter.

The site is as significant, if not more significant, as the architecture. Concord, the scene of the first battle of the Revolutionary War, literally is the birthplace of America, and this home is near Author’s Ridge, an area where many notable writers, including Louisa May Alcott and Henry David Thoreau, lived.

But its grounds, which cover nearly six acres, were another matter entirely. They were not up to par with the architecture of the grand home they surrounded.

“The landscape was unexceptional.” says landscape architect Dan Gordon, whose eponymous firm was commissioned to remake the grounds. “It looked like an afterthought.”

While the garden rooms that were there were pleasant in and of themselves, there was no significant connection between indoor and outdoor spaces.

“The central design challenge was to meet the owners’ desire to maintain a ‘green space’ at the front of the residence while also enhancing the arrival sequence for the property in such a way that it brings guests to the front door and satisfies the need for additional parking,” Gordon says.

These issues were addressed by reorienting the garage doors to allow for a side-loaded design with arrival and parking courts and a formal lawn in front, and by modifying the grade of the approach to create an enhanced arrival that better showcases the house. A low wall, that acts as a plinth, allows the residence to rise as a commanding presence.

Through a series of broad gestures, Gordon and his team elevated the landscape to a level of thoughtfulness and composure that matches the stature of the architecture.

“We took a classical approach to complement the architecture, and we responded to the context of the landscape of this special place that’s filled with history where the agrarian landscape of New England meets the historic small town,” Gordon says.

The plantings are in a palette of greens and whites, and materials, both hardscape and softscape, are in keeping with the New England vernacular.  

“It’s refined, much like the house,” he says. “But it also incorporates seasonal interest and is complementary to the existing landscape.”

Large specimen plants, including a 30-foot-high beech tree at the top of the driveway, were added to replace some of the mature trees whose tops had been broken during a recent storm.

The main body of the residence is framed by a stand of London plane trees that is complemented by layers of playfully grouped boxwood, and a series of fieldstone walls adds structure to the landscape.

“The thoughtful layout of the new canopy trees breaks down the volume and scale of the house, highlighting its main body,” Gordon says. “This approach provides opportunities for one to capture new perspectives of the house at each turn.”

Each wall and stair is placed to transition the architecture, grade, and formal elements of the landscape to the more relaxed topography and surrounding plantings. The lawn in the back was expanded to make it in scale with the house.

Because the landscape is so expansive, Patrick Taylor, principal at Dan Gordon Landscape Architects, created more intimate areas flanking the sides of the house. On one side, a small terrace that balances the scale of the grand front and rear yards and its small fountain, surrounded by layers of hydrangea and perennials in a circular garden with a bluestone stone-dust walk, becomes a charming focal point.

A covered pergola, whose design is in keeping with the character and detailing of the house, provides choice seating on a sunny day.

At the rear entrance, a pair of plane trees, framing an expansive stair and underplanted with a border of boxwood and set along a lush perennial walk, recall the design language of the front.

“The open stair,” Gordon says, “encourages a visual and physical connection to the spacious lawn and woodland trails beyond.”

The changes root the residence in history. “The execution of the architecture and the landscape bring together a timeless design that also fulfills the contemporary programmatic needs of a young family, while residing in a town rich with history that dates back to the 1600s,” he says. TB