Design - Terraced or Falling Gardens

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As the 18th century dawned, American colonists were growing richer & found themselves with enough free time to think about designing the grounds around themselves to project their new wealth & power. The gentry began to employ professional gardeners who often planned for land on one side of their employer's house to become a falling garden.

Many well-to-do homeowners intentionally chose their home sites on naturally sloping ground or on the bank of a river. They intended to plant level grassy (or more intricate) garden areas as part of a series of terraced falls or graduations with sloping turf fronts & sides. Often when the dwelling house was newly built, the earth, clay, & rubbish removed for cellars & foundations were used to shape the terraced falls. Hills were intentionally cut into slopes & flats where owners & guests could walk.


Visitors would usually approach the formal entrance to a house by a flat carriage way. Guests asked to stay for a while, often would be invited to take a walk in the terraced garden on the opposite side of the home. People usually walked between these flat levels by means of grass ramps.

Each individual descent was referred to as a fall. Gentry owners showcased their genteel taste in gardening on these terraces, which served as their stage to those passing by or visiting.

Historically from Persia to Italy to England, terraces have provided a setting for the house, a pleasing view from upper story windows, a platform for surveying the surrounding countryside, and a grand stage for the owner. A contemporary American garden authority acknowledged the garden as a stage when he wrote, "regular terraces either on natural eminences or forced ground were often introduced...for the sake of prospect...one above another, on the side of some considerable rising ground in theatrical arrangement."

Such designs elevated the wealthy owner above the common audience passing by or strolling through. One look at nature so well ordered, and the observer could have no doubt that here lived a person destined to be in charge.

Falls appeared early in colonial Virginia, where Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spottswood (1676-1740) installed terraced gardens at the Governor's Palace in Williamsburg between 1715 & 1719. The legislature had authorized moneis for the palace and for its formal walled gardens in 1706.

When new Virginia Governor William Gooch (1681-1751) arrived in 1727, he wrote of a "handsome garden, an orchard full of fruit, and a very large park." The walled entrance courtyard was separated from the rear formal garden by brick walls. A gate to the east of the formal garden led to Lieutenant Governor Alexander Spotswood's (1676-1740) "falling garden," a seried of three terraces descending to a ravine where Spotswood had a stream dammed to create a "fine canal."

Later Spotswood built a private estate near Germanna, where William Byrd II came to call in 1732, & reported, "the Garden...has...3 Terrace Walks that fall in Slopes, one below another."

Berkeley on the James River in Virginia

Spotswood's falling garden at the Governor's Palace spawned a slew of Virginia imitators. In 1726, Benjamin Harrison IV and his wife Anne Carter built Berkeley on the James River. The house faces the river on top of a hill with 3 grand, descending terraces dropping to the river and Harrison's Landing.

Carter's Grove on the James River in Virginia

In the 1730s, Virginian Lewis Burwell constructed a rectangular garden, 200' wide with 3 terraces dropping 500' down to the James River at his plantation Kingsmill. In 1751, his cousin Carter Burwell borrowed that design for his Carter's Grove which still can be visited near Williamsburg.

During the same decade, John Robinson, Speaker of the Virginia House of Burgesses, installed "a large falling garden enclosed with a good brick wall" at his home Pleasant Hall overlooking the Mattaponi River.

In Annapolis, William Paca, who later signed the Declaration of Indpendence, planned a walled garden for his new home in the 1760s. The garden was to consist of 3 falls, narrowing as they dropped 16 1/2' to the lowest level of the garden. The terrace closest to the house measured 80' in width, the next 55', & the last 40'.

This design allowed those viewing the 2 acre garden from the house to see grounds that appeared larger than reality, & those viewing from below to see a house that seemed grander than it was. Using optics to create an illusion of larger houses & grounds was particularly important in colonial towns, where space was limited, but the need to appear important was boundless.

The same style garden also was appearing in more conservative New England as well. In 1736, Will Griff's contract to build Thomas Hancock's house & garden in Boston stated, "I...oblidge myself...to...layout the next garden or flatt from the Terras below." He also agreed to "order and Gravel the Walks & prepare and Sodd ye Terras adjoining with the Slope on the side."



When Virginian Mary Amber visited Maryland in 1770, she noted, "About two miles from Baltimore There is an exceeding handsome Seat called Mount Clare...a very large Falling Garden....You step out of the Door into the Bowlg Green from which the Garden Falls & when You stand on the Top of it there is such a Uniformity of Each side." Seven years later, John Adams also visited Mount Clare reporting, "There is a beautiful garden and then a fall, another garden and then a fall, so down to the river."

In 1772, Charles Carroll of Annapolis began advising his son on improving the grounds around his home. He wrote, "If you wish to make continental slopes from ye Gate to ye wash house, I apprehend the Quantity of Water in great Rains going (that) way may prove inconvenient." Of the falling garden the practical Irishman noted, "The Garden contains a variety of excellant fruit, and the flats are a kitchen garden." When advising his son on hiring a gardener in 1775, Charles Carroll wrote to his son, "Examine the Gardiner strictly as to ... Whether he is an expert at levelling, making grass plots & Bowling Greens, Slopes, & turfing them well."

The son, Charles Carroll of Carrollton, who would also become a signer of the Declaration of Independence, decided that his gardens should cover about 2 3/4 acres. The Carrolls were the weathiest family in Maryland with hundreds of acres across the state, but their in-town space was limited. Broadening terraces fell 24' from the house to Spa Creek in Annapolis. The garden terrace closest to the water was 50' wide, the next ascending terrace 40' wide, & the terrace closest to the house measured 30' in width. This plan made the 3 story house seem even more imposing when viewed by visitors approaching from the water.

Some garden terraces proved treacherous. In the 1730s, Landon Carter built a falls garden at his home Sabine Hall on the north side of Virginia's Rappahanock River. Carter's garden consisted of 6 deep falls spanning the width of the house & dropping to the river below. The terraces were so steep, that he "almost...disjointed" his hip by "walking in the garden." In 1783, the elder Charles Carroll of Annapolis actually died as a result of a fall in his garden.

When New England schoolteacher, Philip Vickers Fithian visited Nomini Hall in Virginia, he recorded in 1773, "From the front yard of the Great House...is a curious Terrace covered finely with Green turf & about five foot high with a slope of eight feet, which appears exceedingly well to persons coming to the front of the house...This Terrace is produced along the Front of the House...before the Front-Doors is a broad flight of steps of the same Height & slope of the Terrace."

Back in New England on 1774, Elihu Ashley reported seeing the house of Massachusettes Loyalist Timothy Ruggles, where the "land descends the the South, and he designs to make three Squares one about four feet above the other, which will make a most agreable Graduation, and if ever finished will be the grandest thing in the Province of its kind." Unfortunately, in 1775, the Rev. Mr. Ruggles left Boston with British Troops heading to Nova Scotia, where he settled permanently. His estates, gardens & all, in Massachusettes were confiscated. When he fled, Ruggles left his daughter, Bathsheba behind in Massachusetts. In 1778, she was hung to death while pregnant for killing her husband Joshua Spooner & stuffing his body down a garden well. Turbulent times.

In the midst of the Revolution that drove Timothy Ruggles away, Virginia military Colonel George Braxton also had his garden on his mind & wrote in a letter home, "I agreed wth Alexander Oliver Gardener...to finish my falling Garden wth a Bolling Green." After the war was over, travelers began to tour the new confederation. Thomas Lee Shippen described Westover on the James River in Virginia in December of 1783, "...commanding a view of a prettily falling grass plat...about 300 by 100 yards in extent."

In July of the same year, Johann David Schoepf visited the garden of father & son botanists John & William & Bartram in Philadelphia, "The Bartram garden is situated on an extremely pleasant slope across the Schuykill."

When the Revolution was won & before he became the nation's first President, George Washington retired to Mount Vernon, where he actively planned & maintained his gardens. In February of 1785, Washington noted in his diary, "Planted ...Brown Berries in the west square in the Second plat...next the Fall or slope."

By 1777, terraced falls were so admired along the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg, Virginia, that 8 lots were offered for sale in the newspaper noting that 4 were already "well improved with a good falling Garden." A 1780 ad in the same paper touted "a good dwelling house with every conveniencey that a family can wish for...a falling garden." House-for-sale advertisements in Maryland also reported terraced gardens.

In 1794, John Salmon's Baltimore property contained, "The garden ground...is laid off in beautiful falls." And in January, 1802, a notice announced, "Public Auction...estate of...Richard Chew...1220 acres...situate in Anne-Arundel county, lying on the Chesapeake Bay...a large and elegant garden laid off with falls."

Terraced gardens continued to appear in the 19th century as settlers moved westward along the Ohio River. These terraced gardens from America's colonies & new republic were often reproduced in the late Victorian period throughout the United States. Colonial revival gardens usually were built with brick or stone stairways rather than grass ramps leading from one level to the next making walking a little safer. And 19th century gentry probably drank a little less than their ancestors.
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