Four identical flower beds bordered with bright green pachysandra and layered with white bronze leaf begonias and red-orange Dragon Wing begonias surround the bronze gazebo. Beautiful purple angelonia provide the floral accent on each side of the lacy structure.
Gardens, Pools & Spas
Added Dimension
Architectural details unfold at the center of a Lafayette Square garden.
BY
Lucyann Boston
PHOTOGRAPHY
David Johnson

“Every window in the back of the house looks out on the garden.” – Jim Barry, homeowner
 


Taking its cues from an era of formal gardens, an authentically designed courtyard garden space extends the Lafayette Square home’s historic appeal.


Lush walkways lead to the garden’s gazebo – a centerpiece in the beautifully designed and architecturally rich outdoor space.

Centered around Lafayette Park, historic Lafayette Square is known as one the city’s most beautifully restored neighborhoods. From the end of the Civil War until the tornado of 1896 – which destroyed many of its beautiful homes – Lafayette Square was the place to live in St. Louis.

Now a National Historic District, the homes that surround the lovely Victorian park just south of downtown St. Louis are the once-again fashionable and sought-after places to live. Those who have painstakingly restored the Victorian and French Second Empire mansions surrounding the park do not take their mission to be true to the architectural heritage of the period lightly. When Jim and Elaine Barry began seriously considering a plan for the garden of their historic home, they were just as concerned about being true to the period as they were with the home’s interior.

“I bought the house in the mid 1980s and remodeled it. We were so involved with it that we didn’t worry about the yard for a long time,” Jim explains. “We’ve turned to the yard in the last few years and felt obligated to have something in tune with the spirit of the neighborhood; something worth looking at. Many of the homes in this area have backyards that are not visible from the street. But the way our house is situated, the whole yard is open to view. We wanted to represent the style and period of the neighborhood in the garden as well as the house.”

For inspiration, the Barrys turned to the Victorian Garden at the Missouri Botanical Garden. “We borrowed from the spirit of Henry Shaw,” says Jim, noting that Victorian neoclassical design elements hark back to the geometric styles popular in Roman times.

Knowing what they wanted and actually transforming their garden into a Victorian courtyard were two different matters. “I tried doing it on my own several years ago,” Jim recalls. “After several false starts the project lay fallow for two or three years.”

A little over a year ago, Jim and Elaine teamed up with David Johnson of The Outsider Landscape Design to supply the engineering and create the look they wanted. “Victorian gardens typically had a centerpiece that could be a plant or a statue, surrounded by multiple formal beds and areas for walking,” David explains, noting that Victorians were also fond of tropical and spiky plants.

As a garden centerpiece, David and the Barrys selected a lacy, cast-iron gazebo, which was sandblasted and painted bronze. In addition, David centered the four formal beds surrounding the gazebo with slender, double-twist sculpted junipers, he found at Passiglia’s Nursery. “We wanted people to be able to drink in the garden without too much obstruction,” he notes.

The entrance to the formal space, walled from the rest of the yard by a thick line of American hollies, was also important. Jim wanted to mimic the wrought iron gates at the entrance to Lafayette Square, says David, who turned to Cassilly & Cassilly for the stone pillars and Empire Fence for the ornamental iron work. Building the garden from the ground up, David incorporated lighting, irrigation and four separate drainage areas in the initial design.

The low boxwood hedge surrounding the entire garden and the pachysandra borders of the four symmetrical flower beds provide a permanent green edge in the landscape. The annuals that supply shots of bright color are meant to be changed seasonally and varied from year to year, according to David, who teamed with Beth Gellman for the horticultural work.

While the garden is beautiful during the growing season, it can be equally as lovely in winter with the dramatic lighting reflecting off newly fallen snow and transforming the gazebo, hollies and boxwoods into a “glowing ice sculpture,” according to Elaine.

The Barrys’ future plans for their garden include the incorporation of Victorian-style sculpture pieces and a solarium-like home addition overlooking the area. But even before those plans are complete, the garden has provided the couple with untold pleasure. “Every window in the back of the house looks out on the garden, and it’s something we can enjoy 24/7 and 365 days a year,” says Jim.