The Beebe Estate Garden
In Harriet Bigelow’s day, orchards and vegetable gardens dominated the Beebe Estate landscape, with some ornamental plantings. But in the early 1930s, Harriet’s granddaughters, Leslie and Sylenda Beebe, began to establish lavish flower gardens. They hired a young landscape designer, Brenda Sisson, to help plan their gardens. Symmetrical perennial beds, fruit trees, flowering shrubs, trellises, and an elaborate arbor were all part of the design, installed east of the house. There were raised beds beside the barn, and, at the rear of the property, a naturalistic dell including a small pond and informal array of trees. While most evidence of the design had disappeared by the 1990s, the city of Melrose in 1998 installed a new formal garden that echoes the spirit and intent of the Beebe sisters’ landscape.
Shortly after the restoration work on the mansion’s exterior began, the City received funding from the Department of Environmental Management to address the estate grounds. A match from the City and donations from the Beebe Estate Association aided the project. Landscape architect Clara Batchelor developed a plan that protected and enhanced the existing historic character of the site while accommodating its varied users, including senior citizens, school children, and members of the community. Ms. Batchelor relied heavily on historic photographs discovered in the estate of Brenda Sisson, the landscape architect employed by sisters Leslie and Sylenda Beebe in the 1930s, during which time the garden flourished. The resulting design evokes the historic appearance of the Beebe Gardens, while making the site more attractive and functional for its new use as a public facility.
The landscape restoration project included: recreating the formal gardens with stone dust walking paths, benches, beds and plantings; recreating the former circular drive in the front of the estate as a circular walkway constructed of stone dust; removing invasive and inappropriate foundation plantings, replacing them with more appropriate plantings along the front façade; installing a new fence between the elementary school and the Beebe Estate shielded from view with a row of privet hedge; and installing an irrigation system to the lawn and gardens.
The new garden areas include a variety of shrubs and plants that evoke those planted by the Beebe sisters. Among the shrubs and trees are lilacs, roses, arborvitae, Japanese holly, Hinoki cyprus, flowering crabapple, and korean spice viburnum. Perennials include hosta, daylilies, hollyhock, bellflower, cranesbill geranium, coralbells, iris, shasta daisies, candytuft, peonies, phlox, and yucca. Annuals added by the city will fill in while the garden matures.
The restored Beebe Estate Garden has been used for summer jazz concerts and outdoor movies, poetry readings and private party receptions. It is also one of most pleasant places in Melrose to just sit and relax.