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What did 1920s landscaping look like?
The decade brought together contrasting traditions. A scholarly overview of European landscape design describes both traditional and nationalist currents and a renewal associated with avant-garde landscape architects and architects. In the United States, documented examples include Italianate formality, Colonial Revival gardens, and regionally adapted designs. These examples show distinct approaches, not a single national style or a proven ranking of how common each was. The European Garden Heritage Network’s account of European garden history provides broader context for the period’s competing directions.
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Which 1920s garden traditions can you bring back?
Formal Italianate and Renaissance-inspired layouts
Among wealthy American clients, European travel helped renew interest in Italian garden precedents. The National Park Service describes designs organized around geometry, axes, proportion, and sight lines that connect spaces. At Hyde Park, formal European elements were combined with an existing picturesque landscape, showing how a garden could layer traditions rather than follow one pure style. The National Park Service’s account of Italian villas and gardens explains these principles.
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Ellen Biddle Shipman’s 1921 design for Chatham Manor in Virginia is a detailed example. Although it complemented an eighteenth-century house, the garden was a new design on a former cornfield—not an untouched colonial survival. Its features included walled gardens, roses and perennials, long herbaceous borders, a pergola, boxwood parterres planted with seasonal annuals, statuary, and a small pool. The National Park Service’s Chatham Manor account documents the garden and its later history.
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Modernist experiments shaped by the site
Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs from 1922 to 1932 explored the relationship between buildings and land. Their complex geometries responded to qualities of place, movement, and the changing natural environment. The Library of Congress exhibition presents these as design proposals: the projects it covers were not built, so they are evidence of Wright’s thinking, not completed gardens to copy. The Library of Congress exhibition on Wright’s unbuilt designs provides the context.
Regional mixtures of native and ornamental plants
Two Palm Beach examples illustrate how regional designs combined different influences. A 1923 Spanish Mission estate paired pruned native growth with an ornamental cloister-style garden. A 1924 Mediterranean Revival residence used an Italian-style layout with a paved patio and fountain. These Florida examples are not a universal plant palette; local climate and place shaped their choices. The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach’s archive documents the examples.
How to adapt a 1920s influence to your property
1. Read the house and site first
Record the home’s architectural character, lot shape, slope, climate, mature plants, circulation, and views from inside. Decide how you want to use the outdoor space. Paths, walls, terraces, and planting should work with the building and land rather than compete with them.
2. Look for evidence before reconstructing
If historical accuracy matters, consult old plans, photographs, local archives, and surviving site features before deciding what belongs. Williamsburg landscape architect Arthur Shurcliff used historical research, photographs, memories, landscape plans, interviews, and measurements in his work. That approach offers a useful model for distinguishing property-specific evidence from decorative guesses. Colonial Williamsburg’s account of Shurcliff’s work describes his research methods.
3. Choose a design language that fits
- For an Italianate influence: Use proportion, repeated geometry, and a clear axis or view to connect garden spaces.
- For a Colonial Revival influence: Consider a pergola, roses, a perennial border, or a small formal enclosure instead of reproducing an entire estate garden.
- For a site-conscious modernist influence: Let the relationship between house and land guide the geometry of paths and terraces.
These are contemporary translations of documented ideas; no single feature listed here belongs exclusively to the 1920s.
4. Set a realistic maintenance level
Chatham Manor’s lush plantings became difficult to maintain, and a later owner removed the parterres and labor-intensive annual beds. Dense seasonal bedding and intricate formal planting can demand ongoing work. Choose plants for your local conditions and substitute where needed: the Chatham garden’s renewal, for example, used newer cultivars where necessary. For a historically significant property or a complex restoration, consider working with a landscape architect or horticulturist experienced in historic landscapes.
5. Scope the work before setting a budget
Historic examples range from estate gardens to unbuilt proposals, but they do not establish current project costs. Ask for site-specific estimates based on the design, materials, planting, construction, and upkeep you are considering.
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| Consideration | What it means for your project |
|---|---|
| Architectural fit | Italianate formality, Colonial Revival planting, and modernist geometry create different relationships with a house. Choose an approach that complements its architecture. |
| Site and climate | Historical examples adapted design and planting to their settings. Select forms and plants that suit your region and property. |
| Historical evidence | Surviving plans, photographs, and other records support a property-specific restoration more reliably than a generalized period impression. |
| Maintenance | Formal parterres and dense annual beds can require substantial recurring care. |
| Budget and scale | Historical precedents do not provide current costs. Obtain estimates for the conditions and scope of your own site. |
Why site and climate belong in the design
A 1922 Palm Beach Daily News article, quoted in the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach’s archive, made the case for a home that suited its surroundings: “For the full delight of residence here is not to be had unless the dwelling comports with the climate and the scenery. It is a waste of good material indeed, if good solid materials and the craftsmanship of artisans are not to be manipulated and blended to produce, as they can produce, a structure that chimes with the harmonies of nature.” The archive attributes this passage to an article about Hogarcito but does not identify an individual speaker. Its point is relevant to landscape planning: a period reference works best when adapted to the actual place.
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