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By Barbara Long
Bucks County’s rich history is indisputable. Some events, like George Washington’s crossing of the Delaware, are steadfast facts in American education, while others, such as the county’s role in American Impressionism and plein air painting, continue to evolve. Then there is the history still being discovered and clarified.
Tyler Formal Gardens, located on the Newtown Campus of Bucks County Community College, is a slice of history coexisting with contemporary life. Many county residents as well as nonresidents are aware of the college but not the narrative associated with it. Consequently, visitors who do find their way to the historic site are not only amazed by its beauty and legacy, but also by its very existence.
Delaware Valley, with more than 30 gardens located within 30 miles of Philadelphia, is known as “America’s Garden Capital.” Tyler Formal Gardens is part of this special distinction and a member of the Greater Philadelphia Gardens, which compiles and promotes the area’s horticultural splendors such the renown Longwood Gardens. Tyler Formal Gardens is one of the smaller and lesser known locales on the GPG list, but still a spectacular example of early an twentieth-century garden.
When George F. and Stella Elkins Tyler began purchasing Bucks County farm properties in the late 1920s, their incentive was to create a country retreat rather than to land a place in history. The 300-foot-long, French Norman mansion was constructed atop a cliff overlooking Neshaminy Creek and called Indian Council Rock in a nod to past meetings of Native Americans on the site. The Tylers proceeded to develop a baronial estate, including a working dairy with prize Ayrshire cattle. Among other outbuildings on the nearly 2,000-acre estate, the Tylers built an orangery and a four-tier garden complementing their home. Designed by Charles Willing of Willing, Sims and Talbutt in the early 1930s, the gardens featured artisanal stonework, tree espalier, marble fountains, lawn panels, gravel pathways, 75-foot swimming pool with two bathhouses, and tennis courts. And, unsurprisingly, a glass greenhouse was positioned adjacent to the orangery.
With the death of Stella Tyler in 1963, the private estate came to a close. In 1964, Bucks County Community College was established on about 200 acres of the former Tyler property, and a state park was eventually developed on the remaining land. Any thoughts of preserving what has been called “the last great estate built in the country” were superseded by the college’s mission of providing educational opportunities to the community. The swimming pool was filled in, and gradually, new facilities were constructed around the decades-old stone mansion and walled gardens.
The restoration and maintenance of the gardens formally started in 1999. Thanks to generous donations and grant money, along with the dedicated efforts of volunteers, the historic site is being returned to its previous glory. Missing wrought-iron gates, originally designed by Samuel Yellin, have been replicated and installed along with a wrought-iron summer house and a marble bench.
Through the years, however, one mystery remained: What happened to the greenhouse? Its existence was verified by blueprints and photos from the 1930s, but neither its disappearance nor its current whereabouts could be accounted for.
As good fortune can play a role in producing historic moments, so it can assist in surfacing historic artifacts. By chance, through a casual conversation last fall, the original greenhouse was discovered to be on the site of Russell Gardens Center in Richboro.
Alfred Russell, founding owner of the nursery business, purchased the greenhouse in a 1965 sale for $50. He then had it disassembled and loaded onto a tractor-driven wagon for transport. His daughter Diane Taylor, current owner of the garden center along with her husband Joe, remembers making quite a few very bumpy trips between Newtown and Richboro on the back of the wagon carrying its fragile load. While Alfred had meticulously recorded the dismantling, somehow the information was lost. Still, he was able to reassemble the structure in the late 1960s, and it is still standing, along with many of its original parts, on the Richboro property.
A search for the greenhouse’s original documentation was initiated using the architectural drawings produced by its manufacturer, the William H. Lutton Company of Jersey City, NJ. These records are filed in the New York Botanical Gardens Archives, and copies of them have been procured by the college.
So, by happy circumstance, the history of Tyler Formal Gardens grows, adding to the site’s illustrious past, along with that of Bucks County.