CORRESPONDENCE - 75A SEXLINGER FARMHOUSE

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Preservation Brief 36: Protecting Cultural Landscapes: Planning, Treatment and Manage... Page 5 of 11 Once the research and the documentation of existing conditions have been completed, a foundation Is in place to analyze the landscape's continuity and change, determine its significance, assess Its Integrity, and place It within the historic context of similar landscapes. Reading the Landscape A noted geographer, Pierce Lewis, stated, 'The attempt to derive meaning from landscapes possesses overwhelming virtue. It keeps us constantly alert to the world around us, demanding that we pay attention not just to some of the things around us but to all of them —the whole visible world in all of Its rich, glorious, messy, confusing, ugly, and beautiful complexity." Landscapes can be read on many levels — landscape as nature, habitat, artifact, system, problem, wealth, ideology, history, place and aesthetic. When developing a strategy to document a cultural landscape, it is important to attempt to read the landscape In Its context of place and time. Reading the landscape, like engaging in archival research, requires a knowledge of the resource and subject area as well as a willingness to be skeptical. As with archival research, it may Involve serendipitous discoveries. Evidence gained from reading the landscape may confirm or contradict other findings and may encourage the observer and the historian to re- visit both primary and secondary sources with a fresh outlook. Landscape Investigation may also stimulate other forms of research and survey, such as oral histories or archeological Investigations, to supplement what appeared on -site. There are many ways to read alandscape- whatever approach is taken should provide a broad overview. This may be achieved by combining on- the -ground observations with a bird's -eye perspective. To begin this process, aerial photographs should be reviewed to gain an orientation to the landscape and Its setting. Aerial photographs come in different sizes and scales, and can thus portray different levels of detail in the landscape. Aerial photographs taken at a high altitude, for example, may help to reveal remnant Field patterns or traces of an abandoned circulation system; or, portions of axial relationships that were part of the original design, since obscured by encroaching woodland areas. Low altitude aerial photographs can point out Individual features such as the arrangement of shrub and herbaceous borders, and the exact locations of furnishings, lighting, and fence alignments. This knowledge can prove beneficial before an on -site visit. Aerial photographs provide clues that can help orient the viewer to the landscape. The next step may be to view the landscape from a high point such as a knoll or an upper Floor window. Such a vantage point may provide an excellent transition before physically entering the cultural landscape. On ground, evidence should then be studied, including character - defining features, visual and spatial relationships. By reviewing supporting materials from historic research, individual features can be understood in a systematic fashion that show the continuum that exists on the ground today. By classifying these features and relationships, the landscape can be understood as an artifact, possessing evidence of evolving natural systems and human interventions over time. For example, the on -site investigation of an abandoned tum -of- the - century farm complex reveals the remnant of a native oak and pine forest which was cut and burned in the mid - nineteenth century. This previous use is confirmed by a small stand of mature oaks and the presence of these plants in the emerging secondary woodland growth that is overtaking this farm complex in decline. A ring count of the trees can establish a more accurate age. By reading other character - defining features, such as the traces of old roads, remnant hedgerows, ornamental trees along boundary roads, foundation plantings, the terracing of grades and remnant fences —the visual, spatial and contextual relationships of the property as It existed a century ago may be understood and its present condition and integrity evaluated. The findings of on -site reconnaissance, such as materials uncovered during archival research, may be considered primary data. These findings make it possible to inventory and evaluate the landscape's features in the context of the property's current condition. Character - defining features are located in situ, in relationship to each other and the greater cultural and geographic contexts. Historic Plant Inventory within cultural landscapes, plants may have historical or botanical significance. A plant may have been associated with a historic figure or event or be part of a notable landscape design. A plant may be an uncommon cuitivar, exceptional In size, age, rare and commercially /unavailable. If such plants are lost, there would be a loss of historic integrity and biological diversity of the cultural landscape. To ensure that significant plants are preserved, an inventory of historic plants is being conducted at the North Atlantic Region of the National Park Service. Historical landscape architects work with landscape managers and historians to gather oral and documented history on the plant's origin and potential significance. Each plant Is then examined in the field by an expert horticulturist who records Its name, condition, age, size, distribution, and any notable botanic characteristics. Plants that are difficult to Identify or are of potential historical significance are further examined in the laboratory by a plant taxonomist who compares leaf, fruit, and flower characteristics with herbarium specimens for named species, cultivars and httn: / /www.ni)s.aov /tps/ how -to- preserve / briefs /36- culhlral- landscapes.htm 2/28/2014