THE PINEHURST OUTLOOK.
7
IN THE PINE BARRENS.
Natural and Artificial Features
of Pinehurst Scenery.
The Landscape Architect's Difficult Wort
and Its Pleasing Results.
Evergreen Trees and Shrubs and Green Lawns
Supplant Scrubby Oaks and Bare Sand.
To provide a healthful, convenient and
attractive town in which home-like
accommodations and varied means of
recreation could be secured at a moderate
cost, in a region having,, a superior cli
mate, but where much of the landscape
had been made un tttraetive by tire, the
axe and the poverty of the soil, was the
problem presented to the landscape arch
itects of Pinehurst.
The hundred-acre town site is made up
of a succession of broad ridges and val
leys which merge into each other so
gradually that it is hard to real
ize that there is a variation of over
1'fty feet in elevation in different
parts of the ground.
Not far outside the town limits
are springy places from which start
streams that increase in volume,
alternately broadening into bogs
and narrowing between abrupt
banks as they descend through
valley bottoms that are protected
from tire by the constant flow
of water. The moisture also pro
vides favorable conditions for the
growth of a great variety of trees,
shrubs and herbaceous plants,
many of which are evergreen,
while others are loaded with brilliantly
colored fruits, so that the bottoms of ail
wet valleys are the natural winter and
summer garden spots of the region and a
constant source of delight to one who
appreciates the varied forms of plant life.
The dry upland has, on the contrary, a
less varied and interesting growth for
t lie greater part of the year, the larger
growth being made up of scrubby and
stunted oaks, tall spindling pines many
dead and all with woefully scarred trunks.
I nder these trees is a ground covering
of tufty grasses or a surface of nearly
bare sand which is densely littered in
";uiy places with a ghastly ruin of fall
al trunks, blackened stumps and de
cayed branches, all testifying to the
devastating methods of the turpentine
d'liller and the lumberman. Where
there are vigorous young pines the bright
liesh green of 'their foliage contrasts
charmingly in the winter landscape with
the warm red-brown winter foliage of
the oaks ; and almost everywhere in early
slnngand summer many inconspicuous
shrubs and ground covering plants are
very attractive in flower.
It was on the topography and in the
"i.dscape that I have described that the
landscape architects were called upon to
,l, s'gn an attractive village. The site
fleeted for them to do this was on the
d'y uplan,', not in the moist rich green
eys. i'iie wjte sweepin,r slopes and
vlleys suggested a broad treatment and
required a curvilinear system of roads.
It became at once evident that artificial
means must be resorted to if an attractive
evergreen landscape was to be provided
during the winter, and an abundance of
llowers during the early spring, the most
active season of visiting guests and resi
dents, most of whom being from the
colder states would expect very different
and more attractive conditions than those
prevailing about their homes, conditions
which would not be presented by the
original landscape.
Upon a topographical survey of the
town site prepared by the engineer the
plan of the town was studied. Its cen
tral feature was the Village Green,
located in a broad, shallow amphitheatre
like valley, and designed to be the heart
of the village, with the inn, the hall, the
store and the casino sites at its . head on
the main street and along the line of the
electric tracks. The homes for the resi
dents were along the sides of the green
and on the streets radiating from it.
These homes were all placed in lots with
ample grounds about them and with no
subdividing fences (for it was designed
to avoid the exclusiveness that comes in
towns in which property is subdivided
into many small holdings) thus giving
every visitor a common interest in all
that is beautiful and interesting in the
town. At the same time protection is
given to all by excluding objectionable
features and persons.
After providing comfortable accom
modations for visitors came the problem
of providing pleasant homes for the em
ployes who formerly occupied rough
cabins near the power house. A study
of this problem involved a decision and
study for the future extension of the
village in the immediate and the more
distant future. These questions having
been determined the construction of em
ployes' homes was undertaken in a
position where they will be readily acces
sible to the village of the present and
the future, and close to the power house
and laundry, wood yard, stables and
other working departments.
At the opposite side of the village was
established the nursery and farm, and
future extensions are determined in posi
tions where the sewerage of the town
can be utilized for irrigating farm crops.
The management of the forests of the
estate which supply wood for all fires is
a matter that has required serious
thought, for combined with the practical
operation of procuring Are wood is the
problem of making the woods more at
tractive and less subject to tires consid
erations which involve the gathering and
burning of immense quantities of useless
decayed branches, trunks and chips, and
the opening of wood roads and paths to
various objects of interest, all of which
must be marked by signs directing visit
ors to and from the village.
As I have previously stated, the purpose
of the planting was to secure an attract
ive evergreen winter landscape with an
abundance of llowers, especially in early
spring. I have referred also to the con
siderations which determined the location
of the Village Green. Another important
consideration was the Pine Grove which
provided an evergreen back-ground for
all views across it and also a pleasant
place to ramble in. It was really the
only important existing plantation
worthy of serious consideration. The
new plantations about the edge of the
Village Green and in the planting space
between walk and road were arranged in
such a manner as to give a series of views
from eacli building over a foreground of
low evergreen foliage between groups of
evergreen trees to a broad stretch of
green turf in the center of the green,
with groups and scattered trees standing
upon it. These plantations are made up
of comparatively few wholly reliable
varieties that will give the desired land
scape effects. About the base of and in
the immediate vicinity of the buildings,
plantations are made with a view to giv
ing the structures the appearance of
growing out of a mass of foliage and thus
being connected more intimately with
the landscape. In such places and along
the edges of the walks where the planta
tions would come closely under the eye,
greater variety is provided and more at
tention given to an attractive grouud
covering.
After fixing upon the design of the
town and its surroundings the details of
construction and planting were to be
worked out. Plans showing cross sec
tions of roads and walks, and grading
plans of side slopes were prepared ; also,
plans showing the position of plantations
and the kind of plants to go in them, and
at the present time guide maps of the
estate and record plans of the village
showing the location of all buildings,
pipes, wires and plantations are under
way.
To find a satisfactory and readily ob
tainable material that could be made to
form over the sand of the village roads a
durable surface that would be firm at all
seasons and free of mud during rain was
one of the most important problems in
construction. The first experimental
section of walk made with waste resin
heated and mixed with sand is still stand
ing in front of the Outlook office, where
it has remained in good condition under
heavy traffic for about a year. Such sat
isfactory results have been secured how
ever with a cementing clay gravel, which
is found on the estate, both in the con
struction of walks and roads, especially
where a brick foundation was provided
in the latter, that this problem is believed
to be solved.
Another exceedingly important prob
lem was to secure a satisfactory turf
that would be fresh and green in winter.
The Japanese evergreen honeysuckle, a
naturalized plant that sometimes covers
large surfaces, was tried and found want
ing. Many experimental plots of grasses
grown from sets secured in different
parts of the country, and from seed, were
made, and winter rye was tried. The
result of all these experiments up to this
time is that the successful lawn mixture
of the North and of California, viz : blue
grass and red top, has been selected for
a permanent lawn, green in winter and
summer, and the winter rye to form a
green winter surface in large areas. By
the use of rye followed by cow peas a
satisfactory winter effect is obtained and
crops secured at the same time that will
pay for all the labor.
From the inception of Pinehurst care
ful thought and investigation were given
to the question of planting a problem
for which there were no precedents to
gain experience from. A careful exam
ination of the meagre garden flora of the
region was made. With a knowledge
thus gained and from earlier experience
in the South a nursery was established
of exotic and native plants, a large share
of which have proved to be successful.
It was recognized, however, that native
plants must be depended upon chiefly for
the results we wished to secure, for they"
only could be procured in sufficiently
large quantities to do, at a reasonable
cost, the immense amount of planting
that was required in the town.
The purpose and character of the vil
lage having been outlined by the propri
etor, and plans fixed upon and executed
upon the grounds by the landscape archi
tects; buildings suited to their various
uses and in keeping with the established
character of the village were designed
and constructed by the architects ; light
ing, water, sewer and transportation
systems were devised and installed by
engineers who wrere skilled in these var
ious branches. In all this work the rep
resentatives of these various professions
have co-operated in the preparation of
plans and in the execution of work, for
occasions were constantly occurring
where the work of one merged into that
of another. But with all this cordial
co-operation the results secured at Pine
hurst could not have been secured with
out the assistance of the town superin
tendent, upon whom a multitude of de
tails fall, and upon whose efficiency the
successful execution of the work upon
the grounds depends largely, and the
successful conduct of the town adminis
tration depends almost wholly a posi
tion that can never be successfully main
tained unless a competent man be given
absolute authority over all town admin
istrative officers, subject only to the au
thority of his employer.
Warren II. Manning.
B. II. Burroughs, station agent at
Southern Pines, and his cousin, E. T.
Mahone, made an excursion to our vil
lage last Sunday by trolley car. Such
excursions from neighboring towns are
becoming very popular, as evidenced by
the transient visitors daily seen on our
streets.
: Uul j If .ErfrV'-- '4 ;
VIEW FROM THE GENERAL STORE TOWARD HOLLY INN, l'lNEIIURST.