Eustis Estate

Landscape Tour Stop 4

 

Black and white photograph of greenhouse with large stones along bottom of building and slanting glass panel roof.
Eustis greenhouse, c.1900. The small stone building and chimney is extant.

 

This potting shed and boiler house was originally behind a large glass greenhouse, which seasonally housed interior and exterior plants on the estate. The chimney is the last remaining part of the heating system that once warmed the greenhouse when the sun was insufficient to maintain the plants. The greenhouse was taken down after World War I, when the shortage of supplies and labor made it too difficult to maintain the building.

The greenhouse was a particular favorite of Paul Johnson and he describes it in his autobiography:

I remember walking through cold weather to the glass house. We would enter the potting shed at the center of the greenhouse, and then we opened the door into a kind of wonderland. We were bathed in warm, moist air, loaded with the fragrance of many flowers of various sorts and colors. I could never get enough of this. Every chance I could get, I would enjoy happy hours in the glass greenhouse learning how things were done and the names of all the plants and flowers. (One Man’s Story, by Paul Johnson, 1991)

Black and white photograph of glass roofed building with center aisle and large potted trees and shrubs on either side, with pipes running through the structure.
Interior of Eustis Estate greenhouse, photographed by W.E.C. Eustis in 1894.
Black and white photograph of back side of greenhouse showing slanted glass roof coming all the way down to snow covered ground.
Eustis greenhouse, c.1900

 

Continue down the allee and, at the clearing, walk toward the pond.