Historic Gardens of Mount Holly: A Legacy of the Landscape

For ages, the Mount from which Mount Holly takes its name remained a primeval place, covered by virgin forest and a few Indian trails and untouched by the axe of the white settler. As it passed through the greedy hands of men in the nineteenth century, however, the Mount lost much of its leafy tapestry and surrounding acreage. In "Historic Gardens," Alicia McShulkis brings the landscape to life as she takes you on a tour of Mount Holly's historic homes and gardens, many of which have vanished over time. Read about Ashurst's secret tunnels used by slaves escaping on the underground railroad, the summerhouse where Washington and Lafayette held councils of war and the ghost that haunts Langstaff's third-floor staircase. From the neatly sculpted Georgian hedgerows to the curved and meandering lines of Capability Brown, the history of Mount Holly is written in the landscape.