John Bartram's House
Bartram’s Garden is located on the west bank of the Schuylkill River in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in an area historically known as Kingsessing. The site of one of the earliest botanic gardens in North America, the Bartram house & garden are located on a natural terrace, rising 45' to 50' above the Schuylkill River. The well-watered terrace slopes downward toward the river, & has a southeasterly exposure overlooking a large area of floodplain. Within a small area of roughly eight to ten acres, the garden itself is bounded by low hills to the north & the south, which provided a variety of exposures. Portions of the garden soil are a deep sandy or silty loam, while others are poorly drained, dry, or even rocky. Historically, tidal flats & marshes were located to the north & south of the garden site, & several fresh-water springs & small streams were present in the garden & its near vicinity. John Bartram utilized a spring in the lower garden to cool a milk house & feed a small fresh water pond. The garden was the site of an historic river fishery that exploited the yearly runs of shad & other anadromous fish.
Trending to the northeast, the Fall Line generally marks the limits of tidewater navigation in the rivers of the eastern of North America. At Bartram’s Garden a small portion of the Fall Line is visible in the rock outcrop at the east edge of the garden. The complex interaction between soils from the coastal plain & piedmont results in a number of distinctive soils at Bartram’s Garden. It may well have been the distinctive soils & diverse microenvironments that led John Bartram to choose this site for his garden in 1728.
Bartram's House c 1870. Photographer Robert Newell
Today's garden site is largely “wooded” at present with a dense canopy of trees & shrubs. A small number of these plants are historic survivors, but most are late 19C or 20C plantings—replacements for known historic trees, & more often as specimens of plants known or thought to have been in the Bartram collection. A number of wild seedlings have also become established, particularly in the borders of the park property, & in the northern meadow tract.
Bartram's Mansion c 1870. Photographer Robert Newell
The present collection of plants is heavily biased toward trees & large shrubs, plants most adapted to survive neglect. Very few of the tender plants—annuals, biennials, & perennial herbaceous plants, & food & fruit plants that once made up the Bartram collection are now represented at the site.
Historic American Landscapes Survey - John Bartram House and Garden by Joel T. Fry
