Project Diaries
The Drayton Hall Garden House
07/11/2008 - Carter Hudgins, Manager of Preservation Programs
This spring the Drayton Hall Preservation department has been working to stabilize the Drayton Garden House. Located in the northeast corner of the river front garden at Drayton Hall, the Drayton Garden House was constructed in 1747 as an important architectural feature in the formal gardens of John Drayton. Built on a man-made terrace and oriented to face the main house, the Drayton Garden House provided a social setting with a vantage point overlooking the surrounding gardens. Following the American Civil War the building fell into disrepair only to be systematically dismantled and used for building materials in the last quarter of the 19th century. In fact, many of the phosphate era buildings on the Drayton property may have been constructed using bricks salvaged from the Garden House.
The Garden House was initially identified in 1989 through a brief archaeological investigation. Following this endeavor, the site was covered with a protective layer of sand. In 2006, an assessment of the site identified that the sand had compromised the integrity of the Garden House foundations. The surviving articulated brick had crumbled due to an inability to absorb and release moisture naturally and the modern sand had fostered the growth of trees that had penetrated into the building’s ruins and disturbed sealed archaeological contexts. To overcome this situation a preliminary effort to stabilize the Garden House was carried out by the Drayton Hall Preservation Department in the winter of 2007. This included removing the modern layers of sand and damaging vegetation through controlled archaeological excavations. Building upon the work conducted in 2007, a recent phase of archaeological excavation was carried out in the spring of 2008 along with preservation work deemed necessary for the long-term survival of the site. This began with the excavation of 13 archaeological units to remove rubble piles massed on the exterior of the building in the late 19th century. Rubble removal was followed by the construction of a retaining wall on the interior of the Garden House to contain preserved archaeological deposits. The last step was the installation of sod on the terrace to prevent future erosion.
Overall, the 2008 project has contributed to the long term survival of the Garden House and its associated terrace. Our knowledge of the building has also been furthered as numerous rubbed and gauged bricks were recovered during archaeological investigations. These artifacts provide evidence of the building’s original appearance including the intricate details associated with the cornice and jack arches. What is more, the site is more accessible and more visible to visitors. Next time you are at Drayton Hall make sure to stop by!
