From tiny trilliums and native trout lilies to towering Douglas firs and mountain vistas, Dunn Gardens are a study in grace and beauty. Commissioned in 1915 by wealthy Pacific Northwest businessman Arthur Dunn, these majestic grounds in what is now Seattle’s Broadview neighborhood were designed by the Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, Mass., who were famous for New York City’s Central Park.
Dunn wanted a summer country place for his family and the Olmstead master plan capitalized on the site’s rustic beauty, balancing existing slopes and large stands of firs with intimate garden rooms and low, gray-shingled buildings. Great sweeps of lawn commanded views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains.
The curvilinear drive and footpaths, so characteristic of Olmsted design, still skirt irregular groupings of spring-flowering shrubs and large drifts of bulbs. Many of the trees are Eastern hardwoods chosen by Dunn, and a small woodland garden begun in the 1940s by his son E. B. Dunn blends prized rhododendrons and native wild flowers with the original Olmsted plan.
For two generations, the Dunn family carefully tended the gardens, leaving them in a trust when the younger Dunn died in 1991. But plant disease, insects, overgrowth and a changing climate are threatening the historic place. Today, though, thanks in part to a partnership between the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Save America’s Treasures, and HGTV, this signature twentieth century landscape is being returned to its original glory.
Sites in the 2004-2005 Restore America: A Salute to Preservation campaign.
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