Photo courtesy of Longue Vue House and Gardens
Longue Vue Gardens
Longue Vue Gardens
The rare woman in American landscape design in the middle part of the twentieth century, Ellen Biddle Shipman harnessed her exceptional horticultural knowledge to create more than 600 landscape designs across the country. Now, one of her majestic layouts has received critical funding and recognition to maintain her storied legacy.
Longue Vue House and Gardens in New Orleans, historic former home of renowned philanthropists Edith Rosenwald Stern and Edgar Bloom Stern, is the recipient of $327,250 from the National Park Service through its Save America’s Treasures grant program. The nonprofit museum and public garden boasts a Shipman-designed exterior and interior, with her site plan remaining entirely intact to this day. The award will bolster development of the Shipman Collection, an endeavor to conserve and potentially restore Shipman’s design at Longue Vue.
“It’s incredibly validating and part of what’s exciting is what it means for Longue Vue and for New Orleans and for Southern Louisiana,” said Longue Vue Executive Director Dr. Stella Baty Landis. “It’s just really, really a wonderful acknowledgement and just sort of indication that we have something special here. I’m hoping that we’ll become even more of a destination for visitors.”
The Sterns, who were drawn to Shipman’s design aesthetic, acted somewhat as artistic patrons for the landscape designer over the decades. Shipman went on to create a sweeping, holistic design vision for both the Longue Vue garden and house. At Longue Vue, you can experience her iconic “garden rooms” that feel as if you are stepping into a coherent, outdoor chamber, her deliberately constructed sightlines subtly drawing the gaze of visitors, and the striking interaction between the interior and exterior design.
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“Her site plan is entirely intact,” Landis said. “Eighty percent of the specific garden content is also intact. With this grant, we’ll be able to increase that.”
Grant-funded updates will include, for instance, improving one of Shipman’s sightlines that had been compromised by a pumping apparatus for fountains, which were installed after her death. Landis said the plan is to introduce a low-growth Louisiana native plant garden that will open up the sightline, protect visitors from tripping on pumps, and lean into current climate awareness by fostering sustainability where possible.
According to Landis, Longue Vue has spent recent years retooling its mission and strategic plan to focus on Shipman’s legacy with emphasis on the house and garden as a historically-significant set. The goal is not only to uplift Shipman’s work in the field of landscape architecture, but also to open the experience of the gardens to the broadest possible audience.
“Shipman’s design is still here,” Landis said. “We can experience that today. It’s a piece of history we can literally step into.”
