Louisiana
Gardens - An Historical Vignette
In 1942, the house at Longue Vue and its eight
acres of gardens were created for Mr. Edgar Bloom Stern,
a New Orleans cotton broker and his wife, Edith Rosenwald
Stern, an heir to the Sears Roebuck estate. Mr. and Mrs.
Stern were prominent members of the New Orleans community,
extremely active civically and philanthropically.
Longue Vue House and Gardens strives to continue the philanthropic
legacy of its founders, the mission of Longue Vue being,
“to use the historical and artistic legacy of Longue
Vue and its creators to educate and inspire people to
pursue beauty and civic responsibility in their lives.”
Ellen Biddle Shipman, the designer
of the gardens at Longue Vue, was often referred to as
the “Dean of American Women Landscape Architects”.
Her client list included such prominent names as Rockefeller,
duPont and Ford. Mrs. Shipman had a philosophy regarding
gardening that was very much in keeping with the democratic
leanings of the Sterns, who believed in using their resources
to help individuals learn to empower themselves. Mrs.
Shipman was quoted as having said that: “Gardening
opens a wider door than any other of the arts-all mankind
can walk through, rich or poor, high or low, talented
and untalented. It has no distinctions, all are welcome.”
She was an outspoken advocate for women in the field of
landscape architecture and ran an all-woman firm in New
York in the 1920’s. She began her work on the gardens
at Longue Vue in 1934 (at the age of 65) and was retained
by the Sterns as an advisor until her death in 1950. Most
of the gardens that Mrs. Shipman designed for the Sterns
are still intact today or have been recently restored
to the original Shipman plans. The
garden at Longue Vue opened to the public in 1968.
More information:
New
Orleans, Longue Vue
Bibliography
and Acknowledgments
Shown: Magnolia ( Magnolia
)
