Hamilton's Greenhouses & Hothouses

Hamilton's Greenhouses and Hothouses. .

1784 A greenhouse is documented by Hamilton in a letter to George Washington. , 1784 Hamilton travels to England. , 1785 Shipment of plants from England to Philadelphia. , 1786 Hamilton returns to Philadelphia in July and begins to alter the landscape and buildings. , 1792 Construction starts on a new or expanded greenhouse flanks by two hothouses. , 1803 Greenhouse plans of Hamilton's are sent to Manhattan to be used at the Elgin Botanic Gardens. , 1813 Hamilton dies. , 1840 The Woodlands Cemetery Company of Philadelphia buys 92 acres of his estate. , 1854 Hamilton's greenhouse is demolished for construction of a carriage shed.

, Hamilton's greenhouse and hothouses stood approximately 200 yards west of the mansion. They were demolished in 1854 as the development of Woodlands Cemetery progressed. Research has shown that in 1803, Dr. Thomas Parke, a friend of Hamilton's sent the plans for the greenhouse to Dr. David Hosack in New York. His letter of receipt provides the dimensions he used:,

"My greenhouse is now finishing, it will not differ very individually from Mr. Hamilton's. It is 62 feet long, 23 feet deep, and 20 high in the clear."

, The lithograph above of Hosack's Elgin Botanic Gardens provides an idea of what existed at The Woodlands. In 1806 Dr. Charles Drayton, a visitor from South Carolina, described Hamilton's Greenhosue after his stay at The Woodlands:,

"A walk of five or six feet extends along the glazed [windowed] wall and at each end a door opens into a hothouse, so that a long walk extends in one line along the stove walls of the houses and the glazed wall of the greenhouse. [The hothouses] may extend in front, I suppose, 40 feet each. They have a wall heated by flues, and three glazed walls and a glazed roof each. In the center, a frame of wood is raised about two-and-a-half feet high, and occupying the whole area except leaving a passage along by the walls. In the flue wall, or adjoining, is a cistern for tropic aquatic plants. Within the frame is composed a hot bed into which the pots and tubs with plants are plunged."

, The hothouses were used for Hamilton's "exotic" plants, for preliminary seed germination, and to encourage the root development of cuttings. Drayton also described ovals in front and behind the greenhouse. These were also duplicated at the New York greenhouse., Throughout his life at The Woodlands, Hamilton strove to acquire the most unusual species of plants and trees and maintained contact not only with botanists but also with sea captains and travelers to obtain rare and precious seeds or plantings. Without his greenhouses and gardeners to assist him, his pleasure park would not have reached the acclaim it died. Hamilton himself provided extensive instructions on when the greenhouse windows were to be opened, how much water plants were to receive, and where they should be positioned. Because of the breadth of Hamilton's plant collection, Dr. Benjamin Smith Barton of the University of Pennsylvania brought his botany classes to The Woodlands for instruction. Thomas Jefferson's grandson, T.J. Randolph, attended the University of Pennsylvania specifically to study botany utilizing Hamilton's collection.