Seaside Farm

This two-acre site on Peach's Point overlooking Doliber Cove has a rich garden history. During the early 1900s it was an Italianate formal garden with pools, formal rose garden, and statuary, part of an enormous estate owned by yachtsman Francis Crowninshield and his heiress, historical preservationist wife, Louise du Pont Crowninshield. The current owners bought the property with its overgrown and neglected gardens in 1996. Three years later, after discovering the property's rich landscape history, the owners hired Doug Jones from Boston's Keith LeBlanc Landscape Architecture firm to restore the gardens. Based on period black-and-white photographs from 1937, new replicated iron railings were installed, caved-in concrete pools were rebuilt, and old roses were planted to re-create the garden. The original house no longer exists, thus certain landscape transitions presented challenges that have been handled delicately. The new house sits on the water, and the gardens surrounding it have been done in a more contemporary style. The property has some enormous beeches that date to the original period.