More details emerge on the resident curator applicant for the White Gardens
Resident curator applicant Meg Stout revealed more details about her plans for the White Gardens at a March 29 meeting with the evaluation team.
If selected as the resident curator, Stout and her husband Bryan would live in and restore the house built by Margaret and John C. (JC) White in 1939.
The White Gardens are in the Falls Church area of Mason District between Annandale Road, Kerns Road, and Sleepy Hollow Road.
A Fairfax County Park Authority evaluation team has held several meetings with Meg Stout, and two more are scheduled. The March 29 meeting was the first and only meeting to allow questions from the public. People can email questions and comments to [email protected] by April 13.
Related story: Public invited to learn about the resident curator applicant for White gardens
Once a resident curator is selected, a small area around the house would be closed to the public but the rest of the property would remain open, including the meadow and horticultural treasures. The Whites were avid gardeners who planted many rhododendrons and camellias.
According to Meg Stout, having a resident curator live in and fix up the house would be less costly than tearing it down and would prevent vandalism and illegal activities in the house.
Stout said she would rebuild the greenhouse off the kitchen. That could cost as much as $30,000 as it will probably need to be custom-built to fit the brick foundation.
She plans to restore the barn, which is the only remaining structure from when the property was a farm and was likely built in 1876.
Hurricane Isabel damaged the barn in 2003 and destroyed the White’s camellia house and other structures.
Stout told the evaluators she would like to build a new accessory dwelling in the style of the old camellia house. It would have accessible bathrooms. a food preparation area, and space for public education programs.
She estimates the total cost of improvements at $430,580. That includes about $271,000 for restoring the home, $57,300 for restoring the barn, $30,000 for the greenhouse, and $72,400 for other improvements.
Under the Park Authority’s lease terms for the resident curator, the annual fair market rental value would be $35,400.
The curator would get a $12,000 credit for maintenance at 1 percent of $1.2 million replacement value of the house and an $8,353 credit for property taxes and utilities. The adjusted annual fair market rental value would be $14,353. The lease would be for 30 years.
Stout outlined a rough schedule for fixing the property:
• 2023 – Make the house habitable and safe.
• 2024 – Restore the historic character of the home.
• 2025 – Finish the house tasks, install the greenhouse, and set up self-guided multimedia tours of the property.
• 2026 – Restore the barn.
• 2027 – Complete all repairs, restoration, and improvements.
Stout said she would also like to restore the trails and use pervious materials for the required 25-space parking lot.
The Stouts’ daughter and son-in-law, Tara and David Phillips, would also be involved with the project.
Related story: An open house at the White Gardens reveals how much work a resident curator would have to take on
Meg Stout proposed hosting monthly events at the White Gardens, such as a rhododendron festival in May, a sheep-shearing demonstration in June, and a night-skies viewing event in November.
She said the family would be able to do most of the restoration work themselves – except for jobs that require certain skills, such as mortar and electrical work. They would hire professional contractors for those jobs.
JC White died in the late 1970s. When the suburbs began reaching the edge of the property in the late 1990s, developers began pressuring Margaret to sell the property. She refused.
Instead, she sold it to the county in 1999 for $600,000 – much less than what the developers offered – with the stipulation that the horticultural resources be saved and that she could live there for the rest of her life. She died in 2010 just a few weeks shy of her 104th birthday.
Hey, Fairfax County, where’s my park? An interpretation and opinion.
Thank you, Annandale Today, for reporting on this meeting!
I just looked up the park authority’s description of the resident curatorship program, and I find it confusing.
This program, created by county ordinance, is to preserve historically significant structures on public land–not entire properties. Park Authority properties are public parks. A resident curator is a tenant of a house or other building in a park.
The selection of Mrs. White’s residence for this program is puzzling. The house was not considered historic by Mrs. White; not considered historic by the Park Authority, reading the park master plan.
A formal historic structure report commissioned by the Park Authority, which you can find using Google, describes the house as “asymmetric colonial revival style” popular in the 1930s. It says asymmetric means the combining of styles in one house — a fancy word for adding a modern feature, in this case the large glassed-in porch, to an older home (my interpretation).
Mrs. White thought the house had potential for use of that porch for garden groups to meet, the kitchen perhaps for staff use for lunch breaks or the like. Failing that, it was best to demolish it, as it was only the gardens she considered important, not the house.
Mrs. White donated* her 13.5-acre property–comprising collections of azaleas, rhododendrons, camellias; a meadow; woodlands that make you feel tranquil and restore your spirit; and a stunning old barn — to the Park Authority for a horticulture park for citizens’ enjoyment. The Park Authority developed its master plan in 2006.
Mrs. White maintained the property well, to the best of her ability with a groundskeeper, until she passed away at age 103 in 2010.
A park bond passed by voters in 2012 included $500,000 designated for the White Gardens Park to help launch it. At a public meeting several years later, the Park Authority presented its plans for the money: trails, interpretive signage, and a shelter.
As I wrote for Annandale Today, I learned in September 2019 that the bond money had been spent, but there were no trails, no signage, no shelter. The park looks like a private property, with no element to welcome or orient the visitor.
And now, the park is on track to become a family homestead, with public events planned. Lovely plans but should not be in the hands of private tenants to execute. It denies or discourages access to members of the public from their equal right to run events, steward the park, etc. It discourages and distracts from a proper development plan. It casts a strong shadow of private ownership over the park.
If the Park Authority doesn’t have the capacity to launch and manage the park, a formal conservancy, run by a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that has the needed expertise, public membership, public support, and accountability is the right instrument. Dumbarton Oaks Park Conservancy in Washington, DC, is an example. I believe that there are many plant and public garden enthusiasts who would be willing to band together to form a conservancy.
And what about the horticulture? White Gardens and well-established Green Spring Gardens are the only Park Authority parks designated as horticulture garden parks.
I mean no disrespect to the applicant family. They seem like talented, creative people any community would want as neighbors. If they owned a similar property with a conservation easement on it, they would do wonderful things.
I think it was inappropriate to have the applicant, a private citizen, be the presenter at the only public meeting where questions and comments from the public are ‘permitted.’ Speaking of which, there has been no consultation with the public as part of planning the curatorship.
With this planned arrangement, White Gardens as a public park will become memory, memory slowly erased.
The public funds spent, the respect for and proper care of Mrs. White’s gift, the secure, consistent enjoyment of a public space by the county citizens, the legal status as a public park, Poof! Now you see it, now you don’t.
If a big outlay of money and other resource is being made to execute a resident curatorship of the house, a multiple of that should be devoted to the park itself, independent of the RC. The plan for that should be broadcast loud and clear.
I heard that someone joining the meeting asked, ‘will I still be able to walk through there?’ That says it all.
– Marie Reinsdorf
* Mrs. White asked for a sale price of $600,000, $100,000 for herself and each of her 5 children. She thanked her children who agreed to give up inheritance. It was about 1/5 of the sale value.
In conversations with my mother, Margaret White, she made it perfectly clear that she didn’t mind if Fairfax County razed the house, just so long as they maintained the gardens. Her hope was that the Rhododendron Club would add to the collection so that the general public could become acquainted with beautiful flowers in a natural woodland setting. She made it clear that if Fairfax County had other plans the property should be turned over to a conservancy.
In conversations with my mother, Margaret White, she made it perfectly clear that she didn’t mind if Fairfax County razed the house, just so long as they maintained the gardens. Her hope was that the Rhododendron Club would add to the collection so that the general public could become acquainted with beautiful flowers in a natural woodland setting. She made it clear that if Fairfax County had other plans the property should be turned over to a conservancy.
It appears that the County has lost sight of this original intention by their emphasis on the curatorship for preservation of the house.
I see no problem with Fairfax County addressing the house as well as the gardens but the gardens should be their primary, not an afterthought.
It also seems logical that whoever occupied the house would act as a host to visitors to the gardens as well as overseeing the maintenance of the gardens.
Thanks, Douglas, for re-emphasizing your mother’s horticulture-centric intent for her property.
In its 2006 White Garden Master Plan, the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA) highlights the importance of this deed covenant; preservation/enhancement of horticultural resources is the first premise spelled out in the Park Purpose Statement.
Public-private partnerships often make sense, and their value in sustaining historic gardens is evidenced by many that have transitioned successfully from private to public spaces. The strongest: those anchored by the passions and intent of former private owners, and activated by partners with shared goals to steward that intent into the future for diverse public audiences.
To best steward and share the White Garden (and FCPA’s other few but valuable horticultural sites), I challenge the FCPA and prospective partners to:
(1) Reconnect firmly with these parks’ founding premises,
(2) Follow more closely FCPA’s own master plan conceptual development guidelines for these sites, and
(3) Dive deeper into and embrace best practices demonstrated by other successful public gardens.
On the latter point, myriad opportunities to benefit both the FCPA and the public would surface if a public garden management lens (v. a more traditional public parks and recreation framework) were applied to managing, governing and funding these unique gems.
Mrs. White’s intent was to preserve and share the gardens. Public gardens ranked as the highest unmet need in FCPA’s 2016 Parks Count! resident survey (https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/park/sites/parks/files/assets/documents/plandev/parkscount/4-14-presentation.pdf).
Sounds like a garden-centric approach to this property would be a win-win for FCPA and the many people who enjoy its amenities.
Since the day I wrote my comments above, I spent much time studying the materials on the Margaret Gardens resident curatorship website.
I have struggled to reconcile these, and to articulate how this plan is in accord, or not, with the public garden that is promised in the master plan. I spent days composing an organized argument against this development, that I have sent to the Park Authority, including thinking about it night after night, in what I call an insomnia-thon. You start with your gut feeling, and work from there.
I have heard from people many interpretations of what they believe this to mean for the gardens.
I think this is in part because, the Park Authority announces this as a development for the park itself.
But this has only to do with placing a private occupant in the house, and possibly the barn too (for access) in exchange for work, for a term of 30 years, possibly several years less. Work on the structures, not in the gardens. That’s all.
I will be working to uncover the amount of public funds that have been spent on preparing the house for a private occupant, which I believe to be well into the multiples of $100,000.
Please visit, and you will see the potential, and note there is not so much as a bench to sit on, while all this money is being spent on the house, not the gardens.
In the interest of public horticulture for all, we can start taking steps.
One thing I would like to encourage interested persons to do, is to write the park authority about the meadow.
$80,000 of bond money was spent on a meadow installed by nationally renowned meadow expert Larry Weaner.
It needs a public component to it.
Please consider contacting the Park Authority to ask for: one or more benches for viewing the meadow; interpretive signage so we can learn about the meadow, the plants selected, for education, including inspiration for how we might incorporate meadows in other public and private landscapes; And, a path mown through the middle for walking as is recommended for public appreciation.
The azaleas, and the rhododendrons, will soon be in bloom!
Horticulture for ALL.
Thank you for your efforts. I visit the Farm regularly and agree that this is a gem that could use a LOT of attention. It will not be long before the invasives and weeds take over. all your suggestions sound excellent. I would like to email the FCPA. I’ll try to find an email.
The Park Authority has extended the public comment period until May 13. Submit comments to the project manager via [email protected].
Two important documents are missing from the Park Authority’s resident curatorship landing page, https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/resident-curator-program/white-gardens.
Including these documents, the total page count to read is almost 500 pages (by fast count), and then there are recorded presentations/meetings to watch.
What’s lacking in that weighty collection is a financial/business statement, so you can see all the dollars and terms, the costs and benefits.
The two missing (as of this writing) documents:
1. The Park Authority’s 2006 John C. & Margaret K. White Horticultural Park Master Plan, which one can find using Google, directly or by finding “master plan archives”.
It is a must-read to evaluate and comment on the proposed resident curatorship.
2. JOHN C. & MARGARET K. WHITE HORTICULTURAL PARK CULTURAL LANDSCAPE REPORT, by Versar, 2017, about 100 pages.
This document isn’t findable on the Park Authority website (as of this writing). I learned about it when a family member sent it to me.
It has interesting and useful information, such as these 24 recommended management steps at the conclusion:
“1. Mark and preserve Rhododendron named for White Family members;
2. Conduct remedial pruning, fertilization, and mulching of all ornamental plant
material;
3. Introduce plant material ID labeling system throughout landscape;
4. Transition meadow to predominately native warm-season grass and wildflower
meadow;
5. Control deer population;
6. Control invasive plant populations;
7. Evaluate ash trees on property. Treat the trees infected by Emerald Ash Borer (or if
already dead or too stricken replace with alternate native hardwood);
8. Assess condition of trees and major tree limbs that may threaten house and barn and/or
general safety. Prune and/or replace trees as required;
9. Repair deteriorated fences, gates, and walkways;
10. Reestablish foundation plantings bordering house;
11. Replace dead or diseased boxwood at driveway arrival;
12. Supplement buffer plantings as required for adequate screening;
13. General fertilization and, in extreme cases, excavation of root trenches by Air Spade
from the outer tree dripline back to be backfilled with fertile soil enabling roots of
existing hitherto trapped native American beech and holly hedgerows to extend.
14. Repair the pond, including a proper lining as necessary;
15. Repair stormwater system safeguarding driveway from erosion;
16. Once driveway drainage is addressed, refresh surface with appropriately sized brown
(quartzite) crushed stone aggregate;
17. Replace gutters on house ensuring that all downspouts drain away from foundation
walls. Consider rain barrels or cistern;
18. Appropriately screen utilities;
19. Develop appropriate visitor entrances, parking, and signage;
20. Replace most heavily used dirt pathways with bark and/or woodchip mulch underlain
by 4” to 6” crushed stone for drainage.
21. Provide seating in garden and woodland areas offering choices of vista and sun or
shade. Benches might be commemorative;
22. Consider other site furniture such as waste receptacles, dog litter bag dispensers, bike
racks, bird houses and bird feeders;
23. Clarify and better define trail system;
24. Develop brochure providing highlights and summary of property’s history, current
horticultural collections, and mapping of a clear trail system.
In addition to these recommendations, Fairfax County might consider hosting programs at Green
Spring Gardens on Wild Gardens. Experts potentially available to the county include Rick Darke
(a prior Green Spring Gardens Lecturer); Chris Strand, Director of the Winterthur Garden and
Estate and former Green Spring Gardens staff-member; and Don Hyatt, early acquaintance and
close friend of the White family, founding member of the Friends of White Park, long-time
member of the American Rhododendron Society, and leading authority on Rhododendron and
Azalea varieties. These experts may also be able to provide additional insight or guidance on the
White Park management program. Following these recommendations should allow Fairfax
County to develop a valuable, yet relatively low maintenance asset for the visiting public that
complements other County parks in both effective and interesting ways.”
Here, excerpted, is a nice summary of the original gardens’ style:
“The White gardens are a fine example of a relatively rare avocational interpretation of the Wild Garden movement, and stands in marked contrast to its highly developed suburban surroundings.”
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