Reconstruction of Garden Pergola—Next in Historic Restoration at Terrace Hill

By Dwight Jensen, Site Development Committee Chair

2005

Sometime this summer, if all goes according to plan, the extensive program to restore the Terrace Hill mansion and grounds to the way they were a century ago will be nearly complete.
The next piece of the puzzle will be the reconstruction of the pergola, a fixture in the historic garden from Terrace Hills early days—until about five years ago, when it was torn down. Work is scheduled to begin early this spring and to be completed by the time the National Governors Conference convenes here in mid-July.

Since 1998, the mansion has been renovated inside and out, the carriage house has been restored, a partially underground service garage for modern-day vehicles has been installed, and the grounds have been improved with new hard-surface driveways, revised traffic patterns, pedestrian walkways and landscaping. While keeping the work as historically accurate as possible, some concessions have been made to assure that Terrace Hill is accessible and serviceable both as a public facility and as the governor’s official residence in the 21st century.
Consistent with Terrace Hill’s status as a National Historic Landmark, the pergola will be reconstructed as nearly as possible to the way it was in the “period of historic significance” before 1930. When it is finished, the Terrace Hill Society plans to dedicate the structure to Marilyn Smith, a longtime Terrace Hill volunteer who died last year. Most of the project cost will be paid for with money contributed to the Society in Marilyns memory. Funds from a three-year grant by the Meredith Foundation to the Terrace Hill Foundation for improvements to the grounds and gardens also will be used.

A wooden structure about 17 feet long, 16 feet wide and about 8 feet high with latticework sides and open beams across the top, the old pergola was removed in the spring of 2000. It had been restored at least once, but this time it was so badly deteriorated by age and the effects of wisteria climbing on it that it could not be repaired. Reconstruction of the pergola was proposed by the Historic Garden Committee early last year. Initial plans were developed by Bob Butts, a retired civil engineer whose wife, Dottie, is a past Society president and current board member. The project was considered for several months by the Site Development Committee, which recommended it to the Terrace Hill Commission. The plans have now been approved, and a contract for the construction is expected to be awarded shortly.

Determining what the pergola looked like during the historic period has been a challenge for the Site Development Committee. Those who have long been familiar with Terrace Hill remember it, but few pictures or other documents about the structure are available.

It is shown twice in the 1978 book Terrace Hill: The Story of a House and the People Who Touched It, by Scherrie Goettsch and Steve Weinberg. An undated color aerial photograph of Terrace Hill, the grounds and surroundings, on pages 52 and 53 clearly shows the pergola front and center in the garden. Also, a drawing by Scherrie Goettsch on page 72 depicts it covered with wisteria. Both confirm that the pergola was there in later years, but dont shed any light on how it looked early on.

Jerome Thompson, a site committee member who has been associated with Terrace Hill and its history for many years, found a 1955 drawing of the pergola among the Hubbell papers in the state archives. It shows both front and side elevations along with dimensions, but there was no documentation to establish whether it was a drawing of the existing pergola at that time or a drawing for reconstruction with possible changes. Indications are, however, that it was probably the latter.

Having studied the site, Bob Butts believes that the stone and tile foundation that remained after the wooden structure was torn down in 2000 dates back to the 1920s. There seems to be no definitive way to tell whether that was when the pergola was first built or whether a version of it was there earlier on a different foundation.

A major piece of the puzzle was provided recently by Anne Thorne Weaver, a great-granddaughter of F. M. Hubbell now residing in Omaha, Nebraska, who lived at Terrace Hill as a child in the 1930s and was married there to Philip Weaver in 1952. Her wedding reception was held in the garden and utilized the pergola. A few weeks ago she provided Terrace Hill Administrator David L. Cordes with a copy of a picture taken in the pergola during her wedding reception, which shows more clearly than any other documentation the committee has been able to uncover what the latticework looked like at that time. In the absence of any information to the contrary, that is the way the reconstructed pergola will be designed.

____
Dwight Jensen, now retired from The University of Iowa and living in Iowa City, is a member of the Terrace Hill Commission and chair of its Site Development Committee. A former reporter for The Des Moines Register, he was executive assistant and chief of staff for Iowa Governor Harold E. Hughes from 1963 to 1969, when the governors mansion was the house at 2900 Grand Avenue.

‹ Back