Join Us for Fall Events at Tregaron!

Meet the Birds of Tregaron with expert Sam Krause: Register here (for 10/22) and here (for 10/28). Gentle, beginner-friendly Yoga with Beth Kaplan: details and registration here. Tregaron Unplugged with Washington Performing Arts/Mars Arts DC on Saturday, 10/14, 3:00 to 5:00pm. Local musicians will perform in a variety of genres in "listening rooms" throughout Tregaron. Register here. More events coming soon!

Tregaron Conservancy

Tregaron in the News!

Cleveland Park and Woodley Park’s “secret garden” is not so secret any more! Tregaron has been featured in a record number of news articles over the past year-plus. We are honored that our small-but-mighty organization has been able to provide a haven for so many during these tough times, and we’re pleased to have so many enthusiastic friends, new and old!

“If you need some fresh air, be sensible and safe: These five spots have plenty of natural beauty and elbow room,” The Washington Post, March 26, 2020. Showcasing five parks that are safe to explore during the pandemic, including Tregaron.

“4 Parks You May Not Know About – But Should,” The Washingtonian, July 26, 2019. Four parks that are “hidden gems,” including Tregaron.

“How Washington Performing Arts’ Jenny Bilfield would spend a perfect day in D.C.,” The Washington Post, August 24, 2020. Jenny Bilfield, the CEO and President of Washington Performing Arts, says, “The Tregaron Conservancy is one of the most extraordinary places to visit . . . . One of my favorite things to watch is bullfrogs in the pond, to try to spot them when they start bellowing.”

“Four summertime strolls: Where to take them and what to listen to,” The Washington Post, July 15, 2020. Inspired by the singing bullfrogs in the Lily Pond, G.P. Telemann’s Violin Concerto in A Major, “The Frogs,” is recommended as a soundtrack for Tregaron.

“Where we found joy in 2020, and where we’ll look for it in 2021,” The Washington Post, December 30 2020. The Tregaron Conservancy is highlighted as a place of unexpected joy in unprecedented times.

“Timelessness and close personal ties in D.C.’s Cleveland Park neighborhood,” The Washington Post, June 3, 2020. Tregaron is featured as one of Cleveland Park’s green spaces open to the public.

“Doggy outings in an age of social distancing: How to keep you and Fido safe and healthy in the great outdoors,” The Washington Post, May 7, 2020. With all of the new dogs adopted during the pandemic, Tregaron is a good place to walk with your pup — on leash!

“Some movie extras added something extra to films shot in Washington,” The Washington Post, September 1, 2020. The Tregaron estate is noted as the filming location of a party scene in the 1962 movie, “Advise and Consent.”

 

In Memoriam: Renee Schilhab Bullock

Renee Schilhab Bullock, a former journalist, landscape designer, musician and documentary filmmaker, died of liver and peritoneal cancer on June 14, 2020. Renee was a valued member of the Board of Directors of the Tregaron Conservancy from 2008 to 2010. Generously volunteering her talents as a professional landscape designer, she was an early and significant influence in forming the Conservancy’s landscaping policies and projects. 

Renee Schilhab Bullock

Renee assisted in developing the early planting plans for the Lily Pond area, creating the plan for the West Pond Overlook, designing the Macomb Street entryway garden, and selecting the location for the first bench by the Lily Pond—a place of continuing comfort; it is especially cherished now as a place of solace and contemplation. Renee also helped to research the estate’s circulation paths and entrance locations for historical accuracy as part of the Conservancy’s historic restoration efforts.

When the Conservancy lost the majestic “Twin Oaks” tree, Renee’s recommendation that the stump be left as it is, rather than being carved into a bench, was unanimously approved by the board. To this day, it serves as an iconic reminder of the Conservancy’s history. Climbing the stump is a favorite activity for children.

The Board gratefully acknowledges Renee’s support and commitment to the Conservancy. We are honored to be remembered in the thoughts of Renee’s family and friends, and we offer our deepest sympathies for their loss. 

Renee’s obituary: https://www.27east.com/east-hampton-press/renee-schilhab-bullock-of-washington-d-c-and-formerly-of-east-hampton-dies-june-14-1706419/.

 

Launching Spring/Summer 2020 Landscape Projects

The Conservancy is fortunate that landscape-related projects are considered “essential services” so that, even during these times of restricted activity, we are continuing to make progress in stewarding and renewing our fragile landscape. We have much work to do to recapture Ellen Biddle Shipman’s pioneering vision for our wild gardens, and we remain dedicated to this work. Thanks to our staff, contractors, and hard-working volunteer designers and gardeners — as well as expert advice and oversight from the DC Historic Preservation Office — here is what’s happening at Tregaron this season:

  • We’ve brought on several new volunteer “zone gardeners” (now totaling 12), each of whom has adopted his or her own garden at Tregaron. (Feel free to ask them about their gardens when you see them!)
  • Volunteers have removed fast-spreading invasives, cleared vines, and pruned dead wood from our original, century-old rhododendrons. 
  • We have given our native meadows their annual “haircut” with the required early-season mowing and will soon be planting more native wildflowers.
  • We’ve cleared significant storm damage, removing three large downed trees and other debris. Woodpeckers and insects are enjoying the wood we’ve left behind!
  • Landscape designers Tamara Belt and Ann Brooke have designed and we will soon be planting new gardens by the Lily Pond with erosion-control features and Shipman-inspired flowering plants.
  • We’re replacing our aging bubbler in the Lily Pond in hopes of seeing signs of our resident bullfrogs in the coming weeks.
  • We’re managing Tregaron even more sustainably, using on-site materials and adding coir matting to reduce erosion. And thanks to the Washington International School, our 3-bin compost system is up and running and a new curb has been installed along the Macomb-side driveway to reduce storm-water flows onto Conservancy land.
  • We will be adding more lush, native plantings to existing gardens throughout the Conservancy, including the new Klingle Road entryway garden.

Whether you spend time walking the trails, relaxing by the pond, or photographing our plants and wildlife, we hope you will appreciate these enhancements to our historic landscape. (Learn more about our mission and landscape-related goals here.) Many thanks to our supporters, volunteers and weekly crew for making all of this progress possible.

 

Tregaron Conservancy Statement on New Building Proposal by the Washington International School

The Tregaron Conservancy is the non-profit property owner and steward of the historic landscape of the Tregaron estate. The Conservancy works in tandem with the Washington International School, which owns and stewards its portion of the 20-acre estate. The Conservancy has conducted an independent review of the School’s proposed concept plans for a new academic and multi-purpose building. The current plan supersedes a 2017 proposal to add a new building to the WIS campus.

In our review, we analyzed the building proposal in light of the potential preservation and environmental impacts on the Conservancy. We also considered all aspects of the proposed landscape plans as they relate to the Conservancy, including not only the new plans but also other critical landscape improvements previously designed by WIS in consultation with the Conservancy and carried forward from the 2017 proposal. In addition, the Conservancy reviewed the plan with specific attention to the proposed usage of an easement area on the south side of the school campus, where previous allowances were made for a basketball court and soccer field. In the current proposal, WIS seeks an amended easement from the Conservancy to build classroom space and a half-court (on top of below-grade construction) in the existing basketball court space.

After careful consideration of all of these elements in light of our responsibility to steward the Conservancy in perpetuity, as well as the continuing importance of our co-stewardship arrangement with WIS, the Conservancy has entered into a new agreement with WIS to ensure that any negative impacts from the proposed project are offset by significant preservation benefits to the Conservancy, including financial support for the Conservancy’s annual maintenance costs and landscape capital projects over the next 20 years. These offsetting benefits are as follows:

  1. Important construction-related commitments: The Conservancy will engage an engineer to peer-review the hydrological impact of the project with financial support from WIS, and the parties will establish remediation and mitigation mechanisms to address any harms to the Conservancy during construction.
  2. Increase of WIS’s existing financial support of the Conservancy’s landscape maintenance: Increases and extends the duration of WIS’s annual payments to support the Conservancy’s landscape maintenance work.
  3. New funding for Conservancy landscape capital improvement projects: Establishes new payments by WIS to support the Conservancy’s landscape rehabilitation projects on a long-term basis, so that the Conservancy may accomplish the extensive capital improvement work called for in its 2005-2007 Cultural Landscape Report and 2017 Preservation and Sustainability Report. For example, this support will enable the Conservancy to restore damaged stone bridges, walls and stairways; undertake important drainage work; remove crumbling concrete walls; stabilize sloped areas; improve trails; update signage; and plant extensive new Shipman-inspired gardens to improve degraded areas, mitigate the growth of invasives, and enhance Tregaron’s historic character and habitat.  All of this work will protect the landscape against degradation and enable the community to continue to enjoy Tregaron well into the future.
  4. Compensation for easement to use existing basketball court area for classroom and half-court space: WIS will compensate the Conservancy for building on the land in the basketball court area and the resulting incursion into the Conservancy’s overall viewshed.  Background: In 2006, the Mayor’s Agent for Historic Preservation ordered that a portion of the land that lies between the School and Conservancy properties be designated as open space to be treated as Conservancy land. Shortly thereafter, an agreement was reached and approved by HPRB to allow the school to locate its basketball court on a portion of that land, as that issue had been deferred by all involved and no other site could be identified. In 2014, the School requested and the Conservancy agreed to grant the School another easement to install underground geothermal wells beneath the South Lawn on the open space area.  The new construction requires an amendment to this existing easement and is confined to the already-disturbed basketball court area. The new above-ground construction will be masked by berms and landscaping.
  5. Significant, historically-appropriate landscape improvements: (a) WIS will complete landscaping of the West Grove (surrounding new construction in the easement area that will recapture Shipman’s historic design and over time will screen the new building), and (b) WIS will complete the work to improve the Macomb side of the driveway (with restored gutters and an improved walkway) and install new historically appropriate Macomb entryway landscaping; if a building project is not approved, this work will be completed in any event by 2022.
  6. Refraining from further new construction for 10 years: An agreement by WIS to refrain from more building projects for a 10-year period, with reasonable exceptions for such campus maintenance issues as safety, environmental and repair/replacement concerns, and with conditions that recognize the burden that consideration of new projects imposes on the Conservancy and its limited resources.

The Conservancy believes that the new agreement will satisfy the Conservancy’s concerns regarding landscaping, hydrological and viewshed impacts, and the easement area. It also reflects the permanent partnership between the Conservancy and WIS as structured by our founders and extends WIS’s critical financial support for the Conservancy. The Conservancy would struggle to replace the School’s significant backing, even with the valued contributions we receive each year from supporters and volunteers. The Conservancy therefore has an interest both in reaching an agreement with our co-steward on landscape issues and in securing stable funding that is essential to the ongoing preservation, maintenance and enhancement of the landscape, as well as the long-term sustainability of the Conservancy.

In light of the substantial benefits to the Conservancy in the new agreement, the Conservancy has agreed to lend its support to WIS for its proposal and to work with WIS in the years to come to continue to co-steward the Tregaron landmark.

 

 

Tregaron Conservancy Testifies Regarding Proposed WIS Building Project at ANC3C Public Meeting

Advisory Neighborhood Commission 3C met publicly on February 19, 2020 to consider and vote on a concept proposal by the Washington International School to construct a new Science+ building on campus. The Tregaron Conservancy gave the following statement:

Good evening.  I am Susan Lynner, and I am the Chair of the Board of the Tregaron Conservancy.  The Conservancy and the Washington International School are, by formal agreement, co-stewards of the Tregaron estate and the School is a valued partner in our mission to realize the vision of the creator of Tregaron, pioneering landscape designer Ellen Biddle Shipman.  Today, the Tregaron landscape is gorgeous and thriving, thanks to a dedicated board and Executive Director, experienced professionals, extraordinary volunteers, and invaluable guidance from HPO.

However, stewardship and rehabilitation of the landscape are long-term commitments. We hope that succeeding generations will continue to cherish and nurture the Conservancy as we do.  We view it as our obligation to do all we can now to create a robust foundation for our successors, in our stewardship work, financially, and in our relationship with WIS. 

The Conservancy’s 2006 governing documents allotted three seats of an initial 12-member board of directors to WIS. WIS is therefore embedded on our board.  This arrangement recognized the reality of the adjacencies of WIS and the Conservancy as well as the financial support WIS provided to the Conservancy from the beginning. The new agreement between the Conservancy and School would replace and extend the current funding mechanism.

For the relationship established by our governing documents to work, the Conservancy and WIS must work to find mutually beneficial solutions that enable us to fulfill our mission. In evaluating WIS’s building plans, we focused on existing and potential drainage issues, the requested easement, the impact on view sheds, and the proposed landscape improvements.  Our constant goal has been to secure terms that create compelling preservation benefits for the Conservancy as well as to offset any preservation harms from the proposed building.  We believe that we have achieved that goal.  

We have also been motivated by our responsibility to ensure a vibrant and secure future for the Conservancy. The Conservancy owns and stewards this historic landscape in perpetuity.  We believe that our fiduciary obligations require us to embrace opportunities to provide for the Conservancy’s financial health as far into the future as possible.

The new agreement will include the following:

–The parties will negotiate an agreement for construction mitigation and remediation to address any harms to the Conservancy during the building project.

–WIS will provide an allowance for the Conservancy to retain professionals to peer review the hydrological impact of the project on the Conservancy.

–WIS will coordinate with the Conservancy on review and approval of relevant landscaping plans.

— The concept plans include various landscape improvements, including the much-needed restoration of the Macomb Driveway cobbled gutters and entryway landscaping.  WIS has agreed to complete this work by 2022 even if the new building is not constructed.  WIS also plans to add a temporary driveway curb to mitigate run-off this Spring. 

— The new agreement reaffirms the School’s ongoing financial commitment to the Conservancy, supporting our maintenance needs and helping to fund landscape capital improvements over the next 20 years.  In addition, there will be three payments to the Conservancy totaling $500,000 spread out over the construction project for use of the open-space easement area.   

Some background about the easement space may be helpful. In 2006, the Mayor’s Agent for Historic Preservation ordered that a portion of the land that lies between the School and Conservancy properties be designated as open Conservancy land. Shortly thereafter, an agreement was approved by HPRB to allow the school to locate its basketball court on a portion of that land, as that issue had been deferred by all involved and no other site could be identified. In 2014, the Conservancy granted the School an easement to install geothermal wells on adjacent open space land. The new construction requires an amendment to that easement and is confined to the already-disturbed basketball court area.

—WIS has also agreed not to commence new above-grade building within a 10-year period following final HPRB concept approval of the current project, with certain exceptions including routine maintenance, repairs, or replacement construction or construction required to address health, safety and environmental concerns. WIS may initiate new project planning during this 10-year period, because project lead times are so long. However, WIS must compensate the Conservancy $10,000 any time it goes to HPRB with a new concept plan, in recognition of the burdens of this process on the Conservancy’s limited resources.

–This new funding will be used by the Conservancy to continue the increasingly costly work of maintaining the landscape.  It will also help to fund critical landscape restoration and rehabilitation projects.  These projects include completing much needed drainage work, restoring damaged stone bridges and stairways, improving stream flow, removing a crumbling concrete wall, improving signage, and adding new Wild Gardens to enhance Tregaron’s historic character and habitat.  All of this work will protect the landscape against degradation and enable the community to continue to enjoy Tregaron well into the future.

The Conservancy firmly believes that the financial and landscape enhancement and mitigation provisions of this agreement provide compelling preservation benefits to the Conservancy that would outweigh any preservation harms to the estate.

*****

ANC3C unanimously approved the draft (and now final) resolution here.