PLACES TO VISIT
By Catherine Jordan
Back In Time At Historic Hope
Visitors can return to the late 1 8th century at the restored
Hope Plantation in Bertie County.
A stop at Historic Hope Planta¬
tion in Bertie County is an
opportunity to glimpse rural
domestic life in northeastern North
Carolina in the late 18th and early
19th centuries.
Home to North Carolina Governor
David Stone (1770-1818). Hope was a
self-sufficient plantation of more
than 5,000 acres. Today, the 40-acre
site includes Hope Mansion (Gover¬
nor Stones home completed in 1803),
the 1 763 King-Bazemore House and a
number of outbuildings.
This year, for the first time, visitors
will also be able to view and study a
reconstructed period vegetable and
flower garden.
Through research of eastern North
Carolina garden plans and period
gardening books belonging to Gover¬
nor Stone, the garden at Hope has
been carefully recreated in a French-
style geometric pattern popular in
the Federal period. The design was
inspired by the survivinggarden plan
of Hayes Plantation in nearby Eden-
ton.
The center beds of the compact gar¬
den are planted with cutting flowers,
including asters, cornflowers, fox¬
gloves, marigolds, black-eyed Susans
and an old variety of roses.
The flowersaresurrounded by plots
of vegetables and herbs. Spring plant¬
ings of spinach, beets, asparagus,
peas and strawberries will be fol¬
lowed in the summer months by mel¬
ons, artichokes, mushrooms, cucum¬
bers, squash and medicinal and aro¬
matic herbs. Bordering the garden to
the north is a small orchard of early
19th century hybrid apple, pear and
peach trees.
Hedges of flowering quince and
blueberry cedar border the garden on
three sides, while an arbor trellis
bearing scuppernong grapes com¬
pletes the square. Temporary hay-
covered paths, which will later be de¬
veloped as gravel walks, separate the
various flowers and vegetables.
The combination of flowers and
vegetables in the same garden was a
common practice in the early days of
the Republic, but few restorations fol¬
low this pattern. The customary loca¬
tion of the garden. next to the planta¬
tion kitchen, afforded easy access to
the produce growing there.
This year’s produce and cuttings
from the garden will be used for dis¬
play and demonstration purposes in
the houses and kitchens on the plan¬
tation. The detached kitchen at the
King-Bazemore House, also newly
restored in 1988, will feature open
hearth cooking demonstrations as
part of the plantation tour. (Hope’s
detached kitchen no longer stands,
but plans are being made to recon¬
struct it. There is a well-equipped
winter kitchen in the basement of
Hope, however, adjacent to the mu¬
seum shop.)
The cultivation of gardens such as
this in the late 18th and 19th centu¬
ries was no easy task. In the days be¬
fore ready access to nurseries and
seed houses, many plants were ex¬
changed by housew ives and farmers.
A number of those had been intro¬
duced to this country by immigrants.
An 1804 edition of The American
I’hototfrapSy from
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mutton
the Sl,Hc/Junc XX
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