Several trees on the property remain from the
time when Samuel Davidson purchased the property. Historians believe that some of
the lumber used in building the house came from trees on the property, and the bricks
came from Samuel Davidson’s brickyards which supplied bricks used in construction
of the White House and other federal structures.
The gardens were substantially reworked and revised
after Mr. and Mrs. F. Lammot Belin purchased the property in 1923, including development
of the terracing seen today. The Renowned landscape engineering firm Charles
Wellford Leavitt & Son worked with Mr. Belin in creation of this design, and
George N. Ray was the architect for the restoration of the historic house. "Mott"
Belin’s brother-in-law, Pierre S. DuPont, was helpful to the Belins, especially
during the periods when they were living in Europe and he monitored the garden’s
development, bringing trees and other plants from Longwood to Evermay. Other notable
landscape architects contributed to the design during the following decades, including
Rose Greely, and Janet Darling Webel, of the New York landscape architecture firm
of Innocenti & Webel .
The garden consists principally of three terraced
levels and includes six fountains. The fountain in the courtyard of the north
front of the home was commissioned by the Bliss family for Dumbarton Oaks.
When they decided not to use it, Mr. Belin offered to buy it and used it as the
centerpiece of the courtyard. The fountain was sculpted by Carl Milles, a Swedish
sculptor who lived between 1875 and 1955. It is constructed from black granite.