We discovered a geometrical landscape feature at the Ferguson Railroad Shops
in Kentucky that reminds me of formal gardens with walkways.

Howard

Howard Beverly, RPA
Archaeologist
Wilbur Smith Associates
Lexington, KY 40507
[log in to unmask]
859.254.5759x224

-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Efstathios I. Pappas
Sent: Thursday, November 30, 2006 12:53 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Mission Cliffs Gardens on the San Diego Electric Railway

  I find this thread very interesting as I have been working on a similar
issue for a while now as part of my dissertation research. Railroads
certainly seem to have exhibited both a mechanistic and didactic landscape
ethos as well as a psuedo-agrarian approach to landscape stewardship,
maintenance, and husbandry. The presence of railroad gardens seems to
reaffirm what I am finding in regard to railroad section camps. The
landscape paradigm of creating productive and aesthically pleasing
landscapes applied to all aspects of railroading, including the track
itself. For anyone interested in seeing these issues addressed more fully I
invite them to the Landscapes of Labor symposium at the SHAs on Thursday
afternoon. 
 
 Regards,
 
 Stathi Pappas
    ___________________________________________________________________
 
 Efstathios I. Pappas
 Doctoral Candidate
 Department of Anthropology/096
 University of Nevada, Reno
 Reno, NV 89557
 209 603 7363   
 -----Original Message-----
 From: [log in to unmask]
 To: [log in to unmask]
 Sent: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 9:12 AM
 Subject: Mission Cliffs Gardens on the San Diego Electric Railway
 
  During the development of the interurban electric rail system in San
Diego,  

California, John D. Spreckels and his colleagues developed the famous
Mission  

Cliffs Gardens on the edge of an upland overlooking Mission Valley and the 

San  Diego River to the north. This right angle turn on the San Diego
Electric  

Railway was less than one mile from the trolley barns. During the 1915-1916


Panama-California Exposition, this was a primary sight-seeing stop and a
great  

many tourists actually bought land in the surrounding University Heights  

neighborhood. People from all over the region would take the trolley to the


Mission Cliffs Gardens to walk on the paths, relax, read, and just stare out
the  



views. During the Great Depression, the gardens fell into ruin and the 

property  sold for a housing project. The perimeter stone walls and an
internal 

garden  circular wall have been landmarked and are protected. The trolley
line 

ceased in  1949, when President Isenhower ordered the Interstate freeway
system 

to 

replace  aging interurban rail lines across the nation (some think the 

emerging auto  industry, tire industry, and oil industry lobbied him to make


that  

policy).

 

Ron May

 

   
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