Feature1: Garden Terrace

"Peter Van Winkle built this elevated garden terrace as a monument to his success and wealth after the Civil War. Note its central location between the mill complex and the worker's living quarters."

The raised garden terrace (Feature 1) which was recorded during the initial archaeological mapping project in 1997. This is one of the most distinctive landscape features visible that is associated with the Van Winkle home.

Located adjacent and directly west of the main road, this proximately elevated and partially artificial landform faced the center of the front yard. A front easterly facing stone wall façade with central steps is adjacent to the road and spans the length of the terrace on the front side.

Family historian Marylin Hicks also notes that a workers home was built in the garden area where Norman Van Winkle, one of Peter's sons, lived at one time. Much of the front rock wall is missing today, apparently robbed a number of years ago for building material. The terrace is about two meters above the front yard of the house. It is unclear whether the garden terrace feature was built in association with the construction of the first (ca. 1850) or second Van Winkle home (ca. 1870).

Feature 1, Van Winkle's Garden circa 1870 (from Hicks 1990).

Feature 1, Van Winkle's Garden, spring 2003.

Detail for Feature 1 steps, spring 2003.