Margin Street Cultural Landscape Assessment

Uniting sustainability and landscape preservation

As part of a National Register of Historic Places application for the Perry Homestead Historic District, Landscape Elements LLC completed a Cultural Landscape Assessment of a 12 –acre parcel at #4 Margin Street in Westerly, Rhode Island. The work was coordinated with Youngken Associates, Architectural Historians.

The Perry Homestead Historic District has an overall architectural character grounded in the Colonial Revival and Classical Revival styles popular in the early 20th century.

Three 2-1/2 story dwellings and one single story cape are formally spaced within a verdant suburban estate landscape with large specimen trees and garden rooms facing the Pawcatuck River along tree- lined Margin Street with a river terrace lawn, stone bulkhead, and river frontage to the west.

The concept master plan that was created for the property at #4 Margin Street recommends treatments that

1. Restore significant historic features lost through lack of maintenance
2. Plans for future aging/loss of the 3 key signature trees of the Warren H. Manning plan
3. Recommends removal of invasive plant species
4. Recommends removal of elements that are inappropriate to the site’s historic character
5. Recommends removal of site elements that are unsafe such as dead and diseased trees.
6. Integrates elements of adaptive reuse for ADA accessibility to the house.