@ossobuco,
Something a little different -
Dutchy wrote: Part of a botanical garden?
ossobuco wrote: No. It's a famous designed garden, but not one that has tags on all the plants like an arboretum, or not that I remember. It's a garden that is part of an estate. The spatial design is the thing. Or was, as the garden has changed, even recently. But I figure it still is pretty good.
It's in the D.C. area. One could say the body of water is quite romantic.
My familiarity with it comes from a time long ago and involved a Columbus Day Weekend in 1976 and a speech by then President Gerald Ford, as well as a yellow Volkswagen van.
Not sure how it is today. At the time, I was impressed and fell madly in love with it (the entire estate/gardens). A vow to return regularly never was acted upon.
When I saw the above photo from ossobuco, I knew it was familiar, thought for a few minutes, then a few more. Finally it came to me.
http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/wash/dc11.htm
"
Adjacent to Montrose Park is Dumbarton Park, a wilderness area of 27 acres that was established by Mr. and Mrs. Robert Woods Bliss who purchased Dumbarton Oaks House in 1920. Mr. and Mrs. Bliss hired Beatrix Ferrand to create the masterful 10 acre formal gardens around the house. The Blisses gave a majority of Dumbarton Oaks to Harvard University in 1940."
Lover's Lane pool, Dumbarton Oaks, part of a the Robert and Mildred Bliss estate, garden design by Beatrix Farrand.
Ah! Here it is. Now I have an idea what might additionally attract osso to it. "
Farrand designed Lovers' Lane Pool and its amphitheater of about fifty seats, which she modeled after the theater at the Accademia degli Arcadi Bosco Parrasio in Rome, the home of the literary society of the Arcadians. On the top tier of the theater is a lead statue of a pipe-playing Pan, perhaps chosen by Farrand because of his association with Arcadia and wild places.
Farrand designed the surrounding baroque cast-stone columns,"
http://www.doaks.org/gardens/virtual_tour/ggr_virtual_tour_26.html
