The Jensen Landscape

• James Allison chose master landscape architect Jens Jensen to design the grounds for expansive estate.
• In 2019, the estate comprises two distinct areas—the Nina Mason Pulliam EcoLab, which includes the “natural” driving landscape below the bluff on which Allison Mansion sits, and the “formal” garden which includes the St. Francis Colonnade.
• Jensen, known affectionately as the “Prophet of the Prairie,” created a uniquely American style of landscape architecture, much as his contemporary Frank Lloyd Wright did with the design of structures.
• Born in Denmark in 1860, Jensen immigrated to Chicago and worked his way up to the position of Park Superintendent of the West Chicago Park District. His unique designs, which focused on native Midwestern plants, can be seen in Garfield, Columbus and Humboldt parks in Chicago. Many have been restored through the efforts of Julia Bachrach Snyderman and the Jens Jensen Legacy Project, a joint effort of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and the Chicago Park District (www.jensjensen.org).
• In 1909, Jensen began work as a consulting landscape architect, accepting private estate commissions from nationally known figures such as Allison (1911) Henry (1914) and Edsel (1922-34) Ford, J.M. Studebaker, Jr. (1924), J. Ogden Armour (1906-16) and Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks (1913), as well as prominent Hoosiers including F.D. Stalnaker (1921-28), Dr. Goethe Link (1922), F.D. Frawley (1922) and possibly Carl Fisher (1910) and Frank Wheeler (1912).
• The estates of Henry and Edsel Ford are among the best known of Jensen’s work and are listed on the National Historic Register and open to the public (See, www.henryfordestate.com and www.fordhouse.org).
• Jensen also designed landscapes for many public places, subdivisions, hospitals and schools, including Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana.
• Hired by Fisher, Ford and others, he designed the “Ideal Section” of the Lincoln Highway, running from Dyer to Schererville, Indiana.

• In creating the Prairie Style of landscape design, Jensen developed ten signature design elements:
• Native vegetation
• Water features
• Horizontal layering
• Light and shadow
• Rockwork
• Spatial manipulation
• Movement, time and change
• Players’ greens
• Council rings
• Formal gardens
• Jensen’s design for Riverdale’s grounds included all of these signature features, as well as more traditional structures such as a palm house, greenhouses and arbors.
• In the EcoLab, a series of spring-fed lakes encircle a central clover meadow at the base of the bluff upon which the house stands in an area of the landscape which features more than a mile of driving and walking trails amid extensive native plantings. More than $2 million has been invested in this part of the landscape since 2001 to restore trails, remove invasive species and develop programming. Several thousand central Indiana k-12 students visit the EcoLab annually for standards-based science programming and stewardship activities.
• The features of the formal garden adjacent to the Allison Mansion include a picturesque stone colonnade, a player’s green designed for outdoor theatrical performances, a circular perennial gardens and fountain and lush lawn terraces.
• The colonnade serves as a modified council ring and is the focal point of the formal gardens.
• Extraordinary examples of Jensen’s rockwork are found in three boulder bridges and dams, several “frog” ponds and a unique flat bridge in what is now known as the Nina Mason Pulliam EcoLab.
• Although Jens Jensen designed more than 350 private estates during his career, fewer than 10% of them survive intact today.
• In Indiana, Jensen designed seventeen estates and only eight survive in any form. Riverdale is one of them, and is the largest and most intact Jensen designed landscape in Indiana.
• According to Jensen’s biographer, Robert E. Grese, author of Jens Jensen: Maker of Natural Parks and Gardens, Riverdale is one of the 10 most significant Jensen landscapes in the country.
• The local, regional and national significance of Indianapolis’ historic landscapes, parks and gardens is an extraordinary but underdeveloped cultural asset of the city.
• No other city in the Midwest, and possibly in the country, has the concentration of significant designed historic landscapes and gardens found in Indianapolis.
• Indianapolis is home not only to the rare Jensen landscape at Marian University, but to one of the largest park and boulevard systems listed on the National Register of Historic Places, designed by George Kessler at the turn of the 19th century and to the Oldfields Estate at Newfields/the Indianapolis Museum of Art, a unique example of the American Country House Era designed by Percival Gallagher of the Olmsted Brothers firm, which is designated as a National Historic Landmark.
• Indianapolis also is home to the third largest cemetery in the country, Crown Hill, which features not only the final resting place of generations of prominent Indianapolis citizens, but also more than 555 acres of wooded grounds and historic structures.
• To celebrate and publicize Indianapolis’ past and present history of creating parks, gardens and estates, a national historic landscapes conference was held in Indianapolis on June 9-11, 2005, sponsored by Marian University, the Indianapolis Museum of Art, the Indianapolis Parks Department, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Division of Historic Preservation and Archeology, Ball State University and the National Park Service. The conference featured nationally recognized experts on the landscape designs of George Kessler, Jens Jensen and the Olmsted firm, as well as tours of Riverdale, Oldfields and the Kessler Park and Boulevard system.