Landscape Information
Located on the northwest side of Indianapolis in the secluded Buttonwood Crescent neighborhood, this estate contains two homes. The first, Orchard House, was built along Buttonwood Crescent Road in 1930 and was originally an integral part of a working apple orchard.
In the 1970s local architecture, interior design, landscape architecture and planning firm Browning Day Mullins Dierdoff became involved in redesigning the property’s landscape when the second house was constructed along Foure Road, first led by landscape architects Alan Day and Claire Bennett, and then by Barth Hendrickson and Jonathon Hess when Day and Bennett retired. Although few of the original apple trees remain today, the landscape has been designed and maintained to optimize views that result in a cohesive series of garden rooms with winding pathways. More than 70 large trees, many eastern hemlocks, were dug and replanted to provide privacy. Pink and white redbuds, hydrangeas, roses, fothergilla and other shade-tolerant perennials and shrubs complement the mature trees and add a rich understory layer to the design. Areas once overgrown with Japanese honeysuckle were planted with rhododendrons and azaleas. North of the Orchard House patio is a meadow leading to a waterfall and pond richly edged with plantings. A winding pathway from the pond connects with a second meadow and crescent-shaped seating area before leading west towards the second house.
