West Hartford – Billy 3's Garden

Located on 4.26 acres, Billy 3's Garden was built in 1930 on 8 acres for Ralph Dennis Cutler (1885-1960) and Ruth Morgan Brainard Cutler (1885-1945). The architect of the house was Hartford native Philip Lippincott Goodwin of New York and was in the same Yale University class of 1907 as Ralph Cutler. Ralph Cutler joined the Hartford Electric Light Company in Hartford in 1907. He became vice president of the company in 1929, the year before he built this house. He was president of the Hartford Golf Club and active in charitable organizations. In the 1930 census, the Cutler's had four household workers - but there is no listing of a gardener. The main house and the staff house were both built in 1930. Today, the garden retains some of the original 1930 garden beds and patios, while a few of the walkways and patios were widened. The garden is named after the current homeowners' son, Billy III, who has a keen interest in the garden. Billy 3's Garden now includes 20 or more sculptures, three flagstone patios, a small pumphouse, two sheds, and a swimming pool. The Glass House at the west end of the property was completed in 2011, and the swimming pool's pergola mimics the lines of the glass house opposite. The Allée Garden was designed by Gordon Hayward, who framed the north and south axis of the lawn (the swimming pool to the glass house) with an allée of oak trees (Quercus robur). Each tree is pyramidal shape and is underplanted with ornamental grass. The glass house and the swimming pool both align with the Gordon Hayward design of the Allée Garden. The fenced vegetable garden contains 21 raised beds, each measuring 4' by 8'. The beds each contain mixes of vegetables and herbs and are planted in different spots from year to year. In the garden bed which fronts the fence, there is a seasonal show starting with daffodils (Narcissus), proceeding through poppies, irises, peonies, coneflowers, rudbeckia, Joe-Pye weed (Eutrochium Raf.) to pineapple sage (Salvia elegans Vahl). Garden file includes a sculpture garden plan.

Persons associated with the garden's design: Dewing & Dewing (developer, 1925-1930); Philip Lippincott Goodwin (architect, 1930); Robert Page (glass house architect, 2011); Gordon Hayward (landscape architect, 2011).