Some carriage trails, a few trees and the gardener’s cottage, now D&R Greenway Land Trust’s Discovery Center, are all that remain of Joseph Bonaparte’s landscape at Point Breeze which he developed between 1816 and his departure in 1839. Hear the fascinating background about how he became inspired to design the picturesque landscape at Point Breeze.

“This is the first in a series of fascinating talks that will be presented at the Discovery Center at Point Breeze in 2025,” said Linda Mead for D&R Greenway, the nonprofit who owns the Discovery Center and spearheaded the protection of the 60-acre Point Breeze land. “The goal of our educational center is to share stories of the landowners and the land, through the centuries, and inspire the public to care about preservation.”

The Caserta Palace in Naples and The Woodlands in Philadelphia are emblematic of the picturesque landscape that Bonaparte espoused in Point Breeze. Caserta’s English Garden, or Giardino Inglese, had been installed in 1806 when Joseph Bonaparte occupied the grounds as the King of Naples. The garden had been installed only a decade prior to his arrival and represented the height of horticultural fashion. It contained several American species, which must have seemed quite exotic to the Italian landscape. Later, in exile in the United States, when Joseph Bonaparte’s mansion burned to the ground in 1820, he was offered the opportunity to purchase the Woodlands, the impressive estate of a wealthy landowner in Philadelphia, William Hamilton, who lived from 1745 to 1813. The house had fallen into disrepair and Bonaparte thought he could do better on his own property in Bordentown.

“Both of these places demonstrate Joseph Bonaparte’s taste for the Picturesque landscape, a particularly English idea of landscape design destined to influence the interaction of man and nature for over two centuries. What is the Picturesque? It’s complicated…First I will outline a brief history of the Picturesque landscape, then I will explore how and where the trend was imported to the United States, and conclude with pointing to a few ways Joseph replicated these trends,” says Rebecca Flemer.

Rebecca W. Flemer is a historian specializing in historic and cultural landscapes, with a background in horticulture and landscape design from her family’s nursery, Princeton Nurseries and a masters in Historic Preservation from the University of Pennsylvania. She holds leadership roles at several public gardens and focuses on preserving and interpreting historic landscapes. Her work includes writing, public presentations, and program coordination to deepen public understanding of history through landscapes.

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