In previous letters we advised you that there were two conditions to be satisfied before we could engage to furnish what your Company sought from us.

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The first was that, after a personal examination of the property, our estimate of its advantages should agree with that of the Company. Upon this point, one of us having since made such an examination, we are glad that we can report that the results are satisfactory. The views from various points of the property, both towards the Mountains and towards the Plains, are found to be finer and, in our judgment, are likely to be more attractive to the public, than your representations had led us to suppose, while no unexpected draw-backs to the advantage of the situation have been found.

The second condition was that the Company should not expect from us a plan that would be suitable to a pleasure resort in the Eastern States. We wish now to set forth our views on this point more fully. They are the result of much observation in the dry countries bordering on the Mediterranean visited with a special view to a study of the subject, and of a residence of some years, as well as of several thousand miles of travel in the dryer part of our own country.

Briefly stated, they are that eastern-bred people coming to live in the dryer regions of the far West should give up, to a greater degree than they anywhere yet have, the ideas in which they have been trained, as to what is desirable to be seen in the immediate surroundings of a villa, or a farm-house, or in a village street, or a rural or suburban neighborhood.

The great advantages that are, in many respects, so conspicuous in these dryer regions depend on climatic conditions that are disadvantageous for the production of many kinds of luxury that the poorest may possess in the East. How greatly disadvantageous may be seen in the fact that the cleanliness, the beauty and the comfort which is found in the turf that forms spontaneously, and which maintains itself naturally on road-sides and in pastures and waste places, in regions of more humid climate, is not to be had at any cost in the dry regions. It is true that, with a sufficient expenditure of labor in watering and otherwise, turf may be formed and kept verdant, but it is a very different thing from the turf of regions in which turf is a natural production, and in no single respect does it serve the same purpose. In the far West of our country a lawn is a perfectly exotic affair. It does not follow that a small lawn may not be made an agreeable decoration of a dwelling place. There are situations about houses in New England, in which a small palm tree growing in a tub may be introduced for a few months in the Summer with good effect, but if an over-rich man should form a grove of palms in the neighborhood, it would completely destroy the charm of the natural scenery and be an offensive piece of bad taste. It is in equally bad taste to aim at effects of a landscape character in dry regions, such as the best taste demands on the borders of the Atlantic.

Another illustration of the principle for which we contend may be offered in this way. The charm that has given great celebrity and added ten fold to the value of land in Stockbridge, Lenox, Litchfield, and numerous other New England villages, is due greatly to their broad streets. Let anything occur by which the turf in these streets would be deadened, or take the character of irrigated turf, or cease to become a pleasing cushion for the feet of wayfarers [97]choosing to cross it, and this charm would disappear. In some cases where population has flocked into such villages until they have become so densely peopled that their street turf is worn out, the old charm is departed, and people are moving to the outskirts of the town, abandoning to shops and hotels what were once the most attractive residence streets.

Lacking the protection that a fabric of living, knitted vegetation supplies, the surface of the ground in dry regions, becoming parched, is pulverized by a slight blow or pressure. Two things follow; first, that in all unpaved places frequented by men or animals, the ground wears away rapidly; is excessively subject to gullying when rain comes, and much labor is required to keep it nice; second, that in hot weather, there is a great deal of dust in the air (largely in an impalpable and invisible form) near such places, and that it is constantly settling on all neighboring objects. Wherever this dust becomes visible on leaves, the natural effect of a prolonged drought appears to be aggravated and all trees and bushes, unless often washed, assume hues, which, though not disagreeable at a little distance, give all foliage near the {eye} a more or less dull, pallid and lifeless aspect. Another effect of this fine dust is that no roadside objects, unless lately washed, appear clean or inviting for a clean person to come in contact with.

For reasons thus sufficiently suggested, it is a mistake, even where expense is no consideration, to attempt anything like the landscape gardening of the East and of the North of Europe, in these dryer regions. We have visited places, upon the care of which quite ten times the outlay had been made annually, for a series of years, than would be required to keep similar places in the finest condition at Newport, or on the North River, with results that were pitiably unsatisfactory. Our advice has been asked as to how the expense of one of these places could be reduced, and we have had to answer that no material reduction of it was probably possible, which did not involve an abandonment of the particular forms of landscape beauty with regard to which the place has been laid out. In one of these places, as many as ten men were kept at work all night long watering the turf, for several successive months.

In all the dryer regions of the world in which men have been living in a condition approaching that of civilization, it has, from time immemorial, been customary to plan buildings and grounds with a view to pleasure, in a manner looking to four classes of results. These are; first, to leave little naked ground, such as would be covered with turf in regions of humid climate, fully exposed to view near the eye; second, to have objects in the foreground of dwellings and of frequented places and ways, arranged in such a manner that it is comparatively easy to so apply water to them that they may be kept clean, fresh and in nice order; third, to have these foreground objects so arranged that other objects coming in view beyond them will be at such a distance that effects of drought and dust upon them will not be disagreeably evident; fourth, that a picturesquely intimate association of natural and artificial objects may be secured, as, for example, by the mantling of walls, fences, gateways, [98]verandas, balconies and pavilions with a foliage of vines, and by growing upon them plants that need little moisture, such as Agaves, Yuccas, Cacti, Sedums and Houseleeks. These, sometimes growing with obvious art, as decorations, in vases and pots; sometimes naturally, in crannies and cavities of rocks and stone work.

We have thus sufficiently indicated the general direction in which, if we undertake to make plans for you, we should wish to be free to depart, in a moderate and reasonable degree, from the beaten ways of the Eastern States. It is unnecessary to our present purpose that we should try to show in particulars to what such a departure would probably lead. We may say however, that we should aim to discourage future residents from holding more land near a public street than they were likely to take good care of, and should aim to keep down the common expense of the community for the care of roads and for the water needed for private premises. These motives would lead to compacter arrangements and to smaller building lots than would generally be thought desirable in an Eastern resort.

Further to realize our views in these respects, we should probably recommend the Company:-

First, to sell no building sites except with the obligation on the part of the purchaser to soon occupy them and deal with them in a manner that would be pleasing to those passing on the street before them.

Second, that, on ground to be improved by the Company, little use should be made of turf, this little only where special facilities are to be had for keeping it fresh and nice, and that, in lieu of turf, free use should be made of vines and creepers, spreading from roots in pockets, as a covering for ground that would otherwise be bare, parched and dusty in the late Summer, the native trailing plants of the locality being largely used for this purpose.

Third, that certain of the hill-tops and other prominent points of view should be reserved from sale and held for the benefit of the community at large; that, in these places, suitable shelters and concourses should be constructed for the better enjoyment of the natural scenery opening from them, and that roads should be made on easy grades, by which these points would be comfortably approached.

With regard to early preliminary operations, we offer the following advice:

First, that an immediate beginning be made of a nursery for the growing of trees, shrubs and vines suitable to be used freely in the locality. These cannot be obtained in desirable quantities from commercial nurseries, and the cost of such as can be, if bought ready grown, would be greater than if they were raised by the Company on its own ground. We also recommend that preparations be soon made for forest planting, on a liberal scale, in some of the less attractive places, which, by these means, can be made, in a few years, much more agreeable and interesting than they now are.

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Second, we advise the Company to see that its property is guarded against the danger of forest fires, and that as soon as practicable, it be fenced to keep out cattle which are now rapidly destroying the natural under-growth, which, if protected and allowed to develop, will become an element of much value in the beauty of the property.

Third, that measures be taken to secure as copious a supply of water upon the ground as circumstances admit, the success of the scheme unquestionably depending upon the ability of the Company to supply water freely, both for public and private use.

Fourth, we advise that the proposed hotel be placed on the site designated by our Mr. Codman, when on the ground; that it be constructed with a rustic exterior of the native stone which lies scattered near by in great abundance; that it be not more than two stories in height, solid, substantial and plain in outward aspect, not putting the mountain scenery out of countenance, yet with more luxury of outworks, attracting its guests out of doors, and more care for pleasing combinations of its masonry with foliage than it has been hitherto common to use in the design of large rural hotels; that it be designed by an architect of experience in the tasteful adaptation of rough stone to building purposes, and that it be so planned and fitted to the ground that convenient enlargements of it may be made when required.

We believe that a good hotel of some marked originality of character, this originality having been suggested in a great degree by the materials used and the natural advantages of the site, would attract many visitors from a much greater distance than Denver, and would aid much more than a hotel of the ordinary fashionable type, such as would stand as fittingly on the plains as on the mountains, to bring the advantages of the locality as a summer resort, to the knowledge of the public.

If, with such an understanding as we have aimed to give you of the views with which we should enter upon the duty, you wish to employ us professionally in the improvement of the Company’s property, we shall be glad to be,

Respectfully,

At your service,