Montclair Magazine Fall 2017 | Page 47

home Nutley’s Versailles This Essex County property’s gardens make it a New Jersey treasure WRITTEN BY CINDY SCHWEICH HANDLER PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNE-MARIE CARUSO F ans of France’s Versailles, Italy’s Tivoli and England’s Kew Gardens: You’ll be interested to know that there’s an estate with lush, art-filled acres that’s much closer to home. Nutley residents Silas Mountsier and Graeme Hardie (below) combined three parcels of land to create an opulent landscape full of trees, grasses and plants, intersecting paths and sculptures — not to mention two homes for themselves, and a couple of other multi-purpose buildings. Their gardens have been open to the public as part of the Garden Conservatory’s Open Days program, and provided the backdrop for fundraisers given by local nonprofits such as Succeed2gether and the Nutley Family Service Bureau. An extensive traveler, “I’m an anthropologist, and I like crafts,” Hardie says, “while Silas’ house is filled with antiquities.” The homeowners were kind enough to give us a tour. THE LONG VIEW (Left) A view looking towards Mountsier’s home, which his family purchased shortly after World War II, from the rear of the property. Built in 1890, it faces the street, and the garden surrounding it is dom- inated by oak trees, many of them 200-300 years old. The pruned trees that Hardie refers to as “garden soldiers” are English hornbeams; stone pillars frame a more recent garden that features rose bushes. Above, Mountsier and Hardie smile outside the greenhouse, part of the second property that was added to the original in 1970. > MONTCLAIR MAGAZINE FALL 2017 45