Students re-create 1920s landscape at Prophetstown

Purdue University horticulture students turned back time by creating a landscape plan for the Museum at Prophetstown.

The museum, which is part of the new Prophetstown State Park near Battle Ground, just north of Purdue's West Lafayette campus, was in search of a way to turn its Living History Farm into a 1920s time warp. Horticulture students in Purdue's advanced planting design class undertook the task of developing a plan that was later put into action by two clubs.

Prophetstown State Park volunteer Ann Pellegrino of Lafayette tends to one of the many trees planted recently by Purdue horticulture students. Six teams of students developed landscaping plans to match the 1920s style of the Living History Farm at the park. The new state park is north of the Purdue campus near Battle Ground.

“The previous landscaping didn't fit with the farm's structures and historical time period,” says Mike Dana, the course's professor. “The students' job was to propose planting that would look as if it had been growing in 1920.”

Dris Abraham, director of farm operations for the Museum at Prophetstown, says: “In a year from now, I will be able to hold up a J.C. Allen picture next to the house and not tell a difference. I am elated at how beautiful the place looks.”

Six teams made up of four or five students each developed plans. After consulting with the Prophetstown staff, a hybrid plan was formed. The Purdue Horticulture Society and Associated Landscape Contractors of America, Purdue Chapter, implemented the plan in May by planting “time-period-appropriate” trees, shrubbery and other plants.

Dana says the project was a good learning experience, but students found having to design for a different time period to be difficult at times.
“This project was a challenge to students because they are used to designing and planting in contemporary layouts,” he says. “The big shrubs commonly used in the 1920s aren't typically found in contemporary landscape planting.”

Abraham says he was so impressed with the students' work that he hopes to have Dana's class work on the museum entrance next year.