Manor Makeover: Changing the landscape of the Hess Mansion

It is hard to believe that today marks the ninth anniversary of the founding of Kroll Manor. Sure, the house stood for nearly 100 years before that… but I have tried to delineate everything before I bought the house and after. Time sure has flown

They say that the three most important words in real estate are location, location, location. But does the location really matter if you can’t see the house? While we routinely ask “How many bedrooms does it have?” or “How many bathrooms are there?” But let’s be honest, while that might be important to know, who among us hasn’t seen the outside of a house (or maybe looked at the photos on a Zillow listing) and immediately drawn conclusions about what it must look like on the inside?

When I bought the home, I was immediately turned off by the curb appeal. The bushes in the front of the house were unruly. As you can see from the photos below, the entirety of the first floor was blocked by shrubbery in places. No light could get in… and the view from the inside was probably what Homer Simpson sees when he does his infamous back into the bushes.

How it started…

I suppose from a privacy angle, it was a good thing. If you can’t see out, no one else can see in. Of course, an entire football team could have hidden in the bushes and gone undetected.

Based on old photos that I’ve seen, I suspect that the landscaping was original. That would mean that it had not been altered in half a century or more. Why? Perhaps none of the previous owners wanted to change something that was seen as part of the history of the house. A more likely scenario is that no one else was as concerned about the landscape as much as I was.

I’m a visual person. Even though my primary vantage was not looking toward the house, I knew that when I drove by or went for a walk, I did not want the front of the house to look the way it did.

On top of that, the sidewalk and walkway were in shambles. Both were tripping hazards and accidents waiting to happen. A voice in my head kept saying, “You can’t have the biggest house on the block and have the worst landscaping and the most dangerous sidewalks.”

Careful where you step!

It was not my plan to have the first project at Kroll Manor be remaking the outside of the property, but something need to be done first. I was worried that the house would look weird after the landscape was removed. I was surprised how much I actually preferred it that way. In the above photo, you can see so much more of the house. It was almost like one of those commercials for cereal where they proclaim “Now with 50% more marshmallows!” Or raisins.

The landscaping overhaul started in May 2016. I had been in the house for less than six months at the point. The idea was to give the immediate front of the house a more formal, symmetrical look. The portion of the front of the house that was off to the side would be given a looser look: less formal and more woodsy.

Hess Mansion landscaping becomes Kroll Manor landscaping

The main beds featured hydrangeas and yew. The same for the area along the sidewalk, just with a different variety of hydrangea. Too much of the same thing would be too matchy-matchy. Some of the old plantings from the front were relocated to my “island of rhododendron.” I don’t really like to remove plants or trees unless there is a necessity or urgency involved. So, some of the older plant like that might otherwise have been thrown in the scrap pile found new life in a somewhat new location.

The transformation wasn’t finished when the last of the new plantings went in the ground. My goal has been to always have something of interest blooming from spring to fall. Over the next eight years, hundreds of bulbs were planted and more plants were added to the shade garden to help make that happen.

Mission accomplished, but what’s next?!

I think I’ve accomplished my goal. During the pandemic, a lot more people took to walking around the neighborhood. I noticed a marked increase in the number of people who had “discovered” the house. People walking by were taking photos of the spring blooms — daffodils, tulips, and, hyacinths. They had even noticed that I had started putting little markers in the ground to identify each plant. In an alternate universe, I would have QR codes that would allow the lookie-loos to scan the code and buy the plant on the spot. Maybe that will be my next big project.

There were more changes to come, changes that I also did not plan to make. How does 30+ new windows sound? That will more than likely be part of the next entry in the Manor Makeover series, which will have lots of before-and-after images from inside the house. There have been four total room transformations — two bedrooms, the formal dining room, and a bathroom. And I think each one is better than the next!

MORE FROM THE MANOR MAKEOVER: HESS MANSION TO KROLL MANOR SERIES

Part 1: Ghosts of the Past

Part 2: Changing the landscape of the Hess Mansion