Nolen's Design
During a flurry of planning, land acquisition, and negotiations on both the Serra Museum and the urban plan, George and Anna Marston felt the need for an upgrade of their private grounds, especially in the north garden, and asked Nolen to generate preliminary sketches for its improvement. - Historic American Landscapes Survey; The George White and Anna Gunn Marston House Gardens.

This previously unknown and unpublished original preliminary drawing of the formal gardens' 1926 redesign by John Nolen's office was found by the exhibit curators tucked away in the Nolen collection at Cornell University. Working with daughter Mary Marston, who oversaw the renovation, the landscape designers made a few changes to this colored pencil sketch. Of these the location of the fountain and the addition of a tea house are the most significant. Note the designated cutting garden near the house.

Courtesy Cornell University Library Collections