Historical Summer 2004 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Kudos to Julie and Tom Einspanier of 6100 Westminster for restoring their front yard to the original gracious slope intended by the developers of the neighborhood.
As initially envisioned, the streets of the neighborhood were lined with a houses set at a uniform depth with lawns sloping to the street. Trees were planted along the curbs in planned intervals.
In Parkview, the plan included a row planted midway on the lawns of the houses for a double line of trees processing down the street.
The “before” photograph shows how the retaining wall broke the flow of the streetscape and effectively hid the house.
The current picture clearly illustrates the original plan.
While mowing the hills is probably the reason most homeowners have chosen to build retaining walls, planting a ground cover eliminates the mowing and maintains the streetscape.
An aside: The reason sycamore trees were planted so heavily in this and many early twentieth century neighborhoods was because they converted sulfur dioxide into oxygen. So while we may become irritated at their messiness (and now their dying), they served a positive purpose to a population which burned coal for fuel.
Original photograph caption
Julie and Tom Einspanier front yard before removal of retaining wall. Photographer not credited.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, Summer 2004.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2004_06.pdf, printed page(s) 7; PDF page(s) 7.
