SESSIONS B6-B- Created Old Foundations for Contemporary North Carolina Communities: The Lessons from Llewellyn Park and its Park Way
The purpose is to introduce newer practitioners to the first planned community in the USA, and the first local that employed the term “Park Way,” called Llewellyn Park, in New Jersey. Llewellyn Park is on the National Register of Historic Places and the home of its most famous resident Thomas Edison is part of the National Park System albeit one of the more under-appreciated National Monuments.
Understanding the Llewellyn Park landscape will allow visitors to gain a new understanding of the form appearance and construction of the Edison National Historic Monument. Llewellyn Park is nationally recognized as one of the first Planned Communities in the USA and its elements of the Park Way, common Open Space, and its site-designed gardens and landscape plans by key leaders in the Landscape Design Profession.
It was first designed and constructed in suburban New Jersey in 1853 and much of these same elements remain to this day.
Moreover, due to its age, it is a unique case study on how trees and plants have adapted to environmental changes since its beginnings in 1853.
A. Thus, it’s the first community to employ an HOA structure and deed restrictions. Because Llewellyn Park was founded by devoted and ardent pre-Civil War Abolitionists, home ownership was not based on race, nationality or religious background. This foundational Deed restriction of 1857 was shared with a local real estate attorney, Wil Anderson for his CUE presentation to the NC Bar Association this summer.
Learning Objectives:
Expand and introduce to many younger practitioners in North Carolina of 19th Century community planning as especially the unique time window before Fredrick Law Olmstead began his practice. The key two designers were Alexander Jackson Davis and Calvert Vaux. AJ Davis was the architect of the NC State House, the UNC Campus Master Plan, and Governor Morehead House in Greensboro. Calver Vaux worked in Llewellyn Park for three years before collaborating with Olmstead on the famous “33” plan.
As the first planned community in the USA, Llewellyn Park used moral concepts as fundamental community design principals over a century before current environmental laws and ordinances were developed. Some of these elements include stream buffers, steep slope protection, created storm ponds, limited impact development approaches, and using locally and regionally sourced building materials as practice. This community inspired a grand slam of design harmony between Materials, Architecture, Landscape, and Home Owner. These ‘Llewellyn Park’ names and elements are still employed by many design professionals in North Carolina today.
Identify and denote how the landscape is resilient and that careful Historic Preservation approaches are used over the past 150 years to maintain the integrity of the place and to instill a pride of place for its current residents.
Lecture and Powerpoint with Audience Participation
Keith Robbins
Keith has worked in the Triangle since 2000 and during the downturn of 2008 -2010 worked in Mainland China. Some of the projects Keith has worked on include Kitts Creek in Morrisville, Amberly PUD community in Cary, and the first Wendell Falls master plan. In China for the Ager Environmental firm located in Shanghai China and Boston. In 2008, Keith led the master planning studio in winning an 5000 hectare on Xue Ye (Xueye) Reservoir new town in Shandong Province Much of which is now clearly visible on Google Earth. Currently working for his clients' Master Planning projects in Wallace NC, Knightdale and Johnston County, NC. In the past Keith worked at Land Design in Southern Pines, Stewart Engineering and WithersRavenel In Raleigh, and for the Ager Group in Shanghai China. Keith has been with Strong Rock group since 2022.