project description

Named for the rocky prominence on which the house stands, the six acre Gibraltar estate features Italianate gardens designed in the early twentieth century by Marian Coffin for Hugh Rodney Sharp and his wife, Isabella Mathieu du Pont Sharp. Coffin, the first American woman to practice landscape architecture, had a distinguished career with high profile commissions across the eastern U.S. In 1997 the gardens, in a state of ruin, were saved from a developer’s wrecking ball by the non-profit group Preservation Delaware Inc. Working from Coffin’s original drawings, RAS and a team of conservators and historians led the extensive historic restoration of hardscape, infrastructure, and plantings to transition the private estate into a public garden. We revived the original grandeur of the estate, while addressing practicalities such as stormwater management, special event facilities, accessibility, and site lighting.