Boxwood plantings

In 1837 William M. and Mary McEwan Boyce purchased the estate, then called Elderslie, and renamed it Montrose.  Prominent Georgetown citizens, Boyce was Chief of the US Coast and Geodetic Survey, and their daughter, Jane, married George Washington Peter, son of Thomas Peter of Tudor Place, in 1840.   Historic sources state that the Boyces hired English garden designer John Henry Small, who had worked for the Linthicum family at the neighboring estate The Oaks (now Dumbarton Oaks).  It is thought that he designed the boxwood parterre to the west of the Ropewalk and the boxwood walk at the north end of the Open Lawn.  Using age-determining calculations recent measurements have shown that these boxwood are approximately 150 years old.

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