This section is from "The Horticulturist, And Journal Of Rural Art And Rural Taste", by P. Barry, A. J. Downing, J. Jay Smith, Peter B. Mead, F. W. Woodward, Henry T. Williams. Also available from Amazon: Horticulturist and Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste.
Our vignette this month, is a very accurate view of the vinery at Medary, the country seat of Harry Ingersoll, Esq..near Philadelphia.
We saw the vinery last autumn, just after its completion, and it struck us that in size and proportion, it might he taken as a model for this kind of structure for the amateur's garden, or for a gentleman's residence, where only a moderate supply of grapes is desired - since it would afford without fire heat a sufficiency of delicious foreign grapes for the use of the family. Its light and elegant appearance, and the simplicity and neatness of its construction, recommend it to the eye as an agreeable feature in the fruit-garden.
The plan and construction of this building are substantially that contrived and carried out on a larger scale by Mr. Van Rensselaer, in his vinery at Clinton Point, on the Hudson, and an interior view of which we gave in vol. iv, p. 178.
We add the following note from Mr. Inger-80ll, explanatory of its dimensions and exact cost, for the use of any of our readers about building vineries, and we have the promise of some detailed drawings of another building of this kind near Boston, which we hope soon to present to our readers. Ed.
My Dear Sir - I wish to redeem my promise to give you the exact cost of a moderate sized vinery, on the plan of that of Mr. Van Rensselaer, your neighbor on the Hudson.
The building is 43 feet 6 inches in length, by 18 feet wide, and fourteen feet high. The materials used by the carpenters, including
I may mention that all the materials are the best that could be got. And that the work was done by city mechanics at city prices.
iron work, cost....... | $185 00 |
Carpenters' larbor.... | 200 00 |
Glass...... | 90 00 |
Painting and materials........ | 28 00 |
$503 00 |
The cost of making the borders, which are each 18 feet wide by 3 feet deep, according to your instructions, and altogether outside the house, must vary so much that no accurate estimate can be given. Mine cost very little; all the matters, (except the ground bones,) used in them - the leaf mould, decomposed sod, and manure - were collected about the farm; and the labor was done by the gardener and other people at convenient times. Yours sincerely, Harry Ingersoll. Bristol township, Philadelphia Co., Jan. 22, 1851.
* A carpenter in our nelghborhood offers to contract to build vineries like this for 810 the running foot.
 
Continue to: