Reflections on Greenwood’s D-Shaped Pool

The D-Shaped Pool, a graceful centerpiece of the Main Axis since 1918, represents more than a century of Greenwood Gardens’ evolving history. First conceived during the Day era (1906–1944), later cared for by the Blanchards (1949–2003), and more recently restored (2019-2020) as part of Greenwood’s enduring public legacy, the pool has remained a defining feature of the garden’s Main Axis.

Joseph P. Day, a prominent New York real estate auctioneer, purchased the estate he named Pleasant Days in 1906. With his growing fortune, he commissioned architect William Whetten Renwick to design a series of Italianate water gardens, which included the elegant D-Shaped Wading Pool at the heart of the Main Axis. Edged by borders of iris and dianthus, and stocked with goldfish to control mosquitoes, the pool was encircled by lush borders of conifers, shrubs, and peonies. Its fountain originally contained a sculpture of a boy with a swan, but in 1931 it was replaced by the Grandchildren Fountain, also designed by Renwick.

Day Era D-Shaped Pool and Main House

In 1949, attorney Peter P. Blanchard, Jr. and his wife, Dr. Adelaide Childs Frick, purchased the estate, renaming it, The Greenwoods. After Adelaide’s passing in 1956, Mr. Blanchard undertook significant improvements in the gardens, which notably included the D-Shaped Pool. He ringed the pool with American yew, precisely flat-trimmed in the formal European style, and installed a set of whimsical dolphin-shaped fountains that once graced Clayton, Adelaide’s childhood home on Long Island.

Blanchard Era D-Shaped Pool and Main Axis

After Mr. Blanchard passed away in 2000, Peter P. Blanchard III and his wife, Sofia, honored the elder Blanchard’s wishes by establishing Greenwood Gardens as a nonprofit public garden. In 2019, as part of the ambitious restoration of the Main Axis, and in collaboration with architect Allan Summers and his team at Robinson, Anderson, and Summers, the original D-Shaped Pool was carefully recreated with new concrete and the re-installation of a functional fountain, along with new plantings. Today, the beds encircling the pool feature vibrant perennials, annuals, and shrubs, a nod to the Arts and Crafts history of the garden.

The renovation of the D-Shaped Pool

The current D-Shaped Pool 

The D-Shaped Pool endures not only as a timeless design element in this historic garden, but also as a shimmering mirror of Greenwood’s layered past. Its waters today reflect more than the surrounding gardens; they evoke a century of vision while offering the same sense of beauty and repose that its original owners so deeply cherished.