The end of an era
The snow lingers on the grounds at Heathfield: pushed up into craggy mountains, strewn with gravel and sand; dotted with human and animal tracks; rubbed into rivulets by the wind, and spray-painted with hot pink paint as the site embarks on a new chapter in its long history.
Within days, Heathfield's trees (some planted, others wild) will come down. Among them, a willow, arcing over the property's natural creek bed; a stand of pines planted by Sisters of Providence; a few Manitoba maples; a paper birch, and a couple of Ohio buckeyes.
Providence Village is the future home of a new long-term care facility, and a palliative care hospice—and while these are worthy causes, it is a sad milestone that this wild space (largely untouched since time immemorial) will be forever changed.
Here is a reminiscence from one of the Sisters of Providence, Sr. Anna Moran:
"On Heathfield
So what was the Motherhouse property like, back in the day? Sister Anna Moran describes quite a different picture from the well-kept lawns, trees and gardens of today, summing it up as a limestone bog:
There was a slough, or swamp, in the back, wet enough that nothing would grow. The land was deliberately and slowly cultivated. The limestone was covered by earth. One of the first flowers to bloom was a profusion of poppies, glorious to the Sisters. Deeper behind the house was wild, she says. A stream, or 'crick,' ran in the line between today’s gazebo and barn. 'We never went beyond that,' she says.
Oh how the Sisters worked to reclaim the land. Early on, each woman was given a six-foot square of land to grow vegetables. 'I worked hard but grew nothing, not even a carrot,' says Sister Anna. 'I gave up on that!' But other work bore more fruit. Some of the younger trees were planted by Sister Anna, when she helped Sister Mary Roberta with seedlings along the long fence on Princess Street. The Sisters were determined to make the grounds private and productive."
Her remarks are fascinating: Heathfield's back field was a "limestone bog", "a slough, or swamp".
Wet enough that nothing would grow? I'm not so sure about that. From my own experience, a great number of plants grow in the property's wettest grounds. Here, the limestone (overlaid with a shallow lawn) gives way to a spongy, mossy area full of sedges, ash, goldenrod, bolete mushrooms, cohosh, violets, dogwood and willowherb.
But I'm sure Sr. Anna was referring to cultivated species: tomatoes, lettuce and leeks.
This line caught my attention: "One of the first flowers to bloom was a profusion of poppies, glorious to the Sisters." The wording is not completely clear, but, to my mind, it implies that these poppies grew spontaneously, perhaps stirred out of dormancy by the Sisters' cultivation.
The Sisters took possession of the Heathfield in the 1930s, and before then the property was residential and domestic farmland. I'd like to think that those poppies sprouted from a remnant seed bank from the 19th century. Perhaps there's a metaphor there. What seeds will sprout from the earth over the next few years, as Providence Village takes shape? I'll be watching.
In the meantime, much will be lost. I'm grateful to have had the privilege to document and get to know this property over the past few years.
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