F iske Kimball, a renowned architect and scholar, designed and built Shack Mountain in the late 1930s as a personal retreat for himself and his wife. Its classical Jeffersonian design reflects his life’s work as a student of Jefferson’s architecture. After he and his wife Marie died in 1955, the new owners and stewards, Bedford and Jane Tarleton-Smith Moore, close personal friends of the Kimballs, added a terraced garden with a swimming pool, retaining walls and planting beds for flowers and vegetables. They ensured the Kimballs’ legacy and association with the property by placing it under a conservation easement to protect it from future development. They also successfully secured its addition to the National Register of Historic Places and its designation as a National Historic Landmark.

Sixty-seven years later, the third and current owner renovated the house and garden. Improvements to the garden included rebuilding the walls and steps, installing brick edging to define and contain new shrub and perennial beds, treillage, and a paved outdoor gathering area in front of an existing pavilion.