The Rockery

It consists of boulders heaped into a long, asymmetric mound across a rustic archway that echoes those of H. H. Richardson's nearby Oakes Ames Memorial Hall.

In April 1882 Olmsted wrote to Oakes Angier Ames that such cairns were of monuments "the oldest and most enduring in the world", and with "the beautiful plants that have become rooted in them and which spring out of their crannies or have grown over them.

are far more interesting and pleasant to see than the greater number of those constructed of massive masonry and elaborate sculpture."

He further explained that plants growing across the rocky buttress would symbolize peace taming war.

At one point, the Rockery was lowered from its original height of 25 feet and utility poles installed on its eastern tip.