Although humans have been experimenting with growing plants out of season since ancient times, the forerunner of the modern greenhouse can actually be attributed to a need to grow medicinal plants. It is said that cucumbers were grown for the Roman Emperor Tiberius in a sort of primitive greenhouse during the first century AD, and that a Korean dynasty made use of the first artificially-heated greenhouse structure to grow winter vegetables in the 1400s. The first greenhouses appeared in England and the Netherlands in the 17th Century, and were initially stove-heated. With the development of better techniques for producing glass, a sort of building boom began among European monarchies, and the massive greenhouse at the Palace of Versailles was completed in 1789. It still remains a stunning example of the marriage of art, architecture and practical purpose.
Greenhouses through history have been used for both ornamental and practical purposes. The first American greenhouses were also built during the 1700s. A Boston merchant, Andrew Faneuil, is credited with the first in 1737. George Washington, at his Mount Vernon estate, which was essentially a large and highly efficient farm for its time, built a greenhouse in 1787 to grow tropical and semi-tropical plants, including lemon and orange trees, Sago Palms, and pineapples. His guests reportedly were delighted to be allowed to stroll through the structure, designed with a vaulted ceiling to foster air circulation. The greenhouse was heated by an underground radiant system with flues installed in the floor. Like all "proper" greenhouses, it was oriented to capture the southern sun. Unfortunately it burned to the ground in 1835, but a modern reconstruction on the original site was completed in 1951, based on original plans preserved by the estate.
