May 2009 » book review

A Passion for Excellence

Long Island Landscapes and the Women Who Designed Them
by Cynthia Zaitzevsky
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., New York, NY; 2009
304 pages; hardcover; more than 200 illustrations; $75
978-0-393-73124-8

Reviewed by Anne Walker

On Long Island, the rolling hills of the North Shore and the windswept plains of the East End have created fertile grounds for some of the most spectacular estates and gardens ever designed. As the country house phenomenon swept Long Island like wildfire, the landscape was vividly transformed from a stretch of undeveloped farmland into lush oases where the wealthy lived and played. Unsurprisingly, in an age of increased health consciousness, gardens became the focus of incredible attention and extensive planning, especially as the moneyed set lavished fortunes on their estates. An extension of the house proper, the grounds – in the tradition of a "country seat" – were an integral element and yet another measure of success in the age of excess leading up to Depression. Within the confines of the early-20th-century's male-dominated world, half of Long Island's known landscapes were the work of women. With this focus, Cynthia Zaitzevsky's Long Island Landscapes and the Women Who Designed Them at once becomes not only a catalogue of some of Long Island's most important gardens and landscape designs, but also an exciting chronicle of how a handful of trailblazing female practitioners forged names for themselves within a profession in which they could thrive.

Zaitzevsky is a most appropriate author to capture the ingenuity of this pioneering set of women and the stunning beauty and intricacy of their work. An Olmsted scholar and author of Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System (1982), she is a dedicated historian of architecture and landscape architecture; she teaches the history of landscape architecture at Harvard's Landscape Institute and is currently working on two additional books, one of which is on the history of American parks.

In Long Island Landscapes, Zaitzevsky conveys her appreciation for the subject matter and her skill for meticulous research. In the first six chapters, she shares the biographies of six of the first female designers, or "landscape gardeners" as they were known: Beatrix Jones Farrand, Martha Brookes Brown Hutcheson, Marian Cruger Coffin, Ellen Biddle Shipman, Ruth Bramley Dean and Annette Hoyt Flanders. Within each chapter, she takes us through, in depth when possible, each woman's Long Island work. Two additional chapters follow suit in similar format, discussing 12 additional lesser-known women, many of whom started their practices later and often found their footing in the offices of the first six: Mary Rutherford Jay, Rose Standish Nichols, Louise Payson, Marjorie Sewell Cautley, Isabella Pendleton, Eleanor Roche, Mary Deputy Lamson, Nellie B. Allen, Helen Elise Bullard, Helen Swift Jones, Janet Darling Webel and Alice Recknagel Ireys. By setting the women's accomplishments against the world in which they were working, Zaitzevsky is able to show just how truly groundbreaking they were. In the words of Marian Coffin: "we were pioneers, and moreover pioneer women in a new-old profession and one in which all one's ability to see and interpret beauty out of doors taxed all of our resources, and we were determined to show what enthusiasm and hard work could accomplish."

Long Island Landscapes recounts the story of how these women rose to the top of their profession – by no means a small feat. In 1900, there were only 100 women architects in the U.S. compared to 10,500 men; in the American Society of Landscape Architects, there were two women in 1900 and at least 10 men in 1901. Universities with newly established landscape architecture schools, such as Harvard, were not open to women and most practices did not welcome females. However, Henry Atherton Frost, director of the Cambridge School of Architectural and Landscape Design for Women, recalled in 1943 that his students broke expectations, stating that "teaching a woman what we had always considered a strictly man's job was not the painful ordeal it had promised to be."

Despite the obstacles and prejudices they faced, many of the women built flourishing practices that extended well beyond the reaches of Long Island. By emphasizing the women's backgrounds, Zaitzevsky highlights a series of startling similarities between them: they came from privileged backgrounds; most were first born or only children; most lived long and fruitful lives; and all had some sort of male mentor, whether it be a parent, spouse, colleague or professor. Apart from the actual landscapes they produced, they were visible, dynamic and charismatic figures who expanded their field by lecturing frequently, writing a host of books and articles on landscape-related topics, and fostering the careers of future female designers.

According to Zaitzevsky, Farrand, Hutcheson and Coffin were the true trailblazers, respectively beginning their practices in 1896, 1903 and 1905. Of the 18 women discussed, only Farrand, Coffin and Shipman are the subjects of dedicated monographs. Zaitzevsky unveils the lives and work of the 15 additional women whose careers span a period of 90 years. In some cases, this task proved difficult due to the lack of information, lost archives, and, unlike buildings, the transience of landscape and garden design. Nonetheless, what information Zaitzevsky is able to convey is new and fresh. Through a selection of over 220 historic photographs, landscape plans, planting plans and tinted glass plates, Zaitzevsky reveals the originality and creativity of the work. While most of the photographs are vivid and well chosen, the planting plans and perspective drawings are particularly interesting, displaying the great attention to detail for which women designers were known. Zaitzevsky delved into the archives at Berkeley, Smith and Cornell, among others, to produce a treasure trove of original drawings that illuminate the pains and processes behind the work of a handful of the designers.

While many of the 18 women were inspired by British garden designer Gertrude Jekyll, Zaitzevsky shows how the women crafted their own styles to create a spectacular spectrum of projects ranging from small side gardens to formal French parterres. The pages of Long Island Landscapes reveal every type of garden imaginable: gardens with pools, zodiac gardens, perennial gardens, rose arbors, magnolia walks, English brick gardens and evergreen gardens, to name a few. Some were located on some of Long Island's most celebrated estates, such as Farrand's Dutch garden for financier Otto Kahn at Oheka in Cold Spring Harbor and Coffin's extensive work at Hillwood, the residence of Edward F. Hutton and his wife, the former Marjorie Merriweather Post. At the same time, Zaitzevsky includes smaller, lesser-known but no less charming properties such as the Misses Pruyns' 50-sq.ft. garden in East Hampton by Coffin. Sadly, projects such as Ruth Dean's plan for Harbor Acres, an imaginative subdivision in Port Washington commissioned by Vincent Astor on which Dean collaborated with her husband, architect Aymar Embury II, fell victim to the Depression. Zaitzevsky's ample timeframe enables her to include charming late projects like Alice Recknagel Ireys' 1960s oval pool for Broadcasting System president William S. Paley and his wife Barbara Cushing Paley. As the profession gradually evolved, women also found success in designing important public projects; later designers, such as Helen Elise Bullard, Marjorie Sewell Cautley and Helen Swift Jones designed public gardens and parks on Long Island almost exclusively.

Indirectly, Long Island Landscapes underlines how fleeting gardens can be without proper upkeep and attention. Happily, Zaitzevsky has chosen to memorialize landscapes that, in many cases, no longer exist, in the process creating an important document of a bygone era. Although many of the landscapes she highlights have fallen to development or neglect, some – or portions of some – survive, including Coffin's designs at Hillwood, now part of Long Island University's C. W. Post campus, which is scheduled for restoration. Overall, the pages of Long Island Landscapes are a loving testament to the skill, imagination and drive of a savvy group of women who helped transform Long Island into a blur of color, style and beauty. Against all odds, their passion for excellence helped to shape the magical and evocative heritage of Long Island.  

Anne Walker is an architectural historian in New York City. She has co-authored a number of books with Peter Pennoyer, including The Architecture of Delano and Aldrich (W. W. Norton, 2003), The Architecture of Warren and Wetmore (W. W. Norton, 2006) and The Architecture of Grosvenor Atterbury (W. W. Norton, 2009).

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