The Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture is the shorthand name for a school that was founded in

Groton, Massachusetts Groton is a town in northwestern Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, within the Greater Boston metropolitan area. The population was 11,315 at the 2020 census. It is home to two prep schools: Lawrence Academy at Groton, founded in 17 ...

in 1901 for women to be trained in

landscape architecture Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic design and general engineering of various structures for constructio ...

and

horticulture Horticulture is the branch of agriculture that deals with the art, science, technology, and business of plant cultivation. It includes the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, herbs, sprouts, mushrooms, algae, flowers, seaweeds and no ...

. Under its original name of Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture, Gardening, and Horticulture for Women, the college was one of the first in the world to open the profession to women. In 1915 it was renamed the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture for Women, and in 1945 it was absorbed into the Rhode Island School of Design as the Lowthorpe Department of Landscape Architecture.

History

The school was founded in 1901 as Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture, Gardening, and Horticulture for Women by Judith Eleanor Motley Low, a Groton native who was either the granddaughter or great granddaughter of

Benjamin Bussey Benjamin Bussey (17571842) was a prosperous merchant, farmer, horticulturalist and patriot in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, who made significant contributions to the creation of the Arnold Arboretum. He was said to be "a man of exce ...

."Form A: Country Day School of the Holy Union"
Massachusetts Historical Commission. Low had spent time in her youth at the

Bussey Institute The Bussey Institute (1883–1936) was a respected biological institute at Harvard University. It was named for Benjamin Bussey, who, in 1835, endowed the establishment of an undergraduate school of agriculture and horticulture and donated land i ...

Arnold Arboretum The Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University is a botanical research institution and free public park, located in the Jamaica Plain and Roslindale neighborhoods of Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1872, it is the oldest public arboretum in N ...

, studying agriculture, gardening, and botany. A one-page brochure announcing the establishment of the school offered instruction in the subjects of "landscape gardening, elementary architecture, horticulture, botany and allied subjects." The brochure announced an October 1901 start date, but instruction did not actually begin until the following fall. To be admitted, a prospective student was required to have a high school diploma and some knowledge of both drawing and botany. The school's population of students ranged from single digits in the early years up to 30 or 40 in the 1930s. Instruction focused on private residential design rather than public gardens, as such work was at the time considered most suitable for women. The Groton campus included of meadows, orchards, gardens, greenhouses, and an administration building."Lowthorpe School"
Harvard University Library Virtual Collection bibliographic record."Lowthorpe School"
Smithsonian Institution SIRIS archives website The gardens were largely the work of school students and were mostly laid out in geometrical arrangements; the herb garden, for example, was in the form of an Elizabethan

knot A knot is an intentional complication in cordage which may be practical or decorative, or both. Practical knots are classified by function, including hitches, bends, loop knots, and splices: a ''hitch'' fastens a rope to another object; a ' ...

. Although the naturalistic style of Edwardian-era English garden design (embracing both the

English landscape garden The English landscape garden, also called English landscape park or simply the English garden (french: Jardin à l'anglaise, it, Giardino all'inglese, german: Englischer Landschaftsgarten, pt, Jardim inglês, es, Jardín inglés), is a sty ...

and its later variant the

cottage garden The cottage garden is a distinct style that uses informal design, traditional materials, dense plantings, and a mixture of ornamental and edible plants. English in origin, it depends on grace and charm rather than grandeur and formal structure. Ho ...

) was the prevailing aesthetic taught at the school, the more formal style of Italian landscape design was also taught and influenced how the gardens were organized.Knight, Jane Alison. "An Examination of the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture for Women, Groton, Massachusetts, 1901-1945". Cornell University Master's thesis, 1986. Lowthorpe was incorporated in 1909 and placed under direction of a board of directors with Low as president of the board. Patrons included

Charles W. Eliot Charles William Eliot (March 20, 1834 – August 22, 1926) was an American academic who was president of Harvard University from 1869 to 1909the longest term of any Harvard president. A member of the prominent Eliot family of Boston, he transfo ...

, President Emeritus of Harvard University, Professor

Charles Sprague Sargent Charles Sprague Sargent (April 24, 1841 – March 22, 1927) was an American botanist. He was appointed in 1872 as the first director of Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum in Boston, Massachusetts, and held the post until his death. He pub ...

of the Arnold Arboretum and Professor James Sturgis Pray, Chairman of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard, among others. The course curriculum was changed in 1915 from two to three years, diplomas were awarded, and the name changed to the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture for Women, dropping the words Gardening and Horticulture from the title. In 1917, Lowthorpe fielded a baseball team called the Farmerettes. Under John Parker, Lowthorpe's director from 1934 to 1945, winter classes were taught in Boston at 491 Boylston Street. In 1945, Lowthorpe was absorbed into the

Rhode Island School of Design The Rhode Island School of Design (RISD , pronounced "Riz-D") is a private art and design school in Providence, Rhode Island. The school was founded as a coeducational institution in 1877 by Helen Adelia Rowe Metcalf, who sought to increase the ...

and became known as the Lowthorpe Department of Landscape Architecture. The stature of the school was raised when Ellen Shipman (named in 1933 by the magazine '' House & Garden'' as the "dean of women landscape architects"), in a 40-year career, reportedly would only hire graduates from Lowthorpe School. According to Catharine Filene, writing in ''Careers for Women in 1920,'' schools offering training similar to Lowthorpe included

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

, the

University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the University ...

, the

Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture The Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture—previously known as the Cambridge School of Architectural and Landscape Design for Women and then as Cambridge School of Domestic and Landscape Architecture for Women—was an educat ...

, and the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

. After moving to Rhode Island, the Groton campus was sold to the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston, who in turn sold it to the Holy Union Sisters. The sisters established a convent on the site in 1946 and a day school known the Country Day School of the Holy Union in 1949."Country Day School will close in June" Nashoba Valley Voice, April 5, 2017
/ref>"LA Acquires Country Day School Property" Lawrence Academy, April 3, 2018
/ref> Country Day School closed in June, 2017, and the neighboring Lawrence Academy acquired the property in April, 2018.

Notable faculty and administrators

Josef Albers Josef Albers (; ; March 19, 1888March 25, 1976) was a German-born artist and educator. The first living artist to be given a solo show at MoMA and at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, he taught at the Bauhaus and Black Mountain College, ...

Kirkham, Pat. ''Women Designers in the USA, 1900-2000''. * Nellie B. Allen *

Mabel Keyes Babcock Mabel Keyes Babcock (May 20, 1862 – December 3, 1931) was one of America's early women landscape architects. She taught at Wellesley College and the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture before going on to become Dean of Women Students at ...

Henry Atherton Frost Henry Atherton Frost, (February 8, 1883 – May 26, 1952) was an American architect and instructor at Harvard University. He was largely responsible for inaugurating and overseeing an early graduate program in architecture and landscape architec ...

Elizabeth Greenleaf Pattee Elizabeth Greenleaf Pattee (1893–1991) was an American architect, landscape architect, and architecture professor in the Northeast whose career spanned a half century. About Pattee was born in 1893 in Quincy, Massachusetts. She was descended f ...

Bremer Whidden Pond Bremer Whidden Pond (June 23, 1884 – September 2, 1959) was an American landscape architect and professor at Harvard University. He was deeply involved with two early graduate programs in landscape architecture for women: the Cambridge School of ...

(director) *

Robert Sturtevant Robert Swan Sturtevant (December 30, 1892 – February 22, 1955) was an American landscape architect and iris breeder. He taught for many years at the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture, and he helped to found the American Iris Society. Ear ...

(faculty and director)

Notable alumni

Edith Henderson Edith Harrison Henderson (1911–2005) was an American landscape architect who practiced largely in the American South. She wrote a column for the ''Atlanta Journal Constitution'' and was the first woman to be elected an officer of the American S ...

(1911-2005, Class of 1934), practiced in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

for over 60 years. Designed the landscaping for Techwood and Clark Howell Homes, the first public housing projects in the United States. * Gertrude Kuh (Class of 1917) practiced many years in the Chicago area *

Elizabeth Blodget Lord Elizabeth Blodget Lord (1887–1974) was a founding partner of Lord & Schryver, the first female owned and operated landscape architecture firm in the Pacific Northwest from 1929-1969. Early years Elizabeth Lord was born on November 12, 1887 in ...

(Class of 1929) and

Edith Schryver Edith Eleanor Schryver (1901–1984) was a founding partner of Lord & Schryver, the first female owned and operated landscape architecture firm in the Pacific Northwest from 1929-1969. Early years Edith Schryver was born on March 20, 1901 in King ...

(Class of 1923) formed the Oregon firm of

Lord & Schryver Lord & Schryver was the first landscape architecture firm run by women in the Pacific Northwest. It was founded by Elizabeth Blodget Lord and Edith Schryver. It was headquartered in Salem, Oregon Salem ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of ...

* Doris Katherine Raikes TurnbullSee "A 1929 student diploma" above on this page. (Classes of 1924 and 1927) from England after attending a near-

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

gardening school and then teaching gardening (and becoming fluent in French) 1921 to 1923 at La Corbière école horticole pour jeunes filles in

Estavayer-le-Lac Estavayer-le-Lac (;Florence Cattin/Andres Kristol, ''Estavayer-le-Lac FR (La Broye)'' in: ''Dictionnaire toponymique des communes suisses – Lexikon der schweizerischen Gemeindenamen – Dizionario toponomastico dei comuni svizzeri (DTS, LSG)'', ...

on the east shore of

Lake Neuchatel A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much larger ...

in Switzerland; and after Lowthorpe a landscape architect in

Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = " Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , e ...

Ilaro Court Ilaro Court (pronounced: il'larō kôrt) is the official residence of the prime minister of Barbados. (State House, Barbados is the official residence of the President of Barbados, a parliamentary-republic island country.) History Ilaro ...

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

, and then marrying and living with the

plant pathologist Plant pathology (also phytopathology) is the scientific study of diseases in plants caused by pathogens (infectious organisms) and environmental conditions (physiological factors). Organisms that cause infectious disease include fungus, fung ...

Lawrence Ogilvie Lawrence Ogilvie (5 July 1898 – 16 April 1980) was a Scottish plant pathologist. From 1923, in his first job and aged only 25, when agriculture was Bermuda's major industry, Ogilvie identified the virus that had devastated the islands' high-v ...

near

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. *

Jane Silverstein Ries Jane Silverstein Ries (1909–2005), also known professionally as Julia Jane Silverstein, was an American landscape architect who was the first woman licensed in Colorado as a professional landscape architect. For her landscape work as well as her ...

(Class of 1932) practiced in Denver for more than 50 years

References

{{Reflist Landscape architecture schools 1901 establishments in Massachusetts

History

Notable faculty and administrators

Notable alumni

See also

References