Florence Yoch (1890–1972) was an American landscape architect in California who was active from 1915 through the 1950s. Her career included commissions for private residential clients, parks, public spaces, and film sets for Hollywood movies, including the grounds for Tara in ''

Gone with the Wind Gone with the Wind most often refers to: * Gone with the Wind (novel), ''Gone with the Wind'' (novel), a 1936 novel by Margaret Mitchell * Gone with the Wind (film), ''Gone with the Wind'' (film), the 1939 adaptation of the novel Gone with the Wind ...

''. Many credit Florence with helping develop a distinctively Californian interpretation of classic European Gardens.

Early years

Florence Yoch was born in

Santa Ana, California Santa Ana (Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, California, United States. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census. As ...

on July 15, 1890 to Joseph and Catherine Yoch. The youngest of six girls, Yoch spent much of her time outdoors which included horse and buggy trips from the family home in Santa Ana to the beachfront hotel they owned and operated in

Laguna Beach Laguna Beach (; ''Laguna'', Spanish for "Lagoon") is a city in Orange County, California, United States. Located in Southern California along the Pacific Ocean, this seaside resort city has a mild year-round climate, scenic coves, and environ ...

. Yoch was surrounded by the cultural pursuits offered in Laguna Beach which included art, drama and gardening. Close friends and frequent visitors to the Laguna Hotel were Madame Modjeska and her husband Count Karol Bozenta Chlapowski whose own house and garden at Arden further inspired Yoch to pursue a career in landscape design. Florence Yoch's college education began in 1910 at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

and then at

Cornell Cornell University is a private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson White in 1865. Since ...

's College of Agriculture. She would go on to earn her degree from the

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United States. Established in 1867, it is the f ...

in 1915.

Landscape design career

Upon graduation, Yoch immediately went to work designing gardens in

Pasadena Pasadena ( ) is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States, northeast of downtown Los Angeles. It is the most populous city and the primary cultural center of the San Gabriel Valley. Old Pasadena is the city's original commercial d ...

and Orange County. Her influences include the formal gardens of France and the wilder, flowery gardens of England, particularly those designed by

Gertrude Jekyll Gertrude Jekyll ( ; 29 November 1843 – 8 December 1932) was a British Horticulture, horticulturist, garden designer, craftswoman, photographer, writer and artist. She created over 400 gardens in the United Kingdom, Europe and the United Sta ...

. She made many trips to Europe on sketching trips, focusing on great gardens of the past. In 1921, she hired as apprentices Katherine Bashford (who would leave to found her own solo practice in 1923) and Lucile Council, who had studied at both the Cambridge School of Domestic and Landscape Architecture and at Oxford. In 1925, Florence and Lucile formed a partnership, Yoch & Council, setting up shop in the garden studio at Council's home in South Pasadena. From there they would enjoy a thriving business creating landscaping for a large roster of clients that ranged from wealthy clientele in Pasadena and Santa Barbara to Hollywood players such as

Jack L. Warner Jack Leonard Warner (born Jacob Warner; August 2, 1892 – September 9, 1978) was a Canadian-born American film executive, who was the president and driving force behind the Warner Bros., Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. Warner's ca ...

George Cukor George Dewey Cukor ( ; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer, producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO Pictures, RKO when David O. Selzn ...

and

David O. Selznick David O. Selznick (born David Selznick; May 10, 1902June 22, 1965) was an American film producer, screenwriter and film studio executive who produced ''Gone with the Wind (film), Gone with the Wind'' (1939) and ''Rebecca (1940 film), Rebecca'' (1 ...

. Cukor referred to her as "a distinguished American artist". In addition to ''Gone with the Wind'' (1939), Florence Yoch also did landscaping and created film sets for '' The Garden of Allah'' (1936), ''

Romeo and Juliet ''The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet'', often shortened to ''Romeo and Juliet'', is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare about the romance between two young Italians from feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's ...

'' (1936), ''

The Good Earth ''The Good Earth'' is a historical fiction novel by Pearl S. Buck published in 1931 that dramatizes family life in an early 20th-century Chinese village in Anhwei. It is the first book in her ''House of Earth'' trilogy, continued in '' Sons'' ...

'' (1937), and ''

How Green Was My Valley ''How Green Was My Valley'' is a 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, narrated by Huw Morgan, the main character, about his Welsh family and the mining community in which they live. The author had claimed that he based the book on his own experi ...

'' (1941). She was especially inspired by two books: ''Italian Villas and Their Gardens'' (1904) by

Edith Wharton Edith Newbold Wharton (; ; January 24, 1862 – August 11, 1937) was an American writer and designer. Wharton drew upon her insider's knowledge of the upper-class New York "aristocracy" to portray, realistically, the lives and morals of the Gil ...

and ''Gardens for Small Country Houses'' (1914) by

and

Lawrence Weaver Sir Lawrence Walter William Weaver (1876–1930) was an English architectural writer and civil servant. Early years Lawrence Weaver was the son of Walter and Frances Weaver of Clifton, Bristol. He was educated at Clifton College and was trained ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Yoch, Florence 1890 births 1972 deaths 20th-century American architects American women architects People from Santa Ana, California Cornell University alumni 20th-century American women

Early years

Landscape design career

References

Further reading

External links