Rose Greely, Landscape Architect and Architect

Rose Ishbel Greely (1887 – 1969) was a landscape architect and the first licensed female architect in Washington, DC. An early member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, in 1936 she became a Fellow in that organization.  The Washington Board of Trade awarded her two medals for her work. In addition to her practice, Greely also wrote many articles about architecture and landscape architecture. Most of the homes and gardens she designed were in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia, but Greely also did projects in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, and New Mexico.

The daughter of famed polar explorer Major General Adolphus Greely, Rose Greely had the luxury of studying for different careers before landing on home and garden design. She also had the opportunity to travel widely, joining her family on a two-year trip to Europe, Asia, and South America after her father’s retirement. After spending a year in Florence, Italy studying metalwork, Greely decided she lacked the talent to be a metal artist. She would later integrate Arts and Crafts ideals into her design work, in tandem with the Beaux Arts concepts she observed in Europe and learned about in her studies.

In 1916, Greely entered the Cambridge School of Domestic Architecture and Landscape Architecture in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school had been founded the previous year by Henry Atherton Frost to meet the demand of female students who were excluded from nearby Harvard’s school of architecture owing to their gender. In 1920, Greely was the second student to finish the course. The school would remain important to Greely. For example, she frequently worked with Gertrude Sawyer, an architect with whom she attended the school. She also wrote an article for The House Beautiful that described the Boston garden designed by architect Eleanor Raymond, another schoolmate.

Greely joined the staff of The House Beautiful in 1921 and wrote many articles about gardens and their relationship to the homes, often emphasizing the importance of unity between house and garden. She also worked for architecture firm Fletcher Steele during this time. In 1923, Greely left Boston to return to Washington, DC where she worked for architect and landscape architect Horace W. Peaslee. In 1925, she earned her architecture license in Washington, DC, and in 1926 she opened her own firm. Greely hired a series of recent graduates of the Cambridge School to work as drafters in her office.

Office of Rose Greely, House Beautiful, February 1929

Landscape architecture was a relatively young profession at this time. Greely’s writing for popular magazines, as well as speeches to women’s clubs and other organizations, helped bring attention to it. She told her audience at a 1934 Civic’s Club meeting that “beauty is the end and aim of landscape gardening….The cardinal element in landscape architecture is the search for beauty in line, form and color, and the development of that beauty.”

Photo by Margaret De N. Brown, c. 1929. (House Beautiful, Feb. 1929)

Greely’s skills, public profile, and social connections helped her find work with politicians, diplomats, and many others. She also worked on government projects such as the Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland. While Greely designed gardens for many paying clients, she also donated her services and time to several non-profit organizations including one advising on the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.

Greely retired from full-time practice in 1956 owing to her worsening arthritis, but she continued consulting into the early 1960s. In 1969 at age 82, Greely died at home in Washington, DC.

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Sources

“Rose Greely’s Landscape Art Enhances Many DC Gardens,” Times Herald [Washington, DC], May 11, 1937: 21, 23.

“Greely, Rose Ishbel (Isabel),”  Baltimore Architecture Foundation.

Joanne Seale Wilson, “The Philosophy of Rose Greely, Landscape Architect.” APT Bulletin: The Journal of Preservation Technology, Vol. 32, No. 2/3 (2001), pp. 39-46.

Joanne Seale Lawson, “Remarkable Foundations: Rose Ishbel Greely, Landscape Architect.” Washington History , 1998, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Spring/Summer, 1998), pp. 46-69.

Rose Greely, “An Architect’s Garden in the City.” The House Beautiful, November 1926: 557-559, 612-614.

“Civic Club Hears Miss Rose Greely,” Patriot-News [Harrisburg, Pennsylvania], November 13, 1934: 11.

Rose Greely, “Within Garden Walls.” The House Beautiful, February 1929: 287-290.