Fletcher Steele papers

The landscape architect Fletcher Steele was born June 7, 1885 in Rochester, New York, to John Mason Steele (1851-1936) and Mary L. Steele (1853-1943). A pioneer in his field, Steele designed more than seven hundred gardens and wrote three books and over one hundred articles. Steele's practice was almost exclusively devoted to the making of private gardens, few of which survive. Many of his commissions spanned several decades and involved close relationships with his clients. Among Steele's most well-known works are: Naumkeag, Mabel Choate's Stockbridge, Massachusetts estate; Ancrum House, Angelica Gerry's New Delhi, New York house; and Charlotte Whitney Allen's town garden in Rochester, New York. Steele was also a skilled and popular lecturer; in the late 1930s he greatly influenced a new generation of landscape architects including James Rose, Dan Kiley and Garrett Eckbo. Steele's work, often undervalued during his lifetime, is now considered to be the bridge between Beaux Arts formalism and modern landscape design.

Steele's early education (and that of his sister Esther, 1883-1964) was conducted at home by his mother. At age twelve, he entered Rochester's Bradstreet School for Boys, graduating in 1903 and going on to Williams College, from which he received his degree in 1907. That autumn Steele enrolled in Harvard's new graduate program of Landscape Architecture. From 1908 until the end of 1913, Steele worked for and was mentored by noted Boston landscape architect Warren Manning, first as apprentice and then as assistant and secretary. In the spring of 1913, Manning was a sponsor of Steele's four-month tour of Europe. At the year's end, with Manning's support, Steele decided to leave his teacher and set out on his own.

By 1915, Steele had built a successful practice. He also helped found the Boston chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and served as its secretary. In October 1917, having been turned away from enlistment in the army due to his age (32), Steele closed his business and entered the American Red Cross's Department of Public Information. Sent to Europe and Russia to take photographs, he returned to many of the places in London and Paris that had affected him on his 1913 trip. Steele's European experiences had a tremendous influence on his work and his politics: he became a regular summer visitor to Europe after the War. At the end of his Red Cross service in 1918, Steele returned to his Boston practice which reached its zenith in the 1920s and 1930s. Steele designed his last garden in 1970 and died July 16, 1971. He is buried in Rochester's Mount Hope Cemetery.