Farrand, Beatrix

Farrand, Beatrix (b. Jones)

(1872–1959) landscape architect; born in New York City (niece of Edith Wharton). Tutored at home, she traveled frequently to Europe with her mother, and in 1893 studied horticulture with Charles Sargent at the Arnold Arboretum near Boston. She began her career in her mother's New York home in 1895, winning her first major commission the following year. In 1899, she founded the American Society of Landscape Architects with ten other designers. Unfortunately none of her early gardens have survived, but at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington (1921–47), she transformed the Bliss family farm into a masterpiece of asymmetrical design, with formal walkways leading off into planted areas, and a combination of impressionist use of color with formal garden beds. She designed the Memorial and Silliman College quadrangles and the Marsh Botanical Garden for Yale University (1922–45), part of a series of college commissions. From 1945 she worked on Reef Point Gardens in Bar Harbor, Maine, creating a native flora garden, herbarium, and research library.