The Northwest Gardens of Lord & Schryver by Valencia Libby

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Northwest Gardens of Lord & Schryver by Valencia Libby David Porter THE NORTHWEST GARDENS OF LORD & SCHRYVER by Valencia Libby Oregon State University Press, Corvallis, 2021. Illustrations, photographs, notes, bibliography, index. 256 pages. $29.95 paper Valencia Libby exhaustively recaps the lives and work of Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver, life partners who founded the first women-owned landscape architecture firm in the Pacific Northwest. The two women met by chance in the dining salon of an ocean liner in 1927. The voyage was the first leg on a tour of Europe’s great gardens and monuments. Their chance meeting and felicitous first encounter made them traveling companions. After docking in Edinburgh, Scotland, the tour took them across the Continent. It is easy to imagine their journey had a flavor of romantic adventure worthy of the cinema. On side trips, for example, they flew to Spain and Morocco; the Moorish gardens inspired some of their later designs. They discovered shared perceptions and tastes as they traveled. Ultimately, they believed that they would find opportunity in their profession if they started out in Oregon where Lord’s family connections could help them succeed. Schryver, daughter of an industrious entrepreneur from New York, and Lord, child of a leading family in Salem, Oregon, found much in common. Both were passionate about gardens, design, and landscape architecture. Schryver at age twenty-six was already employed in a New York firm, while Lord, age thirty-nine, was studying at Lowthorpe, a landscape program in Massachusetts that trained women professionals who could be economically independent. Gardening with her mother had sparked Lord’s horticultural interest. In 1922, her work improving the grounds of a local country club won praise, which led her to Lowthorpe and eventually Schryver. After the two women launched their firm, they cultivated clients eager to own knowledgeably conceived and constructed gardens. The firm’s early years were challenging as the Great Depression unfolded. Libby describes their fortitude facing challenges, their willingness to do the necessary work themselves, and the steady growth of their reputation for designing gardens that not only pleased the eye but also “stir the imagination” in the words of their friend Alice Brown Powell (p. 72). The book recounts the development and construction of ten private gardens in the Pacific Northwest. Undoubtedly, Lord’s social connections helped the firm succeed. During those years, they also took on public projects, such as an extensive design for Breitenbush Hot Springs in the Willamette National Forest. Also notable was their work in 1938 developing a landscape plan at historic McLoughlin House in Oregon City. Closest to their heart was the design and construction of their Salem home, Gaiety Hollow, and its gardens. Lord and Schryver’s reputation later prompted the Portland Garden Club to hire them to design its headquarters in Portland. Lord and Schryver had a notable effect on regional landscape architecture. They helped the profession build its credibility with architects, horticulturists, and contractors, making clear that women were capable practitioners in all of these areas. They brought new perspectives on garden design, incorporating novel elements they had seen in their far-ranging travels. They broadened the plant palette employed in Northwest gardens with knowledge of plants from the East Coast and other areas where they had made connections. This book will satisfy readers who are deeply interested in these women and in landscape design’s evolution through the twentieth century. [End Page 315] David Porter Gresham, Oregon Copyright © 2022 Oregon Historical Society