Female Landscape Architect Pioneers Are Highlighted

For years, landscape architecture was considered primarily to be a man’s domain. But over time, and now with much more frequency, women have broken into what many would call a man’s world. And on Friday, May 20, “Long Island Landscapes and the Women Who Designed Them” author Cynthia Zaitzevsky will tell the stories of four female pioneers who did just that.

“There’s a great deal of interest in the history of landscape architecture, and most of it is focused around male architects,” Ms. Zaitzevsky said during a telephone interview last week. “But we’re gradually discovering that women did a lot of interesting work, too.”

At the Meadow Club in Southampton, during a lecture and luncheon hosted by the Southampton Historical Museum, Ms. Zaitzevsky said she plans to delve into the lives of four of the six profiled architects in her book: Beatrix Ferrand, Marian Coffin, Ruth Dean and Annette Hoyt Flanders.

“What’s in the book is more than I can cover,” Ms. Zaitzevsky said with a chuckle.

In an age when female landscape architects weren’t the norm, these women’s designs prominently graced gardens across Southampton and East Hampton in the 1930s and 1940s, said Ms. Zaitzevsky. She added that many of their creations no longer exist—not necessarily because they’ve all been destroyed, but because gardens are constantly evolving.

“It’s very hard to tell who a garden’s designer was just by looking at it,” she said. “They tend to change. People rarely keep their gardens with exactly the same plants and the same design over a long period of time.”

The work of the women highlighted in the book was at the top of its class, excelling in layout, design and choice of plants, Ms. Zaitzevsky said. Most of the gardens bloomed with perennial flowers and were part of larger estates, though some consisted mainly of trees and shrubs, she reported.

“They were in some ways the best of the best,” Ms. Zaitzevsky said. “Some of the women were fantastic but, for one reason or another, had shorter careers. Ruth Dean, who is buried in East Hampton, had the misfortune to die in her early 30s, so she didn’t have as long a career as she might have had.”

Lynn Egan, director of the museum’s programs and special events, stumbled across Ms. Zaitzevsky’s book about a year ago and said she thought, “Oh wow, this is incredible.”

“The book is about gardens, for sure, but it’s also about women and what they were going through at the time,” Ms. Egan explained. “Astonishingly, records show that half of the private gardens laid out on Long Island during the Golden Age of country homes were designed by women.”

Ms. Coffin, for example, is known for her designs for Charles and Pauline Sabin’s Sebonac estate, “Bayberry Land,” and Henry Francis du Pont’s “Chestertown” in Southampton.

All proceeds from the lecture and luncheon will benefit the Halsey House herb garden, which is in dire need of a face-lift, Ms. Egan explained. The lecture is also an effort to draw in a different crowd, she said.

“Sometimes we need to wiggle our way through to different groups of people who wouldn’t necessarily be interested in old bottles, old cars and old stuff,” she said. “With this, you’re looking at women who were breaking new ground, starting businesses among men. I think it would be inspirational to any young woman who attends.”

She paused, and laughed.

“But don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to alienate any men from attending, either,” she added.

The Southampton Historical Museum will host “Long Island Landscapes and the Women Who Designed Them,” a talk with author Cynthia Zaitzevsky on Friday, May 20, at 11:30 a.m. at the Meadow Club in Southampton. Tickets are $35 for the lecture only, or $75 for the lecture and luncheon. For tickets or information, call 283-2494.