"Perhaps the most important lesson to be learned from a car window is that nature covers everything with foliage, and after learning this lesson it will make you sick to see a man trim up his trees to a height of fifteen or twenty feet above the ground, sawing off limbs two, three and four inches in diameter." -O.C. Simonds, May, 1896, The Michigan Horticulturalist magazine
My name is Ossian C. Simonds. I welcome you to my journal, which I hope proves both educational and entertaining to you. In it, you’ll find a peripetetic view of my life–I was born in 1855 on a farm near Grand Rapids, Michigan and I enjoyed a long life as a landscape gardener in Chicago. I will muse–proselytize, more like it–on nature and our need for land conservation.
Since I find myself being somehow “transplanted” into the 21st Century, I can’t help but offer you my opinions on your current ideas about gardening; the designers who artfully use plants to interpret nature; and the parks, cemeteries and public places whose care is entrusted to your government officials.
I’m particularly interested in what is proposed for a small park I designed at the turn of the century–the twentieth century–in Lake Forest, Illinois. It seems that the ladies of the Lake Forest Garden Club have decided that my design isn’t good enough to “dust off” and use again for 2010 and beyond. I’ve been told that their landscape architect has recommended taking the automobiles out of the park along with …[to read more]
My biographer, Barbara Geiger, has just published, Low-Key Genius: The Life and Work of O.C. Simonds. I am very excited to read her book which describes the philosophies that guided over 1,000 landscapes that I designed in my lifetime (and even afterwards, as my firm continued for some time). You can buy this book from Lake Forest Bookstore or from Amazon.
Thank you, Barbara, and thank you to my grandson, Richard, and grand-daughter in law, Roberta, who provided the botanical illustrations for this book, and who have preserved and guarded my legacy so well.#
In December, 1915, I wrote, “Did you know that originally most of the area known as the “North Shore” [of Chicago] was covered with thick forest growth? On the poorer land–the sand dunes and sand and gravel regions from Chicago to Evanston–the Black Oak predominated, but Red Oaks, Bur Oaks, White Oaks and other trees were also found here and there. In the comparatively level district of Wilmette and Kenilworth, with its rich black soil, Elms, Lindens and Ash trees predominated, and farther north, where the land is a stiff clay, our various native Oaks and the Sugar and Red Maples made up the greater part of the forest growth. Hardly any region was without scattered specimens of groups of Lindens. There were also groups and sometimes extensive thickets of wild Crab Apples, Thorn Apples [Hawthorns], Juneberries [Serviceberries] and Viburnums. Ironwoods were abundant and less frequently Blue Beeches were found. Hickories were numerous and occasionally there were Black Walnuts and Butternuts.
Through this region, as it gradually became settled, roadways were cut, sometimes straight, sometimes curved, and the native growth was left on each side of openings approximately 20 feet in width. These roadways were noted for their …[to read more]
Fall, 1931: I’m an old man now, 76 years old, but I’m still full of enthusiasm for nature and for design. This January, I visited my land in DeLand, Florida where I grow tung oil trees. While there, I worked on plans for Nipper Park in Hannibal, Missouri, where my client, Wilson Pettibone, hired me several times over the years to design Riverview Park.
In July, I went out to Freeport, Illinois, and spoke at a meeting of the American Association of Cemetery Superintendents. We visited Oakland Cemetery there, which I designed some years earlier.
Of course, I’ve also had time to reminiscence about notable people I met along life’s highway. One of these people was Sylvester Millard, who owned a log “mansion” in Highland Park in Lake County, Illinois and a home in Geneva Lake, Wisconsin. He was born in 1839, so he was sixteen years older than …[to read more]
In 1911, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Gates Dawes asked me, Ossian Simonds, to design a landscape for their new home at the corner of Greenwood Street and Sheridan Road in Evanston, Illinois. The couple, along with their twenty year old son, Rufus, moved into the mansion in 1909.
Mr. Dawes is an important banker, president of the Central Trust Company of Illinois. He has also spent time in this nation’s capitol when called by the President to be Comptroller of the Currency. Mr. Dawes did so much to reform banking after the devastating Panic of 1893. He ran for Illinois Senator in 1902, but lost. Experts believe that Mr. Theodore Roosevelt, our new President following the assassination of President McKinley in 1901, pragmatically sided with Illinois’ “Old Guard” Republicans against “reformers” like Mr. Dawes, who disliked the machine politics of Cook County.
The east facade of the Dawes Mansion
Mr. Dawes was born in 1865 in Marietta, Ohio, so he is a younger man than I am by ten years. He has an intensity that indicates that he “means business” and enjoys the banking business …[to read more]
Please check out this URL http://www.waymarking.com/waymarks/WM5H6T_Library_Park_Historic_District_Kenosha_WI which describes the landscaping I designed on 170 acres surrounding the Kenosha WI Public Library. Daniel Burnham designed the library building, and I designed the grounds. His design was a smaller version of the neo-classical structures from the 1993 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, but mine was informal, naturalistic. Our collaboration, however, has stood the test of time, and I understand that this is now a National Historic Site. Of course, we must thank Zalmon Simmons, the Kenosha resident who donated the land, the building, and best of all, the architects’ fees.#
As reported in the Grand Rapids Press on May 11, 1901:
“Oh, there are many inexpensive things that may be done [for beautifying the dooryards of small home owners]–indeed there are plenty of wild things which will grown when transplanted, the only expense being that of time and energy in getting them and setting them out. A small yard needs very little, because there always must be the effect of space, and it is better to use shrubbery and vines because they last from year to year and require but little care, while flowers are a constant expense and care.
The best vine perhaps for clinging is the Japanese ivy, but on wooden buildings which require repainting occasionally. It’s more desirable perhaps to have things which may be tained on a trellis–honeysuckles, bittersweet, clematis–several kinds of woodbine are native about here and may be trained most effectively. In a small yard, a little shrubbery may be used, too, close up in a corner, against the house or any out-building. Some kinds of Spirea growing in this country are good for that purpose. Fences may be covered with vines, too, which grow rapidly and cover a great deal of ugliness.
It is well known when Chicago’s cemeteries were created. They were a result of new railroads (Chicago first steam engine was called “The Pioneer” and made its inaugural run in 1848), the end of the 1837 Depression, worries about cholera outbreaks in the inner city, and increased awareness of East Coast and European cemetery landscape design ideas. Chicago’s Rosehill and Calvary Cemeteries were started in 1859. Graceland came along in 1860; Oak Woods Cemetery Association started in 1853. They had good drainage (sometimes created by re-grading) and good views, and were owned and promoted by private developers.
A private development group started the Lake Forest Association and began buying farmland to create lots for sale to wealthy Chicago Presbyterians. As part of their program, they set aside seven acres of woods on Lake Michigan in the geographic center of town for a public park. This was done in 1857.
A law allowing Chicago to build public parks was passed by the State legislature in 1869. The parks bill fueled real estate investments. According to a great book by Cathy Jean Maloney, The Early History of Chicago’s Gardens, [2008, The Univ of Chicago] from which all this information was …[to read more]
On 27 November 1900, I wrote this letter to the Trustees of the Cemetery at Lake Forest, IL:
Dear Sirs;– After studying the grounds in your cemetery, I would make the following recommendations; First. That the entrance be changed from its present location to the southwest corner next to the ravine. The surroundings of the present entrance are not very good while there are some fine trees and a ravine opposite the proposed entrance. Aside from the features mentioned, the southwest corner seems to me the desirable point for making the entrance as it is nearest to the centre of population of Lake Forest. The fact that, with the change, the receiving tomb will be some distance from the entrance I look upon as an advantage instead of a disadvantage. If you ever have a house for a caretaker or a superintendent, it could be located just at the right of the entrance.
Second. The drive connecting the entrance with the present drive at a point in front of Mr. Dwight’s lot should be placed at some distance from the ravine so as to make the lots of good depth along the ravine border. This drive, when graded, …[to read more]
In September, 1918, I wrote an article for the International Garden Club’s Journal which I hope you will find instructive today as well:
“Doubtless nearly everyone remembers the pleasure of a day spent in the woods. The first wild flowers, the new leaves, the element of mystery, the chances to make new discoveries and the perfect freedom, give more pleasure than is usually received from a visit to the most cultivated and well-cared-for park. The household that can retain a bit of natural forest or even a ravine near at hand is indeed fortunate. The question may be asked, “What can be done to preserve the natural charm of such a feature?” To answer this question let us consider a few facts. The woods that charm us most have usually had nothing done to them. We discover in them trilliums, hepaticas, bloodroots and other wild flowers with an exclamation of delight. We enjoy the perfume of wild crab apples, the lindens, and of the woods themselves.
A gentleman in New York State developed a home on land containing many acres of woods. His gardener, …[to read more]
My name is Ossian C. Simonds. I welcome you to my journal, which I hope proves both educational and entertaining to you. In it, you’ll find a peripetetic view of my life–I was born in 1855 on a farm near Grand Rapids, Michigan and I enjoyed a long life as a landscape gardener in Chicago. I will muse–proselytize, more like it–on nature and our need for land conservation.
