Black Landscape Architects Matter

In 1902, Booker T. Washington recruited landscape architect David Augustus Williston (1868-1962) to join the faculty of the Department of Agriculture and to serve as superintendent of grounds (Figure 1). Williston was born in 1868 on a farm in the outskirts of Fayetteville, North Carolina, as one of twelve children. His parents encouraged their children to garden, assigning each their own garden plot; young David soon excelled at growing flowers. At age twenty-five, he joined one of his brothers in Washington, D.C., to attend Howard Normal School. After he graduated, he enrolled at Cornell University in 1895 where he studied agricultural science and horticulture with the renowned Liberty Hyde Bailey. Williston was the first African American to graduate from Cornell’s College of Agriculture and the first professionally trained black landscape architect in the United States.[1]

Figure 1. David Augustus Williston, ca. 1930s. NPS.

After Cornell, Williston earned a degree in municipal engineering from the International Correspondence School in Pennsylvania. He went on to teach at State College of North Carolina at Greensboro and at Lincoln Institute in Jefferson City, Missouri, before he joined Tuskegee Institute. For the next twenty-seven years, Williston taught at Tuskegee, with occasional short stints at other colleges, including Fisk University, where he taught horticulture and agriculture from 1907–1909.[2]

When Williston to joined the faculty of the Department of Agriculture, Washington assigned him the dual moniker of “Professor of Horticulture and Landscape Gardener.” In 1910, however, Williston apparently dropped his teaching role and became “Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds,” in charge of building maintenance in addition to landscape planning, construction, and maintenance. After he relocated to Washington, D.C., in 1929, Williston continued to guide the development of the Tuskegee campus as a consultant until 1948.[3]

One of Williston’s first landscape design projects at Tuskegee was for Booker T. Washing-ton’s home, “The Oaks.” When completed in 1906, the landscape included a picket fence along the front and side yards, trees along Montgomery Road, and many other tree and shrubs plantings, including a line of trees along the eastern property boundary (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Williston's design for "The Oaks." LOC.

Williston was also a strong influence in planning the campus layout, working in collaboration with Robert Taylor. He influenced the relocation of the Lincoln Gates in 1904 and was also likely responsible for the landscape development of the Girls’ Quadrangle, which was the area enclosed by the women’s dormitories, training buildings, and accessory buildings. Williston is known to have designed the Picturesque-style, rustic gazebo that still stands within that area (Figure 3). The octagonal wood-frame structure rises above a raised foundation ornamented with rough-cut stone. Williston also designed the system of drives and pathways, as well as the extensive ornamental plantings that appear in various photographs of the area (Figure 4).

Figure 3. Gazebo designed by Williston. LOC.

In 1906, Williston collaborated with Tuskegee Institute architect, Robert Taylor, to develop a “plan of improvement” for the campus to combat a rash of ad hoc changes made to the campus grounds by other faculty members. Williston presented the plan to the faculty, describing how “the details can be worked in so as to round out the general scheme and an ideal spot of beauty can be formed.” Taylor wrote a more strongly-worded memo, admonishing other faculty and asking that prior to making improvements, they should “consult either Mr. Williston or myself.”[4] One example of a “spot of beauty” was Williston’s design of the rustic gazebo that was placed within the Girls’ Quadrangle in 1907 (see Figure 3).

Figure 4. Landscape of Alabama Hall. LOC.

While working as Superintendent of Buildings and Grounds from 1910 to 1929, Williston oversaw most of the construction and maintenance of landscape features on the campus. He directed workers to line all the campus roads with gutters to control stormwater and had all the roads and walkways paved in locally quarried “white chert.” Williston also designed the iconic circular intersection at the center of the group of buildings that included the Chapel, Trades Buildings, and Dorothy Hall (Figure 4). It was also Williston who proposed the iron fence along the campus edge and the installation of concrete light poles, chosen with the idea that vines could be trained to cover them and “in this way the beauty of the grounds added to.”[5]

In 1929, Williston started a private practice, providing campus planning for black land-grant colleges. By 1934, he had moved the practice to Washington, D.C., where it was the first black-owned professional landscape architecture practice in the country. Williston’s work included campus planning for several black colleges and universities, including Clark University in Atlanta, Alcorn State University in Mississippi, Lane College in Tennessee, and Philander Smith College in Arkansas. He also collaborated with black architect Albert Cassell on an expansion of Howard University. In addition, Williston completed residential landscape designs for several important black leaders, including Dr. John Hope, president of Atlanta University, and Dr. Ralph Johnson Bunche, American diplomat and recipient of the 1950 Nobel Peace Prize. In 1946, Williston was recognized by Howard University as “among the leading American landscape architects.” Although no longer practicing from an office at the campus, Williston continued to work on projects for Tuskegee Institute throughout the rest of his career.[6] Williston continued in private practice until his death on July 28, 1962.[7]

References Cited

[1] Williams, Douglas A. “David Augustus Williston (1868–1962).” In African American Architects: A Biographical Dictionary, 1865–1945, edited by Dreck Spurlock Wilson. New York, NY: Routledge Publishing, 2004, 453–455; The Cultural Landscape Foundation, “David Williston,” accessed September 25, 2017, https://tclf.org/pioneer/david‐williston. [2] Ibid. [3] Goetcheus, Carrie. “Booker T. Washington: The Man and His Landscape.” CRM, No. 8 (1999). [4] Clement, Art; Beth Grashof, Dale Jaeger, and Keyes Williamson. Campus Heritage Plan, Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Alabama. Atlanta, GA: Clement & Wynn, 2009, 13, quoting Richard Kevin Dozier in “Tuskegee: Booker T. Washington’s Contribution to the Education of Black Architects.” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1990, 138. [5] Clement, et al., quoting Dozier, 138-139. The “white chert” revered to may have been either limestone gravel, or possibly fine river gravel. [6] Goetcheus. [7] Williams; The Cultural Landscape Foundation. In 2002, landscape architect Douglas Arnell Williams completed his thesis, entitled “David A. Williston: The First Professional African American Landscape Architect and His Campus Designs for Historically Black Colleges and Universities,” at Cornell University. Williams is currently writing a biography of David August Williston.