Ezra C. Stiles

This article is about Ezra C. Stiles. For other uses, see Ezra Stiles (disambiguation).

Ezra C. Stiles (September 26, 1891 - January 27, 1974)[1] was an American landscape architect. He also worked as an urban planner, writer, mapmaker, and painter.[2]

A descendent of Yale University president Ezra Stiles, Ezra Clarke Stiles was born in Painted Post, New York, and graduated from Penn State in 1914 with a degree in Forestry and Landscape Architecture. He began as a community planner in Charlotte, North Carolina, as an employee of John Nolan, a landscape architect in Boston. In 1915, he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to become a draftsman for A.W. Smith, a garden design and florist firm.[3]

In 1926, Stiles founded a landscape architecture firm in Pittsburgh, and ultimately became known as one of the region's top landscape architects. Among his clients were prominent Pittsburgh families (the Scaifes, Corsons, Frownes, and Garmens); corporations (Carnegie Steel Works and Rockwell Manufacturing Corporation), universities (Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina), and city planners (he designed two city parks to mark Pittsburgh's bicentennial).[2] In 1938, he laid out the McKeesport Rose Garden and Arboretum in the Pittsburgh suburb of McKeesport, Pennsylvania.[4]

In the 1960s, Stiles' firm worked with two others to expand the Allegheny County park system.[5]

Stiles wrote at least three books:

He and historian Paul C. Bowman drew a lavishly illustrated map of the American Expeditionary Force's participation in World War I's Meuse-Argonne Offensive; it is preserved by the Library of Congress.[6] Other maps depicted Pittsburgh in 1899[7][8] and Frick Park in 1938.[9]

He had at least one son, Ezra C. Stiles Jr. (1921-1957), who served as a captain in the U.S. Army Air Forces.[1]

Some of Stiles' papers and drawings are preserved by the University of Pittsburgh.[2]

References

  1. 1 2 Cemetery Records from Dorseyville Cemetery
  2. 1 2 3 Collection of Ezra C. Stiles, 1916-1953
  3. ↑ "Ezra C. Stiles, A Re-introduction", PHLF News, December 1997.
  4. ↑ Garden Club of McKeesport Rose Garden and Arboretum: About Us
  5. ↑ Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh: Allegheny County Parks
  6. ↑ Historical map American Expeditionary Force / Ezra C. Stiles, cartographer and Paul C. Bowman, historian.
  7. ↑ WorldCat listing: "Pittsburgh in 1889"
  8. ↑ Map: "Pittsburgh in 1889"
  9. ↑ Pictorial map Frick Park, 1938
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