The man who made Colonial Williamsburg's gardens world-famous

The Alexander Craig House garden at Colonial Williamsburg. (Sangjib Min / Daily Press / January 5, 2006)

WILLIAMSBURG

Just 18 days after forming Colonial Williamsburg Inc. and the Williamsburg Holding Corporation on Feb. 27, 1928, preservation pioneer W.A.R Goodwin made one of his most important hires.

Over the following 13 years, landscape architect Arthur A. Shurcliff would not only help define the look and feel of the emerging Historic Area but also make Colonial Revival garden design a nationally influential force in shaping the 20th-century American landscape aesthetic.

Arthur Shurcliff was the original and principal architect behind the Colonial Revival gardens that helped make Colonial Williamsburg's landscape design world-famous. (Lombardi; Barbara Temple / February 4, 2009)

"From the very beginning, Williamsburg's restorers appreciated the importance of reconstructing the gardens and greens as well as the houses and shops," write M. Kent Brinkley and Gordon W. Chappell in "The Gardens of Colonial Williamsburg."

And the "clear, simple, direct, energetic and, personally, very charming" Shurcliff -- as he was described by his colleague and lead restoration architect William Graves Perry -- served not only as the original and principal architect of the Historic Area's world-renowned landscape but also -- as Brinkley and Chappell note -- "a pivotal figure in the development of the discipline of landscape architecture in America."

Educated in engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and in art history, design and horticulture at Harvard University, Shurcliff began his career in 1896 working in the famed Brookline, Mass. office of Frederick Law Olmstead Sr. -- the father of landscape architecture in America.

In 1904, he set up his own practice in Boston, where he drew national attention for his work on the layout of Old Sturbridge Village and the Charles River Esplanade in Boston, among many other projects. He also was influential in the early development of the American Society of Landscape Architects, where he served two terms as president (19281932).

Shurcliff had more than 30 years experience, in fact, when he began developing designs for Colonial Williamsburg on March 17, 1928, and he was well known for an academic style marked by its fondness for symmetry and geometric features.

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The man who made Colonial Williamsburg's gardens world-famous