When you explore a garden that is visually stunning, do you ever stop to wonder about the design, about the decisions and thought that went into planning it? Thomas Dolliver Church (1902-1978) is one of the most well-known and influential American garden designers. In fact, garden historian Toby Musgrave went so far as to assert that Church is the most influential garden designer of the 20th century.
Church is known as the father of the modern California garden, a style that developed from Church’s design philosophy and the influences of the environment, economy, and lifestyle in California. Prior to starting his San Francisco-based landscape design business, Church traveled through Spain and Italy; his exposure to these cultures heavily influenced his approach. Church spent the majority of his decades-long career designing residential gardens. He believed that the garden should be an extension of the home and was known for putting the needs of the client first. A prolific landscape architect who designed more than 2,000 gardens, he also wrote the seminal landscape architecture book "Gardens Are For People", in which he details the four principles of his design philosophy: unity, function, simplicity, and scale. Church’s most well-known garden is El Novillero in Sonoma, California.
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| El Novillero. Sonoma, California. Photographer: Marion
Bottomley. Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, Garden Club of America Collection |
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El Novillero. Sonoma, California.
Photographer: Marion Bottomley.
Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, Garden Club of America Collection |
For further biographical information, please see:
The Cultural Landscape Foundation
Indiana Public Media's Focus on Flowers
Thomas D. Church bio and link to the Thomas D. Church collection in the Online Archive of California
gardenserve.com
Bella Wenum, Intern
Archives of American Gardens
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