David Williston

David A. Williston (1868–1962) was the first professionally trained African American landscape architect in the United States.[1] He designed many campuses for historically black colleges and universities, including Tuskegee University.[1] He also taught horticulture and landscape architecture.

Early life and education

Williston was born in 1868 in Fayetteville, North Carolina, and was the second of thirteen children.[2] He graduated Howard University Normal School in 1895,[3] then enrolled at Cornell University to study agriculture under Liberty Hyde Bailey.[4] At Cornell, he wrote his senior thesis on atmospheric drainage.[4] Williston was the first African American to graduate Cornell University with a degree in agriculture (B.S. 1898),[4][2] and one of the first African Americans to graduate from Cornell in any discipline.[1] He later completed courses on municipal engineering at the International Correspondence School in Pennsylvania.[3]

Career

Williston taught at several historically black colleges, starting at the State College of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1898.[3]

In 1902, he joined the faculty of Tuskegee Institute as a professor of horticulture, where he taught intermittently for 27 years.[3] At Tuskegee he also served as superintendent of buildings and grounds between 1910 and 1929, where he designed the campus master plan and several Tuskegee facilities.[4][3] He was the landscape architect for the 99th Pursuit Squadron Training School, where the Tuskegee Airmen were based.[4]

He was a lifelong friend of George Washington Carver, who also taught at Tuskegee.[2] Booker T. Washington's home The Oaks was constructed by students as part of the Tuskegee curriculum, and Williston guided students in the landscape design of the home.[3]

Panorama of Tuskegee Institute campus (1918)

Later career

In 1930, Williston moved to Washington D.C. where he opened a landscape architecture firm, believed to be the first African-American-owned landscape architecture firm in the United States.[4][3] Williston continued to teach and practice landscape architecture, and planned the campuses of dozens of historically black colleges.[3] His clients included Fisk University, Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial, Clark University, Alcorn State University, Lane College, Philander Smith College, and Howard University, where he worked with Albert Cassell.[3] He also completed landscape design for the Langston Terrace Dwellings between 1935 and 1938.[3]

Williston continued his relationship with Tuskegee; he consulted with the Institute between 1929 and 1948, and introduced a new landscape plan for the campus in 1948.[3]

Williston continued working into his 90s, and died in 1962 at the age of 94.[5][3]

References

1. "David Williston, 1868-1962". The Cultural Landscape Foundation. Retrieved 2015-02-26.
2. "Seven Surprising Facts about African American Landscape Architect David Williston". American Society of Landscape Architects. Retrieved 2015-02-26.
3. "Learning from Leaders: David Williston". Tuskegee Institute National Historic Site. National Park Service. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
4. Sonken, Lori (26 February 2018). "First African-American landscape architect launched career at Cornell". Cornell Chronicle. Cornell University. Retrieved 19 December 2020.
5. "Obituary". Birmingham World. 18 August 1962. p. 6. Retrieved 19 December 2020.