Butler Sturtevant

Butler Stevens Sturtevant (1 September 1899 – 1971) was an American landscape architect.

Butler Stevens Sturtevant, a ninth-generation Mayflower¹ descendant was born on September 1, 1899, in Delavan, Wisconsin² to James Brown and Ada Belle Sturtevant. In 1918 he enrolled in the undergraduate horticulture program at the University of California, Southern Branch (now UCLA)³. He graduated in 1921. Concurrent with his studies, he gained practical construction experience working with several Southern California landscape architects including Florence Yoch, Charles Gibbs Adams [1], A E. Hansen [2], and the firm of Cook, Hall and Cornell (See Wilbur David Cook)⁴. In 1921, he sharpened his knowledge of plant materials and gained nursery experience working with Theodore Payne⁵, the well-known specialist in California native plants.

In 1922 he enrolled in the Harvard University Graduate School of Landscape Architecture and City Planning⁶. He completed all work but his thesis, and did not earn his graduate degree. His classmates included Thomas Dolliver Church and Charles Eliot. Immediately following Harvard, Sturtevant worked for a series of offices. Initially, he returned to the firm of Cook Hall & Cornell, in Los Angeles⁷, from 1924 to 1925, where he served as an office draftsman. This was followed by brief stints from 1925 to 1926 at Stiles & Van Kleek⁸, in their St. Petersburg, Florida office; office manager and head designer for Fletcher Steele⁹, in Boston, from 1926 to 1927; and as a designer with Gardner, Gardner & Fischer¹⁰, in Los Angeles, from 1927 to 1928.

In 1928, he opened his own office in Seattle, Washington¹¹, to participate with architects Charles Bebb & Carl Freylinghausen Gould in the design of the Normandy Park Subdivision Master Plan (1928 to 1929)¹².

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