Charles Wellford Leavitt

Charles Wellford Leavitt (1871–1928) was an American landscape architect, urban planner, and civil engineer who designed everything from elaborate gardens on Long Island, New York and New Jersey estates to federal parks in Cuba, hotels in Puerto Rico, plans of towns in Florida, New York and elsewhere. New York publisher Julius David Stern called Leavitt "a rare combination of engineer, artist, and diplomat", and the multi-faceted career chosen by Leavitt, veering between public and private commissions and embracing everything from hard-edged engineering to sensuous garden design, and calling for negotiations with everyone from wealthy entrepreneurs to county commissioners, called for an individual with singular talents. Leavitt was one of the preeminent landscape architects of his era and helped found the study of landscape architecture at New York City's Columbia University, where he was one of the first three professors in the University's new four-year program in the discipline.

Charles Wellford Leavitt Jr. was born in Riverton, New Jersey, on March 13, 1871, the son of Charles Wellford Sr. and Sarah (Allibone) Leavitt. He was educated at The Gunnery school in Washington, Connecticut, and the Cheltenham Military Academy in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania. Charles Wellford Leavitt Jr. married Clara Gordon White at Essex Fells, New Jersey in 1899, and the couple subsequently had four children.

Leavitt began his career as an assistant engineer in charge of construction with the East Jersey Water Company, then subsequently joined the Caldwell Railway and acted as engineer for the town of Essex Fells, New Jersey, where he directed the engineering and construction of water and sewer facilities, roads and other municipal facilities. By 1897 Leavitt had set up his own practice in New York City, and began to take on large projects in the area of landscape design, civil engineering and architecture.

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