Edith Henderson
| Edith Henderson | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Edith Harrison June 9, 1911 Charlotte, North Carolina, United States |
| Died | October 12, 2005 (aged 94) Atlanta, Georgia, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Architect |
| Spouse(s) | James Henderson |
| Practice | Edith Harrison and Grace Campbell, Landscape Architects |
Edith Harrison Henderson (1911–2005) was an American landscape architect who practiced largely in the American South. She wrote a column for the Atlanta Journal Constitution and was the first woman to be elected an officer of the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Edith Harrison was born June 9, 1911 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Her family moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1925. In 1934, she graduated from the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture in Massachusetts and in the same year received her bachelor of science degree from Boston's Simmons College, which at the time was affiliated with the Lowthorpe School.
In 1939, Harrison married Army Captain James Henderson (1913–2013). The couple had three children, a daughter, Grey, and two sons, Edward and James Ross.
After college, Edith moved back to Atlanta, where she opened her own practice with fellow landscape architect Grace Campbell. In 1936, she took a job as director of the new Rich’s Department Store Garden Center. In 1938, with her private practice increasing, she left the position.
During a career that spanned five decades, Henderson consulted with thousands of clients on projects ranging from private gardens to churches and public projects. She eventually obtained landscape architect's licenses in six states. Her most notable project may be the landscaping of the Techwood Homes, the nation's first public housing project, completed in 1936. Of this project, she later observed,
We set it up so the entire design plan would be a green one, that in various times of the year there would always be something in leaf color or in flower. The housing ... [was to be] absorbed inside the city as if it were a park ... a part of the regular life of the entire city, ... [the setting] so carefullly done that it would be pleasing to everyone and would fit in well.
In 1939, she and Campbell were invited to develop the landscape plan for the neighboring Clark Howell Homes, another public housing project in Atlanta. Other prominent projects include the grounds of the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) and the First Presbyterian Church of Atlanta. A Memory Garden she designed for the church takes the form of an angel with outstretched wings, when viewed from above.
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