Pioneer Information
Born in 1892 in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, London attended three institutions during the 1920s: the University of Pennsylvania; Pennsylvania State College and the Lowthorpe School of Landscape Architecture in Groton, Massachusetts. Subsequently, she worked in the offices of three women landscape architects in New York: Agnes Selkirk Clark, Isabella Pendleton, and Ellen Shipman. London moved to Houston in 1930 and began her own practice in 1932.
During the 1930s, London’s commissions, primarily for members of the Garden Club of Houston, were residential designs characterized by a clean, modern simplicity that incorporated the emergent use of Gardens as outdoor living spaces. In 1939, she gained national attention as a number of her gardens were featured on the annual Garden Club of America convention tour, and then published in Landscape Architecture. London received a large contract in 1946 for the U.S. Navy Hospital in Houston.
By the 1950s, London had incorporated several Modernist design intentions into her work, such as no defining focal point and combining curvilinear and rectilinear forms. This can be seen in her 1952 design for the First Unitarian Church patio. London was recommending native plants to clients by 1954, another application of emergent ideals in design to her work. London worked in Houston for the remainder of her life, passing away on February 4, 1966.
