Oglesby Paul (1876-1915), and Arthur Folsom Paul (1879-1953)
Oglesby Paul was born in Pennsylvania to parents Frank W. Paul and Florence Paul, part of a large and prominent Philadelphia family. He received his B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1899, and went on to Harvard to study agricultural science and landscape architecture. Completing his studies at Harvard in 1902, he returned to Philadelphia to practice landscape architecture and serve as the landscape gardener to Fairmount Park. He is credited with a number of suburban estate landscapes, primarily in the Main Line of Philadelphia. Projects outside Philadelphia include sites in West Virginia and Virginia. Paul died in 1915 at age 39, but was very productive and active in his profession during his short life. Married to Laura Wilson in Trinity Church in Boston in 1907, he was survived by one son, Lawrence Oglesby Paul.
Arthur Folsom (F.) Paul was born in Boston, MA 1879 to Frank T. and Lilla F. Paul. It is unclear what if any family relationship existed between Oglesby Paul and Arthur F. Paul, but they were contemporaries and colleagues. Arthur F. Paul attended Harvard during the same period as Oglesby Paul, and also studied agricultural science at the Bussey Institution receiving his degree in landscape architecture in 1903. Arthur F. Paul moved to Philadelphia to work with Oglesby Paul in 1903, and continued to do so until the time of Oglesby Paul’s death. Arthur F. Paul and Stephen Ford continued the landscape architecture practice, later becoming Dreher, Churchman, Paul and Ford from 1919-1922. After 1922, Paul appears to have practiced alone, and was later associated with Andorra Nurseries as a landscape architect. By 1950 Paul became its president. He was married twice and survived by three children.
If anyone has information/documentation on the work and clients of Oglesby Paul and/or Arthur F. Paul, particularly with respect to projects in Virginia, please contact:
Cheryl Miller
The Garden Club of Virginia Favretti Research Fellow, 2014
cmnewleaf@yahoo.com
Photo of Tyrconnell located near Baltimore, MD. Tyrconnell is one of Arthur F. Paul’s best known works. Digital file from Library of Congress, Carnegie Survey of the Architecture of the South, Call Number LC-J7-MD-1433.
