Pioneer Information
Born in Washington, D.C., Bakewell moved to St. Louis, Missouri, in 1912 when her father, botanist George Moore, became the second director the Missouri Botanical Garden. Bakewell took classes at Washington University, Smith College, and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design but did not complete her studies before marrying Boyle Owsley Rodes in 1927.
Following their wedding, the couple settled in Ladue, Missouri, and had four children before Boyle Rodes died suddenly in 1945. After his death, Bakewell completed her education at the Washington University School of Architecture, receiving a bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture in 1947. Following graduation, she worked for three years in private practice in Kentucky and St. Louis and in 1951 she joined Emmett and Ruth Layton as a partner in Layton, Layton & Rodes where she worked until 1956. In 1956 she married Paul Bakewell, Jr., and in 1958 she founded her own firm, Harriet Rodes Bakewell & Associates.
Bakewell’s practice contributed landscape designs for many significant projects throughout the St. Louis region, including the entrance fountains and plantings for Lambert-St. Louis Airport, the gradual transformation of the Joseph Pulitzer estate over many years, the Steinberg Skating Rink in Forest Park, and the Japanese Garden, Anne L. Lehmann Rose Garden, Shapleigh Fountain, and Waldemer Memorial Fountain at the Missouri Botanical Garden. Bakewell became a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1962 and was named a Fellow in 1983. She died in St. Louis in 1987.
