Pioneer Information
Born in Brooklyn, New York, Jones earned a B.A. from Smith College in 1910. From 1912 to 1917 she taught botany at Adelphi College in New York. In 1917 she joined the war effort, working as an inspector in a gas mask factory and later as a clerk in the delinquency draft board office. Jones returned to school in 1921, studying plant materials at Harvard Summer School and the Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture. In 1924 she moved to New York City to work for Annette Hoyt Flanders. The following year Jones established her own office. In 1932 she was hired by the New York City Department of Parks to supervise playground design under Gilmore Clarke. Upon her marriage in 1936 Jones moved to Stamford, Connecticut. She continued to work from her New York City office, and earned an M.L.A. from Smith College the following year. In 1941 Jones trained as a Red Cross nurse’s aide, serving the organization until 1945. By the end of World War II she had moved her practice to Stamford, where she continued to work until her retirement in 1970.
Jones lectured and wrote about landscape architecture throughout her career, speaking at local garden clubs and participating in nationally-broadcast talks. Her articles on landscape design were published in several magazines, including House Beautiful, House and Garden, and Arts Magazine. Jones also authored a series of pamphlets on gardening and garden design for publisher William H. Wise. She served as secretary and treasurer for the New York Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) from 1932 to 1936, and by 1934 she became the first female landscape architect to join the Architectural League of New York, being elected vice president of the organization in 1940. Jones became a Fellow of the ASLA in 1953.
