Pioneer Information
Born in Kent, England, Kellaway moved with his family to Needham, Massachusetts, where he graduated from high school. He began his career in 1892 as a draftsman in the office of Olmsted, Olmsted, and Eliot during the period in which the firm was completing their plan for Boston’s “Emerald Necklace” park corridor. During his tenure with the Olmsted firm, Kellaway also worked on campus plans for Smith, Amherst, and Middlebury Colleges. He left the firm in 1906 to establish his own office, taking on several projects updating original designs by the Olmsted firm, including the Newton Centre Playground, designed by Olmsted, Sr., in 1891. Reflecting the growing popularity of public sports and recreation facilities, Kellaway added basketball courts, a croquet lawn, and archery grounds, and rerouted a Picturesque meandering brook to create additional play areas. He also designed a tree-lined parkway in Brookline, connecting their northern and southern parks, and a plan to improve the waterway systems of Winchester, both in Massachusetts. During World War I, Kellaway was recommended by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., to serve on a committee of city planners tasked with planning and overseeing construction of U.S. Army complexes, with Kellaway directing the Ft. Devens complex in Ayer, Massachusetts. Kellaway was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1912 and was one of eight landscape architects to incorporate a chapter in Massachusetts. He wrote frequently about his profession, covering topics ranging from suburban home gardening to increasing public attention for land planning. Kellaway retired in 1944, and died in Bath, Maine, in 1947.
