Pioneer Information
A native of Brookline, Massachusetts, Obst graduated from Wellesley College in 1912. Having read Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.’s travel writings as a student, Obst eagerly joined the Olmsted Brothers, Landscape Architects’ clerical staff in 1913. She remained with the firm for four decades, working as the private secretary to Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., and even traveling with the firm to Palos Verdes, California in the 1930s. Employment records show that in 1920 Obst earned $125 per month, a salary equivalent to that of the junior landscape architects within the firm. Obst died in Massachusetts in 1963.
