Guide to the Edward Huntsman-Trout Architectural Landscape Drawings

Guide prepared by Kenneth W. Homsley for History Associates Incorporated
Ella Strong Denison Library
Libraries of The Claremont Colleges
Scripps College
1090 Columbia Avenue
Claremont, CA 91711
Phone: (909) 607-3941
Fax: (909) 607-1548
Email: denison@libraries.claremont.edu
URL:http://libraries.claremont.edu/den/l
© 2005
Claremont University Consortium. All rights reserved.


Descriptive Summary

Title: Edward Huntsman-Trout Architectural Landscape Drawings Collection
Creator: Huntsman-Trout, Edward
Dates: 1927-1956
Date (bulk): (bulk 1929-1931)
Quantity: 3 cubic feet
Repository: Claremont Colleges. Library.
1090 Columbia Avenue
Claremont, California 91711
Abstract: This collection contains views, details, elevations, and drawings showing the planned arrangement of outside courts, inner courts, wall fountains, gate entrances, stone urns, and gardens throughout Scripps College. This collection also contains an aerial planting perspective of the college. The collection covers the years 1927 to 1956, with the bulk of the material ranging from 1929 to 1931.
Physical Location: Ella Strong Denison Library
Collection Number: D1987.1
Language: English

Administrative Information

Restrictions on Access

This collection is open for research with permission from Ella Strong Denison Library staff.

Publication Rights

All requests for permission to publish must be submitted in writing to Denison Library.

Location of Originals

Orininals located at UCLA.

Preferred Citation

Edward Huntsman-Trout Architectural Landscape Drawings Collection. Ella Strong Denison Library, Scripps College, Claremont, California.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Marka Oliver Hibbs (Class of 1953) in 1987.

Processing Information

Preliminary arrangement by library staff. Processed by History Associates Incorporated, 2005.

Accruals

No addition to the collection is anticipated.

Biography of Edward Huntsman-Trout

Edward Huntsman-Trout, landscape architect, was born on July 31, 1889 in Ontario, Canada. Shortly after his mothers’ death (1892), he moved to the home of his great-aunt and uncle (the Trout’s) in Toronto. In 1908 the Trout’s moved to Los Angeles, where Edward finished high school, and later graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Botany in 1913. The following fall, he began his studies at Harvard’s School of Landscape Architecture, graduating in 1916.
Huntsman-Trout was a well-known landscape architect in Southern California between 1920 and the early 1970’s, and was a prominent designer of both residential estates and larger non-residential commissions. At Harvard, Huntsman-Trout studied a range of landscape traditions, including the principles of naturalistic English tradition to the more architectonic approach exemplified in Italian Renaissance and Baroque gardens as espoused by the Ecole des Beaux Arts. His early work was within the tradition of the great European estates that later gave way to an individual approach, which blended existing site conditions and the clients needs with his own preference for an uncontrived solution. Huntsman-Trout was a plantsmen first, using plants to enhance rather than determine his designs. He adapted earlier traditions to inspire his development of a particular site.
Educated at Harvard, Huntsman-Trout was later trained at prestigious eastern firms. His first job was in the office of Fletcher Steele, a landscape architect in Boston. While at Fletcher Steele, he supervised the construction of an estate in northern Maine. This made him an ideal choice for his later collaborations with Gordon Kaufman, a leading architect during this period.
Huntsman-Trout served in WWI – posted in France. After the war Huntsman-Trout returned to the United States, working briefly as the head of the design department at A.D. Taylor in Cleveland, where he supervised crews on a variety of projects. After receiving news that his great-aunt was ill, Huntsman-Trout returned to Los Angeles. Not long after his arrival in Los Angeles Huntsman-Trout accepted a position with the landscape architecture department at Beverly Hills Nursery. One of the gardens Huntsman-Trout designed for Beverly Hills Nursery was for the home of Roy and Hazel Pinkham (1922). In the course of working on the Pinkham project, Huntsman-Trout met his wife, future clients, and several architects with whom he would later work – including Gordon Kaufman. His association with the Pinkhams enabled him to acquire his own clients, and eventually leave Beverly Hills nursery.
Huntsman-Trout joined a handful of independent landscape artists practicing in Southern California. He based his site plans on Italian Renaissance and Baroque models, diminishing the distinction between structures and surroundings and using plantings to clearly define spaces. During the 1920’s Huntsman-Trout became interested in the romanticized Spanish Mission heritage that had transformed into a “California Style” landscape. These California Style projects include: Dios Dorados (1923), which he designed for movie director Thomas Ince; the Winnett Estate (1928-1929) overlooking Santa Monica Canyon; the Mudd Estate in Benedict Canyon; and the Jay Paley estate (1935), one of the last great estates.
During the 1920’s, Huntsman-Trout was also involved in non-residential landscape design. The most representative examples of his non-residential projects are the La Quinta Hotel (1926-1929) near Indio, Scripps College (1927) in Claremont, and Bullock’s Wilshire (1929). Scripps College, like the La Quinta Hotel, features one and two story Spanish Colonial Revival buildings placed on rectilinear, interlocking axes. The plan at Scripps was highly complex. The open spaces are enhanced by the addition of intimate courtyards and slight changes of level. Two major axes make up the scheme; the east-west axis of the auditorium; and the art building facing north toward the bowling green and Toll Hall. These axes together make the structural backbone of the plan. They give it strength and stability to contrast with the free form of trees and other plants. Garden grounds are frequent throughout. Shade trees are everywhere.
During World War II Huntsman-Trout’s career was briefly placed on hold. Although he was too old to join the military (53), he supported the war effort by working for the Douglas Corporation as a camoufleur. After the war Huntsman-Trout returned to his office, but instead of working on large estates, he was involved in designing smaller gardens within the new subdivisions that were sprouting up throughout Southern California. By 1965, Huntsman-Trout worked exclusively on residential projects, completing thirty private gardens in his final seven years of practice.

Chronology

1889 Born in Ontario, Canada on July 31, 1889.
1892 Mother dies
1908 Moved to Los Angeles, California.
1913 Graduated from UC Berkeley.
1916 Graduated from Harvard’s School of Landscape Architecture.
1922 Designed garden for Beverly Hills Nursery for the home of Roy and Hazel Pinkham.
1923 Designed Dios Dorados for movie director Thomas Ince.
1926-1929 Designed La Quinta Hotel near Indio.
1927 Designed Scripps College in Claremont, California.
1928-1929 Designed Winnett Estate.
1929 Designed Bullock’s Wilshire.
1935 Designed Jay Paley estate.

Scope and Contents of the Collection

This collection consists of one series - Architectural Landscape Drawings. The material in the collection includes views, details, elevations, and drawings showing the planned arrangement of inner courts, outside courts, wall fountains, gate entrances, stone urns, and gardens throughout Scripps College. This collection also contains an aerial planting perspective of the college. The collection covers the years 1927-1956 with the bulk of the material ranging from 1927 to 1931.

Index Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Names:

Huntsman-Trout, Edward, 1889-1974

Subjects:

Scripps College--History--Sources.
Landscape architecture - California

Genres and Forms of Materials

Architectural drawings
Blueprints
Sketches


 

Series 1.  Architectural Landscape Drawings, 1927-1956

Physical Description: 3 cubic feet

Scope and Content Note

This collection contains views, details, elevations, and drawings showing the planned arrangement of outside courts, inner courts, wall fountains, gate entrances, stone urns, and gardens throughout Scripps College. This collection also contains an aerial planting perspective of the college.
Box 1, Folder 1

Alumnae Park, 1930

Box 1, Folder 2

Arrangement of Walks, 1931

Box 1, Folder 3

Balch Hall and Campus Entrance, Arrangement of Grounds, 1929

Box 1, Folder 4

Bowling Green Walls and Steps, 1928

Box 1, Folder 5

Campus Light Posts, 1930

Box 1, Folder 6

Campus Plans, 1927-1928

Box 1, Folder 7-8

Clark Hall, 1928

Box 1, Folder 7

Arrangement of Grounds, 1928

Box 1, Folder 8

Fountain in Dining Court, 1928

Box 1, Folder 9

Courtyard, undated

Box 1, Folder 10

Denison Library, 1930-1931

Box 1, 11

Dorsey Hall, Planting Plan, 1930

Box 1, Folder 12

Eleventh Street Entrance, 1936

Box 1, Folder 13

F.S. Cast Stone Urns, 1936

Box 1, Folder 14

Fine Arts Building, 1938-1939

Box 1, Folder 15

General Plan, 1929

Box 1, Folder 16

Lath House, 1936

Box 1, Folder 17

Margaret Fowler Memorial Garden, 1932-1934

Box 1, Folder 18

Music Buildings, Smith and Williams, Architects, 1956

Box 1, Folder 19

Planting Perspective, undated

Box 1, Folder 20

Park Strip at Foothill Boulevard,1941

Box 1, Folder 21

Preliminary Site Development Plan, Quinton Engineers Ltd., undated

Box 1, Folder 22

Revised Study for Arrangement of Quadrangle, 1928

Box 1, Folder 23

Rose Garden, 1929

Box 1, Folder 24

Scripps Hall, Arrangement of Grounds, 1928-1929

Box 1, Folder 25

Swimming Pool, 1929

Box 1, Folder 26

Twelfth Street from Columbia T. Amherst Avenue, Proposed Improvement, 1930