Contributing Institution: University of California, Berkeley. College of Environmental Design. Environmental Design Archives

Title: Prentiss & Helen French Records

Creator: French, Helen D., 1900-1994

Creator: French, Prentiss, 1894-1989

Identifier/Call Number: 1998.-12

Physical Description: 10 Linear Feet: 1 box, 3 flat file drawers

Date (inclusive): 1932-1978

Language of Material: English .

Collection is open for research

All requests for permission to publish, reproduce, or quote from materials in the collection should be discussed with the Curator

[Identification of Item], Records of Helen D. and Prentiss French, (1998-12), Environmental Design Archives, University of California, Berkeley.

Architect Helen Douglass French and her husband, landscape architect Prentiss French, worked together and independently in New England, Florida, and the San Francisco Bay Area. Helen Douglass was born in 1900 in Arlington, MA. earning her graduate degree at the Cambridge School of Architecture (1917-1921) - now part of the Harvard School of Architecture. She subsequently worked in the Boston offices of Charles G. Loring (1921-1925) and William Delano Aldrich (1925-1926), later studying at the Ecole des Beaux Arts and traveling in Europe (1926-1927). Prentiss French was born in 1894 in Chicago, IL. He earned his 1917 B.A. at Williams College and his Master's Degree in Landscape Architecture from Harvard in 1921 subsequently working in the office of the Olmsted Brothers (1921-1924), and teaching at the University of Massachusetts in 1925. From 1926-1928, Prentiss was employed as the resident landscape architect for the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, then establishing the new town of Venice, FL. Helen and Prentiss married in 1927, and operated a private practice in Boston and Stockbridge, MA between 1928-1932. They then relocated to Sarasota, Florida where they worked in association with architect Clarence Martin for ten years. During WWII, Prentiss was employed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (1942-1946; consultant 1946-1960) after which they moved to the San Francisco Bay Area where Helen Douglass French received her California license in 1946. The couple shared an office in San Francisco from 1947 into the 1960s, working primarily on residential projects throughout Northern California. also completed numerous projects for the U.S. Army in the late 1950s, in California, Alaska and other western states. Helen was a member of the AIA Northern California Chapter, the San Francisco Planning and Housing Association, the Outdoors Arts Club of Mill Valley, the Marin Art and Garden Center, the Women's League of San Francisco, and served as the secretary for the Mill Valley Parks and Recreation Commission. Prentiss passed away around 1989, and Helen followed in 1994. SOURCES: Helen Douglass French membership file, AIA, Washington D.C.; "Helen Douglass French," American Architects Dictionary, 182.; "Helen Douglass French," Who's Who on the Pacific Coast (Chicago: A.N. Marquis Co., 1949). Prentiss French. Biographical Data. The Council of Fellows, American Society of Landscape Architects. Records of the ALSA

The French collection consists primarily of drawings and specifications documenting the French's collaborative and individual work. The majority of the records are those of Helen D. French and is largely architectural in nature. The records are arranged into two series: Professional Papers and Project Records. Though project files form bulk of the collection, some general site planning and structural references can be found in the first series, Professional Papers. Project records consist of drawings, specifications and photographs and some client correspondence. These include records from the French's early work with Clarence Martin in Sarasota, Florida, and Northern California residential projects completed during the 1950s and 60s. In addition to residential work, the records also include photographs of the site of the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant, a PG&E station, and a quadrangle for Harvey Mudd College. Drawings by Prentiss French for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers were transferred to the National Archives, Alaska region.