| | Abstract: | A. Donald Gray (1891-1939) was a notable landscape architect and designer in Cleveland, Ohio from 1920-1939. Gray worked briefly with Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., in Brookline, Massachusetts, before establishing a landscape architecture practice in Cleveland. He designed many private gardens and estates for some of the most elite families of Cleveland and its outlying suburbs, including the noted private development of Fairhill Road houses in 1931. Gray was also the landscape designer for several public projects, including the Cedar-Central apartments, the first federal public-housing project in the nation, and many of Cleveland's public parks. Perhaps his most notable achievemant was the creation of the WPA-funded Horticultural Gardens for the Great Lakes Exposition, 1936-1937, some of which remain on the site north of Cleveland's Municipal Stadium. The gardens were named for Gray as a memorial after his death. Gray took several trips to England, South America, Mexico and elsewhere throughout his career to study the landscaping of great houses and public places. He also contributed a regular gardening column to the Cleveland Press during the mid-1930s. The collection consists of some personal records, but largely records pertaining to Gray's numerous landscape design projects, including projects for William S. Halle, Mrs. Leonard C. Hanna, Edwin C. Higbee, Fred and Robert Lazarus of Columbus, Ohio, Crispen Oglebay, John Sherwin, and the Van Sweringen brothers. The records consist of correspondence, invoices, receipts, drawings, plans, photographs, blueprint designs, financial records, etc. The collection contains significant material regarding the Fairhill Road houses of the Fairmount Road Group Development Association, the Cedar-Central Housing Project, Cleveland city park projects, and, in particular, the Horticultural Gardens of the Great Lakes Exposition. Included are articles and clippings from Gray's gardening column in the Cleveland Press, lectures, travel reports, personal and financial papers and papers regarding Gray's personal residence, material pertaining to the preservation and restoration of the Dunham Tavern on Euclid Ave. in Cleveland, and photograph albums and photograph scrapbooks of Gray's trips and design projects, some by the noted photographer Margaret Bourke-White. | |
