Patterson Robert 1905- 1988. Robert W. Patterson - Dumbarton Oaks Page 1 of 2 LIBRARY PUBLICATIONS NEWS & STUDIES & & ONLINE ABOUT VISIT EVENTS GARDENS MUSEUM PROGRAMS ARCHIVES RESOURCES Return to Dumbarton Oaks Garden Archives Home Contents Index Search & Refine Help Robert W. Patterson Robert W. Patterson Patterson, Robert W., 1905-1988 Robert W. Patterson (1905-1988) joined the staff of Dumbarton Oaks as a consulting landscape architect in 1946. Beatrix Farrand hand-selected himto aid her and eventually take over as she slowly transitioned into retirement. At seventy-two years old, Farrand sufered from gout, arthritis, and fatigue that prevented her from traveling to Washington D.C. from her home in Bar Harbor, Maine. Hiring Robert Patterson provided the solution. Farrand chose Patterson for a number of reasons. He was Harvard-trained, although he never completed a degree. His skills included landscaping, engineering architecture, and conservation. Most importantly, Patterson lived in Bar Harbor and Farrand alreadyknew him and his work. He came to Mount Desert Island in 1934 to take a job for the Civilian Conservation Corps in Acadia National Park, and by the mid-1940s, Patterson had earned a reputation in Maine as a skilled architect landlandscaper. Farrand was impressed with his work. She consulted with Patterson on projects at Reef Point, the University of Chicago, and the Arnold Arboretumbefore she chose him as her successor at Dumbarton Oaks. At ReefPoint, Patterson functioned as both assistant director and member. Thanks to their shared work history and friendship Farrand felt she could trust Patterson to maintain the integrity of the Dumbarton Oaks garden design, and she said as much in letters to then-director, John Thacher. Patterson made several trips a year from Bar Harbor to Washington, D.C., always timed to coincide with seasonally important changes to the gardens. From1946 to 1948 he served as Farrand's eyes and ears, reporting back to her and taking instructions regularly However, in 1948, Farrand tendered her resignation and Patterson became head consultant. During his time at Dumbarton Oaks, he designed several garden features. At the request ofMildred Bliss, Patterson planned a Garden fr the Blind, a Byzantine Garden, a newdesign for the North Vista, and three suggested layouts for a Garden Library. His suggestion for a Garden Library at the North end of the Tennis Court (now the Pebble Garden) got far enough for architect Frederick Rhinelander King to visit the site in 1952 and make sketches. Ultimately, none of Patterson's plans were used in the garden, and his tenure as landscape architect served primarily to maintain the original Beatrix Farrand design In 1956, Patterson left his consulting position at Dumbarton Oaks. The frequent travel between Maine and Washington proved too exhausting, and SO he reduced his role to membership in the Garden Advisory Committee. At home in Maine, he focused his energies on Ba Harbor, and his old friend Beatrix Farrand, who was in the process ofselling Reef Point. Patterson purchased the property, and helped Farrand dismantle the house and gardens. Patterson also plannedand built the house at Garland Farm Farrand's new home where http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/garden-archives/biographies/robert-w-patterson 8/22/2015 Robert W. Patterson - Dumbarton Oaks Page 2 of 2 she lived until her death. At Garland Farm he paid homage to the demolished Reef Point house by integrating salvaged design and architectural details. After Farrand's death in 1959, Patterson collaboratedwith Dumbarton Oaks one last time. He and Mildred Bliss worked together on a commemorative retrospective on the life and work of Beatrix Farrand. It was published in the American Society of Landscape Architect's summer quarterly that year. References: "Annual Meeting of Reef Point Gardens Held." Bar Harbor Times September 13, 1945. http://islandhistory.newspaperarchive.com/bar-harbor-times/1945-09-13 Carder, James N. "The Robert Woods Bliss Collection ofPre-Columbian Art." Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection. Last modified December 28, 2013. http://www.doaks.org/museum/online-pubs/philip-johnson/the- robert-woods-bliss-collection-ofpre-columbian-art Garden Archives Correspondence Woolley, Margo. "Robert W. Patterson Exhibition." Garland Farmpress release, July 6, 2011. http://www.beatrixfarrandsociety.org/_press/patterson7611.pd Share Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection 1703 32nd Street, NW Washington, DC 20007 Site Map Web Accessibility Contact Us Visit Us Staff Directory Employment Rights and Staff Login Newsletter Reproductions Webmail Service Desk ©2014 Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC, Trustees for Harvard University All Rights Reserved. http://www.doaks.org/library-archives/garden-archives/biographies/robert-w-patterson 8/22/2015 BOB PATTERSON'S FIRST WORK ON MDI Jack Russell atrons of the Jordan Pond House will projects, many within the expanding park P know the photograph: A gentleman in where the young designer's skills were a his sixties surveys the dining room, welcome resource for Benjamin Breeze, the hands at rest on lapels in the manner of park's landscape architect. 18th-century portraits. Those who knew him One of Patterson's first assignments was can imagine this composed man offering to conceive an expansion and integration of advice in a calm voice on the right moss for the Beech Cliff and Beech Mountain trail sys- a garden recess, how to feather a paddle tem, building on the achievements of the stroke in wilderness waters, a fresh way for Southwest Harbor Village Improvement morning light to flood a room-to-be, or a Association. A parking lot and short trail up path to compose the needs of town and park. to the cliffs were roughed in by island men The man is Robert Whiteley Patterson, employed by the New Deal CWA program known to many as a leading architect of late in 1933, but heavy snows had halted 20th-century coastal Maine. Less known is them. In the spring of 1934, Bob Patterson's his earlier contribution-to composing CCC lads finished this work and built the nature and design in our park. trail loop around the cliffs, working to his Patterson was enabled by the Acadian design that "one of the most important visionaries. Born in 1905, he was just four requirements in stone work here is that it years younger than the conserving collabo- looks harmonious and unobtrusive in its sur- Photo of Robert Patterson that hangs in Jordan ration of Eliot and Dorr, and the Harvard Pond House. roundings of beautifully lichened ledges." The from which he graduated in 1927 was still 29-year old designer wanted the Beech Cliff the University of President Eliot less than loop trail to be "safe and passable, but noth- twenty years after his retirement. Patterson From the beginning, he was ing more, leaving the route as unchanged as came to Mount Desert Island in 1934 in time a man of vision, committed to possible." It remains SO after 75 years. to participate in Superintendent Dorr's last conservation and mindful of Young Patterson's design aesthetic also full decade of park development when he shone in the challenging Perpendicular Trail joined New Deal resources and private phi- the frailty of the trails his up the rugged east side of Mansell, also begun lanthropy. John D. Rockefeller Jr., the prin- CCC crews created. in 1934. "The requirements of the trail are cipal source of that philanthropy, was then at first scenic beauty, either in distant views or work on his grand bequest of lands, roads, sion in architecture, returning to the Graduate nearby forest stand; second, an ultimate and bridges when Patterson arrived. Patterson School of Design in 1932 to specialize in objective point climaxing the hike; and third, would design and build for Rockefeller's chil- landscape architecture. He had already found there must be embodied in the trail itself a dren, and for many islanders for whom park personal happiness with Barbara Brown, also natural change of pace-for example, from roads were and are a way to work. of Wayland. They wed in 1931 when he was steep rock climbs to level moss or needle sur- From the same good New England soil as 26 and she 19, and it was she who first faced walks." The ultimate objective of his Eliot and Dorr, Patterson was raised in mod- brought him to Mount Desert and Acadia. design was achieved in full only in 2007, est comfort in the well-wooded village of The couple enjoyed a summer stay in 1932 when the Acadia trails crew finished the with her relatives who were sec- Wayland, Massachusetts, only a short ride upper section with an aesthetic worthy of ond-generation rusticators in Southwest from Boston. His father died when he was Patterson. Harbor. two, but a strong mother and aunt filled some The Perpendicular Trail clearly engaged all The island drew him back. In January of of the loss, and older brothers guided him 1934, in the depths of the Great the skills of the young artist, who saw the through the woods and waters near his town, Depression-and into a howling blizzard- need for strength, delicacy, and design against nurturing the future conservationist. Soon the Pattersons and their baby daughter drove despoilers. In one section, "the problem [was] enough, the tall, young Noble and north to Maine, where they made their home one of securing substantial steps as security Greenough man straight-arrowed through for the next 54 years, save two away during against heaving by the ice and frost action, academic and athletic achievement to World War II. Soon employed on the staff of or a rugged coping of a size defying move- Harvard in 1923. the new Civilian Conservation Corps camp ment or dislodgement by any one or two indi- There Patterson found his professional pas- in Ellsworth, Patterson was enlisted for island viduals' efforts." In other sections, his attempt would be to "soften and naturalize [the] rocky the old Park Headquarters at Park and Lower frugal townsmen, as well as Astors and sections by clothing ragged and bare surfaces Main, it seems likely that the vigorous octo- Rockefellers. The public service he began in with moss and mats of rock fern, such as genarian enjoyed good talks with this young the park would lead to many of our ameni- grow for the most part throughout the talus park employee, a Harvard man and proper ties, from wading pools and wharfs to land- slope." As the authors of Pathmakers would Bostonian who shared Dorr's passion for scaping for schools and churches. The observe more than 70 years later, in a telling plants and lived just a few steps away. thoughtful young park designer would break from their usually austere style, "The Robert W. Patterson's future, however, was become a wise counsel for both park and trail is one of the most highly constructed only a few steps more in another direction, towns on the long path to recovery after the on the island [the] views are grand to the toward the shore at Reef Point Gardens, and 1947 fire. The lover of things wild, drawn to southeast, but the stonework steals the show." into history. His long professional association Acadia in his twenties, would found the By 1935, Bob Patterson had become the with Beatrix Farrand and commitment to her Maine Natural Resources Council, and fur- full-time assistant to Ben Breeze at Acadia vision led to many commissions, and to his ther conservation of our northern wilderness. National Park. From the beginning, he was essential roles in honoring the decisions of Friends of the Acadia that Bob Patterson a man of vision, committed to conservation Farrand's final years, and saving the plants cherished might pause at his portrait on their and mindful of the frailty of the trails his CCC of Reef Point for their lasting life at the Asticou next visit to the Jordan Pond House, to reflect crews created. As he would soon advise his Azalea and Thuya Gardens, created by his on the unsigned works that the young artist supervisors, there is a "fundamental princi- good friend Charles K. Savage. contributed at the beginning of his career on ple [that] areas used by the public (unless The young Bob Patterson who came to our island. most carefully planned for several decades of the portal of that future had already found an time), tend to destroy themselves for the par- island aesthetic while high on Acadian slopes, JACK RUSSELL and his wife, Sandy Wilcox, ticular park purpose for which they are used." directing young CCC men from across Maine. live at the north end of Echo Lake. He thanks Did George B. Dorr hear the distinctive Lessons learned working on the Beech Cliff his neighbor Robert Whiteley Patterson Jr. voice of his designer? Documentation does and Mansell trails as he began his decades (Lee) for generous guidance on this essay. not confirm this, but since the Pattersons here helped guide the hand that gave us more They are now, as once their fathers were, good rented a home on Livingston Road very near than 40 MDI houses, grand and modest, for friends. 1934 photograph of Bob Patterson (front row, far right) with the staff at Camp Braun, the CCC camp in Ellsworth. FOA. vol.14#4 (Spring 2009) 15