The Northwest Gardens of Lord and Schryver

Lord & Schryver, the first landscape architecture firm founded and operated by women in the Pacific Northwest, designed more than 250 gardens in Oregon and Washington, including the grounds for Reed College of Portland, Salem parks, and schools, public buildings and churches. Gaiety Hollow, the Salem house Elizabeth Lord and Edith Schryver built as a home and studio for themselves, is now owned by the Lord & Schryver Conservancy and (in non-pandemic times) open to the public. The Conservancy has lovingly restored the gardens at Gaiety Hollow according to Lord & Schryver’s plans. They also manage, and have restored, the gardens at Deepwood, a Queen Anne house two blocks from Gaiety Hollow.

Lord & Schryver met as young women and in 1929 established a highly successful landscape architecture firm in Salem; their work is acknowledged as one of the milestones in the history of garden design in the Northwest and beyond. Their firm is the only Oregon firm recognized in Pioneers of Landscape Architecture, compiled by the US National Park Service. The Cultural Landscape Foundation describes them as consummate professionals in the broadest sense, as they worked to raise the profile of landscape architects by involving an audience beyond their clients. Their work represented a transition from a formal symmetrical style of garden design to one which responded in a distinctive way to the unique features of Northwest climate, soil, topography, and plant material.