Charles Eliot

Charles Eliot

Quick Facts

Place of Birth:

Cambridge, MA

Date of Birth:

Nov 01, 1859

Place of Death:

Brookline, MA

Date of Death:

Mar 25, 1897

Charles Eliot was Frederick Law Olmsted Sr.’s first apprentice. While Olmsted traveled across the country studying project sites, Eliot, along with fellow apprentice Harry Codman, worked in the office under the supervision of John Charles Olmsted.

Eliot eventually left to begin his own practice, but returned to the firm as a partner in 1893 when Codman’s sudden death left the Olmsteds understaffed in the middle of the work at the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago. During the 1890s he worked on significant office commissions such as the Boston and Cambridge park systems and Biltmore Estate, but his major focus was on the development of a visionary regional park concept for Greater Boston. 

He identified and assessed diverse landscapes of woodland, river basins and beaches with special scenic features in the Boston metropolitan area, and worked with the various municipalities to acquire these lands for a regionally managed system of public reservations with linking parkways.  

This original concept formed one Eliot's most enduring landscape legacies. Eliot died unexpectedly at age 37 in 1897, and in his honor the first formal degree program in landscape architecture was established at Harvard University in 1900.
 

Years at Firm & Positions: Apprentice: 1883-1887, Partner: 1893-1897

Notable Project Involvements while at the Firm:

Boston/Brookline Park System, Boston, Massachusetts
Boston Metropolitan Park System, Massachusetts
World’s Columbian Exposition, Chicago Illinois