Last updated: July 16, 2023
Person
Harold Hill Blossom
Quick Facts
Significance:
Landscape Architect at Olmsted Firm
Place of Birth:
Brooklyn, New York
Date of Birth:
October 6, 1879
Date of Death:
December 3, 1935
Place of Burial:
Dedham, MA
Cemetery Name:
Brookdale Cemetery
Notable Projects while at Olmsted Firm:
Dr. George Woodard Estate, Krisheim, Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania
John Nicholas Brown Estate, Harbour Court, Newport, Rhode Island
G.G. Whitney Estate, Milton, Massachusetts
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, Seattle, Washington
La Siguanea Community, Isle of Pines, Cuba, for Andorra Realty, Colorado
After receiving a master’s degree in landscape architecture from Harvard’s Lawrence Scientific School in 1907, Harold Hill Blossom spent the first 12 years of his career with Olmsted Brothers. He began by working under principals Percival Gallagher, John Charles Olmsted, and his brother-in-law James Frederick Dawson. With an artistic eye and a good knowledge of horticulture, he designed gardens for numerous estate projects in the Pacific Northwest, in Newport, Rhode Island and on Long Island for many of the country’s most significant financial leaders.
With Olmsted and Dawson, he worked on both the 1909 Alaska-Yukon Exposition in Seattle, and on the 1915 Panama-Pacific Exposition in Balboa Park, San Diego. The Olmsted firm withdrew from the latter project in protest over what they considered misuse of the natural landscape. With Dawson, he planned the proposed Cuban resort community of La Siguanea. In 1919, Blossom left Olmsted Brothers to start his own practice in Boston which focused largely on urban and suburban residential design in the New England area. Blossom taught landscape courses at the Cambridge and Lowthorpe Schools. After Blossom’s 1935 death, his former Olmsted firm colleague Edward Clark Whiting paid tribute to his “sensitive appreciation of beauty” in his intricate planting designs.