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Thomas Warren Sears Collection |
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 Biographical
Note
Thomas Warren Sears was born in 1880 in Brookline, Massachusetts.
He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University in
1903 and Bachelor of Science degree in landscape architecture from
the Lawrence Scientific School of Harvard in 1906. After graduation
he worked for the firm of Olmsted Brothers Landscape Architects
for two years and then briefly practiced in Providence, Rhode Island.
In 1913, Sears established an office in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
where he spent the remainder of his professional career. He retired
in 1964 and died in 1966. Sears designed many different
types of landscapes ranging from private residences, schools,
and playgrounds to parks, cemeteries, and urban housing developments.
His designs were primarily located in Pennsylvania, Maryland,
and New York. Just a few of his private landscapes include Marengo
in Easton, Maryland; Sunnybrook, the Isaac H. Clothier, Jr. estate
in Radnor, Pennsylvania; and Balmuckety in Pikesville, Maryland.
Balmuckety was placed on the Baltimore County Historic Register
in July, 1998.
Thomas Warren Sears
Photographer unknown. n.d.
 In
1915, Sears started work on Reynolda, a country estate in Winston-Salem,
North Carolina. He generated design plans for the property intermittently
over the next two decades. Reynolda's formal gardens, greenhouses,
and acres of fields and woodlands subsequently became part of
Wake Forest University.
During World War I, Sears designed Army camps in Battle Creek,
Michigan and Spartanburg, South Carolina. He also helped lay out
Langley Field, at that time an experimental aviation field in
Hampton Roads, Virginia. In the 1940s, Sears designed the amphitheater
at Swathmore College in Swathmore, Pennsylvania for concerts,
outdoor performances, and other special events. During that decade
he also worked on Colonial Revival gardens at Pennsbury, William
Penn's country estate in Bucks County, Pennsylvania located by
the Delaware River.
Above: Reynolda House, Winston-Salem,
North Carolina,
Sears was an amateur photographer who won awards
for his photography while at Harvard. In 1915 his images were
published in the book, Parish Churches of England.
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The Thomas Warren Sears Collection includes over
4,600 black and white glass negatives and glass lantern slides dated
c. 1900 to 1966. While most images show private and public gardens
in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and New York, there is a significant
number of unidentified views and views shot in Europe. Few images
are captioned or dated.
In addition, there are approximately 50 plans and drawings, most
notably for Balmuckety in Pikesville, Maryland and Reynolda in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
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American Society of Landscape Architects. Illustrations
of Work of Members. New York: House of J. Hayden Twiss, 1931.
Architecture and Design, Vol. V No. 21, September,
1941 (issue devoted to the work of Thomas Warren Sears.)
Architecture and Design, Vol. XVII, November 1953 (issue
devoted to the work of Thomas Warren Sears.)
Birnbaum, Charles A., and Robin S. Karson. Pioneers of Landscape
Design. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
Brown-Bush, Louise and James. Portrait of Philadelphia Gardens.
Dorrance and Company, 1929.
Main Line Magazine, October,
1992.
Record of the Classes, Harvard College, Class of 1903. (1928
and 1953 volumes.) Sears, Thomas Warren and Charles Howard Walker.
Parish Churches of England. Boston, New York: Rogers and Manson
Company, 1915.
All images on this web page are from the Archives of American
Gardens, Thomas Warren Sears Collection.
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