Horace Cleveland - Major Landscape Projects

Major Landscape Projects

In the 1880s, Cleveland was hired by the Minneapolis Board of Park Commissioners to create a series of parks and interconnected parkways to connect and preserve existing natural features in and near the city. The parkways along the Mississippi River gorge were his main interest, but his plan also showed parkway boulevards across town and around one of the lakes in South Minneapolis, Lake Harriet. These grand parkways would increase property values, connect larger parks, drive up the desire for private development, and hopefully increase general revenues in the city over time. This vision was expanded by subsequent park commissioners and superintendents to encircle a series of lakes, now known as the Chain of Lakes, and to follow Minnehaha Creek to Minnehaha Falls. The result of Cleveland’s vision is the famous “Grand Rounds,” an interconnected series of parkways, and parks, centered on the Mississippi River. The official title “Grand Rounds,” came much later, but Cleveland’s vision for the scenic byway is timeless, and the Minneapolis Grand Rounds are known today as one of the best urban park systems in the world. Plans for a similar system in St. Paul, would have connected it to the Minneapolis system, but they were never completed, with the exception of the parkways along the Mississippi River.

In 1889, the park commissioners for the city of Omaha sought Cleveland’s advice in designing a large park in the center of the city. Cleveland stated that the center of any large park system, including the one intended for this city, should include a “great central park” that blocked the sights and sounds of the city. Cleveland advised that the park commissioners purchase a lot no less than 50 acres (200,000 m2) in size, and that it should be situated many miles away from the heavily populated city districts.

Other major projects included:

• 1854: Cleveland partners with Robert Morris Copeland. Cleveland and Copeland design Oak Grove Cemetery in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
• 1855: Cleveland and Copeland design Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts.
• 1873: Cleveland receives honorary professorship title. Although he never attended any university, his own educational and professional knowledge led to his being addressed as “Professor H. Cleveland.” Cleveland publishes Landscape Architecture as Applied to the Wants of the West.
• 1878: Designed the Roger Williams Park/New England Botanical Gardens in Providence, Rhode Island. Designed the Cleveland Arboretums in Cleveland, Ohio. Designed Minnehaha Park in Minneapolis.
• 1881: Cleveland publishes A Few Words on the Arrangement of Rural Cemeteries.
• 1886: Created the Blackstone Boulevard in Providence, Rhode Island, which connected Blackstone Park, Butler Hospital, and the Swan Point Cemetery.
• 1886: Designed a landscape plan for the Jekyll Island Club, on Jekyll Island, Georgia. A winter resort for northeastern millionaires designed to stress natural simplicity.
• 1890s: Designed the landscaping for the Fergus Falls State Hospital in Fergus Falls, Minnesota and the Dwight D. Eisenhower Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Leavenworth, Kansas.
• 1892: Landscaped the campus for the University of Minnesota. Designed the parks and boulevards system in Omaha, Nebraska that still guides the city today.

• 1898: Cleveland presents a paper on "The Influence of Parks on the Character of Children."