Marian Cruger Coffin isn’t a name that rolls off a feminist’s tongue very often during Women’s History Month.
Her pioneering work in the field of landscape architecture hardly causes a ripple among the suffragettes and revolutionaries, but her star is fixed firmly in the horticultural firmament. As one of a handful of female landscape architects in an arena dominated by men, she made a successful living designing landscapes in the first half of the 20th century.
Coffin put her stamp on some significant real estate along the East Coast, and her associations with the du Pont family brought her to Delaware, where she influenced several of its most famous gardens.
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As a young woman, Coffin desired to be a “great artist,” but decried her lack of talent in any of the usual avenues open to women at the beginning of the 20th century – painting, music, sculpture or writing. Owing to her father’s early death, she needed to make a living and pursued a friend’s suggestion to enroll in a new course of study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Landscape Architecture.
In 1901, admitted as a “special” student, Coffin was one of two female students who joined the class of 500 men. She described her three years there as “one long grind,” having combined two years of study in one to finish early.
Her rigorous training in design, drafting and horticulture was augmented by visits to gardens and estates in Massachusetts and abroad. Family friend Henry Francis du Pont of Winterthur, who was simultaneously studying horticulture at Harvard, joined Coffin on many of these outings. Encouraged by mentors such as Charles S. Sargent, director of Harvard’s Arnold Arboretum, and Guy Lowell, head of MIT’s school of architecture, she emerged ready to take on the world.
In 1904, at the age of 28, Coffin graduated from MIT and became a junior member of the American Society of Landscape Architects along with only two other females, Elizabeth Bullard and Beatrix Farrand.
“We were pioneers, and moreover pioneer women in a new-old-profession and one in which all one’s ability to see and interpret beauty out of doors taxed all our resources, and we were determined to show what enthusiasm and hard work could accomplish.” Strong words soon put to action.
No one would hire her so she moved to New York City, where her mother had grown up, hung out her own shingle and went into business.
In a career that spanned five decades, she earned over 130 commissions for estate, residential and institutional landscape designs, succeeding through two world wars and the Great Depression. Her clients numbered among society’s elite and she worked on the estates of Marshall Field, Stephen Pell, E.F. Hutton, and of course, the du Ponts of Delaware.
Often, her work appeared in the pages of popular magazines like “Country Life,” accompanied by photographs and drawings. A savvy and organized businesswoman, she commanded handsome fees (in 1918, she charged $250 to $500 for preliminary drawings) and demanded strict control over her sites, from soil preparation to unveiling.
The hallmarks of a Coffin garden endure to this day: long sight lines on an axis, clearly defined entryways and paths, statuary and pools of water used as focal points, rectangular spaces closed in a semi-circle, and enclosures of stone or shrubbery. While her designs were often formal, she softened them with plant material that spilled over walls or erupted in bold splashes of color along the beds.
Marian Coffin’s designing hand is evident today in the grand staircase at Winterthur, the round pool garden at Mt. Cuba, the mall at the University of Delaware, and at Gibraltar, the property at Greenhill and Pennsylvania avenues that once belonged to Rodney Sharp.
Of all, Gibraltar is quintessential Coffin. It breathes life into her guiding principle that “simplicity is beauty’s prime ingredient.”
From the terrace overlooking the garden, three tiers roll down from the house, connected by sweeping staircases and punctuated by impressive urns. A simple rectangular pool echoes the geometry of the garden, which consists of a series of outdoor rooms connected by straight paths, ornate gates and magnificent statuary, all enclosed behind massive stone walls.
Gibraltar’s fate, however, is uncertain, since there is no formal maintenance provided for the garden and supporting organizations have disbanded.
The book, “Money, Manure, and Maintenance,” by Nancy Fleming, provides a thorough look at Coffin and the gardens she designed.
Moira Sheridan is a Wilmington freelance writer and gardener. She is a graduate of the University of Delaware’s Master Gardener program. Reach her at masher9@juno.com.
TO-DO LIST
• Be patient. It will eventually dry out and we can get out there and plant potatoes, peas, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, cabbage and chard.
• Continue pruning shrubs while dormant.
• Rake out beds that are suffocating under piles of leaves and cut back any dead plant material from perennials.
• On a cool, overcast day, dig up crowded small bulbs like crocuses and snowdrops and transplant them where they can naturalize. They won’t skip a beat.
• Plant flower seeds of larkspur, poppy, bachelor’s button, and sweet alyssum directly outdoors.
• Remove mulch from vegetable beds to let the soil dry out.
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