The Garden Club of Virginia restored this Charles Gillette garden at the Virginia Governor's Mansion. (Photo by Roger Foley)
Richmond owes the appeal of many of its historic gardens, college campuses and corporate headquarters to the genius of Charles Gillette. Often revered as the architect of the Southern landscape, Gillette spent the first half of the 20th century cultivating a regional style that became known as the “Virginia Garden.”
The Library of Virginia will celebrate Gillette’s contribution to the look of our local landscape with an exhibition of his work timed to coincide with Historic Garden Week 2022. “Matters of Scale: Charles F. Gillette in Petersburg” will put some 15 to 20 pieces from the library’s collection, the Charles F. Gillette Papers, on display at the central branch of the Petersburg Public Library from April 27 through June 30. Massive reproductions of Gillette’s architectural renderings, photographs of his finished work, samples of client correspondence and a Gillette bench, one of a pair designed for the gardens at Kenwyn house and recently restored for a Petersburg garden, will be on display, all reflecting his influence on the gardens of Petersburg.
Charles Gillette's parklike settings unite architecture with its environment and connect people with the natural world. (Image courtesy Library of Virginia)
Gillette inherited a love of the land and a vast knowledge of plant materials from his father, an herbalist and farmer. Untrained in landscape architecture, Gillette read extensively about landscape design as a young man, amassing an impressive collection of books about historic gardens. In 1913, he came to Richmond to supervise the construction of the Richmond College campus (now the University of Richmond), and two years later, he opened his own landscape design firm here, spending the next 56 years shaping some 2,500 public and private spaces in the upper South.
The stately campuses of the University of Richmond, Radford University, Mary Washington University, James Madison University, and the College of William & Mary are Gillette masterpieces. He interpreted the gardens at both Virginia House and Agecroft (English manor houses reconstructed in Richmond's Windsor Farms neighborhood), and he restored the original landscaping at Kenmore plantation in Fredericksburg. Virginia's Executive Mansion, the headquarters of Reynolds Metals Co. and the corporate campus of Ethyl Corp. all bear Gillette’s distinctive imprint. His final collaboration, five major housing projects created for Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority, represented a final shift in focus and speaks to the scope of his influence in the Old Dominion.
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Charles Gillette's construction and planting plan for Mrs. Charles L. Morris' Petersburg residence, July 1959 (Image courtesy Library of Virginia)
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Charles Gillette's plan for the Virginia Avenue entrance to Blandford Cemetery in Petersburg (Image courtesy Library of Virginia)
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Charles Gillette's office and later residence at 105 E. Cary St. (Photo courtesy Library of Virginia)
Rather than impose his own ideas on the outdoors, Gillette let the landscape inform his work. “He responded to the architecture of a property, cultivating a harmonious relationship between the structures and the plantings that he designed for them,” notes Dale Neighbors, visual studies collection coordinator at the Library of Virginia. Fragrance, seasonal color, shade, garden statuary, highly crafted masonry, furniture and water features became the vocabulary he used to describe parklike settings that unite architecture with its environment and connect people to the natural world. “His natural gift was eyeballing plants and trees into place,” marveled nurseryman and Gillette contemporary Robert W. Askew. “From the moment they were planted, his specimens looked as though they had always been there.”
Establishing a tradition of quality and professionalism that became the standard in his field, Gillette was a gifted American artist who held himself to the same high standards that he demanded from his associates and his art. At the peak of his career in 1938, his work was honored by the Architectural League of New York for its “charm and adherence to the Southern tradition.”
“Matters of Scale: Charles F. Gillette in Petersburg” will be open to the public from April 27 through June 30 at the Petersburg Public Library Central Branch, 201 W. Washington St.
