Lord & Schryver Conservancy

Elizabeth Lord (1887-1976) and Edith Schryver (1901-1984) were the first women landscape architects to open a practice in the Pacific Northwest in 1929. They were trained at the renowned Lowthorpe School in Massachusetts in the classically inspired Beaux Arts tradition of design that dominated the early 20th century.

Gaiety Hollow, located in the Gaiety Hill Historic District in Salem, Oregon was designed by Lord and Schryver in 1932 as their home and office. Gaiety Hollow is a true reflection of their aesthetic and exemplifies their design principles in a Pacific Northwest landscape.

Lord and Schryver’s skill at adapting Beaux Arts style and its design techniques in the Pacific Northwest is remarkable. Using their abundant plant knowledge and skill, they successfully merged their style with the abundant array of plant material that thrives in the Pacific Northwest climate. Among their design signatures were axial organization, garden rooms that extended the living space into the garden, boxwood hedges, evergreen and herbaceous perennial borders, and exuberant flower gardens.