As we approach the centennial celebration of Negro History Week now known as Black History Month, we wish to spotlight the first Black Landscape Architect in America.

David Augustus Williston (1868–1962) was the first professionally trained African American landscape architect in the United States. He designed many campuses for  historically black colleges and universities, including Tuskegee University. He also taught horticulture and landscape architecture.

Williston taught at several historically black colleges, starting at the State College of North Carolina at Greensboro in 1898.

In 1902, he joined the faculty of Tuskegee Institute as a professor of horticulture, where he taught intermittently for 27 years. At Tuskegee he also served as superintendent of buildings and grounds between 1910 and 1929, where he designed the campus master plan and several Tuskegee facilities. He was the landscape architect for the 99th Pursuit Squadron Training School, where the Tuskegee Airmen were based.

He was a lifelong friend of George Washington Carver, who also taught at Tuskegee. Booker T. Washington’s home The Oaks was constructed by students as part of the Tuskegee curriculum, and Williston guided students in the landscape design of the home.

Bio source: Wikipedia