Horace Cleveland
Horace William Shaler Cleveland (1814–1900) was an American landscape architect who helped shape parks and city streets with a focus on natural beauty and open spaces.
Born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, Cleveland grew up in a family influenced by Transcendentalism. He studied civil engineering and worked as a railroad surveyor in Illinois before turning to farming and horticulture in New Jersey. He wrote for horticulture journals and, in 1854, started the landscape firm Cleveland and Copeland with Robert Morris Copeland. Their early work included Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts, and they contributed to Boston’s park spaces. In 1857 they entered the Central Park design competition but were beaten by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, though their plan shared many similar ideas of broad lawns and natural scenery.
In 1872 Cleveland designed Eastwood Cemetery in Lancaster with his son. Copeland left to serve in the Civil War, and Cleveland later moved to Chicago in 1869 to run his own firm. There he designed major landscapes such as Highland Park and, after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, helped rebuild South Park. He also wrote Landscape Architecture as Applied to the Wants of the West (1873), one of the first broad explanations of the profession.
Cleveland extended his work to the Midwest and West, including Saint Anthony Park in Saint Paul, Minnesota. From 1878 until his death, he revised and expanded the park systems of Minneapolis and St. Paul, guiding the development of interlinked parks and parkways. His last major project was the landscaping of the University of Minnesota campus in 1892. He also helped plan the boulevard system in Omaha, Nebraska, and designed Roger Williams Park in Providence, Rhode Island.
Cleveland was a dedicated preservationist who believed in using the land’s natural features and native plants. He argued that landscape design should look to the future and ensure parks are accessible to all, not just the wealthy. He stressed that open spaces should be connected by driveways and parkways to form a coherent network that would enhance cities and protect nature for generations to come.
His famous Minneapolis idea, the Grand Rounds—a connected series of parks and scenic byways along the Mississippi River—became a model for urban park systems. He also warned against destroying natural landscapes and urged planners to consider long-term benefits over short-term costs.
Horace Cleveland died in Hinsdale, Illinois, in 1900 and was buried at Lakewood Cemetery. His work left a lasting legacy: a more natural, open, and connected approach to city parks that influenced park planning for decades and helped shape one of the world’s best urban park systems.
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 06:36 (CET).