Jensen, Olaf (Johannes Peter Olaf), 1882-1977.

Johannes Peter Olaf Jensen was born in Copenhagen, Denmark, on January 17, 1882. His father, Olaf, worked as a railroad station agent. The son, known also as Olaf, began his landscape gardening career as an apprentice at a commercial garden near Copenhagen. At sixteen, he entered the Vilvorde Horticultural College. Jensen immigrated to the United States (c. 1900), first settling in New Orleans and Colorado before coming to Michigan. By 1917, he became the traveling horticulturist for the Grand Trunk Western (GTW) Railroad. For thirty-seven years, railroad depots and buildings throughout Michigan were decorated by Jensen-designed gardens. At the peak of his career, he was responsible for flower beds at eighty different points across the GTW system. His most popular depot gardens were those where the flowers and plants spelled out the name of the town, as in Battle Creek, Jensen's home base. Jensen retired from the GTW in 1954. Olaf Jensen died in 1977.