Manning, Warren H. (Warren Henry), 1860-1938

Landscape designer.

Warren H. Manning was a well known Massachusetts landscape designer. He was a promoter of National Parks.

Landscape architect Warren Henry Manning (1860-1938) was one of the most influential practitioners in the profession's nascent years. Horticulturist, landscape architect, town and city planner, and author, Manning was mentored by Frederick Law Olmsted and went on to practice in almost every state in the country, tallying more than 1,700 diverse projects in his fifty-year career. Hundreds of these properties still survive. Among other notable achievements, Manning was a founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, trained several influential landscape architects of the twentieth century, and developed a method of site analysis that was later refined by Ian McHarg to form the basis of today's computer-aided design (excerpted from Library of American Landscape History, Inc., http://www.lalh.org/manningrp.html, accessed February 2011).

Massachusetts architect.

Landscape architect. Warren Manning (1860-1938) began his career working in his father's nursery in Reading, Massachusetts. Although he had no formal training, the knowledge he gained working in the nursery and his fascination with plant materials provided him with a substantial background in the use of plants suited for landscape design. In 1888, he was employed by the firm of Fredrick Law and John C. Olmstead, Landscape Architects of Brookline, Massachusetts. While in the Olmstead office he worked on numerous projects including the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. In 1896 he became an independent landscape designer, and formed a partnership with his brother in 1901. After this partnership dissolved in 1905, he continued to practice under his own name.

In 1914, Manning began work on the National Plan which culminated in a "National Plan study brief," printed in Landscape architecture, July 1923. The full report was never published but provides interesting viewpoints on how state boundaries could be changed to more effectviely take advantage of natural land formations and boundaries. His practice continued into the 1930s. The list of his employees includes key figures in the profession such as Albert D. Taylor, Fletcher Steele, and Dan Kiley.

Landscape designer, landscape architect, and regional planner from Reading Mass. Manning did not have formal training in the landscape design field but gained experience while he was manager of his father's plant nursery. During this time he also made botanical collecting trips in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Minnesota, Vermont, and Wisconsin. From 1887 to 1896 he was associated with the Frederick Law Olmsted landscape architecture firm and designed over 125 planting projects. He also assisted in the planning of numerous park systems and arboretums. In 1896 he started an independent landscape architecture business and from 1901 to 1905 he and his brother, J. Woodward Manning, were partners in the Manning Brothers.

Landscape architecture firm. Over the course of his life Manning designed nearly 1700 landscape projects for colleges, universities, public parks, and private estates including the Biltmore Estate near Asheville, N.C. and the Village at Pinehurst, N.C. He met Kittie Dorcas Dees of Grantsboro, N.C. at Pinehurst who had attended the State Normal and Industrial School (now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) from 1895-1897. She was a secretary of the Pinehurst hotels and he offered her a job with his landscape architecture firm in Boston, Mass. While in his employment, she requested he design the grounds for her alma mater which was to be her gift to the school; the only expense to the school would be the cost of clerical help, drafts, and traveling.

From 1901 to 1904 Manning corresponded with Dr. Charles D. McIver, the first president of State Normal about the landscape design for the school. From 1908 to 1921 Manning also corresponded with Dr. Julius I. Foust, the second president of the school. This correspondence is housed in the University Archives. Manning made numerous site visits to the school to give advice and show sketches to Drs. McIver and Foust. Additional biographical information can be found in The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography.