George Kessler
Encyclopedia
George Edward Kessler (July 16, 1862 – March 20, 1923) was a German American
pioneer city planner and landscape architect
.
Over the course of his forty-one year career, George E. Kessler completed over 200 projects and prepared plans for 26 communities, 26 park and boulevard systems, 49 parks, 46 estates & residents, and 26 schools. His projects can be found in 23 states, 100 cities, in places as farflung as Shanghai
, New York, and Mexico City
.
"Planning", wrote Kessler, "should be comprehensive. Even though a grand urban design could only be realized in bits and pieces, and over a long period of years, still we should always know where we are going. Each bit and piece should be understandable by reference to the great plan of which it is a part. Planning must also be relevant to the particular city: its geography, its economic character, all its local peculiarities. We must," Kessler insisted, "deal with it in its application to the entire city. The object is to make cities decent places for masses of people to live in. Cities grow mostly by accident in response to trends in the real estate market. Very little thought is given to their qualitative characters. But there comes a time when development must be subject to control, when further growth must be planned such that urbanization will no longer proceed at the expense of devastating 'nature.'”
to Edward Carl Kessler and Adolphe Clotilde Zeitsche Kessler. In 1865 Edward and Clotilde along with George and his sister, Fredericka Antionette Louisa, emigrated to the United States. After briefly living in New Jersey
, Missouri
, and Wisconsin
, the family ultimately settled in Dallas, Texas
where George's father and uncle invested in a cotton plantation. His father died in 1878. After his father's death, George, at the age of sixteen, worked as a cashboy at Sanger Brothers Dry Goods.
After consultation with relatives, Clotilde decided that landscape architecture would combine the right degree of creativity and practicality to suit her son's temperament. The family moved back to Germany were George received his formal training that included:
“Of all of it,” he later said, “the travel was of most value.”
. The 22 January letter is the first record of his attempt to begin work in the United States. In the letter Kessler wrote of his studies and travel in Europe and wondered about an arboretum job at the Boston (Arnold Arboretum). In the 15 February letter, Kessler wrote that he was “certain of a situation in Central Park” and of an offer of a partnership with a florist in Woodlawn. “Since November”, Kessler wrote, “I have been in the employ of A. LeMoult 172 and 174 Bowery
, having charge of his greenhouse, seed and grass stock. Decoration of concert halls were also mostly in my care.” Kessler also sent drawings.
Olmsted responded in March and urged Kessler “to be ambitious to be master in higher fields” than pleasure grounds and home gardens. Also Olmsted encouraged Kessler to educate himself about nature through reading, reflection and excursions and to aim to free himself from German associations in order to expand his capabilities and to not limit his influence and opportunities. A recommended list of books to read was included. Olmsted concluded by writing that the Kansas City, Fort Scott, and Gulf Railway Company might be in need of a man to take charge of a public picnic or excursion ground. He told Kessler that the President, H.H. Hunniwell
, would be in New York and that Olmsted had given him Kessler’s address.
On 18 March, Kessler provided additional information on his work in the Bowery and wrote that if he stayed with LeMoult, he would receive fifteen dollars a week. The last letter to Olmsted on 23 March stated that Kessler was taking a Merriam Park, Johnson County, Kansas, position with the railroad at a salary of forty dollars per month. The work was to design and supervise the construction of the railroad’s pleasure park.
Merriam Park was located ten miles southwest of Kansas City, Missouri. Kessler along with his mother and sister moved to a house on John Mastin’s Johnson County farm. Besides working on the park, Kessler served as caretaker of the farm property.
Although Merriam Park had been dedicated in 1880, when Kessler arrived there was only one building intended for visitors, a square dance floor, and nearly all the valuable trees had been cut down for cordwood. Less than two years after Kessler started the park was a great success. The park had been enclosed with a fence and the main entrance was an ornamental archway. Features included an open-air shelter for large public gatherings, wild animal exhibits, picnic grounds, Pavilion, lake, tennis courts, croquet grounds, horse drawn merry-go-round, numerous swings, and a baseball diamond. The cost to enter the park was 25 cents and the park attracted more than 20,000 visitors per day. A detailed description of the park before and after Kessler may be found in The Life and Work of George Edward Kessler.
Kessler maintained a nursery on the park filled with a large variety of trees and shrubs, was responsible for sales from the park’s icehouse, and arranged excursions to the park. In addition to his work at Merriam Park, Kessler prepared landscape plans and supervised the maintenance of many of the railroad’s stations in Kansas and Missouri. He also managed the company’s two experimental tree farms (1,500 acres) near Farlington, Kansas.
These activities would have satiated most men, but Kessler opened an office in Kansas City and went looking for more work. His next biggest commission was landscaping a rugged hollow—Hyde Park.
In 1887 Kessler was commissioned to bring order to a hollow that formed the center of a booming Kansas City's fashionable Hyde Park
neighborhood. Kessler landscaped the hollow and then encircled it with a boulevard to prevent houses from turning it into part of their backyards. The layout spurred sales of stately homes along it.
The success of the project drew the attention of The Kansas City Star
publisher William Rockhill Nelson
who would champion the City Beautiful Movement
.
On 31 May 1890, Kessler applied to become the city's landscape architect for the city's newly created Park Board. Following court challenges on whether the city could issue bonds to fund parks, Kansas City finally got the approvals to create a park board on 5 March 1892 thanks to the efforts of August Meyer
. Kessler had earlier designed the grounds of Meyer's house in what is today's Kansas City Art Institute
. Kansas City's model for park and boulevard systems would be used by numerous cities. Kessler was hired as the board's engineer.
Kessler would work with Meyer to lay out the city's street grid including a parks and boulevard system. The initial 1893 plan called for 9.85 miles (15.9 km) of boulevards and 323.45 acres (1.3 km²) of parks. The Paseo
was named after the famed Paseo de la Reforma
, one of Mexico City
's most fashionable boulevards.
On May 14, 1900 Kessler married Ida Grant Field of Kansas City, Missouri. They had one son, George Edward Kessler, Jr.
Beginning in 1901 through 1914 Kessler designed the Memphis Park and Parkway System. His plan for Memphis included two major urban parks and a loop of landscaped roadway connecting them. In 1904, he designed and landscaped the grounds at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition
in St. Louis
.
The same year he also designed Fair Park
in Dallas, but his biggest gift to that city was his Kessler Plan
, which he created in 1909. That year the Dallas Chamber of Commerce established the City Plan and Improvement League and hired Kessler to design a long-range plan of civic improvements for Dallas. His plans included fixing the uncontrollable flooding of the Trinity River
, fixing narrow, crooked downtown
streets, fixing dangerous railroad crossings, and the construction of the Central Expressway
. At that time his plans were not implemented and were deemed "impractical," but later it became very clear that changes were needed. The Central Expressway
project was only realized 40 years after the Kessler Plan was published.
In 1910 he moved to St. Louis, Missouri
.
In 1912 to 1913 Kessler designed the expansive Longview Farm
for Robert A. Long
. With over 1700 acres this was in actuality a community far bigger than small towns with over 50 buildings. The landscaping earned the farm the title of The worlds most beautiful farm. The community had underground electricity, filtered water from a 100,000 gallon water tower, steam heating, indoor plumbing, as well as 7 miles of macadam
ized roads that was innovative for the time period. The landscape layout around the mansion included manicured shrubbery, fountains, and a tennis court.
George Kessler was hired to resolve a politically charged development dispute involving the park system of Indianapolis
in 1908. He studied the city for one year before submitting his plan for a park and boulevard system
, which was adopted in 1909. Kessler led the city's Park Commission until 1915.
In 1918 Kessler returned to act as consulting engineer for the Dallas Property Owner's Association and in 1919 began working for the Metropolitan Development Association of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce. On 3 January 1922, he returned to St. Louis. His plans for the Trinity River were finally implemented in the 1930s.
Kessler also drafted city plans for Cincinnati
, Terre Haute, Cleveland
, El Paso
, Denver
, and Syracuse
. He also designed Camp Wilson, an army cantonment near San Antonio
.
In 1920, George Kessler was again hired by Indianapolis. He was supervising the construction of a new major East/West belt road on 20 March 1923, when he died, survived by his wife and son. He is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery
, St. Louis, Missouri. The Indianapolis road he was supervising was named Kessler Boulevard in his honor. In Dallas, the Kessler Park neighborhood is named for him. Longview, Washington
named Kessler Boulevard and Kessler Elementary School in his honor.
Kessler was a founder of the American Institute of Planners. He was also one of the original members of the United States Commission of Fine Arts
.
German American
German Americans are citizens of the United States of German ancestry and comprise about 51 million people, or 17% of the U.S. population, the country's largest self-reported ancestral group...
pioneer city planner and landscape architect
Landscape architect
A landscape architect is a person involved in the planning, design and sometimes direction of a landscape, garden, or distinct space. The professional practice is known as landscape architecture....
.
Over the course of his forty-one year career, George E. Kessler completed over 200 projects and prepared plans for 26 communities, 26 park and boulevard systems, 49 parks, 46 estates & residents, and 26 schools. His projects can be found in 23 states, 100 cities, in places as farflung as Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
, New York, and Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
.
"Planning", wrote Kessler, "should be comprehensive. Even though a grand urban design could only be realized in bits and pieces, and over a long period of years, still we should always know where we are going. Each bit and piece should be understandable by reference to the great plan of which it is a part. Planning must also be relevant to the particular city: its geography, its economic character, all its local peculiarities. We must," Kessler insisted, "deal with it in its application to the entire city. The object is to make cities decent places for masses of people to live in. Cities grow mostly by accident in response to trends in the real estate market. Very little thought is given to their qualitative characters. But there comes a time when development must be subject to control, when further growth must be planned such that urbanization will no longer proceed at the expense of devastating 'nature.'”
Early life & education
George E. Kessler was born in Frankenhausen, GermanyGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
to Edward Carl Kessler and Adolphe Clotilde Zeitsche Kessler. In 1865 Edward and Clotilde along with George and his sister, Fredericka Antionette Louisa, emigrated to the United States. After briefly living in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
, Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
, and Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, the family ultimately settled in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
where George's father and uncle invested in a cotton plantation. His father died in 1878. After his father's death, George, at the age of sixteen, worked as a cashboy at Sanger Brothers Dry Goods.
After consultation with relatives, Clotilde decided that landscape architecture would combine the right degree of creativity and practicality to suit her son's temperament. The family moved back to Germany were George received his formal training that included:
Two-year apprenticeship at private landscape gardening school at the Grand Ducal Gardens in Weimar, Germany. Studied botany, forestry, and design under Hofgartner Armin Sckell and Garteninspector Julius Hartwig.
Working for several months with Haage and Schmidt, a major German plant nursery in Erfurt.
Studying at Charlottenburg and Potsdam that included brief study at Gaertner Lehr Anstalt, school of garden design founded by Peter Joseph LennéPeter Joseph LennéPeter Joseph Lenné was a Prussian gardener and landscape architect from Bonn who worked in the German classicist style.-Childhood and development:...
; technical engineering study at Gartner-Jehranstalt; study with Hofgartner Theodore Neitner at the Neue Garten; and study at Polytechnicum, the premier horticultural library in Germany.
Completion of civil engineering course at University of Jena.
Touring with a tutor central and western Europe and southern England for one year study of civic design in major cities from Paris to Moscow.
“Of all of it,” he later said, “the travel was of most value.”
First job & Merriam Park
In October 1881, the Kessler family returned to New York. From January 1882 through March, Kessler sent four letters to Frederick Law OlmstedFrederick Law Olmsted
Frederick Law Olmsted was an American journalist, social critic, public administrator, and landscape designer. He is popularly considered to be the father of American landscape architecture, although many scholars have bestowed that title upon Andrew Jackson Downing...
. The 22 January letter is the first record of his attempt to begin work in the United States. In the letter Kessler wrote of his studies and travel in Europe and wondered about an arboretum job at the Boston (Arnold Arboretum). In the 15 February letter, Kessler wrote that he was “certain of a situation in Central Park” and of an offer of a partnership with a florist in Woodlawn. “Since November”, Kessler wrote, “I have been in the employ of A. LeMoult 172 and 174 Bowery
Bowery
Bowery may refer to:Streets:* The Bowery, a thoroughfare in Manhattan, New York City* Bowery Street is a street on Coney Island in Brooklyn, N.Y.In popular culture:* Bowery Amphitheatre, a building on the Bowery in New York City...
, having charge of his greenhouse, seed and grass stock. Decoration of concert halls were also mostly in my care.” Kessler also sent drawings.
Olmsted responded in March and urged Kessler “to be ambitious to be master in higher fields” than pleasure grounds and home gardens. Also Olmsted encouraged Kessler to educate himself about nature through reading, reflection and excursions and to aim to free himself from German associations in order to expand his capabilities and to not limit his influence and opportunities. A recommended list of books to read was included. Olmsted concluded by writing that the Kansas City, Fort Scott, and Gulf Railway Company might be in need of a man to take charge of a public picnic or excursion ground. He told Kessler that the President, H.H. Hunniwell
H. H. Hunnewell
Horatio Hollis Hunnewell , was a banker, railroad financier, philanthropist, amateur botanist, and one of the most prominent horticulturists in America in the nineteenth century. Horatio Hunnewell was a partner in the private banking firm of Welles & Co. Paris, France controlled by his in-laws...
, would be in New York and that Olmsted had given him Kessler’s address.
On 18 March, Kessler provided additional information on his work in the Bowery and wrote that if he stayed with LeMoult, he would receive fifteen dollars a week. The last letter to Olmsted on 23 March stated that Kessler was taking a Merriam Park, Johnson County, Kansas, position with the railroad at a salary of forty dollars per month. The work was to design and supervise the construction of the railroad’s pleasure park.
Merriam Park was located ten miles southwest of Kansas City, Missouri. Kessler along with his mother and sister moved to a house on John Mastin’s Johnson County farm. Besides working on the park, Kessler served as caretaker of the farm property.
Although Merriam Park had been dedicated in 1880, when Kessler arrived there was only one building intended for visitors, a square dance floor, and nearly all the valuable trees had been cut down for cordwood. Less than two years after Kessler started the park was a great success. The park had been enclosed with a fence and the main entrance was an ornamental archway. Features included an open-air shelter for large public gatherings, wild animal exhibits, picnic grounds, Pavilion, lake, tennis courts, croquet grounds, horse drawn merry-go-round, numerous swings, and a baseball diamond. The cost to enter the park was 25 cents and the park attracted more than 20,000 visitors per day. A detailed description of the park before and after Kessler may be found in The Life and Work of George Edward Kessler.
Kessler maintained a nursery on the park filled with a large variety of trees and shrubs, was responsible for sales from the park’s icehouse, and arranged excursions to the park. In addition to his work at Merriam Park, Kessler prepared landscape plans and supervised the maintenance of many of the railroad’s stations in Kansas and Missouri. He also managed the company’s two experimental tree farms (1,500 acres) near Farlington, Kansas.
These activities would have satiated most men, but Kessler opened an office in Kansas City and went looking for more work. His next biggest commission was landscaping a rugged hollow—Hyde Park.
Kansas City
Hyde Park, Kansas City
Hyde Park is a historic neighborhood and city park in Kansas City, Missouri.-Neighborhood :The historic neighborhood is located north/south from Armour Boulevard to 47th Street and west/east from Gillham Road to Troost Avenue....
neighborhood. Kessler landscaped the hollow and then encircled it with a boulevard to prevent houses from turning it into part of their backyards. The layout spurred sales of stately homes along it.
The success of the project drew the attention of The Kansas City Star
The Kansas City Star
The Kansas City Star is a McClatchy newspaper based in Kansas City, Missouri, in the United States. Published since 1880, the paper is the recipient of eight Pulitzer Prizes...
publisher William Rockhill Nelson
William Rockhill Nelson
William Rockhill Nelson was a real estate developer and founder of The Kansas City Star. He donated his estate for the establishment of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.-Early life:...
who would champion the City Beautiful Movement
City Beautiful movement
The City Beautiful Movement was a reform philosophy concerning North American architecture and urban planning that flourished during the 1890s and 1900s with the intent of using beautification and monumental grandeur in cities. The movement, which was originally associated mainly with Chicago,...
.
On 31 May 1890, Kessler applied to become the city's landscape architect for the city's newly created Park Board. Following court challenges on whether the city could issue bonds to fund parks, Kansas City finally got the approvals to create a park board on 5 March 1892 thanks to the efforts of August Meyer
August Meyer
August R. Meyer was a minig engineer, founding organizer of Leadville, Colorado, and developed the park and boulevard system for Kansas City, Missouri as first president of the Commission of Parks.-Background:...
. Kessler had earlier designed the grounds of Meyer's house in what is today's Kansas City Art Institute
Kansas City Art Institute
The Kansas City Art Institute is a private, independent, four-year college of fine arts and design founded in 1885 in Kansas City, Missouri....
. Kansas City's model for park and boulevard systems would be used by numerous cities. Kessler was hired as the board's engineer.
Kessler would work with Meyer to lay out the city's street grid including a parks and boulevard system. The initial 1893 plan called for 9.85 miles (15.9 km) of boulevards and 323.45 acres (1.3 km²) of parks. The Paseo
The Paseo
The Paseo is a major north–south parkway in Kansas City, Missouri. It runs in the center of the city: from Cliff Drive and Lexington Avenue on the bluffs above the Missouri River in the Pendleton Heights historic neighborhood, to 85th Street and Woodland Avenue...
was named after the famed Paseo de la Reforma
Paseo de la Reforma
Paseo de la Reforma is a wide avenue that runs in a straight line, cutting diagonally across Mexico City. It was designed by Ferdinand von Rosenzweig in the 1860s and modeled after the great boulevards of Europe, such as Vienna's Ringstrasse or the Champs-Élysées in Paris...
, one of Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
's most fashionable boulevards.
On May 14, 1900 Kessler married Ida Grant Field of Kansas City, Missouri. They had one son, George Edward Kessler, Jr.
Booming practice
Louisiana Purchase Exposition
The Louisiana Purchase Exposition, informally known as the Saint Louis World's Fair, was an international exposition held in St. Louis, Missouri, United States in 1904.- Background :...
in St. Louis
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
.
The same year he also designed Fair Park
Fair Park
Dallas Fair Park is a recreational and educational complex located in Dallas, Texas . The complex is registered as a Dallas Landmark, National Historic Landmark and is home to nine museums, six performance facilities, a lagoon, and the largest Ferris wheel in North America...
in Dallas, but his biggest gift to that city was his Kessler Plan
Kessler Plan
The Kessler Plan was the City of Dallas’s managed growth plan from 1910 through the 1930s, authored by George Kessler, a city planner. The Plan was intended to create and contain the Dallas Floodway of the Trinity River, and combine the six rail yards at Dallas Union Station...
, which he created in 1909. That year the Dallas Chamber of Commerce established the City Plan and Improvement League and hired Kessler to design a long-range plan of civic improvements for Dallas. His plans included fixing the uncontrollable flooding of the Trinity River
Trinity River (Texas)
The Trinity River is a long river that flows entirely within the U.S. state of Texas. It rises in extreme north Texas, a few miles south of the Red River. The headwaters are separated by the high bluffs on the south side of the Red River....
, fixing narrow, crooked downtown
Downtown Dallas
Downtown Dallas is the Central Business District in Dallas, Texas USA, located in the geographic center of the city. The area termed "Downtown" has traditionally been defined as bounded by the downtown freeway loop: bounded on the east by I-345 Downtown Dallas is the Central Business District...
streets, fixing dangerous railroad crossings, and the construction of the Central Expressway
Central Expressway (Dallas)
Central Expressway is a north–south highway in Dallas, Texas and surrounding areas.- North Central Expressway :The best-known section is the North Central Expressway, a name for a freeway section of U.S. Highway 75 between downtown Dallas and McKinney, Texas...
. At that time his plans were not implemented and were deemed "impractical," but later it became very clear that changes were needed. The Central Expressway
Central Expressway (Dallas)
Central Expressway is a north–south highway in Dallas, Texas and surrounding areas.- North Central Expressway :The best-known section is the North Central Expressway, a name for a freeway section of U.S. Highway 75 between downtown Dallas and McKinney, Texas...
project was only realized 40 years after the Kessler Plan was published.
In 1910 he moved to St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
.
In 1912 to 1913 Kessler designed the expansive Longview Farm
Longview Farm
Longview Farm in Lee's Summit, Missouri, United States was built by Robert A. Long. In planning the farm Long again turned to Henry F. Hoit of Hoit, Price and Barnes, as he had designed Corinthian Hall and the R.A. Long Building. George Kessler was chosen as the landscape architect. The farm and...
for Robert A. Long
Robert A. Long
Robert Alexander Long was a lumber baron, developer, investor, newspaper owner, millionaire, and philanthropist. He lived most of his life in Kansas City, Missouri and founded the city of Longview, Washington and the town of Longville, Louisiana....
. With over 1700 acres this was in actuality a community far bigger than small towns with over 50 buildings. The landscaping earned the farm the title of The worlds most beautiful farm. The community had underground electricity, filtered water from a 100,000 gallon water tower, steam heating, indoor plumbing, as well as 7 miles of macadam
Macadam
Macadam is a type of road construction pioneered by the Scotsman John Loudon McAdam in around 1820. The method simplified what had been considered state-of-the-art at that point...
ized roads that was innovative for the time period. The landscape layout around the mansion included manicured shrubbery, fountains, and a tennis court.
George Kessler was hired to resolve a politically charged development dispute involving the park system of Indianapolis
Indianapolis
Indianapolis is the capital of the U.S. state of Indiana, and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana. As of the 2010 United States Census, the city's population is 839,489. It is by far Indiana's largest city and, as of the 2010 U.S...
in 1908. He studied the city for one year before submitting his plan for a park and boulevard system
Indianapolis Park and Boulevard System
The Indianapolis Park and Boulevard System is a group of parks, parkways, and boulevards in Indianapolis, Indiana that was designed by landscape architect George Edward Kessler in the early part of the twentieth century. Also known as the Kessler System, the district includes and has shaped the...
, which was adopted in 1909. Kessler led the city's Park Commission until 1915.
In 1918 Kessler returned to act as consulting engineer for the Dallas Property Owner's Association and in 1919 began working for the Metropolitan Development Association of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce. On 3 January 1922, he returned to St. Louis. His plans for the Trinity River were finally implemented in the 1930s.
Kessler also drafted city plans for Cincinnati
City Plan for Cincinnati
The City Plan for Cincinnati is a set of plans to guide the development of Cincinnati. The earliest such plan was the 1907 Park Plan created by George Kessler. Every 20 or 30 years since then new comprehensive plans have been created as the city has grown....
, Terre Haute, Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, El Paso
El Paso, Texas
El Paso, is a city in and the county seat of El Paso County, Texas, United States, and lies in far West Texas. In the 2010 census, the city had a population of 649,121. It is the sixth largest city in Texas and the 19th largest city in the United States...
, Denver
Denver, Colorado
The City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Denver is a consolidated city-county, located in the South Platte River Valley on the western edge of the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
, and Syracuse
Syracuse, New York
Syracuse is a city in and the county seat of Onondaga County, New York, United States, the largest U.S. city with the name "Syracuse", and the fifth most populous city in the state. At the 2010 census, the city population was 145,170, and its metropolitan area had a population of 742,603...
. He also designed Camp Wilson, an army cantonment near San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
.
In 1920, George Kessler was again hired by Indianapolis. He was supervising the construction of a new major East/West belt road on 20 March 1923, when he died, survived by his wife and son. He is buried in Bellefontaine Cemetery
Bellefontaine and Calvary Cemeteries
Bellefontaine Cemetery and the Roman Catholic Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri are adjacent burial grounds, which have numerous historic and extravagant tombstones and mausoleums. They are the necropolis for a number of prominent local and state politicians, as well as soldiers of the...
, St. Louis, Missouri. The Indianapolis road he was supervising was named Kessler Boulevard in his honor. In Dallas, the Kessler Park neighborhood is named for him. Longview, Washington
Longview, Washington
Longview is a city in Cowlitz County, Washington, United States. It is the principal city of the "Longview, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area", which encompasses all of Cowlitz County. Longview's population was 36,648 at the time of the 2010 census and is the largest city in Cowlitz County...
named Kessler Boulevard and Kessler Elementary School in his honor.
Kessler was a founder of the American Institute of Planners. He was also one of the original members of the United States Commission of Fine Arts
United States Commission of Fine Arts
The United States Commission of Fine Arts , established in 1910 by an act of Congress, is an advisory agency of the Federal government.The CFA is mandated to review and provide advice on "matters of design and aesthetics", involving federal projects and planning in Washington, D.C...
.