Annette Flanders office in NYC. Image source: Museum of New York City, photo courtesy of Samuel H. Gottscho
Annette Hoyt Flanders (1887-1946). Image source: thedailygardener.org
Richard Bentley and Phoebe Norcross Bentley estate, 1421-35 Lake Road, garden renovation in 1938. Image Source: Garden Club of American, Smithsonian.
Mrs. McPherson Holt cottage gardens, 1298 Green Bay Road. Image source: Garden Club of America, Smithsonian.
Milwaukee-born Annette Hoyt Flanders earned her degree in Botany from Smith College and continued her studies at the University of Illinois. After attending the 1916 Lake Forest Garden Club summer study program here under Ralph R. Root, Flanders went on to create several local gardens and also have a New York-based career with Ferruccio Vitale and her own notable design firm with an additional office in Milwaukee.
She lectured and wrote on a variety of landscape topics, promoting simple, livable, and economical garden design. She was recognized in Home & Garden’s Hall of Fame in 1930 and elected as an ASLA Fellow in 1942.
Annette Flanders worked with fellow garden designer Louise Hubbard on the renovation of one of Lake Forest’s earliest gardens, “The Homestead,” formerly the Devillo R. Holt estate on Sheridan Road. She renovated the gardens for the David Adler-designed Richard and Phoebe Bentley residence on Lake Road. Other local projects included the gardens for Donald and Barbara Welles’ English Cotswold-style home in 1929 at 361 North Ahwahnee; landscape work for Mr. and Mrs. Mason Phelps in 1937 across the street at 360 North Ahwahnee; a cottage garden for Lake Forest Garden club president, Mary Holt, in 1936 at 1298 North Green Bay; and the William and Madeleine Pullman garden at 700 North Mayflower Road.