Joseph Forsyth Johnson

Joseph Forsyth Johnson (1840–July 17,1906 was an English landscape architect and disciple of John Ruskin.

Johnson had a family background in horticulture. His maternal grandfather John Forsyth, a florist, was the son of William Forsyth, a botanist who co-founded the Royal Horticultural Society in 1804 ["Family detective: Bruce Forsyth", "The Telegraph, December 6, 2006] . Johnson had a successful career designing the grounds for a number of estates in England, Ireland and Russia. For many years he was the curator of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Belfast before leaving Europe.He came to America in 1886 for the refurbishment of Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York City. The park was overgrown and his plan was to create a number of vistas where the entirety of the large park would be visible. That plan would have necessitated the removal of a large number of trees, which proved unacceptable to the community. As a result Johnson was terminated from the project.

A recommendation in 1887 by New York florist Peter Henderson convinced Joel Hurt to bring Johnson to Atlanta to work on his streetcar suburb, Inman Park. Johnson went to Atlanta and he spent the next five years there. He joined Hurt again for Piedmont Park.

In 1891, he designed Latta Park in Charlotte, North Carolina and the next year may have designed the neighborhood of Cloverdale in Montgomery, Alabama.

He was married 1st to Elizabeth Trowsdale in 1861. He married 2ndly to Frances Clark Johnson and they had three children: Roy Albert Johnson (1886–1939), Cecil Forsyth Johnson (1887–1951), and Edwina Johnson Mundy (1891–1969). His great grandson by his first marriage is the British entertainer Bruce Forsyth.

Johnson moved back to England for a time but he died in Brooklyn, NY and was buried there at Evergreen Cemetery.

Writings

*"The Natural Principle of Landscape Gardening: Or the Adornment of Land for Perpetual Beauty", Archer and Songs, Belfast, 1874
*"Residential Sites and Environments, Their Conveniences, Gardens, Parks and Planting", A.T.Delamare, New York, 1898
*"The Laws of Developing Landscape, Showing How to Make Thickets and Woodlands Reveal Their Natural Beauty", Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society 29 (1904-1905), p.595-624

References

*Obituary, Gardening Magazine, Chicago, p.349 [http://books.google.com/books?id=7y0CAAAAYAAJ]