Jesse Horning

A page from one of DeForest’s scrapbooks, taken by Jesse Horning. Scrapbooks owned by Chip Stevens.

In 1934, prominent Rochester landscape architect Alling Stephen DeForest was commissioned by Fred E. Reed, the son of the Frank E. Reed, owner of Reed Glass Co., and original owner of a unique 19th Ward home. For decades the property retained “park-like” qualities but today it is largely overgrown with English ivy and other invasive species. While site conditions indicate owners in the last 50 years have reintroduced plants from DeForest’s list, little, if anything, remains of the original plantings.

When my husband, Patrick, and I toured this house in July 2022, we never expected to become the new owners. For two years we had walked down the street admiring it and were shocked to one day see a for sale sign.

The first thing we saw in the house was a copy of this 1934 plan hung in the vestibule. I was one month away from starting graduate school for a Masters in Landscape Architecture and two weeks away from getting married but I said we had to submit an offer on the house. To our surprise, and Patrick’s horror, our offer was accepted. Our new ownership started a domino effect as I inquired about the original architect of the house and the landscape plan in the vestibule.

It took a bit of inquiring to ascertain the original plan had truly been donated to the University of Rochester Rush Rhees Library’s Rare Books & Special Collections. Another set of plans was also on file for the house; a large file containing an entire set of plans for a house on the lot by the progressive Rochester architect, Claude Bragdon. Mysteriously, six weeks after the last date on the plans, a building permit was issued in 1917 but the house Bragdon designed was never built. It would appear after his father’s death, that Fred E. Reed moved from a block over and made significant changes to the house and grounds, including hiring the prominent landscape architect, Alling DeForest.

While volunteering for the Landmark Society of Western New York’s annual garden tour in Brighton, NY, the volunteer on the second shift happened to be Cynthia Howk, a recently retired from decades as a historian for the Landmark Society and one of the only people left with significant knowledge of DeForest. Together, she and I have embarked on tracking down the scattered remnants of his work. Stay tuned for more updates on our endeavors.