A Legend Etched in Landscape
Gertrude Kuh remains one of the most notable women in landscape design
Outdoor landscaping is what makes a house a home. A century ago, the name Gertrude Kuh became well known, particularly on the North Shore. As one of the first women in her field, she created more than 400 landscapes from small flower gardens for single-family residences to intricate, multiple-acre designs for sprawling estates.
Gertrude Kuh on an overseas trip, circa 1930.
“She was truly an artist,” said Kuh’s grandson, Thomas Deimel. “She didn’t have much to do with women of her time because she felt they were petty. She was always surrounded by men because that’s who worked in landscape design.”
While time has all but eroded Kuh’s work, there are still some homes that have the outlines of her elegant and naturalistic landscape style. She was known for her creative innovation and ability to work with the physical environment in which she was presented. She had great respect for the native environment of a setting and tended toward an earth-toned color palette that complemented the scene.
Gertrude Eisendrath Deimel Kuh was born in Racine, WI, in the early 1890s as the youngest of six children to wealthy Jewish immigrants. The family moved to Chicago’s affluent Hyde Park neighborhood as she started school.
After graduating from University High School (now University of Chicago Laboratory School), Kuh went on to study at Lowthorpe School of Horticulture and Landscape Design in Groton, Massachusetts. Among other horticultural studies, Kuh learned planting, design, grading and land surveying. She apprenticed for Ellen Biddle Shipman – the first well-respected woman in the field – during summer breaks.
“We found a reference to Shipman having created designs for Martin House – a Frank Lloyd Wright home in Buffalo, New York, which Wright often referred to as his masterpiece,” Deimel said. “My grandmother interned around that time, so it’s very possible she helped Shipman with those designs.”
After a two-month internship in Des Moines, Iowa, following graduation, Kuh returned to Chicago and set up her business in Hyde Park in the 20s. Her first marriage to Jerome Deimel resulted in her son John, who was Kuh’s only child. Her husband passed away after just two years of marriage.
Kuh became very active in social circles and clubs, particularly the North Shore Garden Club. She served a stint as president of the organization, during which the renowned naturalist and landscape artist Jens Jensen spoke at their annual meeting in 1930. Several of Kuh’s designs won the blue ribbon at the Navy Pier Flower Show.
The North Shore Garden Club proved to be a valuable avenue for Kuh in gaining the early commissions of wealthy homeowners of those neighborhoods. Family contacts also helped her gain the confidence of Julius Rosenwald (Sears, Roebuck & Company owner) and Irving Florsheim (shoe magnate), both of whom hired her to design gardens on their estates in the early 30s.
A second marriage to clothing manufacturer George Kuh lasted only four months. After he died, she and her son moved north to The Hotel Belmont on Lake Shore Drive to be closer to her clientele.
In the years following the death of her second husband, Kuh’s design business grew exponentially. She hired associate Mary Long Rogers – another single woman raising a son close to her own son’s age – to assist in drafting projects and consultation on construction and drainage. The pair collaborated on over 200 designs over the next two and a half decades as they built a lifelong friendship.
Kuh was a member of the American Society of Landscape Architects, a respected organization with few women on their roster.
Long-term professional relationships played an important role for Kuh in gaining clients. Ernest Grunsfeld, designer of the Adler Planetarium, was Kuh’s neighbor when she moved to the north side. The two professionals worked together on many designs. A few times, clients contacted Kuh for a landscape project and requested that she find an architect who then designed a house around it.
When space permitted, Kuh was known for creating “an outdoor room,” which she thought should be extensions of the homes themselves. Regardless of the size of the project, she insisted on meticulously drawn plans and excellent craftsmanship. Kuh never took on more work than that to which she could give her undivided attention. Clients learned to wait in line for her services.
“My grandmother was truly an artist,” said Deimel. “Her apartment was like an art museum. She knew Georgia O’Keeffe from stints she spent in New Mexico, often with Mary Long Rogers.”
Over her 50-year career, Kuh earned a place of distinction in Chicago’s landscape. A fountain, along with two other remembrances of her can be found at the Chicago Botanic Garden in Glencoe. After her death, her family gifted her paintings, drafts, and other memorabilia to The Art Institute of Chicago, where they are held today. Kuh is buried among other great Chicagoans in Rosehill Cemetery.
