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Robert Hale Ellis, Jr. architectural papers

 Collection
Identifier: Coll 247

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of landscape architecture designs and plans by Robert Hale Ellis, Jr., a landscape architect based in Portland, Oregon. Most of the projects in the collection were executed in the Portland area, with a small number in Washington and California. Materials in the collection are primarily drawings by Ellis, and also include a number of diazotypes and blueprints. About half of the projects include drawings or prints of the buildings for which Ellis designed the landscaping, including buildings by noted regional architects Pietro Belluschi; Halsey Jones; DeWitt Robinson; Warren Weber; Glenn Stanton; and Sutton, Whitney and Aandahl. The collection also includes maps and documents relating to Ellis’ tract of land on Shaw Island in the San Juans that he donated to the University of Washington as a nature preserve.

Dates

  • Creation: 1947-1975

Creator

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Conditions Governing Use

The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.

Biographical note

Born in 1914 in Portland, Oregon, Robert Hale Ellis, Jr. graduated from Reed College in 1937 and received his graduate degree from Harvard University. During World War II, he served as an army engineer in the Yukon, New Guinea, the Philippines, and Japan. He returned to Portland and became a landscape architect designing gardens and planting schemes for clients primarily in the 1940s and 1950s. Some of his landscape designs were for residential clients who lived in houses designed by well-known regional architects such as Pietro Belluschi, Warren Weber, and Glenn Stanton. Other projects included landscape designs for churches, hospitals, and administration buildings in the greater Portland area.

Ellis was on the board of the Oregon Historical Society in the 1950s and 1960s, and he endowed a faculty position at Reed and established a fund for the acquisition of contemporary art at the Oregon Art Institute (later the Portland Art Museum) in memory of his parents. An avid conservationist, Ellis was involved with the Mazamas, the Oregon Roadside Council, and the Portland Garden Club. He bequeathed his home, the George W. Collins house designed by A. E. Doyle in 1907, to the Oregon Health & Science University for use as the president’s residence. He also donated a 370-acre parcel on Shaw Island, one of the San Juan Islands in Washington state, to the University of Washington as a nature preserve. Ellis died in 1982 in Portland.

Sources: "You and Your Landscape Architect: Hillside Gardening," Oregonian, September 18, 1955, Farm, Home and Garden section, Page 3; obituary in the Oregonian, February 13, 1982, page C7; Management Plan for the University of Washington’s Cedar Rock Preserve on Shaw Island, San Juan County, Washington, 2008; "'Father of Shaw Island': Frederick Eugene Ellis Sr. ’38," Reed Magazine Obituaries, September 2010 (accessed August 2025), https://www.reed.edu/reed-magazine/in-memoriam/obituaries/september2010/frederick-eugene-ellis-sr-1938.html

Extent

2.8 Cubic Feet (35 oversize folders)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

Architectural drawings relating to projects by landscape architect Robert Hale Ellis, Jr. (1914-1982). Ellis designed garden landscapes for residential and institutional clients in the Portland, Oregon area during the 1940s and 1950s.

Arrangement

Materials in the collection are listed in chronological order by project date, then alphabetically by client surname or project name.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of the Portland Garden Club, December 1983 (Lib. Acc. 16619).

Related Materials

Correspondence and documents from the estate of Robert Hale Ellis, Jr. make up Series 2 of the Oregon Roadside Council Records, Coll 22, at the Oregon Historical Society Research Library. The library also holds additional materials related to architects who are represented in this collection of Ellis's papers; see the A. Glenn Stanton architectural papers, Mss 3001; the Pietro Belluschi collection, Coll 2; the Sutton & Whitney architectural papers, Mss 3023; and the Halsey Jones architectural papers, Mss 3002.

Processing Information

The collection was processed by Hope Svenson in 2025. Processing included arrangement by project and foldering original drawings separately from blueprints and diazotypes for preservation purposes. Two panoramas consisting of multiple photographs taped together were disassembled for preservation purposes. The panoramas were photocopied to document their full form, then the tape was removed and the photographs separated.

Title
Guide to the Robert Hale Ellis, Jr. architectural papers
Status
Completed
Author
Hope Svenson
Date
2012; revised 2025
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid is written in English.

Repository Details

Part of the Oregon Historical Society Research Library Repository

Contact:
1200 SW Park Ave.
Portland OR 97205 United States
5033065204
5033065240