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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 Portland-based landscape architect. 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

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, 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 and Science University for use as the president’s residence. He also donated a 370-acre parcel on Shaw Island in the San Juans to the University of Washington as a nature preserve. Ellis died in 1982 in Portland.

Sources: You and Your Landscape Architect: Hillside Gardening, The Oregonian, Sept. 18, 1955; The Oregonian Obituary, Feb. 13, 1982; Management Plan for the University of Washington’s Cedar Rock Preserve on Shaw Island, San Juan County, Washington, 2008; Reed Magazine Obituaries, 2010.

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.

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