Frederick Todd

Frederick G. Todd was born March 11, 1876, in Concord, New Hampshire. He attended the agricultural college in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he studied botany, biology, agriculture and site engineering. After completing school in 1896 he became an apprentice as a landscape architect with the firm of Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot, in Brookline, Massachusetts, until he moved to Montreal in 1900. During Todd's time in Montreal he established the first resident practices of landscape architecture in Canada. In 1903 Todd prepared a comprehensive report on the future growth of the nation's capital for the Ottawa Improvement Commission.^[1] Between 1904 and 1907 Todd prepared and executed the plans for Assiniboine Park in Winnipeg and Wascana Park in Regina, and developed a prototype for future garden cities. In 1905 he became a fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Between 1907 and 1912 Frederick designed three major garden city projects in British Columbia; Shaughnessy Heights and Point Grey in Vancouver, and Port Mann on the Fraser River. From 1913 to 1918 he designed and supervised major urban parks in Quebec City and Bowring Park in St. John's, Newfoundland as well as developed the model city plan for the town of Mount Royal Montreal. Todd also worked as a consultant for Alcan and designed a number of private gardens and institutional grounds as well as urban parks for smaller urban communities between 1918 and 1930. From 1930 to 1940 he designed and supervised major public works projects in Quebec during the depression including St. Helen's Island (1936), Beaver Lake in Mount Royal Park (1939) and developed a proposal for an impressive sports centre for the British Empire and Olympic Games in Maisonneuve Park, Montreal (1938). In 1939, Todd was elected president of the Quebec Horticultural Society. In 1945, he was appointed vice-president of the City Improvement League, Montreal. Between 1945 and 1948 he initiated plans and supervised construction of the Garden of the Way of the Cross adjacent to St. Joseph's Oratory. On February 15, 1948, he died in Montreal at the age of 71.

While working under Frederick Law Olmsted's firm, Todd helped with the design plan for Mount Royal along with many houses designed by William Sutherland Maxwell and Edward Maxwell.^[1] It is said that when Frederick Todd began working on his own that his "influence on his home city of Montreal was profound",^[2] which included many works created for private or public, along with individuals and groups. Some of his works in Montreal included St. Helen's Island Park (Île Sainte-Hélène),^[3] Beaver Lake on Mount Royal and the Garden of the Way of the Cross at St. Joseph's Oratory. Todd was also the designer for some other public spaces, for example, the Plains of Abraham, the National Capital, which was the Ottawa Improvement Commission Report.^[4][5]

Todd masterminded the bucolic lots found in the elite Shaughnessy Heights in Vancouver, B.C., the 1907 neighbourhood built for the Canadian Pacific Railway.^[6] Later projects include St. John's Bowring Park, and design plans for Trinity College in Toronto. Todd also worked on a number of smaller projects including residences and works for other cities within Canada.

Todd was involved in a number of organizations including the City Improvement League (Montreal), the Olmsted Legacy, the director of the Parks and Playgrounds Association (Montreal),^[7] and the Community Garden League of Montreal. He was appointed to Montreal City Council as a representative of the City Improvement League.^[8] He was very active and "devoted much time and energy to a variety of civic institutions and was a fellow of three professional organizations: the American Society of Landscape Architects, the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects ^[9] and the Town Planning Institute of Canada" (Todd, 1).