Each March, in honor of Women’s History Month, the Olmsted Network conducts an oral history interview with one of the many women responsible for the birth and evolution of our organization.
This year, we sat down with Arleyn Levee, an ardent and vocal advocate who has served the organization in countless forms since its founding in 1980. A former board chair and current advocacy committee member, Levee was awarded our prestigious Olmsted Stewardship Award in 2022 for her extensive knowledge of the work and workers of the Olmsted firm. She has spent a considerable amount of time traveling across the country to help partners research and rehabilitate their Olmsted landscapes.
Levee, who now resides in Massachusetts, was brought up in Iraq, Scotland and the United States. These varied experiences— along with her studies at Wellesley College, Harvard University and the Radcliffe Landscape Program— prepared her for a 20-year career designing landscapes and a lifetime of landscape research and preservation advocacy.
“I come bringing not only the historian’s viewpoint and a historian’s interests but also a real view in landforms, land and people relationships and, to some extent, horticulture.”
Reflecting on nearly 45 years with the Olmsted Network, she lists off some familiar names— Betsy Shure Gross, Charles E. Beveridge and the late Charles McLaughlin— and shares just how tightknit the group grew to be.
“I’ve made lifelong friends through the Olmsted Network,” she said. “Deep, abiding, lifelong friends that have now moved well beyond the sphere of just intellectual co-interests.”
To hear more about Levee’s involvement in the Olmsted Network and her take on all things Olmsted, check out the full interview above.
