Hare and Hare Company Records (KC0206)

Sid Hare was a surveyor, draftsman, and photographer for the Kansas City engineer's office from 1885-1896. One of his jobs was to assist George Kessler, the landscape architect who laid the foundation for Kansas City's parks and boulevard system. After serving as superintendent of Forest Hill Cemetery, Hare established his own firm, working independently until his son, Herbert, joined him in 1910.

S. Herbert Hare was educated at Harvard and was one of the first six students in the United States to prepare for the relatively new profession of landscape architecture. Sid preferred the cemetery and park commissions, while Herbert handled city planning and other projects, and by the end of the 1920's, the firm enjoyed a national reputation. Herbert was a consultant to city planning and parks commissions in such cities as Houston and Fort Worth. During the 1930's, he was part of a federal commission that wrote guidelines for subdivision zoning regulations that are still in effect.

Hare and Hare designed a wide variety of projects in the Kansas City area and throughout the Midwest. They enjoyed a particularly important relationship with the J.C. Nichols Company. Other commissions included college and university campuses, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Fort Leonard Wood and other military installations, parks, libraries, cemeteries, schools, and hundreds of private residences. In cooperation with J.C. Nichols and George Kessler, they designed Longview, Washington, the nation's first planned industrial community. After Herbert Hare's death in 1960, the business gradually declined. In 1979, Ralph Oschner purchased the company and re-established the Hare and Hare reputation.

The collection consists of the office files, research data, project files and reports, and drawings of the Hare and Hare landscape planning firm. Generally the records fall into three categories: administrative files, research files, and project files. ca. 1904-1979.

350 cubic feet.

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