Charles Punchard, Jr.
| Charles Punchard, Jr. | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Charles Pierpont Punchard, Jr. June 3, 1885 Framingham, Massachusetts |
| Died | November 12, 1920 Denver, Colorado |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Architect |
Charles Pierpont "Punch" Punchard, Jr. (June 3, 1885 - November 12, 1920) was an American landscape architect and landscape engineer. He was employed by the National Park Service from 1918 to 1920 where he became a pioneer in the form of "rustic architecture" that became known as "National Park Service rustic" architecture.
Punchard was born in 1885 in Framingham, Massachusetts. His parents were Charles P. Punchard, Sr., and Mattie Frost (Blanchard) Purchard. He attended high school in Brookline, Massachusetts. At age 16, he became employed by his uncle, William H. Punchard, Landscape Architect. He remained in the employ of his uncle for eight years. At the time of the 1910 U.S. Census, he was living in Boston and working as a "draughtsman" for a landscape architect.
In approximately 1909, Punchard he established a partnership under the name Punchard & Negus. He also studied for two years at the Harvard University School of Landscape Architecture. In 1911, he established the landscape architectural firm of Evans & Punchard at Cleveland, Ohio in partnership with Frederick Noble Evans. Their practice spread to the Western United States. Punchard developed tuberculosis in April 1913 and left the practice to stay at a sanitarium at Colorado Springs, Colorado. (See Tuberculosis treatment in Colorado Springs). After a year's stay in the sanitarium, he settled in Denver, Colorado. He went into practice with Irvin J. McCary from 1916 to 1917.
During World War I, Punchard's physical condition prevented from joining the military, but he was appointed in June 1917 as the Landscape Architect for the District of Columbia in the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds. While serving as the landscape architect for the national capital, Punchard worked with Arno Cammerer and Frederick Law Olmsted. The humid climate of the District of Columbia proved to be deleterious to Punchard's health. In order to allow Punchard to live in a drier climate, Cammerer arranged Punchard's transfer in July 1918 to the National Park Service as its first Landscape Engineer. Writing in Landscape Architecture, Punchard described the new position as follows:
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