Clermont Huger Lee

Clermont Huger Lee (March 4, 1914 – June 14, 2006) was a landscape architect from Savannah, Georgia, most known for her work designing gardens and parks for historical landmarks in the state. Specifically, Lee is known for her designs such as the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace, Isaiah Davenport House and Owens–Thomas House. Lee assisted in founding of the Georgia State Board of Landscape Architects, which serves as a licensing board for landscape architects throughout Georgia. and Savannah College of Art and Design's Savannah Women of Vision on February 14, 2020. SCAD honors Lee with a gold relief in its Arnold hall.

Early life and education Lee was born in 1914 in Savannah, Georgia. Lee's father, Lawrence Lee, M.D., worked as a physician and her mother, Clermont Kinloch Huger Lee, was a gardener. She was the oldest sibling with two younger brothers, Lawrence Jr. and Moultrie. She went to school in both the former Pape School in Savannah and Ashley Hall in Charleston, South Carolina, where she graduated in 1932. She went on to attend Barnard College in New York City for two years.

Career Historic residential gardens Clermont Huger Lee began working with historic gardens in 1940 after completing designs for a garden at the Hofwyl-Broadfield Plantation in Brunswick, Georgia.

Lee suggested rounding the entrance curves to squares instead of destroying the squares with driveways. After several meetings, the city accepted this proposal, leaving the places intact. The spaces designed by Lee remain unchanged.

Awards Clermont Huger Lee has received two significant post humus awards and recognition. Lee shares these two honors with Flannery O’Connor and Juliette Gordon Low, both of whose childhood home gardens Lee worked on. On February 12, 2020, U.S. House of Representative Buddy Carter honored Clermont Lee, fellow Women of Vision inductee Suzanne Shank, and other's on the house floor in Washington, D.C.