September 13, 1988.
We’ll go through some of the questions that I’ve prepared and begin with the first one under Section A. That’s Francis Lange’s background and life after his work at CRLA, and with Section A beginning with the first question.
Where did you grow up and what is your educational background?
Well, I was born in Sedalia, Missouri in 1904. I spent my childhood around Sedalia. I went to Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and I got a Bachelor of Architecture in 1928 and a Masters in Landscape Design from Washington University in 1932. I think I should go back a little bit to ’23 before… I’d like to mention that I worked at Yellowstone NP in 1923 at Mammoth Lodge. I did the job as a porter, or we were called “pack rats.” We used to handle he luggage from the tourists at they came in on the yellow busses at Mammoth Hot Springs. I spent the summer there in ’23. In the summer of 1924, I had the good fortune of working at Camp Curry at Yosemite NP. I had previously interviewed Mother Curry who managed her cottage facilities there and I also met here son-in-law, Don Tresidder who worked in the office at the time. This was in 1924. I spent the summer there and returned back East, and was attending Washington University. Then the summers of ’27 and ’28 I returned to Yellowstone NP each summer and worked in the Engineer’s Office at Park Headquarters at Mammoth. During the time while was working with the Park Service I became interested in landscape and architecture, and especially as an architect. During this time in the Park Service, in these parks, I met many interesting people. Herbert Maier, who was with the Rockefeller Institute on Museum Construction. I met Mr. Albright, and I knew a number of Park Officials in Washington, having been fortunate enough to be in the park the time they came. At that time I was observing the architectural and landscape possibilities and that created a keen interest in my personal desires to be associated with the landscape and planning phase of the NPS. During the winter of ’32 and ’33, while working in the Engineer’s Office in Yellowstone Park. That spring of ’33 I got an offer from Mr. Vent to work as a landscape architect. Mr. Sager, at that time, was landscape architect under whose control I worked. I’d like to mention here, as I recall, it was in the summer of 1930 or ’31 that I worked on a temporary job from the San Francisco office going to Sequoia NP with Mr. Sager. That was my first actual contact as a landscape architect during that period of time. When I was over the job in ’33 I reported to San Francisco and again, worked under the supervision of Mr. Sager. We immediately went to CRLA, stopping en route at Lassen. We had our base operations at CRLA beginning about May, as I recall, 1933.
