Marian Cruger Coffin was a pioneering landscape architect in the early 1900s. After the death of her father in 1888, Marian and her mother Alice moved to Geneva to live with Alice’s sister, Harriet. By 1892 the women moved in with Marian’s uncle, John Barker Church IV at 554 South Main Street. While Alice and Marian were relatively poor they also had many upper class connections due to Alice’s family and those connections would be very helpful to Marian later in life. As Marian had no independent income, she faced the choice of finding a rich husband or finding a career which would allow her to support herself.

She chose the latter and in 1901 Alice and Marian moved to Boston so Marian could attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and study architectural landscaping. Marian was 25 when she entered MIT.

After graduating in 1904 Marian soon discovered that no architectural firm would hire her because she was a woman, so she started her own business in New York City in 1905. With connections to some of the most influential families on the East Coast she started designing suburban gardens. Some of her first projects were on Long Island and eventually her clientele included the Fricks, Vanderbilts, Huttons, and du Ponts. By the 1920s she became one of the most sought after landscape designers in the eastern United States.

As her reputation spread Marian was able to hire an assistant and move to a larger office. She was also able to put her ideas and principles into practice. Her firm not only employed women whenever possible but provided them with apprenticeships, a learning opportunity that had been denied to Marian.

Though the Great Depression reduced the number of commissions she received, Marian worked consistently until her death at age 80 in 1957. During her working lifetime she designed over 130 gardens including the Campus of the University of Delaware, the Caumsett Estate as well as Winterthur in Delaware and dozens of individual estate gardens.