Pioneer Information
A native of Houston, Vaughan earned a BA from William Marsh Rice Institute (now Rice University) in 1930, before attending the University of California, Berkeley, where she earned a BS in landscape architecture in 1937. During this time, she married landscape architect Leland Vaughan, working with him professionally the rest of her life, and also compiled several lists of plants suited to California gardens that were edited by landscape architect Thomas Church and published in California Arts and Architecture. She subsequently earned an MS in landscape architecture from Berkeley in 1938, completing a thesis proposing a master plan for a botanical garden and arboretum in Strawberry Canyon at the university.
Many plans and drawings rendered by Adele Vaughan strongly resemble her student work. She collaborated with him on many of his residential projects, including a proposed landscape development for the Mrs. H. B. Martin residence (1937) in San Jose, California, and a garden plan for the J. O. Turner Residence (1939) in Berkeley. That year Sunset Magazine financed a model home and garden to be built in Park Hills, Berkeley. Three hundred members of the Berkeley Women’s City Club participated in the planning of “Sunset House,” which was intended to depict the kind of house desired by women of the American West. Designed by architect Clarence Mayhew, the Vaughans designed the garden. Typical of their approach, the informal garden design featured brick terraces, shade trees, and minimal maintenance. They also designed landscapes for several University of California, Berkeley buildings, including Bowles Hall (1928) in 1947, Fernwald Dormitories (1946-1947, now partially demolished), and Stiles Hall in 1949 (now demolished). Vaughan died in Alameda County, California, at the age of 44.
