Pioneer Information
Born in Somerset, Pennsylvania, Sargent attended the Montessori School in Washington, D.C., and graduated from Saint Agatha School in New York City. She received a B.S. from Cornell University in 1933 and earned an M.L.A. from Smith College the following year. From 1934 to 1938 Sargent was employed by the New York City Department of Parks. In 1938 she represented the United States at an international meeting of landscape architects, architects, and city planners in Geneva, Switzerland. After an extended trip, Sargent returned to Manhattan, where she went to work for the Public Works Division of the Manhattan Borough President鈥檚 office from 1938 to 1943. During this time she redesigned Carl Schurz Park along the East River (1939), the purpose being to conceal the East River Drive underpass running below the parkland along the river. Sargent also designed many Robert Moses-era playgrounds, including the William McCray Playground in Manhattan and the Abraham Levy playground in Staten Island. In 1943 she joined the U.S. Navy, serving as an officer. Following World War II, Sargent worked as the senior land planner in the office of the Philadelphia City Planning Commission, during which time she planned the development of the city鈥檚 Far Northeast section. In the late 1960s she moved to Connecticut, where she studied city and regional planning at night school while working for the Norwalk, Connecticut City Planning Commission. Her plan for Guilford Green in Connecticut received an award from the Connecticut Society of Architects and the Connecticut chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1985. Sargent also practiced privately, taking on mostly residential projects. She passed away at her home in Chester, Connecticut, at the age of 93 from bone cancer.
