Mary Elizabeth Sharpe papers (Ms.2005.34)

Biographical Note

href="http://dl.lib.brown.edu/riamco/img/US-RPB.jpg"/>Mary Elizabeth Sharpe was born Mary Evans on October 23, 1884, in Syracuse, New York. Her father abandoned the family to search for gold in the Klondike and never returned, leaving Mary, her mother, her two sisters, and her brother to be taken in by an uncle. When the family fell on hard times, Mary Elizabeth (age 13) began selling home-made candy. Mary Elizabeth's Candy, as her fledgling business was called, took off, and she established a tea house in Newport, Rhode Island, and then another on 37th Street, just off 5th Avenue in New York City.

Mary met her future husband, Henry D. Sharpe (1872-1954; Brown class of 1894), on a horseback riding vacation in Wyoming, just before World War I. He was running his family's business, Brown and Sharpe Manufacturing Company in Providence. After serving with the Red Cross during the war, Mary returned in 1920 and she and Henry were officially engaged and then married. They built a 20,000 square foot French chateau at 84 Prospect St., now Brown University's Rochambeau House. They had one child, a son named Henry D. Sharpe Jr., in 1925. Henry senior became chancellor of Brown in 1932 and remained so until 1952, two years before his death.

During this time, Mary Sharpe became increasingly interested in art, befriending artist Florence Kohler, who helped her amass a collection of fine art. She also became interested in and then proficient at landscape design. In 1944, the president of Brown University, Henry Merritt Wriston, asked her advice for a good planting plan for the University, and she "bit like a hungry trout," eventually redesigning much of the Brown landscape with trees that were attractive, hardy and easy to maintain. For this work she was awarded an honorary A.M. degree by Brown University in 1950.

After her success at Brown she went to work on Providence, taking on a number of projects that included establishing an annual tree fund, which led to the planting of 3,000 new trees and the ongoing commitment by the city to maintain and expand its tree-planting initiatives. Perhaps her most ambitious project was the creation of a waterfront recreation area at India Point Park in the early 1970s. She donated $153,000 and raised much more from the city and privately to convert a dilapidated shipyard into a tree-lined park with a promenade, boathouse, playgrounds, picnic areas, and bike paths.

Mary Sharpe continued to work to make Providence beautiful until just before her death in 1985, having celebrated her 100th birthday in style just months before.