Architect. One of America’s premier landscape architect, he wrote many books on the subject and thus, by reputation was dubbed “The Apostle of Taste.” His work included locales in New York State’s Hudson River Valley, at Newport, Rhode Island’s “cottages” and in The Capitol Mall at Washington, D.C. where a huge urn stands as a memorial to him in the garden of The Smithsonian Castle – the first monument dedicated on The Mall. He traveled to Europe and was responsible for bringing Calvert Vaux, British-born, Gothic Revival Landscape Architect of New York City’s Central Park to name but one project, to the United States. Within a year of his arrival, he made Vaux his partner.  Just when his career was achieving high success, A.J. Downing was on a tour with his family, to visit sites in New York City, Newport, Rhode Island and Washington , D.C. when he was drowned, along with his mother-in-law, in “The Henry Clay Steamboat Disaster” in The Hudson River. Calvert Vaux was forced to take over the business and go on with the work that was already on the books.  The completion of the projects brought great acclaim. About 40 years after Downing’s death, Calvert Vaux died by drowning, about 10 miles downstream of the site of Downing’s own demise. A.J. Downing was interred in The Old Town Cemetery, in Newburgh until the 1870s at which time his grave was relocated to Cedar Hill Cemetery by his brother who was one of the founders and still in the family flower business. (bio by: John T. Chiarella)  Family links:  Spouse:  Caroline Elizabeth De Wint Monell (1815 – 1905)