George Kessler

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George E. Kessler
Born	1862 Frankenhausen, Germany
Died	1923 Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.

This article is about the city planner. For the Metal Gear character, see List of classic Metal Gear characters

George Edward Kessler (July 16, 1862 – March 20, 1923) was a German American pioneer city planner and landscape architect.

George Kessler was born in Frankenhausen, Germany to Edward Carl Kessler and Clotilde Kessler. In 1865, his widowed mother, who taught French and art to support the two, took her son to Dallas, Texas in the United States. Later, George worked as a cashboy at Sanger Harris Dry Goods ^[1].

Kessler moved to Europe and studied civic design in Germany, France, and Russia. In 1882 he moved to Kansas City and designed a railroad-owned amusement park. In 1893 he drew up the plans for the city's park-boulevard system ^[1]. On May 14, 1900 Kessler married Ida Grant Field of Kansas City, Missouri. They had one son, George Edward Kessler, Jr. Beginning in 1901 through 1914 Kessler designed the Memphis Park and Parkway System. His plan for Memphis included two major urban parks and a loop of landscaped roadway connecting them.^[2] In 1904, he designed and landscaped the grounds at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis.

The same year he also designed Fair Park in Dallas, but his biggest gift to that city was his Kessler Plan, which he created in 1909. That year the Dallas Chamber of Commerce established the City Plan and Improvement League and hired Kessler to design a long-range plan of civic improvements for Dallas. His plans included fixing the uncontrollable flooding of the Trinity River, fixing narrow, crooked downtown streets, and fixing dangerous railroad crossings. At that time his plans were not implemented and were deemed "impractical," but later it became very clear that changes were needed.

In 1918 Kessler returned to act as consulting engineer for the Dallas Property Owner's Association and in 1919 began working for the Metropolitan Development Association of the Dallas Chamber of Commerce. On 3 January 1922, he returned to St. Louis. His plans for the Trinity River were finally implemented in the 1930s.

Kessler also drafted city plans for Memphis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Cleveland, El Paso, Denver, and Syracuse. He also designed Camp Wilson, an army cantonment near San Antonio ^[1].

He died in Indianapolis, survived by his wife and son. In Dallas, the Kessler Park neighborhood is named for him. In Indianapolis, a major street, Kessler Boulevard, is named for him. There is another Kessler Boulevard in Longview, Washington, also named for him.