Julia Lester Dillon
Landscape architect and teacher (1871-1959)

Julia Lester Dillon (1871–1959) was an American teacher from Georgia, who because of the death of her husband and her hearing loss, trained in landscape architecture. She was one of the first women to write extensively about gardening in the south and ran a regularly featured column which appeared in several newspapers and magazines. She designed spaces to enhance post offices for the U.S. Department of the Treasury and created the Memorial Park in Sumter, South Carolina. Based on her experience, she then served as Sumter Superintendent of Parks and Trees for twenty years. Dillon remained in Sumter after retiring. She continued writing until 1954, despite losing both her hearing and her sight. Julia Lester Dillon died in Sumter on March 24, 1959. She is buried in Magnolia Cemetery in Augusta, Georgia. She was inscribed upon the Georgia Women of Achievement roster in 2003.
Biography
Julia Lester was born on March 9, 1871, in Warren County, Georgia, to Martha (née Pemble) and Benjamin D. Lester and grew up in Augusta, Georgia.
The public source identifies “Julia Lester Dillon” as landscape architect and teacher (1871-1959). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Julia, Lester and Dillon.
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The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q22004062. VIAF identifies the subject as 61143244. The Library of Congress control number is no96061086. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1871, 1959, 1954 and 2003.
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This entry incorporates text from “Julia Lester Dillon” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.