(exter NAOP Index Page 1 of 3 NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR OLMSTED PAR FOR FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, JR. (1870-1957) WOO NACH landscape architect, planner educator, Who we are conservationist Timeline Frederic Law Olmsted Jr., born on Staten Island, Board of Trustees New York, was the son of Frederick Law Olmsted, the fore-father of the profession of Contact Us landscape architecture in the United States, and Mary Cleveland Perkins Olmsted. the widow of Olmsted's brother. From his earliest years young MEMBERSTATE Olmsted was aware of his father's fervent desire, bordering on obsession. to Member benefits have him carry on both the family name and profession. In a telling act, the elder Olmstec Membership Form the child (who had been called Henry Perkins at birth) Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., thus m Member Organizations only biological son his namesake. In the waning years of his life, the father enjoyed including his son in the culminating pro COLUSTOR own career. While still a student at Harvard. young Olmsted spent a summer working in I Burnham's office as the "White City" of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition arose in Frederick Law Olmsted After graduating in 1894, Olmsted spent thirteen months on site at Biltmore, the 10,0000. Olmsted & Vaux being developed for George Vanderbilt in Asheville, North Carolina. In December 1895, 1 the Olmsted firm in Brookline, Massachusetts. Following his father's formal retirement in John Charles Olmsted became a full partner with his half-brother, John Charles Olmsted, in the family business. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. As bearer of the most renowned name in landscape architecture, Olmsted was chosen for The Firm prominence from the very start of his career. In 1899 he became a founding member of the Olmsted's Philosophy Society of Landscape Architects and served two terms as its president (1908-1909, 1919-1 following year he was appointed instructor in landscape architecture at Harvard, where he create the country's first university course in the profession. LANDSONVES Olmsted emerged on the national scene in 1901. when he assumed what would have been Olmsted's Impact place, had he been well. on the Park Improvement Commission for the District of Columb Essence of Olmsted commonly know as the McMillan Commission. Charged with interpreting for the twentiet Pierre Charles L'Enfant's vision of the nation's capital. Olmsted worked with his father's C Plans and Pictures from the Chicago World's Fair to transform Washington into a work of civic art and to de comprehensive plan for its future development. For decades Olmsted steadfastly guarded a the McMillan Plan, serving on the two federal oversight bodies for planning in the capital Commission of Fine Arts (1910-1918) and the National Capital Park Planning Commissio From the NAOP Bookstore 1932). As adviser or designer. he worked on many prominent Washington landmarks, inc Sample NAOP Newsletter White House grounds. the Federal Triangle. the Jefferson Memorial. Roosevelt Island, Ro Parkway, and the National Cathedral grounds. SampleReprints News & Conferences The McMillan report. with its promise that the City Beautiful could be achieved through t science of comprehensive planning. had a galvanizing effect on municipal art societies an improvement associations in cities and towns around the country. Olmsted found himself demand to advise new quasi-official planning boards and citizen associations on civic imp between 1905 and 1915 he produced planning reports fro Detroit, Utica, Boulder, Pittsbur Suggested Links http://www.olmsted.org/pages/frederick.htm 12/2/2002 NAOP Index Page 2 of 3 comprehensive planning to suburban settings, creating master plans for new sections of R REPORT SITE PROBLEMS a Baltimore suburb; Forest Hills Gardens, a model garden community outside of New Yor the industrial town of Torrance, California (largely unrealized). Many of the features of hi last updated: 12/04/2001 plans have had enduring influence, including the concept of neighborhood-centered devel differentiation of streets by function. the importance of common open and recreational spa need for continuing maintenance and aesthetic oversight to preserve the quality of the con In 1910, Olmsted's colleagues asked him to lead the first organization of the nascent plani profession, the National Conference on City Planning. One of the few planners to practice in both the City Beautiful and the "City Efficient" eras, Olmsted in his presidential addres body over the next nine years helped lay the theoretical foundation for the new discipline. was instrumental in organizing the American City Planning Institute, a professional socie planning practitioners. and he was elected its first president. As this organization's represo offered the planning profession's services to the government during World War I, serving of the Town Planning Division of the U.S. Housing Corporation, which oversaw the first ( participation in building worker housing. With his brother's death in 1920. Olmsted became the senior partner in the Olmsted firm, largest office of landscape architecture in the world. In 1921 he was asked to advise on the of a regional plan for the New York area. His plan for Fort Tryon Park, a great urban park bluffs of Manhattan's northern border overlooking the Hudson River, also dates from this Olmsted designed two more notable suburban communities in the 1920s: Palos Verdes Est California and the Mountain Lake Club in Lake Wales, Florida. In the latter part of his career Olmsted devoted much of his time to public service, consult of the conservation and preservation of the country's state and national park and remainin areas. The key language in the 1916 bill establishing the National Park Service, setting as lands for all time as places protected from development and preserved for human enjoyme Olmsted's. For thirty years he advised the National Park Service on issues of management conservation of water and scenic resources. He left this mark on national parks from coast including Maine's Acadia National Park, the Florida Everglades, and Yosemite. In 1928 l guide for the selection and acquisition of land for the California park system which becam for other states. Olmsted also devised a master plan for saving the California redwoods. Olmsted remained a partner in the Olmsted firm until his official retirement in 1949, eigh before his death in Malibu, California. For over a half century Olmsted had been a preemi practitioner and spokesman for landscape architecture and comprehensive planning, both the interrelationship of people and their environment. His concerns for balancing aesthetic practicality. harmonizing use and beauty, and preserving both natural and manmade lands again at the forefront of the two professions he helped guide and nourish. Klaus, Susan L. "All in the Family: The Olmsted Office and the Business of Landscape A Landscape Journal 16 (Spring 1997). 80-93. A historical overview of the operations o the office. with details on the young Olmsted's role. Olmsted, Frederick Law, Jr. "City Planning. An Introductory Address." In Proceedings of National Conference on City Planning (1910). 15-32. Olmsted's presidential address expr awe and apprehension for the "appalling breadth and ramifications of real city planning." Olmsted, Frederic Law. Jr. "Landscape Architecture in Connection with Public Buildings Washington." American Architect and Building News. January 19. 1901, 19-21. Olmsted' the treatment of public spaces in the national capital. as well as the need for landscape arc deal with broad elements of the cityscape. Susan L. Kraus http://www.olmsted.org/pages/frederick.htm 12/2/2002 NAOP Index Page 3 of 3 *Taken from: New Birnbaum, York: Charles McGraw-Hill A., FASLA. Companies. and Robin Inc., 2000. Karson. editors. Pioneers of American Landsc: 04 Spri http://www.olmsted.org/pages/frederick.htm 12/2/2002 National Park Service: Biography (Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.) Page 1 of 3 National Park Service: The First 75 Years Biographical Vignettes Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. 1870-1957 by Rolf Diamant "The present situation in regard to the national parks is very bad. They have been created one at a time by acts of Congress which have not defined at all clearly the purposes for which the lands were to be set apart, nor provided any orderly or efficient means of safeguarding the parks I have made at different times two suggestions, one of which was a definition of the purposes for which the national parks and monuments are to be administered by the Bureau. " (Letter from Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., to the president of the Appalachian Mountain Club, January 19, 1912.) Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., was approached by the American Civic Association in 1910 for advice on the creation of a new bureau of national parks. This initiated http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/sontag/olmsted.htm 1/30/2014 National Park Service: Biography (Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.) Page 2 of 3 six years of correspondence and his key contribution of a few simple words that would guide conservation in America for generations to come: "To conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of. future generations. (National Park Service Organic Act, 1916) Olmsted, Jr., began his career as his father's apprentice on two famous projects: the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago and the George Vanderbilt estate, "Biltmore," in North Carolina. He became a partner in his father's Brookline, Massachusetts, landscape architecture firm in 1895, and with Olmsted Sr.'s retirement, quickly took over leadership with his stepbrother, John Charles Olmsted, For the next half-century, the Olmsted brothers' firm completed thousands of landscape projects nationwide. Olmsted, Jr., was appointed by the Senate Committee on the District of Columbia in 1901 to help update the L'Enfant plan for Washington, D.C. By 1920 his better-known projects included plans for metropolitan park systems and greenways across the country; in 1929 he developed the guiding plan for California's state park system. Olmsted, Jr., also established the first formal training in landscape architecture at Harvard in 1900 and was a founding member and later president of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Olmsted, Jr., had a lifetime commitment to national parks. He worked on projects in Acadia, Everglades, and Yosemite. A partial listing of his design projects in the nation's capital reads like a guide to the NPS-managed sites of Washington, D.C., including the Mall, Jefferson Memorial, White House grounds, and Rock Creek Park. In his later years, Olmsted, Jr., actively worked for the protection of California's coastal redwoods. Redwood National Park's Olmsted Grove was dedicated in 1953 to the man whose contributions to protect America's system of national parks will forever stand as tall as those magnificent trees. From National Park Service: The First 75 Years History Links to the Past | National Park Service Search Contact Top Last Modified: Dec 1 2000 10:00:00 pm PDT http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/sontag/olmsted.htn 1/30/2014 Descriptive Overview Page 1 of 8 Descriptive Overview in Frederick Law Olmsted Collection NEXT SECTION full view print view Frederick Law Olmsted A Register of His Papers in the Library of Congress Published register prepared by Daniel Y. Gilham and Mary M. Wolfskill Revised and expanded by Bradley E. Gernand 1996 Manuscript Division Library of Congress Washington, D.C. Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2001 Collection Summary Creator: Olmsted, Frederick Law, 1822-1903 Size: 24,000 items; 73 containers plus 1 oversize; 23 linear feet; 60 microfilm reels Repository: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress Abstract: Landscape architect. Correspondence, letterbooks, journals, drafts of articles and books, speeches and lectures, biographical and genealogical data, business papers, scrapbooks, maps, drawings, and other papers encompassing Olmsted's career and private life. The papers focus on Olmsted's career as a landscape architect, specifically as a designer of parks and the grounds of private estates and public buildings and as a city and regional planner. Selected Search Terms Names: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/faidfrquery/r?faid/faidfr:@field(DOCID+ms001019000) 8/31/2005 Descriptive Overview Page 1 of 7 Item 1 of 10 - Descriptive Overview in Olmsted Associates Collection NEXT SECTION full view print view Olmsted Associates A Register of Its Records in the Library of Congress Prepared by Paul D. Ledvina with the assistance of Susie H. Moody, Karen Stuart, and Joseph Sullivan Revised by Michael Spangler and Patrick Kerwin 2000 Manuscript Division Library of Congress Washington, D.C. Finding aid encoded by Library of Congress Manuscript Division, 2001 Collection Summary Creator: Olmsted Associates Size: 170,000 items; 648 containers plus 13 oversize; 255 linear feet; 531 microfilm reels Repository: Manuscript Division, Library of Congress Washington, D.C. Abstract: Landscape architectural firm. The records include correspondence, letterbooks, memoranda, reports, plans, specifications, newspaper clippings, photographs, drawings, journals, account books, ledgers, lists, diagrams, blueprints, deeds, and printed matter constituting the business files of the firm and reflecting the breadth of the projects undertaken by its staff. A small group of Olmsted family papers is also contained in the collection. Selected Search Terms http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/faidfrquery/D?faidfr:1:./temp/~faid zysD::@@@ 8/31/2005 Descriptive Overview Page 2 of 7 Names: Johnston, Frances Benjamin, 1864-1952--Correspondence Lodge, Henry Cabot, 1850-1924--Correspondence Olmstead family Pinchot, Gifford, 1865-1946--Correspondence Reid, Whitelaw, 1837-1912--Correspondence Rockefeller, John D. (John Davison), 1874-1960--Correspondence Saint-Gaudens, Augustus, 1848-1907--Correspondence Taft, William H. (William Howard), 1857-1930--Correspondence Vanderbilt, George Washington, 1862-1914--Correspondence Washington, Booker T., 1856-1915--Correspondence United States Capitol (Washington, D.C.) White House (Washington, D.C.) Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (1909 : Seattle, Wash.) Pan-American Exposition (1901 : Buffalo, N.Y.) World's Columbian Exposition (1893 : Chicago, Ill.) Olmsted, Frederick Law, 1822-1903. Papers Olmsted, Frederick Law, 1870-1957. Papers Olmsted, John Charles, 1852-1920. Papers Frederick Law Olmsted (Firm). Records F.L. and J.C. Olmsted (Firm : 1884-1889). Records F.L. Olmsted and Company. Records Olmsted, Olmsted, and Eliot. Records F.L. and J.C. Olmsted (Firm : 1897-1898). Records Olmsted Brothers. Records Subjects: Dwellings Exhibitions--Illinois Exhibitions-New York (State) Exhibitions--Washington (State) Gardens Landscape architecture Landscape architecture--Connecticut--Hartford Landscape architecture--Maryland--Baltimore Landscape architecture--New York (State)--New York Landscape architecture--New York (State)--Buffalo Landscape architecture--Washington (D.C.) Nurseries (Horticulture) Parks--Connecticut--Hartford Parks--Maryland--Baltimore Parks--New York (State)--New York Parks--New York (State)--Buffalo Parks--Washington (D.C.) Recreation areas Suburbs Universities and colleges Urban beautification http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/faidfrquery/D?faidfr:1:/temp/~faid zysD::@@@ 8/31/2005 Descriptive Overview Page 3 of 7 White House Gardens (Washington, D.C.) Administrative Information Provenance: Records of the Olmsted Associates, Inc., a landscape architectural firm, were given to the Library of Congress in 1967 and 1971 by the firm's present owners. Additional material was given by the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1986. Microfilm copies of parts of the records were purchased, 1971-1973. Processing History: The records of the Olmsted Associates were arranged and described in 1972 and 1974. The records were reprocessed and prepared for microfilm in 1988. Copyright Status: Copyright in the unpublished writings of the firm in these records and in other collections of papers in the custody of the Library of Congress has been dedicated to the public. Microfilm: A microfilm copy of part of these records is available on 531 reels from the Library's Photoduplication Service for purchase subject to the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.). This microfilm may be requested on interlibrary loan through the Library's Loan Division. No more than ten reels may be requested for each loan period of one month. Preferred Citation: Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container or reel number, Records of the Olmsted Associates, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. Scope and Content Note Records constituting the business files of the Olmsted Associates, Inc., landscape architects from the late nineteenth century to 1971, include material dated as early as 1863, though the bulk of the records spans the years 1884-1950. The records include correspondence, letterbooks, memoranda, reports, plans, specifications, newspaper clippings, photographs, drawings, journals, account books, ledgers, lists, diagrams, blueprints, deeds, and printed matter. The final series of the collection contains material relating to the Olmsted family, especially Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. (1822-1903), Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. (1870-1957), and John C. Olmsted. Letterbooks comprising Series A document the firm's work from 1884 to 1899 and contain carbon copies of business letters dealing with subcontractual arrangements, cost estimates, planting procedures and instructions, and requests for information regarding prospective employees. Personal correspondence occasionally filed with these business letters provides insight into the senior Frederick Law Olmsted's business and professional http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/faidfrquery/D?faidfr:1:./temp/~faid zysD::@@@ 8/31/2005 Descriptive Overview Page 4 of 7 philosophy. Of particular interest is his letter dated 16 November 1891 to Francis G. Newlands reconfirming his ideas on suburban development expressed in many articles over the years. Olmsted stated his views on total area development in conformity with the natural beauty of the land rather than piecemeal tract and lot development disregarding future needs. Indexes to the letterbooks have been reproduced on two reels of microfilm and a printed copy is available in the Manuscript Division Reading Room. The Job File, Series B, contains correspondence, memoranda, and other material related to projects undertaken by the firm. The file also serves as an administrative file containing personnel and other records as well as a limited amount of personal papers, such as biographical articles relating to the Olmsted family. Many files in this series contain correspondence predating 1900 interfiled after the initiation of a later filing system. The Job Files series is especially comprehensive for undertakings reflecting tract development, the relationship between beautification and pragmatic land use, and political and private philanthropic efforts to create recreational land areas. The files include landscape designs, layouts, and work arrangements. Many of the reports and other material document financial arrangements for county and municipal park systems in addition to designs for roads, buildings, and gardens seen as interrelated activities in landscape architecture. Projects undertaken by the firm ranged in size from small estates to park systems of thousands of acres, including the development of the Baltimore, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Chicago, and Hartford public park systems as well as privately donated public areas such as Fort Tryon Park in New York City, the gift of John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Other files relate to such universities as Harvard, Stanford, and Tufts, the United States Military Academy, and private estates including "Biltmore," George W. Vanderbilt's manor in North Carolina. Files pertaining to the District of Columbia contain extensive material on the Capitol and White House grounds, complemented by additional material in Series D, and on the National Zoo, the park system, the Grant and Lincoln memorials, and the work of the Washington Consultative Board and the Fine Arts Commission. Records of the firm's involvement in city planning and suburban development illustrate the Olmstedsp ideas regarding the systematic expansion of urban areas. George W. Vanderbilt and John D. Rockefeller, Jr., have extensive correspondence in the Job File. Other prominent figures represented include Frances Benjamin Johnston, Henry Cabot Lodge, Gifford Pinchot, Whitelaw Reid, August Saint-Gaudens, William Howard Taft, and Booker T. Washington. Complementing the Job File are two sets of indexes. The first, termed Job Books, is a numerical listing which includes jobs undertaken by the firm as well as projects in which the firm was interested but did not perform. The second index consists of a microfilm copy of the firm's index cards for the Job File, which lists jobs alphabetically, geographically, and by subject, though this latter index is not complete. Readers may also wish to consult Charles E. Beveridge and Carolyn F. Hoffman, The Master List of Design Projects of The Olmsted Firm, 1857-1950 (New York, 1987). Following the Job File are two series generally limited to office correspondence never interfiled into the main file. The General Correspondence series, largely routine in nature, contains work requests and comments on park and estate development. Filed with these letters is an exchange of correspondence in 1889-1890 between F. L. Olmsted, Sr., and Robert Underwood Johnson, editor of Century Magazine, dealing with the redwoods in Yosemite, California. A description of the work routine on the United States Capitol grounds by Edward Clark, architect of the Capitol and job foreman, is included in the Capitol grounds correspondence in the Special Correspondence series. Other files in this series relate to landscaping the Chicago World's Fair grounds in 1893 and a law suit filed against the firm in the late 1890s. Financial records, field reports, nursery orders, and contractual agreements make up the bulk of the Business Records series. Field reports present a detailed description of both small and large undertakings, step-by-step http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/faidfrquery/D?faidfr:1:./temp/~faid zysD::@@@ 8/31/2005 Descriptive Overview Page 5 of 7 operational procedures, and staff orders. Monthly and quarterly reports in outline form list salary expenses, orders outstanding, and financial outlays for work completed. Complementing these records are journals, 1838- 1950, enumerating supply expenses, work orders, income, salaries, and repair and interest expense. The Scrapbooks and Albums series consists largely of scrapbooks of newspaper clippings dated 1893-1917 which provide local and national coverage of major park systems and world expositions landscaped by the firm. Highlighted in the scrapbooks are the design and development of such projects as parks in Boston and Buffalo, the Pan-American Exposition, 1899-1901, and the Alaska-Yukon Exposition, 1906-1911. Two photograph albums concern the construction and landscaping of the "Biltmore" estate in North Carolina. The Family Papers series documents relationships between members of the Olmsted family. The material includes correspondence, a travel journal, letterbooks, and account books. A holograph journal kept by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., in 1894 outlines his activities while working for the Coast and Geodetic Survey. The landscaping of "Biltmore," also mentioned in his journal, is greatly expanded upon in his letterbooks, emphasizing the design and development of roads, buildings, gardens, and extensive landscaping. Many letters retained in the letterbooks depict Olmsted's social life while working at the estate. A small group of John G. Olmsted's letters record his interests in tariff reforms, his New York Reform Club associations, and his investment interests. A small number of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.'s letters, together with letters from his wife, Mary, and his daughter, Marion, reflect family matters. An extensive collection of additional Olmsted Associates records, including graphic material related to this collection, is located at the Fredrick Law Olmsted National Historical Site in Brookline, Massachusetts Records for the period 1870-1910 also are included in the Subject File of the Frederick Law Olmsted Papers in the Library of Congress. Related collections in the Manuscript Division include the papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. . and the papers of his biographer, Laura Wood Roper. Description of Series Box Reel Series BOX A1- A76 Letterbooks, 1884 - 1899. REEL 1- 42 Bound carbon copies of letters sent. Arranged chronologically. The volumes are periodically indexed alphabetically by name of correspondent. Microfilm shelf no. 19,702. REEL 1-2 Microfilm copy of the indexes. Microfilm shelf no. 18,274. BOX B1- B523 Job Files, 1863 - 1971 n.d. REEL 1- icrofilm shelf no. 20,112. 2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/faidfrquery/D?faidfr:1:./temp/~faid zysD::@@@ 8/31/2005 NCPTT Page 1 of 2 NCPTT The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training About Us Knowledge Center News Heritage Ed. FPI NPS Parl > Home Page ADDITIC > Site Search Clearinghouse INFORMA Grants be Projects Catalog Discipline Historic Landscap > Site Map Status Full Project Description Completed > Contact Us Related Project Olmsted Research Guide Online (Phase 2) Olmsted Resear NCPTT PTTProject Information management Online (Phase 1 645 College Avenue Partner Frederick Law olmsted National phases) Natchitoches, LA 71457 Historic Site - National Park Service, Brookline, NY Phone - (318) 356-7444 Fax - (318) 356-9119 Initiated 2000 E-mail NCPTT Email Webmaster The Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site continued work on an Internet-accessible 1 N database of information about the landscape First S S 123 designs of Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. and T U successor firms. Work performed during phase 2 of the project is a critical step in providing public access to the information. Project tasks expanded the database to include additional priority collections such as those at the Library of Congress and made this information available through the World Wide Web. Published Results 1. Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site - National Park Service. Olmsted Research Guide Online. . 2001. [PTTPublications No. 2001- 05] 2. Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site - National Park Service. Olmsted Research Guide Online (ORGO) - Year 2 Final Report. Natchitoches, Louisiana: NCPTT. 2001. [PTTPublications No. 2001-07] Back Home - Privacy & Disclaimer - Cookies - Feedback Last Updated: - December 12, 2002 - http://204.196.55.68/programs/catalog/detail.cfm?ProjectID=253&terms=olmsted&boolean=1 12/12/2002 Cornell University Making of America Page 1 of 1 The Century Magazine V. 46, # 6 (Oct. 1893). 860 FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED. a being blessed equally with modesty and worth, be so blotted out, that universal friendliness might be unduly elated by an adulative affec- shall come back to us and with it the vanished tion so extreme. But the cat, possessing always warmth and radiance of the Golden Age. To the calm dignity of a lofty nature, uniformly the realization of this ideal are devoted the best can be counted upon to rise superior to every energies of humanity not always directly not provocation of a weak self-complacency; there always even quite consciously - yet always being, indeed, in the whole range of animated surely since all that makes for tenderness and nature - above, at least, the order of the mol- kindliness in the world marks an appreciable ad- lusca I no creature less susceptible to the flat- vance toward the compassing of this happy end. tery of man. Few of us can hope to accomplish in the What these much-to-be-felicitated cats as- good work even the thousandth part of what suredly are learning, however, is a friendly has been accomplished by Madame Ronner - faith in humanity; and what Madame Ronner whose artistic genius and whose love for her assuredly is teaching- in her tender gentle theme has enabled her, while so faithfully dealings with them, and by her sympathetic reproducing the little cat bodies, to bring very painting of them is the doctrine which close to human fellowship the little cat souls. dropped out of fashion when Arcady was lost : But it is a happy fact that even the least of us that all creatures animate should cherish to- drawing closer, as did the blessed Saint Francis ward each other a perfect love. of Assisi, to our brethren the beasts and the fishes and the birds may in some measure forestall the millennium in our own lives. And VII. also is it true, that in so doing we may at the Ar the root of every creed that ever was - same time hasten by a fractional part the re- unless it may be those of some barbarous vival universal of the gracious epocha when peoples whose hazy bodings cannot be called man and the so-called lower orders of animals creeds at all 0000000000 lies the hope that man's fallen once more shall be on terms of cordial fellow- nature may be so raised again, and that the ship; when, most joyous of all the joyous sights severing lines between the lives of all the of that reunion, Homo and Felis shall stand creatures dwelling on this earth together may friendly together, hand clasping paw. Thomas A. Janvier, FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED. Van Rensselaer. N answer to a question asked middle-class family, first settled at Plymouth, not long ago, Mr. Olmsted which had been among those to cross the wil- said: "Themost interesting derness and establish a new colony by the general fact of my life seems Connecticut River. There were deacons, of to me to be that it was not course, and other quiet home- keeping citizensi as a gardener, a florist, a all its generations; but an adventurous strain botanist, or one in any way was not lacking in the Olmsted blood. Our So pare specially interested in plants and flowers, or artist's greatuncles were seamen, one dying specially susceptible to their beauty, that I was on a British prison-ship, another living through drawn to my work. The root of all my work strange privateering experiences, and another, has been an early respect for and enjoyment a very successful shipmaster in the China id of scenery, and extraordinary opportunities for trade, ending his life as a rich and cultivated cultivating susceptibility to its power. I mean citizen of Hartford. His grandfather was like- not SO much grand or sensational scenery as wise a shipmaster, but a less successful one. scenery of a more domestic order-scenery His father, after receiving little more than a which is to be looked upon contemplatively, common-school education, was in early life a and is productive of musing moods." It will "dry-goods" merchant in Hartford. A shy and be well to keep these words in mind in follow- reserved man, we are told, and not a scholar, he ing the thread of a life which has been so rich yet a great reader, and a man of distinctively in the ability to create landscape beauty and so rural tastes, having a small farm near the town, useful in the devotion of this ability to the ser- in which he took constant interest, riding and vice of our people. driving a great deal, and often taking his little Frederick Law Olmsted was born in Hart- boy with him on a pillow on his saddle-bow. ford, Connecticut, on April 27, 1822. He Mr. Olmsted's mother- Charlotte Hull, a came of the best possible stock- of an English relative of Commodore Hull - had died when http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?coll=moa&root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent%... 7/24/2008 Cornell University Making of America Page 1 of 1 FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED. 861 he was three years old but his father soon scenes. He boated, of course, on the Con- married again, and a woman with tastes sim- necticut, and he now believes that this river- ilar to his own. Their chief recreations were meadow scenery influenced his mature taste long summer journeys to the sea-shore or more forcibly than anything else. The family through the inland country. When the boy practice of summer journeyings was still kept was six years old he was taken to Niagara, up, and now the lad gradually learned to no- and another year to the Wadsworth homestead tice (still half unconsciously) why towns are in the beautiful, park-like Genesee Valley. founded in certain spots, how villages de- After his eighth year he lived in the country velop, and other facts pregnant with the seeds in clergymen's families ; but his vacations CO- of future usefulness. incided with his parent's summer journeys. In The idea of an engineer's life for him was a two-horse wagon the whole family would soon abandoned. Placed at sixteen in a large drive slowly through various parts of New importing-house in New York, he could not England, stopping to lunch in some pretty compel himself to commercial life for more sleeping at convenient rural s-living with than two years. Then the adventurous drop Nature, contemplating, absorbing, and appre- in his blood asserted itself; like his forefathers ciaring her as people seldom can in these rush- he went to sea, and a year was spent before the ing railroad days. Often appropriate books, mast in great hardship and repeated illnesses. drawn from the Hartford library, would be He came home with his health impaired, but the noon resting-hour-Dwight's bringing memories of many hours when he had or Silliman's travels, for example. Thus (and indulged his dreaming, contemplative spirit, Mr. Olmsted himself cannot now lay too much and of scant, exciting glimpses of tropical see- explanatory stress upon the fact) from his very nery caught in Chinese ports. earliest youth the future landscape-gardener A farmer's life was then decided upon; and was brought up amid rural influences, and all after two years' training on the lands of others, unconsciously was imbibing a love for natural two winters' partial experience of college life as beauty from people who did not speak of it by a special student in the scientific classes at Yale, such a who, indeed, rarely spoke of it and a year spent on a farm of his own near at all, but felt it, and indulged it as simply and New Haven, he purchased a larger farm on the constantly as their desire to breathe. southern side of Staten Island; and this for a And the boy's own impulses led to a deep. number of years was his home. Interested and ening of the impressions thus received. Hewas capable as a farmer, and active in all local instinctively, persistently a rambler, spending public enterprises, his life was further enlarged all the time he could in long, solitary walks, by the frequent visits of his younger brother, when he forgot why he carried rod or gun, and John, then a medical student in New York, and was never tempted into any scientific study, of his brother's friends. Chief among these but gave himself up to the silent influence of was Charles Loring Brace, already a budding wood and field, billside, brook, and cloud. philanthropist. The friendship of Andrew Zimmerman On Solitude," he says, was Downing, the well-known landscape-gardener, book which led him to any conscious thinking was also gained at this time, and, while about natural beauty, although, when he read him at his home in Newburg, Mr. Olmsted Gilpin and Price in later years, they vaguely made the acquaintance of X young English came back to him as chance acquaintances of architect, Mr. Calvert Vaux, who was then his childhood. Downing's partner, and afterward was long When he was about fourteen a severe case and closely associated with himself. of ivy-poisoning injured his eyesight. The In 1851 the two brothers and Mr. Brace physician forbade him to attend school or to made a pedestrian tour through England, and read, and here was a fine excuse for the still a short Continental trip. The record of this wider indulgence of his rambling, contem- summer we have in Mr. Olmsted's Walks and plating propensities. While still forbidden to Talks of an American Farmer in England." use his eyes much, he was sent as a pupil to a No more instructive or charming book on ru- clergyman who had formerly been a civil en- ral England has been written, and it throws gineer, and with him remained two years, at valuable light upon the writer's personality, Andover and in Collinsville, Connecticut, He proving the genuineness of his love for Nature now studied a very little engineering, amused and simple Torms of life, and the keenness of his himself much with a sort of "play-practice" perceptive faculties. Here and there is a pas- in laying out imaginary towns, but spent most sage of double intérest in the light of later facts: of his time. as before, in wandering afield, a description of the new Birkenhead parks, for strengthening his love for natural beauty, un- instance, which shows that such things were ap- consciously storing his memory with countless praised from an intelligent point of view, not impressions of characteristic New England carelessly enjoyed as they are by most non- hhttp://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?coll=moa&root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent%... 7/24/2008 Cornell University Making of America Page 1 of 1 862 FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED. professional tourists; and again, this little pre- for the poor of our great cities. They are face to the account of Eaton Park: marked by a simplicity, a lack of self-conscious- ness, which, although the Philistine may not What artist so noble, has often been my think so, almost always characterizes a true thought, as he who, with far-reaching conception artist. Even more than the Walks and Talks" of beauty and with designing power, sketches the they reveal a power of perception keen and outline, writes the colors, and directs the shadows catholic enough to excite the envy of a profes- of a picture so great that Nature shall be employed upon it for generations before the work he has ar- sional reporter; and this faculty is, of course, ranged for her shall realize his intentions? a needful part of an artist's equipment. Except from the strictly agricultural stand- After this journey, life on the farm was re- point, very little is said about natural scenes in sumed and the book was written. A year or these three books. Yet one hardly needs to two later came the Fillmore election, with its hear Mr. Olmsted talk about his Southern jour- fierce slavery discussions. Mr. Brace was some- neys to feel that, like his boyish wanderings, like thing of an abolitionist Mr. Olmsted was not, his saunters among English parks and mea- and he felt that the condition of things in the dows, they helped his artistic development. slaveholding States had never been painted im- Camping out of doors daily for many months, partially. From their conversations resulted always at noontime and in Texas at night as Mr. Olmsted's decision to spend the winter well, he not only made intimate acquaintance traveling through the South, and to report his with many new phases of natural beauty, but observations in the pages of The New-York gained practical experience with regard to sites, soils, exposures, prospects- with regard to Times." The following year his brother mar- problems which must always be studied when ried Miss Mary Perkins, whose grandfather, a human habitations are to be founded, or plea- prominent New York physician, was a neighbor on Staten Island and a close friend ; and some sure-grounds or estates laid out. After his return to the North, Mr. Olmsted time later Mr. John Olmsted's failing health brought him and his family to live at the farm; gave up his farm to his brother, connected himself as editor with "Putnam's Magazine," and then, in the belief that change of air and and gradually engaged in an allied publishing outdoor life would profit the invalid, the bro- business. Obliged by this business to go to thers determined to spend the winter on horse- London, he remained there for half a year, back, starting from Texas and making their way to California. Indian outbreaks changed after taking a leisurely little journey through their plans, however, and a southward course Italy with his sisters, seeing and learning, once more, much that was of future use to him. through Texas was taken, with an excursion Difficulties in the New York publishing-house over Mexicanborder. When Mississippi was then called bim home; and in the year 1856, reached again in the spring, the younger brother through no fault of his own, he found him- returned to the farm, while Mr. Olmsted, desir- self out of occupation. It was a chance meet- ing to make a book of his Times" letters, and ing at a little watering-place near New believing that he should first know the slave Haven, whither he had gone for quiet with States better, took to his saddle once more, and, a pile of proof-sheets, that then brought accompanied only by a plucky dog, made his about his connection with the newly begun way slowly northward to Richmond, Virginia. Central Park, and led eventually to a land- Three books resulted from these journeys1- scape-gardener's career. two written by Mr. Olmsted's own hand, the A member of the Board of Park Commis- one on Texas put into shape by his brother sioners happened to be Mr. Olmsted's neigh- from his notes. Their picture of the rural com- bor at table, and told him that they were munities of the South just before the war has great historical value; but their incidental looking for a superintendent to take practical direction of the work then being done in autobiographical value should not be over- accordance with a plan prepared by Captain looked. They show that, despite the day- (afterward General) Vielé, who, as engineer, dreaming of his boyhood, Mr. Olmsted was was in chief control of the park. When asked an eminently practical person; and no one what kind of man was needed, the commis- needs to be practical more than the land- sioner replied, "A man like with scape-gardener. They prove great breadth and your agricultural knowledge and your other strength of human sympathy, and this trait must experience"-re to Mr. Olmsted's long afterward have inspired him to work enthusias cultivated love for nature and to that ac- tically and lovingly upon his pleasure-grounds quaintance with European parks which was 1 A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States," A then very rare among Americans. Assured Journey Through Texas," and A Journey Through that he spoke in earnest, Mr. Olmsted re- the Back Country." turned that night to New York, obtained the http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?coll=moa&root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent%.. 7/24/2008 Cornell University Making of America Page 1 of 1 FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED. 863 requisite letters of introduction, and, after most altogether at night, but reviewing their some disagreeable experiences, was appointed result on the ground by day, the collaborators superintendent. barely got their drawings done in time. Thirty- If these experiences, and others of a like two other sets were presented all were pub- character which persisted and, indeed, grew licly exhibited and excited much interest; and worse during the whole of Mr. Olmsted's of course in the face of some opposition connection with the Central Park, could be the plan of Messrs. Olmsted and Vaux was recounted, they would make a picturesque accepted, and they were put in control of its bit of biography, and a very instructive one execution, Mr. Olmsted with the title of archi- to students of our New York methods of con- tect-in-chief and Mr. Vaux as his associate. ducting municipal affairs. But I can only The trials and veritable persecutions, more explain that while as an artist he was not than the normal labors, which then followed, seriously troubled, and managed to carry out so worked upon Mr. Olmsted in body and his designs in his own way, practically his mind that in the spring of 1859 he was pros- path was always filled with rocks and thorns, trated by typhoid fever, and, recovering, was and at times was almost blocked. In doing ordered to go abroad. He spent the summer public work of any sort no man was ever chiefly in England, making a very useful tour, more grievously hampered by political jeal- completed by a visit to Paris, where Alphand, ousies, great and small, and the pulling of who was then altering the Bois de Boulogne and overhead and underground political wires. GBD ? creating the new boulevards, showed his young In his dealings with certain high-placed offi- American confrère much professional kindness. cials, as in his management of his humblest On his return to America, Mr. Olmsted workmen, there was never a moment when his married his brother's widow, who, with her hands were unfettered, his mind at leisure for three children, had been under his care since its artistic tasks, his spirit untried by a myriad his brother's death at Nice eighteen months illegitimate vexations. Nevertheless, by hard before and the new household was soon es- personal work, beginning at dawn, after a tablished in a brick house near the old Con- journey on horseback from his home in Grand vent of the Sacred Heart within the park, street, the new superintendent very quickly while Mr. Vaux lived close at hand in the made his energy, honesty, and capability felt, priest's former dwelling. After a few months, work in accordance Persistently recasting and retouching their with General Vielé's plan was stopped, and design, consolidating their corps of young en- Mr. Olmsted was given absolute control of gineers and gardeners, managing the thousands the laborers, who, in accordance with his ad- of workmen who were often rendered insubor- vice, were employed in such preparatory tasks dinate by the consciousness of political "pulls," as breaking up stone for roads, and building a and fighting the politicians themselves, the low wall around the park borders. Then it was two artists led a life that was no easier than decided to abandon the old plan and to ad- before. It was a perpetual struggle to obtain vertise for new ones. At first Mr. Olmsted had the money legally at their disposal, while their no idea of entering the competition; but was steps were incessantly dogged by men in search asked by Mr. Vaux to collaborate with him in of employment often wholly unfit for the preparation of a plan; and being urged service, but armed with insistent letters from by some of the commissioners, and personally one "boss" or another, The extent of this lat- ascertaining that his former chief would not ter annoyance may be read in the fact that it resent such action, he accepted the proposal. was only in moonlight hours that they could The main ideas for the scheme then worked walk about the park, to consider what had out by the two young men were Mr. Olmsted's, just been done, and to decide what should including the one which probably did next be undertaken. Moreover, a runaway anything else to determine its success-the horse, a heavy fall, and a badly broken thigh idea of conducting traffic across the park by soon put Mr. Olmsted on his back again. means of sunken transverse roads. But Mr. For months he directed the park work from his Vaux's part in the task was equally essential. bed; then he was carried about to superintend His architectural training fitted him not only it on a litter; for a long time afterward he to do the actual work of draftsmanship, and to walked on crutches, and ever since he has been design all structural features, but also to veto, slightly lame. correct, modify, or elaborate the expedients and Yet, in spite of everything, his force of work- features proposed by his companion. Together men, numbering at last nearly four thousand, they had all the knowledge and ability re- practically completed in about four years the quired; but alone, Mr. Olmsted is always great work of making a park of some 800 anxious to explain, he could at that time have acres on a singularly unfavorable site. To ac- done nothing to good purpose. Working al- complish this meant not only high artistic 7/24/2008 Cornell University Making of America Page 1 of 1 864 FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED. power, but indefatigable energy and much or- ton desirable; and the presence at Brookline ganizing, executive ability. In every energetic of Richardson, the architect, who had been his man there is a fine leaven of combativeness, neighbor on Staten Island, led him thither. and the unrighteous obstacles perpetually piled He found Brookline, he says, "the most civil- in Mr. Olmsted's path aroused this spirit to ized community in America" as regarded the righteous intensity. While fighting his own management of municipal affairs; and there he artistic battle he felt that he was fighting, too, permanently established his home and his office. the battle for better municipal conditions; and The works to which Mr. Olmsted has set any one who knew him at the time will testify his hand during the past twenty-five years have that he threw himself into his park work much been very many and they have been very va- as our young soldiers, just then, were throw- ried, not only because of diversities in purpose, ing themselves into martial combats. Doubt- but because natural conditions, determining ar- less it was a general recognition of this power tistic conceptions and expedients, differ widely of absorbed devotion, as well as of his execu- between Massachusetts and California, Mon- tive ability, which led Dr. Bellows, the presi- treal and North Carolina, and between sea- dent of the newly formed Sanitary Commission, shore, mountain, and lowland sites. Since 1875 to ask him to become its secretary-that is, an office record of his chief undertakings has its practical manager. Aware that there was been kept. It mentions thirty-seven public little more work which could then be done on pleasure-grounds twelve suburban districts the park, and glad to escape from a life open which have been laid out in preparation for to the persecutions of local politicians into the building of villas; the grounds of eleven the service of a nation in distress, Mr. Olmsted public buildings and hospitals, thirteen col- accepted the offer, and removed to Washington. leges, four large schools, four railroad stations, He was still on crutches at the time. His work and twelve considerable private estates; and during the next two years was very laborious, also the names of some two hundred clients, the servants coming to set the breakfast-table to whom, in addition, Mr. Olmsted has given often finding him still at his night-long tasks; actual service or advice. and his health again broke down beneath the Some of the undertakings mentioned in this strain. But the results of these two years list have, of course, been much more impor- form a bright feature in the history of the tant than others; some were fully carried out war which our people will not forget. I think under Mr. Olmsted's direction, while in others it may be told that, while his salary had been his plans were not faithfully executed, and in fixed at $4000, he felt that for doing patriotic most of them he has not worked alone. At service he should accept as little pay as pos- first, as we know, Mr. Vaux was his partner; sible, and drew only some $2000 a year, since 1875 his son, Mr. John C. Olmsted, has After severing his connection with the Sani- held this place; it is now held also by Mr. tary Commission, Mr. Olmsted was for years Charles Eliot, son of the president of Harvard in California, trying to bring order out of dis- University, and was held by Mr. Henry Sargent order in the affairs of the great Frémont estate Codman for some time previous to his un- at Mariposa, but spending much time in the timely death in 1892. But these three young Yosemite Valley, in an official capacity, and men studied their profession in Mr. Olmsted's doing much to make the nation understand the office, and were trained upon work which he national value of this wonderful region. Then had designed; and whatever deductions we he returned to New York,-making an adven- can possibly make from the sum total of his turous journey with his family by way of the own work, there remains a remarkable amount Nicaragua route.-and formed a partnership as the achievement of twenty-five years, and with Mr. Vaux; and since that time, during a by a man whose health has not been robust. period of more than twenty-five years, he It is difficult to name the most interesting steadily himself to the practice of hisart. among Mr. Olmsted's creations, From the ar- In 1879 he made another journey to Europe, tistic point of view, the largest do not deserve and, returning in poor health, settled himself this distinction merely because of their size, at Cambridge, Massachusetts, for a summer of or the most beautiful merely because of their outdoor recreation. The Boston Park Com- beauty. A comparatively small piece of work, mission had been organized six or eight years less perfect in its beauty than some others, may before, and had then tentatively consulted Mr. best prove a landscape-gardener's power, as Olmsted. Nowit appealed to him again, and he having been wrought amid unusually hamper- was soon engaged to undertake the redemption ing conditions- as being a blossom of art of those half-submerged lands in the Back Bay plucked from the nettle difficulty, Prospect district which he has transformed into a plea- Park, Brooklyn, for instance, may easily be sure-ground of uniquely interesting character. thought more beautiful than Central Park: but This engagement made his residence near Bos- to an eye which remembers what its site origi- http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?coll=moa&root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent 7/24/2008 Cornell University Making of America Page 1 of 1 FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED. 865 nally was, Central Park will always seem Mr. public in the modern sense, were comparative Olmsted's greatest achievement of the kind. novelties, They had been among the good Again, Beacon Parkway in Boston (more sults of that limiting of kingly prerogatives and often called the Back Bay Fens), to which I that breaking down of aristocratic barriers with have already referred, may be less immediately which our century opened, and which were re- impressive than certain pleasure-grounds of a peated, more quietly but more effectually, in normal sort; but it fills us with peculiar ad- the revolutionary days of 1848. When city walls miration when we realize the cause of its sin- were destroyed, their sites were utilized for ex- gularity @@@@@@@@@@ the need that wide sunken marshy tensive boulevards and promenades, while royal tracts, alternately overflowed and left partly and princely parks, gardens, hunting-preserves, bare by tidewaters, should be so redeemed and forests were thrown open to the people. and beautified that they might appropriately Forty years ago some of these were still nearly be bridged by streets and surrounded with in their old condition; others had been remod- rows of city dwellings. Riverside Drive in eled into greater efficiency, and new areas were New York, and the adjacent Morningside Park, being specially fitted for the public's use. are other instances of peculiar problems very But when a few wise citizens determined to successfully treated instances which would give New York a large park, few Americans be still more impressive had Mr. Olmsted's realized the benefits of such places, and still plans been faithfully carried out. Again, I may fewer believed that they should be formed here name the Arnold Arboretum, where the aim after European patterns. Seeing the decorous, was to accommodate a scientific collection of law-abiding, rule-respecting throngs which now trees and yet make a beautiful public pleasure- fill Central Park of a Sunday afternoon in ground; and if I were as familiar with Mr. Olm- spring,-throngs much larger and of much sted's Western as with his Eastern work, I might more motley composition than were anticipated add other examples of equal individuality. in the fifties,-it is amusing to know that, when But of one great Western example I hardly the plan of Messrs. Olmsted and Vaux was ac- need to speak. Every American knows how cepted, some of our influential citizens cried beautiful are the Chicago World's Fair Grounds, Such a park is too aristocratic to be sanc- how wholly the chance to make them beautiful tioned in America, too artistic to be respected has sprung from Mr. Olmsted's preliminary by the American populace. It would be an treatment, and how singularly novel, how unrepublican waste of money to make it, for boldly imaginative, as well as practical and only the rich would use it or, if the poor used skilful, this treatment has been. Every one who it, they would quickly destroy its beauty." One honors a great and conscientious, a public- well-known architect declared in a newspaper spirited and widely useful, artist must be glad letter that our people should have a rustic that Mr. Olmsted had this conspicuous oppor- pleasure-ground, not an elegant park; that tunity to win his fellow-countrymen's praise; the thing to do was to fence in the area, intro- and every one who loves the art he practises duce COWS and geese, let them make the paths, must rejoice that, in thus distinguishing him- and let the public enjoy the result with perfect self, he has lifted landscape-gardening to a freedom. And another prominent person said higher place than it ever held before in the that the place should be turned into a forest,- interest and respect of our public, planted preferably with Ontario poplars alone, But in doing this he has merely carried on as they grow very quickly, and then given a great educational work which began with over to the unaided ministrations of Nature. I the creation of Central Park. fancy that these gentlemen now realize they Thirty-five years ago there were no large were mistaken; but their mistakes excellently public pleasure-grounds in America. No city explain the great responsibility which rested possessed more than a few small squares, with, upon Mr. Olmsted and Mr. Vaux. Had their perhaps, a tract of common-land inherited park been a failure, artistically or practically, from primitive days of public pasturage, car- the making of public parks in America would pet-beating, and practice. have been retarded during many had anything of the beauty which Downing ing years each of which would have rendered had conferred upon Lafayette Square in Wash- the acquisition of suitable lands more difficult ington; collectively they were quite inadequate and costly. But their success was quickly to the needs of the day, much more inadequate achieved, was as triumphantly apparent on the to the evident needs of the future; and there side of utility as on the side of beauty, and was was nothing in the suburbs to supplement them welcomed with pride and respect by all the peo- except the cemetery, while the way in which ple of New York. Indeed, the whole country this was frequented by pleasure-seekers showed soon learned to feel a pride in Central Park, and that something else was indeed required. a respect for the ideas upon which its forma- Even in Europe large pleasure-grounds, tion had been based and the result shows to- 7/24/2008 Cornell University Making of America Page 1 of 1 866 FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED. day in the scores of public parks possessed by been very remarkable, but not more remarka- American cities large and small. ble than his ability to secure the utmost prac- Of course it is not yet a result with which tical efficiency in combination with it. His we are satisfied. Hundreds of towns and uniting of these qualities-utility and broad, villages still need to be impressed with the simple, impressive landscape beauty - so fact that they should secure public pleasure- many discreetly varied ways, gives him, I think, grounds without another year's delay; and the an unrivaled position among the dead and liv- people at large need to be awakened to the ing masters of his craft. Nor should it be for- vital concern they have in the right manage- gotten that he had to teach himself how to do ment and quick enlargement of their magnifi- such work as this. I do not think that there are cent possessions in the mountains of the East any large parks in Europe which offer such va- and the West. But who can compute how far ried facilities for the refreshment and recreation behind even our present condition we might of the great mass of the people as do the best of have been to-day had not an artist of Mr. Olm- ours; and moreover, most of the European sted's force, intelligence, versatility, and public parks which at all resemble ours are-at least spirit been given us at just the most critical in their present than Central time? At no other time and in no other place, Park. think, could Mr. Olmsted have served the Catholicity is another distinguishing mark cause of art and the cause of humanity SO well. of Mr. Olmsted's art. Despite his preponder- And I may lay special stress upon his versatil- ant love for the naturalistic style in its broad- ity - upon that originality in conception to est, simplest developments, he is quick to see which I have already referred. The works in when the formal, architectural style puts in a which it most prominently appears have more valid claim; and he realizes that even the most than an intrinsic value. They have a widely naturalistic landscape-work should not strive instructive value as showing that there can to appear actually natural, and should even hardly be a site upon which the hand of an ar- incorporate distinctly formal elements when tist may not confer serviceableness and charm; they are required for use or for the right ex- that, therefore, no city, whatever its natural re- planation of art as art. sources, need despair of possessing a satisfac- But neither catholicity of taste nor versatility tory pleasure-ground. in conception has led Mr. Olmsted into the Serviceableness and charm-these are the great mistake of confusing radically different two qualities which every work of landscape- ideals, Formal elements may enter into a nat- art, like every work of architecture, should pos- uralistic scheme, freely treated elements into sess. But as problems vary, SO too does the a formal scheme; gardenesque features may degree of attention which should be concen- be furnished somewhere in a park; park-like trated upon each of these qualities. When we vistas may open from a garden or, indeed, a wish to pass judgment upon any given piece of pleasure-ground may have a clearly confessed work, it is as needful to remember this fact as to composite character. But whatever its char- remember the limiting, directing force of pre- acter, there must be a clear confession of it. existing natural conditions. And when we un- We should be left in no doubt as to the broad derstand it clearly, we see that success in the art ideal which guided the artist, the general im- to-day ability than was demanded pression he tried to produce. This great fact a hundred and fifty years ago. It is evident that Mr. Olmsted always remembers, and the pub- it must be more difficult to create or preserve lic has learned from him at least some vague beauty in a park which is daily visited by many knowledge of the truth that not all pleasure- thousand ple-passing on foot, on horse- grounds should be designed on the same prin- back, and in carriages, and demanding facilities ciples or judged by the same artistic canons. for the sports of men and of children- to The confusion which still, however, prevails do as much in a private estate of the same size, with regard to this matter is revealed by the It is evident, too, that the greater the area. the lax use of all the terms involved, and espe- greater the difficulty, if only because in a very cially of the word park, which has been so mis- large park a wise artist will strive for more dis- used that we seldom remember it has any dis- tinctively rural effects than in a smaller - for tinctive meaning at all. Mr. Olmsted knows, more of the broad charm of scenery as distin- of course, that any lax use of terms tends to guished from the charm of successive landscape deepen the confusion from which it sprang passages; and because character of this kind and he has steadily tried to teach artists, clients, lends itself least readily to the incorporation of and the public better verbal habits. For this a multitude of useful artificial features. Mr. by no means for this alone-his Olmsted's success in securing such character, articles in various cyclopedias, and the many even amid natural conditions as unfavorable reports upon his works and explanations of his as those offered by the site of Central Park, has ideas with regard to proposed works which he http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?coll=moa&root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent%... 7/24/2008 Cornell University Making of America Page 1 of 1 FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED. 867 has written, should be sought out by all stu- by systematic study of art; and I may add that dents of landscape-gardening. In short, he a knowledge of art is often the influence which has not been merely a capable, diligent artist: best develops an intelligent eye for nature. he has been in all directions an apostle of his Again, while Mr. Olmsted's equipment has art, crying in a wilderness, truly, but not with- proved itself extraordinarily fine in some di- out finding some eager and intelligent disciples rections, it has been deficient in others. His whose number, I am sure, will now rapidly in- statement that without the collaboration of crease. This fact, and not only his last pro- Mr. Vaux he could not have presented a plan nounced triumph at Chicago, was fittingly for Central Park, shows how needful a thorough recognized during the past summer when, on knowledge of architecture, engineering, and the same day, the universities of Harvard and draftsmanship is to the landscape-gardener. Yale conferred upon him their highest hon- Much knowledge of this sort Mr. Olmsted has orary degrees. since acquired, and his power of architectural I do not dare to dwell upon those more conception is sufficiently proved by the single personal traits which have assisted Mr. Olm- fact that it was he who perceived the neces- sted's high artistic gifts in establishing his in- sity for those great marble terraces which have fluence. His friends understand and deeply incalculably increased the architectural excel. appreciate them, and they must have impressed lence of the Capitol in Washington. to some degree even the most casual client. But, as he would be quick to tell you, he But they could hardly be explained to strangers, has always been hampered by his lack of prac- and in making the attempt I fear I should tical knowledge with regard to plants. This give more pain than pleasure to a singularly has forced him to depend upon others, in the gentle and modest spirit which does not yet execution of his works, even more than every realize why anything that concerns it must be busy landscape-gardener must and it may interesting to the world at large. also have limited his imagination somewhat, It may seem almost as though mere chance at least in relation to matters of detail. When had determined that Mr. Olmsted should be defects exist. in his work, they are sure to be de- an artist. But the best chance can profit no fects in treatment, not in mistakes or man who is not well prepared to turn it into shortcomings in the elaboration of his scheme, opportunity. If, at the age of thirty-four, Mr. not in the scheme itself, not in the fundamental Olmsted had not been fitted for a landscape- artistic conception. Here great intelligence gardener's tasks, the chance which made him and good taste always reveal themselves, and superintendent of the workmen in Central remarkable originality very often and with a Park could not have led him on to the design- thorough technical training esamequal- ing of parks while, on the other hand, know- ities would undoubtedly always have marked ing how well fitted for such tasks be was, we feel all the minor features and details of his work. that if just this opportunity had not offered, In short, Mr. Olmsted's peculiar education, another would somehow have presented itself. SO deep and rich in some directions, so scanty In the conduct of Mr. Olmsted's education in others, acting upon a singularly receptive up to the age of thirty-four, chance certainly yet naturally analytical temperament,- tem- played a preponderant rôle, But we should not perament at once poetic and keenly, practi- therefore decide that a landscape-gardener's cally observant,- gave him an imaginative education may always be accidental, or even force which has probably not been equaled that it may be modeled consciously upon Mr. in the history of landscape-gardening in any Olmsted's unconscious course. This course land, But it did not perfect his executive skill, sufficed, with him, to develop that creative and this deficiency he has been unable to re- power which must always rest upon a reason- pair entirely during a long life of diligent ap- ing, analyzing love for beauty, upon a sense plication to the problems and resources of his for the harmonious, the fitting, the appropriate, art. Would-be landscape-gardeners should re- as regards the application of special kinds of member that they can hardly count upon beauty to special purposes, and upon practical offsetting blanks in their training by natural judgment as determining which among possible abilities as remarkable as his, and that most fitting schemes may most wisely be selected. likely they do not possess temperaments as But, while similar experiences could not fail well adapted as his to profit by what I may call to have much good effect upon any sensitive a passive course of education. They should spirit, what sufficed with Mr. Olmsted would remember that genius can learn much where probably not have sufficed with another. It talent or mere intelligence would gather sparse is safe to say that, as a rule, a landscape- instruction, and may go very far with an equip- gardener's creative power must indeed be nour- ment which would carry talent, stumbling, ished by long contemplation of nature, but also only a little way. M. G. van Rensselaer. http://cdl.library.cornell.edu/cgi-bin/moa/pageviewer?coll=moa&root=%2Fmoa%2Fcent%... 7/24/2008 American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920 (American Memory, Library of Cong Page 1 of 2 The Library of Congress AMERICAN MEMORY LC AMERITECH AWARD WINNER Frances Loeb Library, Graduate School of Design, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. American Landscape and Architectural Design, 1850-1920 A Study Collection from the Harvard Graduate School of Design Search by Keyword | Browse the Subject Index | State Index | Name Index This collection of approximately 2,800 lantern slides represents an historical view of American buildings and landscapes built during the period 1850-1920. It represents the work of Harvard faculty, such as Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., Bremer W. Pond, and James Sturgis Pray, as well as that of prominent landscape architects throughout the country. The collection offers views of cities, specific buildings, parks, estates and gardens, including a complete history of Boston's Park System. In addition to photographs, views of locations around the country include plans, maps, and models. Hundreds of private estates from all over the United States are represented in the collection through contemporary views of their houses and gardens (including features such as formal gardens, terraces, and arbors). The mission of the Library of Congress is to make its resources available and useful to Congress and the American people and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations. The goal of the Library's National Digital Library Program is to offer broad public access to a wide range of historical and cultural documents as a contribution to education and lifelong learning. Digital collections from other institutions complement and enhance the Library's own resources. The Library of Congress presents these documents as part of the record of the past. These primary historical documents reflect the attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs of different times. The Library of Congress does not endorse the views expressed in these collections, which may contain materials offensive to some readers. Special Presentations Charles Downing Lay: New York City Parks in Use, 1912 M. S. Sager: Glacier National Park, 1925 F.L. Olmsted: Boston's Emerald Necklace http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/mhsdhtml/aladhome.html 10/28/2004 Olmsted, John Charles (1852-1920), Papers, 1860ca.-1920 An Inventory. Page 1 of 31 Olmsted, John Charles (1852-1920), Papers, 1860ca.-1920: An Inventory. Special Collections, Frances Loeb Library, Harvard Design School V8 RI Tes C 2004 The President and Fellows of Harvard College Descriptive Summary Repository: Special Collections, Frances Loeb Library, Harvard Design School Title: Papers of John Charles Olmsted. 1860 ca.-1920. Creator: Olmsted, John Charles, 1852-1920. Quantity: 36 linear feet Processing Information: Processed by Mary Daniels Acquisition Information: Immediate source of acquisition: Gift of Carolyn Olmsted, 1977. Conditions on Use and Access: Contact Special Collections Department, Frances Loeb Library, Harvard Design School Biography John Charles Olmsted (1852-1920), sequentially nephew, stepson and business partner of Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903). Trained at the Yale Scientific School, graduating in 1875, he apprenticed with the elder Olmsted in professional practice as a landscape architect. During the subsequent three decades, the Olmsted firm became securely established as the premier landscape design office in the United States; their hundreds of commissions and projects ranged from private gardens to large-scale institutional planning and municipal park systems. Throughout this period, John Charles Olmsted assumed responsibility for the administration of the office while traveling extensively on design work throughout the United States and Canada. By the time of his death in 1920, the office's clients numbered more than 3500 since its founding; a figure due, in no small measure, to John Charles Olmsted's skills as both a designer and a meticulous administrator. Joined in practice in the 1890s by Charles Eliot (1859-1897) and his stepbrother Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. (1870-1957), the volume and quality of John hhttp://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/xslTransform;jsessionid=54261FD3BD5B06A019.. 6/11/2009 Olmsted, John Charles (1852-1920), Papers, 1860ca.-1920: An Inventory. Page 2 of 31 Charles Olmsted's contribution to the firm's projected designs, realized works and reputation is incalculable. Among Olmsted's most significant work are park systems developed for Portland, Maine and Portland, Oregon, Seattle, Spokane, and Charleston, as well as New Orleans' Audubon Park. He continued park planning initiated by the senior Olmsted in Boston, Buffalo, Louisville, and Chicago, among numerous other sites. Active in a number of professional associations, Olmsted was also a founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architects. Scope and Content The collection includes some 5,000 letters exchanged with his wife, Sophia White Olmsted (1862-1956), during the years 1898-1920. During this period Olmsted traveled for lengthy periods on firm business and this correspondence provides insight into the realities of both practice and domestic concerns. There are also correspondence files with professional colleagues, scattered manuscript materials of professional interest, as well as family papers, ephemera and photographs. Arrangement The Papers of John Charles Olmsted are composed of Series A (Lectures, Reports ...), Series B-F (Correspondence), Series G (Bound Manuscripts), Series H-I (Unbound Manuscripts), Series J (Printed Miscellanea), Series K (Juvenilia), Sketches and Drawings), Series L (Photographs) and Series M (Clippings). Container List A000 Series A / Lectures, Reports ... Note: Miscellaneous drafts and texts of JCO lectures, reports and miscellaneous writing. Folder: A001 Lectures, Reports and Articles : [Cemetery Design] / by John C. Olmsted / Date(s): n.d. / Quantity: 1 folder Note: Draft [incomplete?] of text concerned with the design of cemeteries. Included are discussions of general layout, planting and monuments, as well as administrative matters. Folder: A002 Lectures, Reports and Articles : Landscape Gardening / by John C. Olmsted / Date(s): 1907 / Quantity: 3 folders Note: Text of a lecture read before the "Congress of Horticulture, Jamestown Exposition, Norfolk, Va., September 23, 1907..." Carbon copy typescript of 12 leaves, with some penciled annotations. Note: Text includes general discussion of the ideal education of a landscape architect and the means by which "horticulturists" and "florists" might broaden their understanding of landscape design. Note: With the apparent final text are two preliminary manuscript drafts dating from July and September 1907, with title: "Relation of Horticulture to Landscape Gardening." Folder: A003 Lectures, Reports and Articles : Report - Boston Parks / by John C. Olmsted / Date(s): 1911 / Quantity: 2 folders Note: Holograph draft of report addressed to Robert S. Peabody, Chairman of the Board of Park Commissioners, dated January-February 1911. Draft written on stationery of the US Grant Hotel, San Diego, California. Note: The report focuses on the development/design of Commonwealth Avenue and on http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/xslTransform;jsessionid=54261FD3BD5B06A019... 6/11/2009 Olmsted, John Charles (1852-1920), Papers, 1860ca.-1920: An Inventory. Page 3 of 31 changes and improvements made or to be made to elements of the Olmsted park system, including the Fens and the Charlesgate area. Note: A note on the last leaf of the text indicates that this text (which includes numerous corrections and emendations) was transcribed from an earlier version by John C. Olmsted. Folder: A004 Lectures, Reports and Articles : Boston Park System / by John C. Olmsted / Date(s): 1905 / Quantity: 2 folders Note: Manuscript draft and typed transcription (carbon copy) of address delivered before the American Society of Landscape Architects, July 7, 1905. Note: The text includes brief histories and descriptions of both existing and projected park space in Boston. Published in: Transactions of the American Society of Landscape Architects, 1899- 1908 (Philadelphia, [1912?]), pp. 42-55. Folder: A005 Lectures, Reports and Articles : Remarks / by John C. Olmsted / Date(s): 1913 / Quantity: 1 folder Note: Typescript extract from the Minutes of 8 May 1913 meeting of the American Society of Landscape Architects which includes comments by John C. Olmsted on professional education. Note: Olmsted's remark include references to the GSD program overseen by his half- brother and comments on the need for an appropriate "mental fitness" which he views as of "more important than technical knowledge." Folder: A006 Lectures, Reports and Articles : Chicora Park / by John C. Olmsted / Date(s): 1899 / Quantity: 1 folder Note: Typescript draft, amended in pencil, of report concerning Chicora Park, Charleston, SC, with cover letter addressed to Samuel Lapham, President of the Charleston Park Commission, dated 20 March 1899. Note: The report includes general comments on the function of parks and more specific comments on the character of the park, the regional/coastal setting, and its indigenous vegetation. Note: The Olmsted firm was involved in the Chicora Park project, 1896-1900; see the 1901 Annual Report of the Charleston Park Commission (NAB 6827 CharSC 38) for both a map and the final text of the Olmsted Report. Folder: A007 Lectures, Reports and Articles : Hartford Park System / by John C. Olmsted Date(s): n.d., ca. 1900? / Quantity: 1 folder Note: Typescript text, with few minor corrections, of address [?] delivered to the New England Association of Park Superintendents. Note: Text includes an analysis of the individual Hartford parks and concludes with Olmsted's recommendations concerning the general acquisition, management and funding of park systems. Folder: A008 Lectures, Reports and Articles : Taxation / by John C. Olmsted / Date(s): n.d., ca. 1900? / Quantity: 1 folder Note: Holograph drafts (incomplete) of text headed "Taxation"; comments include discussion of public monopolies, services and utilities. Folder: A009 Lectures, Reports and Articles : The True Purpose of a Large Public Park by John C. Olmsted / Date(s): 1897 / Quantity: 1 folder Note: Notation on verso of final leaf: "Not Used Spring of 1897." Note: Fragmentary manuscript draft headed "The True Purpose of a Large Public Park", written on letterhead notepaper of the Planters Hotel, St. Louis, dated May 1897. Note: Text deals with park management, public consciousness of park functions, and problems raised by the introduction of "artificial objects" into park design. Folder: A010 Lectures, Reports and Articles Upon the Relation of the City Engineer to http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/xslTransform;jsessionid=54261FD3BD5B06A019. 6/11/2009 "SUCH INHERITANCE As I CAN GIVE YOU" THE APPRENTICESHIP OF FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, JUNIOR Susan L. Klaus F rederick Law Olmsted, Junior, was not his "Rick" Olmsted was the youngest child in a given name at birth; nor was it the professional large and complex household. In 1859 FLO had designation by which he preferred to be known. married Mary Cleveland Perkins Olmsted, the Yet even today it remains a necessary convention widow of his younger brother, John Hull Olmsted. to distinguish the younger Olmsted from his FLO thus became stepfather to his nephews and famous father and professional mentor, Frederick niece-John Charles, who would become his Law Olmsted, Senior, or "FLO." stepfather's first apprentice and then partner; The responsibility of inheriting both the Owen; and Charlotte. FLO and Mary Olmsted Olmsted name and the family profession was the had one other child of their own, Marion, who was leitmotif that dominated the waning years of the nine when her baby brother arrived. father and the formative years of the son. A loving Professional and domestic life intermingled in and proud father, FLO's final wish was to ensure the Olmsted household. In 1872 the family that his youngest child and only son was prepared moved from Staten Island to a four-story to assume his place in the profession which the brownstone row house at 209 West 46th Street in father had labored to create. FLO was determined New York City that served both as residence and that Frederick Law Olmsted, Junior, would be office. FLO's work began to take him for longer "not merely better fitted in this respect than I have periods to Boston, where he was advising the Park been, but enough better to make good to the Department and working on the Arnold world what of the duties of my profession I have Arboretum. In 1881 he moved the family to been unable to supply." "You must, with the aid Brookline, Massachusetts, home of FLO's friend of such inheritance as I can give you," FLO and favorite collaborator, architect Henry Hobson charged his son, "make good my failings. 11) Richardson, who encouraged FLO to follow his This article focuses on Olmsted's preparation example in setting up an office in the suburban for his career his education and professional community. Two years later FLO bought an old apprenticeship. Equally important, it explores the farmhouse at 99 Warren Street, which would close and emotional relationship between this remain the headquarters of the Olmsted firm for famous father and son, looking at how the young nearly a century. Olmsted dealt with the complicated mixture of After graduating from Roxbury Latin practical" advantages and psychological burden preparatory school, Olmsted entered Harvard in that accompanied his patrimony. 1890 at the age of twenty with, he later said, "the definite expectation from the first of going 'into Youth and College the profession of landscape architecture." During his college years Olmsted had opportunities to On July 24, 1870, Frederick Law Olmsted at last, observe the culminating projects of his father's at the age of forty-eight, became the father of a career-Biltmore, George Vanderbilt's North son. There had been two earlier disappointments: Carolina estate, and the 1893 World's Columbian one male infant died after two months, another Exposition in Chicago-and he worked part time lived only six hours. Neither had been named for in the Brookline office.' In 1892 Olmsted spent his father; nor was this baby, whose given name at five months traveling with his father in England birth was Henry Perkins, after his maternal and France, where FLO combined business for the grandfather. Several years would pass before this World's Fair with the opportunity to introduce his child became his father's namesake, when renamed son to the public parks and great estates of his only natural son Frederick Law Olmsted, England and France. Junior. Although Olmsted was twenty-four when he Journal of the New England garden History Society V. 3 (1993) 1-7 1. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., at age nineteen (courtesy Charlotte Olmsted Kursh) JOURNAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND GARDEN HISTORY SOCIETY graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1894, The trip involved strenuous physical activity and a there was no immediate invitation to join the good deal of 'roughing it," which Olmsted family firm. That summer Olmsted worked as relished. He was a slight man, like his father in recorder and instrument man on a U.S. Coast and his early years, five-feet-six inches in height, with Geodetic Survey designed to complete the last brown hair and blue eyes. Because of his slender links in the transcontinental triangulation system frame he appeared frail, yet he continually by plotting the 39th Parallel through the Rockies. surprised companions with his stamina. In Colorado he rode long hours over rough terrain on mule or horse, blazing and then hiking steep tilk there were about 1/3 as womency mountain trails, enduring the variable weather- mongs as flies his now we as well as the voracious mosquitoes. have a beeye here which has FLO had questioned whether the expedition cleared them out temporarily and would advance Olmsted's professional preparation; however, by summer's end he agreed that it had mothering more earn fortalité been a good opportunity to gain "topographical could be asked a light alm I common sense. tact and skill for ready, off-hand and temperature reconnoitering and estimating by half guess work. which are invaluable in our profession. fruits (a.) to make insiglant have air a flaumel shirt Post-Graduate Course: Biltmore instead of chesist. The Olmsted firm (known as Olmsted, Olmsted, from what unnotic and Eliot at this date), FLO said, would be Marine white observing Rick's activities at Biltmore as his "first always serious professional responsibility (i.e. not simply 7 should judge preparatory). According to the way in which you that Deir Sile would meet them, the place that you will be able to fill in flow within Clusted party our organization must be judged." FLO considered Biltmore the most important job that he had ever undertaken for a private client. He observed to his colleagues in the the wild thousand Brookline office that Biltmore was "by far the and preserve longest, most difficult, and complicated work that we have; [and] will have the largest future 2. A page from Olmsted's Rocky Mountain journal shows the troublesome mosquitoes (courtesy Olmsted Associates Records) 3. A section of FLO's carefully laid out approach drive under construction, C. 1891 (courtesy Olmsted Associates Records. Biltmore scrapbooks) 2 "SUCH INHERITANCE As I CAN GIVE You" THE APPRENTICESHIP OF FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, JUNIOR rhange N car became involved in day-to-day operations. the boat curve and from the He did studies for the entrance to the (GSE) cor 4thalout lever will arboretum, for example, and prepared drawings to hidge along thiskank to the hold scale for the office. On most evenings, an hour or more was devoted to business letters, responding avoing feet in the to questions from the Brookline office or requesting instructions from them. At the request of the estate manager, Olmsted corresponded with several firms for prices and specifications for the deer park fence. He conferred with James Gall, Jr., the Olmsted firm's resident representative, and Warren Manning, the firm's horticultural expert, as they discussed plans or gardens, lines for paths and roads, and the boundaries for the arboretum. Briige infuresnic When FLO was in residence at Biltmore, Olmsted acted as his personal assistant and secretary, taking notes and transcribing his letters. The majority of Olmsted's time was spent in the nursery, where he worked with Chauncey D. Beadle, the estate's head nurseryman. Olmsted concentrated on cataloguing plants for the Father agreed and Manitopri- pare Mauring for consideral and Imbuns to Mr. V. Copy f sketch 4. Olmsted's copy of FLO's sketch shows the approach road and the line for deer park gence (courtesy Olmsted Associates Records) importance and celebrity." FLO also recognized that this was to be his final great undertaking, and for both these reasons, he wanted his son to be a part of it: You see, feeling that I have but a slight bold on life, I am anxious to use any advantage that I may have for getting you established favorably. The time may come when the fact of your having been engaged (at Biltmore} from Behind the start. will give you some prestige. upa Olmsted's position on the estate was somewhat ambiguous. He was not an official representative of the firm, indeed, was not on the acceded adoptack firm's payroll; he had a living allowance from his father. When asked for firm letterhead to use in business correspondence, John Charles Olmsted declined, reminding his half-brother that he was not "our official representative. The fact is that you are a student of the work. It is better policy for you to observe and think and then write us for an opinion. than to put your own opinions forward. Nevertheless, he was in 5. Olmsted's sketch of FLO's ideas for the walled garden and garden leading to the greenhouse (courtesy Olnsted Associates Records, residence and his name was Olmsted; inevitably he Biltmore scrapbooks) 3 JOURNAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND GARDEN HISTORY SOCIETY feelings of inadequacy or unfulfilled potential because of insufficient grounding in his profession. The son thus would have the double distinction and advantage of both the Olmsted name and appropriate training. Haunted by what he felt was a shameful ignorance of certain landscape techniques and of botanical knowledge, FLO was determined that his son master plant nomenclature. "I shall not take you into this office," he decreed until you are much better grounded in trees and shrubs than anyone here now except (Warren) Manning. If you think it is impracticable, the sooner you give up the profession the better. But I know it is not impracticable and I insist on your making yourself an expert nursery man. I will not take you into the office until you are SO. If there is no other way to get the result, I shall-no, I will not say what. It's too important a matter to be decided now." Although heightened by the increasing loss of physical and mental powers, FLO's feelings of inadequacy and embarrassment over his technical 6. The walled garden under construction, C. 1891-92 (courtesy Olmsted Associates Records, Biltmore scrapbonks) vine. proposed arboretum, which was designed to introduce concepts of scientific forest management to America, and, at his father's insistence, worked on improving his general botanical knowledge. For FLO was determined that Olmsted should triumph over what he considered a fatal flaw in his own preparation-a lack of formal knowledge of the basic tools of his trade, plant life. The End of Adolescence A constant stream of letters written by an increasingly distraught FLO descended upon Olmsted during his months at Biltmore. They provide a poignant record of the deteriorating condition of the great man, of his growing mental confusion, despair, and paranoia. In these rambling epistles, the aging father is by turns loving and stern, affectionate and threatening. FLO's many successes over his long career had not overcome a basic insecurity and painful sense of how much more he might have accomplished with 7. Olmsted displayed some of his bard-won botanical knowledge to a proper training. If it was in his power to do so, he correspondent who requested his assistance in plant identification for would see that his son would not suffer the same her garden (courtesy Olmsted Associates Records) 4 "SUCH INHERITANCE As I CAN GIVE You" THE APPRENTICESHIP OF FREDERICK LAW OI.MSTED JUNIOR 8. Biltmore house newly completed (courtesy Olmsted Associates from your reputation then I am compelled to answer, Records. Biltmore scrapbooks) with pain and regret, after the most serious thought, that deficiencies were not new. He had confided to an I believe I would better enter upon another career. early biographer, journalist, and garden enthusiast These doubts are not new, but I have been repressing them Mariana Van Renssalaer, that ever since I entered college and began choosing my studies with a view to following your profession. 13 he had always been hampered by his lack of practical knowledge with regard to plants. This has forced him to His father's erratic behavior pulled "the ground depend upon others, in the execution of his works, even from under my feet," Olmsted wrote. 4 more than every busy landscape-gardener must. Having begun to express his doubts and anxieties about assuming the responsibility of his Such shortcomings could have been overcome, she father's name as well as his profession, Olmsted observed, had FLO had the benefit of "a more proceeded to spin out other options for his life, as if thorough technical training."I= trying on different careers for fit and suitability. At It was precisely this deficiency that FLO was the end of January, he wrote his father that he had determined to correct in his son's preparation. Olmsted, however, could only see his father bad inclinations, more or less strong, first toward demanding more of him than had been required of teaching, especially in Mathematics and Physics, and any other member of the firm. He responded to also in most other scientific subjects. ; second and less FLO's letter on New Year's Day: strong toward Engineering, and third, more recent and stronger toward Architecture I have controlled these I have said "my name is worth so much, the reputation inclinations by common sense and judgement. 15 and clientele of the firm is worth so much,' and I have generally come to the conclusion that it would be Up to this point Olmsted had accepted that sheer folly to throw away such a considerable part of my following in his father's footsteps was the correct available capital by entering any other profession than course for him. Now he was not SO sure. Having Landscape Architecture. But if you say that more ready dutifully done all that had been asked to prepare to knowledge of plants than is possessed by you or John carry on the family business, he now felt that his {Charles Olmsted} or (Charles) Eliot is essential to my father was threatening to withhold what he had thorough success as a Landscape Architect, and that the been brought up to consider his by right of birth. lack of it will quite or nearly neutralize my advantages During this emotional period FLO revealed more 5 JOURNAL OF THE NEW ENGLAND GARDEN HISTORY SOCIETY than an expected parental identification with his Indeed, for the rest of his life he took pride in it, namesake. The relationship, for him, was almost often quoting his father or citing FLO's influence symbiotic. Insisting that he was trying "and I think on his own approach to landscape architecture. I succeed in recognizing your individuality," nevertheless FLO clung to the oneness of father and Professional Status son, telling young Olmsted that "you are weak In his last months at Biltmore, Olmsted's letters where I am weak, you are strong where I am back to the firm in Brookline showed a growing strong." Acutely aware of his own mortality, FLO confidence and decisiveness. He expressed concern sought solace in the knowledge that he would live that no one seemed to be taking responsibility for on in the work of his namesake and professional heir. the scientific side of the planned arboretum. He With the parent-child roles beginning their was alarmed at the selection of plants for the inevitable reversal in the face of FLO's decline, nursery, stating that in his opinion three-quarters Olmsted's long adolescence came to an end. The "are monstrous or abnormal horticultural forms of highly charged emotional situation was defused as no value in landscape planting nor for forestry." Olmsted accepted, with pain and a sense of After observing his father on his final visit to helplessness, the senility that would claim his Biltmore in the spring of 1895, Olmsted agreed father's last eight years. He had taken time to with his half-brother John's assessment that FLO speculate about possible directions that his own was no longer able to direct the work. It was John life might take, and perhaps the mere realization Olmsted and Charles Eliot who decided the time that he could choose another career was enough to obviate the need for actual rebellion. Olmsted had come to take 25-year-old Frederick officially into the firm at a salary of $1,200 a year, informing reconciled himself to the inevitable identification George Vanderbilt in November 1895 that with his father because of his career choice. Frederick Law Olmsted, Junior, was now the firm's representative on the grounds.1* Before leaving Biltmore for the last time, FLO sat for his portrait. Vanderbilt had brought John Singer Sargent to the estate to paint its owner and two creators, FLO and architect Richard Morris Hunt. FLO departed before the painting had been completed. In an almost too symbolic gesture of resolution and acceptance, Olmsted donned his father's clothes and posed for Sargent on three or four occasions. The artist took advantage of the resemblance between father and son in "presence, build, and shape of head and hands," which was remarked on by colleagues who knew them both, to finish the portrait." 11 Epilogue Olmsted's first professional position of national prominence came with his 1901 appointment as landscape architect for the McMillan Commission, which established the design for the monumental core of Washington, D.C. Assuming what would have been, had he been well, his father's place, Olmsted was launched on what was to be an extraordinary half-century of leadership in the fields of planning and landscape design. Frequently recalled to Washington for public service, he would serve on the Commission of Fine 9. John Singer Surgent's portrait of FLO painted in the summer of 1885, with Olmsted standing in for his father (courtesy Biltmore Arts (1910-1918) and the National Capital Park Estate's, Asbeville, North Carolina) and Planning Commission (1926-1932). 6 "SUCH INHERITANCE As I CAN GIVE You" THE APPRENTICESHIP OF FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED, JUNIOR Olmsted was a founding member and served (California) and Mountain Lake (Florida) in the as president of the American Society of Landscape 1920s, became influential prototypes for Architects (1899), the National Conference on subsequent suburban developments. City Planning (1910), and the American City Olmsted crafted the language which defined Planning Institute (1917), organizations which the purpose and direction of the National Park helped institutionalize the new professions of Service (created 1916) and devoted much of the landscape architecture and urban planning in the latter part of his career to advising national and early decades of this century. He taught the first state governments on preserving this country's classes on landscape architecture and on city remaining wilderness areas and natural forests. planning in an American college, lecturing at Clearly Olmsted did achieve what his father Harvard from 1900 to 1914. had SO devoutly desired. His unique combination Between 1905 and 1917 Olmsted produced of talent, preparation, and family legacy provided comprehensive planning reports for seven urban the cornerstone for a career which continues to centers. 20 His designs for residential communities, offer both inspiration and practical guidance for including Forest Hills Gardens in Queens, New today's planners, designers, and York, in the 1910s and Palos Verdes Estates environmentalists. NOTES 1. In this article Frederick Law Olmsted, OA), Series B, Job File #2919, Manuscipt 12. Mariana Van Rensselaer, "Frederick Senior, will be referred to as FIO: Olmsted Division, Library of Congress, Law Olmsted," The Century Magazine, will be reserved for Frederick Law Olmsted, Washington, D.C. Vol. 46 (October 1893), P. 867. Junior. 5. Olmsted to William Partridge, 18 13. Olmsted to FLO, 1 January 1895, 2. Frederick Law Olmsted, Senior (hereafter June 1949, Record Group 328, Box 105, OA, Series H6. cited as FLO) to Frederick Law Olmsted, File "Partridge-Personal Experience," Junior (hereafter cited as Olmsted), 23 National Archives, Washington, D.C.; 14. Olmsted to FLO, 31 January 1895, December 1894, Frederick Law Olmsted Olmsted to Edward Bok, 10 June 1922, OA, Series I-22. Papers (hereafter cited as FLO Papers), OA, Series B, Job File #7029. 15. lbid. Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 6. FLO to Olmsted, 1 August 1894, FLO 16. FLO to Olmsted, undated (1895), Papers. FLO Papers. One of their shared 3. Laura Wood Roper, FLO. A Biography "weaknesses" was color-blindedness. 7. FLO to Olmsted, 29 July 1895, FLO of Frederick Law Olisted (Baltimore: The Both Olmsteds had a "subnormal Johns Hoplins Press, 1973; paper edition Papers. sensitiveness to red." See Olmsted to 1983, p. 338. Roper, who had the coopera- 8. FLO to John Charles Olmsted Laura Wood Roper, 10 October 1948, tion of Olmsted in preparing her biography (hereafter cited as JCO), 25 February OA, Series B, Job File #2964. of his father, dates the name change to 1894, FLO Papers. about age four, presumably on the recollec- 17. Olmsted to JCO, 6 February 1895, tion of Olmsted himself. Melvin Kalfus's 9. FLO to Olmsted, 1 August 1894, FLO OA, Series H2. recent study, Frederick Law Olmsted: The Papers. For a detailed discussion of Passion of a Public Artist (New York: New FLO's Landscape plan for Biltmore see 18. JCO to Olmsted, 6 November 1895, York University Press, 1990), points to let- Pamela Lynn Messer, Biltmore Estate. FLO Papers. ters written by FLO as late as 1876 that Frederick Law Olmsted's Masterpiece 19. Roper, FLO, p. 467. (Alexander, North Carolina: still refer to the boy as "Henry," which WorldComm Press, 1993). 20. For Olmsted as a city planner, see Susan would place the name change at about age L. Klaus, "Efficiency, Economy, Beauty.' seven. See Kalfus, p. 81. 10. JCO to Olmsted, 2 December 1894, The City Planning Reports of Frederick OA, Series H6. 4. Notes prepared 20 April 1902 for Law Olmsted, Jr., 1905-1915," Journal of Harvard Alumni Bulletin, Olmsted 11. FLO to Olmsted, undated (1895?), the American Planning Association, Vol. 57 Associates Records (hereafter cited as FLO Papers. (Autumn 1991), pp. 456-71. 7 Friends of Acadia Page 1 of 2 Friends of ACADIA Home About Contact FOA Journal How You Can Help Projects Volunteer Winter 2008 friends The Olmsted Influence on Acadia's Motor Road They were both named for their famous fathers, and might have been better remembered with different names. Together, John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. shaped Acadia National Park in the first half of the twentieth century. They entire issue in pdf also worked together on Fort Tryon Park in New format York, but that is a story for another day. The Olmsted influence at Acadia began even earlier-with the Selected Articles Greensward plan for Central Park in New York by President's Column: Olmsted's father in partnership with Calvert Vaux. The Acadia Legacy The separation of ways in this ground-breaking plan, adopted in 1858, influencedmany later designs, Superintendent's including the roads in Acadia National Park, with the View: Five Year separation of pedestrian ways, carriage roads, motor Favorites roads and highways. Chairman's Letter: The Solace of Open Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. The specific Olmsted work at Acadia began in 1929 Places with a disagreement between Rockefeller and Special People: Park George Dorr, both long-term designers of and donors to the park, about the best route for a new motor Veterans Honored road. Rockefeller wrote to the office of theOlmsted Brothers firm in Brookline, Massachusetts, saying, "I suggested to him[GeorgeDorr] that I invite Mr. Olmsted and his associates to study these problems The Olmsted and give us their opinion. With this suggestion Mr. Dorr was in completest accord and delighted at the Influence on Acadia's idea.. The resulting work has left us more than 100 plans and several photographs at Frederick Law Motor Road Olmsted National Historic Site and ten folders of correspondence and other materials at the Library of Poetry Award Second Congress. Prize: Charlotte Muse The work ranged from an overview to detailed advice onwhatmaterials to plant and which to remove. For Subscribe Now the first project, the road alignment decided on in consultation with the Olmsted firm differed from the Archive routes proposed by Rockefeller and Dorr to the satisfaction of both. Poetry Competition download Acrobat After almost a year, Olmsted issued a report on the proposed 14-mile loop or circuit road. The report Reader recommended routes for the various sections of the road along with such detailed design proposals aswidth maximum curvature and gradient and speed limits. The report and the included plan were sent to Bar Harbor for public comment. At about the same time Rockefeller made public his offer to donate $4,000,000 to construct the motor road. Reaction to this offer was not unanimously favorable. Some, mostly summer residents, had been opposed to the construction of any motor roads in the park. Olmsted dealt with this in his report, saying, "the use of motor cars is, with all its limitations and drawbacks, one of the importantmeans of enabling people to enjoy such a [scenic] region and tends to be used for more 'man-hours' of enjoyment than any othermeans He also pointed out the importance of separating the park roads fromthe public highways that had to be used at the time to reach portions of the park. In early 1931, Rockefeller withdrew his offer of $4,000,000 but continued to be interested in the design and construction ofmotor roads and to seek the advice of the Olmsted firm. Thewithdrawn Rockefeller fundingwas replaced, starting in 1933, by federal programs that suppliedmoney and labor, including the PublicWorks Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps. Olmsted continued his consultation work on both motor roads and pedestrian ways. He made repeated site visits to advise on alignment, bridge design and vegetation along the road, including the avoidance of specimen trees. He asked that on a visit he should have "a gang of axmen at my disposal" to allow him to show where clearings should be made. He also advised on techniques for making the road as narrow as possible and for construction over the roots of trees. http://www.friendsofacadia.org/journal/w2008/history.shtml 7/12/2009 Friends of Acadia Page 2 of 2 Olmsted also had amajor role in the design of Otter Cliff Road, advising a grade separation feature at Otter Cliffs to allow uninterrupted views from both lanes of traffic. He reviewed plans drawn by others for KeboMountain Road and found them"excellent" and consulted on the design for Kebo Brook Bridge. Olmsted approved, as did Rockefeller and theNational Park Service, the design forOtter Cove Causeway. After completion of the causeway in September 1939, Rockefeller wrote Olmsted that it was "more beautiful and successful than I had even dared hope it would be. The causeway looks as if it had always been there My heartiest congratulation to you on the important part you have had in bringing this undertaking to so eminently satisfactory a conclusion." Which seems to be an appropriate summary for the entire joint project at the park. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. died in 1957 and John D. Rockefeller Jr. died in 1960, but we continue to benefit from the work they did -both together and separately. - CAROLINE LOUGHLIN is president of Friends of Fairsted This account is based largely on the history section of the Cultural Landscape Report by Jeffrey Killion and H. Eliot Foulds for the Olmsted Center for Historic Preservation of theNational Park Service, with gratitude for their work. The Friends of Fairsted supports themission of Frederick LawOlmstedNationalHistoric Site, which preserves the home, office and grounds and landscape design records of America's preeminent landscape architect and his firm. This location was the firm's office during the entire landscape practice of Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Friends of ACADIA Home . About Us Contact Us . How You Can Help . Journal . Projects . Volunteer http://www.friendsofacadia.org/journal/w2008/history.shtml 7/12/2009 ASLA: The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted Page 1 of 2 ASLAOnline American Society of Landscape Architects WHAT'S NEW I CONTACT US SITE MAP SEARCH The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted Charles E. Beveridge, Series Editor Carolyn F. Hoffman, Editor Published by Johns Hopkins University Press Volume 1: The Formative Years, 1822-1852 (Published 1977) The volume begins with a short biography of Olmsted, followed by autobiographical fragments. Volume 2: Slavery and the South, 1852-1857 (Published 1981) This volume chronicles his antislavery activism during the 1850s and contains all the significant personal letters and newspaper accounts that he did not include in his four books on the South. Volume 3: Creating Central Park, 1857-1861 (Published 1983) This volume contains the most significant documents concerning the design and construction of Central Park, including the complete original "Greensward" report and plan. Volume 4: Defending the Union: The Civil War and the U.S. Sanitary Commission, 1861-1863 (Published 1986) Covers Olmsted's tenure as general secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, precursor to the Red Cross, as well as his role in helping to define the purposes of Reconstruction, and his leading role in the creation of the political journal the Nation. Volume 5: The California Frontier, 1863-1865 (Published 1990) Covers Olmsted's time as general manager of the Mariposa Estate, running the largest gold-mining operation in the country, as well as containing the four reports that Olmsted wrote for major design projects in California. Volume 6: The Years of Olmsted, Vaux & Company, 1865-1874 (Published 1992) This volume contains letters and reports on parks, park systems, and city planning written during the partnership of Olmsted & Vaux. Volume 7: Parks, Patronage, and Politics, 1874-1882 (at press) This volume describes Olmsted's work while living in New York following his partnership with Vaux, his dismissal from the New York City parks department in 1878, and his move to Boston in the early 1880s. Volume 8: The Early Boston Years, 1882-1889 (forthcoming) This volume follows Olmsted's career as he established his hoem and office in Brookline, Massachusetts, and formed a partnership with his stepson and protege John C. Olmsted. Volume 9: The Final Years of Practice, 1890-1895 (forthcoming) Included will be design reports on South and Cazenovia parks in Buffalo, Cadwalader Park in Trenton, and Downing Memorial Park in Newburgh. There will also be reports and correspondence for the later elements of the Boston park system: Franklin Park, Charlesbank, Marine Park, and Wood Island Park, and proposals for treatment of the Boston harbor islands. Other documents will chronicle the development of the park systems of Rochester, NY, and Louisville, KY. Another major subject is the planning of the World's Columbian Expositionof 1893 and the subsequent redesigning of Jackson Park in Chicago. The volume will also contain selections from Olmsted's extensive and fascinating correspondence concerning his last great commission, Biltmore estate in North Carolina. Volume 10: (Untitled, forthcoming) http://www.asla.org/nonmembers/lam/november01/olmstedpapers.htm 6/13/2008 ASLA: The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted Page 2 of 2 This volume will include undated manuscripts and fragments on general design--a legacy of thought and theorizing that wilbe published here for the first time. It will also include an annotated listing of Olmsted's more than 300 published writings, and a cumulative index of the entire Olmstted Papers series. Supplementary series Volume 1: Writings on Public Parks, Parkways, and Park Systems (Published 1997) This volume consists of 22 illustrated reports, articles and lectures that contain Olmsted's major statemetns on the design of public recreational space. It also includes major statements on city and regional planning. Volume 2: (Untitled, forthcoming) An oversize volume with plans and historical photographs of the 100 parks and public recreation grounds designed by Olmsted. The editors intend to include a CD-ROM containing digitized versions of certain plans published in the volume, plus detailed plantingin plans. Volume 3: (Untitled, forthcoming) An oversize volume containing plans and historical photographs of 100 of the projects carried out by Olmsted in areas other than public recreation. Receiving special attention will be the U.S. Capitol Grounds and West Front terrace, the National Zoo in Washington, several estates planned in collaboration with H. H. Richardson and the architectural firm Peabody & Stearns, the campuses of Stanford University and Lawrenceville School, and the Biltmore Estate in North Carolina. The editors intend to accompany this volume with a CD-ROM of the plans published in the volume and other plans and sketches. LA LANDSCAFE landscape ARCHITECTURE architecture LAND FOUNDATION ASLA MAGAZINE 636 Eye Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001-3736 Telephone: 202-898-2444 Fax: 202-898-1185 32003 American Society of Landscape Architects. All Rights Reserved. http://www.asla.org/nonmembers/lam/november01/olmstedpapers.htm 6/13/2008 C UNITED STATES o DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR P Y NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ACADIA NATIONAL PARK BAR HARBOR, MAINE December 30, 1935 Dear Serenus, I have been interested from the beginning in Mr. Rockefoller's plan for the extension of his horse-road system into the Bar Harbor area, in- corporating into it my old Hemlock Road along the mountain foot with its primeval trees, unique upon the Island now except for the similar group at the northern foot of Newport Mountain where Bear Brook comes down, to a hitching ground at Sieur de Monts Spring, and thence to the summit of Great Meadow Hill, with its wide, sweeping views, to terminate. When the suggestion of taking it there was made five years ago, I showed Mr. Olmsted, skep- tical at first as to the possibility of reaching it with easy grade, how -- and how alone -- it could be done, starting from the wooded valley beyond the meadow to the north whose trees escaped the fire that, starting on the meadow, swept the whole ridge else back in the eighteen-eighties; and rising thence along a hunters' trail of early days with which I was familiar. With the Park road on the meadow level, the only way to reach this starting point and keep the horse-road system separate was by circling the long slope that bounds the meadow on the south, under- passing on it three successive motor roads -- two town roads and the intended Park road -- and ex- cavating valleys where none exist to obtain the necessary depth for underpassing; and then by cutting out a way along the rocky hillside to the east, above the town road, to the starting point -- a circuitous and Bostly route. Thinking over how the change of the Park road to the town road's higher level, the Town consenting, would affect this plan, there came into my mind a path UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ACADIA NATIONAL PARK BAR HARBOR, MAINE Page 2. I planned many years ago, and built in part, from north to south across the meadow's eastern edge leading toward the Gorge and Spring alongside a channel that I dug to take the water from the Tarn and keep it separate from the winding brook across the open meadow that takes the water from the Spring. This path, laid out with reference to the beauty of the view approaching from Bar Harbor, extends in direct course to where the hitching ground for horses is proposed among the old maple trees bor- dering the Spring area and reached from the Hemlock Road. Going north, in the reverse direction, the line of the intended path heads directly into the high earth bank along whose top, with a steep drop of twenty feet or more to the meadow level, the town road runs as it makes its turn toward the south, providing the best opportunity that could be asked for an underpass, leading straight to the starting point for the ascent to the hill. When the thought came to me, I took the Federal Bureau of Roads engineer, Mr. Grossman, out and showed him the opportunity as I saw it. He acclaimed it at once as a solution of the problem that would eliminate all difficulties the former route presented, halve the distance to be travelled from the Spring to the start- ing point for the ascent, and, built at little cost across the level margin of the meadow, would save, he thought at first conjecture, some seventy-five or eighty thousand dollars at a minimum over the route that would be necessary with the motor road built upon the meadow level with the town road above. Should the Town consent to turn over to the Park its Harden Farm road from the old Harden Farm entrance on, this opportunity will be provided, but before any suggestion gets abroad of Mr. Rockefeller's intention to continue with his plan if he does so intend -- for reaching the summit of Great Meadow Hill, UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NATIONAL PARK SERVICE ACADIA NATIONAL PARK BAR HARBOR, MAINE Page 3. 1t would be wise that arrangement be made to acquire from Martin Roberts' heirs the tract they own upon the hill. The line between the property upon Great Meadow Hill which Mr. Rockefeller took over from me and this Roberts land lies directly along the course which any road to the summit must needs follow. Would it not be well to take the matter up with Mr. Rockefeller? Yours sincerely, (Sgd) GEORGE B. DORR. Mr. Serenus B. Rodick, Bar Harbor, Maine. to C. R Farabee. National Park Ranger Lantham, MD: Roberts Rinchart, 2003. In about 1910 four men began a labor of love What Happened to create the new bureau. They were J. Horace McFar- to the Second land (a respected horticulturist and urban planner); National Park? Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. (a noted Harvard-trained Three years after landscape architect and the son of the creator of New Yellowstone was created (1872), the country's York City's Central Park); Stephen T. Mather (whose second national park borax mining earned him millions and who became came into existence. Mackinac Island the first director of the National Park Service); and National Park, which Horace M. Albright (a graduate of the University of included a fort and was entrusted to the California who became the second director). Secretary of War, was Concerned about the proposed damming of set aside for the "health, Yosemite's Hetch Hetchy Valley for a supply of water comfort, pleasure, benefit and enjoyment of for San Francisco, McFarland in May 1910 suggested the people" in 1875. Located in northern Lake to the Secretary of the Interior that the national parks Huron, the 1,000-acre needed "general, intelligent and logical supervision." park was championed by Heeding the advice of his Secretary, President Michigan's Senator Thomas W. Ferry, who Howard Taft (in his comments to the Congress) ad- was born there. vocated that parks be preserved for the public's "edi- Indistinguishable from millions of other forested fication and recreation." acres in the Great Lakes Olmsted observed that the parks were in poor region, Mackinac Island lacked most of the condition and lacked coordinated leadership, sug- qualities that we gesting that they were "mixed up and rather ineffi- associate with a national park today. Not cient." To address his concern about the chaos, he surprisingly, it was toiled for at least five years crafting a statement of ceded back to the State of Michigan in 1895 when purpose as well as philosophical principles for the the army proposed to proposed park service. Olmsted's language was in- abandon the island's fort and leave the site corporated into the act that created the new agency without a caretaker. It is and was signed into law by President Wilson in 1916. now a state park. The enabling legislation provided for a Na- Besides Mackinac Island, there have been tional Park Service director at $4,500 annually, an as- more than sixty different sistant director at $2,500, a chief clerk at $2,000, a national park areas- encompassing draftsman at $1,800, a messenger at $600, and as approximately 290,000 many employees as needed, SO long as the cost for acres in twenty-eight states-that have been the new agency did not exceed $19,500. Congress added to and later appropriated $500,000 for operation of the existing removed from the thirty-seven areas. national park system for a variety of reasons. 39 Creating the National Park Service I 29.88 F 15/v.1 99-84 FAIRSTED HOME AND OFFICE OF FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site Volume 1 THE HOUSE Alterations FL Olmsted Sa Brookline Mass. Front Elevation of Bay Side Elevation of Bay Historic Structure Report LOCATION AND SETTING The Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site (NHS) is located at 99 Warren Street (at the corner of Warren and Dudley Streets) in Brookline, Massachusetts. The Town of Brookline is a diverse, densely populated suburb within the greater Boston metropolitan area (figs. 1-2). The Olmsted site lies in South Brookline, which is a pleasant residential neighborhood approximately 5 miles from downtown Boston. Within the area are significant open spaces, large estates, and the Brookline Reservoir. The Town Green National Register District borders the site on the south. An area adjacent to the site's southern boundary is protected by a conservation easement that effectively limits the possibility of impact on the site by development. 1 The Olmsted NHS consists of four structures-a 17-room house, an office wing, a barn, and a shed-and various fences situated on 1.76 acres of land. The house is connected to the office wing by a common wall on its north side. The barn is connected to the house by a lattice-enclosed breezeway. The property is planted and cultivated in the Olmsted tradition. When Olmsted purchased the estate in 1883, it consisted of a house and barn standing on a large plot in a sparsely developed neighborhood. He named his new home Fairsted, possibly after his ancestral home in England. 2 Olmsted soon began extensive plans to alter the house to accommodate his family and his work. This major period of alterations is described in detail in the Specifications for Clark House, written in 1883 by Olmsted's stepson John Charles Olmsted, and in the accompanying drawings and plans executed at that time. Thus began a long period of growth and change encompassing the house, the offices, and the various other structures that developed over the years at Fairsted. While these structural changes took place, the grounds at Fairsted were planted with trees and foliage that at times almost enveloped the house and offices. Fences were designed and built in a variety of types and materials. As the surrounding neighborhood developed, Fairsted remained secluded, almost hidden from the street, except for the famous spruce-pole arch by which it is readily identified on the corner of Warren and Dudley Streets. The structures and grounds have remained relatively intact and unchanged in character since the end of the historic period. Most alterations have occurred within the existing structure. 1 General Management Plan: Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site (Boston: Division of Planning and Design, North Atlantic Region, National Park Service, September 1983, amended 1987), p. 15. 2 Amy Millman, Historic Resource Study: Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site (Boston: Division of Planning and Design, North Atlantic Region, National Park Service, November 1982), p. 7. 3 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE Fairsted, the home and office complex of Frederick Law Olmsted, was designated a National Historic Landmark on May 23, 1963. 3 After purchase by the National Park Service in 1979, it became the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site (NHS). 4 These actions occurred because Frederick Law Olmsted is recognized as the founder and premier practitioner of the profession of landscape architecture in the United States. His accomplishments in the environmental field, park design, conservation, town planning, and landscape architecture have national and international significance. As a historical landscape, Fairsted is associated with the life and work of Olmsted, Sr., from 1883 to 1903, and with that of his family from 1904 to 1960. 5 Olmsted's work in Brookline is nationally significant. His Brookline office and firm are recognized by the American landscape architectural profession as the cornerstone of the profession. 6 The home and offices represent typical 19th-century buildings; their architectural significance lies mainly in their design evolution. The greatest overall significance of the Brookline site, however, is that it houses the Olmsted archives collection, which has the highest national and international significance. The collection consists of approximately 150,000 drawings and 63,000 prints and photographs dating back to 1860. It is used as a reference source by states, municipalities, and institutions for rehabilitating their existing landscapes, and is a unique resource for scholars of landscape architecture and urban park planning. 3 Feasibility/Suitability Study of the Frederick Law Olmsted Home and Office (Boston: North Atlantic Region, National Park Service, June 1978, revised 1979), pp. 9-11. 4 Historic American Buildings Survey, Fairsted (Frederick Law Olmsted N.H.S.), 15 sheets, 1982, p. 1.; also, details of the legislative history are contained in the Historic Resource Study, Appendix A. 5 NPS memorandum, Superintendent, Longfellow NHS to Regional Director, NAR, May 5, 1987. 6 Feasibility/Suitability Study, pp. 9-11. 7 Feasibility/Suitability Study. 4 CAMBRIDGE Turnpike Mass ( -90) CHARLES RIVER BOSTON Avenu® BRIGHTON KENMORE COOLIDGE SQUARE CORNER Beacon CLEVELAND CIRCLE BROOKLINE VILLAGE Street BOSTON Brookline Boylston Reservoir Olmsted Site BROOKLINE Walnut RES. Dudley St Fairmount St Olmsted N st Site 0 1/2 1 2 miles Figure 2. Vicinity map, showing location of Frederick Law Olmsted NHS in the town of Brookline, MA. 14 PURCHASE OF THE PROPERTY BY OLMSTED The first documented structure on the corner lot between Warren and Dudley Streets in Brookline belonged to Dudley Boylston who settled there in 1722. In 1748 the farm descended to Dudley's son, Joshua. When Joshua Boylston died, his estate went to his daughter, Rebecca, who married Joshua Clark in 1810. The old Boylston house was taken down and a new house built for the newly wed couple. Just before completion, the structure caught fire and burned to the ground. A new house was built and passed down to the Clarks' daughters, who lived there until 1883, when it was purchased by Frederick Law Olmsted. When Olmsted first saw the property, it had much to offer in the way of comfort and serenity-hilly terrain, shade and fruit trees, and a comfortable house-in a setting of rocky outcroppings, pastures, woodland and ponds. Nearby farmsteads were set widely apart on narrow, winding steep streets and lanes. "2 Impressed with the property, as well as the town and its location, Olmsted was ready to buy. Because the Clark sisters were unwilling to sell and leave their ancestral home, an acceptable agreement had to be devised. Olmsted's stepson, John Charles Olmsted, persuaded the sisters to sell the estate in exchange for a cottage (which Olmsted would build), in which they could live rent-free for the rest of their lives. John Charles drew up the plans for the new cottage, which had many similarities to the homestead they had given up. Olmsted was thus able to buy the Clark estate, consisting of the house, barn, and grounds. He named it Fairsted, probably after the Olmsted ancestral home in England, 3 and began making a series of changes to the property that continued until his death in 1903. 1 Amy Millman, Historic Resource Study: Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site (Boston: Division of Planning and Design, North Atlantic Region, National Park Service, November 1982), p. 6. 2 See Millman, p. 6. As observed by Arthur A. Shurcliff, during the summer of 1873 when his family was renting the Clark house. Shurcliff joined the Olmsted firm in 1883. 3 Millman, p. 7. 17 THE WORK OF FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED Frederick Law Olmsted, widely recognized as the father of landscape architecture in America, was born in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1822, when America was still a predominantly rural nation.4 A love of nature and the pastoral landscape inspired Olmsted's thinking as his career developed in a rapidly industrializing nation. Influenced by a European public-park tradition, he created designs for such great urban parks as New York's Central Park, designed with Calvert Vaux, and Morningside and Riverside Parks, also in New York. He was instrumental in the creation of the City of Boston's Park System, which includes Franklin Park, Arnold Arboretum, Fenway, the Fens, and the Charles River Embankment, to name a few. Olmsted's move to his home in Brookline in 1883 was made relatively late in his life, but it was here that he established " the professional office that expanded and perpetuated his ideals, philosophy, and influence on the American environment up to the present day." In a circa-1898 photograph, he is pictured standing near the northeast corner of his house at Fairsted (fig. 3). From his work evolved the Olmsted principles of design-scenery, suitability, sanitation, subordination, separation, and spaciousness, as outlined by Charles Beveridge, scholar and editor of the Olmsted Papers. 6 During the years when Frederick Law Olmsted lived at Fairsted, the offices and certain parts of the house functioned interchangeably. As recorded in a personal interview with his friend, architect H.H. Richardson: Olmsted could not perform any piece of business without incorporating it into his personal life. His home was his office; his office was his home. 7 By the end of his life in 1903, Frederick Law Olmsted had designed parks throughout the country, numerous college and school campuses, arboretums, and institutional grounds; greatly influenced the creation of the National Park System; and firmly established the profession of landscape architecture in America. In 1898, because of deteriorating mental and physical health, Olmsted was moved to McLean Asylum in Waverly [now Belmont], Massachusetts, where he stayed until his death. Fittingly, the grounds at McLean were an Olmsted landscape. Mary Olmsted, Frederick's wife, continued to live in the house until 1930, modifying the house and expanding the servants' wing in 1910. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., a landscape architect, also lived at Fairsted for a number of years. 4 Interpretive Prospectus: Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site (Harpers Ferry, WV: Division of Interpretive Planning, Harpers Ferry Center, National Park Service, May 1986), p. 2. 5 Interpretive Prospectus, p. 2. 6 Lucinda A. Whitehill, Historic Grounds Report and Management Plan: Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site (Boston: North Atlantic Region, National Park Service, 1982), p. 5. 7 Interpretive Prospectus, p. 5. 18 THE WORK OF THE OLMSTED FIRM Most of Olmsted's work was accomplished prior to moving to Brookline; his working life there covered only about 10 years. 8 However, his firm continued operation at Fairsted long after his death. A year after moving into Fairsted, Olmsted formed a partnership with his stepson, John Charles Olmsted, under the name of F.L. and J.C. Olmsted. 9 John Charles became the mainstay of the office in Brookline, while Olmsted traveled. Other members of this early firm were Charles Eliot, Arthur Shurcliff, and Henry Sargent (Harry) Codman. A new partnership, F.L. Olmsted and Co., succeeded F.L. and J.C. Olmsted in 1889. The new firm included Harry Codman as partner, in addition to Frederick, Sr., and John. After Codman's death in 1893, Charles Eliot returned to the Olmsted firm as a partner; the firm's name was then changed to Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot. During this period a number of assistants and draftsmen worked in the office. Some left to start their own firms, while a number became principals of the Olmsted firm in later years. Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., joined the firm in 1896, and he and John Charles took charge of the company at that time. In 1898, the year that Olmsted was moved to the McLean Asylum, the firm's name was changed to Olmsted Brothers. It retained this name for the next 63 years, while adding 10 more partners. In 1920 John Charles Olmsted died. Frederick, Jr., was now the sole owner of the business, although he kept the name of Olmsted Brothers. Artemas Richardson joined the firm in 1948, becoming a partner in 1949. Joseph Hudak joined in 1953 and became a partner in 1955. Business declined during the 1950's, but the continuity of the Olmsted firm still held great importance. Upon Frederick's death in 1957, the remaining partners changed the firm's name to Olmsted Associates. By 1962 Artemas Richardson and Joseph Hudak were co-partners; Richardson bought Hudak's share in 1964, renamed the office Olmsted Associates, Inc., and placed the property in his wife's name. Hudak left the firm in 1979; Richardson changed the firm's name to the Olmsted Office in 1979. That same year the title was transferred to the National Park Service, which has assumed full management responsibility. 8 Feasibility/Suitability Study of the Frederick Law Oimsted Home and Office (Boston: North Atlantic Region, National Park Service, June 1978, revised 1979), p. 10. 9 Millman, p. 11. 19 DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROPERTY House The architectural history of the house at Fairsted can be separated into three basic periods: the Clark period (1810-1883), about which little is known; the period of major Olmsted alterations (1883-1910); and later changes (1964-1979). Fairsted was the Olmsted family home from 1883 until 1930. It then was conveyed to the Olmsted firm, but the Olmsted family connection remained intact, since Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., continued to live there. The house was subsequently rented by the firm to a succession of other tenants. Except for the North Parlor, which continued in use as part of the office, the house functioned solely as a private dwelling place. In 1963 Joseph Hudak, a partner in the firm, rented the house. It was purchased the next year by Hudak's partner, Artemas Richardson, by then the sole owner of the firm and the property. After that time, the entire house-including the North Parlor-was used exclusively as the Richardson family home. 10 Offices The architectural history of the offices is shorter and more intensive, due to a period of rapid construction and expansion occurring between 1887 and 1925. When Olmsted moved into the house in 1883 he established his office in the North Parlor, which was thereafter known as the "Front Office." The North Entry was created at this time by filling in the exterior space between the North Parlor and the Dining Room. In 1887 the North Parlor was expanded 7 feet northward. 11 A one-story Clerical Department was built in 1890; the North Entry was closed and a new Front Entry for the office was constructed. In 1891 a one-story North Drafting Wing was constructed. A two-story Planting Department was built in 1900-1901, and the first story (two interior levels) of the Plans Vault was erected in 1902. In 1911, the North Drafting wing had its roof raised and a second story was added. Second stories also were added to the Plans Vault in 1912 and to the Clerical Department in 1925. The office complex also included a Rear Entry. As stated above, the North Parlor ceased to be used as an office in 1964. 10 Millman, p. 105. 11 Andrea M. Gilmore, "Chronology of Building Construction and Alterations, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site" (CRC files), 1987. 20