: 1 Pray, James Sturgis PRAY, SURVEY FOR CITY PLANNING THE SURVEY FOR A CITY PLAN James Sturgis Pray Landscape Architecture (October 1914):5-14 A native of Boston and a graduate of Harvard in 1898, Pray (1871-1929) became an apprentice and assistant in the Olmsted Brothers firm of landscape architects from 1898 to 1903. In 1904 he began his own practice, and in 1906 joined with two colleagues to form the firm of Pray, Hubbard & White that continued until 1918. During these early years, Pray also taught in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard beginning in 1902, first as an assistant, then as an instructor (1903-05) and assistant professor (1905-1915). In 1908 he succeeded Frederick Law Olmsted as Chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture. Although Olmsted had included instruction in city planning in his courses, Pray in 1909 inaugurated the first course devoted entirely to this subject, and he let it be known that Harvard offered city planning as a specialization within the landscape architecture degree program. In 1915 he became the Charles Eliot Professor of Landscape Architecture in what two years earlier had become a separate graduate school. Pray's activities beyond the Harvard walls were numerous and varied. He served as president of the American Society of Landscape Architects from 1915 to 1920, and he helped to establish a fellowship in landscape architecture at the American Academy in Rome. He had a deep interest in nature and the preservation of natural resources, edited the publication of the Massachusetts Forestry Association, became councillor of improvements of the Appalachian Mountain Club, and chaired the committee on forestry and roadside improvement of the Massachusetts Horticultural Society. Pray's professional memberships included the American Forestry Association, International Garden Cities and Town Planning Association, the British Town Planning Institute, American Civic Association, and the American City Planning Institute of which he was one of the 52 founding members in 1917. Randolph Mountain Club - Newsletters - Summer 2005 - The Life of a Path Page 1 of 2 RMC Newsletter - Summer 2005 RMC "We are all familiar with the typical history of a trail that has been long established: the first stage, the virgin area unaffected by man either for worse or for better; the second, HOME PAGE a raw and ugly state, the direct effect of man's practical work on construction in the clearing and building of the way; the third, in which the floor of the trail itself has ABOUT THE RMC improved underfoot by human use both in comfort and in appearance and nature has R MC healed the wounds and restored the beauty of the walls; and, finally, the fourth, where the trail has either suffered in appearance from excessive use or wrong use, or has, despite the use that has been made of it, either by grace of favoring natural TRAILS INFO circumstances or by human care and maintenance, gone on improving in appearance, ripening and mellowing with the years till it realizes a perfect blending of the man-made trail with its natural setting." SHELTERS INFO -- James Sturgis Pray, "Beauty in Trails," New England Trail Conference, 1923. The Life of a Path MOUNTAIN JOBS By Doug Mayer JOIN THE CLUB Reading these words this past winter, and despite language painfully stilted to my contemporary ear, I felt an immediate connection. Here, buried in an eighty-plus-year-ol-old address to a now-defunct trails STUFF WE SELL organization, was a remarkably cogent summary of both the life of a trail, and the fundamental tenets of good trail work. NEWSLETTERS Whether we acknowledge it or not, our RMC paths have lives of their own. Most of the time, we don't recognize it because their spans are Presidents' Letters longer than our time spent in their company. Judy Hudson's trails history Committee Reports in this newsletter, however, reminds us how fluid and ever-changing are Trivia Questions those permanent-looking lines on the map. RMC History Trails Articles We can each think of a favorite path in one of Pray's stages of the life of Camps Articles Other Articles a trail, whether the newly-cut Four Soldiers or Underhill Paths, the long- healed and little-eroded Cliffway, or the Randolph Path, where ages old, EN FRANCAIS brilliant trail work has realized Pray's "perfect blending.' Elsewhere, in between those solid lines on today's RMC map, are paths that have long since passed from the scene. MULTIMEDIA Reaching, then maintaining, that last stage of "perfect blending of the man-made trail with its natural setting" is the work of our trail workers, MESSAGE BOARD both volunteer and paid. Behind them, as they carry out their tasks, is the backing of RMC's members and friends. CONTACT US The requisite first step in trail maintenance is the protection of the terrain: building rock steps, waterbars, bog bridges and ditching to keep our SITE MAP paths from literally washing away into the Moose or Israel rivers. MC But, Pray points out the key distinction between serviceable trail work and masterful trail work, which http://www.randolphmountainclub.org/newsletters/summer2005/article6.html 2/13/2008 Randolph Mountain Club - Newsletters - - Summer 2005 - The Life of a Path Page 2 of 2 blends with the natural setting. None of us heads to the Kelton Trail, Amphibrach or Bee Line to see a great, stone staircase or recently-axed blowdown. Great trail work, like any noble employee, does its job in an understated way. It allows the beauty of the woods to, as Pray says, "endure under conditions of right use by an increasing number of men, women and children" (could Pray have had any inkling how unerringly true those words would ring eight decades later?). The New England mountain classic Forest and Crag quotes a "young admirer" of Pray's named Benton MacKaye as saying he, "was 'a pioneer in keeping improvements out of wilderness" (italics in original)." MacKaye's name might be a familiar one to readers -- he later went on to become the father of the Appalachian Trail. Pray and RMC shared another understanding. He observed that "the trail is peculiarly a type of traffic-way for which 'getting you there' is often, or should often be, not the primary but only a secondary purpose. Its primary object should often be to give us pleasure, refreshment, heart's joy and inspiration. In other words, it's the trip that matters more than the destination. And, perhaps nowhere else in the White Mountains are there such an abundance of paths where it's the journey, and not the destination, that matters. The 1917 AMC White Mountain Guide description of Cascade Ravine still holds for many of Randolph's paths today: " the pleasure paths still exist in the virgin forest These paths disclose beautiful cascades and fine outlooks, but a particular description is needless, as the visitor will prefer to explore them himself. The forest, except for the making of the paths, is untouched by the axe." Randolph and James Sturgis Pray shared a connection more concrete than just the ethics of trail work. He became an energetic assistant of Louis Cutter, who was AMC Councilor of Improvements from 1902-1904 -- a time when Cutter was busily advocating and implementing the connection of various White Mountain trail networks. Pray knew what he was talking about. As Chairman of the Harvard School of Landscape Architecture and one of the pioneers of Landscape Architecture, he was a keen observer of trail aesthetics. His own trip ended February 22, 1929, but his observations along the way are as relevant today as they were more than 70 years ago. Thanks to RMC member David Govatski of Jefferson, for inspiring this article. http://www.randolphmountainclub.org/newsletters/summer2005/article6.htm 2/13/2008