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Frederick Law Olmsted
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Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American journalist, landscape designer and father of American landscape architecture, famous for designing many well-known urban parks, including Central Park and Prospect Park in New York City. Other projects include the country's oldest coordinated system of public parks and parkways in Buffalo, New York; the country's oldest state park, the Niagara Reservation in Niagara Falls, New York; Mount Royal Park in Montreal in Canada; the Emerald Necklace in Boston, Massachusetts; the Belle Isle Park, in Detroit, Michigan; the in Marquette, Michigan; the Marquette Park in Chicago; the Grand Necklace of Parks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the Cherokee Park and entire parks and parkway system in Louisville, Kentucky; Jackson Park, Washington Park, and the Midway Plaisance in Chicago for the World's Columbian Exposition; the landscape surrounding the United States Capitol building; George Washington Vanderbilt II's Biltmore Estate in Asheville; and Montebello Park in St.
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Frederick Law Olmsted (April 26, 1822 – August 28, 1903) was an American journalist, landscape designer and father of American landscape architecture, famous for designing many well-known urban parks, including Central Park and Prospect Park in New York City. Other projects include the country's oldest coordinated system of public parks and parkways in Buffalo, New York; the country's oldest state park, the Niagara Reservation in Niagara Falls, New York; Mount Royal Park in Montreal in Canada; the Emerald Necklace in Boston, Massachusetts; the Belle Isle Park, in Detroit, Michigan; the in Marquette, Michigan; the Marquette Park in Chicago; the Grand Necklace of Parks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the Cherokee Park and entire parks and parkway system in Louisville, Kentucky; Jackson Park, Washington Park, and the Midway Plaisance in Chicago for the World's Columbian Exposition; the landscape surrounding the United States Capitol building; George Washington Vanderbilt II's Biltmore Estate in Asheville; and Montebello Park in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada.
Biography
Early life and education
Olmsted was born in Hartford, Connecticut in 1822. His father, John Olmsted, a prosperous merchant, took a lively interest in nature, people, and places, which was inherited by both Frederick Law and his younger brother, John Hull. His mother, Charlotte Law (Hull) Olmsted, died when he was scarcely four years old. His father remarried in 1827 to Mary Ann Bull, who shared her husband's strong love of nature and had perhaps a more cultivated taste.
When the young Olmsted was almost ready to enter Yale College, as a graduate of Phillips Academy in 1838, sumac poisoning weakened his eyes and he gave up college plans. After working as a seaman, merchant, and journalist, in January 1848 Olmsted settled on a farm on the south shore of Staten Island which his father helped him acquire. This farm, originally named the Akerly Homestead, was renamed Tosomock Farm by Olmsted. It was later renamed "The Woods of Arden" by owner Erastus Wiman. (The house in which Olmsted lived still stands today at 4515 Hylan Blvd, near Woods of Arden Road.)
Career
Olmsted had a significant career in journalism. In 1850, he traveled to England to visit public gardens, where he was greatly impressed by Joseph Paxton's Birkenhead Park. He subsequently wrote and published Walks and Talks of an American Farmer in England in 1852. This supported his getting additional work.
Interested in the slave economy, he was commissioned by the New York Daily Times (now The New York Times) to embark on an extensive research journey through the American South and Texas from 1852 to 1857. From the Texas trip, Olmsted wrote his narrative account published as A Journey Through Texas (1857). It was recognized as the work of an astute observer of the land and lifestyles of Texas. Olmsted believed that slavery was not only morally odious, but expensive and economically inefficient.
His dispatches to the Times were collected into multiple volumes which remain vivid first-person social documents of the pre-war South. The last of these, Journeys and Explorations in the Cotton Kingdom (1861), was published during the first six months of the American Civil War. It helped inform and galvanize antislavery sentiment in the Northeast. These three volumes were later condensed and edited as a single volume.
In 1865, Olmsted cofounded the magazine The Nation.
Marriage and family
On June 13, 1859, Olmsted married Mary Cleveland (Perkins) Olmsted, the widow of his brother John (who had died in 1857). He adopted her three sons (his nephews), among them John Charles Olmsted. Frederick and Mary had two children together who survived infancy: a daughter and a son Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.
New York City's Central Park
Andrew Jackson Downing, the charismatic landscape architect from Newburgh, New York, first proposed the development of New York's Central Park in his role as publisher of The Horticulturist magazine. A friend and mentor to Olmsted, Downing introduced him to the English-born architect Calvert Vaux. Downing had brought Vaux from England as his architect collaborator. After Downing died in July 1852, in a widely publicized steamboat explosion on the Hudson River, Olmsted and Vaux entered the Central Park design competition together.
They were announced as winners in 1858. On his return from the South, Olmsted began executing their plan almost immediately. Olmsted and Vaux continued their informal partnership to design Prospect Park in Brooklyn from 1865 to 1873. That was followed by other projects. Vaux remained in the shadow of Olmsted's grand public personality and social connections.
The design of Central Park embodies Olmsted's social consciousness and commitment to egalitarian ideals. Influenced by Downing and his own observations regarding social class in England, China and the American South, Olmsted believed that the common green space must always be equally accessible to all citizens. This principle is now fundamental to the idea of a "public park", but was not assumed as necessary then. Olmsted's tenure as park commissioner in New York was a long struggle to preserve that idea.
Civil War
Olmsted took leave as director of Central Park to work as Executive Secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, a precursor to the Red Cross in Washington, D.C.. He tended to the wounded during the American Civil War. In 1862, during Union General George B. McClellan's Peninsula Campaign, Olmsted headed the medical effort for the sick and wounded at White House in New Kent County, where there was a ship landing on the Pamunkey River.
On the home front, Olmsted was one of the six founding members of the Union League Club of New York.
U.S. park designer
In 1863, he went west to become the manager of the Mariposa mining estate in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. For his early work in Yosemite Valley, Olmsted Point near Tenaya Lake is named after him.
In 1865 Vaux and Olmsted formed Olmsted, Vaux and Company. When Olmsted returned to New York, he and Vaux designed Prospect Park; suburban Chicago's Riverside; Buffalo, New York's park system; Milwaukee, Wisconsin's grand necklace of parks; and the Niagara Reservation at Niagara Falls.
Olmsted not only created numerous city parks around the country, he also conceived of entire systems of parks and interconnecting parkways to connect certain cities to green spaces. Two of the best examples of the scale on which Olmsted worked are the park system designed for Buffalo, New York, one of the largest projects; and the system he designed for Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
- For a list of Olmsted designed parks in Buffalo, New York, please see Buffalo, New York parks system.
Olmsted was a frequent collaborator with Henry Hobson Richardson, for whom he devised the landscaping schemes for half a dozen projects, including Richardson's commission for the Buffalo State Asylum.
In 1883 Olmsted established what is considered to be the first full-time landscape architecture firm in Brookline, Massachusetts. He called the home and office compound Fairsted. It is now the restored Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. From there Olmsted designed Boston's Emerald Necklace, the campuses of Stanford University and the University of Chicago, as well as the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, among many other projects.
Death and legacy
In 1895, senility forced Olmsted to retire. In 1898 he moved to Belmont, Massachusetts and took up residence as a patient at McLean Hospital, whose grounds he had designed several years before. He remained there until his death in 1903. He was buried in the Old North Cemetery, Hartford, Connecticut.
After Olmsted's retirement and death, his sons John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. continued the work of their firm, doing business as the Olmsted Brothers. The firm lasted until 1980.
A quotation from Olmsted's friend and colleague architect Daniel Burnham could serve as an epitaph. Referring to Olmsted in March, 1893, Burnham said, "An artist, he paints with lakes and wooded slopes; with lawns and banks and forest covered hills; with mountain sides and ocean views."
Academic campuses designed by Olmsted
Between 1857 and 1895, Olmsted designed numerous school and college campuses.
From 1895-1950, the Olmsted Brothers (his successors) added to some of their father's initial projects, as well as designing new ones. (See their article for projects.) Together, these works totaled 355. Some of the most famous of Frederick Law Omsted are listed here.
- American University Main Campus, Washington, DC
- Auburn University Main Campus, Auburn, AL
- Colgate University, Hamilton, New York
- Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (1867-73)
- Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. (1866)
- Groton School, Groton, Massachusetts
- Grove City College, Grove City, Pennsylvania
- Lawrenceville School, Lawrenceville, New Jersey (1883-1901)
- Manhattanville College, Purchase, New York
- Miami University, Oxford, Ohio (1912)
- Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan
- Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Massachusetts
- Noble and Greenough School, Dedham, Massachusetts
- Oregon State University, Corvallis, Oregon (1890ss)
- Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts (1891-1965)
- Pomfret School, Pomfret, Connecticut
- Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, Connecticut
- Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts (1891-1909)
- St. Joseph Hill Academy, Staten Island, New York
- Stanford University, Palo Alto, California (1886-1914)
- Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut (1872-94)
- University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California (1865)
- University of Rochester, Rochester, New York
- Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri (1865-99)
- Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts
- Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (1874-81)
Other notable Olmsted commissions
ABC
- Arnold Arboretum, Boston, Massachusetts
- Back Bay Fens, Arborway and Riverway, Boston, Massachusetts
- Beardsley Park, Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1884
- Belle Isle, Detroit, Michigan, landscaped in the 1880s
- Biltmore Estate grounds, Asheville, North Carolina
- Branch Brook Park, Newark, New Jersey, 1900 redesign
- Brandywine Park, Wilmington, Delaware, 1886
- Brookdale Park, Bloomfield & Montclair, New Jersey built 1928–1931
- Buffalo, New York parks system
- Buttonwood Park, New Bedford, Massachusetts
- Cadwalader Park, Trenton, New Jersey
- Carroll Park, Bay City, Michigan
- Central Park, Manhattan, New York City, 1853 (opened in 1856)
- Cherokee Park, Louisville, Kentucky
- Civic Center Park, Denver, Colorado
- Congress Park, Saratoga Springs, New York
- Cushing Island, Maine
- Hubbard Park, Meriden, Connecticut
DEF
- Deering Oaks, Portland, ME
- Downing Park, Newburgh, New York
- Druid Hills, Georgia
- Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, Maryland
- Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn, New York
- Elm Park, Worcester, Massachusetts, perhaps one of his first projects
- Elmwood Cemetery, Detroit, Michigan
- Fairmount Park, Riverside, California
- Florham, former estate of Hamilton and Florence (Vanderbilt) Twombly. Now the campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University, Florham Park, New Jersey
- Forest Park, Queens, New York
- Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn, New York
- Fort Tryon Park, New York City
- Franklin Park, Boston, Massachusetts
GHI
- Genesee Valley Park, Rochester, New York
- George Ward Park, Birmingham, Alabama
- Glen Magna Farms, Danvers, Massachusetts
- Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, New York
- Highland Park, Rochester, New York
- Hubbard Park, Meriden, Connecticut,
- Humboldt Park, Chicago, Illinois
- The Institute of Living, Hartford, Connecticut, 1860s
JKL
- Jackson Park, originally South Park, Chicago, Illinois
- Kykuit Gardens, Rockefeller family estate, Westchester, New York, from 1897
- Lake Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition, Portland, Oregon
MNO
- Manor Park, Larchmont, New York
- Maplewood Park, Rochester, New York
- Montebello Park, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada
- Morningside Park, New York City
- Mount Royal Park, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, inaugurated in 1876
- Mountain View Cemetery, Oakland, California, dedicated in 1865
- Nay Aug Park, Scranton, Pennsylvania
- New York State Hospital for the Insane, Buffalo, New York
- Niagara Reservation (now Niagara Falls State Park), Niagara Falls, New York, dedicated in 1885
- North Park, Fall River, Massachusetts (1901)
- Ocean Parkway, Brooklyn, New York
PQRS
- various parks in Portland, Oregon
- Piedmont Ave, Berkeley, CA
- Pinehurst, NC, ground broken in 1895
- , Marquette, Michigan
- Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York, finished 1868
- Public Pleasure Grounds, San Francisco, California
- River Park (now Riverside Park), Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Riverside Drive, New York City
- Riverside Park, Manhattan, New York
- Village of Riverside, Riverside, Illinois
- Ruggles Park, Fall River, Massachusetts
- Seaside Park, Bridgeport, Connecticut, 1860s
- Seneca Park, Rochester, New York
- various parks in Seattle, Washington
- Shelburne Farms, Shelbourne, VT
- Smithsonian National Zoological Park, Washington, DC
- South Mountain Reservation, Essex County, New Jersey (done by successors, not by Olmsted senior)
- South Park, (now Kennedy Park), Fall River, Massachusetts
- Sudbrook Park, Baltimore, Maryland, 1889
TUV
- Tyler Park, Lowell, Massachusetts. Smallest park Olmsted and associates designed
- The Rockery, Easton, Massachusetts
- United States Capitol grounds, Washington D.C.
- Utah State Capitol grounds masterplan, Salt Lake City, Utah
- Thompson Park, Watertown NY
- Town of Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, 1895
- Vanderbilt Mausoleum, New York City
WXYZ
- Walnut Hill Park, New Britain, Connecticut
- Washington Park, Albany, New York
- West Park Zoological Gardens (now Washington Park), Milwaukee, Wisconsin
- Woodburn Circle, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia
- Wood Island Park, Boston, Massachusetts (taken by eminent domain in the 1960s to expand Logan International Airport).
- World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, Illinois, 1893
- World's End, formerly the John Brewer Estate, Hingham, Massachusetts, 1889
- Whitman Town Park, Whitman, Massachusetts, circa 1875
- Wright Brothers Hill Dayton, Ohio, 1938-1940
Olmsted in popular culture
In Erik Larson's The Devil in the White City, Olmsted is featured as one of the most important figures participating in the design of the 1893 Chicago World's Columbian Exposition. In the book, his personality and actions are given significant coverage. In addition, his importance in designing the fair is highlighted (e.g., his part in picking the geographic site and his bureaucratic involvement in planning the fair).
See also
External links
- , by Frederick Law Olmsted, 1857. Hosted by the .
- (1865)
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