Plans and Views of Public Parks

EditEd by Ch a r lEs E. bEv Er idgE, l aur En MEiEr, a nd ir EnE Mill s

 Frederick  Law  OLmsted

FREDERICK LAW OLMSTEDPlans and Views of Public Parks edited by Charles E. Beveridge, Lauren Meier, and Irene Mills

Frederick Law Olmsted, c. 1890 Courtesy of the National Park Service, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site

A superb visual overview of the major public parks designed by the foremost landscape architect in American history

Lavishly illustrated with over 470 images—129 of them in color—this book reveals Frederick Law Olmsted’s design concepts for more than seventy public park projects through a rich collection of sketches, studies, lithographs, paintings, historical photographs, and comprehensive descriptions. Bringing together Olmsted’s most significant parks, parkways, park systems, and scenic reservations, this gorgeous volume takes readers on a uniquely conceived tour of such notable landscapes as Central Park, Prospect Park, the Buffalo Park and Parkway System, Washington Park and Jackson Park in Chicago, Boston’s “Emerald Necklace,” and Mount Royal in Montreal, Quebec. No such guide to Olmsted’s parks has ever been published.

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903) planned many parks and park systems across the United States, leaving an enduring legacy of designed public space that is enjoyed and defended today. His public parks, the design of which he was most proud, have had a lasting effect on urban America.

Lake Erie from The Front, from Centennial Exhibition Exhibit, Watercolor ©Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, used by permission

FREDERICK LAW OLMSTEDPlans and Views of Public Parks edited by Charles E. Beveridge, Lauren Meier, and Irene Mills

516 165

“Bird’s Eye View of the City of San Francisco and Surrounding Country,” 1868 Artist after George Henry Goddard, Printed by Britton & Rey, Published by Snow & Roos Toned lithograph with applied watercolor, 28 x 41 inches 1702.104

Courtesy of the Amon Carter Museum of American Art

The diagonal street separating the two major street grids of the city is Market Street. The headland and line of hills to the left of the farther end of Market Street are in the vicinity of Van Ness Avenue. The area to the left of the nearer end of Market Street is the approximate area proposed for the small park-feature of Olmsted’s plan.

74 Brook ly n, n e w yor k

PROSPECT PARK

PlansProspect Park in Brooklyn, New York, offers the most significant instance of choice of a park site by Olmsted and his partners. The City of Brooklyn had originally chosen a site that included the high land and reservoir on “Mount Prospect” on the east side of Flatbush Avenue, along with a large tract on the other side of the avenue. In 1861 a plan for this site was prepared by the topographi-cal engineer Egbert Viele, the same man whose plan for Central Park in Manhattan of 1856 had been adopted by one park board only to be rejected by its successor and replaced by the Green-sward plan of Olmsted and Vaux. While Olmsted was in California during 1863–65, Vaux convinced officials in Brooklyn to move the entire Prospect Park site to the west side of Flatbush Avenue and expand its area to include what became the Long Meadow and Prospect Lake. The oval area for the plaza at the northern entrance of the park was also included in this expansion. Then, in 1865, the Brooklyn park commissioners selected Vaux and Olmsted to prepare a plan for the 650-acre site. Olmsted directed construction of the park beginning in the summer of 1866. He and Vaux received strong and consistent support of their work from the president of the park board, James S. T. Stranahan. After several years of work, Olmsted was pleased to report to Stranahan that a large part of the park was “thoroughly delightful and I am prouder of it than of anything that I have had to do with.”1

1. Frederick Law Olmsted to James S. T. Stranahan, n.d. (c. 1882)

4.1. Olmsted, Vaux & Co., Plan for Prospect Park, 1871

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75prospe ct pa r k

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75prospe ct pa r k

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Courtesy of the National Park Service, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments ix

Introduction xiii

1. new york City, new york

Central Park 2

Tompkins Square 54

Union Square 55

Riverside Park 56

Morningside Park 61

2. San franCiSCo, California

Pleasure Grounds System 66

3. yoSemite Valley and maripoSa Big tree groVe, California

Reservation 71

4. Brooklyn, new york

Prospect Park 74

Fort Greene Park 111

Tompkins Park 113

Brooklyn Parkways 115

5. Bridgeport, ConneCtiCut

Seaside Park 120

Beardsley Park 121

6. newark, new JerSey

Proposed Park 124

7. alBany, new york

Proposed Park System 126

8. philadelphia, pennSylVania

Fairmount Park 128

9. new Britain, ConneCtiCut

Walnut Hill Park 130

10. Buffalo, new york

Park System, 1870s 132

Parkways 135

Niagara Square 139

The Park (Delaware Park) 141

The Front 146

The Parade 148

Later Extensions and Alterations 150

South Park, 1888 (Proposed) 152

Southside Park System, 1890s 160

11. fall riVer, maSSaChuSettS

South Park 165

12. hartford, ConneCtiCut

System of Public Grounds 169

13. ChiCago, illinoiS

South Park — The Era of 1871–1893 172

The World’s Columbian Exposition of 1893 — The Lagoon and Wooded Island 178

Post-Exposition Redesign and Construction of Jackson Park 184

Washington Park, Post-1893 196

The Midway Plaisance 198

Boulevards 202

14. amherSt, maSSaChuSettS

Town Common 205

15. Baltimore, maryland

Mount Vernon Square 207

16. montreal, QueBeC

Mount Royal 212

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“Washington Park, Chicago, view northwest across meadow,” Chicago History Museum

17. detroit, miChigan

Belle Isle 221

18. north eaSton, maSSaChuSettS

Memorial Cairn 227

19. BoSton, maSSaChuSettS

The Park System 232

Commonwealth Avenue 234

The Back Bay Fens 238

Muddy River Sanitary Improvement, Brookline and Boston 246

Olmsted Park, Boston and Brookline 256

Jamaica Pond and Environs, Boston 261

The Arborway 264

The Arnold Arboretum 266

Franklin Park 268

Franklin Field 294

Parkways from Franklin Park to Marine Park 296

Marine Park 300

Boston Harbor Islands Proposal 303

Charlesbank 306

Wood Island Park 310

Charlestown Heights 312

Charlestown Playground 315

20. new london, ConneCtiCut

Memorial Park 317

21. St. Catharine’S, ontario

Montebello Park 321

22. niagara fallS, new york

Niagara Reservation 323

23. pawtuCket, rhode iSland

Public Recreation Grounds (Proposed) 332

24. wilmington, delaware

Kentmere Parkway 334

25. trenton, new JerSey

Cadwalader Park 337

26. roCheSter, new york

Park System 342

Genesee Valley Park 344

Highland Park 353

Seneca Park 356

27. louiSVille, kentuCky

Park System 361

Cherokee Park 362

Iroquois Park 370

Shawnee Park 374

Louisville Parkways 376

Louisville Squares and Places 380

28. kanSaS City, miSSouri

Eleventh Street Parkway and Park System (Proposed) 388

29. milwaukee, wiSConSin

Park System 392

West Park 392

River Park 393

Lake Park 394

30. newBurgh, new york

Downing Park 396

31. newport, rhode iSland

Morton Park 400

List of Illustrations 403

List of Repositories 423

General Index 425

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“Washington Park with children,” W. T. Barnum from Barnum & Barnum, vol.3, #523 Chicago History Museum

press.jhu.edu

“Jackson Park, Planting Plan along portion of Stony Island Avenue,” Sept. 20, 1895 Olmsted, Olmsted and Eliot Plan no. 1902-92 Courtesy of the National Park Service, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site

FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED: Plans and Views of Public Parks edited by Charles E. Beveridge, Lauren Meier, and Irene Mills

Charles E. Beveridge is the series editor of The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted. Lauren Meier is the associate editor and Irene Mills is the assistant editor for this volume.

Publication date: April 2015

11 x 11, 480 pp., 129 color illustrations, 348 b&w illustrations

978-1-4214-1086-9 $74.95 / £48.50 hardcover

Praise for The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted“A major contribution to American letters, an important step in the documentation of this American genius.”—Smithsonian

“Once again, the editors of the Olmsted Papers have collected a treasure ripe for looting.”—Journal of American History

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