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A superb visual overview of the major public parks designed by the foremost landscape architect in American history from Johns Hopkins University Press.
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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
Olmsted SS2Second revised pages 9/24/14
page 74
75prospe ct pa r k
Olmsted SS2Second revised pages 9/24/14
page 75
75prospe ct pa r k
Olmsted SS2Second revised pages 9/24/14
page 75
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
Olmsted SS2Second revised pages 9/24/14
page vii
“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
Olmsted SS2Second revised pages 9/24/14
page viii
“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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410.516.6951 [email protected]
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