Frederick Law Olmstead was the subject of Kathleen Blake’s program for the Six & Twenty Club on Friday, May 26. She hosted the meeting at Charlie’s Place adjacent to The Murphy Theatre.
Due to an eye ailment, Olmstead had to drop out of Yale in 1837, and for the next two decades, devoted himself to a wide array of endeavors, working as a farmer, as an editor and publisher, an abolitionist, and correspondent who documented conditions throughout the south for the New York Daily Times, and as an apprentice seaman sailing to China and back. The urbanization he witnessed on the road along with his interest in rural issues and visits to England’s Birkenhead Park proved influential in his career path.
Olmstead’s design for Central Park was one of 33 submissions considered and was notable for both its formed and naturalistic settings with architectural flourishes and ornate bridges that circulated traffic through the park. It brought the country into the city, and was a triumph of invention and design, construction, social philosophy, and landscape art. Olmstead was a visionary who helped shape American progress. He believed fresh air and nature, trees, water, greens and sky, were health-giving and that a park could contribute enormously to the well-being of the working class. Olmstead was appointed Chief Architect and Superintendent of Construction in 1857. His design initiated the field of landscape architecture, with Olmsted as its father, and inspired the invention and construction of parks across North America.
At President Lincoln’s request, Olmstead served as the executive secretary of the US Sanitary Commission, a precursor of the Red Cross. By the Battle of Gettysburg, the Sanitary Commission emerged as the largest charity ever created in the United States. He also served as general manager of The Mariposa Company, a mining operation in northern California during California’s Gold Rush. Seeing Yosemite, its rock formations and giant Sequoias in person resembled nothing he had ever viewed.
At the urging of Olmstead and others, a California US Senator presented a draft bill calling for the protection of the Yosemite Valley. That bill passed both the Houses of Congress and President Lincoln affixed his signature. California’s governor immediately formed a board of six men with Olmstead at its head. For the ensuing 11 months, Olmstead prepared a scheme of management for Yosemite which he wrote to his father “is by far the noblest public park or pleasure ground in the world.” Olmstead’s work had a profound and national impact, providing the foundation for the National Parks movement.
In 1865, Olmstead and family sailed back to New York via Panama. The 43-year-old Olmstead finally devoted himself to his career as a Landscape Architect. He designed Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, and dozens of others but none were as revolutionary as Central Park. He struggled for years to protect Niagara Falls and its surroundings. In 1874, Olmstead was commissioned to oversee and design the original 58-acre US Capitol Grounds. He also designed diverse recreation areas, college campuses such as Amherst, Vassar and Cornell, urban and suburban areas, planned communities, cemeteries, railroad depots, Pittsburgh’s Andrew Carnegie Library and specialized landscape for arboretums and expositions. He is responsible for the design of The Biltmore Hotel’s landscape in Ashville NC.
With son Frederick Jr., Olmstead not only mentored new college graduates but created the courses needed for landscape architecture degrees and helped birth the new profession of city planner as towns and cities across the US developed comprehensive plans.
The afternoon concluded with coffee, tea and raspberry lemonade and New York’s famed black and white cookies with assorted macarons.
