A Clearing In The Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the 19th Cent

by Rybczynski, Witold

  “In what may be termed . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, December 25, 1877, FLOP.

  “beautiful thing in shingles”: Henry Hobson Richardson to Frederick Law Olmsted, February 6, 1883, FLOP.

  “to mix shrubs . . . ”: [Charles W. Eliot], Charles Eliot: Landscape Architect (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1902), 36.

  “Less wildness and disorder . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, September 12, 1884, FLOP.

  “I am to go about . . . ”: [Charles W. Eliot], Charles Eliot: Landscape Architect (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1902), 35.

  “influencing men of means . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, December 25, 1877, FLOP.

  “We put them to such work . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to George W. Curtis, August 22, 1891, FLOP.

  Chapter Fifty: The character of his business

  “You decidedly have the best . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Charles Loring Brace, November 1, 1884, FLOP.

  “Instead of being shocked . . . ”: Ibid.

  “I enjoyed Fred O’s letter, . . . ”: Frederick J. Kingsbury to Charles Loring Brace, January 10, 1885, FLOP.

  “I think it comes harder . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Charles Loring Brace, November 1, 1884, FLOP.

  “You are preaching truths . . . ”: Charles Eliot Norton to Frederick Law Olmsted, October 23, 1881, FLOP.

  “You are compelled to throw . . . ”: Ibid.

  “I keep working as close . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Charles Loring Brace, November 1, 1884, FLOP.

  no fewer than sixteen private estates . . .: Charles E. Beveridge and Carolyn F. Hoffman, The Master List of Design Projects of the Olmsted Firm 1857–1950 (Boston: National Association for Olmsted Parks, 1987).

  One of the few magazine articles . . .: Frederick Law Olmsted, “Plan for a Small Homestead,” Garden and Forest, May 2, 1888.

  “If what I advise . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Charles Follen McKim, December 24, 1883, FLOP.

  “where building seemed . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, May 30, 1884, FLOP.

  “I was ill treated . . . ”: Ibid.

  “Temple [a nurseryman] will . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, May 24, 1884, FLOP.

  “As the house was not . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John C. Phillips, September 27, 1881, FLOP.

  “proper summer lodge, . . . ”: Ibid.

  Chapter Fifty-One: The sixth park

  “should receive orders . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to the Park Commissioners of Boston, September 8, 1884, FLOP.

  “Eccentric and quaint”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, May 15, 1892, FLOP.

  “the usual characteristics . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted, “Notes on the Plan of Franklin Park and Related Matters,” The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, Supplementary Series, Vol. I, Writings on Public Parks, Parkways, and Park Systems, ed. Charles E. Beveridge and Carolyn F. Hoffman (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 473.

  “To sustain the designed character . . . ”: Ibid., 483–84.

  “without underwood, . . . ”: Ibid., 488.

  “cannot, therefore, be prepared . . . ”: Ibid., 484.

  “To provide opportunity . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted, “General Plan of Franklin Park,” Boston Parks and Recreation, Franklin Plan Master Plan 1991: Volume I, Master Plan Overview and Recommendations (Boston: Boston Parks and Recreation, 1991), 149.

  “there are some . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted, “Notes on the Plan of Franklin Park and Related Matters,” The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, Supplementary Series, Vol. I, Writings on Public Parks, Parkways, and Park Systems, ed. Charles E. Beveridge and Carolyn F. Hoffman (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 478.

  “The highest value of a park . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted, “Trees in Streets and in Parks,” The Sanitarian 10, September 1882: 517.

  “Let it not be . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted, “Notes on the Plan of Franklin Park and Related Matters,” The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, Supplementary Series, Vol. I, Writings on Public Parks, Parkways, and Park Systems, ed. Charles E. Beveridge and Carolyn F. Hoffman (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 524.

  Chapter Fifty-Two: Olmsted meets the Governor

  “His eyes were bloodshot, . . . ”: Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer, Henry Hobson Richardson and His Works (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1888), 118.

  “Eidlitz asked me . . . ”: Ibid., 119.

  “He passed away . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer, May 2, 1886, FLOP.

  He never had as much to do; . . . ”: Ibid.

  “The daylight part of the journey . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, September 23, 1886, FLOP.

  “There is not any word . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Charles W. Eliot, June 8, 1886, FLOP.

  “The site is settled . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, September 29, 1886, FLOP.

  “It was a high interest speculation, . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, October 9, 1886, FLOP.

  “our responsibility for the design . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to David Bennett Hill, July 21, 1886, FLOP.

  “I am sorry I don’t see . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, October 14, 1886, FLOP.

  “You write easily, . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Charles Eliot, October 28, 1886, FLOP.

  “If we are to look . . . ”: quoted in Paul V. Turner et al., The Founders and the Architects: The Design of Stamford University (Stamford, Calif.: Stamford University, 1976).

  “Mr. Olmsted and myself . . . ”: Ibid.

  “The very quietness and reserve . . . ”: Charles A. Coolidge to Frederick Law Olmsted, May 3, 1886, FLOP.

  “The Gov. replied . . . ”: Ibid.

  “There is a story . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer, May 17, 1887, FLOP.

  Chapter Fifty-Three: Olmsted and Vaux, together again

  “Mr. Vaux is a very good landscape architect . . . ”: Art Amateur 8, February 1883: 68.

  “He helped me . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer, May 17, 1887, FLOP.

  “He can’t take writing . . . ”: John Charles Olmsted to Calvert Vaux, February 22, 1887, FLOP.

  “the most difficult problem . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to James Terry Gardner, October 3, 1879, Gardner papers, New York State Library, Albany, N.Y.

  “incomparable greater beauty . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux, “General Plan for the Improvement of the Niagara Reservation,” The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, Supplementary Series, Vol. I, Writings on Public Parks, Parkways, and Park Systems, ed. Charles E. Beveridge and Carolyn F. Hoffman (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 551.

  “We are far from thinking . . . ”: Ibid., 542.

  Vaux’s biographer, . . .: Francis R. Kowsky, Country, Park, & City: The Architecture and Life of Calvert Vaux (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 306.

  “I am too old a man . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Leland Stanford, August 7, 1890, FLOP.

  “We are gradually improving . . . ”: Leland Stanford to Frederick Law Olmsted, November 9, 1891, FLOP.

  Chapter Fifty-Four: “Make a small pleasure ground and gardens”

  “I am at this time . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Ariel Lathrop, July 7, 1890, FLOP.

  “I came to Asheville . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick J. Kingsbury, January 20, 1891, FLOP.

  “But the soil seems . . . ”: Ibid.

  “a delicate, refined and bookish man, . . . ”: Ibid.

  “I very much like your new plan . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Richard Morris Hunt, March 2, 1889, FLOP.

  Hunt had not yet visited . . .: John M. Bryan, Biltmore Estate: The Most Distinguished Private Place (New York: Rizzoli, 1994), 40. />
  “natural and comparatively wild . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to George W. Vanderbilt, July 12, 1889, FLOP.

  “There are one or two points . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to William A. Stiles, March 10, 1895, FLOP.

  “He has accepted every . . . ”: Ibid.

  “A place out-of-doors is wanted . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Richard Morris Hunt, March 2, 1889, FLOP.

  “We have a good deal of work . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Murray Forbes, July 2, 1891, FLOP.

  “a private work . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to W. A. Thompson, November 6, 1889, FLOP.

  Chapter Fifty-Five: Olmsted drives hard

  “It strikes me as your best work . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Charles Loring Brace, January 18, 1890, FLOP.

  “His death was a shock . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick J. Kingsbury, January 20, 1891, FLOP.

  “What a good ancient philosopher . . . ”: Charles Eliot Norton to Frederick Law Olmsted, September 26, 1890, FLOP.

  “I enjoy my children. . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick J. Kingsbury, September 6, 1893, FLOP.

  “much better equipped . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Charles Loring Brace, January 18, 1890, FLOP.

  “I have all my life . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., September 5, 1890, FLOP.

  “swampy, the surface of a large part . . . ”: A History of the World’s Columbian Exposition, ed. Rossiter Johnson (New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1897), 35.

  “it was one of the greatest advantages . . . ”: John Charles Olmsted to Charles Eliot, March 25, 1896, FLOP.

  “We have carried our first point . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, November 24, 1890, FLOP.

  “inspired confidence in all . . . ”: Charles Moore, Daniel H. Burnham: Architect Planner of Cities (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921), vol. I, 29.

  “Harry Codman’s knowledge . . . ”: Ibid., 45.

  “cordial and unqualified approval . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted, “The Landscape Architecture of the World’s Columbian Exposition,” Inland Architect and News Record, September 1893: 20.

  “We had a breakfast . . . ”: Charles Moore, Daniel H. Burnham: Architect Planner of Cities (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921), vol. I, 46.

  “the general comradeship . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer, November 7, 1892, FLOP.

  “Look here, old fellow, . . . ”: Charles Moore, Daniel H. Burnham: Architect Planner of Cities (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921), vol. I, 47.

  “one hundred thousand small willows; . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted, “The Landscape Architecture of the World’s Columbian Exposition,” Inland Architect and News Record, September 1893: 21.

  “I never had more before me . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Charles Loring Brace, January 18, 1890, FLOP.

  “They show, I think, . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted, “Report by F.L.O.,” April 1892, FLOP.

  “All these châteaux . . . ”: Philip Codman to Henry Sargent Codman, May 1, 1892, FLOP.

  “I am having a great deal of enjoyment . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Mary Cleveland Olmsted, May 3, 1892, FLOP.

  “More than a failure. . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick J. Kingsbury, September 6, 1893, FLOP.

  “I fear that against the clear blue sky . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Rudolph Ulrich, March 11, 1893, FLOP.

  “having an educative effect . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Elizabeth Baldwin, December 16, 1890, FLOP.

  “I am as one standing on a wreck . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Gifford Pinchot, January 19, 1893, FLOP.

  “It looks as if the time . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, October 17, 1893, FLOP.

  Chapter Fifty-Six: The fourth muse

  “A director of faith . . . ”: Charles Moore, Daniel H. Burnham: Architect Planner of Cities (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921), vol. I, 75.

  “You know who these men are . . . ”: Ibid., 74.

  reported both Olmsteds . . .: New-York Times, March 26, 1893.

  “Mr. O. ailing”: Charles Eliot’s pocket diary, March 26, 1898, JCOC.

  “The general design of the grounds . . . ”: Charles Moore, Daniel H. Burnham: Architect Planner of Cities (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1921), vol. I, 79.

  “roses as roses, . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted, “The Landscape Architecture of the World’s Columbian Exposition,” Inland Architect and News Record, September 1893: 18.

  “I design with a view . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer, May 17, 1887, FLOP

  “the queerest thing . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer, June 17, 1893, FLOP.

  “If people generally get to understand . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Mariana Griswold Van Rensselaer, November 7, 1892, FLOP.

  “Everywhere there is a growing interest . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Daniel H. Burnham, June 20, 1893, FLOP.

  “The landscape-plan is the key . . . ”: Montgomery Schuyler, “Last Words about the World’s Fair,” Architectural Record, January-March 1894: 294.

  “We should try to make . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Daniel H. Burnham, January 26, 1891, FLOP.

  “to supply a means of appropriate decoration . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Charles McClave, November 7, 1892, FLOP.

  “The effects of the boats . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted, “The Landscape Architecture of the World’s Columbian Exposition,” Inland Architect and News Record, September 1893: 21.

  “The canoes would add a feature . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Daniel H. Burnham, January 26, 1891, FLOP.

  “Why not skipping . . . ”: Ibid.

  “The influence of the Exposition . . . ”: Montgomery Schuyler, “Last Words about the World’s Fair,” Architectural Record, January-March 1894: 292.

  “You know that these men of the enemy . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to William A. Stiles, March 10, 1895, FLOP.

  “formal stateliness that our architectural . . . ”: Ibid.

  Chapter Fifty-Seven: Dear Rick

  “I am doubting some . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, October 27, 1893, FLOP.

  “With reference to your future business . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, March 13, 1894, FLOP.

  “convenient, rapid, agreeable . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Joel Hurt, December 5, 1890, FLOP.

  “It is far and away . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to partners, November 1, 1893, FLOP.

  “I like him very much, . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Charles Eliot Norton, September 24, 1890, FLOP.

  “I want you to be prepared . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., September 5, 1890, FLOP.

  “The more you see . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., August 1, 1894, FLOP.

  “Are you gaining any . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., December 23, 1894, FLOP.

  “I am as ready to give . . . ”: Ibid.

  “I shall not take you . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., undated, FLOP.

  “then I am compelled . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. to Frederick Law Olmsted, January 1, 1895, Olmsted Associate Records.

  “You seem to me to have . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., January 1, undated, FLOP.

  “Stick to it. . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., January 7, 1895, FLOP.

  “It is too late . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., undated, FLOP.

  “I should be disposed to keep . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., February 3, 1895, FLOP.

  “If man is not to live . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted, “Trees in Streets and in Parks,” The Sanitarian, September 1882: 514.

  “a finer, more beautiful, . . . ”: Fre
derick Law Olmsted to George W. Vanderbilt, December 30, 1893, FLOP.

  “Water-side trees by the lake; . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to George W. Vanderbilt, July 12, 1889, FLOP.

  “I must yet for a time . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to George W. Vanderbilt, December 30, 1893, FLOP.

  “Father does not keep track . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. to John Charles Olmsted, December 20, 1894, FLOP.

  “If Rick had not been with me . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, May 10, 1895, FLOP.

  Chapter Fifty-Eight: Sunset

  “each without slightest memory . . . ”: “J. G. Langton reminisces,” January 31, 1921, FLOP.

  “I am still here because . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., August 13, 1895, FLOP.

  “before you write . . . ”: John Charles Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted, September 2, 1895, FLOP.

  “A queer situation . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Charles Eliot, undated, stamped “Rec’d August 19, 1895,” JCOC.

  “Nothing goes as far . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., October 14, 1895, FLOP.

  “Keep me here . . . ”: Mary Cleveland Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, September 29, 1895, JCOC.

  “I am grateful for your letter . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Charles Eliot, September 26, 1895, JCOC.

  “He makes us very nervous . . . ”: Mary Cleveland Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, September 27, 1895, JCOC.

  “My doctors wish me to think . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., November 7, 1895, FLOP.

  “I am going down hill rapidly. . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to John Charles Olmsted, December 12, 1895, JCOC.

  “He gives up all hope . . . ”: Mary Cleveland Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., undated, FLOP.

  “If she had some good-natured . . . ”: John Charles Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., April 24, 1896, FLOP.

  “John is John & must be taken . . . ”: Mary Cleveland Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., May 29, 1896, FLOP.

  “make L.A. respected . . . ”: Frederick Law Olmsted to Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., September 5, 1890, FLOP.