Olmsted's Vision

As a boy, Frederick Law Olmsted enjoyed exploring the countryside near his home in Hartford, Connecticut. When illness ended his formal education at the age of 15, he tried his hand at various occupations—surveyor, clerk, seaman, farmer. He toured England, where he was impressed by the cultivated beauty of the parks and estates he visited. He wrote about his travels and became a correspondent for the New York Times, reporting on conditions in the slave-holding South. For a brief period he published a political and literary magazine.

These experiences provided Olmsted with broad knowledge and skills when he and English architect Calvert Vaux collaborated in designing Central Park, the nation’s first public park. Olmsted’s instincts were deeply humanitarian. Like other nineteenth century visionaries, he was concerned about the social problems of his age, including the arrival of immigrants in crowded cities and the unsanitary conditions in which they lived. He envisioned parks as an escape from the pressures and contamination of urban life. Here all people—young and old, rich and poor—could find physical and mental restoration in nature.

Olmsted distinguished between his art and that of the gardeners of his day. He was concerned not merely with attractive plantings but with overall perspective and coherence. He sought to incorporate the complexity of space, light, shadow and terrain in vistas that both respected the natural setting and evoked human feelings of serenity and well-being. Utilitarian elements such as drainage and maintenance were essential considerations, but these, too, became components of a coherent vision.

In his designs, Olmsted identified specific styles: the pastoral (open green spaces with smooth turf and scattered trees and groves), and the picturesque (dense planting with groundcover and shrubs over uneven terrain). The Olmsted Linear Park reflects both of these classic styles. Five segments—Springdale, Virgilee, Oak Grove, Shadyside and Dellwood—exemplify the pastoral vision with their rolling meadows and expansive vistas. Deepdene, the largest space, reflects the picturesque with its lush growth and steep terrain.

The beauty of the park…should be the beauty of the fields, the meadow, the prairie, of the green pastures, and the still waters. What we want to gain is tranquility and rest of mind. - Frederick Law Olmsted Sr.