Where Central Park's Designer Lived (Frederick Law Olmsted)
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- čas přidán 28. 08. 2024
- Ever wandered in Central Park and wondered about its creator? Dive into the story of Frederick Law Olmsted, the man behind America's iconic green spaces. On this episode of This House we unravel the mysteries of Olmsted’s estate, his genius designs, and the uncharted depths of his visionary legacy.
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I have visited this site twice, which is administered by the National Park Service. The landscape and house were both quite interesting, but what I enjoyed most was the rare opportunity to see the historic offices, giving a real sense of stepping back in time. It is so rare to see spaces like these intact and preserved. Just think of how many of us across the country have benefitted from the ideas that germinated in those rooms!
Yes! The workroom and offices are wonderful and so neat all was kept!
What a fabulous legacy to leave for the enjoyment of so many people. Green spaces are vital in these big cities. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thank you for your informative History *Frederick Law Olmsted
so enjoy the films on This House ✍️
Mary Canada 🇨🇦
Glad you enjoyed it
I like the drawing offices and archives, a lot. 👍
Such an amazing landscape architect - I've been to Central Park and love it, but also the Biltmore Estate Grounds, Gardens and Forest in Asheville, North Carolina (which helped establish the US Forestry Service), the Olmsted Linear Park as well as I used to live in Druid Hills Historic District which - while strictly not a park - Olmsted had a major influence and hand in developing the land to make it an amazing residential area here in Atlanta with many lush green spaces and curated street parks dotted in between the houses. I've also been to the Capital Grounds in Washington DC. I've also been to the Niagara Falls State Park and Washington Park in Chicago. This doesn't even start the list of academic campuses and other places visited.
I am in awe of Olmsted - his public spaces seem to just have something that calms the soul and makes everything just seem well, okay. It's almost like walking into one of his creations and feeling like you are meeting an old friend again after many years.
I could certainly use his help with my property! 😁
Frederick Olmsted, God rest his soul! Thanks to both for the many happy hours my little son spent in Central Park, New York City in the 1980's exploring what he called "the forest park". I enjoyed this video very much . Thanks to its creators and presenters!
This man has always been such a great inspiration to me. As a landscape architect myself, I take pilgrimage to his parks as often as I can. Sadly many of them are in need of major renovation due to budget cuts and poor maintenance. They are still inspiring and show off his genius.
I’d love to have a garden room like Olmsted’s! A few years ago I visited Biltmore Estate in Western NC where Olmsted designed the landscape and gardens plus I enjoy Central Park when visiting NYC. He was an absolute genius!
He designed D. W. Field Park in Brockton, Mass. It was 700 acres and I grew up in Brockton and visited it many times. Great place!
Thanks for sharing!
I really enjoy these videos Thank you for all the work that you put in it's much appreciated😊
i used to live in Boulder CO, a couple blocks away from the smallest park he designed
Amidst the crazy hub of activity that is New York City, this park is such a haven. My maternal grandmother was born in NYC in 1901, and though she relocated to Los Angeles as a young adult, always spoke fondly of visiting Central Park as a child. I recognized the name Olmsted, but when I checked, it was his two sons, John, and Frederick Jr., who were involved with the creation of our San Diego Balboa Park for the 1915 Panama-California International Expo. As the Spanish Colonial buildings were intended to be temporary, they have been re-built over the decades and are still in use: Fine Art Museum, Museum of Man (California Tower), Prado, Botanic Garden, Spreckles Organ Pavilion, Alcazar Gardens, etc. I adore Richardson Romanesque houses, though we see very few of them here.
Wow - I really miss Balboa Park - I lived on the edge of it in San Diego (by the Frisbee Field) for about 7 years and loved to go walking there. They had an amazing restaurant at the Prado, and I used to love to go listen to the Organ at the Spreckles Pavilion! I wish we had something like that here in Atlanta!
@@atlbrysco6198 My best friend and I had our first 'dinner out' Post-COVID at the Prado. Still terrific. Robert Plimpton, the organist who played Sunday concerts there for many years actually played at our wedding (1st Presbyterian Church on Date). The Museum of Man often puts on a Haunted Museum...really fun with the exhibits of early man and the giant Olmec heads, lol. I enjoyed my two work trips to Atlanta. The Botanical Garden was great, and the food really good everywhere we went. I loved the historic buildings at Stone Mountain. Greetings from the West Coast...as we brace for our first 'real' Hurricane since 1934.
@@SpanishEclectic My friend, I wish, hope and pray for the best of you. When I was in San Diego I worked for the Mayor, City Council and City Managers as well as all the property (including the Stadium and yeah - the park). I was one of the people that made sure that Y2K was not a thing there.... so yeah, I am dating myself! I left San Diego and moved to Fort Lauderdale FL - while I had not experienced any hurricanes while I was there in San Diego (or Pearl Harbor, HI where I was stationed in the Navy), I went through many seasons of them in Florida - including Katrina (twice), Ivan and five others that season. You speak of your dinner with your friend as a true special memory which I find is amazing, and I am so glad that is a good memory for you. I hope you can let us know somehow that you come out of it okay. Here in ATL, we do still get the tropical storms, hurricanes and remnants of them - and we do well. I wish the best for you and your best friend. 😃
You should also do a segment on Olmsted's summer home in Maine - Felsted. A beautiful old shingle style summer mansion.
They both did private homes, too. Vaux did the Hoyt mansion Staatsburg NY. And, Olmstead worked on homes in Newport RI.
Just read something that credits at least one home in Newport to Vaux.
Olmstead also designed the huge property at Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC.
The streets in my neighborhood in Harrington Park, NJ were laid out by FLO. I saw a scan of the original blueprints.
I lived in New York City for over 25 years and was lucky to live 4 blocks from Central Park. It is a majestic space that embraces nature and tasteful structures (bridges, tunnels, zoo, Sheep’s Meadow, lake, reservoir, boathouse, riding paths, etc.). One never tires of strolling through CP at any time of the year. The landscape of mature trees, very large boulders, evergreen shrubs, spring bulbs, natural paths, various statuary, playgrounds, etc. It is truly a wondrous experience as you forget about the elegant buildings that surround CP and immerse yourself in nature. In the summer, it offers a shady escape from the concrete sidewalks and is 10 degrees cooler from the heat and sun. Best of all, entrance to the park is free. There are small charges to visit the zoo, ride on the carousel, rent a rowboat, skate on the rink, symphony in the park, Shakespeare in the park and various concerts (some of which are free) but nothing exorbitant. It is well maintained and supported by donors and has a large staff which tend to the needs of all aspects of the park. It is truly a memorable place (benches have small plaques which are in memory of loved ones) where one can always dream and find something new on each visit.
Sadly, the Emerald Necklace project is suffering from a lack of maintenance like so much infrastructure in the greater Boston area.
Sadly, this has been true for a long time. However, there is funding available to spend millions of dollars on public projects in place like Roxbury, Mattapan etc. which will be be vandalized and ultimately destroyed in a matter of years.
Thank the Democrat government. They do not care.
Olmstead's sons also were landscape architects and designed a number of public parks like Schenley Park in Pittsburgh.
Thanks for sharing this interesting video. I spent a portion of Thursday morning enjoying the US Capitol grounds, most of which were designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. The Capitol is very imposing, but if not for his having added elements like the West Portico (the site of all Presidential Inaugurations), the entire building would have looked like it was about to slide off the Hill. The entire space is walkable, beautiful and an oasis in the heart of our Nation's Capitol. I just happened to be there when few people were around and it felt like being in a lovely park, in a small town. His designs were well ahead of his time. :)
Thank you for sharing! I’m a big fan of Olmsted’s work and currently reading about him in the book The Devil in The White City.
That book is one of my favorites! There are so many connections to projects and events.
Those Olmsteds sure did get around. Apparently, they designed our park-like grounds in Ottawa Hills, Ohio as well as a similar neighborhood in Grand Rapids, Mi. Thinking this is no coincidence in many of the prominent neighborhoods forming in the early twentieth century.
City Park in New Orleans, Louisiana was also designed by Olmstead. It is a marvelous park, loved by many for it's beautiful function. It includes the largest stand of mature live oaks in the country, some being over 600 years old. The park is about 1300 acres. Thank you for this video!
This home is stunning, I really like the rich wood paneling!! Thanks for sharing this interesting & informative video!!! 👍👍🏣
Here in Louisville, there are three parks designed by him.
I enjoy your videos.
Thank you ✌🏼
Thanks for watching!
Olmsted designed a park space outside of Cleveland Ohio , called Olmsted Park !!!
It looks so natural, you would never guess it was designed… !!! It is a treasure made to grow through the generations….💜
So amazing he designed so many public space parks throughout the United States , maybe abroad too?
Born and raised one block from Central Park. Upper West side. Wonderful fun.
I have visited Central Park many times in my youth since I grew up in Queens NY, it truly is an oasis and feels like you are not in the city at all once you enter, also visited the Biltmore house in North Carolina which is another masterpiece and the gardens and landscape are amazing to see, the feeling you get walking around is so relaxing and inviting.
An amazing visionary - saving all that nature from over development - and a gift for so many generations
I live in Louisville Kentucky where Frederick Law Olmstead designed 3 gorgeous parks close to the city center. They have all been enjoyed by several generations of Kentuckians and have become even more beautiful over time.
I grew up in NYC and enjoyed Central Park. Indigenous people, along with African Americans and many immigrants were displaced because of Central Park. That history needs to be shared as well. The same with Yosemite National Park. The whole history of these “innovators” should be told as well. As usual you do a great job showcasing these homes! Thank you for sharing them.
1000% accurate
Oh well, you still have Harlem, such a beautiful place thankfully he didn't destroy that? By the way what indigenous people inhabited the area of Central Park in the last half of the 19th century?
@@allanrinaldipaone9850 Look up the the Seneca Indians…I’m not getting into a debate I’m just stating a fact. And oh my we do have Harlem! 🤦🏾♀️ (Heavy sarcasm) That’s all Im saying to this comment.
Ken, my apologies. As I stated before, you are doing a great job!
Spokane, WA, is a city that owes a great debt to Olmsted’s design firm for creating or supplementing the most well-known outdoor spaces in that urban area. Can’t thank John Charles Olmsted enough for enhancing the livability there by issuing that report in 1908 which was the foundation for city planners back in the day.
I want to cry, he got it right!! Beautiful thoughts and projects
In the mid-1990s, my girlfriend (future wife) was a graduate student, and at some point she rented a room from a lady who lived in Brookline. On the weekends when I would stay there I would go running in the mornings. And I would run past this property with the name "Frederick Law Olmsted". I had no idea who he was, but for a specific reason I was guessing he was a scientist.
We eventually got married and moved away, and then in the mid-to-late '90s I became very interested in architecture and landscape architecture.
Then this book came out about Olmsted --- I saw it at the bookstore. And that is when I realized that home I used to jog past was the studio-home of a famous landscape architect.
We came back one summer to Boston and visited the studio in the late '90s. And I became obsessed with a photo from the early 1900s --- like, 1906 or so --- of the ivy completely covering the front of the house. The photo is taken at the same angle you see in this video at 4:22. So after we returned home I called the museum and purchased a print of that photo. It's hanging in my bedroom.
It's hard to see in a digital copy of the photo, but in the print copy you can see that shrub that is overgrown in the foreground of the photo, at the front, right corner of the house, is a fern. And the fern had leaves that were long and very thin. I realized at some point that Olmsted must have intentionally chosen that fern because the length and width of those fern leaves EXACTLY matched the length and width of the slats in the shutters. So Olmsted was finding a common detail to integrate and relate the home and shrub. Unfortunately, it looks like that point was lost on the National Park Service, and they have planted some other type of shrub there.
I’ve been to Central Park quite a few times and love it. I wouldn’t go there after dark, but there’s lots to see in daylight. Thank you for sharing 💜
A bio pic about this Great Man would be a VERY good idea.
Olmstead designed Congress Park in Saratoga Springs, NY. It is the city's crown jewel.
Biltmore Estate
Belle isle Detroit
Belle Isle in Detroit is designed by Olmsted and outside of the very poor choice of adding surface lots, the island is beautiful in design and a huge chunk of the island remains completely untouched.
Love his work - been to Central Park GG Park and Yosemite - would live to visit his house someday Great channel keep up the good work
I have never seen anything that comes close to the beauty of Central Park
Central Park is a center of magical green spaces, elegance, entertainment and fun. Walking through the paths you find playgrounds, bridges, arches, a zoo, a merry go round, a gazebo, fields large enough for thousands to enjoy concerts and more and more. My favorite play space when I was a little girl was the model boat basin and the Alice in Wonderland sculpture/statue. Rent a model sailing boat or bring your own. Get a snack at the snack bar, a hot dog, ice cream or a soda and let the magic of Central Park envelope me while my six year old self climbed to the top of the ‘big’ mushroom and up to the top of the Mad Hatter’s hat!
I was always a fan of the Boston Common and the Public Garden, as well as Elm Park in Worcester, MA, which many are unaware of being an Olmsted Bros designed park.
Interesting and talented visionary. Thanks Ken, you certainly have a way with words.
Central Park is amazing but my favorite is the Biltmore estate.
Born and raised in NY I have been in Central Park countless times. I now live in Massachusetts near Buttonwood Park also designed by Olmsted.
He created Mount-Royal Park in Montreal where I live. It was inaugurated in May 1876. It's a jewel.
Visiting his office was wonderful- particularly the office wall phone with scribbled numbers on the wall. It’s hard to imagine that work coming off a computer screen.
And, thanks for pronouncing Louisville correctly!
Much gratitude to this remarkable man. And thank you for another unique video.
Come to Louisville, KY. Our entire parks system was designed by Olmsted...Cherokee, Algonquin, Shawnee, Iroquois, Chickasaw, Seneca, Central Park and more......
Another great video
His office in Brookline is a wonderful glimpse at his life…and a quiet relief from the possibility of death at the hands of Boston drivers.
I live in Chicago, where the lake front park system is the city's front yard
Frederick Law Olmsted "Jr." design the city of Torrance CA in 1911, he divided Torrance into three districts: the business district at the city’s core, now known as Old Torrance, the industrial district to the north and east of the city core, and the residential district to the west. Then in the 1920's he designed parts of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, most notably the northern entry to the Hill at Malaga Cove in Palos Verdes Estates. Like farther like son.
Thanks for posting........
He also did a lot of work in Atlanta Georgia. He planned Inman Park, which is one of America’s first suburban planned communities in the south. And he was working on Druid Hills when he died. He also planned the grounds for the Biltmore Estates in Asheville NC and Biltmore Village.
What a gift all the archive and drawings are
What Montrealers (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) call 'The Mountain' which is right in the middle of the city, is an Olmstead design and the jewel in the crown of our city. There is a long upwardly winding paved path for leisurely strolls, and hundreds of wild paths through the woods, not to mention a great lookout at the top, where one can take in the city below. There's also a beautiful cemetary which is also a wildlife sanctuary, and a huge man made lake for skating in the winter. At its base are more formal lawns, featuring a statue of Winged Victory and a gazebo, and across the boulevard the park continues on, with soccer fiels, a baseball diamond and a park for kids. (Not sure if Olmstead designed the lower part) During the pandemic, it seemed like the entire city discovered it, and it was so mobbed that the city had to install miles of fencing in the woods to keep people on the paths and stop them from trampling the wilderness to death. Still, if you go early on a weekday morning, you can still find yourself completely alone in the woods, right in the center of town. I'm very grateful for it.
I love it when you mention anything or anyone in Boston and Massachusetts! Thanks, Ken!
Olmsted designed the landscaping for the long, winding private road that leads to the Biltmore estate. Mostly the land is left in its natural state, but as you come around a curve in the road, a carefully placed attractive native tree will pop into view. He knew how to make the beauty of nature shine without much intrusion.
I recently visited the Biltmore estate and gardens. That is where I first heard of Olmsted. You could do a whole documentary on his work at the Biltmore.
I've been to Central Park (twice) and Belle Isle (Detroit, MI) Both wonderful venues.
Loved next to Central Park in NYC- such a haven, and walk dogs at Elm Bank in Wellesley MA, where Olmsted designed the grounds for a wealthy family estate. Mass Horticulture Society now runs it. Beautiful on the Charles River
we have one of his parks in Montreal and another buy one of his students
Very well done and very interesting and informative documentary. Vaux designed the original gothic revival style pavilion for the Met Museum in NYC whose name incidentally I'd always heard pronounced to rhyme with fox - although by logic it would seem to be pronounced like foe as in faux paus.
He also designed the park in Bridgeport, CT which has many references to Central Park in NYC. I spent many lunch hours there when I worked in Bridgeport.
He designed Deering Oaks Park in Portland Maine. It’s a gem!
Wow, very similar to the house at Giverney, France, where the originator of Impressionism, Monet, lived.
Thank you
Did visit his home in Bookline a while back! He also designed the grounds around thr US Capitol.
The park in Buffalo
I never knew lol
I lived in Roch NY
We do have 3 beautiful parks designed by him in Louisville, Ky. Iroquois, Cherokee & Seneca .
I have been to the gardens he designed for Biltmore. I believe the painting you show of him in his more mature years, (by Sargent?) was located in one of the Biltmore's rooms. Thanks for sharing. :-)
He designed Eastside park in Paterson New Jersey where I lived for more than 25 years.
We lived in NYC for one year and visited Central Park many, many times. Out grandkids visited us and busked in Central Park and made $130.00!
If I am not mistaken, Olmstead designed the park in Shawinigan, Quebec Canada in the early 1900’s.
Mountain View Cemetery Oakland CA!
He designed RIverside, IL. Great Chicago suburb compared to what's around it.
Mountain View Cemetary, Oakland, CA!
Yes in Louisville
weston, mass
It Olmsted just picked a different area,because many workers lost their homestead.
Same with the Cross Bronx Expressway.
Delaware park in Buffalo.
Where is the house? Did you say Brookline, Ma?
Olmstead also designed the gardens around the Capitol In Washington DC.
Small detail, Vaux was English and he pronounced his name "Vox", not the French "Vo".
Father of Landscape Architecture
Executive Secretary of the U.S. Sanitary Commission, which preceded the Red Cross
Vaux is actually not pronounced the French way (Voh), but the English way (Vox).
Seneca Village
I thought this video was about his house.
What a misleading title. It implies you would show the home and it’s grounds, but not there.👎
The channel appears to have shadow-banned me, so I don't know whether this comment will get to you, but they show photos toward the end of the video.
A swing and a miss, Ken. Your channel is titled "This HOUSE". This video spent less than a minute on the house with basically two photos. This episode should have been titled "A Brief Biography of Frederick Law Olmsted With a Photo of His House."
It would have been nice to see more of the inside, but a cool video anyways. I've always been fascinated with central park, a little bit of wilderness in a huge city. Thank you for the video.
Sorry you were lured into watching this video by the title. Hope you can get over it.