Genius of Place

by Justin Martin

  256 “I have made no progress”: FLO to MPO, January 18, 1865.

  257 “Should a few guarantee”: Text of telegram appears in Papers, 5:305n7.

  257 “Bunsbyish impertinence”: FLO to Edwin Godkin, January 26, 1865, reprinted in ibid., 310.

  258 “But, today, singing Glory! Hallelujah!”: FLO to Frederick Knapp, April 9, 1865, reprinted in ibid., 349.

  259 “I have never seen”: FLO to JO, April 29, 1865.

  259 “I can’t help feeling”: FLO to Frederick Knapp, April 16, 1865, reprinted in Papers , 5:353.

  259 “At any rate”: Ibid.

  259 “I would do so simply”: FLO to MPO, April 16, 1865.

  260 elected in abstentia: FLO to JO, February 11, 1865.

  260 “The business is one promising extraordinary profits”: FLO, The Production of Wine in California: Particularly Referring to the Establishment of the Buena Vista Vinicultural Society, April–May 1865, reprinted in Papers, 5:337.

  262 “Being an evergreen”: FLO, Preface to the Plan for Mountain View Cemetery, May 1865, reprinted in ibid., 480.

  263 “I trust you are getting”: Vaux to FLO, May 10, 1865, reprinted in Papers, 5:359.

  264 “I love beautiful landscapes”: FLO to Vaux, June 8, 1865, reprinted in ibid., 390.

  264 “Nobody cares two straws”: Vaux to FLO, May 20, 1865.

  264 “A scheme that can be upset”: Vaux to FLO, July 6, 1865.

  264 “Your objection to the plan”: Vaux to FLO, July 8, 1865.

  264 “stubborn cemetery maker in California”: Vaux to FLO, May 30, 1865.

  264 “Frederick the Great, Prince”: Vaux to FLO, July 31, 1865.

  265 “If I go on and do Brooklyn alone”: Vaux to FLO, May 20, 1865.

  265 Scott’s tenure as president: Papers, 5:418.

  265 eve of World War II: Interview on October 22, 2009, JM with Randy Bolt, historical guide for California state parks.

  265 “Its business history”: Nevins, Frémont, 2:445.

  265 Hot on the heels: Olmsted didn’t receive Vaux’s letters saying he’d won the Prospect Park design commission (June 22, 1865) and saying the Central Park board was ready to reappoint them landscape architects (July 21, 1865) until after he’d received Scott’s letter that cut his ties to the Mariposa Company, according to Papers, 5:419.

  266 Olmsted replied at once: FLO to Vaux, August 1, 1865, NYPL.

  266 as well as Samuel Bowles: Details drawn partly from George Merriam, The Life and Times of Samuel Bowles (New York: Century, 1885).

  266 sang . . . Civil War anthems: Samuel Bowles, Across the Continent: A Summer’s Journey to the Rocky Mountains, the Mormons, and the Pacific States (Springfield, MA: Samuel Bowles, 1865), 232.

  267 “Yosemite should be held”: “Yosemite and the Mariposa Grove: A Preliminary Report, 1865,” accessed online at http://yosemite.ca.us.

  267 “Before many years”: Ibid.

  267 “The establishment by the government”: Ibid.

  268 Several of them wound up writing books: See also Albert Deane Richardson, Beyond the Mississippi: From the Great River to the Great Ocean: Life and Adventure on the Prairies, Mountains, and Pacific Coast (Hartford, CT: American Publishing, 1869).

  Chapter 22: New Prospects

  271 “Whether bursting the fast”: Clay Lancaster, Prospect Park Handbook (New York: Greensward Foundation, 1988), 24.

  271 In January 1865: Richard Berenson and Neil Demause, The Complete Illustrated Guidebook to Prospect Park and the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens (New York: Silver Lining Books, 2001), 25.

  272 view was breathtaking: Account of view in 1860s drawn from multiple sources including Brooklyn Eagle, April 27, 1867.

  273 “Here is a suggestion”: FLO and Vaux, Preliminary Report for Laying Out a Park in Brooklyn, 1866, reprinted in Landscape into Cityscape: Frederick Law Olmsted’s Plans for a Greater New York (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1968), 108.

  273 claret and orange-juice punch: Francis Kowsky, Country, Park, and City: The Architecture and Life of Calvert Vaux (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 175.

  274 dreamed up a radical solution: Description of Olmsted’s design for a San Francisco park drawn from Preliminary Report in Regard to a Plan of Public Pleasure Grounds for the City of San Francisco, 1866, reprinted in Papers, 5:518–543.

  274 For the College of California: Details of Olmsted’s design for this college drawn from Report upon a Projected Improvement of the Estate of the College of California, at Berkeley, Near Oakland, 1866, reprinted in ibid., 546–570.

  274 “I like the plan myself”: Henry Coon to FLO, June 29, 1866.

  275 Launching a new publication: Details of the Nation’s founding drawn from multiple sources, including William Armstrong, “The Freedmen’s Movement and the Founding of the Nation,” Journal of American History (March 1967).

  275 “substantially the same”: Ibid.

  276 “Olmsted’s coming in relieves”: Edwin Godkin to Charles Eliot Norton, January 15, 1866, reprinted in Rollo Ogden, The Life and Letters of Edwin Lawrence Godkin , vol. 1 (New York: Macmillan, 1907), 243.

  277 articles on various agricultural topics: See “The Progress of Horticulture,” Nation, March 1, 1866.

  277 article on the migration from farm to city: See “The Future of Great Cities,” Nation , February 22, 1866.

  277 piece about proper nutrition for soldiers: Nation, January 18, 1866.

  277 There was a review of Short Sermons: Nation, May 8, 1866.

  277 a review of Samuel Bowles: Nation, January 11, 1866.

  277 review of a memoir, Life of Benjamin: Nation, May 18, 1866.

  277 Another piece titled “Hint for Tourists”: Nation, March 15, 1866.

  278 “I wanted Olmsted’s name”: Edwin Godkin to Charles Eliot Norton, July 1866.

  279 “It grows upon me”: FLO to Norton, July 15, 1866, reprinted in The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, vol. 6, The Years of Olmsted, Vaux & Co. (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), 99.

  280 Worthington duplex pump: Brooklyn Eagle, November 11, 1870.

  280 marked by a series of red flags: Brooklyn Eagle, October 18, 1867.

  281 pedestrian paths . . . depressed below ground level: Interview on May 5, 2010, JM with Christian Zimmerman, Prospect Park landscape architect.

  282 “He must be an exceptional”: Brooklyn Eagle, November 14, 1879.

  283 a constant reminder: See FLO to JCO, January 29, 1873, Loeb Library.

  283 Olmsted suggested that the children’s section: Kowsky, Country, Park, and City, 189.

  285 “the wealth in which she”: FLO to Edward Bright, February 1, 1867, reprinted in Papers, 6:189.

  285 “It remains to be seen”: FLO, Last Report of the Southern Famine Relief Commission , reprinted in ibid., 228.

  Chapter 23: City Planning: Buffalo and Chicago

  287 “commercial Constantinople”: Henry Perry Smith, History of the City of Buffalo and Erie County, vol. 2 (Syracuse: D. Mason, 1884), 180.

  288 “What was my horror”: FLO to MPO, August 25, 1868.

  288 “Mr. Olmsted has a mastery”: Brooklyn Eagle, August 5, 1870.

  289 “I think it will go”: FLO to MPO, August 26, 1868.

  289 a “big speculation”: FLO to Vaux, August 29, 1868, NYPL.

  289 “They want to go”: FLO to MPO, August 23, 1868.

  290 “be the first consideration”: FLO and Vaux, Preliminary Report upon the Proposed Suburban Village at Riverside, Near Chicago, reprinted in Civilizing American Cities: Writings on City Landscapes, 292.

  290 “absence of sharp corners”: Ibid.

  291 “There will probably”: FLO to Vaux, August 29, 1868, NYPL.

  292 “a character of magnificence”: Century Illustrated Magazine, October 1886.

  294 Olmsted and Vaux had even coined a term: Interview on August 4, 2009, JM with Francis Kowsky, author of Country, Park, and City: The Architecture and Life of Calvert Vaux (New York: Oxford University Press, 19
98).

  295 advertisement ... in the Nation: Nation, May 1, 1866.

  295 “the best planned city”: FLO to George Waring, April 13, 1876.

  297 “You certainly cannot set”: FLO and Vaux, Report Accompanying Plan for Laying Out South Park, reprinted in Civilizing American Cities: Writings on City Landscapes , 164.

  297 dubbed it the Midway Plaisance: Interview on June 9, 2010, JM with Julia Bachrach, Chicago Park District.

  298 “in stone beyond recovery”: Mariana Griswold van Rensselaer, Henry Hobson Richardson and His Works (New York: Dover Publications, 1969), 118.

  299 “I feel myself so nearly”: FLO to Samuel Bowles, June 2, 1871.

  300 “I am looking”: FLO to Kingsbury, October 8, 1871.

  300 Unbenownst to Olmsted: Detail that Kingsbury letter and Chicago fire on same day noted by Witold Rybczynski, A Clearing in the Distance: Frederick Law Olmsted and America in the Nineteenth Century (New York: Scribner, 1999), 310.

  300 Vaux designed but a single house: Interview on June 12, 2010, JM with Lonnie Sacchi, Riverside local historian.

  301 firm of William Le Baron Jenney: Promotional brochure, Riverside in 1871 with a Description of Its Improvements, 7.

  Chapter 24: Battling Boss Tweed, Splitting with Vaux

  303 “like little dollars”: Alexander Callow Jr., The Tweed Ring (New York: Oxford University Press, 1966), 40.

  304 to several thousand: Jump in Central Park employment under Tweed drawn from ibid., 127.

  304 “circulation of air”: FLO Jr. and Theodora Kimball, eds., Forty Years of Landscape Architecture, vol. 2 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1922), 90.

  304 pumice those archways: New York Times, September 2, 1871.

  304 fittingly lavish monument: New York Times, December 30, 1870.

  305 “It is disheartening”: FLO to Kingsbury, October 8, 1871.

  305 “Church’s name was first suggested”: FLO to Charley Brace, November 24, 1871.

  306 “The Park has suffered”: FLO to Columbus Ryan, February 27, 1872, letter reprinted in FLO Jr. and Kimball, Forty Years of Landscape Architecture, 2:350.

  307 He obtained Olmsted and Vaux’s reports: Terence Young, Building San Francisco’s Parks, 1850–1930 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004), 71.

  307 “Please excuse the liberty”: William Hammond Hall to FLO, August 22, 1871, letter reprinted ibid., 74.

  307 “I have given the matter”: FLO to William Hammond Hall, October 5, 1871.

  308 plant succession: Discussion of plant succession drawn partly from Young, Building San Francisco’s Parks, 85.

  309 “seems to have nearly”: New York Tribune, June 22, 1872.

  309 “My name was used”: New York Post, June 22, 1872.

  309 “I am surprised & gratified”: FLO to James McKim, June 28, 1872, reprinted in Papers, 6:566.

  310 “relief to me”: FLO to Alfred Bloor, October 4, 1882.

  310 a pair of huge and prestigious commissions: Francis Kowsky, Country, Park, and City: The Architecture and Life of Calvert Vaux (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 205–206.

  310 The air hung thick: Description of grounds of McLean in 1872 drawn in part from Alex Beam, Gracefully Insane: Life and Death Inside America’s Premier Mental Hospital (New York: Public Affairs, 2001), 30.

  311 “decided advantage in the great”: FLO to Henry Rogers, August 17, 1873.

  311 Olmsted also suggested a building scheme: FLO to Henry Rogers, December 13, 1872, reprinted in Papers, 6:584.

  311 Two months after: Details of John Olmsted’s death drawn largely from FLO to Kingsbury, January 28, 1873, and FLO to JCO, January 29, 1873, Loeb Library.

  312 “He was a very good man”: FLO to Kingsbury, January 28, 1873.

  Chapter 25: Blindness and Vision

  313 The brownstone was located: Details about brownstone’s layout drawn mostly from FLO Jr., “Random Notes About F.L.O.’s office at 209 West 46th Street,” June 1952, Library of Congress.

  314 Everywhere, all over the house: Titles drawn from inventory, “List of Books Belonging to F. L. Olmsted, December 1882,” Library of Congress.

  315 “a great deal of disappointed love”: FLO to Calvert Vaux, November 26, 1863.

  316 “on the least provocation”: FLO to Frederick Knapp, July 11, 1870.

  316 “To saddle & bridle”: FLO to Knapp, October 8, 1866.

  317 “Just the nicest”: FLO to Kingsbury, September 6, 1893.

  317 he’d be rechristened: Henry Olmsted’s rechristening as FLO Jr. discussed in The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, vol. 7, Parks, Politics, and Patronage (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), 139.

  318 “the enemy/mother”: Albert Olmsted to FLO, August 4, 1873.

  318 “I write that you”: Albert Olmsted to FLO, October 15, 1873.

  318 “I remain your affectionate, Mother”: See MAO to FLO, August 18, 1873.

  318 “relieved of responsibilities”: FLO to S. H. Wales, September 17, 1873, reprinted in Papers, 6:651.

  319 Olmsted was confined to a darkened bedroom: Melvin Kalfus, Frederick Law Olmsted: The Passion of a Public Artist (New York: New York University Press, 1990), 62.

  319 P. T. Barnum wrote inquiring: P. T. Barnum to FLO, September 15, 1873.

  319 “I hope you have”: Board of Ed., Elmira, New York, to FLO, September 22, 1873.

  319 “Suppose a man”: FLO to Brace, December 21, 1873.

  320 “In short, the capital”: FLO to Justin Morrill, January 22, 1874, reprinted in Papers , 7:36.

  320 “to form and train”: Charles Beveridge and Paul Rocheleau, Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing the American Landscape (New York: Universe Publishing, 1998), 155.

  321 twenty-one different streets . . . forty-six different places”: Interview on July 12, 2010, JM with Steve Livengood, chief guide, U.S. Capitol Historical Society.

  321 “The building will appear”: FLO to Edward Clark, October 1, 1881, reprinted in Papers, 7:557.

  322 “The larger part”: Ibid.

  322 “I heard that it”: Papers, 7:509.

  323 “the genius of the place”: Report of Fred. Law Olmsted on the Mount Royal Park, 1874, reprinted in Papers, 7:89.

  324 “mountain more mountain-like”: FLO, Mount Royal, Montreal (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1881), 44.

  324 “power of their scenery”: Report of Fred. Law Olmsted on the Mount Royal Park, 1874, reprinted in Papers, 7:89.

  324 “prophylactic and therapeutic”: FLO, Mount Royal, Montreal, 22.

  324 “feebler sorts of folks”: Beveridge and Rocheleau, Frederick Law Olmsted, 77.

  325 Now, Dalton invited Olmsted: Cynthia Zaitzevsky, Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982), 43.

  325 “any boy who had”: FLO to Horatio Admiral Nelson, June 6, 1876.

  326 “farcical failure”: FLO to JCO, October 7, 1877, reprinted in Papers, 7:333.

  Chapter 26: A Troubled Wander Year

  328 “I could not keep”: FLO to MPO, August 15, 1877.

  328 “read over and committed”: FLO to JCO, autumn of 1877, undated, Loeb Library.

  329 “Everywhere examine closely”: Ibid.

  329 “Steep your mind”: Ibid.

  329 “They show that you”: FLO to JCO, October 7, 1877, reprinted in Papers, 7:333.

  330 “The Greensward Ring”: FLO Jr. and Theodora Kimball, eds., Forty Years of Landscape Architecture, vol. 2 (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1922), 109.

  330 “too much in haste”: FLO to JCO, October 23, 1877, Loeb Library.

  330 “When I have reminded you”: FLO to JCO, December 1, 1877, Loeb Library.

  331 “I have been to”: JCO to FLO, December 3, 1877, Loeb Library.

  331 “It is evident that”: FLO to JCO, December 18, 1877, Loeb Library.

  332 “His mention of a long”: JCO to MPO, January 13, 1878, Loeb Library.

  332 “It is not unnatural”: New York World, January
22, 1878.

  332 “greedy misrepresentations”: New York Tribune, February 19, 1878.

  332 Owen to pen a brief statement: New York Tribune, February 21, 1878.

  332 “chivying English disposition”: MPO to JCO, February 24, 1878.

  333 “He is continually fearing”: JCO to Owen Olmsted, March 8, 1878, Loeb Library.

  333 “one of the worst nights”: JCO to MPO, March 13, 1878, Loeb Library.

  334 “It all makes me sick”: FLO to Horace Cleveland, February 9, 1881.

  334 “being without a single”: E. W. Howe, a Boston city engineer, date unknown, quotation provided by the Emerald Necklace Conservancy.

  334 “childish”: American Architect and Building News, quoted in Cynthia Zaitzevsky, Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982), 47.

  Chapter 27: Stringing Emeralds

  335 “They must have you”: H. H. Richardson to FLO, May 21, 1878.

  335 “Offensive exudations arise”: FLO to the Board of Commissioners of the Department of Parks of the City of Boston, January 26, 1880, reprinted in Papers, 7:451.

  336 He requested a meeting: FLO, “Paper on the Back Bay Problem and Its Solution Read Before the Boston Society of Architects,” in The Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, supplement 1, Writings on Public Parks, Pathways, and Park Systems (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997), 442.

  337 Oregon holly grape: Cynthia Zaitzevsky, Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982), 189.

  337 “The collection of water-birds”: FLO to the Board of Commissioners of the Department of Parks of the City of Boston, January 26, 1880, reprinted in Papers, 7:451.

  337 Olmsted owned a dictionary: FLO to W. Bowen Murphy, August 3, 1895.

  337 “Sedgeglade”: FLO to Charles Dalton, December 9, 1879.

  338 rhododendron show: Theodora Kimball timeline, Library of Congress.

  338 didn’t think this was a very good idea: See FLO to Charles Sargent, July 8, 1874.

  339 Bentham and Hooker: Interview on June 23, 2010, JM with Lisa Pearson, librarian, Arnold Arboretum.