Genius of Place (69 page)

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Authors: Justin Martin

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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, 1998)
.
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.

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