1
Frederick Law Olmsted           SUBJECT FILE            Parks             Hartford, Conn.
                                                                                                              1870 - 95 & UD[*L.W.R. has copy
5/14/49*]

Report on Park Site
for the city of Hartford 
addressed to C. M. Pond Esq.

[*about 1870?*]
C. M. Pond Esq
Hartford Ct.

Sir:

There is every indication of a rapid, 
healthy and steady enlargement of the 
City of Hartford, and a large increase 
in the demand for its real estate for 
actual occupation, especially in the 
suburbs, can apparently be calculated 
on with entire confidence.

The method in which this 
enlargement and demand is preparing 
for is mainly if not wholly by an adaptation 
of the old country roads, not to the 
urban requirements which will unquestionably 
be made upon them in a 
few years, but to suit a scattered 
suburban settlement of the adjoining 
land, and by the introduction of 
streets between these old roads, 
mainly short and narrow to serve the 
convenience of individuals in cutting
up properties of moderate extent for 
immediate sale

The sylvan beauty to be enjoyed 
in Hartford and its immediate 
suburbs has hithertoo been one of its 
main charms, and has helped most 
materially to strengthen its position 
as a competitor with other cities for 
the residence of people of wealth.  In 
some streets of the older part of the 
city this attraction has already been 
lost, convenient requiring as population 
has increased that the sidewalk trees 
should be removed and the old front 
yards built upon.  

It is obvious that the larger 
the population of a city the greater 
must be the capacity of its thoroughfares.  
The streets now being established 
for the future larger city of Hartford 
are hardly as wide on an average as 
the old ones, and if the trees which 
have been planted on them should 
be allowed to grow to full size there 
would in many cases be left in them 
less than four feet of available sidewalk 
room.  They are arranged with no more 
consideration for good connections with 

distant parts, for economy in the 
construction of sewers, for the introduction 
of new street railroads or many 
other modern necessities, than the 
streets laid out two hundred years 
ago when Hartford was a village.  
The old reputation for sylvan beauty 
of the city is thus in a fair way to 
be destroyed, and its street system 
to be less convenient for its future 
population than its old system is 
for the present.  

The larger city will need, not 
only on account of its larger population, 
but because of the growth of a special 
demand in modern urban society, 
much ampler public grounds than it 
yet possesses.  If it fails to soon 
secure land for this purpose it will 
either be obliged to obtain it in the 
future at vastly increased cost; to go 
further out and take that which is less 
convenient, and less well adapted to 
the purpose, or, doing without. 
suitable grounds, it will soon compare 
in attractiveness much less favorably 
with other cities than it has done 
heretofore; will draw to it for 
permanent residence a much smaller 
number of persons who bring capital 
with them, and will lose many who 
by wealth accumulated in it have become 
able to choose a place of residence by 
regard for other than mere business 
considerations.  

For these reasons and many others 
it is clear that the general plan upon 
which the city is to be enlarged should 
at once be carefully, comprehensively and 
scientifically studied.  

As an almost necessary preliminary 
to a judicious revisal of the street 
system of the suburbs and an important 
aid in devising a system of public 
grounds, a topographical survey is to 
be recommended of the hilly, broken and 
gullied ground where the chief engineering 
difficulties of a convenient plan will be 
found, this would include a belt of from 
half a mile to a mile in width, west of 
that part of the city in which streets 
have already been laid out and considerably 
built upon.  In a suitable survey for 
the purpose levels would be taken as 
often as 200 feet apart over the whole 
surface and the resulting map would show each five feet of elevation by contour 
lines.  It would also show all important 
features of the surface, woods, ledges, 
streams, ponds, swamps, roads, fences 
and buildings.  Such a map upon a 
scale of 200 feet to an inch would enable 
all projected streets to be fairly considered 
and rough estimates to be formed 
of the cost of grading them without 
special surveys, and would be an 
invaluable treasury of information for 
all future time.  Ten thousand dollars 
would be a fair estimate of its cost 
supposing it to cover an area three to 
five miles in length and half a mile to 
something over a mile in width.  

Upon such a map a skeleton 
plan could be formed and the main 
features of a permanent street system 
established.  

We wish to indicate one 
difficulty which such a map would 
disclose more distinctly, and to suggest 
a general plan of meeting it which it might 
be found desirable to determine upon as 
soon as possible, that is to say, before it 
is further attempted to deal with it 
by ineffectual expedients, here and there
and by piece meal.  

Wherever in the expansion of 
a city a narrow district of low land is 
reached such as is found by a small 
stream subject to considerable fluctuations 
of depth, there is commonly for a long 
time a hesitation in undertaking the costly 
operations necessary to carry streets across 
this low ground and fit the crooked 
and undulating banks which bound 
it to be the site of substantial buildings 
and healthy dwelling places.  The land 
in and adjoining it remains of low 
value, and as the more elevated country 
beyond becomes occupied, it is used for 
various temporary purposes, or built 
upon in a cheap way by people who can 
not afford to buy more valuable land, 
and thus is very apt to gradually 
acquire a squalid character.  

Such a district will be found 
between the higher terraces of the little 
river, where it follows a very crooked 
course between the Asylum and Prospect 
hills from Albany avenue to Park street.  
At present this region is a narrow dale 
containing a series of beautiful groves 
alternating with rushy meadows.  Low, 
sheltered and with rich moist alluvial 
soil the foliage it sustains is 
remarkable at all seasons for its freshness 
and luxuriance and greatly adds to the 
charm of the beautiful landscapes of 
Prospect Hill.

If it should be attempted to 
rigidly adhere to a system of streets 
parallel with the present North and 
South streets of the city the construction 
of many miles of costly causeways at 
frequent intervals in this low land will 
be required, and the ground adjoining 
them will still, for a long time after 
the property on both sides shall have 
been largely built upon, remain 
untenantable and unsightly.  The 
stream itself will probably be made 
use of as a sewer for the convenience 
of dwellings in the neighboring 
uplands and in the dry seasons 
will be a prolific source of disease

To avoid these evils and to save 
some of the trees and turn them to 
good account for the public, the 
suggestion it offered that a street may 
be laid out upon a curving course on 
each side of an at a suitable distance
from the low banks of the stream, 
but not following the smaller and 
more rapid turns.  Between the two 
highways thus formed there would be 
a strip of lower ground with the 
stream running through it, generally 
two or three hundred feet wide, but 
adjusted according to the topography 
which, (the bed of the stream having 
been deepened at a few points, so as to 
save it from flooding and admit of 
drainage) might be laid out with a 
walk on each bank and other conveniences 
to make it suitable for public use as 
a pleasure ground.  The curving boarder 
roads from which it would be overlooked, 
having been made of sufficient width 
and shared by trees would serve as 
pleasure drives.  A pleasant public 
ground of this character at Leipsic 
formed in and on the banks of an 
old fosse may be remembered

If it should be desired to extend 
the scheme beyond the river South from 
Park Street, advantage may be taken 
of a feature which while it has great 
natural interest will also offer considerable 
difficulty to the extension of the streetsystem upon the ordinary plan.  This 
is the rocky hill side which reaches from 
a little south of Park Street to the Cedar 
Grove Cemetery.  By laying out one 
road on the upper and one one the lower 
side of the declivity and by a picturesque 
treatment of the ledge, a public pleasure 
ground of very striking and original 
character might in a few years be formed

Such a pleasure ground as the 
tracts indicated would when connected 
afford, while it would offer facilities for 
exercise both on foot and in carriages, 
would not properly provide for many 
purposes which should be had in view in 
laying out a park system for so large a 
city as Hartford will soon be.  

For these there should be sought; 
First, a considerable area of nearly 
level ground to which a graceful, quiet, 
lawn like character could easily be 
given; Second, umbrageous trees or 
groves suitable for picnics; Third, water; 
Fourth, an eminence commanding a 
good general view of the whole and a 
fine distant prospect.

All these desiderata, except 
the last, may be found in variousdirections at no great distance from 
what will soon be you centre of population.  
The advantages of Prospect Hill 
as an eminence however greatly surpass 
those offered at any other point which 
can be reached as soon and agreeably from 
all parts of the city.  Whenever this 
hill is cut up by roads, as it no doubt 
soon will be to accommodate the demand 
for sightly locations for residences, and 
houses are built with planted grounds 
about them on its sides, the superb 
views which are now enjoyed from it 
will be lost to the public

If ground sufficient to afford 
a look out at the top and to secure 
the control of the finest views should 
be taken, and this together with a 
portion of the meadow below it on the 
South East and the beautiful wood 
lands about and in the rear of the 
grounds fronting on Asylum Avenue 
planted Mr J. C. Perkins some thirty 
years ago, would combine to offer all 
that is required to complete a very 
fine park system.  

Should it be thought desirable 
however to apply some area adapted 
to athletic exercises, more conveniently 
accessible from the Southern parts of 
the city than the meadow at the 
foot of Prospect Hill, excellent ground 
for the purpose may be found either 
between the Zions Hill ledge and the 
Southern part of the river dale which 
has been described, or the meadow west 
of the ledge, and at the South end of 
the proposed extension of the Park Ways

It will be evident that the 
site of a system of public grounds of 
great beauty and convenience has thus 
been indicated, which could be secured 
at a very moderate cost.  Our present 
object however is mainly to print out 
the occasion of an early consideration 
of the question involved and we are 
not prepared to say without more 
study, that nothing better could be done.  

Such a feature or the mere 
promise of it in the future would 
certainly do [as] much to retain and 
attract population and wealth for 
the city, and there is little room for doubt 
judging from experience elsewhere, that 
the advantages thus promised
would be discounted in the market 
for real estate to such an extent 
that the necessary cost would be 
fully met by a greatly increased 
valuation of property for taxation.

Respectfully
FLO
[?][*IV Hartford                                                             dupl A
                                                                                    1890*]
Page 569.

I have been asked for a contribution to the public 
discussion of the question of a park for the people of 
my old home.  The form in which the question immediately 
presents itself I suppose to be:-  Can Hartford afford 
not to have a park?  I invite those who wish to give 
this question fair consideration to glance with me at 
the history of parks in this country.
Thirty years ago the first park had but just been 
begun in New York, and one of the daily papers of that 
city expressed a not uncommon opinion in saying that it 
was a foolish project, foreign to American social conditions, 
and one that would never be popular.  Ten years 
afterwards, three other parks had been begun and the first, 
though yet very crude and incompletely realizing its 
purpose, had come largely into use and obtained great 
celebrity.  But it was yet visited chiefly as a curiosity, 
and one thing that made it curious was its enormous 
cost.  It was now, however, commonly thought that a park 
was a good thing for a great metropolitan town, and perhaps 
not a bad speculation for a town aspiring or pretending 
to assume that position.
After another ten years the census-takers recorded 
forty parks in the United States, some bodies of land 
being probably included in the enumeration that ought 
not to have been classed as parks.  Since then, the older 
parks have ceased to be visited, except by strangers, as 
objects of curiosity, and have become settled domestic 
institutions, in a great degree fulfilling the proper 
functions of parks.  They are no longer thought of by 
well-informed people as a special form of luxury of great 
cities, and many towns of less population and wealth 
than Hartford have entered upon park undertakings.  Of 
such that occur to me as I write there are Trenton, New 
Jersey; Wilmington, Deleware; Lynn and Quincy in Massachusetts, 
and Mansfield, Ohio.  Lynn has acquired possession 
of a thousand acres of rugged land not half a 
mile out of the town.  Quincy's park land is comparatively 
small, but so situated as to practically include large 
and attractive bodies of water.  The Wilmington park 
ground has a similar advantage, taking in hald a mile of 
the Brandywine River.  Similarly, the ground just acquired 
by Rochester for parks includes two miles or more 
of the Genesee River.
The Earl of Meath, Chairman of the Park Committee 
of the Council of London, last Summer examined a large 
number of American parks.  Writing, a few weeks ago, to 
the London Graphic he said:--2-

   "England justly prides herself on her magnificent 
parks but her finest ones are private property, 
unless the Royal ones may be considered public.  If 
they who have charge of her municipal pleassunces 
do not desire to be distanced in the race by the conservators 
of public parks in America, I warn them 
that they must look sharply to their laurels."

   It is plain that public parks are no longer to be 
considered as foreign to American social conditions.  Nowhere 
in the world are parks as much used by the people 
as in America; nowhere as harmoniously, as profitably, 
as gratefully.

   It is foolish to assume that the rapid spread of the 
park movement of late years is the progress of a fashion, 
or that it shows merely a disposition of imitation or of 
rivalry.  It is mainly the consequence of the large dividends 
which the owners of the older parks — not one of 
them yet of nearly full growth, or in full working order — 
are receiving for what they have put into them.  I say 
this with confidence.  In a directing or consulting capacity, 
I have had something to do with most of them, and 
I have been at some pains to follow the history of others 
and watch their development and the development of the 
popular use of them.  Mistakes have been made in all, 
and in some there has been atrocious blundering, or 
worse, but I do not know of a park that has yet come at 
all fairly under trial, that is not generally considered 
by the tax-payers interested to have been a profitable 
business operation.

   In fact, since the people have come to realize what 
a park does for them, strong popular movements have occurred 
in many towns, looking to an increase of their 
park advantages.  This has been markedly the case, for 
example, in New York, Brooklyn, Baltimore, Buffalo, 
Chicago and St. Louis.  New York, since it has learned 
the use of its first park of eight hundred acres, commonly 
regarded for some years as extravagantly large, 
has taken land for additional parks to the extent of four 
thousand acres, and this with the general approval of 
those among its tax-payers who had been most bitter in 
denouncing its original park scheme as silly and extravagant.  
Brooklyn has a park of five hundred and fifty 
acres with five miles of parkways, two hundred feet wide.  
In no town has a park been more violently fought, or, for 
a time, more commonly regarded as an imposition upon the 
tax-payers.  In consequence of the opposition of citizens 
holding it to be so, it was for several years disgracefully 
neglected and ill-used.  Nevertheless, it has 
gradually become so useful and has developed such a 
public want, that this year the city is asking for a 
large increase of its park advantages.-3-

The Brooklyn Eagle of the 10th instant has an editorial 
advocating the project, in which it says of the original 
park that it "is an inestimable public possession, the 
worth of which must increase with the gathering years."  
The move for an additional park is not sectional, or, 
in an invidious sense, speculative, but general and substantial.  
In the discussion of the subject, I observe 
that a gentleman is active who used to live in Hartford, 
and is known there as a conservative business man; 
Elijah Kennedy.  I quote from him:-
"I will take for granted that there is need 
for an extensive addition to our parks.  That there 
is, has often been declared and never denied."

From another publication of Mr. Kennedy's I take 
the following:
"All are agreed that the project of another 
large park in Brooklyn is a desirable one."
Writing last month to a Detroit paper, the venerable 
H.W.S.Cleveland said of the experience of Minneapolis:-
      "The opposition to the park movement was so 
strenuous that many invaluable opportunities were 
lost and the park commissioners were so apprehensive 
of being thought extravagant that they failed to 
secure desirable areas, some of which have since 
been purchased at an enormous advance on what they 
might at first have been had for, while others have 
passed beyond their power of purchase.  All opposition 
has long since been silenced.  Every citizen 
is proud of our park system and if the question were 
now open of doing away with our parks and boulevards, 
on condition of restoring their cost to the city 
treasury, not a vote would be cast in its favor."

Minneapolis, at my last visit, had about 1400 acres 
of parks, and several miles of broad, tree-lined "parkways" 
outside of the parks.  Since then, I believe that 
additions have been made to the system.  Two of her parks 
look upon natural lakes that stretch far beyond them.

In a paper signed by the mayor and by several ex-mayors 
of Buffalo, and by the principal merchants, 
bankers, and heads of financial institutions of the city, 
after reference to the intense opposition made for a 
period of years to their park — opposition that sadly 
curtailed and injured the scheme — it is said that, 
after a fair trial, all objection to it has vanished.
"The city is not proud of it and grateful 
for it.  Broad avenues from different directions 
have been opened to it, and a street railroad constructed 
expressly for the use of visitors to the 
park."-4-

   In explanation of its present popularity, with the 
more conservative and cautious citizens, it is said:-
   "It, is believed that through the increased attractiveness 
of the city as a place of residence, 
the rise in the value of property adjacent to the 
park and its approaches, and the additional taxable 
property invested in lend and buildings in the vicinity 
of these improvements the outlay for the park 
has lightened the burden of the tax-payers."

   There is a general conviction among good people In 
every town that has been provided with a valuable park, 
that resort to the park takes the place of harmful forms 
of recreation to a degree that adds appreciably to the 
wealth of the town.  With Indirect reference to this 
consideration, these Buffalo gentlemen say of their park:- 
   "Its chief value lies in its ever-growing 
capabilities of usefulness in the future." 

   As to the disadvantage of being without a park, 
the conviction is coming to be prevalent that it practically 
affects the prestige of a city, much as the lack of 
a water supply or of a sewerage system would affect it.  
In other words, park, properly so called, is now generally 
felt to be a necessity rather than luxury of 
city life. 

   As to the economy of a procrastinating policy in 
regard to a park, one or two facts of my experience may 
be stated.  I was once asked to examine a body of land 
which a commission of citizens had selected as the site 
for a park.  I reported favorably, but the property was 
thought to be too costly, and the project fell through.  
This was nearly twenty years ago.  The town is yet without, 
a park.  There Is not another In the country that is 
in more need of one.  But, the tract of land formerly rejected 
is no longer to be thought of, while to secure 
any site that would tolerably answer the purpose, it 
would now be necessary to go far out of town and pay a 
much higher price for it than the rejected site was offered 
for.  The difficulties of the case increase every 
year, but the town cannot be brought to face them.  No 
doubt it will do so by-and-by, and will pay hardly for 
its earlier lack of courage.

   In another case, an excellent site for a park was 
found which could be obtained at a cost of five hundred 
dollars an acre.  The project was defeated by self-seeking 
politicians who could not look beyond the next annual 
election, and, three years ago, when I was consulted 
as to a new project of a park for the same city, I found 
the site first in view so occupied that it was not to be 
thought of.  I was told that $10,000. an acre would not -5-
buy it. I am now laying out a park for this city two 
miles further from the center of the town. 
     In several cases where, ten to twenty years ago, I
examined bodies of land proposed to be taken for parks, 
I saw reason to advise that, certain scraps on their border
should added to them. In every instance where 
this advice was not taken at the time, experience has 
made the mistake of neglecting it so apparent that the 
scraps in question have been afterwards acquired at a 
price from five to ten times greater than it would have 
been necessary to them when the advice was given. 

Advising against unreasonable delay, I must add 
that there is no public work that should be gone about 
more deliberately and cautiously than a park. There 
are cities that could have a park of greater value 
than that they have at half what they have paid for it, 
had the choice of a site been made with good knowledge 
of what is needed and what is to be objected to in a 
park, and had the entire business been from the outset 
under the control of a board wholly a disconnect from and 
independent other departments of city government. I
may add a word on the latter point, There is not a park 
worth having in this or any other country that has been 
obtained under our ordinary methods of doing city business
I do not say this because I believe that for us
there are any better methods for most of such business. 
I do not. But there are good reasons why parks should 
be treated exceptionally — why our ordinary political 
business methods applied to them must have ruinous effects. 
As far as I know, every park in this country has been 
obtained mainly by means of a fund from long loans administered
by a board of unpaid trustees acting in the manner 
of the Trustees of Public Libraries, Hospitals, or  
other endowed institutions. The best of such boards
have been composed of men of both parties, have been 
non—partisan, and have had long terms of office. 

Frederick Law Olmsted.
Brookline, Mass.
19th May, 1890.[*IV Hartford  dupl A*]
page 795.  12th June, 1890. 

Dear Harry:- 
I think that the publication in the Hartford 
pavers of this enclosure about the parks of Worcester 
might be useful. 
I wish to remind you, and that on any suitable 
occasion you should remind others concerned, that 
I have never been called upon to consider what, would be 
the best thing for Hartford to do, on the whole, in respect 
to a park system. What I have written on the subject 
was written in reply to a request that I would consider 
the value of particular body of land for a park. 
As to this body of land, I gave a very favorable opinion, 
but it does not follow that, if asked to consider the 
question of what is best, I should not recommend something
else, or something in addition to it. Much the 
best, most economical and most successful project of a 
park with which I have ever had to do, has been in a 
case where I went around the city in the first instance 
and pointed out the relative advantages of different 
pieces of land. In that ease, the principal park of the 
city came to be in a quarter of the outskirts which had 
been entirely overlooked by the committee in  charge of 
the matter, and which, after I began to examine it, I 
was assured by the committee it would be waste of time 
to at all consider. 

Affectionately,
Fredᵏ Law Olmsted

Mr. A. H. Olmsted,
Hartford, Conn.Fragments of
Mfs[?] of report to
Hartford Parks
1895




      Must have
    been winter 
at Biltmore
   or Brookline
after return

TV HartfordHartford Report 1895

Fragmentary beginnings

DENNISON'S CLASP ENVELOPE.
BOSTON, NEW YORK, PHILADELPHIA. CHICAGO,
CINCINNATI , ST. LOUISand the work of a park commission
is to be economically
planned solely with reference
to the effect which,
when its mature results
are gained, there will
have upon the public
health. A park commission
has no right to spend
a dollar for anything that
will not be worth a
dollar in promoting
the health of the people
on whose behalf it is
acting.

Briefly and so far as necessary
to our present purpose
that way of giving to work
may be stated as follows:
First to determine [where]
the locality of a park or in some cases  of more than one park using
that term in this case solely
with reference to a
means of health for the
people of a larger town
which means[To the Park Commission
of Hartford.
Dear Sirs;
We have been seeking
to serve you as best we could
following what have seemed to
us to be your suggestions.
We are not disposed to
do so. But we think it
right before going further
to advise you that we find
it extremely difficult to
advance satisfactorilly
except in the manner
that we have pursued]

those having them in changes, be
the better prepared [for] to advise
those who should consult us
in this field of study.To the P.C. of Hartford.
Through the days of Park Commissions
several American towns
have been run in debt to the
amount of millions of dollars. The ostensible
[?it] for which their debts have been incurred has been to provide
[them with] an apparatus to
indicate [an apparatus to] which this word park is [applied] used
but a large and costly part of which is not a park in the primary sense of that term
[not even park-like.] but on the contrary is wholly unparklike. The
first [duty] business of a park commission
[is to provide a park to]
should be to find and secure ground suitable
for a park-like park; to provide ways of
approach to [it is a secondary
duty] this park is an important
but a yet a secondary [part]
part of its duty.

[We think it might to] We refer
to the study that we have thus
given the subject and to an experience
in dealing with it as
providing an explanation
of statements and expressions
of correction that we shall
have occasion to make in
this communication the grounds
of which would otherwise need 
to be set forth in more detail.
In taking up the duty 
usually given us by the Park
CommissionsTo the Hartfd Comsn
Through the doings of so called
park commissions American towns
have in several instances been
run in debt to the amount of
millions of dollars. The ostensible
object in all these cases has
been to provide an apparatus to
designate which the word park
is used, [but a large part of the
money spent has been for works
parks distinctively so called-
of a class & which are not 
parks]

To determine in what
way money can be expended
by a park comission
for this purpose without its
meddling with the more specific duties of
other branches of a city
government, the fact is
to be first considered
that in the past people
living in towns have been
subject to a special class
[of arr] of derangements of health[of health] is a result of which then,
average length of life has been less
than that of people living out of towns
and their capacities of usefulness
and happiness while alive materially
[also have turn] less than they would otherwise have been. There is not the
smallest reason for doubt that by
the use of such [an] apparatus [for
the purpose] as it is thus the business of
park commissions to provide, the
life of people [living] in towns [may?]
on an average be much prolonged, and
their vigor and capacities of usefulness
while living increased. It follows then that
earning and consequently their tax-paying capacities may be increased
and that this money judiciously
used for the purpose by park
commissions, is money added to
the worth of the city [concerned?]. [and
so added as to promote the health
and increase the earning capacity of
all classes of its citizens.]

before giving any consideration
to the special question
of this report it will be
best to ask what at bottom
is the object with reference
to which the commission
has been constituted.
Speaking in broad terms
it may be said to be the
promotion of the public
health in the future of
Hartford.
To the Hartford Commission
During the last forty years
a great many American towns
not ranking above Hartford
in population and wealth
have had special commissions
like yours at work
for larger or shorter periods.
Through the operations
of those Commissions
they have been run into
debts in each case of
millions of dollars to pay
for outputs of special
[apparatus thereafter
going by the name of parks]

To the P. C. of Hartford -
American towns were provided
with broad shaded streets
before they had park commissions.
They were also provided
with public squares, and
places and gardens. It is
not to provide for these that
park commissions are formed.
It is to provide for something
to be termed a park in
[way of] distinction from a
public square, place or
garden and of means of
approach to a park or of
passages between parks that
park commissions have become
necessary.is used but a large part
of which contains nothing
park-like. The park
commission of one city
has laid out many miles
of broad and shaded streets
but not an acre of park-like
ground.

themselves under influences
counteractive to those commonly
prevailing in towns
which are harmful to
physical, moral and mental
health. The [object of] main use of
a park system is, in fact, essentially
the same with
that which lends a small
[able] part of the population of
cities to spend some time
[the summer] [their summers]
every year in visiting what
are compulsively called summer resorts;
these [resorts] being more or
less well adapted to providethe relief and the counter
active influence in question.
The value of the arrangements
to be made by a 
park commission lies in the
fact that a much larger
part of the people of a city
[may obtain the benefit
in question, that all may
obtain it more continuous.]
may obtain the benefit in
question and that all may
obtain it [often as,] more
continuously [and with less
expense of] with less harmful
interruption to their ordinary

pursuits and at less
cost than would otherwise
be possible. It is the
universal testimony of cities
that have made well-considered comprehensive
commissions of this
class, that the cost of
them has been [well-repaid]
more than repaid; that
it has been largely profitable.
It has been even
found that as a matter of municipal finance, the outlay made
for them has been more than
returned through the increase
[value of real estate which]value of real estate which 
they have brought about and 
the enlargement of the basis 
of taxation thus occuring-has accrued because of them


Dear Sir,
At the base of the business 
of a park commission is
the purpose to provide means
by which the future people
of a town may most readily, 
most economically
and most thoroughly place 
[themselves temporarily under
influences which will be counteractive
to those unfavorable to 
physical mental and [?]
health]To _
There is one consideration
[by] which sets [apart] the proper work of a
park commission [is made to
stand apart] apart from that of any
other department of government.
It is that the manner in
which its work is to be
done is a question by
which [more importance
with reference to the people
who are yet to be born, even
to generation after generation
of them]

partTo ___________
There is one consideration
applying to that part of
a city's business that is given
in charge to a park
commission by which

To_________
It can never be as
fully established as is desirable
in the minds of the 
people of a city that the
manner in which the work
of a park commission is
doneTo______
The business of a

To_______ It is hardly possible
to establish in the

The institution of a park
commission is of comparatively
recent origin, growth not having
yet been made by the
first ties planted by the first
commissionHartfd.
Dear Sir. We have made
several official and professional

of such a commission having
been begun on a bare and
intractable site and the designers
if having stated in advance
that they would have in view
results which could not be
fairly realized in less than
thirty years

on groundTo the Park Comssn of Hartfd
Dear Sirs; In explanation
of our motives in writing this
communication to you, we may
state that we have been

of such a commission having
been begun on a bare, rocky
and intractable site and with
a view to results which are
not yet realized.

act will be determined, not
only of your Board as at
present constituted but of
its successors for all time
to come. Moreover the same
considerations that are to
be weighed in view of this
duty will be found to
apply to the solution of
the problemThe institution of a park
commission is of comparatively
recent origin. The first work
of the first commission has not
yet [having] come to that degree
of advance in the growth if its
trees which was stated at the outset by its
designer would be necesary  to
a justification of the plan upon
which it was laid out and
this is true of most of the
works since begun, though
because of special advantages
of the original conditions some
few are realizing what had
been designed in the plans for
them much more than others.

respects as showing the ground
of observations and suggestions
[to] he made in this respect
that might otherwise
seem to require justification.
The institution of a park
commission is of comparatively
recent origin. The first work
[began its work of construction a
little more than thirty years
ago and its trees upon which
the whole value of its plan is
dependent not having been
planted [?] enough to provide
an experimental]
[respects as a justification of
some of the observations that
we shall have occasion to
make in this report that might
otherwise require to be presented
in a different manner.]

Hartfd
Dear Sirs. It may be best that
it should be stated at the begining of this
report that we have [made several visits
to the] several times visited the principal
public grounds of Europe and conferred
under favorable circumstances
with those in management of them
and that we have had to do professionally
with the majority of all
considerable public park under takings
in this country and have reviewed
the experience of most of those of
which we have not been in direct
professional charge.in what way does the
purpose of your Commisin
differ from that of the
Committee which [?
the State House]
laid out the State House
or the committee which
laid out the [?ithh?]

Hartfd
Dear Sirs, We have made
several official and professional
visits to the principal
cities of Europe with the purpose
of qualifying ourselves by
a study of their experience and by conference with their managers to
deal with the questions to
which this report will relate.
We have also had to do with most works
of importance of the same class
in the United States and Canada
and have proposed the
plans and had professional
charge of the larger numbers 
[of these undertakings. We] and the more important of them. We
refer to our expince in thoseFurther as to the present [status of the]
scientific status of the subject, it is
important that you should be made
to realize in some degree the fact
that a remarkable confusion of ideas
[on the subject] prevails upon it not only with the
public at large, but [even] with liberally
educated and cultivated men, [if not well]
and even [with men who] to a certain
and lamentable extent, with men
who stand in the attitude of experts upon it.
With this object I will first [issue]
present this proposition: When a word is commonly
used with extremely inexact, ambiguous, uncertain
or inconsistent significance the [idea held by the] prevailing
idea of the substantial matter to which the word applies is
[is a confused and inexact idea uncertain idea
fluctuating idea] a fluctuating and confused idea, and that
when a series of [ideas] words necessary to an interhange of ideas or a
discussion of [the] a subject are found to be so used it is [a] reasonably
[inference] to be concluded that the prevailing ideas on the subject
are confused or mudled and [of] probably in important respects unsound[I must tell you that I am not myself in an entirely
clear state of mind as to the theory]
Franklin Park
&c

[to consider what explanations we might have
[to make] to present before adopting and acting
[as you have] on the theory [that you have?]
of our character that you have?]
If I am warranted in assuming
that there can be no other
answers to [these] questions like
these other than such as appear to us the right answers
[must be inclined to assume] we should   & ?  [? general  
and suppose about the question]
 are entitled to a reconsideration of the [opinion of an] impression
[character] upon wh. you have been acting
[free from all such bias of mind [against us as has existed]
growing from imperfect information, as has existed,
then I will ask [you to candidly] shall
that some effort be now
[made to look at the matter
from our point of view.]
made to see the point of view
to [candidly regard] understand and from which we [have] regard the questions between us.
[As I said, in]
As I have already said we
have never [offered our services]
made an offer of our services to an Park Commission 
before we have been asked to
do so. Having to meet any such requests, however
[When asked] our answerclusion

has been [we believe invariably] essentially of a stereotyped form,
stating in a general way what
we [are] wd be prepared to do, [and]
[our probable charges for doing 
it.] stating also as nearly as practicable in advance
upon what basis our charges would be made.
I do not think that we
[have ever] had failed to make such
an answer [unless it shall
appear that we have done so
in your case.] in any case [before]
until now, when it appears that we have
done in dealing with you. [If we have
done so in your case. If
it is probable that we stated
on terms verbally. But if at last
it is not thought that If
we have not the reason 
should be looked for in
the some conditions under which 
we have to come to be employed
by you, rather]asked

We have never failed in such
[a letter to a prelimh an intro] an initiatory letter to state
that, before going or agreeing to go
further, we should wish to make
a preliminary visit with the[first of all make
what we term a preliminary
visit with] the
object of personally
observing the conditions
of the problem to be
considered & if [securing a having a]
establishing a good understanding with
the Commission as to the
scope & motives of the
plan [for] which they [are were
to] might afterwards look to us to prepare. Also to
make any other preliminary suggestions
for which we shd see occasion
with. [We with the course in The reason of the custom ? is
order that we [may not] do not wish to 
be drawn [too early] prematurely into
[engagements undertakings
which because of] the results
of which [are not likely to be]
will not be such as we would willingly be
professionally responsible for, and [in order to] that we may
secure after understanding of the conditions of the problem to be studied
as far as possible harmony
of purpose and a lasting good
understand [of] with those whom
we are to serve, before we enter 
upon]

If we failed to proceed in this respect in an
usual way in your case
[please] let it be considered whether [it
is not probable that [?ded] so]
this may not have been because the manner
in which [we entered upon
our] our business with you
was entered upon was exceptional

[exceptional? in this respect was it not exceptional for example in
this way; that at the outset of what we have had to [your Commission]
do with the problem of a park for [Wilmington?], your Commission
had not been formally
organized, and that when
[it organized] it [had] came to be organized it was under a
law which made [your it] dependent
in a degree that
no other American Park Commission has been
upon votes from time to time]no such impression could
have existed in the mind of any
member of your Board at the
time [you] it was assumed that [we ha]
we had dropped an obligation
to furnish you with the plan,
unless it had been previously
assumed that [the needed in-]
[information] we had months before 
that time been furnished
[information] [all such information
on [it] the interests of the
[citizen] city of writing the required
should be taken into account
[in the devising of that plan]
in determining that plan.
[Was that ground for this
latter assumption?]No such impression could have
been possible [except it rested]
at the time when your Board
first took action based upon it
unless it was based upon a previous
impression that we had
[been provided month] months before

all such information [as we
had a right to] as it was right that we should ask of you,
[all such informal as a condition]
as a customary and reasonable condition
of an arrangement to devise the
plan in question, all such information
as it was necessary
that we should have in order
to prepare a plan which you
could proceed with confidence
to work out [steadily and]
continuously, steadily and
economically, a plan that
would be characterized by
unity of design, [so that]
and interdependence of parts
so that each part would be [adopted] finely adjusted
to all, and all parts to each.1
I have been half a century engaged in the study
and practice of [a certain art. With a view to such
study and practice I have] the art to which your consideration is [now] invited.
This study and practice has
carried me into every State of the Union, [into Canada
American and] into Spanish America as far as the Tropics, into [most
of the Kingdoms of Europe and into] the crossing of the
Atlantic and visits to most of the Kingdoms of Europe. It has
led me into intimate conference with [a great variety
of people] many [minds] men who have been engaged in the
practice of the art under a great variety of circumstances
and with [a great variety of people who 
have by whom I have consulted me upon questions of the practice 
of the Art as to working] many other people
as to practical problems of the art arising under extremely varied [conditions questions] social
conditions and with relation to extremely varied conditions of soil
and climate. [It] I suppose that it is because of [what I am naturally
supposed to have learned in all this] all that [what] may have been
rubbed into me [by] through such experiences that
I have been asked to pilot you in such considerations as it may be
practicable for you to give the subject. [in what I shall
take may be taken to be a preparatory preliminary study of the subject
to be followed up I ? by close study of it as opportunities
offer and circumstances suggest in your future professional 
life.] For various reasons I find the duty [is a very] one of much
difficulty [for men]. [Of] Some of these reasons [many, not without
in my ?] which do not grow
as do others out of personal disabilities but out of conditions under which one is at
present practiced. I shall [grow
have occasion to explain to you ? the conditions
of the art, which I shall] out of [the personal conditions of the
art. I shall personally ? occasion to]
to be followed up by closer study of it as of[I have been engaged in the study and practice]

2
The objective point of [the art is certain effect]
the practice of the art the [goods] commodity which its practitioners
undertake to [put put in the market is a] supply is a
certain effect or class of effects on the human
mind. There must be a psychological science of the subject [such effect
have a right to ask] and you may have reasonably expected me to teach you [something
of] the outlines of this science [and I grieve to say
that with] But I have to tell you that after much study & discussion I am satisfied
with no [showing scientific] presentation of it that has come to me [on the
subject.] In the larger part, my practice has been
based on the teachings of personal observation and experience that certain conditions
[of course are followed by certain effects
of the desired effects.] being attained certain effects follow. In other words my practice
has been in a large degree empirical and you
are not to suppose that I can take you at all deeply
below the surface of the subject. 
[A great deal has
been written not a little has been written in attempts
to look deeper but in my experience the
man has not yet appeared who can do so satisfactorily.]3
It is a significance circumstance the [neither] the art
[art not the calling of those who practice it subject in the consideration of wh I shall have the
pleasure of leading piloting you has as yet no settled and generally
approved name.] has not as yet a fixed and generally accepted name with us. It is called by some
Landscape Gardening, by some Landscape Engineering,
by some Landscape Architecture, and there are yet
other terms applied to it. [For example] In London, a most industrious
writer upon the subject, called himself a Garden
Architect. As was pointed out by Sir Walter Scott when it began to be aired
the term landscape gardening is objectionable
as tending to establish a confusion of ideas which is most largely used in England & English literature.
The same objection applies 
to the terms Landscape Engineering and Garden Architect.
Landscape Architecture was the term
used by your President [in his invitation to me to meet
you.] when inviting me to this duty.
The same term has been used in Acts of our American
Congress; [it] in the records of a [servant] member of our larger
town governments and several of our higher seats of learning.
Its French equivalent is used by the Government of
France. [As to Landscape Architecture you should know, if you do
not that] In the republic of Art & Letters on the [?] it seems to me to have the better standing [in usage].
Yet you should know, if you do not, that both here and in England there are men [who
are] to be respected to whom [ the title of Landsc Arch
is odious. They  think it a] it is an odious term [It is to them] They plainly regard a man who accepts the title of
L.A. as they would one wearing
badge of hateful heresy.
The origin of [their] this sentiment I believe to [have been
a mistaken] be in an assumption that the word architecture
is rightly applicable only to works [in which the lines
and forms in which] the lines and forms motives and conventions of
which [are] closely assimilate those of refined building [constructions].4
as some of you may have [adopted] been inclined to this notion
[I wish to disembarras you] it is desirable for our present purpose that you shd be disembarrased of it at the outset. [To this end I will I will] To this end I refer you to Richardson's Dictionary,
which -  in the American Encyclopedia says is the best
work we have on English Philology - (insert old sheets)
I do not say that there are no objections to the term L.A.
with respect to the use that I shall make of it. [in what I
am going to say to you.] I say only, that, on the whole, it
[is the less] appears to me the least objectionable term of the three or four that
are in [most] more or less general use. [with us.]

I wish to guard at the outset against you

5
I have referred to the fact of the unfixed name of
the art we are to consider as significant. It seems
to imply, if nothing more, that the art has not attained to a fixed
footing with us.  I shall give you other facts of [significance to] bearing toward
the same conclusion. [Before doing so]
You may question if [this does] a probability does
not thus appear that it [is not meet that it should
is not adapted to] facts to meet any extended
[public want] and constant public want
[as bearing upon this ques]
As bearing indirectly upon this question I
will mention that (Henet).6
[The subject in the consideration of wh. I am to lead you is
that of the calling in the study & practice of which I have been
engaged for half-century. I shall speak of it [under the] as Landscape Architecture,
the term used [by your President] in the invitation which I
have had the honor to receive from your President.[It a] You should know
however, that the fitness of this term has been much questioned. The objection
that lies, I believe, in] the assumption that the word architecture [can] is to be [strictly]
rightly applied only to works of building not to works designed on principles applicable to buildg. If
this were a sound assumption Landscape Architecture would a self discordant term. To show that ?
to Richardsons dictionary, which says the Am. Cyclopedia is -- [?] ]
There is no inconsistency in the circumstance that
[Thus] in common use the word architect [should] without qualification [should]
is greatly applied to formers of buildings with design [is not [?] strange.] If one
speaks of something he has seen at a smithy's shop he does not need [to] to add
that he means a blacksmiths shop to prevent its being supposed that he
means a tinsmith or a copper smith, shoe shop shoes for human beings not horses. If he speaks of [painters] a
painter in connection with a [malt?] horse he does not need to explain that he
means a horse painter and not a scene painter or a portrait painter.
To [be precise] secure precision, however, I shall in what I have to say to you [may] sometimes use the term building
architect that you may be sure that at the instant [that I do not
mean] it is not a landscape architect that I mean. As to the significance of the word landscape
when thus used I [will] shall have something to say later.
also why L.A. is to be preferred to L.G. (discriminating)
It may [moreover serve] yet further prevent misunderstanding if [I further say at the]
at this point I say something also upon the [condition] present condition
of the [this] calling of L.A. - (Hunt & perhaps explanation of "profession").
[Yet further upon the 
Something f?]
Something [may] must also be said
in order better to clear the ground before us, on the present condition of L.A. as
a branch of Science and Art theoretically and operatively.
[My fifty years of study & practice of L.A. has led me &c. general confession
The science of L.A., meaning by that term, the theory upon which the
effects properly [& the] sought to be produced - the theory of the causation of
their effects [was] [is not] [had] [satisfactorily set forth] has not been set forth
in any treatise upon the [?] to my satisfaction. My own practice
has always largely been [a-practice] empirical. [No] Little more so (to say the least) than the practice
of medicine is acknowledged to be by those who pursue it.
All this indicates you must reflect that the mind of the public, in
the minds even of liberally educated and cultivated men, nay, in the
minds of men who appear before the public as experts in the subject,
ideas prevail of a very confused and often of a muddled
character.]


[The subject in the consideration of wh I am to lead you is that
of a certain calling. I must say at once that although I have been engaged
in the study and practice of the calling half a century, I am not
prepared to treat of it in a strictly scientific way. [I have never found a
fully satisfactory] Among the various [terms] names by which it is known
no one is fully satisfactory to me. The name I chose and [by] which your
President used in addressing me is Landscape Architecture. But if you
ask me for a definition of this term [I must confess that I have never found
one. I must say further that I have never found a satisfactory
statement of the manner in which the effect on the mind of men
which it is the ultimate end.] I must confess that [I have never
found] in all that has been written upon [it] the subject I have 
never found one]
The [ultimate object] [and] objects of the calling, the goods which
it is its business to produce, are effects on the minds of men. But
how the means taken to produce these ends operate to their result
I am not able to tell you. A great deal has been written upon it
I have seen nothing in all that has been written that is fully satisfactory
or which I can preach as full sound fundamental doctrine.  This you
may think is [a confession] an admission that my practice has been empirical.
[Th] It is true that in a great degree it has been. Perhaps hardly in as
great degree as the [best] most successful physicians [will] admit that their practice
has been empirical.
[There is an objection to the term L.A. which objection is felt by some. Indeed there are estimable
men to whom upon whom the term acts as a red flag upon a bull.
Their objection to it rests as far as I know upon the assumption that]C
[The subject in the consideration of wh I have undertaken to lead
you is one upon wh extremely confused ideas [are utmost uninvesally prevalent.
I must assume that your minds] prevail, not alone in this community
as a whole, and in every civilized community as a whole, but with liberally
educated ? and [generally] cultivated men wherever in all the world
such men are to be found.]
Before I can take [?] courses to that and I must convince
you that the statement I have made as to the general prevalence of confused 
ideas of the subject is warranted. I shall try to do so at some length because
if I do not succeed, what I shall have further to say will be wasted. As a of this confusion there
is a great waste not only of labor applied to certain ends but great [waste] 
and irretrievable waste of natural resources, or wise development of which
would add materially to [the] common [wealth] and to private wealth.
¶This being my conviction and having no reason 
[thus to assu to suppose that
the conditi you stand superior to the confused state of mind, may first
duty the chief object of all I should have to say my lea my main
object will be to lead you] 
to suppose that you are in an exceptional position
my leading object will be to place the subject before you in such a
way that in any future thought that you may give to it you may stand
at some advantage for clearer study than [as often] it often obtains.
But I cannot [take even this preliminary step without ?
some appropriate & a definition of the respect, and or satisfactory
definition] move a single step without making sure that you at least understand
in a general way the leading purpose of L.A. and why [m?ers] to that purpose have a special interest for you.
A satisfactory definition of L.A. in dictionary terms I have never found [nor and I] nor am I
prepared to frame one. All that is necessary for our immediate purposes
may be conveyed by an illustration. (but & approaches) (This not
all but an indication of what has beyond may be postponed) (Railway in Sierras may be presented
much later) [The general] As to the assertion of general confusion
of ideas on the subject I lay down the proposition that when [an words are] a word is commonly
[used in common usage words have one extremely varied a word has an
used with] extremely inexact, ambiguous uncertain or inconsistent significance,
the conclusion may be adopted that the [public] idea held by the public
of the substantial matter to which the word applies is a confused and
uncertain idea, and that when a [lay] series of words necessary to the
interchange of ideas or discussion of a subject are found to be [so?sed]
it is a [fair] reasonable infernce that the public ideas on that subject
are confused and of [any] questionable soundness. (Knight & Liredon)



                                                                                                           Scheme
Difficulty-
[Moods] - Confusion - manifestation of I in common practice - hotels,
^public pinhole.