Frederick Law Olmsted     
Subject File    
Private Estates
(4)Vanderbilt, George W. 
 Biltmore, N.C. 1894[Information of Mrs Hubbard?]
[Wall-making]

6th February, 1894.

Dear Mr. Gall:

I want you to try to have two or three short
samples of wall with Scotch coping made for the parapet
of the Approach over the deep glen north of the Esplanade.
I have seen miles of it in Scotland and many attempts to
make it in this country. There are several, for example,
at Beverly in this State, on the roadside of villa grounds,
and one at Newport. All are failures, and that which the
Scotchman begun last Fall at Biltmore was plainly going to
be a failure when I left. We can only experiment. We
shall abandon the intention, unless we can get nearer the
real thing than anybody has, so far as I know, in this
country. With a view to experiment, I send you, by mail,
the second volume of Stephen's "BOOK OF THE FARM", with
prints and directions, which Stephens being a Scotchman,
ought to be sufficient. I do not think they will prove so.
I send, also, sketches from a photograph of a wall which I
saw when at Oxford. Unfortunately, none of these show the
top of the wall. The coping stones should be more regular
than they appear in the sketches; more solid, firm and
blocked and keyed together, and the whole coping better
incorporated with the wall below; not so distinctly something
laid over it.

I have seen walls in Scotland which were just the
thing we wish, rugged, firm, picturesque, substantial, andGall - 2.

beautiful with Ivy irregularly scattered over them. We wish
you to get such a wall, but do not believe that you will
succeed, since, as we have said, every attempt of which we
have known in America fails in some way to have the air
that is required.

Having so little faith in getting what we want, we
would like to have you, also, make a sample of a simpler
wall, like that which has been used on the Lower Approach
Road, but thicker and stronger and more substantial in
every way.

The difficulty is to get a man competent to lay a
good wall; constructively good; who will be willing not to
try to make it smooth after the standard of masonry. A
mason aims to make it too nice. A laborer, not a mason,
cannot be made to understand the requirements of sound construction.
If we could get a Scotch farm hand who had been
engaged in laying such a wall, we might hope for something
that would answer, but it would be difficult, I fear, to
prevent him from aiming to make something too fine.

You will see that it is a nice point of design
to get just the right character in a parapet at this point,
but it will not cost much to make two or short trial bits.
As I said, I do not much expect you to succeed. Therefore,
I want a sample of another sort of wall to fall back upon.
This would be one like that on the Lower Approach, but
broader, stronger, of somewhat larger stones, well blended
and substantial.

Yours truly,
signed Fred Law Olmsted.FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED. JOHN CHARLES OLMSTED. CHARLES ELIOT.

OLMSTED, OLMSTED & ELIOT.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS.
BROOKLINE, MASS.

EDWARD D. BOLTON,
SUPERINTENDENT OF CONSTRUCTION.

WARREN H. MANNING,
SUPERINTENDENT OF PLANTING.

15th February, 1894

Dear Mr. Andre:-

We have been for several years the professional advisers of
Mr. George W. Vanderbilt, in respect to
a notable country seat which he has in preparation. It is in a mountain region overlooking
the valley of the French Broad River in western North Carolina;
about as far south of New York as Nice from Paris. Parts of it
have an elevation above the sea of over 3000 feet. the extent of
mountain land now owned by Mr. Vanderbilt in this region is about
100,000 acres; nearly all of it being a forest, and intended to
be maintained as a forest under the management of our friend, Mr.
Pinchot, who, born in New York, is of a French-Swiss family and has
been educated in schools of forestry in France and Switzerland.
Mr. Vanderbilt's architect, Mr. R. M. Hunt, was educated in pairs,
has received the highest professional honors there, and the house
he is building has much of the historical character of the chateaux
of France of which Mr. Vanderbilt and Mr. Hunt together made a tour
of study before the design of the house was prepared. We were consulted as to the
site, and placing of the house, and are forming out terraces, pleasure grounds and roads,
including an approach road three miles in length, and
a picturesque Arboretum Road nine miles in length. 


2

As a part of the establishment we had advised that there
should be an enclosed garden near the chateau, and it had been
partly formed before I law saw you in Paris. As there is a vegetable
garden and as there are orchards elsewhere on the estate,
this garden was to be used chiefly for supplying choice fruits,
vegetables and cut flowers for the residence. It had
been planned in out line and its walls and structures partly built
before our visit to Messrs. Croux's establishment and before
we visited a fruit and vegetable garden which
you advised us to see near Tours. After visiting these and other
French gardens and after our conversation with you and Messrs.
Croux, we advised Mr. Vanderbilt that, especially as to a choice and
arrangement of the fruit part of his garden, it would be best for him to have
counsel in the matter direct from French experts. We thought that you would
be the best man to consult but did not
feel at liberty to ask you to prepare plans in detail for a work
the general plan of which had been fixed by actual construction of
walls and houses before your advice was asked. We were under the
impression that we had seen at the office of Messrs. Croux drawings
and other evidence that they were accustomed not only to provide
fruit trees as ordered, but to make plans and to provide all requirements
for fruit gardens. With the assent of Mr. Vanderbilt,
we accordingly wrote to Messrs. Croux, explaining the situation at
much length with the aid of maps and photographs. Their reply 3

indicated that they had not fully understood our explanation of 
the conditions and of our intentions.  They advised [preparatory] elementary 
operations which had already been made, and proposed that Mr. Vanderbilt 
should employ an agent whom they would send out, who would 
spend part of a week at the Chicago Exposition and another part at 
his estate, not recognizing that nearly all the week would necessarily 
be spent in traveling between the two places which are 600 
miles apart, and connected by [a] crooked and complicated, slow, western railways [system].  For other reasons the proposition was impracticable, 
and Mr. Vanderbilt felt obliged to decline proceeding upon it.

[We send you herewith drawings and photographs, most of which 
were taken a year ago.  The garden has since been under tillage 
solely with a view to the improvement of the soil.  It is well-drained and watered.  The enclosing 
walls are [were] all built and coped with tiles made on the estate and the 
principal glass-house is [hot house is] under contract.]

Mr. Vanderbilt's gardener is a Scotchman of about the qualifications 
that you would expect to find in the ordinary Scotch gardeners 
of the larger class of English [culture] country places.  An intelligent 
man who has formerly had the care of wall fruit and who would be 
apt and willing to do anything he could in proceeding under instructions; 
but ignorant of French methods and of the French language.  
The laboring men of the estate, his assistants, are ignorant negroes; emancipated 
slaves, speaking a mongrel English.

We should greatly like to have a properly trained French 


4

horticulturalist put in charge of the trained [wall] fruit department, but the 
situation would not be a [most un-]pleasant one for him and social and 
administrative difficulties, besides those of language, make [the] it improbable 
that this proposition would work out satisfactorily 
[proposition impracticable].

The question which, under these circumstances, we venture to [have ventured 
to submit] allow Mr. Vanderbilt to submit to you is whether it would be feasible for you to prepare planting 
plans, and with the aid of such wood-cuts and directions as Messrs. 
Croux have published for the benefit of their customers, more 
especially with respect to methods of training, to give instructions 
under which a gardener, accustomed to common English methods of training, 
could so proceed that Mr. Vanderbilt would have the main, 
essential advantages of a good French fruit garden?

You know that in America much more fruit is used than in 
England.  The climatic conditions of Biltmore are not very different 
from those of Paris; the Summers are liable, perhaps, to be a little 
warmer and the early Summer months are moister.  The Winters are 
not usually even as cold, except for a few brief intervals, yet are liable, [at iontervals of] perhaps 
once in ten years, to short periods of extreme cold; the mercury having 
fallen on one occasion for a few hours as low as -9 Fahrenheit, or 
-22.8 centigrade

[If you should be willing to render Mr. Vanderbilt and to render
us such a service as we have thus suggested, will you please advise
us that you are so and state what your charge would be.  If Mr. 
Vanderbilt approved the arrangement we should probably inform you 
by telegraph.]5
We should wish you to give orders for the plants and for such
required fixtures as could not well be reproduced here from samples
which you would send (Excellent mechanics are employed on the
estate).
Mr. Vanderbilt often visits Paris, and will probably do so early
next Summer, when if you are willing to undertake this service
he would call upon you.
We append some extracts from our letter of last year to
Messrs. Croux.

Edouard Andre,
30 rue Chaptal, Paris, France

EXPLANATORY EXTRACTS FROM LETTER OF 7th Jan.,
1893, TO MESSRS. CROUX & SON

By examination of the accompanying drawing and photographs 
you will see that our plans for the residence part of the undertaking
include provision for a garden of four acres (one and six-
tenths hectares), which will be situated in a cove of wooded
hills, sheltered on all sides but the South. Walls about it have
already been built and the photographs will show you its present
condition in all superficial respects. The inclination of the
ground being too steep for convenient cultivation, we have divided 
the garden by terrace walls.  These, as well as the outer walls,
are built of local stone, which is a very dark, although unusually
micaceous, gneiss.
X                X               X                X              X              X             X           X
You are aware, from personal observation, how little has 
ever been done in America in such forms of fruit gardening as
those for which it is the specialty of your nursery to prepare.
We do not know that there is in all the country a single illustration 
of such gardening that you would think tolerably good.
It is the general opinion of our horticulturists that in our
climate nothing is to be gained by such gardening. Nevertheless,
we have thought that in a place that will have the rank and the 
instructive influence that this place of Mr. Vanderbilt's is 
likely to have, it would be desirable that a fair example should
be presented of this department of horticulture. We believe
that a successful presentation of it would, in a manner, set a 2
fashion and lead on to many undertakings of the same class. We have
ourselves no experience in such undertakings and do not think that
our knowledge is such that we should go further than we have in
our plans for the purpose. We have felt this more strongly since
our conference with you and Mr. Andre'. We have engaged for Mr.
Vanderbilt a gardener who has for many years had charge of a
place as notable perhaps as any with us, and which has a considerable
amount of wall-fruit planted more than fifty years ago.
This gardener has taken many horticultural prizes in competition
with the best horticulturists that we have, and is highly skilful
in a general way, and is a sound, sensible man. But having visited
his old garden, we cannot regard it as exemplary, nor can
we think his experience of much value with reference to such
fruit culture as we have in view, except as to manipulation
of details.

X X X X X X

The natural subsoil of the garden is a rather stiff clay;
the soil upon it was a poor, thin clay loam. We have added to
it enough surface soil, brought from a distance and treated with
lime and composted with dung, to supply a depth of fully one
foot of soil. The subsoil has been well-tilled a foot deeper
The ground is all tile-drained; an aqueduct has been laid, from
which, at convenient intervals, water can be distributed.

X X X X X X

As in the open orchards and vineyards of the Estate, designed
primarily to supply the market of Asheville, there will be
produced an abundance of common peaches, grapes, apples and pears,

3

it would be desirable to grow in this garden only such fruit as will
exhibit the highest value of wall and trellis culture, with some
regard also to earlier supplies than could be obtained otherwise.
Our suggestion is that the larger part of the beds next the wall
could be given up to fruit culture, fruits "en cordon" along the
outer edge of the adjoining walk. The larger part of the fruit
on the walls might well be of apricots, nectarines and such of
the more delicate grapes as would not need to be under glass
(several grapes are indigenous in the neighborhood and commonly
bear abundantly) We think it might be desirable to have a certain
amount of fruit growing upon the south face of the north wall of
the garden, which would be covered with sashes of glass during
the Winter, to be removed after all danger of frost is past in the
Spring. We should particularly like, if you should think best, to
have a few choice figs and pomegranates and other sub-tropical
fruits grown in this way, if practicable. We shall also wish
to/obtain from you a few fig plants to be grown elsewhere in the
garden, in the manner of those which you exhibited to us on
horizontal frames.

We trust that you will send us precise instructions as to
what you consider the best methods of attaching the trees to the
walls, with samples and prices of the materials and implements to
be used, so that we can have them made here, or, if thought best,
procure them by orders through you. Also that you will procure
and send us any engravings or other illustrations by which you
think that we can better instruct the gardener on the ground in4

matters of detail Such plans also as you may think that we shall
need for moveable glass south of the north wall. 

[*Copy 3 copies File gen*]
Biltmore, Sunday
    28th July, 1894,
Dear [Julian?];  I have received your
inquiry about the pigeon offer. I doubt whether
you can get even a telegraphic reply now
before the meeting tomorrow. The idea which
my telegram is intended and to briefly convey to you
will be that you should put the responsibility of advising 
upon [Hare?], considering is as a question
of economy of maintenance. If some man competent,
required for other others, can coincidentally 
to their other duties, take proper care of the pigeons keeping
the different breeds apart, the project may be
feasible. [Hare?] is likely to advise  against it, and 
insist as well the responsibility should rest with
him. It is more a question of his functions than of
ours. If there should be any debate, is will be a 
good opportunity to strengthen the policy of avoiding
the beginnings of desultory Zoological Garden. Our
advice in that there should be no seed of a Zoological
Garden planted until the Natural History Society
makes arrangements such as we have advised.
The Central Park experience in an "awful example "
of what should not be done. The sheep, pigeons and 
pea.  [fo?] that we have now are about as much livestock
as we can have without dangers of developing
a contribution box for all pets that people may wish
to get rid of. This particular question, at this particular
time, had perhaps better be settled by a report from
[Hare?], in which the offers advised to be declined
simply on grounds of expense and inconvenience of
maintenance.Since I was here last, it has occurred that
Mr. V., being here when we were not, and taking
counsel with the local staff, has ordered an important
piece of work to be done, (and it has gone too far to be
arrested or much improved), without our advice. It is
not just what we should have advised but in the glance
which I have given it is not so bad that it offers a
good opportunity for pasture[?]. The fact is that we are
always behind in work here and need to be on the
ground much more than we are - to make more
frequent and longer visits. It is by far the largest,
most difficult and complicated work that we have;
will have the largest future importance and celebrity
and Mr. V. and Mr. McNamee do not proceed in the deliberate
and methodical manner of a pack hound. 
When Mr. V. comes here by himself he is liable to act,
especially under suggestion of McNamee & Gall, with a
certain degree of wilful abruptness, being no more than
laymen in general, able to realize the manner in which
one element of a big scheme reticulates in the details
with [us] others and the amount and kind of study necessary
to make it harmonize with all others.
  With the exception to which I have referred, and which
I have not yet closely considered, work has been advancing
satisfactorily and I am here just in time to prevent
an advance of operations that would otherwise have gone wrong,
and to draw sound conclusions upon problems needing
early decisions. Hunt is here and Mrs. and Miss Jones who
were at the Sargents' last week and who are supposed to be
in some way inclined to dabble in landscape architecture.
McKim is expected to arrive tonight, on a visit so far
as appears, of professional (vocation) interest. I think that
I have at last got Hunt's assent to the proposition I have
been urging from the start of an emphatic structure
which may be called a tea-room, or a tourelle, or a 
columbarium or a bastion, given a reason for being at the
further corner of the South Terrace. It was assumed in our original
proposition of this terrace & it has always been a sore point
with me that neither Hunt nor Vanderbilt seemed to see its importanceI got [Hu?] yesterday to points of view in which he could not
but recognize that I had been right and I think V. will
yield to his advice.
The dismissal of Thompson embarrasses me not
a [so] little as I could trust to his judgment on points where
I can trust no other and he balanced certain perversities
of Gall. There are several points of importance to
be settled with Mr Vanderbilt, besides his policy
with the arboretum and the commercial nursery. I have
avoid'd, and shall, if possible, avoid discussion of them until
I have more fully studied the ground and established my
own conclusion. Mr. V. is to return next Thursday. Meantime
I cannot move rapidly. My usual acclimating attacks began
some miles back of the highest point of the mountains crossed in
coming here and I had to lie down in the R.R. car, I kept my
bed the day after getting here but in spite of some staggering
yesterday got out on the ground and did a good days
reconnectrery work. A storm set in late in the day, continues
to-day very fiercely with a fall of snow and sleet, about
six inches of snow being now on the ground. I hope for
rain & that it will wash away tonight. Even if it does [not]
I fear the ground will be in no condition for advancing
planting work for some days to come. We shall not be able
to leave at earliest before the end of the week; probably not before
Monday or Tuesday of next week. You will write accordingly.
I have an impression that you considered that if we
went from here to Atlanta it would be by forcing ourselves
upon Hurt - i.e. that there were indications that he did
not wish us. But it is so important to that enterprise that
the nursery business shd be well organized this spring that
I shall be disposed to go there unless the disinvitation is
somewhat plain. You must write me your impression.
It will be somewhat expensive for three of us to go there. Perhaps I
should send Phil back to Boston from here. But I do not need
Manning at Chicago. He is needed with reference to Spring work
at Somerville and Milwaukie. Dont neglect to send me a draught
of contract for Brooklyn, and your combined judgment as to policy
& methods there, reviewing my letter on the subject. I suppose I may call
on the commissioner, as I return by Pennsylvania R.R. 
Affectly  F.L.O.

P.S. night. Snowing all day, and still
snowing. Will retard all our work.
P.P.S. Sunday morning.
Blustering gale with snow squalls.
Very cold. McKim did not arrive; 
expected tonight.Biltmore, Sunday,
25th February, 1894

Dear John:
I have received your inquiry about the pigeon
offer. I doubt whether you can get even a telegraphic
reply now before the meeting tomorrow. The idea which
my telegram is intended to briefly convey to you will be
that you should put the responsibility of advising upon
Howe, considering it as a question of economy of maintenance.
If some man competent, required for other duties, can,
incidentally to other duties, take proper care of
the pigeons, keeping the different breeds apart, the
project may be feasible. Howe is likely to advise against
it, and it is just as well the responsibility should rest
with him. It is more a question of his functions than
of ours. If there should be any debate, it will be a good
opportunity to strengthen the policy of avoiding the beginning 
of a desultory Zoological Garden. Our advice is
that there should be no seed of a Zoological Garden planted
until the Natural History Society makes arrangements such
as we have advised. The Central Park experience is an
“awful example” of what should not be done. The sheep,
pigeons and pea-flowl That we have now are about as much
live-stock as we can have without danger of developing
a contribution box for all pets that people may wish to
get rid of. This peculiar question, at this particular
time, had perhaps better be settled by a report from
Howe, In which the offer is advised to be declined simply
on grounds of expense and inconvenience of maintenance. 

Since I was here last it has occurred that
Mr. V. being here when we were not, and taking counsel with
the local staff, has ordered an important piece of work to
be done (and it has gone too far to be arrested or much
improved) without our advice. It is not just what we
should have advised but in the glance which I have given
it is not so bad that it offers a good opportunity to
protest. The fact is that we are always behind on work here
and need to be on the ground much more than we are, to
make more frequent and longer visits. It is by far the new line
longest, most difficult and complicated work that we have;
will have the largest future importance in celebrity; and 

-2-
Mr. V. and Mr. McNamee do not proceed in the deliberate
and methodical manner of a park board. When Mr. V. comes
here by himself he is liable to act, especially under
suggestion of McNamee and Gall with a certain degree of
wilful abruptness, being, no more than laymen in general,
able to realize the manner in which one element of a big
scheme reticulates and its details with others and the amount 
and kind of study necessary to make it harmonize with all
others. 

With the exception to which I have referred, and
which I have not yet closely considered, work has been advancing
satisfactorily and I am here just in time to prevent
an advance of operations that would otherwise have gone wrong
and to secure sound conclusions upon problems needing early
decisions. Hunt is here and Mrs. and Miss Jones who were 
at the Sergent's last week and who are supposed to be in
some way inclined to dabble in Landscape Architecture. 
McKim is expected to arrive tonight, on a visit, so far as
appears, of professional (vacation) interest. I think I
have at last got Hunt’s assent to the proposition I have
been urging from the start of an emphatic structure which
may be called a tea-room, or tourelle, or a columbarium 
or a bastion, giving a reason for being at the fur her corner
of the south terrace. It was assumed in our original
proposition of this terrace and it has always been a sore
point with me that neither hunt nor Vanderbilt seemed to
see its importance. I got Hunt yesterday to points of
view in which he could not but recognize that I had been right
and I think V. will yield to his advice. 

The dismissal of Thompson embarrasses me not a little
as I could trust his judgment on points where I can
trust no other and he balanced certain perversities of Gall.
There are several points of importance to be settled with 
Mr. Vanderbilt, besides his policy with the Arboretum and 
the commercial nursery. I have avoided and shall, if
possible, avoid discussion of these until I have more fully
studied the ground and established my own conclusions.
Mr. V is to return next Thursday. Meantime I cannot move
rapidly. My usual acclimating attack began some miles back
of the highest point of the mountains crossed in coming here
and I had to lie down on the R.R, car, I kept my bed the
day after getting here, but in spite of some staggering
yesterday got out on the ground and did a good reconnoitering
work. A storm set in late in the day, continues today
very fiercely with a full of snow and sleet, about six
inches of snow being now on the ground. I hope for rain
and that it will wash away tonight. Even if it does I fear
the ground will be in no condition for advancing planting work
for some days to come. We shall not be able to leave at-3-
earliest before the end of the week; probably not before Monday or Tuesday of next week. You will write accordingly.
I have an impression that you considered that if
we went from here to Atlanta it would be by forcing ourselves
upon Hunt, i.e. that there were indications that he did not
wish us. But it is so important in that enterprise that
the nursery business should be well organized this spring
that I shall be disposed to go there unless the disinvitation 
is somewhat plain. You must write me your impression.
It will be somewhat expensive for three of us to go there.
Perhaps I should send Phil back to Boston from here. But
I do not need Manning at Chicago. He is needed with reference
to Spring work at Louisville and Milwaukee. Don't
neglect to send me a draught of contract for Brooklyn, and
your combined judgment as to policy and methods there, reviewing
my letter on the subject. I suppose I may call on
the Commissioner, as I return by Pennsylvania R.R.
Affectionately, 
F.L.O.
P.S. Night. Snowing all day and still snowing. Will
retard all our work.
P.P.S. Sunday morning. Blustering gale with snow. Squalls.
Very cold. McKim did not arrive; expected tonight. [*1894*]        [*Alteration Mr. Mitchell*]    [*South*]
 [*Copy sent to To B. Mitchell Oct 11/21.*]

Postmarked Louisville, 14th March, 1894 - 11.30 a.m.
Must have been written 13th March, 1894.

Dear John: I have received your telegram saying that I am wanted
in Brooklyn. Squier has no claim on me until I return from this
circuit. I told him so, I do not think that anything will be lost.
We are getting on pretty well here. It is a critical moment.
Have been over two parks today. Shall finish and meet the Board
tomorrow night. Then, as you will know by telegrams, start next
day for Atlanta. I allowed Phil to write as he did of my motives
but the consideration that weighs most with me is that with
reference to your future business it is very desirable to make the
firm favorably known at the South and "extend its connection" as
the merchants say. Very soon our northern cities will all have
been provided with parks. Future business in park designing will
be in the south and, as I have said to you, in the arid regions;
concerning both of which regions our firm and the art of Landscape
Architecture has nothing to show, and is very ignorant and
unprepared. I want you to be making way in the sub-tropical
and the arid cities before I go, I want the firm to have an
established "good will" at the south. Then, as we would all
be called abolitionists at the South, I think a demonstration
that the time has passed in which hatred of abolitionists is an
element of consequence in matters of professional business is
of some value. But, mainly, if I know myself, I am moved
by a desire to get a footing at the South, from Southern men,
and willing to pay for it. I consider also, that the job
clusters in with Biltmore and the Hurt Atlanta affair, so that
we can afford to handle it at less rates than we otherwise could.
I hope that you and Eliot will take this view. X Bill A
FREDRICK LAW OLMSTED, JOHN CHARLES OLMSTED. CHARLES ELIOT, 
OLMSTED, OLMSTED& ELIOT. 
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS. 
EDWARD D. BOLTON,
SUPERINTENDENT OF CONSTRUCTION
BROOKLINE, MASS. 
WARREN H. MANNING
SUPERINTENDENT OF PLANTING. 
Copy or letter gent to Mr. McNamee from New York, 21st Mch.,1894
Dear Mr. McNamee: - 
I did not think that Mr. Vanderbilt's day of sailing had 
passed until I called at his house just now. 
I wrote you a few days ago about the Atlanta Exposition. As 
to the suggestion I then made it can mainly lie in abeyance. I 
suppose, until Mr. Vanderbilt 's return. At most, there is nothing 
to be done about it that will he expensive or that need put you or 
Mr. Beadle to any trouble. But as, in the study of the general plan 
or the Exposition that we have to make, it may be round desirable 
to assume a good place for carrying it out, I shall be glad you 
will write us how you regard the proposition. 
Looking from Mr. Vanderbilt point or view, I believe that 
you consider it good policy ag far ae it be conveniently followed 
to lead his more sensible, public-spirited and patriotic neighbors to 
recognize that what he is doing is a good thing for their section 
and that it should lead to friendly and cooperative relations with 
them. I think you may have been moving in this direction at Raleigh. 
I suppose that my proposition could be carried out at small 
expense; that the result would be interesting; that it would be 
McNamee       2

suggestive of results to be expected of much public value; that it would tend to dissipate false and unfriendly notions of the Biltmore enterprise and thus and otherwise serve the general purpose that I think you have in view.

Mr. Manning intimated to me yesterday that as the result of some conversation had with you after I left Biltmore, it had occurred to him that you might be thinking that I had been neglectful of a suggestion that he had heard you make to me that Mr. Gall was not pursuing sound methods in road-making. Manning has the impression apparently, that you think that in your presence I said something to Mr. Vanderbilt adapted to convey the idea that I considered that there was no occasion for your criticism of Gall's work. I have no recollection of saying anything on the subject. Nor do I recollect that you said as much to him as Manning thinks you did. I saw nothing in the superficial appearance of the roads that suggested that Gall was not pursuing the methods originally prescribed to him. I remember that, probably from something you had said, I had the intention to question him on the point, but came away without doing so. Of course Gall would not be right in changing his method of proceeding before stating his reason for wishing to do so and obtaining our consent through you. If he has changed his method it has been, no doubt, from motives of economy that I should be to disposed to think were ill-judged. As the matter stands, it appears to me that I have either failed to understand something that you have said to me, or that Manning is mistaken as to your view. In any case, the situation being what Manning thinks it is, I could now only askMcNamee          3

Gall if he is varying at all from the methods of road-making originally
pursued, and, if so, in what manner and for what reason. 
Not having seen evidence of such variation in my necessary superficial 
inspection of his work, I have no reason to question him 
except that of Manning's impression that this is your opinion. 
I do not like to proceed upon such slight, indirect information to
call Gall to account. If there is any ground for Manning's impression, 
then, I will ask you to do me the favor to question Gall
on the points stated, and let me know the result. 

I write under the impression that Manning has misunderstood you, 
but that I ought not to take this for granted without writing you as
I now have. 

Manning suggested also that you did not consider that Mr. Vanderbilt
authorized the construction of the vault or safe that we had
advised for protection of the books and planting records. I understood
Mr. Vanderbilt that he intended to do so, and the loss of these
records by fire would be so great; so largely irretrievable, and 
would cost so much trouble and labor to recover by correspondence and 
otherwise what would be possible of recovery, that I venture to advise
and urge you to take the responsibility of making the outlay 
required to secure them. The cost of the safe would not be, I
McNamee          4

suppose, more, at most, than $300.00. Insurance of the documents
and books at stake would be worth many times that. 

[*X Biltmore
one copy there now*]

[*A dupl. File 1894*]

FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED.  JOHN CHARLES OLMSTED.  CHARLES ELIOT.

OLMSTED, OLMSTED & ELIOT,
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS.

BROOKLINE, MASS.

5th April, 1894

Charles McNamee, Esq., 
Biltmore, North Carolina.

Dear Sir:- The letter will relate to the proposed road 
by which the Approach Road, as now laid out in the Ram Branch
valley, will be connected with the public road by which the Old 
Ford is approached from Asheville.  It is intended to give instructions 
by regard for which Mr. Howard will be guided in advancing 
preparations for a final consideration of the problems 
involved soon after Mr. Vanderbilt's return.  

It will be assumed that Mr. Howard has a general understanding 
of the requirements to be met and some knowledge of the route 
which was considered by Mr. Thompson a few years ago.  The route which 
will be now suggested will vary from that which was then discussed 
with Mr. Thompson because, upon further study, and in view of other 
roads that have since been laid out, it seems to us that less 
directness of course is desirable thane were then seeking to 
secure.

The intention is to submit a well digested scheme to Mr. Vanderbilt 
in July, and it is desired that this scheme may be plainly 
presented, not only by maps and profiles which Mr. Howard is to 
prepare, but, also, in such manner, by stakes and flags, that 
C. McN.    2

the curves and grades of the roads advised can be made apparent 
upon the ground to an untrained eye.  To better serve this end, 
at places where the plan requires heavy fillings, a few stakes are 
to be set with cross bars at the top, indicating the intended 
elevation of the surface of the road.  

Consideration must be given to the question of the best point 
of entrance from the Old Ford Road.  The letter A on the map enclosed 
indicates the point which we judge to be preferable, but 
Mr. Howard, studying the question on the ground, may find reason to 
move it a little.  The entrance should certainly be not less than 
fifty foot, nor more than one hundred and fifty feet from the adjoining 
corner of the Biltmore Estate. 

From this initial point (A) the road is to be carried with convenient 
curves approximately as indicated on the map, to the point 
B which has been had in view for a bridge over the railroad.

In laying out this part of the road, grades steeper than one in 
twenty-eight are to be avoided, and at no point will a grade be 
admissible for a single rod steeper than one in twenty.  The line 
shown on the map is adapted to a uniform grade of one in twenty-eight, 
but variations from this rate within the limits above prescribed 
may be made if Mr. Howard finds occasion on grounds either 
of economy or of grade and convenience. 

The breadth of the road is to correspond with that of the 
Approach Road in Ram Branch valley.

C. McN.    3

The bridge crossing the railroad is to be as low as the law 
of North Carolina allows.  We have presumed that the under side of 
it must be eighteen feet above the rails.  

After crossing the railroad it will be an object to extend 
the Approach Road to the best point that can be found for bridging 
the river, maintaining a fair grade, at no point steeper than one 
in twenty, with the least show practicable of an artificial ridge.  
The line suggested on the map is supposed to be one by following 
which the necessary embankment may appear as a natural elongation of 
the adjoining hillside in the form of a snout extending toward the 
best place for bridging the river.  This part of the plan must be 
adjusted with more delicate regard to local circumstances than we 
can apply upon the map.  Mr. Howard, studying the topographic conditions 
in detail, will make the best adjustments he can for our 
later consideration.  

A road is to be had in view for public passage near the 
river bank between Biltmore and Asheville Stations.  It appears to 
us that simplicity and economy will be best served by carrying 
this river bank public road over the river at the point now under 
consideration and by the same bridge (C) that will carry the Approach 
Road over it, so that to the northward of this bridge the road between 
Biltmore and Asheville Stations will be on the left bank of the river 
(D. D.).  This, however, is not in accordance with Mr. Vanderbilt's 
expectation, and, if you should, upon consideration, think it inexpedient, 
you can ask Mr. Howard to also have in view the possible require-C. McN.     4
[require]ment of a crossing at grade of the Approach Road near the bridge, at
or near the point E, by this proposed public river road, and the
extension of the latter to Biltmore Village on the right bank of
the river along the edge of the nursery.

Mr. Howard will here have to consider the question of the needed
elevation of the embankment of the Approach Road, and of the floor
of the bridge, in order to avoid danger from floods. The lower
the bridge floor the better, and we will not, with no more exact
data than we now have, attempt to decide what prudence requires in
this respect.

After Mr. Howard has worked out the problem on the lines we
have suggested, we shall wish to review his conclusions before
submitting the scheme to Mr. Vanderbilt, and he is to send us a
map and report in order that we may do so.

From the point F connection is to be made with the road which
has been planned but not constructed between the Ferry Road and the
Swananoa Valley, and the map to be prepared should show this connection.

     We shall, of course, be glad to consider any suggestions that
you may see occasion to offer for the improvement of the scheme.
There are, at several points, nice questions of the balance of advantages
to be considered, and we are disposed to proceed very cautiously
in respect to them. There are also questions in regard to                              C.   McN.     5
lodges and gates which we cannot well deal with until we better
know Mr. Vanderbilt's views.

(1 enclosure)[*X Bilt    A*]
                FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED. JOHN CHARLES OLMSTED. CHARLES ELIOT.
                                                          ------------------------------------
                                                      OLMSTED, OLMSTED & ELIOT,
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS.
EDWARD D. BOLTON.                                                                          WARREN H. MANNING.
   SUPERINTENDENT OF CONSTRUCTION.   --------------                         SUPERINTENDENT OF PLANTING.
                                                                 BROOKLINE, MASS.

                                                                                                       5th April, 1894

Mr. Charles McNamee,
     Biltmore, North Carolina
          Dear Sir:- This letter will relate to the proposed road
by which the Approach Road as now laid out in the Ram Branch valley
will be connected with the public roadby which the Old Ford is
approached from Asheville.
     It is intended to give instructions by regard for which Mr. Howard
will be guided in advancing preparations for a decision of the
problems involved soon after Mr. Vanderbilt's return. It will be
assumed that Mr. Howard has a general understanding of the requirements
to be met and some knowledge of the route for this road which
was considered by Mr. Thompson a few years ago. The route which
will be now suggested will vary from that which has been discussed
with Mr. Thompson because upon such study as can be made here upon
the topographical map, and in view of roads that have lately been
laid out, it now seems to us that something is to be gained by less
directness of course than we then thought desirable.
     The intention is to submit a proposition to Mr. Vanderbilt
in July, and it is desired that this proposition shall be plainly
presented, not only by maps and profiles which Mr. Howard is to
prepare, but in such manner, by stakes and flags on the ground, thatC.   McN.   2
the curves and grades of the roads advised may be plainly seen. To
this end, at places where the plan requires heavy fills to be made,
stakes are to be set indicating the intended grade of the road.
     Consideration must be given to the question of the best point
of entrance from the Old Ford Road. We have indicated that point
which, from the map and our recollection of the circumstances, we
judge to be preferable, but Mr. Howard may find reason for somewhat
varying from it. The entrance should be not less than fifty feet
and not more than one hundred and fifty feet from the corner of the
property.
     From this initial point the road is to be carried with convenient
curves approximately as indicated on the map enclosed, to the
point B which has been had in view for a bridge over the railroad.
In laying out this part of the road, grades steeper than one in
twenty-eight are to be avoided and no grade will be admissible
steeper than one in eighteen. The line shown on the map is adapted
to a uniform grade of one in twenty-eight, but considerations of
convenience may lead to some variations from this rate within the
limits above prescribed.
     The bridge crossing the railroad should be as low as the law
of North Carolina allows. We have presumed that the under side of
it will be eighteen feet above the bed of the railroad.
     After crossing the railroad, it would be an object to extend
the Approach Road to the best point that can be found for bridging
C. McN.     3
the river with the least show practicable of artificial embankments.
The line suggested on the map is supposed to be one by following
which the necessary embankment may appear as a natural extension of
the adjoining hillside in the form of a snout protruding toward the
best place for bridging the river. This is the most difficult
part of the scheme and the plan must be adjusted with a more delicate
regard to local circumstances than we can use at this stage. Mr.
Howard, studying the circumstances in detail, will make the best
adjustments he can.
     A road is to be had in view for public passage between Biltmore
and Asheville Stations. It appears to us that simplicity and economy
will be best served by carrying this public road across the river
at the point now under consideration byt the same bridge that will
carry the Approach Road over it, so that to the northward of this
bridge the road between Biltmore and Asheville Stations will be on
the left bank of the river. This, however, is not in accordance
with Mr. Vanderbilt's expectation, and, if you should, upon consideration,
think it inexpedient, Mr. Howard should have in view the
possible requirement of a crossing at grade of the Approach Road
near the bridge by this proposed public river road, and the extension
of the latter to Biltmore Village on the bank of the river along
the edge of the nursery. Mr. Howard will have to consider the
question of the needed elevation of the embankment of the Approach
Road, and for the floor of the bridge, in order to avoid danger from
floods. The lower both can be made the better, but we will not,C. McN.     4
with the data we have, attempt to show what prudence requires in
this request.
     After Mr. Howard has worked out the problem on the lines we
have suggested, we shall wish to review his conclusions before
submitting the scheme to Mr. Vanderbilt. We shall, of course,
be glad to consider any suggestions that you may see occasion to
offer for the improvement of the scheme. There are, at several
points, nice questions of the balance of advantages to be considered,
and we are disposed to proceed very cautiously in respect to them.

(1 enclosure)[*File*]

[*OLMSTED, OLMSTED & ELIOT.
REC'D  JUN 5 1894
ACK'D ...  BY
ANS'D .... BY C.E.*
READ BY ... JCO*]

Biltmore, 3d May, 1894.
Sunday.
Dear partners:

Mr Vanderbilt has a theory of organization
of a road and gate system the
advantages of which I find very difficult
to comprehend, and to which therefore, it is
difficult to adjust a system of roads and
bridges and gates. I dont think that which
we have been studying fits it well and I am
and shall be much puzzled with the complex
problems thus presented. I have not taken up
the arboretum section yet at all. Hope to begin
upon it when Manning arrives. Have been setting
out the garden terrace the hot house connections
&c. and can see the plan pretty well established
in all the chateau house grounds before I
leave. Am also likely to get the structure I have
always wanted aT the S.W. corner of the library 
terrace provided for to my satisfaction: Hunt and
V. coming slowly round to my views. Plantations,
which have come to be rather extensive now, are
satisfactory, though I should be able with more time
to instruct them in details, and I am sure that a great 
many more of the old trees ought to come out. I have
had a discussion of Biltmore village plans and am
making some readjustments. I am likely to succeed
in a plan to have the soil from village roads and
building sites brought by rail for the greensward ofthe Esplanade. It looks as if we might clear the
greater part of the Esplanade, so that finishing operations
can be begun upon it next Fall. I have kept
the choice of trees for it open. I give up my first choice
of Magnolia grandi. as too risky, and Mr V. seems
to be sorting toward my second, which is Sequoiadendron.
Many matters which have been vague are coming
near to require settlement and early satisfactory sitseerus
feasible, except upon the road and gate and 
public use system as to which I shall have to take
instructions from Mr. V. These I do not like. The 
public is more and more making a resort of the place
and I more & more feel that it is the most permanently
important public work and the most critical with reference
to the future of our profession of all these we have,
the most critical & the most difficult. There are elements
of it in which Mr. V. is [little us] out of sympathy with us
and others in which he has a torpid interest compared
with ours and the enterprise requires constant vigilance
and study and never gets nearly enough. I do not
not see my way clear to get away as soon as I intended
and would not have you consider the date for meeting
me in Chicago as definitely fixed. I am so far
from satisfaction with what Mr V. seems to require
in the road and gate system that I should have to give time
to studying whether I commentt custom imprints that he
will accept. I think that it will probably be best that when I
leave I get to Chicago as soon as I can, and go thence to
Louisville & you had better calculate to go with me. There
are two critical questions there that we may as well fight
to an end at this time. The only matter that is requiring
frequent visits near Boston it occurs to me is the Parkway
from Jamaica Park to Tremont Street, and that, if you go over it intimately
with the engineers & foremen will be in shape to be left
safely for two or three weeks before you come west.
I am glad I brought Boston. There is a question not only of theserving and draining of Biltmore village, [h???] water-supply,
as to which his former work of the kind with reference
to Asheville enables him to think with confidence
in regard to certain local resources and availabilities
which overrides McNamee's & Gall's vague speculations
and commands respect. It is a difficult problem
and I dont see the solution yet, but no man could be
better to help do it than Bolton.
I have a rather pressing letter from Pinchot Senior,
urging an early visit to his place and it will be
well if we can in returning from Chicago to take that
and a visit to Brooklyn and Columbia college on our
way. If we need to return by Buffalo & Rochester,
there is a cross-country (Lehigh Valley) Road by which 
we can get to Phila. If in coming out you can
save our visiting Buffalo & Rochester in returning
there, we could come from Louisville by Pennsylvania
Road direct to Harrisburg & so to Pinchots'.
I am feeling the elevation in increased heart
action and aggravated waring and deafness
but so far have escaped sickness and blind-staggers,
and hope not to be laid up as before.
Hunt is here; two of his assistants left last
night. We are cooperating satisfactorily
in regard to garden terrace &c. I have not
seen Beadle or looked at the nursery &c.
yet.
I have received John's letter of 31st May,
and inclose the receipt asked for.
Affeclly,
Fred'k. Law Olmsted.[*X Biltmore*]

Page 279.                                                7th July, 1894.

Dear Mr. Gall:
     I had made an appointment with myself to
meet you at your house when I was last at Biltmore, but
was prevented from keeping it by a call from Mr. McNamee
and could not afterwards. Please this to your sister.
     There was something that I wanted to say to you privately.
Privately, only because I don't want unnecessarily,
when talking to Mr. Vanderbilt or Mr. McNamee, to
refer to considerations that turn largely on personal
circumstances which I mind less mentioning to you.
Nevertheless show this to Mr. McNamee if there is any
occasion to refer to it and by no means leave him to suppose
that I wish to conceal anything from him or to move
clandestinely. The private considerations in this cas
have since been augmented and give occasion for this letter.
I had it in mind that I could not expect to come
many times more to Biltmore and since then this probability
has been more impressed upon me. After I left you
I came to Chicago by rail and then, leaving my business
there unfinished and with the intention of returning,
went on to meet an engagement with the Park Commission
at St. Paul. The trip by rail there used me up and I
had to leave all the business for which I came to my
son, not even going to the parks that I came to see or
meeting the Commission. I kept my bed for a week and
was visited twice a day by a physician who gave me a
sharp warning that it was time I stopped traveling. It
was plain that I traveled by rail at my peril. I had to
write to Chicago that I could not keep my engagement to
return there and to avoid railroads came north to Duluth
and from there was able to pass through all the lakes
and the Saint Lawrence by boat and so get home with but
little railroading. I want you to make inquiries, when
you conveniently can, whether I cannot much shorten the
necessary transit by rail between here and Biltmore by
taking steamer to Wilmington, N.C., and then get within
a day's railing of Biltmore by steamboat on Cape Fear
River (I once made a passage by a stern-wheeler on this
river from a point near Fayetteville, if I remember
rightly, to a point near its mouth, going on by land
from this latter point to Charleston). If I can do this,
I may be able to get to Biltmore once or twice more
than I could if obliged to go wholly by rail.
     That at Biltmore which I am most anxious to see
advanced as rapidly as practicable is the Arboretum. If
I am to have much more to do with it, there must be a
more rapid advance of it than now seems provided for. I
do not think that Mr. Vanderbilt appreciates it. Still
less does Mr. McNamee. Nor do either of them realize,
nor do I wish them to, that if the Arboretum is to benefit
much more by my personal contributions to the layingMr. Gall.                            -2-                  7th July, 1894.

out of it, certain progress toward it must be made this
Summer. There are many considerations to be regarded
in managing it which my experience makes me more alive
to than either of my partners, or than Mr. Manning and
Beadle can be. I do not wish to urge this thought upon
Mr. Vanderbilt or Mr. McNamee, but I may refer to it
confidentially in writing to you as a reason why it is
advisable that as much work should be done in preparation
for the Arboretum planting this Summer as can well
be made practicable. Except a few comparatively small
matters, there is no other work nearly as important to
be urge. Reason enough for thinking so lies in the fact 
that the larger part of the trees to be planted will, before
the ground can be well prepared for them have grown
to a larger size than that at which they can most successfully
be planted, (and, at the same time, at the least
cost for labor, for transportation, and in all respects).
Then it is to be considered that all the more interesting
parts of the Estate between Biltmore Station and the
House will, within a year, have been well provided with
roads and well planted. Either in passing between Asheville
and Biltmore Station and the House, or in short
drives and walks from the House, Mr. Vanderbilt and his
guests will find themselves familiar with them and Mr.
Vanderbilt will want to be able to take a long drive.
The Arboretum Drive will provide what he wants for this
purpose and will open up the larger part of the Estate
to observation, and this the most interesting part of it.
For such reasons as these, as well as because I think it
desirable that my judgment should be applied to details
of the work, I am anxious that some notable advance should
be made this Summer in preliminary work for the Arboretum,
and I ask you, as far as practicable; consistently
with instructions and with the limitations of force to
which you will be restricted, to do what you can to this
end.
     The first thing is to get the road made. Mr. Vanderbilt
has decided that it shall be an earth road; that
is, not a macadamized. I think it possible that later he
will so far change his mind that a macadamized center of
the road will be made, more especially with reference to
the transportation of forest products and the possible use
for this purpose of steam traction engines, but, for
some years to come, and perhaps permanently, it is to be
an earth road. I would have you use your best judgment
at all points to make a model earth road; that is, as
good an example as practicable of what a truly economical
earth road in a hilly district should; an example
that can be referred to in the advocacy of good economicalMr. Gall.                              -3-              7th July, 1894.

roads for all the country; a matter about which
there is now much discussion, and about which discussion
is sure to be advancing for many years to come. Even
farmers are beginning to be stirred up about it, and in
some Northern states there is a prospect that Advisory
Engineers will soon be employed by the States to aid
country people to properly construct such roads. The 
road should be of such a character as to prompt people
who will go over it, and who know only the common ways
of making and keeping rural roads, to demand similar
roads in their own neighborhoods. That this may seem
to them practicable and reasonable, there should be the
least show of expense that there can be consistently
with really sound construction. Therefor, the exhibition
of drainage appliances, of bridges, culverts, causeways,
etc. should be as inconspicuous as it well may be.
The simplicity and essential economy of the arrangements
should surprise people who know only the common methods
of making and keeping country roads and the wretched results
that are produced by these methods. The main
thing needed, of course is drainage, and the means of
drainage should be such as to prompt people to ask themselves
if they cannot do something toward getting good
roads in their own neighborhoods without going to unjustifiable
expense. Roads in which at least four horses
need never be used to do the work of one, as I suppose is
the case every Spring in much more than half the country
roads of the United States at this time. The first Winter
of our work at Biltmore it was at one time obvious
that the use of the public roads had been in a great degree
abandoned, and in going from Brick House to Asheville
there was at least one wagon in each mile which had
been hopelessly "stalled". To set a good example of a
country road -- an effectively moving example -- make the
drainage and bridging arrangements as simple and inconspicuous 
as possible. Try to get outlets for drainage on
the surface near at hand. That is to say, keep off
water and carry off water with the least show possible of
constructed means for the purpose. Let the simplicity and
economy of these means, and their efficiency, surprise
people who are familiar only with the makeshift, temporizing
means commonly used. Of course, the main thing
to accomplish is thorough drainage, but make the means
for thorough drainage appear to be simple and inexpensive
and in every way do all you can to prompt visitors to
ask themselves if they cannot have roads at home at
not impossible expense that shall be passable at all times
of the year. Such an earth road will do much more effective
preaching than the macadamized roads we have been
making with their numerous and conspicuous gratings and
show of masonry in the bridge.
Mr. Gall.                     -4-                     7th July, 1894.

     What I want is that you should lay out and cut out
and, at least, roughly grade, or sub-grade, and fashion
as to the substantial structure, such a road for all of
the Arboretum; so that I can have a chance to inspect it,
in the rough, at least. Shape the borders, also, if
that is possible, sufficiently to make it feasible for
me to review, with reference to adjustments of the planting
plan, the shaping and treatment of the immediately
adjoining ground. I want very much to be allowed to do
this work with a degree of nicety of adaptation of
various elements that is impossible to be used in planning
in advance of the ruder utilitarian modeling of the
road border and drainage ducts. Put in, if you can, all
needed pipe culverts, but do not face up the ends of the
pipes or give a final finish to the bordering banks.
Avoid all masonry except as you may find places where
waste will result if a substantial trunk is not made at
once. That is to say, make temporary bridges, to serve
during the period of rough construction, whenever it
will not be obvious that doing so will be wasteful.
Build no bridges of masonry or any other construction of
masonry until I have personally studied the situation
and advised with the architect.
     I suppose that you understand that an elaborate
planting plan for the Arboretum has been prepared; that
as much study has been given to this as well can be at
present; that it has been reviewed and provisionally approved
by Prof. Sargent and has been adopted, for what it
is, by Mr. Vanderbilt. The road so far as planned has
been planned with reference to this planting map, and
the planting map has been planned with reference to the
road, so far as this can be upon the small scale of our
mapping operations. But whenever a restudy is possible
upon the actual ground, from the road, and with all the
conditions that after the rough shaping of the road and
its borders will be under close view, I hope that we
shall be able to make many improvements of details both
with reference to the scientific arrangement of the trees,
and to picturesque effect. Not improbably you will, as
you go on, see opportunities of improving the plan of
the road, considering it simply as a pleasant road.
These will be practicable if slight. If at all considerable,
they will involve readjustments of the planting
plan, and it will be a question whether these can be made
without sacrificing something from the scientific scheme
that will more than compensate for the gain. Whenever
this is possible, you would better send us sketches showing
us what you would suggest as a probable improvement
and let us see if we can adopt a variation of the planting
plan to fit it. The planting plan, as it stands now,
is the result of several months' work, under our direction,Mr. Gall.                             -5-                         7th July, 1894.

of Mr. Manning and his office assistants, but we fully
expect to make improvements of detail in it when trying
it on, after the road and its near borders are roughed
out. The first ploughing of the ground and all operations
of grading of the ground to be planted should, as 
far as practicable, go on hand in hand with the road
building. I do not suppose, however, that you can have
force enough for this purpose before next Winter. In 
that case, all the force you can have should be applied
to getting the entire line of road through. This for this
reason among others, that a fair road will facilitate and 
lessen the cost of nearly all the operations to follow
near the line of the road. but I chiefly want it (this
being the case) because, the road being made, I shall
be able to improve the plan of the borders of it, and of
the planting, better; more surely and accurately, as
well as more easily. Keep in mind the consideration
that I shall be able, from a road well blocked out, to 
do my part of the work better, as well as more easily
and surely, as a kindness to me. My anxiety is very
great to personally study and be satisfied with the plans
for adjusting the slopes, for adjusting trees to the
smaller local circumstances that cannot have been much
considered in the plans as they stand, for securing becoming
relations of the Arboretum trees to those which
will appear back of them; for making many little refinements
that may be possible upon closer study of the plan
on the ground; refinements of detail with regard to relationships,
topographical and forestal, which, in a deliberate
and contemplative study from the point of view
of a visitor passing over the road, will be suggested
between the trees to be planted and conditions already
fixed.
Mainly this Summer do all that you can, consistently
with other absolute duties, get Mr. McNamee to let you do 
by which the trunk construction of the Arboretum may be 
advanced in all its length. Urge the forestry force
to get out of your way. If they are not moving as fast
as for this purpose you need to have them, let me know
and let me personally urge Mr. Pinchot. I am sure of 
his good will in the matter and that it will only be
necessary t hat he should have some understanding of what
I want and of my reasons for wanting it to secure from
him all cooperation he will be allowed to give me.
The question of getting manure for the Arboretum
and some other questions give me, of course, a good deal
of concern. I am sorry that it has been thought best
to go so much more largely than I originally thought best
into truck farming, for which there can never be enough
manure, and so little into beef fattening, etc. making aMr. Gall.                  -6-                       7th July, 1894.

manure manufactory.  But a determination of just what to 
do in this and several other matters is not at once so 
critically important as in matter of primary construction.  
You can be thinking of these questions.  (I mean 
questions of lime; of methods of local drainage in certain 
localities without danger of the root penetration 
of tiles, etc.).  But as to these questions, they can 
mostly be deferred; not much needs to be done this Summer 
decisively of them.  As to the construction of the 
essential trunk road of the Arboretum, the shaping of 
its borders and the stirring of the soil of the Arboretum 
strips, all this I shall be grievously disappointed 
not to find essentially accomplished before next Winter.  
To do what I can do in elaborating the design of the Arboretum 
after it has been accomplished is the most important 
duty that I look forward to; and you cannot overrate 
my desire to be able to do it.

This is a personal letter and you will please make 
you reply to it "personal".

Very truly yours,
Fredk Law Olmsted.

Let me know if you are in want of any instructions 
or counsel.  I believe that I have given you written instructions 
as to grades, breadth of road, gutters, etc. 
and that the course of the main road is as closely 
staked out as you will wish to have it.[*IV Boston*]
[*FILE*]

[OFFICE OF
RICHARD M. HUNT, ARCHITECT,
Biltmore, N. C.,] 5th November, 1894.

[*OLMSTED, OLMSTED & ELIOT*]
[*REC'D  NOV 1894*]
[*ACK'D... BY ....*]
[*ANS'D 7 Nov. by C.E.*]
[*READ BY .. C.E...*]

Dear Eliot: I have so far escaped any distinct
attack of "blind staggers" such as I have usually had here
and have been able to keep about my business every day.
If the climate affects my health it is shown chiefly in an
oppressive dislike to the prospect of a public struggle with
professor Sargent and his following and another with
Waring. I hate public controversies; they always make
me sick; and the more so in these because I have a
friendship for Sargent and a pretty active neighborship; and 
Waring is a very old friend with whom I been at times
in close cooperation and for whom I have fought, who, in
fact, is under some obligations to me, which makes a dispute 
with him a little harder. I hate a quarrel more than
most men. Correspondingly, when forced to fight I want
to win and am sure to be cast down more than I should
be if I don't win. I don't know by what tribunal
we are to be tried. I think by not either of the Park
Commissions, probably in some way by the Legislature.
I take it that Waring is employed by Beacon Street capitalists. 
He has had a deal of wordy fighting
to do and likes it and is good at it. in fact I should
think that both Waring and Sargent were of Irish blood.

I feel that personally I am not in very good trim for 
fighting. All this only makes me the more anxious to 
make sure that we have a good cause and canmake a good array for it.

Now, to say the truth, I have for some time been
feeling that, in some way, I lost hold of the lower Charles
River problem while I was in England and have not 
"caught on" since. I really had it in mind at one 
time to take Waring into council, and afterwards to discuss 
the question with the city Engineer, as I submitted 
to him my plan for Muddy River before saying anything
about it to the Commissioners. One thing I should
like to know presently is the view which the City Engineer
and Howe take of the question. I think hat we shall
find them all right but I can not count upon it.
Then, how shall we find the Engineer of your Commission?
I think also that he will be right but can't count 
upon it. Really what we want to be sure of is that we
have the weight of Expert testimony on our side, and we
must not fail to have it through failure to look it up.

What [should] shall be our position? What our fighting
line? Can you not, before I get back, think out a brief?
Of course your report will be the main object of attack.
Also it will be our citadel and we must prepare outworks 
and do such skirmishing as we can in the open. 
Unfortunately it is to be a defensive engagement on our
part. I only got the news last night and have not 
much deliberated upon it, but the question occurs to
me whether there is not an essential analogy between
[the] our Charles River plan and our plan for the Back
Bay Fens and Muddy River? That is not yet a full3
Success but on the main point it is so, and it promises 
to be more so. It is generally regarded as successful. 
Think out in what degree the problems are analogous, 
and if you can, before my return, write out a brief of our 
case that we may discuss it and if it promises well 
be prepared to present it to our counsel before he hurriedly 
and perfunctorily shapes a course for himself. I think 
that I am on pretty good terms with the Corporation Counsel
who, I suppose, will appear for us and will examine the 
witnesses against us. 

P.S. We have word from John that he thinks he 
will come here from Louisville. There are considerable
advantages to be had from his doing so, more particularly 
that in case of my death there would be one of the firm 
ready to take up the work and it would not be dependent 
on Manning as it otherwise would. Also it is desirable 
that working relations should be established with 
Pinchot, Gall, and Beadle, and with Mr. McNamee. 
I should like especially to have a day on the twelve 
miles of the proposed Arboretum with John. He expects 
to arrive here next Sunday. This will keep me 
two or three days longer than I had expected to 
stay - i.e. supposing that my plans are not much interfered
with by storms. The objection is that it is 
putting too much on you - As to that you can judge, 
and you must [not] telegraph to John and to me if 
it will crowd you too much; and when I say this 
I have [the] in mind the getting up of our "case" in the 
impending fight, as to which I have been writing. 

[*A page 4 to this letter filed Biltmore - no relation to Boston Parks*][*5 Nov. 1894*]
4
I can spend another week here, working with Manning and 
Rick profitably, if you can spare me. If you think 
that you cannot, for any reason, telegraph me and I will 
hasten back, or telegraph John that he had better not extend 
his journey beyond Louisville. It is a question of 
the comparative importance of one course or the other: 
I can, if necessary, put off what I should otherwise be 
doing till February. Mr. V. is a little impetuous and 
arbitrary and it is best to have our minds made up ahead 
of him and not let him give orders because we are 
not ready to, as he has once or twice.

Faithfully Yours
Fredk. Law Olmsted.OFFICE OF 
RICHARD M. HUNT, ARCHITECT.

Biltmore, N. C.,                      189FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED. JOHN CHARLES OLMSTED. CHARLES ELIOT.

OLMSTED, OLMSTED & ELIOT.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS.
BROOKLINE, MASS.

EDWARD D. BOLTON.    
SUPERINTENDENT OF CONSTRUCTION.  

WARREN H. MANNING.
         SUPERINTENDENT OF PLANTING.


1st December, 1894

[*Ans'd Dec 4, '94*]

Dear Rick:-
 I have before me your note of 25th, and I have read another
which I cannot find. Perhaps Marion has taken it with her to New
York.
 It was in the missing note that you wrote that no provision had
been made for draining the semi-circular area north of the hot-house.
This ought to be attended to at once and you will please bring Mr.
Smith, Mr. Howard and Mr. Gall into conference upon it.
We probably assumed that provision for draining this area would
be made by the architects through a duct under the glass house. It
is possibly a case in which the line of responsibility between the
two departments is not clear and proper provision has consequently
failed to be made. The importance of ample outlet under the glass
house for draining the place is evident. The arrangements for
draining the garden and all above it, to and including the terrace
and the Esplanade, were made by Mr. Thompson, and I suppose are ample
and complete though the records in our office do not prove this.
Talk with Mr. Smith and Mr. Howard about it and let us know if
there is anything in question.
Without now searching our documents further, I will say that
my impression is that Mr. Thompson prepared a scheme for main drains                                                    2
which we approved. This scheme provided for out-flows from the
Esplanade, of the garden terrace, the garden and the hot-houses. I
suppose that this scheme has been carried out except as to the draining
of the half-moon area and that that should be drained into a
main which passes under the hot-house.
     I am exceedingly pressed as I write and I send you this simply
to put you on the track. After conference with Mr. Smith and Mr.
Howard you will write us accurately as to the facts. Of course
there must be an outlet for the water flowing into the semi-circular
area. Our office records seem to be imperfect on this point and
their deficiency should be made good.
        
                                               Yours affectionately
                                                       Fredk Law Olmsted.

Mr. F. L. Olmsted, Jr.,
     Biltmore, North Carolina.OLMSTED, OLMSTED & ELIOT.
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS.
BROOKLINE, MASS.

FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED.
JOHN CHARLES OLMSTED.   
CHARLES ELIOT . 

[*Biltmore*]  

2d. Dec. '1895 [*4? JO.*]

Dear Rick, I send herewith copy 
of a letter sent Mr Vanderbilt. I
have also sent a copy to Mr McNamee.
You can show this (that part of it relating
to the Plum trees)  to Mr Beadle if 
you wish. I should like to know if 
there is any question with him on 
the subject, and, if so, the grounds of 
it. I think that I called your attention
to the Sa Notre Planes at Chantilly.  They
were in a row on the north - or left side, 
evoking from the Chateau, of the Esplanade
before the Chateau. Also to the Planes referred
to at the East end of Pennsylvania Avenue
west, in Washington.  Gall is, I suppose, a 
little off his base on the question.  You may
find an opportunity to discuss the subject
in a friendly way with him.  He may have
prejudiced Mr McNamee. You may recall 
the Planes of the Music Court, Brooklyn,
the most rapidly growing trees, in the Park.  
Let me know if Mr Beadle is not in full
agreement with me.
Aflectly,
F.L.O.
overThe Royals (the late Maria
Knapp and her husband) are staying
with us, and Mrs Knapp;
and last night we had a 
houseful of Mr Knapp's old 

parishioners here to meet
them.  
Consider whether there
is any thing you want us to 
bring you or that you can
suggest for making our 
trip more comfortable 
when we come.  I mean
you mother & Marion 
who I suppose will join
us at Biltmore, coming from 
Chicago in three or four weeks.
I rather dread the journey being
just now rather less vigorous 
than I have been.CHARLESTON CLUB

December 20, 1894

[*OLMSTED, OLMSTED & ELLIOT,
REC'D DEC 24 1894
ACK'D.........BY.........
ANS'D.........BY.........
READ BY JCO*]

Dear John,
I wish you would  
read the enclosed letter  to
Father on the arboretum with
some care.

I may be mistaken, but
it certainly has seemed to
me that this whole arboretum
affair--certainly in its
scientific aspect-- has been
left almost untimely in Manning's
hands. Now Manning
is not a scientific man by
any means. He has an intricate
and extended knowledge of plantsbut it is a nurseryman's 
sort of knowledge, though the 
field is greatly extended -
[thus] Was a discussion as to the 
scope of the Arboretum held 
with Professor Sargent, and
did he advise what is being 
attempted? 
Father does not keep track 
of the details of this affair -
Where he went [of] over the 
road "in detail" with Manning
there was little more than 
general consideration of the 
groups - The firm,
and not Manning, will 
be held responsible for 
the Arboretum's character, 

and I hope the firm as represented by 
you and Eliot knows a great deal more 
about the Arboretum than Father does.
Affly,
F.L. Omsted, Jr.[*X Bilt     A*]

           FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED.  JOHN CHARLES OLMSTED.  CHARLES ELIOT.
                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                        OLMSTED, OLMSTED & ELIOT.
                                             LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS.
EDWARD D. BOLTON.                  ---------------------                WARREN H. MANNING.
   SUPERINTENDENT OF CONSTRUCTION.                             SUPERINTENDENT OF PLANTING.
                                                     BROOKLINE, MASS.
[*copy*]
                                                                                                20th December, 1894

Charles McNamee, Esq.,
     Biltmore, North Carolina.
          Dear Sir:- This letter will relate to the proposed diversion
of Four Mile Creek below the Brick House.
     We would wish to have all who are to be responsible in the
direction of this work impressed with the fact that in no other class
of the work to be done at Biltmore is it as difficult to obtain
satisfactory results as in that of artificially making brooks and
brooksides of a natural aspect, and this is especially the case
where a brook is to be carried through open flat land. In no other
sort of work are good results as little to be secured by means of
drawings, models and written specifications. In no other work is so
much dependent on the skill of those immediately directing the required
operations. We have rarely found in our study of the best
old landscape works in Europe, artificially made brooks and brooksides
that were congruous with the general scenery of the region to
the effect of which they should have been made subordinate and
contributive. Often we have found them grossly impertinent and
derogatory to the scenery. The reason of this we believe to be
that too much has been attempted to be done by exact and didacticMcNamee - 2
instructions; too little left to be determined by those engaged in
the field work as this was advanced. For this reason we are indisposed
to depend as much as most of our profession have done in such
works, upon paper plans, specifications and models, and are disposed,
after fixing limits and indicating general principles, to trust in
details more to the ability of the Superintendent on the ground to
teach the operators how to manage the materials they are handling in
such a way as to bring about desired results. In no other kind of
work that we have to direct is the attainment of such results equally
dependent on the knack of the workmen and the skill of the foreman
in drawing out and making use of this knack.
     In all operations of this class there are two principal errors
to be guarded against. First, that of running to the fantastic;
second, that of avoiding the fantastic by running to the clumsy,
prosaic and commonplace. The first course leads to results that
bring to mind "landscapes" such as confectioners make in sugar;
the other to "landscapes" such as children make the Dutch toy trees,
houses and fences. We have found that results of neither class are
to be fully avoided by giving those who are to directly superintend
the work much instruction in the form of drawings or models. They
are hardly to be escaped unless the superintendent and the foreman
can be led to so far enter into the spirit of the design that they
can themselves supply a good deal of original thought to its details.
Most assuredly, the work required cannot be done mechanicallyMcNamee - 3
as some architectural works may be by following drawings and
specifications. Indeed, something must be asked even of the
laboring men employed, which is essentially of the nature of that
almost instinctive process in the minds of men who could not read
or follow drawings, to which Ruskin and Norton largely attribute the
distinctive interest of mediaeval cathedrals.
In the work of the Ram Branch Valley, drawings and models were
used less than they sometimes have been in works of our profession.
Certain limits being fixed, and the general character of the result
required being explained verbally, the determination of details of
construction was largely left to be made on the ground as the work
advanced, much being trusted not simply to the skill in arrangement
of the material to be used that was required of the workmen by
Mr. Gall and Foreman Potter, but to the unconscious sympathy of the
workmen themselves with the motive of the design and their deftness
in handling the required material accordingly. Though some defects
have not yet been as fully overcome as they are expected to be,
the general character of the ultimate result promises to be satisfactory.
In a few years, that is to say, the brook and its banks,
even in those parts where there have been the most destructive and
reformatory operations, is likely to make an impression of nearly
as much unsophisticated naturalness as it did in its former state
and yet, in various ways, to have a much more interesting character.
Thus the art to conceal art in all that which, like the road and                                            McNamee - 4
its bridges, was not designed to appear of artificial construction,
will have been successfully practised.

     In determining how the work is to be carried on, it is to be
considered, even more than in determining any other class of
scenery-making operations, what Nature can be coaxed to accomplish
upon the foundations that we are to lay for her. These foundations,
that is to say, must be contrived with reference to the general
character of such results as the forces of Nature can be afterwards
expected to bring about. Results must be had in view, for example,
such as are only to be obtained by a well-calculated use of the force
of running water operating upon earth and stones and living plants
as this force varies in Summer and Winter, in floods and droughts.
   As the flow of water in the proposed channel will be sluggish
there is danger that after storms detritus, brought from above by
the  stream, will be deposited on its bottom in excessive quantities.
This danger will lessen as the ground above becomes consolidated and
permanent plantations are established, but, to provide against it
in the meantime, we have in view a ditch to take storm water overflows
from the turn of the stream nearest the Brick House direct
through the old channel of the Branch to the nearest point of the
river. The present channel of the Branch will probably serve this
purpose, at least temporarily, but that it may do so without danger
to crops on the meadow through which it flows, low dikes will, perhaps,
need to be formed on each of its banks. The Agricultural
Department can attend to this, if preferred.McNamee - 5
     The course of the new channel to be made for Four Mile Creek
through the meadow below the Brick House has been shown on the ground
to Mr. Gall and to Mr. Howard. It is to follow generally the
course of the swale which extends from a point near the Brick House
to a point near the Sand Pits, as indicated on the accompanying map.
     No map that we have of this region is such that we could
safely define upon it, in any detail, the shores of the proposed
new stream. We have pointed out the general course it should
follow to Mr. Howard and to Mr. Gall, on the ground, and they can
stake it out adequately for preliminary operations. For the
present, slight inaccuracies will be of little account, provided
the stream below the mill is not made generally broader than it now
is above the mill. An improvement of the banks with some variations
in their forms can, if required, be directed by us on the
ground in February. If, however, Mr. Howard thinks it better
to send us a map in order that we may more definitely indicate the
banks of the brook before stakes are set for them, he can do so.
Such a map should be on a scale of one hundred feet to an inch,
and should have contour lines showing every foot of elevation.
It should cover the space between the east side of the road below
the deer park and a line that would be one hundred feet west
of the middle of the swale. If such a map is made, Mr. Howard will
better draw a pencil line upon it indicating what he thinks the
middle of a natural water course through the swale, and we willMcNamee - 6
return it with any amendments for which we see occasion. But we
hardly think such a map is necessary.
Yours Respectfully,
Olmsted, Olmsted & Elliot
                                                COPY  [Where is nymet?]
                     FROM THE OFFICE OF OLMSTED BROTHERS
                                 
Brookline, Sunday  [*Xmas & the day after*]
 23rd December, 1894
Dear Rick:
                  I am sorry that I have not written you oftener and
more fully. Since I came home I have been overloaded and have
felt my age [?] more than ever before. I have had some critical
matters in hand and have had to let others wait. Partly for
this reason, but perhaps more because you have not been writing
to me in particular and in a manner to draw me out, I have not
been writing as much as I otherwise should,- certainly not as
methodically and statedly as I should. And I somehow feel,
as I don't like to, that I have lost the run of you. I don't
at all like to feel so for really I depend for my comfort largely
upon you and you must manage to write me so that I shall not
feel so. Whatever you write the family and the firm and whether
I write you or not, you must write something for my special
comfort at least once a - will I say - once a fortnight, not to
tax you too heavily. Write in a personal way to me personally,
giving some account of what your are doing and thinking; what
you are studying; what progress you are making in any way.
Give me some clue to your welfare in ways that you need not to
others. Do not think that you are wasting time in doing so.
You will be picking up something for yourself as for
me. Go about it in the right way, as you can with little reflection,
and you will find that you can not spend the necessary
time better. The methodizing of your observations and thoughts
that will be required will be of great value to your education.
I know that I gained a good deal from writing to my father. Do
not undervalue the educating effect of it. Make as much of
this as you well can. You are pursuing your professional
education and there is no more valuable agency of educing -
drawing out yourself - than that which will be necessary for
such collecting and arranging and making sure of your fugacious
and nebulous thoughts as in writing to me. I am referring to
the development of professional thoughts educationally. Think
over what I am saying and see if you do not agree with me.
There may be something gained from my comments but more will
come from a habit of thinking about various matters of observation 
and debate with writing in view; with a view to writing
to review as you write. "Writing makes the exact man" and
there is nothing wanted for our profession as much as exactness
of thought. It is not the mere act of writing by which exactness -
which in this case means practical clear-thoughtedness - is
cultivated; it is the habit of thinking about various matters
of observation and debate with a purpose, more or less definite,
of writing upon them. It is the sort of definite reflection
that one falls into when he is intending to write that-2-

I want you to give to every subject that comes up bearing
upon your profession. It is the educational process that I
am advising. Do not underrate its importance. You have no
professor to hold you to it as the professional law or
or medical or architectural student has. You must hold
yourself to it. Keep it all the time well in mind that you
are now in a school of which you are yourself the head-master.
Your most important business is now that of school-master
to yourself - Professor to yourself. What will you do with
him? How best train him for his future responsibilities; to
do his duty; to fairly, honestly and squarely earn the living
for his wife and children, as well as fill a responsible
place in the machinery of civilization? Do not neglect to
think of your duty to others as well as to yourself in determining
how this ward of yours (F.L.O.Jr.) is to be educated.
There is no more important part of this education than that
which you can, if you manage well, get out of writing to me.
Do not be afraid of going as much slower in other parts of
your education as may be necessary to make time to deliberately
think out what you may think of in writing to me. Have it
in view to draw yourself out rather than to draw me.
Nevertheless have some thought for me. I want to know a
great deal more about you than I do. How is your health -
physically, mentally, morally? Do not be backward in telling
me. I also am a sinner and after a long and hard discipline
am still awfully neglectful of my duty to myself and to you
and others. Do I not hate myself for it and keep stirring
myself to do better? I hope so. But I do not want to
sermonize.
Are you seeing much of McNamees? the Thompsons,
Galls, Woodseys and others to whom you may have profitable
access? Do you talk much with Gall and are you fairly successful
in drawing instruction from him? If not, be sure it is
your own want of skill in leading him. He has more special
experience and skill in some directions than any one else you
are likely to have a chance to make your assistant school
master. Have you found that you could draw him into lecturing
you and engaging condescendingly into friendly discussions
with you? How is it about Thompson and how about Boynton, the
plant collector. He is probably the most original man on the
Estate. I mean the man of whom you can get more of what you
can not get from books than you can from any one else. I say
probably, not really knowing him. Knowing little more of him
than that Prof. S. has got a good deal from him that he thinks
of value. He must have, (hidden), a good deal that you can
get from no other man. I don't know that it would be of much
value to you, but I should think it might be. At any rate he
must be from a social point of view a very interesting man
to penetrate. He probably could give you more knowledge of
the conditions and character of Southern poor whites than-3-

any one else at Biltmore if you could draw it out. Have you 
exploited the brick and tile man yet? Are you getting into usefully
friendly relations with the building contractors? You can
learn much from them, once get them well tackled to you. But,
whatever you can get from others, Beadle and Pinchot are your
principle mines. You cannot work them too much. You are at
Biltmore rather than in this office mainly that you may be drawing
out Beadle - getting capital out of his head for your life's
business. To this end you must be helping him and, incidentally,
as you help him, drawing instruction from him. Take a turn
through the houses and the nurseries as often as you conveniently
can; establish the names of the plants in your memory and attach
ideas, figures, pictures to these names. Daily reiterate what
you can learn about them and attach what you can learn to these
names. In any moment of time when not otherwise occupied be
doing something at this. Make it your business, as if you had
to pass an examination next month. You surely will have to
pass examinations sooner or later on everything. Give your
mind every chance you can to gather in this sort of information
and cultivate the power to fix it. Review! Review! and train
yourself. No one here has done half enough of this. And bear
always in mind while at Biltmore that there is nothing else as
to which you will have anything like the superior advantages for
instruction while there as in this field of study. In nearly
all others you may have opportunities for qualifying yourself
here. You will here be under enormously greater disadvantages
with reference to botany and dendrology. And this especially
in getting good extensive foundation knowledge. Once get such
knowledge as you may at Biltmore and you can build on it here.
It is the want of such knowledge as you may acquire there, and
such as Beadle and Manning have gained in nurseries, that is
the weakest point of all of us. Keep it every day well in
mind that this is your main business for the time being. Be
open, intelligent, receptive, observant, reflective, and the
rest of your business will grow upon you, but as to plants and
planting you must bow done to work to get what you need for a
point of departure.

              Now, with this letter before you, think it out, if you
have not well thought it out before, are you pursuing the best
course that you can, making the best of this special opportunity,
to get the best knowledge you can of plants, as a foundation
for all future professional studies? Consider all the rest as
subordinate and incidental to this. Not that it is not important,
this the rest, but that it is not the specialty of the
Biltmore school. All the rest you can gradually pick up,
here and elsewhere, if you are not well grounded in it at
Biltmore. But here, when you once get to professional work
at the corner of Dudley and Warren Streets, how very poor will
be your opportunities in comparison with what Biltmore and
Beadle and Boynton can be made to yield to an industrious
and well-planned, systematic siege. Remember that for your
                                            -4-

education in this respect you are really availing yourself not
of our capital alone but of the capital of the richest man in
the world. If Mr. Vanderbilt were putting all his wealth at
your disposal you could not be much better situated than you are
with reference to education in the most important branch of your
professional education, which professional education will be
your principal business capital. You have a better chance to
accumulate wealth this year than you ever will again. Now is
your time to be getting foundation work upon which you will next
summer build through personal observation and practice in the
open field of practice.

                  I send for your private consideration copy of letter 
about the proposed new outlet of Four Mile Creek. You may be able
to help us through discussions of which this letter would be the
text with the engineer. You know what I am thinking much better
than he can. You will remember how dissatisfied I was with
[*[Reference 
to travels of 
F.L.O. &
FLO, Jr.
together in
France &
England 
six months
in 1891.
F.L.O. Jr.]*]
most French and English work in brook-making. May you not by
cautious reference to this, and to what you then got from me, to
help Howard and Gall to a better understanding of what I am
after and a better realization of  the difficulties to be overcome?
I want to have the work advanced to a point at which I can, in
my hoped-for February visit, help mould it right. Go over the
scheme when you can with Gall and Howard and try to help them,
carefully, delicately, suggestively - by no means didactically.
Theoretically it is comparatively a simple problem. Practically
it is a problem with which artists of our profession fail oftener
and more grievously than with any other. Do you not remember
how extremely unsatisfactory all the made brooks in the Paris
public grounds were? And again so many in England. Except
"rock work" this was the worst work we saw - caricature of nature.
Do you remember the brooks in that Waterlow park that we visited
south of Hampsted. You have seen, in fact, no end of awful
examples. Help all you can to guard us from perpetrating similar
atrocities. Ram Branch is not quite to my mind. I have
talked to Beadle unsuccessfully about remedies for some of its
defects. But it is the best example that I know of what a brook
should be when there is a necessity for much artificializing it.
But the conditions of the new work are vastly more difficult.
There is hardly any comparison to be made. Think this matter out
industriously. Give it your best study and stimulate Gall to
study it. I hope to find the rough work well advanced in February.
It is not a matter in which much can be done by drawings and
written instructions. Gall's tendency would have been to make
it over-elaborate. But I hope that with the education he has had
at Biltmore, he will be more disposed to look for results to come
indirectly from what he does artificially in giving opportunities
for Nature to work in her own way. Instill this idea all you can.                                                   -5-
[*[Taken
in the 
trip of 1892 -
FLO Jr.]*]
                       Is it best I should send you your English and French
photographs? Could you not exhibit them to a select audience
profitably; to Gall and Howard and Beadle and even to the foreman;
giving a running commentary? You could make the latter better,
less distastefully, perhaps, if your comments appeared to be in a
great degree repetitions of what I had said for your instruction,
calling attention to defects in artificially designed works and
to happy results in certain operations and yet oftener to such
results that appear to have come from accidents. You understand,
of course, that your position toward the older superintending men is
a very delicate one. You will need to use much discretion and tact
to accomplish your objects without rousing their amour propre
antagonistically to your purpose. It is excellent practice for you.

                      Again I urge you to keep clearly in mind that which is the
main essential object of this Biltmore school; gaining such knowledge
of plants as you can get in no other school, knowledge and more than
knowledge - wisdom - in plants. If you don't get it now you never will.
Book knowledge can not be made to answer the purpose. Knowledge
that you can pick up in the office will not suffice. There is a
great deal more to be learned at Biltmore and it is of high importance,
but, comparatively speaking, nearly all the rest will come almost by
itself. For much of it you have mainly to keep your eyes open
and move about and converse and read and let your mind willingly
work. But for the knowledge you mainly need - that of plants,
that of trees as elements of scenery, that of lower vegetations as
elements, not only of landscape scenery but of gardens and house
decorations, conservatories, etc., for this you must study hard,
systematically, as a methodical scholar. Make sure of yourself
that that is clearly what you are bent upon. Let there be no doubt
about it; no mistake; by no possibility a miscarriage. Be sure
that you are pursuing the best course open to you. Tell me now
when you answer this letter, are your arrangements for this purpose
the best that we can make them? Are you doing the best that you
can? Are your relations with your master Beadle as good as they can
be made? Is he taking pains with you? Does he feel a responsibility
for your advance in this way? Can we in any way increase
his sense of responsibility - as by paying him a tuition fee, or by
presents? Of course we should be glad to aid you in any such way.
The pecuniary cost of anything we can do to give you facilities
for better opportunities of study, for benefitting by painstaking
guidance and instruction, is not to be considered. I am as ready
to give Beadle a tuition fee of a thousand dollars as I was to
give it to Harvard College. I will do so at once, and in any form
that you may advise, if you think that it will help you to benefit
by his instruction.            
-6-

Have it clearly in mind that never afterwards will
you have nearly as good opportunities of education in your profession
as you have now, provided you are able to use them, and
that whether you are able to use them is largely a question of your
skill in drawing out oral instructions from the several specialists
that you have the opportunity to place yourself in suitable relations
with. By drawing out oral instructions and by stimulating
and leading along courses of inquiry and debate   Now, now is your
time for gaining wealth in this way. Next summer will be your
time to gain it by searching for and laying up such elementary
knowledge as you must acquire in order to make yourself a master in
the productions of effects of foliage. Something of very great
value you will be able to learn about plants during the winter;
something you can learn now that will make it practicable for you
to learn more from the study of plants that you will make when they
are in foliage next summer. Do not undervalue the opportunity
you have in this respect. But all the time as you pursue your
study now, have it in mind that what you are gaining is a foundation
for what you are going to do in the summer when the leaves are out.
Of course this does not apply to the conservatory part of your
business and you want to make the most of what you can get out of
Bottomley and by study under glass, but I should suppose that if you
went about under glass with him for a few hours one day in a week
you would be doing that part of your duty. The same of the
propagating business and all of the actual work with plants that is
in progress in the nursery. Something, I say, you will be
learning during the winter in this direction. Do not underrate
its value. It would have been worth many thousand dollars to me to
have gained at your age what you can thus pick up. But mainly keep
it in mind that what you are to learn during the winter - say,
especially during the next five weeks,- is to be of value as a
foundation of the work you are to do next summer; of the study that
you are then to pursue out of doors, out of the nursery, even
more or less off the Estate - perhaps at Pisgah, Roan Mountain,
at Caesar's Head, in the Dismal Swamp, and by reminiscence in
the Rocky Mountains; by reminiscence, also, in New Forest and Sherwood
Forest and Windsor Forest; on the Wye and on the Loire.

 But I must not urge you to be now getting prepared for
the work that you will have before you next summer, to a degree
that will prevent you from lecturing yourself. Don't fail to
think for yourself what ten or twenty years or forty years, hence,
you will be wishing that you had thought, as I do of my failure to
have studied expressly for my profession at your age. But I
had absolutely no adviser on this point, and my fundamental
knowledge, the gain on which has been my chief capital of my
professional career, came to me incidentally, from seeking my
own pleasure, not through intelligently directed study. Of
course, I feel the want of such intelligently directed study, such

                                                          -7-

exactness of knowledge as it would have given me; such clearness
of purpose as it would have given me, very much; and I want you
not merely to be better fitted in this respect than I have been,
but enough better to make good to the world what of the duties
of my profession I have been unable to supply. You must, with
the aid of such inheritance as I can give you, make good my
failings. That is one of the thoughts that dwell with me. Also,
I recognize wherein John (& wherein Eliot) is imperfectly
fitted, and I want you to be fitted to make good, years to come,
that in which they are inadequately provided. Therefore look you
sharp to benefit by that in which you have special opportunities
to benefit at Biltmore. There are many requirements of your
profession which can be provided elsewhere. Your school for
nearly all wisdom in trees and plants and planting is at Biltmore.
For the rest, if Biltmore does not incidentally supply it, you
will have other schools. Certainly it is desirable that you
should be advancing in much else and your are and will be, as
for example, in matters of drainage and agriculture and stock
raising, and gardening, by what you will be getting by conversation
with the Baron and Weston and Gall and their underworkers,
and by observation and reflection upon their several
proceedings. You will not neglect your opportunities in these
respects. But you must be careful to use them secondarily to
your opportunities to acquire knowledge and skill in respect
to trees and planting; to that which you will mainly acquire by
working with Mr. Beadle and his assistants, and questioning them.

Now, take time before long and write me how far you are
on the right course in the respects that I have been touching
upon. And tell me if I can help you to better your position in
any way for the purposes in question; as, for instance, by sending
you any books, by writing to Mr. Beadle, Mr. Gall, Mr. McNamee or
Mr. Vanderbilt; by adding to your outfit in any particular.
Do you get the journals, the magazines and the books that you
can read with advantage? Are you gaining in the education of
yourself in regard to sleep, going to bed at a reasonable hour;
rising surely when you should? Are you gaining any in the
art of putting yourself to sleep when you will,- the art of
which Napoleon and Grant were equally masters? Are you going
regularly to church - to what; and are you training yourself to
avoid a critical view of it and cultivating devoutness and
the childlike religion which Christ advised in spite of
the theological wrangling of the clergy? Do you succeed in
avoiding theological disputes with Mr. McNamee? Are you helping 
Mr. Pinchot in his negro Sunday School?-8-

          Are you getting any practice in shooting, fishing or
hunting? (Are the hunts kept up this year?) Have you shot a
wild turkey?

           Are you going to any balls, or dances? Are you punctual
and regular in your social - "Society" - duties? Are you making
acquaintances at the Hotels? Are you often calling on the McNamees
and the Thompsons? Are you often calling on other people? There are
several nice people living within a few miles of you and you must 
not neglect social duties or opportunities. Recognize yourself
and be sure that you are recognized as a gentleman of Society.
Be punctilious and exacting with yourself in all those rites and
forms and manners by which gentlemen and ladies recognize a
gentleman.

              I am sorry that I did not know that you were going to
Charleston and that I was not able to give you suggestions what and
whom to see there. I should have been sure to have had you visit
Savannah and the great live oak burying ground there which is one of
the finest things that I ever saw. I think that you will have to
go to the Eastern part of the State and perhaps to the Sea Islands
of South Carolina and Georgia to study the special vegetation there;
perhaps with Boynton. I wish very much that you could have
Beadle with you, and I am not sure that it would not be reasonable
to send him on account of the Estate. There is a great deal there
that might serve at Biltmore.

                I suppose that you will have seen my letter to the
Park Commission, vindicating of Vaux. I apprehend that the
engineers as a body are inclined to be offended by it. But have
you any doubt that I am right? No engineer seems to think so and
I expect to see some domonstrations from the engineers point of
view. I recall three distinct and prominent instances in which
engineers after being employed under my instructions have set
themselves up as "Landscape Engineers". Not one of them has done
a single good piece of work. Not one has succeeded in getting
business of value. Every one has gone back on my precept and
training and has made Landscape Architecture (or gardening) a
decoration of engineering construction, not engineering an instrument
to landscape. (This is private, for discussion of the
question seems to serve no good purpose and any recognition of
rivalry, of rival fields, is to be avoided.) The training of an
engineer forces him to a wrong point of view. In this respect, so
far, everything is as it should be at Biltmore. Define engineering;
then define landscape, and you will see what is right.
But as engineers will continue to look at the question from their
own point of view and from human nature will be jealous and will
magnify their own specialty and will minimize in their careless
everyday thoughts on the subject, the specialty of our art.

                                                     -9-

                    Here I am called off.
 
                    Now, at your early convenience, take a day's
vacation to sit in the house and write me about yourself and
your fortunes and your thoughts.
                    
                                           Your affectionate father,
                                     
                                                    Fredk. Law Olmsted, Senior

P.S. (Private) Since the above was written we have had a council
as our supt. of planting has become exceedingly exacting. We
feel that we shall have to let him go, if not now, soon. And
you must be prepared as soon as possible to take his place. None
of our young men in his department are at all fit to do it.
In fact, Manning is certain to leave us soon, and we shall have
to fudge along unsatisfactorily and with much strain upon
ourselves; until you are competent to take that part of our
superintending work. That is to say, so I am disposed to think.
This is your opening and I shall do my best to keep it for you.
You must do your best to make yourself competent to grow into it.
You had better burn this and the whole letter as soon as you
have answered it.