It’s a celebration 200 years in the making.
Frederick Law Olmsted, aka America’s greatest park maker + the father of American landscape architecture, was born 200 years ago on April 26. His architecture firm had a hand in designing approximately 5,000 projects in 45 states and several countries. That’s a lot of green spaces to celebrate.
The New England native moved to Boston in 1883 and established the world’s first full-scale professional office for landscape design. “Fairsted” is a National Historic Site, and the house is open to the public to explore at 99 Warren St. in Brookline.
He is credited with designing some of the most iconic public parks across the US, including Golden Gate, Central Park, and the US Capitol.
That’s not where the achievements end, and Bostonians can thank Olmstead for creating green spaces in our city and the concept of parkways. These former carriage paths were transformed into wider roads allowing a separate path for commercial and recreational vehicles (think: the Arborway, Jamaicaway, and Riverway connecting the parks in the Emerald Necklace).
Oh yeah, the Emerald Necklace was all Olmsted too. The seven mile stretch from downtown into Dorchester was designed so each of the nine parks represents a jewel on a necklace. Today, the Emerald Necklace Conservancy protects the parks and plans programming to support the community, like the Party in the Park on Wed., May 11.
Don’t miss the bicentennial party that was rescheduled (due to inclement weather) to today at the Jamaica Pond Boathouse from 6:30-7:30 p.m. You only turn 200 once, so there will be events throughout October for toasting to Olmsted long after his birthday.