Big Apple History . Building the Big Apple . Olmsted's Vision


	Frederick Law Olmsted

Frederick Law Olmsted, superintendent of the labor force clearing land for Central Park, was a man of ideas, a student of people and landscapes. He had traveled the South and written about its society. He practiced scientific farming on Staten Island.

Olmsted's varied experience attracted Calvert Vaux, an English architect who had entered the park's design competition. Vaux wanted someone who understood American society and knew the barren and rocky terrain of the future park.


Plan for Central Park

The two men spent the winter of 1857-1858 working on their plan. There were all kinds of ideas floating about the city. Working-class and immigrant leaders wanted an amusement park, with beer gardens, ball fields, and outdoor theaters. The city's elite wanted an elegant retreat, with horse paths and drives to show off their new carriages.

Olmsted and Vaux were reformers. They believed that a park was for all the people. It should be a place where rich and poor would mingle. Their winning "Greensward Plan" had a little bit of everything: farm-like meadows, wilderness forest paths, and formal gardens.

Top illustration: courtesy of the National Park Service, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site.

Illustration at bottom left: from the annual report of the Board of Commissioners of Central Park, courtesy of the Collection of the New-York Historical Society.