Last updated: May 24, 2024
Place
Blake Estate
Olmsted Archives, Job #01019, Brookline, MA
Quick Facts
Location:
Brookline, MA
Significance:
Olmsted Designed Estate
MANAGED BY:
Privately Owned
Three years before Frederick Law Olmsted would make the move to Brookline, he was contacted by Boston banker Arthur Welland Blake to develop his family estate into lots for subdivision, roads included.
Over a fifteen-year period, Olmsted and the firm would draw numerous plans for the Blakes property on Aspinwall Hill, however they were never executed. For a while the estate was an oddity: a large open tract of land in the heart of a rapidly developing community.
It wasn’t until 1916 that the land was sold, roads and lots were divided, somewhat differently than what Olmsted had envisioned, and blended right in with the “streetcar suburb” just minutes from downtown Boston.
Source: "The Story of Blake Park," Brookline Historical Society
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr
Over a fifteen-year period, Olmsted and the firm would draw numerous plans for the Blakes property on Aspinwall Hill, however they were never executed. For a while the estate was an oddity: a large open tract of land in the heart of a rapidly developing community.
It wasn’t until 1916 that the land was sold, roads and lots were divided, somewhat differently than what Olmsted had envisioned, and blended right in with the “streetcar suburb” just minutes from downtown Boston.
Source: "The Story of Blake Park," Brookline Historical Society
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr