Last updated: June 7, 2024
Place
Middlesex Fells
Olmsted Archives
Quick Facts
Location:
Stoneham, MA
Significance:
Olmsted Designed Park
MANAGED BY:
In November of 1880, the newly formed Middlesex Fells Association reached out to Frederick Law Olmsted, to see if he would advise and plan a four-thousand-acre rural park in the rocky hills north of Boston. Olmsted had already visited Middlesex Fells before, and drawing from that experience, noted the importance of “distinguishing characteristics of each particular property”.
Olmsted agreed to help design the Fells, which came “from an appreciation of the beauty & use of absolutely wild sylvan scenery it is most desirable to avoid complicating the purpose of preserving and developing such scenery”. Regarding the topography of the area, Olmsted advised to “take it as it stands, develop to the utmost its natural characteristics, and make a true retreat not only from town but from suburban conditions” and that “every inducement should be offered visitors to ramble and wander about.”
After retiring in 1885, Olmsted would stop work on Middlesex Fells. However, his protégé Charles Eliot began putting together the nation’s first metropolitan park system. After the park system was established in 1893, Charles Eliot included the Fells, with Olmsted Brothers continuing their landscape work in the Fells Reservation.
Source: "Middlesex Fells Reservation," The Cultural Landscape Foundation
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr
Olmsted agreed to help design the Fells, which came “from an appreciation of the beauty & use of absolutely wild sylvan scenery it is most desirable to avoid complicating the purpose of preserving and developing such scenery”. Regarding the topography of the area, Olmsted advised to “take it as it stands, develop to the utmost its natural characteristics, and make a true retreat not only from town but from suburban conditions” and that “every inducement should be offered visitors to ramble and wander about.”
After retiring in 1885, Olmsted would stop work on Middlesex Fells. However, his protégé Charles Eliot began putting together the nation’s first metropolitan park system. After the park system was established in 1893, Charles Eliot included the Fells, with Olmsted Brothers continuing their landscape work in the Fells Reservation.
Source: "Middlesex Fells Reservation," The Cultural Landscape Foundation
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr