CHAPTER IV
FEBRUARY 1868–DECEMBER 1869

The years 1868 and 1869 brought Olmsted the opportunity to undertake some of the most important landscape commissions of his career. The letters of August 1868 indicate how Olmsted alone, while Vaux was in Europe, established the framework of the Buffalo, New York, park system, the first park system containing separate parks intended for different recreational uses and connected by parkways. The letters and reports also document how Olmsted designed the suburban community of Riverside, Illinois. The preliminary report for Riverside emphasizes the importance of a well-constructed infrastructure of roads and sidewalks as well as a parkway connecting the suburb with Chicago. Letters to Edwin C. Larned, Leverett W Murray, Edward Everett Hale, and Emery E. Childs provide insight into Olmsted’s increasing frustration with the speculative aspects of the Riverside development.

In addition to Olmsted’s efforts at comprehensive city planning and community design, the documents presented here show Olmsted and Vaux’s continuing activities in park design. The preliminary plan for Washington Park in Albany, New York, and the report of January 1869 to the Brooklyn park commission demonstrate Olmsted’s conviction that park and parkway development could help structure a city’s growth.

During this busy period Olmsted maintained his longstanding interest in art and architecture. Indeed, three previously unpublished fragmentary drafts illustrate his effort to raise the level of popular culture and contribute to the success of public schools. His observations on architecture and urban growth in New York show his disdain for much of the contemporary commercial and residential building in that city. His report to Robert Dale Owen suggests optimism that the new process of photosculpture would make original [257] works of art affordable for many Americans, while the draft of an article on recreation and public education expresses Olmsted’s desire to bolster the common schools as bulwarks of the republic.