CHAPTER VIII
DECEMBER 1879–MAY 1880

This was a very active time for Olmsted, both in planning the Boston park system and developing the campaign for the Niagara reservation. Letters to Charles Dalton, Joseph P. Davis, and the Boston park commissioners describe the approach that he devised for dealing with the complex conditions of the Back Bay Fens, while his letters to Dalton and Charles Eliot Norton of May 5 describe the arrangement he was working to realize between Boston and Harvard College concerning the Arnold Arboretum. His “Notes” in the report of the New York State Survey for 1879 offer his first description of the “distinctive charms of Niagara scenery,” and his letter to Charles Eliot Norton of January 22 indicates the status of the petition campaign for Niagara that they were organizing. His letter to Barthold Schlesinger of Brookline, Massachusetts, demonstrates his analysis of the site for a residence and his process of developing a design appropriate to it. The letter to Tiffany & Co. describes the water-driven carillon that he installed in the summer house on the U.S. Capitol grounds as the final touch for creating an atmosphere of variety, intricacy and “delicacy” in that distinctive space. Working on a different scale, that of the city region, he presents in his letter to the New-York Daily Tribune on “The Future of New-York” his critique of the gridiron street system of New York and his views on the row house as a form of urban residence.

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