Frederick Law Olmsted’s Letter, Transmitted to
the Common Council, April 11, 1887.

Sir—The Common Council having asked your Board to take the necessary steps to realize the wishes of citizens of the Thirteenth Ward, petitioning for a park on the lake shore, and for a pleasure road connecting it with the existing park and parkway system of the city, and the Board having asked my counsel in the matter, on the 22d inst., in company with your Committee on Roads and Grounds, I made a tour of the Thirteenth Ward and of a part of the town of West Seneca, and the following day was present at a meeting of the Board at which a hearing was given to a number of gentlemen speaking for the petitioners. In a conversation that followed I was led to state something of the impressions that had been made upon my mind by what I had thus seen and heard and was asked by the commissioners to report the substance of my remarks in a written communication to you. Before doing so I should like to recall certain circumstances of the past, a consideration of which is necessary to an understanding of the present situation.

Nineteen years ago I was asked by a provisional committee of citizens to advise in the selection of a site for a rural park for Buffalo. I said at once, that it should, if possible, be on the shore of the lake. This, more especially for two reasons: First, there is nothing so refreshing and grateful to a man escaping temporarily from the confinement of ordinary city life as an unlimited expanse of natural scenery such as would be provided without cost in any situation overlooking the lake. Every acre of park land, therefore, so situated, may be worth many acres elsewhere. Second, it is a great advantage to a city to have a park approachable by water. Boats are cheap and pleasant vehicles. Making the journey to a park in a boat, the refreshment of the visitor begins as soon as he takes water. It is a much better means of anti-urban recreation than that of moving in a wheeled vehicle through the midst of the city. The most beautiful place of resort in the world is said (in the American Cyclopedia) to be a public park in Stockholm. [376]No other is more generally or better used by all classes of people. This park is on an island and is accessible only by boats. But when I said that I should think that the best place for a park near Buffalo must be somewhere on the shore of the lake, I was cautioned not to suppose that the people of the city had any sympathy with the sentiment by which, coming from the seaboard, it was presumed that I was moved. It was said that the lake brought to their minds, more prominently than anything else, harsh winds, wrecks and other disasters, dreary fields of ice and a tedious holding back of spring, and that, even in warm weather, boating was not popular, nor was there any custom prevalent corresponding to that which leads the people of cities near the ocean to flock to its shores. More than once it was said to me, “We hate the lake.” I mention this because a directly contrary statement has been publicly made of late. If a change of popular sentiment in this respect has occurred it is probably because the habit of seeking recreation during the summer by excursions from the town has been growing rapidly and an education has been gained in sensibility to the refreshment of broad aspects of nature. What finally settled the question was the obvious fact that north of Buffalo creek no large space could be found along the shore unoccupied by costly buildings or undivided by a railroad and, south of the creek, none which could be made pleasantly accessible except at immoderate cost. Giving up a large park on the lake, I nevertheless urged the importance of improving the Front, as has since been done, and that no time should be lost in securing the space of ground between the Front and the lake, which the city is now trying to obtain possession of at a cost many times greater than would have been necessary had my advice been immediately acted upon. Making, next, a tour of the suburbs of the city at a distance from the lake, I found no ground offering valuable advantages for a rural park within the limits of the district to which the committee were willing to go. Looking (against their wishes and entirely of my own motion) beyond these limits, I found a situation in which the advantages for forming a park of an unusual and very desirable character, at moderate cost, seemed to be such as to more than compensate for its obvious disadvantages in remoteness from the people of the southern part of the city. I expressed this conviction and gave reasons for it and they were in time found sufficient to induce the city government, though not without strenuous opposition, to secure the greater part of the land advised. The little which it failed at the time to buy, it is now adding to the Park at a price, I believe, ten times greater than it would have had to pay. I refer to these circumstances prefatorily to the following observation: If the population of Buffalo should increase at a rate not greatly below the average rate of its increase during the last twenty years, it will not be long before it is twice as large a city as it was when its present part was begun. It is improbable that it will wait even till that time before providing something in the way of a park at a point opposite that of the present park. It will, then, be improvident to let whatever tract of outlying land would be most suitable for the purpose become occupied with structures that will either prevent its purchase when wanted, or add greatly to its cost.

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As to the choice of a site for a second park, the following propositions may be suggested. Whenever Buffalo wants another park, it will be best:

First, that it should be in a direction from the city opposite that of the present Park; second, that it should command a broad view over the lake; third, that it should be conveniently, safely and pleasantly accessible from distant parts of the town by boats; fourth, that it should be adapted to the production of natural features of rural scenery (other than in views over the lake) which will be pleasing and refreshing in a different way from those of the present Park, so that it cannot be said that one is better than the other; only that each is excellent of its distinctive kind. I find that the ground which the petitioners seem to have had more particularly in view, or ground near it, is satisfactory in each of these particulars. It is in the required direction from the center of the city; it is on the lake; when the breakwater shall have been extended, as I am told it is likely to be in a few years, there will be a still-water boating-way to it from the northern parts of the city; its topography is in strong contrast to that of the present Park. Further than this, it is in part little better than waste land, and is in part farming land, at a distance from any improvements spreading out of the city, and will not be costly. Owing to numerous railroad embankments and bridges, interrupting the natural outflow of waters, a considerable quarter in the southern part of the city has been of late years increasingly subject to be flooded. To lessen this liability the city engineer has devised a scheme for turning the course of Cazenovia creek below a certain point, and giving it a direct outflow into the lake. From evidences seen on the twenty-second, of the depth of a recent flood, covering all the roads and sweeping away bridges and fences on several square miles of land, I think the city will be compelled soon to provide some method of relief from this evil. Presuming that that proposed by the city engineer, which, at a glance, seems simple and effective, will be adopted, it is to be noted that the new outlet of the creek will come not far from the situation had in view for the park, and may easily be made to coincide with it.

Having been instructed to submit a preliminary design for the proposed park, I am disposed to consider whether advantage cannot be taken of the copious flow of water that the turned creek will supply, and of the movement of earth that will be necessary in forming its outlet, to establish the basis of a passage of natural scenery of an unusual type and of a park of unique character. If the park scheme and the drainage scheme are designed in certain respects co-operatively, economy will probably be gained for both. The precise situation of the land to be taken for the park should be determined with regard partly to the requirements of the drainage scheme, and partly to the price at which different properties that would answer the two purposes in view might be bought. In the meantime any plan for the park should be of a tentative character. In order that a better judgment may be formed of what is practicable and data obtained which would allow a preliminary estimate of the cost of the proposed work to be made, I shall wish to prepare such a tentative plan in consultation with the city engineer, and I [378]advise that with a view to it a survey of the ground to be considered be made. This will best be done at once, before the leaves come out. As I have spoken of the advantages of water communication with a public park, it may be best at this time to mention that in laying out the present park north of the city the question of a water-way to it was considered, and it was concluded that it would be practicable at slight expense to make Scajaquada creek navigable for rowing craft and steam launches to the Park and a basin and landing for visitors arriving by that route was provided for in the plan. The arrangement is still available, and it will be feasible in the future to have a line of pleasure boats, moved, to avoid the heat of steam boilers, by electric motors (such as are now used by street cars), plying between the north and south parks and calling at various landings along the city front.

I shall now turn to another branch of the question upon which the Common Council has asked the commissioners to take action.

In connection with the plan of the main Park of Buffalo, a system of roads adapted to pleasure travel, by which the Park could be approached from different quarters of the city, was suggested by Mr. Vaux and myself in 1868. One branch of this system, which the Park Commissioners adopted and carried out, ran through the eastern outskirts of the city. From the southern end of this branch an avenue has since been extended, by order, I believe, of the Common Council, which is carried at grade over two railroads. Such a road is certainly not adapted to pleasure travel, but it seems to be classed as a part of the parkway system, and the present proposition is to further extend this road, under the name of a parkway, to the proposed new park on the lake. It differs in no respect from other ordinary tree-bordered avenues of the city.

It was to be observed that the gentlemen who, on the twenty-second, addressed your Board on behalf of the petitioners, scarcely mentioned the matter of the park, and did not at all discuss questions of its site, extent or character. But they were all warmly interested in the question of the route of the prospective parkway. Several routes for it were proposed and each was warmly advocated. All of them had the same point of departure, but while a direct route from this point to the point had in view for the park on the lake shore would be not more than three miles in length, the shortest of those advocated would be over four miles, the longest over six. Viaducts for getting over several railways were proposed in each case, but nothing was said of the grade crossings of railroads that would have to be passed before the initial point could be reached from the dwellings of a greater part of the people of the city, and even of the southern part of the city. That the park had been asked for not so much because the petitioners had felt the need of a park in the southern part of the city, as because they wanted what the city might be hoped to provide under the name of a parkway, would, I suppose, be denied by none of the gentlemen. The drift of the argument for each of the proposed routes for the parkway was such as to naturally suggest the comment made in a newspaper report of the proceedings the following morning, to the effect that each petitioner was of the opinion that the most suitable route for the parkway would be the one that would carry it nearer his front door.

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I indicate the impression which the debate was adapted to make as the leading motive of the petitioners with entire respect for them and with sympathy with that motive. It seems to me a wrong state of things which compels them to ask for cake when they are in dire need of bread. For, the matter which I understand to be at the bottom of their solicitude is, in my judgment, one of much greater moment than that of a park or of a pleasure road leading to a park ever can be. And, as I cannot advise any of the routes to be proposed to be adopted for its ostensible purpose, and am not prepared to recommend any other, it will be proper for me to say what chiefly lies in my way to do so.

In a paper that I prepared in connection with an exhibit made at the international exposition in Paris, it was said that the plan of no other city gave more evidence of shrewd forecasting study of the future interests of its citizens than that of Buffalo as originally devised, and as the limits of this plan were outgrown it was hoped that the same spirit might characterize the enlargement of it. Since then Buffalo has begun to grow overground to the southward, presenting unusual difficulties in the way of a good plan, and the tendency to occupy this ground for certain purposes is probably irresistible. It is low, flat, liable to be flooded, difficult of drainage, and so cut by a broad, deep and exceedingly crooked water-way, that to extend a convenient street system through it under any circumstances would be a difficult undertaking; to construct streets over it, carrying sewers of suitable inclination and outflow, a costly work; to prevent a manner of building likely to invite pestilence and give the whole city a bad reputation as to health, an onerous piece of municipal administration.

But the difficulties natural to the situation in these respects are greatly increased by the fact that a number of railway corporations have been allowed to take possession of a great deal of the land immediately adjoining the well-built part of the city, and to obtain rights and establish structures, each with little regard to the interest of others, except, perhaps, a dog-in-the-manger interest. The rails of these companies are carried on low embankments, interrupting the natural surface-drainage, and extending in every direction through a belt, crossing the line in which the city is advancing, more than half a mile in breadth. Within this belt the railway lines cross and re-cross one another, and they are laid at an elevation which will be intermediate between the natural surface and the lowest level at which sanitary prudence will allow the surface of streets and the ground floors of dwellings to be placed. An idea of the number of these tracks, and the danger, difficulty and delay that they already establish for all who wish to pass in or out of the city on the south, except by rail, is given by a statement made at the meeting by one of the Park Commissioners, that in a single visit to a near suburb he had been compelled to cross twenty-four lines of railway, all on grade. It was stated by another commissioner that every few days someone is reported to have been killed in attempting the passage, and that in course of a year a more terrible loss of life occurs in consequence of the arrangement than that which has lately given rise to so much public feeling by the burning of the Richmond Hotel. It is also said that as many as twenty loaded teams are already often to be seen at a [380]

crossing, waiting for trains to pass, and that the delays and cost of transportation thus occurring are beginning to be felt as a heavy tax on certain branches of the business of the city.

The difficulties in the way of establishing a judicious system for such enlargement of the city to the southward as is inevitable, presented in the circumstances that have been mentioned, are every year increased by new constructions planned without thought of the common and lasting interests of the city as a whole. Until the leading outlines, at least, of such a system shall be defined, no man, however forethoughtful and public spirited his intention, can be sure that any factory, warehouse, bridge, or road that he may build or urge the city to build, within or near this district, will not add to the complication of the problem.

There are currents of progress which, sooner or later, become irresistible in every growing city. From such knowledge of these as has come to me in a professional experience of thirty years in dealing with the corporations of numerous cities, I cannot doubt that Buffalo must before many years enter upon some broad, radical and far-seeing policy of improvement for this district and require that no [381]

private or public work shall thereafter be prosecuted within it in a manner that will add materially to the cost of carrying out this policy.

I am told that the first step to such a policy has already been officially proposed; that it assumes that the several railroad corporations may be brought to work co-operatively one with another and with the city, to simplify the difficulty, by consolidating some of their lines, bringing others closer together, and then elevating all their tracks to a height that will allow street vehicles to pass under them.

If this scheme is ever realized and such a street system adopted as will thus be feasible and desirable, any parkway that may have been made in the meantime with regard only to the present system or no system, will be superseded and the city put to the expense of removing the materials that will have been used for getting over the railroads at their present level.

But it was said at the meeting that the opinion prevails among those likely to be well advised that the railroad companies would strenuously resist such a plan, and that in view of the means which they would be able to use for indefinitely prolonging a controversy with the city there will be no general disposition to adopt it.

Suppose it to have been decided, then, that the rails are not to come up, but that some consolidation of the different lines is practicable, that some lines may be abandoned and others relocated, so that the space of extreme difficulty will be narrowed and the problem made a little less complex.

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Suppose that when this has been accomplished the duty and the interest of the city to provide for safe and convenient passage between its older parts and all of the different parts of the Thirteenth Ward has come to be recognized; the duty and interest of the city, also, to secure direct lines of common travel with all parts of the great tributary country beyond its borders on the south. In that case it is most likely that the first step toward a rationally comprehensive system of improvement for the southern part of the city would be to build a single viaduct carried in a straight line over all the railways. One end of it would be at a point where existing streets would be found conveniently diverging to all parts of the city. From the other end, lines would be laid down for broad avenues in several directions, so that, eventually, without excessive indirectness, branches from them would really come to every man’s door, and all the country beyond be made conveniently accessible. One of these radiating avenues would certainly lead straight to any large park that had in the meantime been formed in that quarter. The viaduct would be broad enough to be divided into several ways, one suitable to heavy and slow traffic, one for pleasure carriages and light traffic, one for street cars, and one or more for footmen. The problem, in an administrative point of view, would be analogous to that which leads the City of New York to build bridges, causeways, and viaducts over the Harlem River and marshes, some of which pass over the railways also.

But suppose that before the necessary preliminaries to such a viaduct shall have been determined, devious roads have been made upon routes such as were advocated at the meeting of your Board, each having its own series of detached viaducts for getting over the railways, as the railways now stand. Suppose this, and it will be evident that when the time shall have arrived for planning a system of roads fitting the larger grand trunk viaduct, the difficulties now in the way of such a work will have been enormously increased.

And so, whatever comprehensive and broadly economical plan shall be finally adopted, until it is known what it is to be, nothing can be proposed with a purpose of mitigating present evils that will not be likely to have the effect of perpetuating and increasing them.

For these reasons, I submit that it is impracticable to determine at present upon what route a road adapted especially to pleasure and travel between the city as now built and the proposed Park site can be judiciously laid out.

If the Board should adopt this conclusion and so advise the Common Council, it may be within its province to represent also to that body the urgent occasion that exists for seeking radical, comprehensive and lasting economical expedients for meeting the wants that appear to have prompted the petition of the citizens of the Thirteenth Ward.

Respectfully,