![Sample our Built Environment journals, sign in here to start your access, Latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5926/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Built-Environment.jpg"})
Abstract
This paper refines the Canadian portion of the definitive Master List of Design Projects of the Olmsted Firm, 1857–1950. This correction then informs a consideration of this American firm’s influence on Canadian planning and landscape architecture. The paper also offers a broader perspective on the transfer of ideas during the early days of the parks movement, planned community expansion, and town planning. It is already well known that Olmsted Sr was one of the leading advocates for urban change throughout North America. To this social consciousness, the Olmsted sons and their associates, who did most of the firm’s work in Canada, added a good measure of business acumen. Their Canadian practice was sustained by public projects, most notably in town planning and suburban development, and numerous private residential commissions. The Olmsteds played a key role during the formative period of the Canadian planning which saw the creation of the Commission of Conservation in 1909. As well as the direct influence they exerted in their 95 projects in Canada, and their persuasive writings and public addresses, they counselled many cities to adopt formalized planning processes and agencies. Their former employees, and one could argue, ‘disciples’, also played leading roles in establishing town planning and landscape architecture in Canada. Three in particular, Frederick Todd, Rickson Outhet and Gordon Culham, established thriving Canadian practices. Overall, it is arguable whether the Olmsteds were the most influential foreign landscape design and planning professionals, given the contributions in particular of the British planner Thomas Adams. However, they were the most prolific foreign practitioners in terms of the number of projects and the legacy they passed on to the country’s founding town planners and landscape architects.
Acknowledgement
The author would like to acknowledge the contributions of Professor Larry McCann (University of Victoria) to this paper. In an incredible act of scholarly generosity he reviewed the draft and provided a detailed criticism which made a huge difference to the manner in which this material was directed and refined. He gave his comments at a crucial point in the development of these ideas and his feedback continues to influence. Through this long process thanks also go to Robert Fairbanks, Editor of the Americas for Planning Perspectives, for his patience and continued encouragement to this author in completing this paper. Of course, any errors, omissions or misinterpretations are the author’s alone.
The research was funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council. The author would also like to acknowledge the assistance of archivists across Canada and the USA for the quiet and essential work they did, while the depths of primary but delicate sources were dug in Vancouver, West Vancouver, Brookline, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Prince Albert, Lethbridge, and Ottawa.
Notes
1. C. E. Beveridge and C. F. Hoffman, with S. P. Berg and A. A. Levee, The Master List of Design Projects of the Olmsted Firm, 1851–1950. Boston, MA: National Association of Olmsted Parks, 1987.
2. The three Olmsted principals will be referred to as Olmsted Sr, John Charles and Olmsted Jr in this paper.
3. Olmsted Sr (1822–1903) started a landscape architectural firm in 1858 with the architect Calvert Vaux (1824–1895), collaborating on the design of New York’s Central Park. The name of Olmsted associated with a landscape architectural practice continues until the present but the direct involvement of the Olmsted family only extended until 1949 when Olmsted Jr retired from the business. Olmsted Sr continued with the firm in numerous partnerships that most notably included his stepson, John Charles Olmsted (1852–1920) and son, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr (1870–1957). The naming of the business also changed with the earlier and various partnerships of Sr from 1858 to 1898 (see note [Footnote9]) but, from 1898 to 1961, it was known as the Olmsted Brothers, Landscape Architects and, after that, as the Olmsted Associates. For a discussion of the firm’s lineage see, C. J. Johnson, Olmsted in The Pacific Northwest: Private Estates and Residential Communities, 1873–1959. Seattle, WA: The Friends of Seattle’s Olmsted Parks, 1997; C. Zaitzevsky, Frederick Law Olmsted and the Boston Park System. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1982; C. A. Birnbaum and R. Karson (eds), Pioneers of American Landscape Design. New York, NY: McGraw‐Hill, 2000; and Olmsted Associates Records, Microfilm Series. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress (Series B: Job Files, 1863–1971, n.d. – hereafter abbreviated to OAR).
5. Many scholars who have written on this period of planning and design in Canada include P. Rutherford (ed.), Saving the Canadian City: The First Phase, 1890–1920. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto, 1971; W. Van Nus, Towards the city efficient: The theory and practice of zoning, 1919–1920, in A. F. J. Artibise and G. A. Stelter (eds) The Usable Urban Past: Planning and Politics in the Modern Canadian City. Toronto, ON: Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd, 1979, pp. 226–46; and J. M. Wolfe, Our common past: An interpretation of Canadian planning history. (Part One & Two), in Plan Canada. 75th Anniversary Issue. Available online at http://www.cip‐icu.ca/English/plancanada/wolfe.htm (1994).
6. During a telephone conversation (Spring 2001), Charles Beveridge, the Chief Editor of the Olmsted Papers, confirmed the need to refine the list. He acknowledged that the changes could range from spelling corrections and the unravelling of who were the intended clients, to what projects should be called, where they are located and whether the work was undertaken.
7. C. E. Beveridge and C. F. Hoffman, op. cit. [Footnote1], p. 2.
8. Other ‘international’ project contacts were located in Puerto Rico, Cuba, the Philippines, Bermuda, Great Britain, Venezuela and Argentina. Note, however, that Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines were colonial protectorates of the USA at the time of the Olmsted involvement (op. cit. [Footnote1]).
9. For different discussions of the three different Olmsted’s characteristic approaches to the landscape consider the short biographies in William Tishler’s edited volume, American Landscape Architecture: Designers and Places. Washington, DC: The Preservation Press, 1989. Also see J. Peterson, Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., the visionary and the professional, in M. Corbin Sies and C. Silver (eds) Planning the Twentieth‐Century American City. Boston, MA: John Hopkins University Press, 1996, pp. 37–54; and S. L. Klaus, All in the family: The Olmsted office and the business of landscape architecture. Landscape Journal 16 (Spring1997) 80–93.
10. James Frederick Dawson (1874–1941) joined the firm in 1896, becoming an associate partner of the Olmsted Brothers in 1904 and full partner in 1927. He worked his entire career with the firm until his death. In Canada he is noted in particular for his work in the Vancouver area for the British Pacific Properties and the development of the Capilano Estates. For a discussion of Dawson’s career see, C. A. Birnbaum and R. Karson (eds), Pioneers of American Landscape Design. New York, NY: McGraw‐Hill, 2000, pp. 76–9; and F. L. Olmsted, Jr. James Frederick Dawson: A biographical minute on his professional life and work. Landscape Architecture 32, 1 (October 1941) 1–2.
11. Percival Gallagher (1874–1934) first worked for the firm for ten years from 1894 to 1904. He then left to start his own practice but returned to the Olmsteds after two years, eventually becoming a partner in 1927. Work he undertook in Canada occurred on a few diverse projects that date from between 1913 and 1922. Most notably he completed two estates in the seaside resort, St Andrews‐by‐the‐Sea, New Brunswick. For information on Gallagher’s career see, C. A. Birnbaum and R. Karson (eds), ibid., pp. 131–2; and F. L. Olmsted, Jr., A minute in the life of Percival Gallagher. Landscape Architecture 24 (April 1934) 167–8.
12. Edward Clark Whiting (1881–1962) joined the Olmsted firm on 1905 and spent his entire career with the practice. He eventually became a partner in 1920. His work in Canada seems to concentrate in both the residential and subdivision areas, between the late 1920s and the mid‐1940s. For a discussion of Whiting’s career see, C. A. Birnbaum, and R. Karson (eds), ibid., pp. 449–53; and E. C. Whiting, Garden design: Some influences and opportunities. Architectural Forum 36 (June 1922) 211–16.
13. William Bell Marquis (1887–1978) worked on two minor projects in Canada, associated with the Maclean constellation of projects in conjunction with Whiting. Marquis joined the firm as an associate in 1919, became a partner in 1937 and retired in 1962. For a further discussion of his life and career see, C. A. Birnbaum and R. Karson (eds), ibid., pp. 242–6.
14. Arthur Asahel Shurtleff’s (1870–1957) Canadian work was all residential work primarily based in Montreal and one project for G. T. Fulford in Brockville, Ontario. He worked with the firm from 1896 to 1904. See C. A. Birnbaum and R. Karson (eds), ibid., pp. 351–6.
15. Henry Vincent Hubbard (1875–1947), landscape architect, writer and educator, joined the Olmsted Brothers in 1901, staying until 1906, and rejoining as a partner in 1920, and continuing until his death. There is only one recorded Canadian project in which Hubbard’s name appears on correspondence with the City of London, Ontario’s Chamber of Commerce (OAR, Job # 6676). It was an enquiry about services and did not lead to a project. See C. A. Birnbaum and R. Karson (eds), ibid., pp. 177–80.
16. Most notably there was George Gibbs, Jr (1878–1950) who worked from the firm’s Californian office in Palos Verdes, with Frederick Dawson, on the British Pacific Securities Ltd projects. More on Gibbs can be found in C. A. Birnbaum and R. Karson (eds), ibid., pp. 135–8. There is also one connection to Warren Henry Manning (1860–1938) for the Royal Victoria Hospital’s grounds in Montreal. More on Manning is found in C. A. Birnbaum and R. Karson (eds), ibid., pp. 236–42; as well as in L. Neckar, Developing landscape architecture for the twentieth century: The career of Warren H. Manning. Landscape Journal 8 (autumn 1989) 78–91.
17. Design observations and planning advice were presented variously in project reports, published addresses presented at national conferences and works printed both independently and by publishing houses. Most notably the writings on prescribed approaches to landscape planning and design include Frederick Law Olmsted Sr’s Public Parks and the Enlargement of Towns (Cambridge, MA: American Social Science Association at the Lowell Institute, 1870); A Consideration of the Justifying Value of a Public Park (Boston, MA: Tolman & White, Printers, 1881); and Yosemite and the Mariposa Grove: A Preliminary Report, 1865 (Yosemite National Park, CA: Yosemite Association (reprint of 1865 report), 1995). Frederick Law Olmsted Jr also wrote frequently, with such publications as City planning: an introductory address (Proceedings of the Second National Conference on City Planning (1910) 15–32); and a co‐authored (with T. Kimball) biography of his father, Frederick Law Olmsted, Landscape Architect, 1822–1903 (Forty Years of Landscape Architecture: Being the Professional Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted, Senior) (New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1928).
John Charles also wrote as a single author (e.g. The true purpose of a large public park, in American Park and Outdoor Art Association Proceedings, 1897–1904. First Report (1904) 11–17) but a lot of his written thoughts were also presented under the name of the Olmsted Brothers firm (e.g. Report of Olmsted Brothers, in First Annual Report of the Board of Park Commissioners, 1884–1904. Seattle, WA (1905) 43–85).
18. See D. Gordon, A City Beautiful plan for Canada’s capital: Edward Bennett and the 1915 plan for Ottawa and Hull. Planning Perspectives 13 (1998) 275–300.
19. E. Howard, Tomorrow: A Peaceful Path to Real Reform. London, England: Swan Sonnenschein, 1898 (2nd edn, 1902, called Garden Cities of To‐morrow, also published by Swan Sonnenschein).
20. T. H. Mawson & Sons, Calgary: A Preliminary Scheme for Controlling the Economic Growth of the City. London, England: B.T. Batsford, 1914, and Borden Park, Ottawa: Report on the Development of the Estate for the Great Eastern Realty Company. Lancaster, England: W. Holmes, 1914.
21. Consider some of Thomas Adams’ writings while Town Planning Advisor to the Canadian Commission of Conservation, such as The British point of view. Proceedings of the National Conference on City Planning. Boston, MA: National Conference on City Planning (1911) 27–37; Report of Planning and Development Branch. Commission of Conservation, Canada: Report of the Eighth Annual Meeting, Held at Ottawa, January 16–17, 1917. Montreal, PQ: The Federated Press, Limited (1917) 92–105; Community Development in Wartime. Landscape Architecture 8 (1918) 109–24; and the Editorial: Town planning is a science. Journal of the Town Planning Institute of Canada 1, 3 (1921) 1–3. He continued to write as the Director of the Regional Plan of New York from 1923 to 1930 and later while teaching at Harvard, 1930–6. For example, Zoning ordinance for the City of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Journal of the Town Planning Institute II, 6 (1925) 148–9; and Outline of Town and City Planning: A Review of Past Efforts and Modern Aims. New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation. 1935.
22. P. Geddes, Cities in Evolution. London, England: Williams and Norgate, 1915.
23. There are noteworthy exceptions that include Larry McCann on Canadian suburban development (e.g. Planning and building the corporate suburb of Mount Royal, 1910–1925. Planning Perspectives 11 (1996) 1–43); and studies such as E. A. Corbet’s and L. G. Simpson’s, Calgary’s Mount Royal: A Garden Suburb (Calgary, AB: The Planning and Building Department and The Heritage Advisory Board, 1994); and Peter Jacobs’, The magic mountain: An urban landscape for the next millennium, in B. Demchinsky (ed.) Grassroots, Greystones and Glass Towers: Montreal Urban Issues and Architecture (Montreal, PQ: Véhicule Press, 1998, pp. 47–63).
24. C. E. Beveridge and C. F. Hoffman, op. cit. [Footnote1], p. 2.
25. It should also be noted that the Canadian jobs originally listed under the Master List’s Appendix B, ‘Projects That Did Not Advance Beyond a Preliminary Stage’ have been placed into their respective land‐use categories.
26. For this kind of extensive inventorying of Olmsted works, consider the work of Catherine Joy Johnson, Olmsted in the Pacific Northwest: Private Estates and Residential Communities, 1873–1959 (Seattle, WA: The Friends of Seattle’s Olmsted Parks, 1997), and the study by Cynthia Zaitzevsky, Fairstead: A Cultural Landscape Report for the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site (Boston, MA: Olmsted Centre for Landscape preservation and the US National Park Service,1997).
27. There are many books and articles available on the Olmsteds and their work in America. Some of the most notable include L. W. Roper, FLO: A Biography of Frederick Law Olmsted. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973; the Papers of Frederick Law Olmsted series published by John Hopkins University Press; C. E. Beveridge and P. Rocheleau, Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing the American Landscape. New York, NY: Rizzoli International, 1995; and W. Rybczynski, A Clearing In The Distance. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 2000.
28. A divide between planning and landscape architecture eventually occurred in North America – the planners gravitating to larger‐scale policy work and the landscape architects to more detailed design. In Canada, the Town Planning Institute was formed in 1919, an organization representing a range of practitioners, all interested in the reform of city design, regulation and governance. In 1937, the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects branched off from the larger planning association. In America the situation was reversed, with the American City Planning Institute being created in 1917, almost two decades after the American Society of Landscape Architects was formed in 1899.
29. John Charles was a founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architects as well as the American Civic Association. Olmsted Jr participated in the National Conference on City Planning and served as the first president of the American City Planning Institute, as well as a founding member of the American Society of Landscape Architects and its president from 1908–9 and 1919–23. C. A. Birnbaum and R. Karson (eds), Pioneers of American Landscape Design. New York.
30. See M. M. Graff, Central Park and Prospect Park: A New Perspective. New York, NY: Greensward Foundation, Inc., 1985; and R. Rosenweig and E. Blackmar, The Park and the People: A History of Central Park. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1992.
31. P. Crawford, H.A. Engelhardt (1830–1897): Landscape designer. Landscape Architectural Review (July 1984), Convention Issue.
32. See the recent publication of Larry McCann’s: Urban parks and landscape architecture, 1880–1920, in C. Miller (ed.) Atlas of North American Environmental History. New York, NY: Routledge, 2003, pp. 130–1. Also consider the books on the subject by J. R. Wright: Urban Parks in Ontario. (Part One and Two). Toronto, ON: Ontario Ministry of Tourism and Recreation, 1983 and 1984; and Urban Parks In Ontario: The Modern Period. Ottawa, ON: The Ontario Ministry of Citizenship, Culture and Recreation. 2000.
33. This was a short‐lived but influential federal commission dedicated to the conservation of natural resources that positioned human society as a resource to protect through the betterment of the environment, modelled after a Roosevelt’s National Commission. See, A. F. J. Artibise and G. A. Stelter, Conservation planning and urban planning: The Canadian Commission of Conservation in historical perspective, in R. Kain (ed.) Planning for Conservation. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1981, pp. 17–36.
34. Commission of Conservation, Canada, Report of the First Annual Meeting, held at Ottawa, January 18–21, 1910. Ottawa, ON: The Commission, 1910, p. 12.
35. Masthead. Journal of the Town Planning Institute of Canada VI, 1 (February 1928) 1.
36. F. L. Olmsted, Mount Royal: Montreal. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1881, p. 2.
37. Montreal City Improvement correspondence, from Olmsted Jr to J. L. Perron, Chairman of the Metropolitan Parks Commission, September 19, 1910 (OAR, Series B, Job #5000, p.11).
38. Olmsted linked parks with health and morality early in his career, writing that the value of public parks was to preserve ‘the health and vigor and especially the moral tone of the larger class, whose labors are of a less intensely intellectual character, is of no less consequence’ (Olmsted, Vaux and Co., Observations on the Progress of Improvements in Street Plans: with Special Reference to the Parkway Proposed to be Laid out in Brooklyn (part of) Eighth Annual Report of The Board of Commissioners of Prospect Park. Brooklyn, NY: I. Van Anden’s Print, 1868, p.10.
39. From Olmsted, Vaux, & Co., Preliminary Report Upon the Proposed Suburban Village at Riverside Near Chicago. New York, NY: Sutton, Brown & Co., 1868, p. 14:
the mere proximity of dwellings which characterizes all strictly urban neighborhoods, is a prolific source of morbid conditions of the body and mind, manifesting themselves chiefly in nervous feebleness or irritability and various functional derangements, relief or exemption from which can be obtained in no way without great sacrifices of convenience and social advantages, except by removal to suburban districts.
40. A reading of the Olmsted records shows that 40% of the Canadian jobs listed were ‘Enquiries’ which variously involved initial letters of enquiry about their services (e.g. OAR, Job # 6734, Hamilton Harbor Commission), or they simply may have been the submittal of background information for the firm’s consideration (e.g. OAR, Job # 6059, Truro, Nova Scotia’s Victoria Park), or an exchange of correspondence that did not succeed in the creation of a real job for the Olmsteds (e.g. OAR, Job # 5946, Nadeau Workingmen’s Home).
41. Todd initially came to Montreal as an employee of the firm (1896–1900). In 1900 he migrated to Canada to become the country’s most prominent resident landscape architect of his time – some considering him to be the ‘father of Canadian landscape design’. He went on to become a Fellow in the Canadian and American Societies of Landscape Architecture and the Town Planning Institute of Canada. For a fuller discussion of Frederick Todd’s life and contributions to Canadian landscape architecture and planning see, P. Jacobs, Frederick G. Todd and the creation of Canada’s urban landscape. Association of Preservation Technology Journal 15, 4 (1983) 27–34; and D. Gordon, Frederick G. Todd and the origins of the park system in Canada’s capital. Journal of Planning History 1, 1 (2002) 29–57.
42. For more on Outhet see mention of his projects and collaborations in R. Fortier, Ville Industrielles Planifées. Montreal: Les Éditions du Boréal. 1996; and, J. M. Wolfe and P. Jacobs, City planning and urban beautification, in The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (ed.) The Architecture of Edward & W.S. Maxwell. Montreal, PQ: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1991, pp. 50–5.
43. Most notably he worked on the jobs associated with John Bayne Maclean, the owner of an influential publishing corporation, and Maclean’s family, colleagues, friends and associates.
44. C. Paine, Fifty Years of Landscape Architecture: The Canadian Society of Landscape Architects, 1934–1984. Guelph, ON: University of Guelph, 1998.
45. Reference to the Twenty‐third Psalm was used by Olmsted to describe the healing pastoral aesthetic of the green pastures and still waters of Prospect Park (Olmsted, Vaux and Co., Eighth Annual Report of The Board of Commissioners of Prospect Park. Brooklyn, NY: I. Van Anden’s Print, 1868, p. 10.
46. This so‐called ‘Genius of Civilization’ was referred to specifically in an address of Olmsted Sr’s read before the American Social Science Association in 1880, ‘A Consideration of the Justifying Value of a Public Park’ (F. L. Olmsted Sr, [S.I.: s.n.], 1902). He said that the parks movement was a mark of the increasing civility of society. ‘It would seem rather to have been a common, spontaneous movement of that sort which we conveniently refer to as the “Genius of Civilization” (p. 92). But still coming on and evolving …’. He goes on later to say that the Gardenesque will not bring on this Genius but rather it is scenery of ‘soothing and reposeful influence’ as one finds in nature (p. 110) that will be most beneficial.
47. Olmsted, in fact, divided Mount Royal into eight different landscape zones that range between the sublime and the picturesque, beginning with the Craggs and ending with the Glades.
48. F. L. Olmsted, Mount Royal: Montreal. New York, NY: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1881, p. 13.
49. Olmsted, Vaux and Co., op. cit. [Footnote45], p. 51.
50. Report upon a Plan for Montebello Park (Frederick Law Olmsted Papers. Microfilm Series, Volumes #1–73. Correspondence 1838–1928, n.d.; Subject File, 1857–1952, n.d.; Speeches and Writings File, 1839–1903, n.d. (Note: hereafter abbreviated to FLO). Volume # 42, p. 2. Washington, D.C.: Library of Congress).
51. This professional work came almost thirty years after the first contact the firm had with the Canadian‐side of the Falls. Casimir Gzowski , the first chair of the Niagara Parks Commission, actually invited Olmsted Sr to visit the Canadian side’s Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park in 1885, to consult with the Commission as to its future intentions. (C.S. Gzowski Papers, October 20, 1885 to March 22, 1888. Letterbooks #153, 171, and 183. Archives of Ontario, RG 38–5‐0–1).
52. OAR, Series B, Job #6054.
53. Report by John Charles dated 19 April, 1910 indicates that he replied, ‘I made no objection’ (OAR, Series B, Job #4020 and, Olmsted National Historic Site Archives. Plan #4020–1‐pt1).
54. September 9, 1914 letter from Dr J. B. Calkin, Chair of the Victoria Park Board to the Olmsted Bros (OAR, Series B, Job #6059).
55. America did not enter the war until April 6, 1917.
56. Misfiled in the Private Residence job for A. J. T. Taylor (OAR, Series B, Job #9348).
57. There was much controversy around the Lions Gate Bridge but, according to L. D’Acres and D. Luxton (Lions Gate. Vancouver, BC: Talonbooks, 1999, p. 46), ‘Surprisingly the Commission [Vancouver Town Planning Commission] had no problems with the impact of the bridge on Stanley Park. They noted the advantage of a firebreak through the centre of the park, and the causeway fit in with their ideas for new public amenities’.
58. F. L. Olmsted, op. cit. [Footnote48], p. 35.
59. As discussed in the correspondence between the firm, and lawyers representing Ralph Reed Byerley (OAR, Series B, Job #5057).
60. ‘Vital’ resources of human beings were believed to be preserved by adequate exposure to air and sunlight. As C. A. Hodgetts, the Medical Adviser of the Public Health Committee of the Commission of Conservation put it:
There are two important factors in the question of national conservation, the physical and the vital. The former relates to the protecting of our land, our forests, our minerals, our waters, our sunlight, our fresh air; the latter, to the prevention of diseases, to the health and to the prolongation of life (Commission of Conservation, Canada, Report of the Third Annual Meeting, held at Ottawa, January 16, 1912. Montreal, PQ: John Lovell & Son, Ltd. 1912, p. 148).
61. For a critical examination of suburban development through this period see Dolores Hayden’s Building Suburbia: Green Fields and Urban Growth (New York, NY: Pantheon Books, 2003).
62. Commission of Conservation, Canada, Skyscrapers and Health. Conservation (November 11, 1910) 4.
63. Board of Commissioners of Prospect Park. Brooklyn, NY: I.Van Anden’s Print, 1868. This same theme was at the centre of his 1870 speech to the American Social Science Association at the Lowell Institute, Public Parks and the Enlargement of Towns (Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press).
64. John Charles corresponded at some length with Heubach about an Industrial Village (OAR, Series B, Job #4096) intended as affordable housing for factory workers.
65. OAR, Series B, Job #3952.
66. No plans were ever produced for this project (OAR, Series B, Job #5946).
67. In 1914, Thomas Adams, the future Town Planning Advisor to the Canadian Commission of Conservation, reported to the National Conference on City Planning, held in Toronto, saying,
If you had a company formed, such as the Toronto Housing Company, to acquire two or three hundred acres on the verge of Toronto and to lay that out, prepare a plan, provide for the needs of different classes of people, provide transit to it and so on, that would be a Garden Suburb (National Conference on City Planning. 6th Conference, May 25–27, 1914. Cambridge, MA: The University Press, 1914, pp. 148–9).
68. A letter from Nadeau, dated November 25, 1913, to the commissioning architect on the project, Boston‐based Walter H. Kilham of Kilham & Hopkins (OAR, Series B, Job #5946).
69. The material found in the FLO, Volume #26, included an 1872 report by Olmsted, Vaux & Co. addressed to the Tarrytown Heights Land Company.
70. Census of Canada, from 1901 and 1921, shows dramatic population increases in western Canadian provinces through that period, increasing 300% to 800% as compared with the east where Ontario expanded by 40% and Quebec by 70%. Most notably, western cities such as Winnipeg went from 42 430 to 179 087; Calgary from 4398 to 63 305; and Vancouver from 29 437 to 163 220. (K. G. Basavarajappa and B. Ram, Historical statistics of Canada, Section A: Population and migration, in Series A2‐ Population of Canada, by Province, Census Dates, 1851 to 1976. Available online at http://www.stscan.ca/english/freepub/11–516‐X1E/sectiona/sectiona.htm).
71. As per discussion with Canadian Pacific Railway Assistant Land Commissioner, J. Lonsdale Doupe, in a January 11, 1910 letter written by John Charles (OAR, Series B, Job #3752, pp.2–3).
72. OAR, Series B, Job #5854.
73. OAR, Series B, Job #3047, and Frank F. Carpenter, November, 19, 1905. Grand Trunk Pacific Railway: Canada’s New Highway Across the Continent to be Built by the Government, A Talk With the Vice President About It … Boston Globe (1905) 5.
74. Letter from John Charles to Morse, dated May 15, 1905, p. 3 (OAR, Series B, Job #3047).
75. Although the firm was offered a chance to collaborate on the work, as per October 26, 1907 correspondence between John Charles and Franklin Brett, this never led to an agreement (OAR, Series B, Job #3047).
76. The Upland file (OAR, Series B, Job #3276) is extensive, the work occurring between 1907 and 1914. Again the First World War intervened in the continuation of the project when the then French backers were not allowed to send capital to Canada.
77. L. McCann, ‘Suburbs of desire’ – The suburban landscape of Canadian cities, c. 1900–1950, in R. Harris and P. Larkin (eds) Changing Suburbs: Foundation, Form and Function. London: Routledge /Spon, 1999, pp. 111–45.
78. Letter from JCO to Heubach, April 21, 1914 (OAR, Series B, Job #3704).
79. Tuxedo Park, Program of a Competition for a 148 Acre Subdivision Plan. Winnipeg, Manitoba (OAR, Series B, Job #3704) could have also been subverted by Heubach’s untimely death in June of that same year (Manitoba Historical Society, Tuxedo: A History and Walking Tour. Winnipeg, Manitoba, 1991) and the subsequent contesting of Heubach’s estate. It should be noted that his partner, Finkelstein, eventually did clear up the debt after the estate had been settled.
80. Correspondence with the Club’s representative, A. L. Johnson (OAR, Series B, Job #3757, September 11, 1909).
81. OAR, Series B, Job #5259.
82. OAR, Series B, Job #5820.
83. Biographic sources on Thomas Adams include A. H. Armstrong, Thomas Adams and the Commission of Conservation. Plan: The Town Planning Institute of Canada 1, 1 (1959) 14–32; and M. Simpson, Thomas Adams and the Modern Planning Movement: Britain, Canada and the United States, 1900–1940. London, England: Alexandrine Press, 1985. Also consider the writings of Adams as well, e.g. The British point of view. Proceedings of the National Conference on City Planning (Boston, MA: National Conference on City Planning, 1911, pp. 27–37) and Outline of Town and City Planning: A Review of Past Efforts and Modern Aims (New York, NY: Russell Sage Foundation, 1935).
84. Commission of Conservation, Report of the Sixth Annual Meeting, held at Ottawa, January 19–20, 1915. Toronto: Bryant Press Ltd, 1915, p. 11.
85. Wayfarer, Staten Island, New York, The people’s park at Birkenhead, near Liverpool. The Horticulturalist and The Journal of Rural Art and Rural Taste V (May 1, 1851) 227.
86. The exceptions to that are found earlier in Montreal – the biggest Canadian city of the time. There was Cote St Antoine (1891–2) that has no plans listed; and the Royal Victoria Hospital (1895–1912) that has a set of plans for a modest planting around the grounds of the facility (OAR, Series B, Job #03/2 and 1777).
87. Letter dated October 1, 1912 (OAR, Series B, Job #5451).
88. See the Thomas Mawson plan for Calgary (T. Mawson and Son, Calgary: A Preliminary Scheme for Controlling the Growth of the City. Calgary, AB: Calgary City Planning Commission).
89. See correspondence with Calgary City Planning Commission, OAR, Series B, Job #5525. Calgary officials also contacted British designer, Thomas Mawson; Americans, John Nolen and Warren Manning, as well as Canadian town planner, Horace Seymour (City of Calgary Archives, The Calgary City Planning Commission Fonds 1911–1914).
90. Winnipeg City Planning, OAR, Series B, Job #6311.
91. Montreal Metropolitan Park System (1910–1912) (OAR, Series B, Job #5000) file includes a preliminary 42‐page written plan by Olmsted Jr. In reading this report it is clear that the vision was much bigger than a park system; therefore, this job was moved in the corrected listing to the civic improvement category.
92. A majority of the correspondence occurred between Olmsted Jr and R. Home Smith (Smith was a member of the Ottawa Improvement Commission as well as a member of the Toronto Harbor Board that employed the firm in 1912 to do plans for the waterfront). Jr provided advice to Ottawa as to the organization of a city planning agency and how it may employ designers. Resident Canadian designers are mentioned for the job of city planner such as H. B. Dunnington‐Grubb of Toronto, F. J. Cole of Winnipeg, and G. W. Lemon of Calgary (correspondence with Flavel Shurtleff, Secretary of the National Conference on City Planning, October 27, 1913 (OAR, Series B, Job #5070)). See also D. Gordon, From noblesse oblige to nationalism: Elite involvement in planning Canada’s capital. Journal of Urban History 28, 1 (2001) 3–34.
93. Riordan Paper Co. Ltd. (1911) (OAR, Series B, Job #5252). The company was considering a new town for 1000 to 2000 inhabitants to be located in western Quebec, near Calumet.
94. United States Steel Corporation (1913) (OAR, Series B, Job #5858). John Charles reported having a conference at his office with representatives of the steel company to consider a new industrial village near Sandwich, Ontario on the Detroit River (June 4, 1913), which was incorrectly identified in the Master List as being located in Ottawa.
95. In the case of Halifax he was repeatedly asked by the Halifax Civic Improvement League to give a price and he responded with refusals November 24, 1911, October 12, 1912, and November 12, 1912 (OAR, Series B, Job #5451). This reluctance on Olmsted’s part occurred in spite of the fact that Halifax was in a province that had a Town Planning Act which took effect during the course of the correspondence (see, Commission of Conservation, An Act respecting town planning, Report of the Fourth Annual Meeting, held at Ottawa, January 21–22, 1913. Toronto, ON: Warwick Bros. & Rutter, Ltd, 1913, pp. 206–20, which includes the May 3 1912 version of Nova Scotia’s act).
96. Newspaper copy for this position was located in Job #5525 (OAR, Series B). Also see, P. Smith, Alberta’s Regional Planning System. Plan Canada Special Edition (July, 1994) 42–8.
97. Frederick Law Jr to Mr Gordon Philip of the London Chamber of Commerce, March 14, 1919 (OAR, Series B, Job #6676).
98. Ibid.
99. For the Canadian experience of the City Beautiful see, G. A. Stelter, The classical ideal: Culture and urban form in Eighteenth Century Britain and America. Journal of Urban History 10 (August 1984) 351–82; and N. D. Pollock‐Ellwand, Jacques Gréber and the Washington of the north. Landscape Journal 20, 1 (2001) 48–61.
100. As per the plan set within Job #5761 held at the Olmsted National Historic Site Archives, Brookline, MA.
101. A. E. Levee, John Charles Olmsted, in W. Tishler (ed.) American Landscape Architecture: Designers and Places. Washington, DC: Preservation Press, 1989, p. 163.
102. There are two different campus sites, located south in the city in present‐day St Norbert (formerly Fort Garry) and further north beside the Assiniboine Park in present‐day Tuxedo, included in the same file within the Olmsted collection (OAR, Series B, Job #3911).
103. The firm incorrectly connects the St Norbert site to the University of Winnipeg (in project #5836 as listed in the Master List) which is, in fact, another university located in the City.
104. See discussion of this campus work in A. Fein’s Frederick Law Olmsted and the American Environmental Tradition. New York, NY: George Braziller, 1972.
105. Plans commissioned by the Shawinigan Falls Water & Power Co. include plan designs for the Technical School, Bank Building and the Cascade Inn. A lengthy written plan, called the ‘Report on the Extension and Improvement of the Town of Shawinigan Falls, Province of Quebec’ is also located in the job files (OAR, Series B and Olmsted National Historic Site Archives, Brookline, MA, Job #6239). See also R. Fortier and P. Trépanier, L’énvironment bâti à Shawinigan Falls, in R. Fortier (ed.) Villes Industrielles Planifiées. Montreal, PQ: Boréal, 1996, pp. 89–115.
106. As per OAR, Series B, Job #5680 project file, initial contact with the firm was made through the Toronto architect, Frank Darling, in 1902, but planning was not undertaken until 1912.
107. Letterheads for both the Hamilton and Toronto Commissions of that period show that ‘Harbor’ is spelled without the now‐accepted Canadian spelling, ‘harbour’.
108. Frederick Law Jr seemed particularly interested to come to the area, as well, to see the results of the work Toronto had done since his 1912 report (September 22, 1919. OAR, Series B, Job #6722).
109. From typed notes called ‘A Michigan Backwoods Home’ (FLO, Volume #53, Reel #46, p. 2).
110. Crieff is variously spelled in the Olmsted records as Crieff and Crief but the spelling that is found today on the community sign is spelled with two ‘f’s.
111. At the beginning of the Olmsted job file 1919 correspondence from Maclean to the firm has a letterhead that reads The MacLean Newspapers with John Bayne Maclean as President. By 1924 the letterhead became MacLean Publishing Co., Ltd. with John Bayne Maclean as President, H. T. Hunter, Vice President, and H. V. Tyrrell, General Manager. The name is spelled MacLean in the Olmsted records (OAR, Series B, Job #6722), although the record also shows it as McLean and Maclean.
112. As per the plaque found on the wall of the church in Crieff, Ontario.
113. February 24, 1923 (OAR, Series B, Job #6722) and November 20, 1928 (OAR, Series B, Job #7881).
114. A. J. T. Taylor served as the Managing Director of the British Pacific Trust which had the British Securities Ltd (responsible for the construction of the Lion Gate Bridge) and British Pacific Properties (responsible for the construction of the Capilano Estates). This Trust represented a syndicate of investors with the money coming from the Guinness family, of brewing fame.
115. OAR, Series B, Job #9273, 9400, 9401, 9402, 9403, 9666 on Microfilmed Reel #450–51.
116. For a further examination of the Maxwells see the publication produced by The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (The Architecture of Edward & W.S. Maxwell, 1991). The Edward and William Maxwell firm papers are also held at the McGill University, Blackader‐Lauterman Library Archives. Many were also worked on by Frederick Todd.
The firm was also approached by the Maxwells to consult for a Mrs Mitchell (OAR, Series B, Job #7154) regarding a proposed monument for her husband, in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and this job number has consequently been shifted to the Monument category from Estates. In addition, the separate listing for Maxwell in the Private Residence Master List (OAR, Series B, Job #440) reveals that it was not a private residence for Edward Maxwell, only a meeting planned in his Montreal offices. The Maxwells are also referred to as Maxwell and Shattuck (a later configuration of the firm after the eldest Edward passed away) in the Hartland McDougall job file (October 12, 1899. OAR, Series B, Job #232).
117. Correspondence between a potential Canadian client, Fulford, and then representative of the Olmsted firm in Florida, William Layman Phillips, expressed caution about cross‐border practice,
On account of the Canadian Contract Labor Law it is impossible for him [Fulford] to make an engagement with an architect who at the moment of the engagement is outside of Canada, being in Canada himself to invite an outside architect to come there for the purpose of making an engagement. If however the architect visits him in Canada with no written evidence of having been summoned for the purpose of entering into a contract, then it is perfectly legal for him to enter into an engagement with that architect … This all sounds very devious and subterranean, but I suppose it is all right and practicable (April 10, 1931, OAR, Series B, Job #185).
118. OAR, Series B. Job #6722.
119. Ibid.
120. March 1, 1902, Job #26, OAR, Series B.
121. Job #9013, OAR, Series B.
122. Commission of Conservation, Canada. Civic Improvement League for Canada. Report of Preliminary Conference held under the Auspices of the Commission of Conservation at Ottawa. November19, 1915. Toronto, ON: Bryant Press Ltd, p. 5.