233 
PAR.K AND c;e;me:te;r.y 
Outer ParK Sy^stems of American Cities. 
By Frederick Law Olmsted. 
{^Extracts from an add'*ess delivered before the 
Fairmou7it Park Art Association^ Philadelphia). 
There is much talk to-day of outer park systems ; 
the idea of acquiring outlying parks and reservations 
around our growing cities appeals to us as a new con- 
ception, an outgrowth of new conditions ; you here in 
Philadelphia are urged to take a new step in advance 
in acquiring such an outlying system and, while hon- 
oring the foresight and public spirit of those who 
opened Lemon Hill as a public park under, the name 
of Fairmount half a century ago, to put yourselves into 
a still more advanced position by securing this new 
kind of public asset, an “outer park system,” the need 
of which and the possibility of which are regarded as 
the outgrowth almost of the last decade. Indeed, the 
outer park system movement is often said to have had 
its beginning when the Metropolitan System of Boston 
was undertaken in 1893, and we in Boston are wont to 
accept with much complacency the compliments ten- 
dered to us for having initiated this new and progres- 
sive idea. It is pleasant to think we are pioneers, lead- 
ers in a new movement for the good of mankind, and 
that we are more progressive and farsighted than our 
predecessors, but is it so entirely true? 
The phrase “outer park system” is new and pro- 
gressive; but is the idea it stands for really so far ahead 
of the ideas which were expressed long ago in the 
opening of Fairmount Park? Are we right in thinking, 
as many of us do, that an “outer park system,” when 
acquired, will put our generation so much in the lead 
as to park matters that we can afford to take our time 
about it and contemplate the bigness of the idea with 
anticipatory self-satisfaction? 
From what I have been able to learn of the condi- 
tions fifty years ago in Philadelphia, Fairmount Park, 
when officially opened in 1855, was more distinctly 
and unmistakably an “outer park” than ' any of the 
proposed parks of the system which is now being urged 
by the Allied Organizations upon public opinion. Or 
turn to the case of Central Park, New York, the very 
name of which seems to put it in a totally different 
category from the systems of outlying parks to the 
bold conception of which we are now asked to raise 
ourselves. For not only was Central Park at the 
time its purchase was authorized in 1851 an “outer 
park” in the sense of lying beyond the limits of the 
built-up city, but the middle of the site selected was 
more than twice as far from the City Hall as the 
farthest new brownstone .block at the northerly edge 
■of the growing city. 
For some years after old Thomas Holme, the sur- 
veyor, laid out the plan of Philadelphia for William 
Penn, in 1682, the spaces now known as Franklin, 
Logan, Washington and Rittenhouse squares were on 
the outskirts of the town. 
In 1888 New York purchased in the rural district of 
its upper wards six new parks. These were clearly 
“outer parks” as contrasted with Central Park, now 
become the most typical of great inner parks imbedded 
in the midst of a dense urban community. The average 
area of the six “outer parks” was a little less than that 
of Central Park ; the two largest contain together about 
four times the area of Central Park. These park pur- 
chases of New York in 1888 may be considered the 
first important accomplishment of the new movement. 
During that one year, 1888, New York enlarged its 
park area by more than 3,900 acres, a figure which 
almost equals the total park area of Philadelphia to- 
day, and which was much greater than the total area 
of New York parks previous to that date. 
This great and sudden increase of park area is as 
typical as it is striking, for the purchase of park lands 
has everywhere been marked by alternating periods 
of activity and stagnation. A city waits until the need 
for additional parks becomes too pressing any longer 
to lie ignored; an agitation is then started; and in due 
time the movement gathers headway enough to make 
up for lost time and perhaps to store up a reserve for 
