Frederick Law Olmsted and His Work 
from the Capitol. (4) To inci- 
dently provide a small but attrac¬ 
tive public park, suitable for daily 
use by small numbers of people 
and on special occasions for great 
numbers,—such occasions, for ex¬ 
ample, as the inauguration of the 
president. 
In adopting means for reali¬ 
zing these purposes, Mr. Olmsted 
dismissed at once a strictly formal 
treatment mainly, it seems, be¬ 
cause of the unsympathetic 
public opinion already referred 
to. And on the other hand, he 
made no attempt to secure a 
broad landscape effect, such as 
one would expect to find in a 
rural park or a large private 
estate. Such a treatment if not 
indeed inappropriate was im¬ 
practicable, for ready access to 
the different entrances to the 
building had to be supplied from 
the twenty-one streets by which 
the boundary of the grounds was 
to be reached from the city. 
The number of foot and carriage entrances was 
therefore necessarily great, and as the total area to 
be crossed was but fifty acres, the composition of 
broad landscape effects was out of the question. 
STEPS AND APPROACH TO THE OLD CAPITOL 
Moreover there was the further complication of 
the hillside position of the building toward the 
west, necessitating steep grades on that side for 
all roads and paths. 
THE WESTERN APPROACHES, FROM MR. OLMSTED’S PERSPECTIVE DRAWING 
