Frederick Law Olmsted and His Work 
“THE PROPERTY HAD A POETIC CHARACTER OF ITS OWN—AN UNMISTAKARLE CHARM” 
result a positive beauty and a dominating sense of 
unity. These purposes are important in the devel¬ 
opment of any private place, and yet one or more of 
them is often lost sight of. Moreover each “Place" 
has individuality,—some circumstance of locality, 
topography or ownership that requires special con¬ 
sideration and treatment. In one of the best garden 
books published, “Garden Craft Old and New,” 
the genial and well poised author, John D. Sedding, 
expresses this idea in admirable words: “ There is 
an individual character to every plot of land as to every 
human face in a crowd, and that man is not wise who, 
to suit preferences for any given style of gardening, 
or with a view of copying a design from another 
place, will ignore the characteristics of the site at his 
disposal." 
Mr. Olmsted’s estimate of the site and the key¬ 
note of the treatment that he recommended are well 
expressed in the following quotations from his cor¬ 
respondence. His language is straightforward and 
unmistakable: “Your property," he wrote Mr. 
Schlesinger, “does not contain a site suitable for 
such a house as you contemplate unless you are will¬ 
ing to put up with some conditions which many 
people would regard as eccentric, but which I should 
hope would carry their own justification and there¬ 
fore simply secure an individuality of character ap¬ 
propriate to the house." A little later he wrote 
again in the same strain: “The site is not big enough 
nor fine enough for so large and fine a house and 
every possible modification is required in the charac¬ 
ter of the ground to make it and the house appear as 
a part of one design, each well-fitting to the other." 
From the beginning Mr. Olmsted believed—and 
his belief appears justified—that an entirely satisfac¬ 
tory result was out of the question. The problem 
was to get as good a result as possible. 
What, then, was Mr. Olmsted’s recommendation 
as to the site for the house ? He states it clearly. 
“It is desirable that a house such as you have in 
view should be so placed as to look southwardly upon 
a lawn which has a slight continuous descent from it, 
and that there should be no ground higher than that 
upon which the house stands for a considerable dis¬ 
tance in the same direction. There is but one posi¬ 
tion where this requirement can be met. You will 
find it near the kitchen end of lawn, west of the Am- 
ory house.' From this point and in this direction the 
ground falls away continuously to Goddard Avenue— 
therefore this establishes the best position on the 
lr The Amory house stood upon the property when Mr. Schlesinger bought it. 
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