Frederick Law Olmstead

April 26, 2008

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Profile America — Saturday, April 26th. April is National Landscape Architecture Month — and today marks the birthday of the man known as the father of American landscape design — Frederick Law Olmstead. Not only was he a talented designer, but he helped to define the idea of a public park, accessible to everyone. Among his famous commissions are New York’s Central Park, the grounds of the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina, and dozens of college campuses, including Stanford and Cornell. Today, about a third of U.S. households are actively engaged in landscaping their yards. The same percentage enjoy flower gardening and 14 percent have ponds or other water features. You can find these and more facts about America from the U.S. Census Bureau on the Web at <www.census.gov>.

Sources: Chase's Calendar of Events 2008, p. 237, 198
Statistical Abstract of the United States 2008, t. 1215
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2008edition.html