National Park Service: Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site

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A striped header image reading "National Park Service Frederick Law Olmsted NHS"

Did you know that the year 2022 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of American landscape designer Frederick Law Olmsted? Olmsted 200 is celebrated through the country at notable sites, including his home and office in Brookline, Massachusetts. Now part of the National Park Service as Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, I finally made the long-awaited visit to the house museum.

Front view of a red wooden house with green trim, a front door bump out, and a pair of red brick chimneys. The left side of the house is partially obscured by an overgrown bush. A sign reading "National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior" and containing the NPS logo. The brown section of the sign below reads "Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Park". A lime green sign with the bold title "YOUR YEAR WITH Olmsted" and additional information on wear to learn about upcoming events. A white sign with black lettering and depicting a stylized logo reading "Olmsted 200"

Olmsted’s home, called Fairstead, has been transformed into a museum with exhibits about his life, work, and legacy. The experience is likewise divided into three parts. Visitors can freely visit the exhibits and grounds on a self-guided tour, take a Design Office Tour inside the house with a park ranger, and take a Landscape Tour with another park ranger. The park is open Thursday through Sunday and is fee free, so all activities are available for no charge.

An example of exhibit signage, titled "A New Profession" A vertical view of a design office, with wooden floor, exposed beam ceiling, standing desks, and green hanging lamps. Windows with green shades bring natural light to the space. A black Remington typewriter on a wooden desk against a wooden wall

Exhibits

Housed inside Fairstead, which was constructed as a farmhouse in 1810 and purchased by Olmsted to serve as both living quarters and an office, the exhibits detail the life of Olmsted, his family, his business, and his designs. A video screen in what was once a design office displays images of Olmsted’s landscape designs from across the United States, including the Emerald Necklace in Boston.

Exhibit Sign The front of an interactive exhibit sign, with a metal handle to unfold the sign An interactive exhibit sign, where the top unfolds, then the bottom unfolds, revealing additional text and images An interactive box of small exhibit signs, which can be taken out to read A sitting room with a fireplace, green comfy chairs, a portrait of Olmsted over the mantel, and a round table, holding photo albums Another fireplace with a landscape picture on top A set of exhibit signs attached to the wall, with handles to be opened like doors and drawers to reveal more information

Be sure to press the red button and watch the introductory video, “The Lasting Legacy of Frederick Law Olmsted”. If you miss this part of the exhibit, no worries. This video and several others about the Olmsted family’s impact on landscape design, California State Parks, and the National Park Service, along with past events at Fairstead, are available on the National Parks website. The videos onsite and online include open captioning for the Deaf and hearing impaired.



The exhibits inside Fairstead are open from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The building underwent renovation leading up to Olmsted 200 and has been declared by NPS to be “fully accessible to those people with mobility issues”.

The view down a long hallway, with a wooden grand staircase on the left and a row of lit portraits on the right A sign on the wooden grand staircase titled 'What's Upstairs?', with explanation that the Olmsted's former bedrooms are now offices. A large sign explaining the history of Olmsted's design and construction of the Emerald Necklace parks in Boston A touchscreen kiosk displaying images of postcards, which depict Olmsted landscapes from around the United States A Black-and-White Map of the Emerald Necklace on a sign

Design Office Tour

Office tours are led by park rangers and start in the atrium of Fairstead. The ranger unlocks a door separating the main living area of the house from the office space. These rooms contain thousands of paper artifacts created by Olmsted’s landscape design company while researching for clients. The company used multiple techniques for organizing their information, including drawers built to the exact size of a portfolio folder and labeled with a number representing the physical location of the landscape.

On the left at an angle are floor-to-ceiling wooden drawers with numbered labels A typewriter connected to a long table, designed to allow long pieces of paper to fit into the machine A table holding two examples of Olmsted portfolios, including manipulated photographs An early 20th century camera and its case sit at the back of a wooden cubby A wood box holding surveying tools A row of additional filing cabinate with a green, hanging lamp to light the space while searching for files A variety of design tools laid out on the top of a long wooden table, including a blue instruction booklet A large wooden pencil box with multiple drawers, each filled with pencils A wide view of a design office, with wooden floor, exposed beam ceiling, standing desks, and green hanging lamps. Windows with green shades bring natural light to the space. A similar design to the main office, with several long tables put together in an L shape and used for preparing blueprints

Olmsted’s company made use of modern technology, including typewriters and printers. The Printing Department room is dedicated to a large “Wagenhorst” automatic electric blue printer, which created blue-and-white copies of the architects’ works for clients to review. You can look at James H. Wagenhorst’s three patents on this machine here, here, and here. This is why modern drawings of buildings are still called blueprints.

A wooden table labeled with white numbers in inches, along with an electric iron A wooden desk and matching wooden chair. On the top of the desk is a lamp, a Remington typewriter, and an old-fashioned fan with an open blade. A gray, metal cylindar about three feet high attached to the wall. Poster advertising J.H. Wagenhorst's Automatic Electric Blue Printer A wooden bumpout from the wall about three feet high and two feed wide used for measuring blue prints A yellowed paper stuck to a wooden wall reading Print Department Don't Touch Switch A park ranger stands behind a table and in front of a Wagenhorst automatic electric blue printer

Despite Olmsted’s labeling system, the office archives are messy. One member of the staff, jokingly called “The General” by junior employees, was in charge of making sure all designs, material, and models were returned to their proper place after use. Although Olmsted employed only men as architects and designers, several women worked in the firm to manage the archives and correspondence with clients. Even with this attempted organization, the archives are unwieldy, and researchers still struggle to locate artifacts.

A small landscape model about 18 inches long and 6 inches wide A black poster board with drawings affixed to one side labeled 'The General' The label of a black-and-white landscape design, reading in part "Muddy River Improvement" A blue copy of the design for the United States Capitol Grounds

Design Office Tours take place on the half hour from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., with tours lasting up to 45 minutes. This portion of the house is accessible only by a pair of steep stairs and is therefore inaccessible to those using a wheelchair or with other mobility issues. A video tour is available upon request.

Wooden mobile shelving in an archive A set of drawers with handlettered Roman numerals viewed behind the glass window in a door A grotesque pen-and-ink drawing of a giant, hairy spider devouring people A stairwell from the printing area to the basement archives, with thin, horizontal, rounded wooden strips on the walls

Grounds & Landscape Tour

While Olmsted was the leading landscape architect of his time and is well-remembered today, the grounds around Fairstead are not super exciting. I suppose that once he was done with work, he didn’t want to be bothered with a fancy yard. The rock garden on the property is referred to by rangers as “the shortest trail in the park service”, although I’m sure I have heard variations on this joke at other National Park Sites.

In back of the house is a temporary collection of posters created by past research interns on different topics related to the house but not covered by the tours or exhibits.

A three-quarters view of a red wooden house with green trim, flanked by trimmed trees. A wicker archway over a driveway with trees looming low over everything A wooden bench in a garden set below the rest of a property and half-hidden by trees A row of signs behind a red wooden building with green trim

Landscape Tours take place on the hour from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., with tours lasting around 30 minutes. The “Hollow”, a sunken garden, is not accessible for those using a wheelchair. However, a fellow guest using a cane was able to navigate the stairs with some assistance.

Conclusion

As noted previously in this post, Frederick Law Olmsted NHS has a higher level of accessibility and accommodations than most other house tours. While visiting the entirety of the site may not be possible for everyone, NPS makes a concerted effort to provide an enriching historical experience regardless of ability or age. The Junior Ranger book is a fun activity for children with families, or those like me who are young at heart and a bit obsessed with Junior Ranger badges and cute certificates. On the day I visited, the park provided high quality paper and watercolor pencils for a plein-air session on the lawn.

A rambling red, wooden house with green trim sits on the opposite side of a wide, green lawn underneath a blue sky. A single Adirondack chair stands in the middle of the lawn facing the house A watercolor and pencil image of the back corner of a red house with green trim


Abby Epplett’s Rating System

Experience: 7/10

Accessibility: 8/10



Location: Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, 99 Warren St, Brookline, MA 02445, USA