Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site

Widely considered the father of landscape design architecture, Frederick Law Olmsted made an indelible mark on Boston’s urban landscape, linking green space from the Boston Common to Franklin Park, some 7 miles long. His firm spent nearly 20 years on the project, known as the Emerald Necklace. In the midst of this project, Olmsted moved his own home to Brookline, where he established a full-scale landscape-design office called ‘Fairsted.’ Although closed for renovation at the time of research, Fairsted is supposed to be open for tours in 2010. You will be able to visit Olmsted’s office, which remains in the same state as it was a century ago, and peruse his designs for the country’s most beloved green spaces, which include Central Park in New York City; Rock Creek Park in Washington, DC; national parks such as Acadia and the Great Smoky Mountains; and more. Olmsted was also influential in the creation of the National Park Service, which manages his homestead as a historic site.