DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16633#0362
342
History of Garden Art
Park, with the Green Park and St. James's adjoining, and Regent's Park on the north.
But Paris also was very well off with the Tuileries Gardens, the Champs Elysees, the
Palais Royal, and the Pare Monceau on the right bank of the Seme, and the Jardin des
Plantes and the Luxembourg on the left. In both towns the parks were Crown property.
In the forties, consequent on the increasingly flourishing condition of the towns,
there suddenly came a new advance in the matter of public gardens. Now, for the first
time in the history of the garden, America took an important place. It was not that she
had not progressed, but that she demanded here, as for her art in general, a certain inde-
pendence and originality. After the American Civil War town-dwellers began to build
houses in the country, which served them for a rest and holiday during a part of
FIG. 615. WASHINGTON-L'ENFANT'S PLAN
the year only, or for week-ends. In architecture and in garden planning America made
progress side by side with Europe, or more accurately, followed its leader England.
As early as 1682 William Penn had laid out Philadelphia according to a regular plan,
with square ornamental plots; and at the end of the eighteenth century the French
architect, L'Enfant, had made, at General Washington's desire, a complete plan for the
town which bears his name. It resembled one of the great residential towns of Europe,
transported, so to speak, en masse. The central point was the dome of the Capitol; broad
avenues were to form an approach, with boskets and parterres at the side (Fig. 615). But the
plan was only on paper, and a hundred years passed before a fresh movement towards
laying out park-lands carried it through, and on a grander scale. When, in consequence
of the amazing growth of her population, due to the influx of emigrants, America had to
deal with New York, provision was made by laying out a great park in the very middle
of the city, about 850 acres in area. This was a municipal act which deserves all praise.
Frederick Law Olmstead, the most important landscape artist that America had produced,
History of Garden Art
Park, with the Green Park and St. James's adjoining, and Regent's Park on the north.
But Paris also was very well off with the Tuileries Gardens, the Champs Elysees, the
Palais Royal, and the Pare Monceau on the right bank of the Seme, and the Jardin des
Plantes and the Luxembourg on the left. In both towns the parks were Crown property.
In the forties, consequent on the increasingly flourishing condition of the towns,
there suddenly came a new advance in the matter of public gardens. Now, for the first
time in the history of the garden, America took an important place. It was not that she
had not progressed, but that she demanded here, as for her art in general, a certain inde-
pendence and originality. After the American Civil War town-dwellers began to build
houses in the country, which served them for a rest and holiday during a part of
FIG. 615. WASHINGTON-L'ENFANT'S PLAN
the year only, or for week-ends. In architecture and in garden planning America made
progress side by side with Europe, or more accurately, followed its leader England.
As early as 1682 William Penn had laid out Philadelphia according to a regular plan,
with square ornamental plots; and at the end of the eighteenth century the French
architect, L'Enfant, had made, at General Washington's desire, a complete plan for the
town which bears his name. It resembled one of the great residential towns of Europe,
transported, so to speak, en masse. The central point was the dome of the Capitol; broad
avenues were to form an approach, with boskets and parterres at the side (Fig. 615). But the
plan was only on paper, and a hundred years passed before a fresh movement towards
laying out park-lands carried it through, and on a grander scale. When, in consequence
of the amazing growth of her population, due to the influx of emigrants, America had to
deal with New York, provision was made by laying out a great park in the very middle
of the city, about 850 acres in area. This was a municipal act which deserves all praise.
Frederick Law Olmstead, the most important landscape artist that America had produced,