South Mountain Res.. from the Dog wal to the loop

Beautiful day for a late afternoon walk.

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Although Frederick Law Olmsted did not design the Res. (his son and step-son did), he viewed the property that had been bought by the County and declared it to be among the most promising he had ever seen for a park.

From what I remember about Olmstead, he renamed his son Frederick Law Olmstead so that his legacy could continue. He deliberately wanted people to not know the difference.

Beautiful pix!!

I never heard that about the naming, but naming someone as "Jr." is not uncommon among certain ethnic groups. For a long time I was confused about the relationship of the other member of the Olmsted (not Olmstead) Brothers firm because I kept seeing different and, I thought, conflicting designations of the relationship. Then I read that F.L. Sr. married his brother's widow, making her son his step-son, and then adopted her son (his nephew), making him legally his son. So the young man was successively, and then simultaneously, his nephew, step-son, and than son.

I have a friend who retired recently as preservasionist for the St. Louis County Park System. He is involved with the Frederick Law Olmsted Society for landscape architecture. They have a conference every year in a different area where F.L.O. or the successor firm of his sons (see above!) designed parks or boulevards. Not too long ago (I think it may have been within the last ten years or so) their focus area was Essex County. I do know that their visit was at least after the start of the big push in recent years to renovate and "update" the County's parks. I know my friend was shown many of the major parks, but he also mentioned seeing the renovated Irvington Park. As a child, I remember passing Irvington Park on the way to the Weequahic section of Newark, but was never in it. Has any MOL'er actually been in Irvington Park? Is anyone familiar with its before and after condition?

Maplewood has (or had) at least three different landscapes designed by Olmsted Bothers: South Mountain Reservation, Memorial Park (and maybe Maplecrest Park) and the original grounds of the Marcus L. Ward Homestead, now called Winchester Gardens. I don't know how much of the original design of the Ward Homestead (it was never a private home) is left, what with all the added construction, and the selling off of land for the town pool, for starters.

That's quite a feather in the cap of one small suburban town.

Somewhere I have a printout copy of a map I stumbled upon that shows an Olmsted (Brothers?) - designed boulevard system for Essex County that was never built.