Book Synopsis
While there had been significant landscape achievements in America prior to 1850, none were as great as the creation, planning and building of Central Park in New York City. Social reformers William Cullen Bryant and the Reverend Henry W. Bellows were outspoken advocates for public open space in New York City. A “Central Park” was their vision; a space accessible to all citizens that should be, they said, larger than anything in Europe. One cannot say the name Central Park without recalling its creator and advocate, Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. He was the social reformer who gave physical form to a new form of urban environments.