ii, , :; . ) OM A H.A: S HIS TOR.'-'-"---I C SYSTEM 30022721 11\\1\\11111\\111\\11\11\1\\\\\11\\\\\1\\1\1\11\\\ Superfund Introduction "I would have the city itselfsuch a work ofart as may be the jitting abode ofa race ofmen and women ... whose efforts shall be inspired and sustained by the grandeur' and beauty ofthe scenes in which their lives are passed."- H. W. S. Cleveland The eminent landscape architect Horace W. S. Cleveland set forth this vision of urban life in an address tO,the Min­ , ., neapolis Society ofFine Arts in 1888. bn¢ year later ~. , Cleveland would be called to Omaha by the newly formed Board of Park Commissioners to design 'a public green­ space system for the city booming on the bluffs of the Missouri River. Through th'tefforts ofCle,:eland, public officials and civic-minded citizens, the foundation was laid for a park and boulevard system that has "inspired ami sustained" Omaha residents by its "grandeur and beauty" for more than one hundred years. While the natural beauty and recreational benefitsoi ' , !; , Omaha's parks are widely appreciated, aspects of the sys­ , tem's historic importance have not been fully recognized. ! Because of its association with H.W. S. Cleveland - an important figure in 19th c«ntury American landscape architecture - Omaha's park and boulevard systemsbr' vives as a signjficant lanqrnark in landscape design and urban planning in the Midwest. Hanscom Parkj 1918 , I ,', Though it might now appear that. a number of Oma- chased in advance ofits development, before the price ha's older parks such as Hanscom or Elmwood are essen· became prohibitive, and purchases needed to be made tially tracts that have remained in their natural state, in strategically, so that park sites could accommodate later actuality, the case is quite different.J:.ooking now at a population growth. stand ofpines that crowns a hill in Miller Park, one The Park Commissioners' work in developing policy would not.il\J.agine that the site was a flat, treeless corn· and procedures aimed at shaping the future form and field when it was purchased iii 1893. An immense development of the city was an innovative practice, one amount ofplanning and expertise, money and physical that anticipated modern-day city planning. Under the lead­ '.1, labodr wdere "kxPIenddeTdhin transfPlrming the ,Vacant plot into ership of the Commissioners and the guidance ofH.W.S. woo e Par an. e examp e ofMiller Park is not Cleveland, Omaha was early among cities'of the Midwest unique;.each ofour parks and parkways was created to institute and act upon this comprehenshe program for through a lengthy and complex process that included, city betterment - this vision that would have the whole among other things, land surveying and grading, tree city "a'work of art." planting, stream rerouting, and road building. The ideas, hopes and energies of H.W.S. Cleveland These land-shaping activities were inspired and and civic-minded Omahads of a celitury ago are embodied directed by H. W. S. Cleveland's ideas about urban park in the designs ofour historic parks and boulevards; their land design. He believed that the land's natural beauty I form and features bear the stamp of those who fashioned , and interesting features should be respected and retained; them andthe period in which they were produd,d,Over :':ii but with the landscape architect's idealism, Cleveland felt the years, however, thestory ofthe origins of our park Ij that nature could he improved to bring about a more system has been largely forgotten. The intent of this guide pleasing aesthetic effect. By artistically arranging trees I is to bring the foundations of.this livinglandritark to. light. and shrubbery, laying out paths and roads that followed "'1 th.e natural contours ofthe ground, and enhancing exist­ t ing features such as cliffs or ravines, Cleveland created j ii remarkably scenic park land, often from properly that 'ii was considered worthless. Aspects ofOmahll'S early ii' parks and boulevards display his design signature yet i' today. i 1 !:IB, The concerns. of Cleveland and those who launched Birch Drive, Miller l:'J1i":::C·'t',,:' , " .. ", ""_ ' .I . Park; 1917 P~ii;}Omaha sparks movement extetl?e?p~rOnd a singular ! ii~iBi;(tocus on the arrangement Of~~~(lrlil~grading of a hill: iH;'~1rlil~$yisi()t1 was bfoader'1'1!eY?~limY\l~that the building ii~il!le~~~~1~¥~l~i~f:~f~f:~1~;::~e:Y:f::~ ,I ij::~irl\webofparks andb6UJevards that stretched across the To accomplish this purpose, the guide begins with a i n~w\'6~tfre'~itY:< . ·1 des\;'ription ofthe early growth and development ofthe ;:i~.'.!~ .MlIking parks and boulevards "integral portions of '1 Omaha park system, placed within the historic context of the 19th century parks movement in the Ucited States. i..i. r:i..•...·.'.·•.,.'.i.,...'..•.i. the. C.ity, inst.ead.o~ being.merelY. ornamental'llPp~ndages:' 'i :'{::,.as Cleveland put It, reqwred a great deal ofmumclpal Following is information.about the system's individual j ,<'coordination and planning; more than city gove~ments parks and boulevards - also focusing on their early histo­ : ofa century ago were wont to do. Land needed to be pur- ry - arranged in the form of a tour. 2 3 I Covered in the course ofthis guide are a dozen parks Even before Central Par~ was completed, a number and approximately thirty-five miles ofboulevards. Space of other cities - among them Philadelphia, Baltimore, permits only a brief stop at .each ofthese major sites, but' Brooklyn and Detroit - began to develop plans for plea­ we hope that the informaiion presented will. encourage . sure grounds based on the Central Park model, and in . yoU to further explore the rich history and scenic beauty many cases with Olmsted's direct design help. In the ofthis impoit""t civic resource. decades following the Civil War, the interest in park­ building spread from older, more established cities to newly developing urban areas; the movement caught hold in Omaha in the 1880s. Historic Context The Greening of Omaha American cities experienced tremendous growth in the The push for parks in Omaha c\llminate'd in 1889 with the later decades of the 19th century. At mid-century, only state legislature's enactment ofa law that gave metropoli­ one in five Americans lived in urban areas; by I 900, the tan class cities an effective)neans ofacquiring, develop­ proportion ofcity-dwellers had climbed to about 40 per­ ing and maintaining a system ofpublic parks and boule­ cent of the total U.S. population. The nation's largest city, vards. Before the passage of this statute, the City of New York, for example, grew by a factorofflve -from Om.a.~a)a£~edthe clear legal authority to establish a park about 700,000 to almost 3.5 million persons - in the commission with the power to rai~e funds through taxa­ fifty-year period between 1850 and 1900. tion and the issuance ofbonds. Consequently, atthe time of the new legislation, Jefferson Square - the only pub­ American Urbanization and the Growth of the Parks' lic property surviving from the original 1854 platting of Movement the city ~ was in dire need of a facelift; and Hanscom As 19th century American cities grew larger, dirtier, more Park, a fifty-acre tract donated to the city in 1872, re­ crowded and crime-ridden, voices emerged through the mained virtualIy undeveloped and little used. ' to lead the way to a more ideal urban vision. This The poor state of the city's park properties had long new view ~ shaped by social reformers, engineers, been disturbing to a number of Omaha's leading citizens physicians, architects and poets - proposed that the sal­ who had lobbied forcefulIy for the 1889 legislation. The vation of cities was to be found in the country. Or at least cause was perhaps closest to the heart and pen of George in the qualities and values inherent in rural life. Accord­ L. Miller, an Omaha pioneer physician who refocused his ing to these civic improvers, urbanization had obscured career on newspapering in 1865 when he co-founded the the connection between humankind and nature: break up Omaha Daily Herald. An avid arborist, Miller used his I the urban gridiron with naturalistic greenery and a more editorial power to convince the public of the need for civilized city wO\lld result. parks - a need that was becoming increasingly pressing One ofthe primary proponents ofthis view was in the boom years of the 1880s. Frederick Law Olmsted (1822-1903), who is acknowl­ Inthe decade of the 1880s, Omaha's population edged as the father ofAmerican landscape architecture. jumped from thirty thousand to over one hundred thou­ Olmsted was a key figure in the 19th century urban parks sand.persons. As the city consumed lI!0re and more ofthe movement and together with his partner Calvert Vaux adjoining countryside, Dr. MiIIer and it growing group of won the 1858 competition to design New York City's like-minded residents feared the increase of urban ills and Central Park, the nation's first comprehensively planned saw parks prOViding an effective antidote. Not only con­ public urban park. cemed with bettering conditions inside the city limits, 4 5 Elmwood ParJq 1914 Dr. Miller served three terms in the territoriallegisla­ ture and then was nominated for Congress. A defeat at the polls ended his further pursuit ofelected office, yet it did not dim his desire for an active career in politics and pub­ lic service. Toward this end, in 1865, Miller co-founded . the Omaha Daily Herald.