Roland Park Company The Critical Planning Role of the Olmsted Brothers FMOPL Digest olmstedmaryland.org The Olmsted Brothers left their with owners, architects, engineers, mark on Baltimore’s suburbs and gardeners.” While the Olmst- through decades of collaboration eds established that they were the with the Roland Park Company. experts in any project, they also Together with the company's first stressed the importance of collabo- president, Edward H. Bouton, ration. they shaped a large swath of north Baltimore into a unified district. The Olmsteds laid out a six-step Bouton hired the Olmsted Broth- procedure in the Circular. First, ers landscape architecture firm in they would make a “preliminary 1897 after previously working with visit” in which they toured the George Kessler. The firm had a site and spoke with the client. prominent reputation by the time The client then sent any materi- Bouton contacted them. als requested to the firm's office in Brookline, Massachusetts. These Before setting foot in Roland Park, might include maps and building the Olmsted Brothers sent Bouton plans. The Olmsteds then designed THE the firm's Circular as to Professional preliminary plans meant to be “ex- Methods and Charges in which they amined, criticized, and discussed.” outlined a comprehensive process Based on any feedback the client Olmstedian for how they worked with clients. provided, the Olmsteds made a They described their business as General Plan accompanied by an VOLUME 21 “the supplying of professional ad- Explanatory Report. At that point ISSUE 1 vice with respect to the arrange- clients could choose to implement Spring 2015 ment of land for use, and the the plan with their own staff. accompanying landscape for enjoy- Or, as a final step, the Olmsteds ment.” To this end, they “consulted could offer a variety of options for Olmsted Law Frederick Service, Park National the From Park. Residence lost park, Guilford’s Plan for Brothers Olmsted The 1911 MA. Brookline, Site, Historic National supervising different aspects of the Their relationship was character- work including guiding grading, ized by friendly give-and-take in road building and planting. the spirit of consultation and ex- change as the Olmsteds outlined Once Bouton agreed to the em- in their employment terms. Bou- ployment terms of the Circular, he ton and the Olmsteds collaborated also agreed to the Olmsteds’ prices. closely because they shared an ideal A preliminary visit typically cost for well-planned suburbs. They en- one hundred dollars in 1898. The visioned curvilinear streets where Roland Park Company also paid every inch would be meticulously for all travel and expenses for the controlled and landscaped to offer Olmsteds and their assistants. Pro- a seemingly natural pastoral scene. ducing a preliminary plan ranged Street names also carried an ide- from fifty to several thousands dol- ology. According to Olmstedian lars. Any supervisory work could principles, names should reflect be negotiated later but included a the physical conditions of the fee for the work and all expenses site. Bouton and the Olmsteds ex- paid. At the very minimum the changed lists of names. If Bouton Roland Park Company paid $150 had simply taken all the Olmsteds’ to hire the Olmsted Brothers or suggestions, Roland Park would $4,170 in 2015 dollars. The cost of have streets called ackfrid, ackhurst a planned subdivision was actually and ackenshaw—all derivations much higher. meaning oak wood or ackbroyl. Plat Two of Roland Park might These methods and costs formed have been called Many Mansions part of the Olmsted Brothers’ Hill or What Cheer. larger role in professionalizing landscape architecture, borrowing Another hallmark of their col- from the professionalization of re- laboration was remaining flexible. Lucille Bouton (1859-1951) in her garden at Rusty Rocks. Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, lated disciplines. In 1899, the Ol- Over the three decades of working Garden Club of America Collection. msteds helped found the American together, Bouton and the Olmsted country.” Luella Bouton organized of residents began meeting in each Society of Landscape Architects, firm adapted their planning prin- into what became Sherwood Gar- garden parties and hosted produc- other’s homes. They decided to for- while they worked on Roland Park. ciples to the particular demands of dens and the Homeland lakes. tions of Shakespearian plays. She malize their meetings into a club. John Charles Olmsted served as each Roland Park Company de- also kept straw mats for whenever She helped secure a prime lot from the society's first president. ASLA velopment. In Homeland, Freder- The Olmsteds developed a personal she invited school children into the the Roland Park Company on Ro- later released its own Methods of ick Law Olmsted Jr. worked with as well as professional relationship garden to learn about local plants land Avenue by Ridgewood Road, Charges and Recommended Mini- Bouton on longer blocks suited with Bouton to the point where and animals. where the club continues to operate mum Charges. In the circular the for cars. Farther east in Original they also landscaped his Roland in the original building. That same Olmsted Brothers sent Bouton, Northwood, the Olmsted firm Park home, Rusty Rocks. Bouton’s Luella Bouton also helped establish year the founding members drew they stated that they based supervi- adeptly scaled designs to suit the wife, Luella, turned the gardens the social life in Roland Park, when up a constitution and by-laws. Lu- sory work procedures on American smaller site plan and more modest of Rusty Rocks into a focal point residents—especially women— did ella Bouton served as Second Vice Institute of Architects' Schedule of lot sizes. In Guilford and Home- for community gatherings as well not have many local options. One President. The original charges Minimum Charges. land, they took pre-existing man- as aesthetic beauty. The Baltimore of her achievements still exists to- to join consisted of $2 for annual made features like the ice ponds of Sun called Rusty Rocks “one of day, The Woman’s Club of Roland dues, a 25 cent initiation fee, a these former estates, turning them the most artistic in this part of the Park. Beginning in 1896, a group 10-cent fine for absences, and 5 cents for lateness. The club joined echoes of Olmstedian landscaping city-wide and national networks of principles found in Roland Park women's organizations across the Company developments includ- country. ing curvilinear streets with pastoral names. Although the Olmsteds and Ed- ward Bouton received much of the The Roland Park Company never credit for making the Roland Park recovered financially from building Company's suburbs successful, Lu- Original Northwood during the ella Bouton was a guiding force be- Great Depression, when Home- hind the scenes. One story that was land had not been fully sold. In the often reprinted in newspaper arti- 1950s, the Roland Park Company cles about Roland Park names her was mainly a real estate broker- as inspiring Edward Bouton to cre- age before liquidating in 1959. By ate a planned suburb. “Beauty,” she the time the company went out of supposedly told him, “draws more business, Bouton had long since than oxen.” Whether apocryphal retired. Shortly after his death in or not, it points to her reputation, 1941, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. which she cemented during Roland paid tribute to the developer with Park's early days. Those close to the whom he had collaborated for over company attested to her impor- thirty years. Bouton, he said, had tance; Edward Bouton’s successor, done more than any other citizen John Mowbray, said “Mrs. Bou- to make Baltimore a city renowned ton’s knowledge, wit, and courage for its homes. did more to bring about the things that Mr. Bouton dreamed about -Paige Glotzer, Ph.D. Candidate, than all of his employees.” Johns Hopkins University History Department The Olmsted firm’s suburban com- missions declined after the World War II along with the Roland Park Right, top: The title for the Olmst- Company's fortunes. The timing eds' Circular explained the Olmsted seems odd as the years immediately Brothers' method and the terms of following the war ushered in sub- employment. From Roland Park urban housing that included the Company Archive, JHU. Bottom: world-famous Levittown. Most When The Olmsteds began work post-war developers, however, did on Plat Two of Roland Park, the not use landscape architects. Rath- Roland Park Company planned to er, they relied on the assembly-line give it its unique place names. The like process of pre-fabrication to Olmsteds sent Roland Park Compa- quickly produce neighborhoods. ny President Edward Bouton (inset) Post-war developers aimed to a list of potential street and lane achieve economies of scale rather names to fit the affluent pastoral than meticulous design. However, landscape they had in mind. Photo post-war developers did retain courtesy of Doug Munro. Edward Bouton hired the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm in 1897, after previously working with the landscape architect George Kessler, who designed the first plat for Roland Park on the east side of Roland Avenue. The firm had a prominent reputation by the time Bouton contacted them. Its founder, Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. designed New York's Central Park and the U.S. Capitol Grounds as well as one of the most famous American planned suburbs of the nineteenth century, Riverside, Illinois. His sons, John Charles Olmsted and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., took over the firm by the 1890s as his health declined. The Olmsteds’ prominent projects also became a launching pad for other nineteenth-century landscape architects throughout the United States—Kes- sler began his career by working on Central Park.