Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site - Brookline, Massachusetts

Address:99 Warren St
Brookline, Massachusetts
Tel: (617) 566-1689

Visit the birthplace of American landscape architecture at the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline, Massachusetts. Located near Boston, the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site is the site of the world's first office for the practice of landscape design. Today, the site offers visitors fascinating walking tours of the area.

Born in 1822, Frederick Law Olmsted gained a reputation for skilled design of public parks, including Central Park and Prospect Park in New York City, Mount Royal Park in Montreal, and the Emerald Necklace in Boston. In 1883, Olmsted moved to suburban Boston to establish Fairsted, the world's first full-scale professional office for landscape design. Olmsted's sons and successors perpetuated his ideas for the next century, using Fairsted as their base.

The Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site offers slide programs and informative ranger-guided walking tours of the Boston area. The tours cover various Olmsted-designed landscapes in the Boston metropolitan area, including Riverway, Arnold Arboretum, and Jamaica Pond. The slide shows, available for groups with a reservation, cover Olmsted's contributions to parks across the country, as well as his philosophy on the necessity of suburbs. After their visit to the historic site, visitors can find a wide variety of restaurants in walking distance, with everything from pizza to health food.

To get to the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site, take the MBTA Bus #60 to the intersection of Boylston and Warren Streets in Brookline, then follow Warren Street south to #99.

At the Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site you will experience the beauty and history of American landscape architecture.