Echoes of the Olmsted Elm Lauren Meier Essay

Job #673, 00673-01-p31 400 dpi381, F.L. Olmsted, Brookline, MA

Olmsted Archives

I have devoted much of my adult life to the study and preservation of the historic American landscape, and the Olmsted Elm at Fairsted has contributed greatly to my understanding and appreciation of the complex interrelationship between humans and the natural environment, and the art and science of landscape design. Frederick Law Olmsted has taught all students of landscape architecture that design is as much about retention and appreciation of an existing site, as it is about the addition of new features. The Olmsted Elm is a case in point – retained by FLO as a relic of the earlier farmstead, which in turn formed the nexus around which his new landscape took shape.

Nearly a century after Olmsted settled on Warren Street, I took the plant materials course at Harvard Graduate School of Design from Joe Hudak, who at that time was still partner in Olmsted Associates and often referred to the Olmsted Homestead in his lectures about trees, shrubs, and vines. I had visited the site on many occasions in the 1980s and had greatly appreciated the magnificence of this stately tree, but in 1991 our worlds literally collided (the tree and me that is) when I came to the Olmsted NHS to direct the restoration of the grounds. Through the next decade, I grew to appreciate Olmsted’s careful decision to save this tree and I marveled at its perseverance through a century of change including the construction and deconstruction of a swimming pool. In the early days of the Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Charlie Pepper led the program to propagate historically significant plant material, and the elm was a natural candidate to inaugurate that effort. It served as an important topic related to strategies for plant selection, retention, and replacement in historic landscape preservation so its contribution to the field has been note-worthy and the elm lives on in articles and the memories of the horticulturists who participated. My oldest child, born in the early days of the restoration planning, grew up running circles around the elm and climbing over the rock outcroppings at Fairsted. I like to think that these experiences shaped his appreciation of the natural and designed environment, clearly evident in many aspects of his young adult life including his critiques of college campus design.

Job #673, 00673-02-ph51 400 dpi129, F.L. Olmsted, Brookline, MA

Olmsted Archives

The loss of the elm was like losing a friend and a mentor. I had advocated for many years that it be saved at all cost; that the tree was irreplace-able and the single most significant element in the Fairsted landscape. But as time, old age and disease ravaged the tree, the necessary removal of its main limbs and sparse foliage were an indication that it was in serious decline. Like all living things, it was time to say goodbye. I am grateful that through the Witness Tree Project, RISD students have created beauty out of loss. But for me, the circle is not and will not be complete until the propagated elm is returned to Fairsted to grace the next century.

Lauren G. Meier
American Society of Landscape Architects
Friends of Fairsted