Baltimore City Plan

Baltimore City Plan

Olmsted Archives, Job #02447, Baltimore, MD

Quick Facts

Location:

Baltimore, MD

Significance:

Olmsted Designed Park

MANAGED BY:

City of Baltimore

In 1904, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. was hired by the Municipal Art Society of Baltimore to produce a comprehensive plan for the public grounds around Greater Baltimore, creating a connected park system. For the next twenty years, Olmsted Jr. and other firm members would provide considerable assistance in specific park planning and land acquisition.

Olmsted Jr. would also serve as landscape architect for residential communities and smaller green spaces in the Baltimore area. Additionally, Olmsted Jr. was instrumental in planning the reconstruction of Baltimore after the Great Fire of 1904; he would also help create the city’s Planning Department.

Olmsted Jr., with the assistance of John Charles and firm members P.R. Jones and Percival Gallagher, Olmsted Brothers published The Report Upon the Development of Public Grounds for Greater Baltimore, where they stressed the need to treat parks as a connected system of green spaces. Olmsted Brothers’ plan has continued to shape Baltimore’s parks.

Source: "Baltimore Plan of 1904," The Cultural Landscape Foundation

For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online 
Olmsted Archives on Flickr