Last updated: June 6, 2024
Place
Hills & Dales
Olmsted Archives
Quick Facts
Location:
Dayton, OH
Significance:
Olmsted Designed Suburban Community
MANAGED BY:
Of the 6,000 landscapes the Olmsted Firm designed over its nearly 100 years in practice, 274 of those designs are in Ohio, with 151 being in the Dayton area. 47 of these designs were constructed, one of them being the Hills & Dales subdivision. Olmsted Brothers began their relationship in Dayton around 1894, after being contacted by John H. Patterson, founder of the National Cash Register Company.
Patterson wanted Olmsted Brothers to study his land and see if it was suitable to develop a park and suburb on it. In 1903, John Charles and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. began work on Hills & Dales, with firm associate Percy Reginald Jones. They wanted a park that fit seamlessly with the neighborhood it surrounded, providing passive and active recreational features with open meadows, bridle paths, fishponds, and campgrounds. In the end, Patterson gave 289 acres of parkland to Dayton, leaving the rest to develop a subdivision.
Source: "Hills & Dales Metro Park," The Cultural Landscape Foundation
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr
Patterson wanted Olmsted Brothers to study his land and see if it was suitable to develop a park and suburb on it. In 1903, John Charles and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. began work on Hills & Dales, with firm associate Percy Reginald Jones. They wanted a park that fit seamlessly with the neighborhood it surrounded, providing passive and active recreational features with open meadows, bridle paths, fishponds, and campgrounds. In the end, Patterson gave 289 acres of parkland to Dayton, leaving the rest to develop a subdivision.
Source: "Hills & Dales Metro Park," The Cultural Landscape Foundation
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr