Last updated: June 20, 2024
Place
Northern Pacific Irrigation Company
Olmsted Archives
Quick Facts
Location:
Kennewick, WA
Significance:
Olmsted Designed Suburban Community
MANAGED BY:
After viewing Olmsted Brothers’ design for the Uplands subdivision in Canada, developer David Gould asked John Charles Olmsted, often in charge of the firm’s Pacific Northwest designs, to develop a similar subdivision for a very different landscape in Kennewick, Washington. Known as the “Olmsted Addition” in hopes to boost marketing, an irrigation company as a client shows how water availability drove development in the arid West.
Gould, who had once lived in Boston, was naïve to assume the Olmsted name would draw people to Kennewick, where large-scale agriculture was just beginning to gain ground. The Northern Pacific Irrigation Company’s subdivision saw John Charles creating 36 plans. Just like at The Uplands, curved, tree-lined roads and varied sized lots were found, the largest closest to a neighborhood park.
Incorporating features adapted to the local conditions, John Charles noted that “I have always thought that where the climate was such that the parking strips could be easily taken care of and kept green it was rather a swindle on the public to take them out of the street in effect and add them in effect to the private lawns but it does seem that in this case where irrigation is required the advantages of doing so are sufficient to justify the arrangement.”
Despite an impressive 1909 marketing campaign, few buyers were attracted to the subdivision. By 1912 there were less than twenty houses in the subdivision. Today, the “Olmsted Addition” is among several unrealized schemes the Olmsted firm lent their talents to.
Source: "Northern Pacific Irrigation Company," Olmsted Online
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr
Gould, who had once lived in Boston, was naïve to assume the Olmsted name would draw people to Kennewick, where large-scale agriculture was just beginning to gain ground. The Northern Pacific Irrigation Company’s subdivision saw John Charles creating 36 plans. Just like at The Uplands, curved, tree-lined roads and varied sized lots were found, the largest closest to a neighborhood park.
Incorporating features adapted to the local conditions, John Charles noted that “I have always thought that where the climate was such that the parking strips could be easily taken care of and kept green it was rather a swindle on the public to take them out of the street in effect and add them in effect to the private lawns but it does seem that in this case where irrigation is required the advantages of doing so are sufficient to justify the arrangement.”
Despite an impressive 1909 marketing campaign, few buyers were attracted to the subdivision. By 1912 there were less than twenty houses in the subdivision. Today, the “Olmsted Addition” is among several unrealized schemes the Olmsted firm lent their talents to.
Source: "Northern Pacific Irrigation Company," Olmsted Online
For more information and primary resources, please visit:
Olmsted Research Guide Online
Olmsted Archives on Flickr