domingo, 26 de abril de 2020

Happy Birthday, Frederick Law Olmsted!

April 26 is Frederick Law Olmsted's birthday and today would be his 198th.

Although I have so far uploaded only wild things to my iNat Observations, I decided to break with usual practice for both Olmsted's 198th and my 100th Observation by uploading some photos I took last year at an "It's My Park" clean-up.

Olmsted lived at an old house on Staten Island from 1848 to about 1855. Yes, it was old even then! The original part of the house was built around 1685. During his time there, Olmsted planted several trees that he'd brought back from a tour of England, including an Osage Orange (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/43710814) and a Cedar of Lebanon (https://www.nycgovparks.org/facilities/great-trees?id=64) that still stand on the property.

The house is in poor condition, but it and a small plot of land surrounding it have been purchased by the New York City Parks Department and will become a park some day (https://www.nycgovparks.org/parks/olmsted-beil-house-park/map). For now the property is closed to the public except when Friends of Olmsted-Beil House hosts public events and clean-ups. For information, see https://OlmstedBeilHouse.org/--and take a little time to watch the video, which is an excellent introduction to the history of the Olmsted-Beil House.

I am new to iNaturalist and am growing to love it as it helps keep me sane during our COVID-19 "hibernation." If you love iNat, too, chances are good you've done some observing and photographing at a park or other public space that Frederick Law Olmsted designed (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Olmsted_works).

Publicado el domingo, 26 de abril de 2020 a las 08:17 PM por karen5lund karen5lund | 0 comentarios | Deja un comentario

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