Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site
When your sister calls you and asks if you want to hang out and go visit a National Park, you always say YES! Ok, this has only happened to me once, but I am keeping it in mind for the future. (see some of our sister shenanigans below)
My sister lives in Cambridge, MA so we thought we would visit a park in her neck of the woods. The one I picked out was the Fredrick Law Olmsted National Historic Site in Brookline, MA. When I first researched this site, I thought it might be a nice place to visit during the colder months. Living in New England, it can tough to visit local parks once the snow has fallen so I like to have a few that could work in any season. As you can see from the photos, we we never made it there during that winter but kept it on our list for that summer.
The small site is located at Olmsted’s landscape architecture office. There is a short video at the visitors center and a small museum to tour with photographs and drawings of all of the parks he contributed in designing.
Olmsted is consider a creator of the American landscape mostly known for creating large urban green spaces like Central Park in New York City and the Emerald Necklace in Boston.
Outside of the building there are lovely grounds you can walk around - not entirely stroller friendly but that’s what shoulder rides are made for! We only spent about an hour exploring the history and scenery, but we left with a greater appreciation for Olmsted and the passion he put into his work in creating parks that we are still able to enjoy 100+ years later.
