Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site

On October 12, 1979, Congress passed Public Law 96-87 establishing Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site. This act authorized the purchase of Olmsted’s home, office, and landscape in Brookline, Massachusetts, as well as the purchase of the archival collection stored on the site.

The National Park Service is honored to be the steward of Olmsted National Historic Site, where America’s foremost landscape architect, his notable sons John Charles and Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., and their successors worked. The renowned Olmsted firm (under many different names through the generations) designed thousands of parks, suburban neighborhoods, campuses, and private estates. The site’s significance not only encompasses the vast design impact on the American landscape, but also on the park’s movement as a whole. Olmsted’s “Yosemite and the Mariposa Grove” report is considered by many to be one of the most important foundational documents in American national park history. Olmsted’s son and namesake, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., built upon his father’s work to create the National Park Service in 1916 and served as an adviser to the NPS, including consulting on Yosemite National Park.