Force, Ridgely

In 1911 Olmsted Brothers designed landscape improvements for Ridgely Force’s new home on scenic Cascadia Avenue South in Mount Baker subdivision (job 03209), just above Lake Washington Boulevard, a key part of the 1903 Olmsted park and boulevard plan. Nine drawings, all but one destroyed, provided site layout, grading plan and sections, planting plan and fence details. The surviving planting plan and plant list reveals a rich palette featuring stately red oaks, twenty flowering trees, abundant fragrant shrubs and perennials, 2,700 spring bulbs, clematis, wisteria and many other vines. As seen in the existing landscape Cedrus trees appear to have been planted instead of red oaks.