The text below is a reprint of the
nomination for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places
prepared by Olaf W. Shelgren Jr. and Dr.
Francis R. Kowsky
The
designer of the Olmsted
Camp was Harold LeRoy Olmsted
(l886-1972) who, throughout his 70 year career, practiced both
architectural and landscape design, and was an accomplished artist
known especially for his landscape paintings.
Born on Buffalo's 13th Street (renamed Normal Avenue) , he attended
the School of Practice of the old State
Normal School and Masten
Park High School before going to Harvard
where he studied liberal arts, fine arts, and architecture.
In the early 1900s, his father selected a site overlooking the valley
of Cattaraugus Creek in Sardinia as a family camp, and Harold Olmsted,
at the age of 22, designed and constructed his first building, a
summer residence for the camp. In 1908, just after his graduation from
Harvard, he designed a lodge for the family at the Sardinia camp.
Olmsted once noted that the lodge had all of the good characteristics
of a modern ranch house - with more character than the development
houses of that nature being built 60 years later (Winebrenner S
September 1968, 31).
After college, Olmsted toured around Europe and Africa on a bicycle
for l8 months where he where he sketched and painted watercolors of
landscape scenes and historic buildings. Upon his return, Olmsted's
paintings and sketches of his travels were exhibited in a one-man show
at the Albright
Art Gallery, and he had numerous other
exhibits there and elsewhere (Winebrenner 8 September 1968, 31).
Olmsted instituted the first art
class at the University of Buffalo when it was at Niagara Square.
Early in his career, as part of his training, he worked without
compensation at the Buffalo architecture firm of Green
and Wicks. He also worked for a short time
with the landscape architecture firm of Townsend and Fleming. He
concentrated largely on domestic work, both architectural and
landscape design. For most of his career he worked independently as a
freelance designer and also served as a consultant to both landscape
and architectural firms including Bley & Lyman; North &
Shelgren; Fred Backus; Arnold & Stern; Alling S. DeForest; and
Walter H. Cassebeer. Olmsted designed the How
House, for example, through the auspices of
the architecture firm of North Shelgren & Swift. His friend, Olaf
Shelgren, in fact, often sent projects his way (Shelgren 31 July
1996). Olmsted, an unlicensed architect didn't keep an office nor did
he actively solicit business, yet he never lacked for work (Buffalo
Courier-Express, 20 March 1972, 2).
Olmsted moved from his Buffalo home on Bryant Street to Springville in
1942. A staunch individualist, he was frequently seen walking
around Springville in wooden shoes and wearing a cape of Llama wool.
His friends called him the "Sage of Springville." (Buffalo
Evening News 20 March 1972) .
Awards
In
1966 Olmsted was named Man of the Year by the Harvard Club of Buffalo.
A citation for the award stated that the "... residences and gardens
he designed leave an indelible imprint of beauty over a vast
countryside. His refreshing enthusiasm is like a catalyst to
originality and direct honest thought" (Buffalo
Courier-Express 20 March 1972, 2). Olmsted was the recipient of the
Red Jacket Medal Award from the Buffalo and Erie County Historical
Society in 1971. This award was "...in recognition of those qualities
that are the true embodiment of the artist, the scholar, the
gentleman, and the independent thinker which belong to Harold Olmsted"
(Wettlaufer
1971, 9).
He often commented on his concern for preserving the historic building
fabric of Buffalo. Olmsted once stated:
You can see the history of architecture in
America at Shelton Square. You could build around these fine old
buildings. Architects are lazy in imagination if they can't
devise ways to do these things. Any redevelopment of Buffalo which
wants to remove the County Savings Banks shows a lack of
understanding of the real things in living. (Buffalo Courier-Express
March 1972, 2).
Much of Olmsted's architectural and landscape
designs focused on private residential projects in Western New York.
These largely consisted of renovations to existing homes and garden
design although he also designed a small number of new houses and
cottages. Many of Olmsted's clients in the early years of career were
friends or acquaintances from Harvard. In his later years, he worked
for local friends in the Springville area (Oprea January 1997).
Examples of Olmsted's work can be found in Buffalo,
Williamsville, Clarksburg, Concord, Derby, East Aurora, Eden, Leroy,
Sardinia, and Springville, among others. In addition to private
residential projects, Olmsted also did some work for private clubs
including the Twentieth Century Club in Buffalo and the
Willows Country Club in Leroy. A large number of his clients
were locally prominent professionals, industrialists, and civic leaders.
Distinguished clients of Olmsted included Rudolph B. Flershem, James
How, and John P. Wickser of Buffalo; Reginald Taylor of Williamsville;
Dr. Nelson Gorham Russell of Clarksburg; Spencer Kellogg of Derby; and
Donald and Ernest L. Woodward of Leroy.
The inventiveness of the design and the high quality of craftsmanship
of the How House make this one of Olmsted's most distinguished houses.
Other examples of new residential designs by Olmsted include the John
S.N. Sprague House (1924) at 9757 Knoll Road, Eden, where Olmsted
incorporated wood beams salvaged from an old farmhouse and barn into
the design of the house and the brick house of Jack and Ruth
Ballantyne on Middle Road in Concord.
Renovations
An
inventory of Olmsted's work reveals that a large number of his
projects were renovations to existing houses (Oprea January 1997) .In
1954 Olmsted renovated a historic house on a mill race for use as the
summer home, "Frog Pond," of Mary Goodyear Ames on Chair Factory Road
in Elma. He also prepared the landscape design for this property which
featured an attached garden house, a terrace, and a garden wall and
gate.
In the 1960s Olmsted made renovations to William Gratwick's summer
residence at 1912 York Street in the Town of York,
overlooking the Genesee Valley. This work involved removing the
library from the main house and adding it on to a smaller house on the
property. He later designed a mosaic fountain for this space. Gratwick
was a well-known plantsman, specializing in the propagation of hybrid
tree peonies from Japanese stock.
Olmsted designed the renovations to a large stone room at the Dr.
Nelson Gorham Russell Residence in Clarksburg in the1950s. The room
featured a tall timbered ceiling, a large stone fireplace at one end,
and a rose window at the other.
Landscape Designs
One
of Olmsted's noteworthy landscape designs was the Italian Gardens
created for the Twentieth Century Club at 595 Delaware Avenue in
Buffalo. The garden is on the Franklin Street side of the club house
and features a fountain, high brick walls on three sides, and a
trellis.
In 1914 Olmsted designed a ravine garden in Leroy for the Le Furgy
family. Olmsted wrote about this landscape design stating that it was
"a complete little dell of rocks, waterfalls and planting pockets, all
without concrete and in layer after layer of flat stones from the
lower Oatka (creek)" (Oprea 1997) .This design included an underground
water pipe to simulate a natural source.
In 1923 Olmsted designed a house and gardens for his friend Schuyler
Carl Wells at 118 East Main Street, Leroy. On the south side of the
stuccoed mansion Olmsted laid out lawns and a fountain pool laid up
with flat rocks from Oatka Creek.
Olmsted also designed gardens for the Woodward family of Leroy.
Olmsted designed the English style formal gardens for Spencer
Kellogg's "Lockhaven Lawns" in Derby on the Lake Erie shoreline, south
of Buffalo.
Olmsted is also credited with the original landscape designs of
several Buffalo properties including the Rudolph B. Flershem House at
690 West Ferry Street (1927) and the James F. Foster House (1924) at
12 St. Catherine's Court; and the walled garden of the John P. Wickser
Residence at 245 Nottingham Terrace.
Outside of New York State
Olmsted
also worked on a few projects outside New York State including the
design of the summer home of Welles V. Moot on Thunder Bay, Canada;
alterations to the Frederick de Peyster Townsend house in Grand'Mere,
Quebec, Canada; consultation and supervision of alterations to a
historic brick plantation house in Gordonsville, Virginia; and the
design of Cottage on Legate Hill in Leominster, Massachusetts for
Burton and Elizabeth Legate, his in-laws.
