The Olmsted Brothers Firm is responsible for the design of:

Camellia House addition (1922)
The firm added the east-west wing of the present greenhouse, adding to the original structure by Lowell and Sargent.

Heather Garden (1924)
Main Drive/Carsharlton Gates (1926)
Carefully landscaped by James F. Dawson to take the visitor from wild wooded areas, through rolling lawns and taxus fields up to Coe Hall.

Main Greenhouse addition (1929)
The firm designed the main portion of the present greenhouse, adding on to the original structure built by Lowell and Sargent and giving it its present cruciform configuration.


Interior, Main Greenhouse
The Olmsted Brothers Firm of Brookline, Massachusetts can probably be called America's "first family" of landscape architecture. Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr. had his start in landscape architecture as New York's Superintendent of Parks in 1857. It was during this term that he
designed and completed Central Park with Calvert Vaux. After the Civil War, Olmsted continued his practice, designing several other parks in New York City and across the country.
Frederick law, Jr. and his nephew John Charles Olmsted continued the practice after the elder Olmsted’s retirement in 1895. As the building of lavish country estates increased, the firm took on associates to accommodate the new demand

Carshalton Gates
while still working on numerous commercial, industrial, and civic locations. One of these associates was James F. Dawson.

Main Greenhouse
James Frederick Dawson (1874-1941) was born at the Arnold Arboretum the son of the noted Superintendent, Jackson Thornton Dawson. He took after his father in his study of landscape design, and James Dawson graduated from Harvard s: University in 1896 and went to work for the Olmsted Brothers firm, becoming a full partner in 1922. Working for the Olmsted Brothers, Dawson worked on the following Long Island estate
  • Walter Jennings' estate "Burrwood" in Cold Spring Harbor (c.1916)
  • Henry Sanderson's estate "La Selva" in Brookville (c. 1918)
  • Sydney Z. Mitchell's estate in Brookville (c. 1926)

The Olmsted Brothers firm worked on many other sites on the Island. After Massachusetts, Long Island had the highest concentration of Olmsted Brothers projects.

  • William Bayard Cutting's estate "Westbrook" in Great River (1887-94)
  • Henry W. de Forest estate "Nethermuir" in Cold Spring Harbor (1906-27)
  • Henry H. Rogers, Jr. estate "Black Point" in Southampton (c. 1915)
  • Marshall Field III estate "Caumsett" in Lloyd Harbor (1924-27)
 

Planting Fields Arboretum State Historic Park and Coe Hall
1395 Planting Fields Road Oyster Bay, NY 11771 (516) 922-9200

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