5 Sylvan Features

There are four sylvan features of considerable importance in the plan. First, upon the green, the meadow, and the slopes of the upper lake, a display of the finest American forest trees, standing singly and in open groups, so as to admit of the amplest development of individuals, which will be further encouraged by the best attainable conditions of soil and situation.

Second, in the central portions of the park, an open grove of forest trees, in which visitors may ramble in the shade without impediment of underwood, and without danger of doing harm to anything through carelessness or any ordinary selfish impulse.

Third, a collection, arranged in the natural way, of the more delicate shrubs and trees, especially evergreens, both coniferous and of the class denominated in England American plants, such as Rhododendrons, Kalmias, Azalias and Andromedas: these would be situated on the interior slopes of the Lookout and the Friend’s Hill, and in the valley between them, where, from the peculiar circumstances of exposure and protection they will be likely to thrive.

Fourth, picturesque groups of evergreens and deciduous trees and shrubs on the shore of the lake.

Olmsted and Vaux’s 1866 report says far less about the existing woodlands in Prospect Park than I anticipated. There are the paragraphs quoted above and the reference (discussed on the previous page) to the “large body of trees” that already grow on the site, “not too old to be improved, yet already old enough to be of considerable importance in a landscape.” And there are references to woods in the descriptions of the drive and walkways, including this one, which tells how visitors might go from the Long Meadow, through the Ravine, under the Nethermead Arches to the Nethermead, and then on toward the Concert Grove: “The walk passes around this meadow, and crossing the green commands a full view of its whole extent; then through the woods into a ravine by the side of the brook and by an arched passage under the carriage road to the lawn-like open ground north of the lookout hill; then again through the woods till it meets the line, already described, which leads to the music concourse.” The composition of the existing woods unfortunately cannot be inferred from these passages.

Also unfortunate are the contradictions that today’s reader sees, with the benefit of hindsight and a different understanding of the ecology of forests. According to this plan, American forest trees are not to grow in a forest, but “standing singly and in open groups, so as to admit of the amplest development of individuals.” Even where the existing woods are found, in the central part of the park, forest trees are not to grow in a forest, but in “an open grove” where there is no “impediment of underwood” for visitors who wish to “ramble in the shade”—which perhaps seems appealing, but actually led to the soil compaction and erosion that degraded the woods. Finally, there is the emphasis on planting evergreens, including coniferous trees, which are abundant in the Adirondacks, whose forests were admired by Olmsted and Vaux, but which are not native to Long Island’s terminal moraine. These trees ultimately did not fare well in Prospect Park.