Seattle's park system was largely designed by the Olmsted Brothers landscape architecture firm from Massachusetts. John Charles Olmsted created a master plan in 1903 that laid out a twenty-mile-long system of parks and boulevards from Seward Park to Ravenna Park and west to Fort Lawton. Olmsted also encouraged the creation of playgrounds throughout the city so that all residents would have one within a half mile of their homes. Seattle's citizens were enthusiastic about Olmsted's plan and passed $3.5 million in bond measures to enhance the city's parks. Within eight years, Seattle's park acreage had doubled, with the addition of such parks as Seward, Ravenna, Leschi, and Green Lake. The Olmsted firm continued its work for the city, and by 1937 had designed thirty-seven parks and playgrounds, as well as the grounds for the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition. The Friends of Seattle's Olmsted Parks was founded in 1983 to promote awareness, enjoyment, and care of the city's Olmsted parks and landscapes, both public and private. Through a grant from the King County Landmarks and Heritage Commission, Friends of Seattle's Olmsted Parks (FSOP) gathered information on and copies of Olmsted documents related to Seattle public projects, in an effort to make the collection more accessible to researchers. The Seattle Municipal Archives was one of the repositories chosen for deposit of the materials.
From the description of Friends of Seattle's Olmsted Parks collection, 1903-1998, (bulk 1903-1927). (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 123410771
