Historic American Parks and Contemporary Needs

This article is an attempt to understand and evaluate a particular landscape type over time: the large, nineteenth-century urban park of America's eastern seaboard. The article draws on master plans for some of the important historic parks and on interviews with their current landscape architects and managers. It examines original prototypes and design principles and the philosophies behind today's attitudes to the management and preservation of these parks. A framework is postulated for different attitudes based on the park as: a democratic place, an historic work of art, as nature, educator, and paradise. The article asks whether nineteenth-century historic parks have a size and framework large or complex enough to accept altered theoretical approaches or changing community needs.