Years before Frederick Law Olmsted Sr. had even begun his career as a landscape architect, the grounds for the University of Mississippi had already been landscaped. Completed in 1848, the campus was made of a parklike octagonal green space, surrounded by institutional structures. Like many successful schools, enrollment increased, and the campus became too small to house its student body.
A century later, Olmsted Brothers were hired to develop a plan for the now 640-acre campus to accommodate future enrollment of over five thousand students. Firm member Carl Parker was tasked with overseeing the work at Ole Miss, where he established an east-west axis along a central ridge of the campus. The design was meant to honor the original plan with a series of open quadrangles, all connected through green paths.
Parker chose to relocate roadways and parking areas to the periphery of the campus, allowing the pedestrian-oriented core to dominate. Olmsted Brothers planting plan emphasized placing varieties of dogwoods, oak, and fruit trees across the campus. For nearly forty years through Olmsted Brothers and into Olmsted Associates, the firm remained involved at the University of Mississippi.
Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service