The passion Frederick Law Olmsted had for landscape architecture would make its way to his hometown of Hartford, Connecticut in 1872, when he worked with the city to relocate Trinity College to accommodate Hartford’s expansion. Trinity College’s Board of Trustees asked Olmsted to find the perfect plot of land and help design the college.
Olmsted wrote to Trinity’s president, stating that a well- designed campus would foster the “acquisition of the general quality of culture which is the chief end of a liberal education." The site for Trinity College was chosen according to criteria set forth by Olmsted, who also advised on the placements of buildings.
Olmsted was involved in a massive expansion plan to add a chapel, dorms for students, lecture halls and recital rooms, a library, a museum of natural history, an observatory, an art gallery, a reading room, as well as homes for the President and professors. Olmsted and his sons would remain involved at Trinity up until the early 1890s, advising the planning and development of the campus for over twenty years.
Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service