When President Lincoln signed the Morrill Land Grant College Act in 1862, Maine’s College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts became one of the nation’s first land grant colleges. Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux were called to design the campus in 1867, though their plan was initially rejected by the college’s trustees. The only section of Olmsted and Vaux’s plan that was adopted was the orienting of academic buildings towards nearby Stillwater River, and including an open parade ground and arboretum.
The Olmsted name would have another chance in Orono, when Olmsted Brothers were hired in 1932 to address campus growth. Carl Rust Parker, who often took lead on Maine designs, called for a rectangular mall lined with elms and flanked by symmetrical, academic buildings. Parker also wanted to include a naturalistic lake and paths leading around the campus.
Much of the original Olmsted design remains at the 600-acre campus. Olmsted Sr.’s original parade ground and arboretum are still intact, and Olmsted Brothers mall, though now lined with oak, is still present, and a major feature of the campus.
Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site
Source: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service