martinhouseclr

21 2 // SITE HISTORY & EVOLUTION feet or more apart from all others, and at some distance from the public road.” 9 The idea took root in social science and planning as a response to what Olmsted (and many others) felt was the oppressive and unhealthy atmosphere of dense cities in the industrial age. Olmsted, above many other things, was well known to have regarded the enjoyment of natural beauty as central to one’s health. When championing his garden suburb concept to the American Social Science Association in February of 1870, Olmsted noted: It must be remembered, also, that man’s enjoyment of rural beauty has clearly increased rather than diminished with his advance in civilization. There is no reason, except in the loss of time, the inconvenience, discomfort, and expense of our present arrangement for short travel, why suburban advantages should not be almost indefinitely extended. 10 Not simply marketing his ideas as attractive places to live, Olmsted pronounced that the very health of “men’s minds and characters” were at stake among the “disease and misery” known to exist in the crowding and ever-growing town centers of the era. 11 The idea took hold in Buffalo and elsewhere. In 9 Frederick Law Olmsted Sr., “Public Parks and the Enlargement of Towns,” Journal of Social Science, Volume 3, 1871, 9. 10 Ibid., 9. 11 Ibid., 10. Fig. 6 Buffalo, 1872 Ward 12 Map.