Olmsted Report
The following images and text have been excerpted
from Pittsburgh Main Thoroughfares and the Down Town District: Improvements
Necessary to Meet the City's Present and Future Needs, A Report by
Frederick Law Olmsted
On special park opportunities:
"Perhaps the most striking opportunity noted for a large
park is the valley of Nine Mile Run. Its long meadows of varying width
would make ideal playfields; the stream, when it is freed from sewage,
will be an attractive and interesting element in the landscape; the wooded
slopes on either side give ample opportunity for enjoyment of the forest,
for shaded walks and cool resting places; and above all it is not far from
a large working population in Hazelwood, Homestead, Rankin, Swissvale,
Edgewood, Wilkinsburg, Brushton and Homewood; and yet it is so excluded
by its high wooded banks that the close proximity of urban development
can hardly be imagined. If taken for park purposes, the entire valley from
the top of one bank to the top of the other should be included, for upon
the preservation of these wooded banks depends much of the real value value
of the park."
-Frederick Law Olmsted Jr., 1910
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