Charles Eliot, Landscape Architect; A Lover of Nature and of His Kind, Who Trained Himself for a New Profession, Practised It Happily and Through It W

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1902 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XXI THE WORK OF THE METROPOLITAN PARK COMMISSION OF 1892 Yon will hear that the first duty is to get land and money, place and name. ... If, nevertheless, Qod have called any of you to explore truth and beauty, be bold, be firm, be true. -- Ralph Waedo EmxbSon. Charles was appointed landscape architect to the Commission in August. He was not quite thirty-three years old; but he had been in practice five years and a half, and had given public evidence of possessing business capacity, artistic skill, an interesting style in writing, and an unexampled knowledge of the metropolitan district. Mr. Adams had seen a sample of his professional work in his report on the proposed new town of Garfield, Utah; Mr. Chase had been intimately associated with him in all the work of the Standing Committee of the Trustees of Public Reservations; both these gentlemen manifested great confidence in him from the first, and came to feel for him a sort of paternal admiration and affection. When the chairman of the Commission asked him in August to describe his conception of the organization and work of the Commission, Charles wrote briefly about the duties of the secretary and the legal adviser, and of his own function as follows: "Your landscape architect will view and map the existing public areas of your district, and the works proposed by the local boards. . . . You will expect from him a preliminary report descriptive of the areas which in his opinion should be ' resumed' (to use the Australian phrase) by the public. This report will cover the whole of your district, no account being taken of the municipal boundaries, and it will be illustrated by a general map on a small scale." This map, and others that he had in mind, were from the beginning...