Stories from Texas

W.F. Strong: I’ve long believed that Texas is only six degrees of separation from many important places and events in the world. One example that may truly surprise you is the fact that the design of New York City’s Central Park was greatly influenced by the Texas Hill country. We often think that North is north and south is south, and never the twain shall meet, but.

That doesn’t hold in this case. Before I get to just how this is, so let me first tell you why Central Park was created. It was first conceived by name as the People’s Park. Seven 50 acres was set aside, not for running and jogging, or dog walking or pushing babies and strollers. No. The primary idea was to provide lungs for the city, a giant ventilator that could create healthy airflow for the growing metropolis.

In those days, many serious ailments were blamed quite simply on bad air consumption. Tuberculosis, yellow fever and malaria were all blamed on miasma. Stagnant, musty, moldy. Bad air malaria originates in Italian, by the way, mal literally bad air. The set aside of this massive park was seen as a free flowing repository of good, healthy air that would become the lungs of New York City.

The air would circulate through the densely packed neighborhoods and could be directly enjoyed by New Yorkers who could stroll through nature and take in a good dose of fine air. So how is Texas involved in this? Shortly after the land was set aside for development landscape architects were invited to send in their designs that would make the people’s park soon to be renamed Central Park.

The envy of the world outta the 32 design submitted Frederick Law Olmsted and his co-designer Calvert Vo. One. Here’s where the Texas connection begins. Five years before Olmsted won this competition, he had spent a good four months touring Texas on horseback as a travel rider for the New York Daily Times.

He visited all parts of the new state, but he was most impressed with the Texas Hill country. He wrote in great detail about his love for the wide open spaces, vaulted skies, clear rivers, rich soils, and wildflowers. For instance, he wrote that the Blanco River was a quote, bright, clear, rapid stream in its bottom and between the San Marcos river nearby are said to lie the best lands of Texas.

I have never seen the district to soil seem to be so rich. It was like a fine garden compost in which black vegetable mold, clay, and lime had been equally mixed. He wrote elsewhere the live oaks standing alone or in picturesque groups along the river. The bright light or half shadows of the afternoon sun contributed mainly to an effect that was new and striking.

You see, he was observing with the eye of a landscaper more than a travel writer. All this shows admiration and influence, but doesn’t give us the proof we need to nail down the Texas connection. That silver bullet was discovered by Clayton Maxwell writing for Texas monthly. Maxwell noted that Olmsted directly admitted to the Texas influence of his park design in a speech to the Prospect Park Scientific Association in 1868.

He said that it was his camping days in the Texas Hill country. That provided him with his ideas for the landscapes of Central Park. Maxwell summarized the speech as follows. His criteria for selecting a good campsite. He told the crowd are the same governing circumstances that make a beautiful functional park, including water, close by pastures for his horse and woodlands to provide firewood and privacy.

And last but not least, he always pitched his tent in a scenic spot. He said, we made it a point to secure as much beauty as possible in the view from our tent door. The Texas connection to Central Park is fascinating, but to be fair, it has come full circle. It has been said that the 10,000 acre Trinity River Project in Dallas has been deeply influenced by the urban green spaces, water features, spacious lawns and trails of Central Park, MWF Strong.

These are stories from Texas. Some of them are true.