North Carolina Arboretum photo
Olmsted at Biltmore
Frederick Law Olmsted once counseled George Vanderbilt to build an arboretum on his property in Western North Carolina. In a July 12, 1889, letter to Vanderbilt, the man who is remembered as the father of American landscape architecture wrote: “Without doubt an arboretum could be formed … far finer and more instructive than other in the world, an arboretum to which naturalists would resort from all parts of the world.”
Olmsted was inspired to suggest an arboretum on the Vanderbilt property—which came to be 125,000 acres—due to the rich, indigenous flora of the southern Appalachian Mountains. Perhaps he envisioned a place surrounded and crisscrossed by forested coves and meandering creeks, in one of the nation’s most beautiful natural settings in a botanically diverse region.
Yet, it was just a dream. Vanderbilt died unexpectedly in 1914 at age 51. Within months, though, his widow, Edith Vanderbilt, sold approximately 86,700 acres of the estate's forested mountain land to the federal government, and in 1916, President Woodrow Wilson consolidated those and other parcels to formally establish the Pisgah National Forest.
The traditional story has always been that Olmsted’s dream of an arboretum never saw fruition, though nearly a century later the state of North Carolina established the North Carolina Arboretum, in 1986.
However, a key aspect of the Olmsted dream did occur—the state arboretum was created on 434 acres in the Bent Creek Experimental Forest, which is part of the Pisgah National Forest—land that Edith Vanderbilt sold for the creation of the forest, according to land records filed in Buncombe County. It exists on former Vanderbilt property, possibility where Olmsted envisioned it.
Olmsted’s design philosophy and standards permeated the planning, design and management of The North Carolina Arboretum. In fact, the Arboretum leadership says Olmsted’s vision “served as an impetus” for creation of the Bent Creek facility.
‘To keep alive his vision’
“Because of Olmsted's extraordinary local and national heritage, The North Carolina Arboretum, in partnership with the Olmsted Family Association, named the main entrance road from the Blue Ridge Parkway Frederick Law Olmsted Way, in April 1995,” said Arboretum Executive Director George Briggs. “By this action and many others, The North Carolina Arboretum works to keep alive his vision of arboretums as central to community development and enrichment.”
Through May 8, the North Carolina Arboretum, located at 100 Frederick Law Olmsted Way, will host an all-new exhibit offering a retrospective of Olmsted’s life through landmarks and key moments, featuring a selection of his most iconic designs through vintage postcards, maps and green screen technology. The exhibit, titled Thanks, FLO: Celebrating Olmsted’s Life and Legacy, is created in conjunction with the National Association for Olmsted Parks.
The Arboretum honored Olmsted in 2016 with installation of the nation’s first larger-than-life-size sculpture of him. The bronze piece, crafted by internationally known artist Zenos Frudakis, stands eight feet tall and is sited on a large natural stone in the Arboretum’s Blue Ridge Court.
“It was important for me to create a sculpture which embodied the idea of Frederick Law Olmsted as a visionary of monumental proportions,” Frudakis said. “In his hands he holds the abstract topographic map, which came from his mind and became the land that he stood on.”
Biltmore was Olmsted’s final grand design project. Yet, his vision lives on, situated on former Vanderbilt estate property at the North Carolina Arboretum.