The Olmsted Vision

This year's annual Birmingham Historical Society publication explores the Olmsted legacy for our region -- a vision of scenic places -- designed for public and private clients during the early 20th century. The vision includes parks, grounds for educational institutions, private estates, and most especially greenways across our ridges and creek beds.

Frederic Law Olmsted is widely known as the father of landscape architecture in America and famous for his designs of Central Park in New York City, the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina and the U. S. Capitol Grounds. Later his stepson John Charles and his son Frederic Law Olmsted Jr. established the Olmsted Brothers firm of Brookline, Massachusetts, and the firm became the nation’s premier park planners in the 1910s and 1920s. In addition to extensive work in Baltimore, Louisville, Seattle, and California, Olmsted Brothers published an extensive park plan for the Birmingham area. This fall Birmingham Historical Society will publish the plan, together with selected correspondence and an analysis of ways the plan was and was not implemented during the 1920s and 1930s.

The fall Society exhibit at the downtown Birmingham Public Library (November 6-December 31, 2005) will showcase current park and greenway projects, completed and proposed. Says, Heather McArn, BHS Trustee researching projects, "There are so many exciting ventures -- the Shades Creek Greenways, the Vulcan Trail on Red Mountain, the Turkey Creek Preserve, the Ruffner Mountain Preserve, U. S. Steel's proposed new Red Mountain Park . . . and the many acquisitions of the Black Warrior/Cahaba Rivers Land Trust . . . to name a few. We look forward to identifying and sharing these with the public."

Beginning Genealogy Classes

Sunday, Nov. 13, Dec. 11, and January 8, 2:30-3:30 p.m.

Tuesday, Nov. 29, and Jan. 31, 10-11 a.m.

The staff of the Southern History Department will discuss how to begin genealogical research. No charge or pre-registration is required. The same information is covered in each class.

African-American Genealogy Workshop

January 21, Saturday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

Presented by Frazine Taylor from the Alabama Department of Archives and History

Advance registration required by Jan. 12

$5.00 per person

Call (205) 226-3665 for more information