The Landscape Architect’s Guide to

Franklin Park

Your Guide

Originally called West Roxbury Park, Franklin Park was renamed to honor Benjamin Franklin. At its original 527 acres, Franklin Park is the largest park in the Emerald Necklace, as well as the most recreational by design.

As the park developed, Frederick Law Olmsted identifies two purposes: “The Country Park” and the Ante Park or “Fore-Park,” which was set aside for recreational uses supported in places by structured facilities.

Today, the park brings together rural scenery with expansive pastoral vistas defined by woodlands and areas for recreation and cultural events. The park also has six miles of roads and 15 miles of pedestrian and bridle paths to explore.

Many designers have shaped Franklin Park over the years, including Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., John Charles Olmsted, Arthur Asahel Shurtleff (Shurcliff), Shurcliff & Shurcliff, and V. Michael Weinmayr.

Learn more about the history of Franklin Park.

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General Plan for Franklin Park, 1885

“The entire property has been bought by the city because of its special advantages for one purpose. That purpose is to provide opportunity for a form of recreation to be obtained only through the influence of pleasing natural scenery upon the sensibilities of those quietly contemplating it. The larger part of the property, being the division designated 'The Country Park, is proposed to be set apart with absolute exclusiveness, for this purpose.” -- Notes on the 1885 General Plan of Franklin Park.

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Revised General Plan for Franklin Park, 1891

The 100-acre country meadow is the central and most important landscape of the park. Franklin Park is often compared to the Great Lawn in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park. They are two truly great landscapes designed by Olmsted in the pastoral style.

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Rustic 99 Steps in the Wilderness

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Overlook Shelter and Playstead in the Ante Park, 1900

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Scarboro Pond and Bridge, 1905

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Ellicott Arch

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Golf at Ellicottdale

By 1890, Franklin Park was appropriated for use as a golf course, the first one in the city and the second in the nation. The course opened in 1896. The 18-hole layout was redesigned by the world’s premier golf landscape architect Donald J. Ross. In the words of Jack Nicklaus, Ross designed golf courses that led to positive thinking. "His stamp as an architect was naturalness.''

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Ellicottdale

A small, broad meadow forming the western extension of the country meadow.

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View from Schoolmaster Hill

Beyond golf, athletics available in the park include tennis, baseball, basketball, sledding, rugby, lacrosse, soccer, and even cricket on Sunday afternoons. The park also has a famed cross-country trail hosting a number of high school and collegiate meets throughout the year.

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Schoolmaster Hill Ruin

Before the park was designed and built, Ralph Waldo Emerson, a teacher, lived in a cabin on what was later named Schoolmaster Hill. A plaque was placed in his memory.

Image: Marion Pressley