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synopsis

In 1883 Frederick Law Olmsted advised on the development of Cushing's Island, located in Maine’s Portland Harbor. The 266 acres were transformed into a summer residential community, on the basis that the most picturesque shoreline would remain a public ground. Olmsted described his discontempt for turning the location into a traditional resort community

In 1883 Frederick Law Olmsted advised on the development of Cushing's Island, located in Maine’s Portland Harbor. The 266 acres were transformed into a summer residential community, on the basis that the most picturesque shoreline would remain a public ground. Olmsted described his discontempt for turning the location into a traditional resort community, sharing “If the island could in effect be owned by a club of families of congenial tastes united only for the purpose of preserving and developing its characteristic advantages and of providing convenience of habitation in a manner harmonious each with all, and all with nature, it would, under judicious management, soon acquire a value to each member such as could be obtained in a summer residence nowhere else near as economically.” [Report of Frederick Law Olmsted to The Trustees of the Cushing’s Island Company_1883_FLOP-SF-R25_im.26] The Preliminary Study for Cushing’s Island, which included 50 cottage house sites and an updated Ottawa Hotel, is found in the Report cited above, which is in the FLO Subject Files; Community Design section of the FLO Papers Subject Files at the Library of Congress and linked under Documents below. Olmsted envisioned a development without vehicles that held all the shore in common and encouraged simple summer cottages.

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