The City of Scranton has its share of structures designed by famous architects. There is the Scranton Cultural Center, the work of Raymond Hood who also designed Rockefeller Center in New York City, and the former Scranton family estate which was designed by Russell Sturgis, famous for Farnham Hall at Yale University.
What many residents don’t know is that Scranton has an outdoor space designed by the man responsible for New York’s Central Park, the White House grounds, and the Biltmore Estate, Frederick Law Olmsted.
The current grounds of the Albright Memorial Library was designed by Olmsted, who is widely regarded as the father of modern landscape architecture, but 99 years separated Olmsted’s design from its complete realization.
In 1893, when the Albright Building was constructed, Olmsted was hired to draw up a plan for the grounds on the northern, eastern, and southern sides of the building. The original garden plan called for almost 1,800 shrubs, perennials and trees and was contained on half an acre of land. Plants included scarlet honeysuckle, azaleas, Japanese honeysuckle, periwinkle, and rose of Sharon. The garden was completed in 1895.
However, the garden languished due to several factors. In the 1920s, the south garden was eliminated due to the building of the Masonic Temple, which shaded the once sunny area. By the 1950s, the east garden had been paved over for a parking area. The remaining green areas bore little resemblance to Olmsted’s original plan. As time passed, the Olmsted garden faded from memory.
The story continued in 1992. According to an article published in the April 2001 issue of Atlantic Monthly, the Lackawanna Architectural Heritage Association, while preparing for the centenary of the building, came upon a single rendering of the original garden and its plantings.
The next piece of the puzzle fell into place when Jack Finnerty, director of the Albright Memorial Library, discovered a bill from Olmsted’s firm showing payment for the plants, confirming that the garden was implemented.
The library received a $28,000 urban forestry grant from the U.S. Forestry Service and was able to proceed. The library worked with Thomas J. McLane Associates to restore the garden, which was no easy task.
One of the biggest challenges was identifying the plants on the list, as they were written in Latin and the terminology was not always clear. Some of the plants were no longer easily available and others are now considered noxious weeds. In these cases, some substitutions had to be made. The project was completed in time for the spring of 2001.
Visitors to the Albright Memorial Library during the growing season will find the grounds much as Olmsted intended. Plants are used in an asymmetrical way, as Olmsted eschewed classic landscapes where orderly shapes and straight lines were the norm.
He is famous for incorporating large open spaces ringed by greenery, which is evidenced on the building’s north grounds, near the entrance, where rhododendrons, mountain laurel, bog rosemary, and creeping mahonia are disbursed between plantings of azaleas.
On the eastern side, what was once a parking lot now contains American redbud, Meidiland roses, and Japanese snowbell viburnum.
While projects that restore great old buildings to their former grandeur receive attention and praise, the grounds of the Albright Memorial Library are, in their own quiet way, one of the city’s greatest lost and found treasures. Even now, well ahead of the prime growing season, it is worth a visit as the red bud is beginning to bloom.
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