Edgewood Park

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By Michael Capozzi

Edgewood Park is located on the western border of Westville, and occupies over 120 acres. In 1889, the City of New Haven seized over sixty acres of land and gave it to the Park Commission.  Prominent citizens of the area also donated additional land. This included the famed literary figure Donald Grant Mitchell. Also know by his pen name, Ik Marvel, he had authored two prominent works titled The Reveries of a Bachelor and My Farm on Edgewood. Edgewood Park gains its name from Mitchell’s farm estate titled the same name, Edgewood. Mitchell praised Edgewood as a place away from the urban life and a retreat to nature. It was but two miles from the New Haven Green, however, so Mitchell would be surrounded by nature while still being close to the city.  Being heavily invested in the design of the park, among others in New Haven, he drew a map in 1888 titled “Suggestions for Edgewood Park”.  

Mitchell proposes to realign some existing streets to flow more naturally with the park. Instead of sharp street corners he curves them. He suggests connecting present day Ella T. Grasso Blvd with W. Park Ave. This suggestion moves the road directly through the park. Mitchell wanted to incorporate nature into the daily life of the city's residents. A street running directly through the park instead of around it would bring nature closer to the people The flow of the street would seem more natural due to its curvature and flow with natural features. 

The park was important to the surrounding residents of the Westville and Edgewood neighborhoods. A 1904 newspaper article tells of a Parks Commission meeting where “The board passed the following vote in connection with the agitation for a new pump in Edgewood Park: ‘Voted, That the board of finance be requested to make an immediate appropriation of $250 to the park commission to be used for the purpose of establishing a new well and pump at Edgewood Park in place of the one now disabled.” (“The Daily Morning Journal and Courier”, 1904)

The present day park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. in 1910. Olmsted was a prominent city planner, along with his father of the same name. The City Beautiful movement involved utilizing nature in the city to uplift its citizens. Nature was healthy and good for the human soul, especially one that toiled away in the city. For the National Association for Olmstead Parks states that “Almost 50 years after his father drafted a charter and plan for the Yosemite Valley, Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. furthered his father’s legacy by addressing the need for a new bureau (The National Park Service) to manage the parks and monuments across the country. His contributions to the philosophical underpinning of the National Park Service were substantial... Around the country, Olmsted helped pioneer comprehensive city planning, producing, between 1904 and 1915, planning reports for Detroit, Utica, Boulder, Berkeley, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, New Haven, Rochester, and Newport, and helped lay the theoretical foundation for this new discipline as well as for comprehensive suburban planning. He planned the communities of Roland Park in Baltimore, Forest Hills Gardens in New York City, Mountain Lake community in Lake Wales, FL, and Palos Verdes Estates near Los Angeles.” (National Association for Olmsted Parks, 2006)

Olmsted believed in the importance of local parks and the ability to connect people with nature. Olmsted states in his 1910 report to the Civic Planning Committee of New Haven that “If the people of the city, in particular the women and children, are to have the benefit of a place where they may habitually get a little healthful recreation out of doors under agreeable and refreshing surroundings, as a part of the ordinary routine of life; if the children are to be able to make such use of a playground; if their elders are to get with tolerable frequency even a little walk in the park or square for air and for refreshment from the dulling routine of life in factory, store, office, and cramped dwelling house or flat; if the mothers are to get out occasionally to a pleasant park bench with their sewing or what not, while the children play about them: then facilities for this sort of recreation must be provided within easy walking distance of every home in the city. Any plan that deliberately stops short of such provision…. Is in so far illogical, unjust, undemocratic and unwise.” (Olmsted, 1910) Olmstead believed citizens should have areas that offer quiet refuge and recreation from the city. The hard routine of factory and city life demanded it. If a city did not provide these areas, it was doing its citizens injustice.

While Olmsted designed the park, he was still unsatisfied with it due to the existing Edgewood Avenue, stating “The causeway of Edgewood Avenue is one of the most conspicuous blemishes of the existing scenery, and its inharmonious character should be modified by properly planned grading and planting of its slopes.”(Olmsted, 1910) This exhibits Olmsted’s commitment to the park’s natural features. The disruption of Edgewood Avenue goes against his design principles. 


The West River flows through the park; as a result, ponds and wetlands are a prominent feature of the park. A skate park, dog park, as well as six ponds are contained within its boundaries. There are also multiple sports fields. Edgewood Park is border on its eastern side by the neighborhood of Edgewood. In 1986, it was listed as a historic district in the National Register of Historic Places including both the neighborhood and park.

Bibliography
Mitchell, Donald Grant. “Suggestions for Edgewood Park” New Haven Mueseum, Drawer 6, M488.        1888
“The daily morning journal and courier”. (New Haven, Conn.), 12 Nov. 1904. Chronicling America:        Historic American Newspapers. 
National Association for Olmsted Parks. “Frederick Law Olmsted Jr.” NAOP, June  2013.           http://www.olmsted.org/storage/images/04_The_Olmsted_Legacy/Frederick_Law_Olmsted_Jr./OlmstedJr.pdf
Olmsted Jr., Frederick Law and Gilbert, Cass. 1910 New Haven Civic Improvement                                       Commission. 1910. Pgs. 36-38

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