Winifield Robbins Memorial Garden - Arlington, Massachusetts - Olmsted Designed Parks on Waymarking.com

Winifield Robbins Memorial Garden in Arlington, Massachusetts was designed by the Olmsted Brothers. The property was gifted to the town by the Robbins family in 1913. Originally designed by architect R. Clipston Sturgis and the sculptor Cyrus Dallin, it was redesigned by the Olmsteds in 1938. From the Friends of the Robbins Town Gardens website:

As Arlington grew in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Robbins family gave their time and wealth to the betterment of the town. The family funded and built our main library (1892), the Town Hall (1913), and gave their own Federal mansion, the Whittemore-Robbins House, to the Town in 1931. The Robbins sisters, Ida (1861-1949) and Caira (1866-1939) oversaw the construction of the Town Hall and the associated gardens. At the same time that the Town Hall was built, the Robbins sisters commissioned the architect R. Clipston Sturgis to create the first design for the Winfield Robbins Memorial Garden. Sturgis created a formal public garden with diagonal walkways and symmetrical plantings. The Cyrus Dallin sculpture of the Menotomy Indian Hunter was installed at the heart of the garden. In 1938, the Robbins sisters hired the Olmsted Brothers firm to redesign the gardens. The new design transformed the garden into a secluded, welcoming space that included a circular brick walk through the garden and an “informal, woodsy and rocky environment and a naturalistic planting as a background to the Indian.” (Town Report, 1939) Located between the Town Hall and the Library, the new gardens provided a quiet respite for visitors and citizens, something they continue to offer today. (1)

An engraved flat stone monument is placed in the brick walkway at the north end of the Menotomy Indian Hunter fountain's reflecting pool and reads:

WINIFIELD ROBBINS MEMORIAL GARDEN

GIVEN TO THE TOWN OF ARLINGTON IN 1913 BY HIS COUSINS IDA, CAIRA,
AND ELIZA ROBBINS • DESIGNED BY R. CLIPSTON STURGIS AND CYRUS
DALLIN • REDESIGNED BY OLMSTED ASSOCIATES THROUGH THE
GENEROSITY OF JUDGE WILLIAM WALLACE

THIS GARDEN, ITS SCULPTURE BY DALLIN, AND SURROUNDING PROPERTIES
INCLUDING THE ROBBINS LIBRARY, WHITTEMORE - ROBBINS HOUSE, FIRST
PARISH Unitarian Universalist CHURCH, AND OLD BURYING GROUND
TO THE EAST, THE CENTRAL SCHOOL TO THE SOUTH, AND THE AMOS
ROBBINS MEMORIAL TOWN HALL TO THE WEST WERE PLACED IN
1974 AS A SINGLE DISTRICT IN THE NATIONAL REGISTER OF HISTORIC
PLACES, IN RECOGNITION OF THEIR CENTRAL ROLE IN THE HISTORY OF

MENOTOMY • WEST CAMBRIDGE • ARLINGTON

DEDICATED SEPTEMBER 10, 1977

The Olmsted Research Guide Online provides the following information:

Job Number: 02252
Job Name: Robbins Memorial Town Hall
City-County: Arlington
St-Prov: Massachusetts
Type 1: 06 Grounds of Public Buildings
Number of Plans Available: 127
Date Range of Available Plans: 1938-1941
Correspondence Dates: 1938-1947; 1964-1966
Includes Correspondence at Library of Congress? Yes
(2)

SOURCES:
1 - Friends of the Robbins Town Gardens
2 - Olmsted Research Guide Online

Type of Public Space: Public Park Job Number: 02252 Architect: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
There are no specific visit requirements, however telling about your visit is strongly encouraged. Additional photos of the park to add to the gallery are also nice, but not required. Pictures with a GPS or you in them is highly discouraged.

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