Author Description

Commemorating Narbrook Park's centennial, this book describes how in 1914 citizens of Narberth Borough (Pennsylvania) turned a 14-acre swamp into a beautifully landscaped community of 35 uniquely designed Arts & Crafts, American and Dutch Colonial houses. Narbrook Park, a unique civic experiment in the Progressive Era of the early twentieth century, embodies the landscape design principles of Frederick Law Olmsted. The book describes the transformation of the landscape, the careful design and siting of the individual houses so that each house forms part of a harmonious whole. It provides vignettes of the many individuals who lived in each house as well as the architects and builders. It also describes how the community has preserved the characteristics of this unique, early "garden city." In 2003 Narbrook Park was listed as a Historic District on the National Register of Historic Places.