At the southern part of the Mall, the main
thoroughfare and gateway into Central Park is
Literary Walk.
With mounting concern that the many requests
to have statues installed in the Park would
eventually deprive it of its naturalistic character,
Olmsted proposed that the Mall itself be allocated
to the installation of sculptures.
It wasn't long after Olmsted's decree that the
statues of William Shakespeare and Sir
Walter
Scott were installed in 1872. Soon afterward in
1880 Robert Burns was dedicated and following
soon afterward for some unknown reason Columbus made it to this place of literary
distinction in 1894.
At the southern end of Literary walk is the only
Park tribute to its creator Frederick Law Olmsted,
the Olmsted Flower Bed. It features beautifully
blooming pansies, impatiens and tulips and is a
veritable explosion of color in the spring and well
worth a visit for that alone.
