30 



THE GARDENERS' CHRONICLE OF AMERICA. 



recreation centers are in operation, each having chilj 

 rooms, social halls, reading rooms, assembly hall for 

 lectures, entertainment and dancing parties, also pub- 

 lic gymnasiums, with instructors conducting classes 

 for people of all ages, practically providing athletic 

 club service to the public free of cost. 



The crowning feattires of Seattle's recreation facili- 

 ties from a tourist's viewpoint is the Lake Washington 

 boulevard system with its chain of scenic driveways, 

 leading from park to park, through wooded dells, along 

 the shores of lakes, on the high ridges overlooking the 

 lakes, or b}- a serpentine course up and down the hills, 

 with a fascinating panorama of forest, hills, lakes and 

 mountains almost constantly in view. 



Thirty miles of these scenic drivewa3's are now in 

 use and the chain eventually will aggregate fifty miles, 

 practically belting the city and connecting the park 

 system. 



In addition to the features now in use, Seattle is 

 carrying forward a number of notable improvements 

 which will add greatly to its recreation facilities. 



At Jefferson Park on Beacon Hill, overlooking the 

 harbor and city, an eighteen-hole golf links has been 

 laid out and improved ready for service in 1915. Being 

 only fifteen minutes from the heart of the city and yet 

 amid scenic surroundings, this course will, no doubt, 

 attain a national reputation within a few vears. 



At Green Lake, the entire water frontage of the 

 lake has been acquired and by a diking and dredging 

 process over one hundred acres of land is being re- 

 claimed and a parkway is being constructed com- 

 pletely aroimd the lake, with a series of small parks 

 and children's playgrotmds. This will give nearly four 

 miles of lake frontage, with a large natural lake, en- 

 tirely within a park, the whole surrounded by a \\'ell 

 settled residence district. 



The Ijoulevard system is being extended by the con- 

 struction of a four-mile scenic driveway aroimd the 

 crest of Queen .-Xnne Hill, a close-in, high-class resi- 

 dential district, while a parkway to the northwestern 

 part of the city to Fort Lawton, via Magnolia Bluff, a 

 liigh promontory at the entrance to the harbor, is un- 

 der way and is destined to be a great scenic feature on 

 account of its marine and mountain view. 



Altogether Seattle can well feel proud of recreation 

 facilities that are worthy of a city double its popula- 

 tion. The balmy summer climate of Puget Sound, the 

 mild winters and the array of recreation features af- 

 fcTrded are all conducive of outdoor life and physical 

 development, hence it is little wonder that the govern- 

 ment statistics show that Seattle is the healthiest city 

 in the United States, and it is the verdict of those who 

 have visited or located in Seattle that it i^- the most 

 beautiful cit^•. 



Permanent Policy in Park Management Desirable 



By E. T. Mische,- Oregon. 



A progressive jjark extension program is insepar- 

 ably associated with jiublic welfare, and its working 

 out is but a part of a movement dealing with a com- 

 plex urban (irganism. 



Deficiencies and failures due to the lack of a gen- 

 eral plan on the one hand and of a body controlling a 

 harmonious and continuing plan on the <ither are evi- 

 dent in park affairs. Twice has the pul)lic had an op- 

 portunity to pass upon an extension policy in park mat- 

 ters, and each time have the measures been defeated. We 

 are tmwilling to believe that such a short-sighted and 

 expensive action would be deliberately and consciously 

 recorded were the facts necessary f(jr an intelligent 

 judgment made known. 



In recent years there has been a special investiga- 

 tion made of our harbor, another of park needs, and 

 yet a third of the city at large and including transit 

 affairs, parks and harbors. .\t a cost of over $20,000, 

 publicly subscribed, plans were prepared by a Chicago 

 expert, and still there is no official adoption of them 

 as a working basis and no public assvirance that the 

 advantage to be gained from these expert investiga- 

 tions is to be utilized. Moreover, there is no con- 

 trolling b(_)dy actively engaged in promoting the in- 

 terests of the city by devising schemes, criticising 

 others, and shaping public affairs in a manner to as- 

 sure the public that current constructions of more es- 

 sential sorts are being made to fit the needs of the 

 city at large, in a broad-gauged, thorough-going 

 fashion. 



If pa;t eft'ort in proposing a city ]jlan is an esthetic 

 vagary. Utopian, having impractical dreams unacceijt- 

 able to prudent and progressive business men. it is 

 possilile that the scheme requires revision or should 

 actually be rejected, yet it does not argue that the 



•Exir.-ct fr 



liis repi It n'; Snperir.teiKWr.t of Parks. PortJard. Ore. 



underlying motive that brings such a plan into being 

 is not meritorious. 



County officials are engaged in developing a sys- 

 tem of roads that with slight additional provisions 

 wotdd serve as parkways ; the School Board is often 

 buying land for school sites ; occasionally, some of this 

 land is sold. With some modification these selfsame 

 parcels could advantageously and often very econom- 

 ically be incor])orated in the park system. 



European cities devise official plans of suburban 

 tracts and ])rivate owners are by law compelled to 

 conform to them. Some American cities, like Balti- 

 more, scheme urban street extensions in advance of 

 actual needs. True, the adoption of this anticipating 

 method is not an insurance against all future ills ; the 

 merit of good designing will help vastly, but unfore- 

 seen changes will occur that human prophecy and lim- 

 itations can not fathom, but these deficiencies are not 

 sufficient excuse to abandon all eft'ort toward doing 

 any planning for the future. If we are to profit by 

 forethought ; if we are to gain by following a meri- 

 torious plan evolved after due study by competent 

 collaborators, we shoidd see to it that a general work- 

 ing basis is approved, its essentials imderstood by the 

 ])ublic at large and insisted upon in jjublic affairs. 



In all of this work there should be a unifying and 

 co-ordinating of results even though the separate re- 

 sults are vmder diff'erent control, else there will be 

 needless waste or conflict of purpose along with the 

 unfortunate results that follow such procedure. Were 

 this view of the general problem agreed upon, it 

 Avould assume the collection of data of the city, both 

 ])hysical and social, would be made a permanent work, 

 be defined and made progressive and systematic in 

 method and sort ; that the data would be conveniently 

 available to the general public and evidence given 

 that it is offfcially used by competent designers of 



