14 
‘General orders have been given to exclude Nursery-maids and 
Children from the Premises, but every facility will be afforded 
for the admission of persons to whom the garden may seem likely 
to be a source of interest or improvement.” 
Such a regulation has its advantages in more ways than one, 
and from time to time we receive letters from persons who fre- 
quent this Garden asking if such a regulation could not be en- 
forced here. 
The need of Suitable Entrance Gates has been stressed in pre- 
vious reports, and attention has been called to the fact that, 
more than 25 years after it was first opened to the public, the 
Garden has only one gate that is more than an opening through 
the fence. A gate at the Eastern Parkway entrance and at the 
north and south Washington Avenue entrances are specially 
needed for the convenience of the public as well as of the Garden. 
On November 18, 1936, the City was requested to include in its 
Capital Outlay Budget for 1937 the sum of $21,366 ($10,050 for 
the north gate; $11,316 for the south gate) to provide for the 
two Washington Avenue gates (City Record, Dec. 15, 1936), but 
the request was not granted. On November 27, 1937, the Board 
of Estimate and Apportionment was requested to include in its 
Capital Outlay Budget for 1938 an appropriation of $69,000 for 
the construction of a gate or portal at the Eastern Parkway 
entrance. This gate would extend across the entire Eastern 
Parkway frontage of some 260 feet, and would include two 
rooms for public convenience, the storage of garden implements, 
the vending of guide books and souvenir postcards, and other 
purposes. It is greatly needed in order that we may properly 
service the public at this entrance. 
The importance of having at our Eastern Parkway frontage a 
dignified structure, of architectural value, harmonizing with the 
beautiful Museum building on the east, and indicating the en- 
trance to an institution, can hardly be over-emphasized. As 
stated above, a botanic garden is really an outdoors museum; 
a beautiful structure at the main entrance, aside from the utili- 
tarian needs which it would supply, would serve to designate an 
educational institution and would add to the architectural assets 
tay x” 
of the City. City parks and ‘‘zoos’’ commonly have beautiful 
