public parfts 295 



with games for children and adults is the construction 

 elsewhere of children's playgrounds and athletic fields 

 on special reservations of their own. This has been 

 done in Brooklyn, New York, with great success, en- 

 tirely outside of the boundaries of Prospect Park. 



Every one of the objects named, with many things of 

 a similar type, should be barred from the park. If it 

 were found absolutely necessary to have any such 

 structures in the park, they might better be placed 

 beneath the surface of the ground in a subterranean 

 hall. 



It may be conceded that there is another class of 

 artificial structures that should find a place in the park, 

 and that is architecture on the borders. A wall or fence 

 or some boundary treatment should surround every 

 park. A park boundary barrier, however, should have a 

 simple, unobtrusive character and be made as low as 

 safety will permit, but to preserve this character no 

 special ornaments, such as statues or urns, should be 

 inserted in the wall: a plain tablet with names carved on 

 it might appear just at or about the entrance. On the 

 plazas opposite the park entrances, fountains, statues, 

 and other architectural and sculptural structures may 

 properly find a place if they are not allowed to dominate 

 the neighbouring park scenery. Gates and architectural 

 adornment of the actual park entrances are not likely 

 to be altogether satisfactory, and, as a matter of fact, 

 have hardly ever been designed successfully. Unless 

 the architecture is extremely modest, it will insist on 

 imposing too dominant and alien an influence for the 



