ARCHITECTURE IN PARKS 



workmen could be erected in what for park purposes would be con- 

 sidered the least desirable portion of the park, quite the opposite of 

 the location selected for superintendents' houses, and would not require 

 large private lawn or garden areas about them. 



Several advantages would be derived from such an innovation: it 

 would bring about a personal and permanent interest of the men in 

 the park work ; it would tend to increase their efficiency by improving 

 their living arrangements ; and, by making possible a certain amount 

 of discipline in a park force, there could be built up a working organisa- 

 tion in place of the frequently haphazard collection of poorly selected 

 and often poorly managed workmen. There might eventually be 

 developed a considerable esprit de corps which would raise the morale 

 and standard of the " job," and take the park force out of the category 

 of a political dumping ground. Though free living quarters might 

 look like a " plum," they would be under official discipline and general 

 public inspection to such an extent as to offer no sinecure for ward- 

 heelers. If in addition, as in the parks of Torino and other Italian 

 cities, the park force were uniformed much the same as are our " White 

 Wings," but preferably in green or brown, the appearance of the men 

 at work in the park would be improved and, because more easily 

 discernible, " loafing " among them would become less prevalent. 



PICTURESQUE HOUSING 



The appearance of a group of workmen's cottages, with a com- 

 munity house for the unmarried men, could be made a very picturesque 

 element in a park scene. On a large country estate at West Park, on 

 the Hudson, small houses for the workmen are arranged about a court 

 yard in a serviceable and yet decorative fashion. There is also a row of 

 very quaint little houses ranged along one side of the Boboli Gardens in 

 Florence which really add to the charm of that portion of the grounds. 

 In the Pu])lic Park at Milan there are several workmen's cottages 



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