OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 



95 



for improving the city was read at a pub- 

 lic meeting-, was published, . . and 

 aroused great interest. The Board of 

 Commerce of Detroit then invited him to 

 visit that city and make a similar report; 

 and this report and one by F. L. Olmsted 

 were published together in pamphlet 

 form by the Board. Their recommenda- 

 tions are still the basis of improvement 

 work in Detroit, and it is interesting to 

 note that one of the men most active in 

 securing Mr. Robinson's visit — Hon. 

 James E. Scripps — dying shortly after- 

 ward, left $50,000 for the improvement of 

 the city. Colorado Springs next sent for 

 Mr. Robinson to make suggestions for 

 the treatment of its very wide streets. 

 There he was engaged bj^ the coopera- 

 tion of an improvement society and the 

 Chamber of Commerce. His report . . . 

 was published . . . and its recommenda- 

 tions were enacted into ordinances. 



"A park commission of Columbus, 

 Ohio, recently appointed but granted no 

 funds, obtained by personal subscription 

 .a sum sufficient to secure a little visit 

 from Mr. Robinson, that he might tell 

 the city what its opportunities were. He 

 did this with such effect in a written re- 

 port . . . that the people demanded a 

 careful and thorough study of the situa- 

 tion by an expert commission, and the 

 City Council appropriated several thous- 

 and dollars for that purpose. A commis- 

 sion of five, including Mr. Robinson, was 

 appointed ... In Syracuse, N. Y., a 

 newspaper — The Herald — desired to rouse 

 the people to a realization of the need of 

 a park commission, and asked Mr. Rob- 

 inson to write a series of ten articles on 

 the opportunities of the city. In three 

 months the bill was in the legislature, 

 backed by the Chamber of Commerce 

 and other organizations. The commis- 

 sion was then appointed, and a good park 

 system is now being planned. 



"Denver, which had watched Mr. Rob- 

 inson's work in Colorado Springs, called 



next for him. He was engaged by the 

 city ; and one feature of his report — a 

 civic center, of which the state capitol 

 should be the crown, involving the ex- 

 penditure of a great sum of money — 

 created a sensation. For weeks the news- 

 papers were filled with discussion of it 

 and letters about it. Then the real estate 

 board arranged a dinner at which it 

 should be discussed. The dinner was not 

 an invitation affair, nor free. Those who 

 came had to pay for their plates; but the 

 largest available room, the banquet hall 

 of the Brown Palace Hotel, was engaged. 

 There were seats for 400, and 800 applied 

 for them. The mayor presented a plan 

 for financing the project by creating 

 graduated zones of benefit, in which the 

 property owners would be assessed to 

 pay the interest and sinking fund charges 

 on improvement bonds to run fifty years. 

 To issue the long term bonds a 

 charter amendment was necessary, and, 

 in the several months before that could 

 be submitted to popular vote, questions 

 of the municipal ownership of public 

 utilities had been injected into the cam- 

 paign. These befogged the bond-issue 

 matter, and by a slender majority the lat- 

 ter was defeated. The vote was locally 

 considered so indecisive, however, and so 

 lacking in significance as to the civic 

 center project that the administration re- 

 solved to carry out by other means a 

 slight modification of the plan. Little 

 by little the necessary property is being 

 acquired. Most of Mr. Robinson's other 

 recommendations for Denver have now 

 been executed. 



"From Denver, Mr. Robinson went to 

 Honolulu, where the reading of his books 

 had awakened civic aspirations and cre- 

 ated a demand for his personal advice, 

 such that the local government made an 

 appropriation to obtain a report from 

 him. . . . The newspapers in editorial 

 comment on the completed report re- 

 ferred to it as 'a marvelous revelation of 



