RAILWAY STATION GROUNDS. 



361 



means only empty beds of dirt and cinders 

 in winter. 



"The General Manager of the Grand 

 Rapids and Indiana Railway Company is 

 thoroughly in accord with the spirit of this 

 Association and believes that the object 

 lesson furnished by efforts to improve and 

 beautify station grounds conduces to better 

 care on the part of employees, and further, 

 that the public generally appreciates such 

 efforts, and that wanton trespassing upon or 

 defacement of corporate property is conse- 

 quently much lessened. Besides planting 

 trees, shrubs and annuals, this road is 

 improving the condition of its buildings, and 

 compelling owners of buildings upon pro- 

 perty leased from the company to remove 

 those that are unnecessary and unsightly, 

 and to repair and paint others.'" 



At Warren and Rochdale stations on the 

 Boston and Albany Railroad, we notice that 

 the walks and drives are bordered by 

 beautiful lawns and clumps of shrubbery, 

 the latter so disposed as to hide objection- 

 able features and boundary lines ; and at 

 Rochdale, an elevated bank opposite the 

 station, extending from a bridge east of the 

 station to the west of it, affords a capital 



opportunity for a continuous planting of 

 shrubbery, backing a fine extent of green 

 lawn. At Palmer, a stone wall opposite the 

 station is thickly covered with Boston Ivy, 

 transforming it into a thing of beauty, while 

 the well-kept lawn to the east is backed by 

 irregular groups of shrubbery, and bordered 

 on the south side by shade trees, while 

 across it runs a gravel walk with a circular 

 summer house with open sides at each 

 approach. 



Our Canadian Railways, especially the 

 C. P. R. , have begun to devote some attention 

 to the station gardens, but great opportuni- 

 ties are open for transforming into beauty 

 spots the ugly and most repulsive surround- 

 ings of our Canadian railway stations. This 

 work should not be done haphazard, for 

 while gardeners may carry out plans they 

 have no genius for design ; and to secure the 

 best results a landscape gardener should be 

 engaged to give designs suited to the varied 

 conditions. 



This plan has been recently adopted by the 

 Chicago, Milwaukee and St. Paul Railway, 

 whose directors have engaged E. A. McRae, 

 landscape gardener to beautify the station 

 plots with appropriate planting. 



Fig. 2384, A Railway Station Yard. 



First impressions of a town are lasting ones, and such 

 impressions are fixed by unattractive conditions about 

 the railroad station. An attractive station, with flowers 

 and vines, will give pleasure to every resident, every 

 visitor and every traveller who passes by. 



