MAKING A CITY PAEK 



AT a meeting of the American Park As- 

 sociation, held in Boston last au- 

 tumn, we had the pleasure of hearing an ex- 

 cellent address by G. A. Parker, of Hart- 

 ford, Conn., on " Park Construction." 

 Among many other good suggestions he 

 says: 



" It is many times supposed that expert 

 gardeners make desirable park men. Skill- 

 ed gardening is desirable in park work, but 

 the skilled gardener is seldom the man to 

 manage the park as a whole, for to acquire 

 his skill he must love plants as individuals, 

 while park work is plants used in mass or 

 the relation of a single plant to the composi- 

 tion of the picture as a whole, and in which 

 it is only a part. It is not so much the 

 question as to what plant is used as to where 

 the plant is located. The gardener loves 

 the tree for its own sake. The park man 

 loves the tree on account of its position, and 

 it is found that the skilled gardener, like the 

 skilled engineer, wants to bring that which 

 he loves best to the foreground for admira- 

 tion. It may be said that the park man who 

 loves his park picture as a whole is only do- 

 ing that which he condemns in others ; that 

 is, he wants to bring that which he loves best 

 before the notice of the public, and this is 

 true, but in defense he can say it is the com- 

 position as a whole that gives the mental 

 rest, the moral strength and that develop- 

 ment of the love of the beautiful which is 

 the peculiar mission of the park, A great 

 deal of thought must be given to detail, yet 

 detail should never be so distinct as to at- 

 tract attention separate from the composi- 

 tion to which it is a part. 



" The next point I want to call your at- 

 tention to is that a park is as much a con- 

 struction as a city hall or a bridge. The 

 idea that a park is a piece of ground out- 

 doors which can be worked much as a far- 



mer works his land should be exploded, and 

 cities should understand that when they un- 

 dertake to build a park they have under- 

 taken a work of a similar character, of as 

 great importance, fully as difficult and intri- 

 cate as building a magnificent city hall. The 

 city officers can be housed in a barn which 

 might be called a city hall, but it doesn't help 

 the credit or give character to the city. So 

 any old piece of ground can be called a park, 

 but only to the city's disgrace. Any piece 

 of ground can be made into a park, and V 

 care not what its condition is, yet until it is 

 so made, it is no more a park than a pile of 

 lumber and brick is a palace. 



" If a park was a construction which 

 reared itself into the air as a building does, 

 or suspend itself across space like a bridge, 

 it would be at once recognized as such, and 

 the necessity of science and art and money 

 and skill in its building would be acknow- 

 ledged. It is no less a construction than 

 the bridge and the building, even if it lies 

 on the earth, and yet we are so used to see- 

 ing the ground and trees growing spontane- 

 ously and naturally from the land, and the 

 farmer and gardener, by plowing and plant- 

 ing, producing their crops, that it is hard to 

 realize that the park differs from all this, 

 especially hard as groves of large trees 

 which are not disturbed are always desired 

 and selected whenever they can be obtained, 

 but, nevertheless, it is true that parks, in 

 the science of art of their designing and 

 mission, in skill and methods of construc- 

 tion and care, and in every other way ex- 

 cept in appearance, location and form, are 

 more nearly related to architecture, paint- 

 ing and sculpture than they are to farming, 

 gardening or forestry. 



" Another habit of the people which 

 blocks the way to realizing the need of park 

 construction and care is the consideration 



