INTRODUCTION xxi 



properties and at the same time brought into existence a number of new 

 types, such as areas devoted more or less exclusively to playgrounds, 

 playfields, athletic fields, stadiums, neighborhood recreation parks, swim- 

 ming and boating centers, golf courses and boulevards and parkways. 

 It added to the services of park administrating agencies a series of com- 

 plex and difficult social problems involved in organizing for the people a 

 wide range of recreational activities of a physical, cultural, social and 

 civic nature, involving cooperative relationships with other public and 

 private agencies. 



This change was not unattended by growing pains. It was not always 

 easy for members of park governing authorities and park administrators 

 deeply versed in the fine old traditions of park technique to absorb and 

 apply the new and larger ideal of the new recreation service. The period 

 from the late nineties to the present time (1926) has been a period of 

 adjustment and development, and this process of adjustment between 

 the old and simple concept of the functional services of parks and park 

 authorities and the new and more complex functions is still going on. On 

 the whole, however, the expanded recreation concept has been accepted 

 by park authorities. 



At the end of nearly three-quarters of a century of park development 

 in the United States the term park 1 has come to mean any area of land 

 or water set aside for outdoor recreational purposes, whether it be recrea- 

 tion of a passive or active nature or any of the degrees between those two 

 extremes, and "that the recreation is expected to come in part at least 

 from beauty of appearance." 



'The term " public park" is defined in English law as including " any park, garden or other land dedicated 

 to the recreation of the people." (Mortmain Act, 1888.} 



1 "Development of Public Grounds for Greater Baltimore," Olmsted Brothers, 1904, page 21. 



