34 PARKS 



Camping has not yet developed as a part of the functional activities 

 of park and recreation departments in the United States to the extent that 

 will give a clue to the possible number of camps and camp sites any munic- 

 ipal community of a given size should have. Los Angeles (population 

 1,222,500 1925) has four camp sites; Oakland (population 263,700- 

 1925) has four; Detroit (population 1,242,044 1925) two; Highland Park, 

 Michigan (population 72,289 -- 1925) two. The great volume of camping 

 conducted throughout the country today is under the auspices of private 

 individuals and of community groups such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, 

 Camp Fire Girls, boys' clubs, church groups, welfare agencies, industrial and 

 commercial establishments, and under the auspices of private individuals. 



The rapidity with which this movement has grown during recent 

 years in general, and t,he success which has attended the efforts of those 

 park and recreation departments which have conducted camps, warrants 

 the conclusion that camping for both children and adults will become an 

 important feature of municipal and county park and recreation depart- 

 ments in the future throughout the entire United States. 



IV. AREAS WITH LANDSCAPING THE PREDOMINATING CHARACTERISTIC 



Among areas of this general character several types may be distin- 

 guished in existing park systems in this country. 



I. Ovals, triangles and other small areas formed usually by the inter- 

 section of streets. Owing to attempts to get away from the deadly uni- 

 formity of the checkerboard system of street plan layouts in American 

 cities, this type of property has multiplied amazingly during recent years. 

 Those cities that were planned or that are now being planned with wide 

 diagonal avenues or boulevards radiating from the center of the city have 

 a very large number of such properties, e.g., Washington, D. C. ; Indian- 

 apolis, Indiana; Buffalo, N. Y. ; Springfield, Mass. As a general rule there 

 is no conscious city-wide plan of such properties. They simply happen and 

 are usually dedicated by the subdivider to park purposes and turned over 

 to the municipal authorities and eventually to the park departments, often 

 to the dismay and disgust of park officials. Their care is no easy problem, 

 and how to preserve them, especially in very congested sections of cities, 

 with anything like a landscaped aspect, taxes the ingenuity of the most 

 resourceful of park executives. 



Their primary purpose is that of embellishment of the neighborhoods 

 in which they are located. Some of them may be of sufficient size to 

 permit the placing of a few benches, serving thus as rest and relaxation 

 places. When large enough to be used for this purpose they shade off imper- 

 ceptibly into the class of the "small town park" group of properties. 



