GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 35 



2. Intown Park Areas or Neighborhood Parks. As to size there is no 

 common relation among this group of properties. They range from the 

 small squares through commons, public gardens, large or long promenades 

 to parks of hundreds of acres in extent. Some of the finest examples of 

 this type of property in small size are to be found in Savannah, Georgia, 

 in the plan of the old city as laid out by General Oglethorpe, an example 

 that was followed in many cities of the old South. The plazas character- 

 istic of the Spanish towns and cities, the squares laid out by William Penn 

 in Philadelphia in the original plat of the city, those laid out by General 

 Sutter in the original plan of Sacramento are others among a great many 

 examples of original city planning in this country in which this type of 

 park was incorporated. Next to small triangles, ovals, places, "the small 

 intown park" type of property is the most numerous type in the park 

 systems of American municipalities. Great numbers of them have suc- 

 cumbed to the attacks of the organized recreation movement, and no doubt 

 many more of them will go over into the class of children's playgrounds or 

 neighborhood playfield-parks. But this type of property should always be 

 preserved as an integral unit element in any well developed park system. 



Functionally these areas provide as near an approach to nature as 

 many dwellers in large cities ever see or come in contact with; they adorn 

 the neighborhoods in which they are located; they enhance property values; 

 they provide breathing, rest and relaxation places for the inhabitants, and 

 to a more or less extensive degree a certain amount of opportunity for 

 semi-active recreation in the form of walking, listening to band concerts, 

 taking part in or observing a festival, play, pageant, and other public meet- 

 ings of various kinds. 



The number of parks of this type should practically duplicate the 

 neighborhood playfield type of area. In fact their numbers should be 

 slightly larger in the larger cities than the playfield areas for the reason that 

 the small park areas should be provided in downtown sections of cities 

 where playfields are not needed. They may exist as separate properties or 

 combined with a playfield or the playfiejd with the park. They are espe- 

 cially desirable in those sections of cities having a high density of popu- 

 lation but valuable for all sections, industrial, commercial, residential. It 

 is not only in cities that these small landscaped areas are desirable. Every 

 village, small town and small city should have one or more of them. Even 

 in rural districts counties have found small natural parks of great value 

 for picnicking and overnight camping. 



3. The Large Park or Country Park Area. This is an area "designed 

 to give as far as is consistent with intensive use all the sense of freedom 

 that the unspoiled country gives, and is the nearest thing to unspoiled 



