GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING 



93 



total park area of 40,869.79 acres, or an average of 950.46 acres per city. 

 Only six of the cities had a gross park area under or approximate to every 

 100 inhabitants (Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Spokane, Salt Lake City, 

 Springfield, Massachusetts). These six cities had 35 per cent of the total 

 gross park area of the entire group, while their total population (1920) was 

 only 11.5 per cent of the total population of the group. 



Nineteen cities (44.1 per cent of the group) having 1,000 acres and over 

 of park properties had a total of 31,836.68 acres, or 77.8 per cent of the total 

 park acreage of the group. The aggregate population of these 19 cities, 

 1920, was 3,139,962, or 48 per cent of the total population of the 43 cities. 



This indicates that, in general, the 24 remaining cities with 52 per cent 

 of the total population of the group and only 22 per cent of the total park 

 acreage are very inadequately provided with park area. Their inadequacy 

 is still further emphasized by the fact that not all of the 9 cities are ade- 

 quately provided with outdoor recreation areas. 



This plan is presented to illustrate the conception of one of the fore- 

 most park and recreation planners in America of what a modern growing 

 city of the size and prospects of Birmingham should have in park and 

 recreation area. The existing park acreage at the time this plan was made 

 (1924) comprised 687.40 acres. The proposed additions to existing parks 

 totaled 177.75 acres. Proposed new parks within and near the city totaled 



IX TUNE MAP SHOWINT, 



PRESENT AND PROPOSED PARK AREAS 



WITHIN THE CITY 



PLATE Xo. 24. OUTLINE PLAN OF PROPOSED PARK SYSTEM FOR BIRMINGHAM 

 (Olmsted Brothers, Landscape Architects.) 



