The Development of Park Systems in American Cities 21 



The two pioneers in the movement were Kansas City and 

 Boston. In each a definite, complete, co-ordinated scheme was 

 worked out. Unquestionably Boston has exerted the greater influ- 

 ence, but Kansas City has given an example which the cities of the 

 Middle West are following more and more. Since 1893 the most 

 important part of the Kansas City plan has been carried out. The 

 city has largely secured the ground for the parks and parkways 

 which the plans contemplate. The development of the ground is 

 always the less important part and can wait. There are now ten 

 and a half miles of completed boulevards, land has been secured for 

 about sixteen miles more and the construction work is going on. 

 The total area in parks and parkways, nearly all acquired since 1893, 

 is over two thousand acres. While the statistics of this system are 

 not as impressive as the ones to be quoted for Boston, yet its near- 

 ness to the heart of the city, its equitable distribution by which every 

 section of the city shares in its benefits, make it worthy the study of 

 its sister cities. 



It is interesting to note that while Kansas City is cursed by 

 the usual gridiron city plan, this park system tends largely to break 

 up the regularity of that system. Omaha, following the course of 

 Kansas City, has a park system fairly complete; and there, too, the 

 park system produces a pleasing irregularity in the street system 

 of square blocks. As the development of its park system is ex- 

 tended attention is bound to be drawn to the fundamental error 

 of extending the existing street system further than it has already 

 grown. 



The results that have been accomplished in Boston are much 

 more widely known than those achieved in any other part of the 

 country. Indeed the majority of readers have doubtless so identified 

 the park movement with Boston as to be almost totally ignorant that 

 anything of a similar nature has been undertaken elsewhere. With- 

 out wishing to derogate from the importance of what Boston has 

 accomplished in this line, I do want to produce some facts and 

 figures to show that this movement for civic improvement is wide 

 as the nation, and that many cities are undertaking what in Boston 

 has not yet reached the stage of perfection. Boston is but one of 

 many, and even as a pioneer has a rival in Kansas City, if the estab- 

 lishment of the Bronx park system in New York does not rob both 

 of the right to that name. 



