30 The Annals of the American Academy 



lake front, with a small park dividing the station from the lake. At 

 the end of the Mall, near the centre of the city, the post-office build- 

 ing, now in course of erection, is to be balanced by a proposed public 

 library. Just before the railroad station is reached, a city park, 

 already owned by the city and running at right angles to the Mall, 

 is to be turned into an Esplanade. Fronting on the Esplanade and 

 also on the Mall, on each side, it is proposed that a City Hall and 

 Court House be erected. The ground for these two buildings has 

 been bought and the plans for them are in process of preparation. 

 The ground in the centre of the Mall is being secured by the city. 

 In other words, this plan, which would a few years ago have been 

 pronounced "ideal but absolutely impossible of fulfillment," is now 

 in process of construction. Cleveland has begun the acquisition of 

 a surrounding system of parks, the encircling ring now extending 

 a quarter of the way from the lake shore on the east to the shore 

 on the west. 



Spurred on by the success of the Cleveland group plan, the city 

 of St. Louis appointed a commission to prepare a group plan and 

 that commission presented its report in October, 1904, showing 

 alternative schemes, similar in many aspects to that of Cleveland. 

 It is believed that one of them will be carried out. In St. Paul a 

 magnificent capitol has recently been erected and the Park Com- 

 mission has approved a plan which shows three parkways, branch- 

 ing from the capitol in as many directions. Around one of the 

 parkways it is proposed to group such public buildings as may be 

 erected in the future. St. Paul and Minneapolis have secured a 

 great part of their water fronts on the river and inland lakes as 

 parks and parkways. The Minneapolis inner park ring is almost 

 complete. A more extended system of outer parks and parkways has 

 been proposed and formed one of the notable exhibits of the Twin 

 Cities at the Municipal Exhibition of the St. Louis Exposition. The 

 Fairmount Park parkway will give Philadelphia an opportunity for 

 the grouping of public buildings, which is one of the reasons 

 advanced for its construction. 



Water Fronts. 



The preservation of the water fronts of American cities is 

 beginning. The general plan is to preserve the valleys of the 

 smaller streams in their entirety, but for the banks of greater 



