The Development of Park Systems in American Cities 31 



rivers more extensive plans are being devised. In nearly every 

 city of Europe the water front is beautified by a solid bank of 

 masonry, sharply defining the limits of the river, to which access 

 is furnished by lower roadways. The higher roadways are embel- 

 lished as parkways. The Seine in Paris and the Victoria and Albert 

 embankments in London are but the more familiar examples of 

 what hundreds of cities throughout Europe have done. This is 

 bound to be done in America sometime, and when it is it will pay 

 in dollars and cents. 



In Washington a plan combining many of the good points of 

 the water front treatment of Algiers for that African city can 

 give a great lesson to the Capital of these United States in this 

 regard Buda-Pesth, Vienna, Paris and Antwerp, has been recom- 

 mended by the commission. In New York one of the duties of the 

 commission recently appointed is to consider the treatment of the 

 water front. In Philadelphia an agitation has been steadily grow- 

 ing for wiping out the slum which marks the line of the Schuylkill 

 River, from the southern limit of Fairmount Park to the southern 

 limit of the built-up portion of the city. Within a quarter-mile 

 of the centre of the Schuylkill on either side is a section at present 

 very undesirable for any purpose. Yet it ought to be the most 

 aristocratic section of the entire city. It is bound to be so in time. 

 A dozen addresses have been given during the past year urging this 

 improvement, and this is one of the objects of the alliance of the 

 forty-five organizations heretofore mentioned. Perhaps, after all, 

 this development of the water front will become the most famous 

 result of the movement for the City Beautiful. 



It is significant that business organizations of the country 

 are largely responsible for this progress of American cities. The 

 Business Men's Association of San Francisco was instrumental in 

 securing approval of a loan of $18,000,000 a year or two ago, 

 $4,000,000 of which are to be devoted to parks, parkways and public 

 buildings. The three most prominent trade organizations of Phila- 

 delphia are among the forty-five allied organizations. It is the 

 Cleveland Chamber of Commerce to which, along with the Cleve- 

 land Chapter of the American Institute of Architects, the principal 

 credit for the carrying out of the Group Plan is due. Similarly 



