Chicago 



"In 1869 Chicago began building a system of parks connected by boulevards. In 1880 

 it had two thousand acres. Twenty-three years later these parks were inadequate to the 

 population, and to meet the obvious need Chicago entered upon a scheme of park 

 extension." 



In 1903, the Commissioners were authorized to spend $6,500,000 for new parks. 

 This has gone for parks varying from five to three hundred acres in extent, mostly 

 in or near centers of dense population. The average cost of construction is 

 $90,000, of maintenance $20,000, per annum. This is because they contain out- 

 door gymnasia, swimming-pools, etc. Grant Park, the old Lake Front of the heart 

 of the city, has been increased in area fivefold; Lincoln Park greatly extended; Jack- 

 son Park, where the Exposition was held, has been rehabilitated. Chicago now has 

 eighty-four parks, aggregating 3,169 acres, connected by forty-nine miles of boulevard. 



Not content with these improvements, Chicago has appointed a commission to 

 prepare plans for a comprehensive outer park system. Its report just presented 

 shows that Chicago has much land naturally suitable for parks not many miles from 

 it. The map indicates the proposed takings, though it gives but a poor idea of 

 their extent. To the north, where the shore of Lake Michigan rises into bluffs 

 with wooded ravines between them, is shown a park of 7,000 acres; in the west, 

 another of 8,800 acres. The valley of the Desplaines River, skirted by woods and 

 meadows, will afford a park drive of twenty-five miles in length. In the southwest 

 the noble forests of the Palos region will give a park larger even than Blue Hills, 

 near Boston, and toward the south a preserve about Lake Calumet will afford a 

 recreation space for the toilers of South Chicago and Pullman. In all, eighty-four 

 new parks are proposed, aggregating 37,000 acres, extending twenty-five miles into 

 the country, and to be acquired at a probable cost of $25,000,000. 



All this has its suggestion for Philadelphia. Chicago foresees that its present 

 system, inadequate for a city of 2,000,000 people, must be greatly augmented in the 

 near future if conditions are to be at all tolerable for the 8,000,000 people who 

 will probably live within its metropolitan area fifty years hence. 



For further information, apply to J. F. Foster, General Superintendent South Park Commis- 

 sioners, 57th Street and Cottage Grove avenue, Chicago, 111.; Dwight Heald Perkins, Architect 1200 

 Steinway Hall, Chicago, 111. 



