We now come to a group of cities that are not only acquiring outer 

 park systems, such as will be suggested for Philadelphia, but securing 

 central embellishments by parkways and grouping public buildings, just 

 as the Fairmount Park Parkway will embellish the center of Philadelphia 

 and will afford sites for all public buildings to be erected hereafter. 



Cleveland 



THE GROUP PLAN 



In a report of the St. Louis Group Plan Commission, to be hereinafter referred 

 to, there is the following sentence : 



"The City of Cleveland, which has a population of about one-half that of St. Louis, 

 has actually started work on a municipal group scheme which the average citizens of any 

 city in the United States would pronounce 'ideal, but absolutely impossible of fulfilment.' 

 Cleveland has condemned acres in the best part of the municipal district and is building 

 the buildings, just as she created her wonderfully beautiful park system." 



This "ideal, but absolutely impossible-of-fulfilment " plan that is being fulfilled 

 was suggested several years ago, when it happened that the construction of a City 

 Hall, a Court-house, a Public Library, a new Union Station, and a United States 

 Postoffice was being considered. It was proposed that these buildings should be 

 arranged around a mall so as to increase their convenience, to produce a complete 

 effect, to enhance the beauty of each other and to give to the stranger an impression 

 that would never be forgotten. After several years of effort, the plan herewith repro- 

 duced was presented and has been adopted. It consists of a central mall cut from 

 a part of the city, which, though near its center, has no buildings of great value, 

 the land itself being less costly than that which surrounds it. At the head of this 

 mall the United States Post-office is now in course of construction, balancing which 

 appears the proposed Public Library, while at either side of the foot of the mall 

 and facing the lake are shortly to be built the City Hall and the County building. 

 The Union Station, ample in size and treatment for the needs of a rapidly growing 

 city of 400,000 inhabitants, is shown terminating the composition to the northward, 

 while bordering the lake is a proposed landing-place for passenger steamers. 



The situation is best described in a letter dated October 29, 1904, from Mr. 

 Arnold W. Brunner, a member of the Commission: 



"Matters are progressing well in Cleveland. The present condition is this : The sites 

 for the City Hall and the County Court-house — that is to say, the two buildings facing 

 the lake— are purchased. Architects have been selected for these two buildings, and the 

 plans are progressing. The Post-office is well under way, and several parcels of ground in 

 the mall have already been bought by the City and new ground is constantly being 



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