76 TASTE AND TACT lA ARRANGING HOME AND OTHER GROUNDS. 



unusual, so far as instances of its kind in the past are 

 concerned, but many examples of which it is hoped will 

 be seen in the future. It is the adoption of a park-like 

 plan for suburban districts, with a view to imparting a 

 large measure of landscape charms to a community of 

 homes, entirely outside of any gardening that may be 

 done within the boundaries of the respective home lots. 



Our illustration is from a plan submitted to certain 

 readers of Gardening by request, and which is now 

 being carried out near St. Louis, Missouri. The tract 

 embraces 157 acres of magnificent rolling land, which it 

 is desired to improve as handsomely as possible. It is 

 to be divided into 

 about 200 lots, with 

 a view to inducing 

 business-men from 

 the city to take up 

 their homes in the 

 country. 



In preparing the 

 design, the idea con- 

 stantly borne in 

 mind was to secure 

 a large and hand- 

 some park devoted 

 wholly t o private 

 residences, and with- 

 out any of the lots 

 appearing isolated 

 or remote from the 

 others, the lots 

 having generally a 

 frontage of 100 feet, 

 and a depth varying 

 from 120 to 300 feet. 



The portions de- 

 voted to public use, 

 includ i n g streets, 

 circles, junction 

 plats and small 

 parks, go far toward 

 imparting a park- 

 like aspect to the 

 entire tract. The 

 system of tree-lined 

 winding drives im- 

 parts beauty and 

 grace. By having 

 the main driveways 



36 feet wide (the street proper being 66 feet wide), and 

 the residences not nearer than 65 feet from the curb 

 lines, a stretch of lawn 166 feet wide from building-front 

 to building-front, less the width of the drives and walks, 

 is secured. Add to this the considerable areas devoted to 

 lawns between the houses, made possible by the width 

 of the lots, and the impression is at once created that 

 each house is situated in a large park at a convenient 

 distance back from the drives. Although the highways 

 present considerable boldness of curve, it would be im- 



possible to make them more direct and convenient as 

 regards access to the railroad station, were they laid out 

 straight and crossing at right angles. This is especially 

 true in the present instance, owing to the rolling charac- 

 ter of the land, as the drives for the most part follow 

 the valleys. 



At various points the areas not divided into lots, but 

 devoted to highways and to other public uses, are 

 of considerable width. Adjoining the railway, for ex- 

 ample, plats fully 100 feet wide in places are heavily 

 planted with trees and shrubs for cutting off at intervals 

 the view of the railroad from the nearer lands fronting 

 in that direction. 

 Between section E 

 and F, G, I, the 

 presence of a beau- 

 tiful woody dell, 

 through which runs 

 a brook fed by a 

 spring, was taken 

 advantage of to 

 form a bit of public 

 park. Another rill 

 was found meander- 

 ing through a pic- 

 turesque dell which 

 lies between what 

 are now sections L 

 and S ; and here, too, 

 a good width of the 

 park-like character 

 was preserved, 

 which extends west- 

 terly toward the 

 railroad, around the 

 curve formed by 

 section L. Through- 

 o u t , an irregular 

 style of arranging 

 the street trees has 

 been adopted, with 

 the further idea that 

 the improvement of 

 the individual lots 

 shall in a measure 

 conform to the gen- 

 eral lay-out of the 

 tract. The building 

 of street and divis- 

 ion fences by home-owners is discouraged. 



It would be easy to institute comparisons between the 

 present park-like plan and the plans of certain adjoining 

 subdivisions that have been laid out on the square-block 

 order, with streets running in straight courses, by abrupt 

 rises and falls over hills and through ralleys ; but this 

 is needless. There seems to be no more reason for dis- 

 regarding the principles on which the beauty of land- 

 scapes rests, when laying out a district comprising a 

 hundred lots than when laying out a single lot. 



F A Residence Park near St. Louis. 



