Park Department 
29 
would indicate that there is pressing need in this locaHty for a 
playground. 
As the location of the trees and the present divisional lines 
prohibit the placing of a playground of any consequence within 
this park, I would therefore recommend, if it is at all possible, 
that additional property from the north boundary line of Wash- 
ington Park to Fourteenth Street be acquired for park purposes, 
that we may place a playground, wading-pool, outdoor recreation 
field, etc., in this very congested portion of the city. 
My first impression was to recommend to your honorable 
board that one section of the park be used as a ball-ground, but 
on visiting the park from day to day during the past summer, 
and noticing so many aged people as well as mothers with their 
infant children taking pleasure in the splendid shade afforded by 
the trees, the thought presented itself that it would be a step in 
the wrong direction to destroy those beautiful trees in the heart 
of the city for the purpose of making a playground, thereby 
depriving those people of the splendid facilities that they have 
there for shade and quiet, a condition that could not immediately 
be provided in any other section of the city. 
This park was kept open all night during the hot months of 
July and August, and a policeman placed in charge, who kept 
a record of the number of people sleeping there each night, which 
shows that 5,254 persons derived a great deal of comfort from 
sleeping in the park. The same conditions exist here as in othef 
congested parts of the city ; in the tenement-houses the people 
are hardly able to find any rest, even though they go to bed, 
and the men, being allowed to use the benches in the park to rest 
upon, get some refreshing sleep. Judging from the number of 
inquiries that came in after the park was closed as to whether 
they would be allowed to sleep there again, a great deal of good 
was acomplished by allowing those poor people to use the park 
in that way. 
