accomplished in all the history of the city, prior to the establish- 
ment of the present park organization, and each further develop- 
ment has produced a demand for a more rapid acquisition and 
improvement in the very many residential districts of the city 
even now not yet provided for. 
In an attempt to accomplish the general development, your 
Board evidently felt that the prime requisite was first in the 
children's needs for local playgrounds. Again the rapid expan- 
sion of the city had shown that properties, which from their loca- 
tion and topographical situation were valuable for attractive 
park area, were rapidly becoming absorbed for building purposes, 
thereby creating values which would in a very few years make 
impossible all acquisitions, without the expenditure of enormous 
and prohibitive sums, of the lands so necessary for public use, and 
to preserve for the people of the present — as well as of the future 
— the characteristically beautiful parks. Your Board pro- 
ceeded on these grounds, and most wisely, to acquire at least 
some of the properties originally planned for. While the city 
has not responded and provided immediate means for rapid 
improvement of these properties, yet the most important of 
these have, at least, been secured, and may be gradually im- 
proved for a greater usefulness. 
In every large city the out-door recreation and the opportu- 
nity it gives for healthful enjoyment, the System, as a whole, 
becomes incomplete, unless one or more great outlying properties 
are acquired. These properties should be large enough to re- 
ceive a very large portion of the population at any one time with- 
out overcrowding and really bring the country within easy reach 
of the great urban population. This can only be done through 
the acquisition of large areas of ground. In American cities this 
is usually accomplished at a very great expense. In European 
cities the contiguous forest areas have become the great outly- 
ing parks, and all have been tremendously useful for the real 
enjoymicnt of the country. 
In Cincinnati, the gradual acquisition of the properties — 
now known as Mt. Airy Forest — would supply to the northern, 
or north-western sections of the city, one of the finest of forests 
as a park, that could be established about any city in the coun- 
try. The very happy condition which has held this property 
practically inaccessible for private development, has made it 
possible to acquire a large area at normal cost, that in a very 
few years would have been entirely out of reach of the purchasing 
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