PARK AND CEMETERY. 
98 
ment League of Watertown, New York, 
has engaged Mr. Charles Mulford Rob- 
inson, of Rochester, N. Y., to prepare 
a report on the beautifying of that city. 
Mr. Robinson is the author of “Mod- 
ern Civic Art,” and “The Improvement 
of Towns and Cities,” the two standard 
works on civic improvement, and has 
prepared reports for a number of cit- 
ies, including Denver, Honolulu, Oak- 
land, Cal., and Detroit. 
Elaborate Improvements for Atlantic City 
Comprehensive plans for the beauti- 
fying of Atlantic City, N. J., have been 
prepared by Carrere & Hastings, archi- 
tects, of New Pork, and were shown 
at a recent meeting of the City Beauti- 
ful Commission at the Hotel Chalfonte 
in that city. The plans involve the 
building of two or three parks, a boule- 
vard that will curve from one of the 
parks located at the inlet parallel with 
the ocean, between the beach and Pacif- 
ic avenue, turning into Pacific avenue 
at Illinois, and the widening of Pacific 
avenue from Illinois to Arkansas as a 
continuation of the Boulevard, which 
is to be 135 feet wide. The plans also 
provide for the building of a new City 
Hall, a new -railroad station, a City 
Hall park, a drainage canal from the 
Inlet to Illinois avenue, on the northern 
side of the city; widening of a num- 
ber of streets, improving of the board 
walk and its approaches, ornamental 
lighting schemes for both the board 
walk and Atlantic avenue, and many 
other features. 
Improvements Planned in Greenville, S. C. 
The report on the “Beautifying and 
Improving of Greenville, S. C.” made 
for the Municipal League of that city 
by Kelsey & Guild, landscape architects, 
of Boston, contains brief and practical 
suggestions on every phase of civic im» 
provement, including city plan, streets, 
gateways, grouping of public buildings, 
municipal architecture and art, sani- 
tary matters and the abatement of nuis- 
ances, parks, playgrounds and reserva- 
tions, gardens, cemeteries, redeeming 
Reedy River, etc. 
The group plan suggested is illus- 
trated herewith and is described as fol- 
lows : 
Court Square at the crossing of Main 
and Court streets has served as a “civic 
center” since 1797, when Greenville 
was but a village numbering a few 
hundred souls. Today with a popula- 
tion of nearly 30,000, which is steadily 
increasing, the municipal and county 
buildings and the square itself are total- 
ly inadequate as to size, convenience, 
safety or architectural dignity, while the 
streets are cramped and no more than 
sufficient for traffic purposes with these 
buildings removed. 
New Public and Semi-Public Build- 
ings such as a city hall, court house, 
libraries, museum, theaters, etc., must 
undoubtedly become a necessity in time, 
and the convenient, dignified location 
and deposition of these buildings, with 
adequate provision for future structures 
is plain public duty. Lack of such pro- 
vision has been the crowning folly of 
American municipalities ; they are now 
]Daying the heavy cost in dollars as well 
as in the hopeless confusion of the 
cities’ proper function. Cleveland, O., is 
expending $16,000,000 to properly group 
CIVIC CENTER FOR GREENVILLE, 
s. c. 
Kelsey & Guild, Landscape Archs. 
her public buildings, and even now this 
is a financial saving; yet had earlier 
foresight been used, a fraction of this 
would have accomplished the same re- 
sults. 
This plan contemplates the ultimate 
taking and improvement of the lower 
half of the two blocks south of Court 
Square, and as much as possible of the 
land to the south of Broad street on 
both sides of Main street, crossing 
Reedy River, to the extensive grounds 
of Chicora College and Furman Uni- 
versity. The central location, at the 
junction of Main street and the pro- 
posed Broad street boulevard, in close 
proximity to Court Square and the es- 
tablished business district of the city, 
furnish practical reasons for this choice 
of location. The relation to Reedy 
River Park with its charming water 
features and beautiful gorge, and the 
river itself, to be spanned at Main 
street by a new stone bridge, give un- 
usual natural advantages to the site, 
and link together the park system and 
the commercial center of the city. The 
present Government Building, Camper- 
down Mill and the College Buildings 
form a nucleus around which future 
buildings may be grouped. The land 
is now comparatively cheap, while the 
present buildings are few and inexpen- 
sive. Any final grouping must in a 
measure depend upon the character and 
function of the buildings required. 
Toledo Wants Group Plan 
The Toledo Civic League of Tole- 
do, O., is beginning the agitation for 
the adoption of a group plan for that 
city. At a recent meeting of the 
League George W. Stevens, director 
of the art museum, gave an impres- 
sive talk on the improvement of To- 
ledo. He told of some things that 
needed correcting, such as inartistic 
bridges, disreputable docks, the incon- 
venient situation of its union depot in 
an unsightly locality, unsightly bill- 
boards, some bad pavements where 
good ones are most needed, narrow 
streets, etc. Forty cities in the United 
States, he stated, are now contemplat- 
ing an expenditure for civic improve- 
ment of some ten hundred million 
dollars, altogether; and he urged that 
Toledo should get in line with these. 
Robert J. Law presented a map on 
which he had marked out the sug- 
gestion of a central group plan and 
park system for Toledo. He showed 
that this might easily be arranged 
through the purchase by the county 
or city of land adjacent to that al- 
ready owned by one or the other, in 
the territory extending from the pub- 
lic library to the armory, and thus 
connecting the several tracts. 
Improvement Plan in Quebec 
Improvement plan for Quebec, 
Can., has been prepared by the Com- 
mittee on Civic Improvement of the 
Quebec Architects’ Association, Prof. 
Perej- E. Nobles, Chairman. The 
plan consists principally in cutting 
diagonal streets from center of the 
city to the principal suburbs. Inci- 
dentally, the proposed streets would 
give much easier grades to traffic as- 
cending the hills than is afforded by 
the present checkerboard system of 
laying out streets. Besides the two 
main diagonal streets a system of 
boulevards circling the city and run- 
ning along the waterfront is contem- 
plated. 
^ ^ 
It is announced that the United 
States Navy Department has decided to 
discontinue its billboard advertising for 
recruits. 
