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PARK AND CEMETERY. 
tract now 380 acres. Olmsted Bros, 
have been engaged to make plans for 
its improvement. 
Park Superintendent Henry C. Fuller, 
of New London, Conn., is preparing for 
the improvement of Riverside Park, do- 
nated to the city by Senator Frank 
Brandegee. 
The park board of Minneapolis has let 
the contract for the erection of a pavilion 
at Powderhorn Park and a storage barn 
at Lyndale Farmstead to replace the 
one recently destroyed by fire. 
Soil experts from the Department of 
Agriculture at Washington have made 
a report on the condition of Central 
Park, New York, and recommended the 
growing of a crop of potatoes or corn 
in the park to rehabilitate the worn out 
soil. 
The park board of Buffalo will ask 
for an appropriation of $2.5,000 for the 
care of the city shade trees as required 
by a bill passed by the legislature. 
An ornamental concrete retaining wall 
will be built about a part of the lake 
in the City Park in Denver, and sur- 
mounted by a railing to allow the crowds 
to get closer to the band during con- 
certs. 
At the spring elections in Iowa, Des 
Moines and Cedar Rapids by popular 
vote passed under the commission form 
of government known as the Des Moines 
plan, in which the government is vested 
entirely in a mayor and five council- 
men. Commissioner Keffer will have 
charge of the department of parks and 
public property in Cedar Rapids. The 
retiring board of commissioners, Messrs. 
Krebs, Haskell and Jackson, have built 
up a fine park system for the city, Mr. 
Krebs having been instrumental in se- 
curing Ellis Park, the handsome water- 
front tract. 
The report made by the Des Moines 
park commissioner, in turning the parks 
over to the new city government, gives 
much interesting data. There are nine- 
teen parks belonging to the city, a total 
of 676 acres. 
* * * 
The Buena Park Improvement Asso- 
ciation of Chicago has purchased a 
tract of ground known as the “circle,” 
just east of the Buena station on the 
Northwestern “L,” for $7,600, and 
wishes to turn it over to the city on 
condition that the special parks com- 
mission provide a fountain where the 
The school board of Boston has ap- 
propriated $50,000 for the establishment 
of playgrounds which are to be under 
the direction of Dr. T. F. Harrington, 
head of the department of school 
hygiene. 
W. A. Creitz, park superintendent at 
Cambridge City, Ind., is preparing to 
improve the new city park in that town. 
The Roeding estate has donated to the 
town of Fresno, Cal., a tract of 117 
acres for a public park. 
The board of park commissioners of 
Grand Rapids, Mich., has asked for an 
appropriation of $48,963 for park work 
this year. A bath house and wading 
pool at the settling basin are among the 
improvements contemplated. 
A band stand and other improve- 
ments to cost $2,500 are soon to be be- 
gun in Boynton Park, Chattanooga, 
Tenn. 
The city of Indianapolis, Ind., has ob- 
tained an option on 25 acres of land in 
the Ellenberger woods for future park 
use. 
Olmsted Bros., Brookline, Mass., are 
making plans for the beautifying of the 
grounds about the new Kentucky state 
capitol at Frankfort. 
birds can drink, and shelter for such of 
the feathered community as wish to use 
it. The Circle lies near Graceland 
Cemeterj', where for years the wild 
birds have been given ample protection. 
In consequence their numbers have in- 
creased greatly, and it now is esti- 
mated that there are more than 200 
varieties. 
FROM THE PARK REPORTS 
As noted in this department last 
month the Parthenon, in Centennial 
Park, Nashville, Tenn., a replica of the 
famous Grecian structure, has been com- 
pleted and the seventh annual report of 
the park commissioners of that city an- 
nounces that the structure is to be used 
as an art gallery and memorial hall. 
Other interesting memiorial structures 
recently completed in this park are a 
band stand of unique form, an elabo- 
rate monument to Major John W. 
Thomas ; two concrete bridges, and sun 
dials were built in Richland Park, and 
a fountain and walks constructed in 
Watkins Park. There are about 120 
acres of parks in the city, including Cen- 
tennial, 90 acres, and Watkins, Richland 
and Clifton, of about ten acres each. 
The park funds are all derived from 
the Nashville Railway & Light Co., 
which pays the city three per cent of 
its gross revenue. The expenditures for 
the year amounted to $36,151. W. F. 
Josolyne is superintendent. 
The annual report of the Pleasure 
Driveway and Park District of Spring- 
field, 111., includes reports for 1905, 
1806 and 1907, a map of the park dis- 
trict and a plan of each of the parks 
prepared by Arthur Hay, chief engi- 
neer. There is now a park area of 243 
acres in the district, and the total ex- 
penditure for construction and mainte- 
nance in four years was $141,971. The 
annual revenue from taxation for the 
next few years is estimated at about 
$40,000. An excellent report on park 
matters made by Olmsted Brothers for 
Portland, Ore., is reprinted in the , re- 
port. The chief tracts are: Washing- 
ton Park, 152 acres ; Williams Boule- 
vard, 18.17 acres ; Lincoln Park, 85.44 
acres. Two steel bridges were erected 
in Washington Park the past year, and 
owing to the washing of driveways by 
rains brick gutters are to be built on all 
roads that have grades enough to cause 
them to wash. 
The park commissioners of Spring- 
field, Mass., have issued their annual re- 
port in the usual attractive form. It is 
illustrated and contains about 100 pages. 
Besides detailed expenses and receipts 
of the department the volume also in- 
cludes a list of the city’s public grounds, 
a catalogue of the 203 wild birds ob- 
served in the park by Robert O. Morris, 
the flora of the park, the revised laws 
relating to parks and playgrounds and 
the park ordinances. 
At the annual meeting of the Play- 
grounds Association of Washington, D, 
C., much progress was reported. There 
were twenty-six playgrounds opened, 
fourteen school grounds, which belong 
to the school buildings and are used in 
connection with the schools, and twelve 
outdoor grounds. Of these only two 
are owned by the District of Columbia ; 
two are in the back yards of the settle- 
ment' houses, and the remainder are on 
borrowed or rented private property. 
There is a recreation center at the West- 
ern High School, at which there is a very 
successful branch of the public library. 
The attendance the past year has been 
quite remarkable, the number of visits 
made by the children being 376,381. The 
average attendance a day on the munici- 
pal grounds was 222 children at each 
ground, and on the school grounds 169. 
The officers elected were : President, 
Cuno H. Rudolph ; treasurer, Eugene S. 
Stevens ; secretary, Miss Giles Scott 
Rafter, and supervisor of pla}'grounds, 
H. S. Curtis. 
PARK NEWS. 
