PARK AND C EM ET ER V. 
408 
that time approximately 2,001) acres 
have been acquired by gift and purchase 
and over fifty miles of boulevards and 
park drives have been completed at an 
outlay representing in round numbers 
eight million dollars. To one unfamil- 
iar with the rugged topography of the 
land, only an inadequate conception of 
what has been accomplished in this short 
space of time can be conveyed by this 
statement. High bluffs commanding dis- 
tant views, and miles of picturesque 
limestone cliffs that flank the winding 
boulevards, have been preserved in all 
their natural beauty for remotest pos- 
terity. Play grounds for the children, 
public baths, golf links and all the latest 
improvements in park paraphernalia are 
being incorporated in the plans prepared 
and carried out under the direction of 
Geo. E. Kessler, who has been landscape 
architect since 1892. A more extended 
description of the park system is re- 
served for another issue. 
The afternoon was spent at Mount 
Washington Cemetery, situated about 
five miles from the center of the city 
and reached by electric cars. Several 
views of these beautiful grounds are 
seen in the illustrations. The cemetery 
comprises four hundred acres of as pic- 
turesque landscape as are seldom seen 
within such confines. The highest point 
on the sloping hillside opposite the 
chapel is 12.5 feet above the lake, sit- 
uated a short distance back of that 
building. The hillsides are beautifully 
wooded with native oak, elm, walnut. 
linden, sycamore, hackberry, etc., and 
some very effective grouping of orna- 
mental shrubbery and perennials has 
been done under the direction of Miss 
Edith Sutermeister, assistant to Geo. E. 
Kessler, the landscape architect of the 
cemetery. L. B. Root is superintendent 
and Geo. L. Nellis, comptroller. The 
Long Memorial Chapel is a handsome 
structure of 13th century Gothic archi- 
tecture constructed of native limestone, 
with interior walls and window frames 
of Bedford oolitic. 'Fhe ceilings, beams, 
seats, etc., arc fumed oak and the floor 
mosaic. There are handsomely stained 
glass windows. Gas is used when arti- 
ficial light is necessary. The chapel is 
30x62 feet, has a seating capacity of 
eighty, and was erected by IMr. John 
Long as a memorial to his wife. It is 
for the free use of all denominations 
buried in the cemetery, and was built 
at a cost of $30,000. Nearby stands the 
mausoleum of the Long family. 
After a walk over the cemetery and 
posing for a group photograph, a ses- 
sion was held in the chapel, at which 
Mr. Kessler delivered an address on 
"The Cemetery,’’ in which he said : 
and showing the best results that had 
been accomplished in cemetery develop- 
ment. With so many slides to exhibit 
there was only time for a passing com- 
ment by Mr. Hare as each picture was 
thrown upon the screen. These were 
supplemented by remarks by some of the 
visiting superintendents who had fur- 
nished pictures for the occasion, whose 
comments on the more important fea- 
tures of their respective cemeteries gave 
an added interest. This was pronounced 
one of the most profitable evenings the 
association had ever spent, and other 
lectures of this character will be the 
result. 
On Wednesday morning a dozen or 
more private autos and a big car of 
the ‘ ‘sight-seeing’’ type conveyed the 
party over Kansas City’s admirable bou- 
levard system, through Elmwood Ceme- 
tery and a number of the smaller parks 
and parkways. Elmwood was estab- 
lished in 1872 and contains fifty-seven 
acres of hilly land traversed by winding 
drives. It is controlled by the lot own- 
ers, under the management of S. M. 
Hyer. The program for the morning 
did not allow time for an inspection of 
Elmwood, but what was seen of it from 
the autos created a favorable impression. 
The visitors were agreeably surprised 
in what they saw on this delightful ride, 
and were fully agreed that Kansas City 
had a park and boulevard system of 
which its citizens might well be proud. 
The first acquisition of park lands be- 
gan in Kansas City in 1895-96. Since 
The Cemetery as a Park 
In what I shall say this afternoon. I wish 
to emphasize the cemetery, Avhile a place 
of rest, as being at the same time an es- 
sential portion of the park system of 
every city in the country. You can go 
hardly anywhere now in the United States 
where the cemetery itself is not as fine in 
appearance, as well kept, as any park and 
fully as attractive, not particularly as a 
pleasure resort, of course, but certainly as 
an attractive spot nut of doors, where peo- 
T.ONG MEMORIAL CHAPEE, MOUNT WASHINGTON CEMETER53 KANSAS GI'I'Y. Mt i 
