possibilities to the greatest extent. All 
flowers and trees selected for use are 
those which fit the peculiar local condi- 
tions best. 
An interesting example of modern ceme- 
tery design and development is now being 
PLAN FOR NEW JOPLIN CEMETERY. 
■carried out in Joplin, Missouri, in utilizing 
the opportunities offered in a quaint old 
church yard burying ground on the out- 
skirts of the city. Located on a high ridge 
of gracefully undulating topography, 
clothed with beautiful old oak trees and 
having ample room for expansion, this 
little grave yard offered a logical and invit- 
ing site for a modern park lawn cemetery. 
To insure the development of a memo- 
P ARK AND CEMETERY 
rial park in keeping with the resources pro- 
vided by nature, the American Park Build- 
ers of Chicago were engaged as landscape 
architects and engineers. 
S. C. Bartlett of Chicago, president of 
the Bartlett Company, has been engaged 
as business manager. An efficient system 
for rendering service to lot purchasers is 
being provided and office facilities have 
been arranged both in the city as well as 
at the cemetery. 
The accompanying plan embraces the e.x- 
isting cemetery on the north and a tract 
of forty acres with room for further ex- 
pansion on the south. The rigid checker- 
board layout of the old cemetery cut into 
319 
small blocks by a sharp curved drive, made 
it necessary to vacate an unused portion 
to obtain a good connection with the new 
development. The graceful curving drives 
have been located in such a way, in nearly 
all cases, as to leave the lots higher than 
the drives, insuring good surface drainage 
and attractive lawn contours. While this 
important feature has been provided, good 
sized blocks were also obtained while easy 
approach to and from the entrance to all 
parts insures good circulation. 
The accompanying perspective of the 
entrance shows a building which is to be 
used for combined office, chapel and re- 
ceiving vault facilities. The building as 
well as the entrance columns will be con- 
structed of rough broken stone richly 
colored by minerals so prevalent in rock 
of this section. The building and gate- 
way will have a setting of evergreens, 
deciduous trees and shrubbery, color 
being occasionally introduced in the bor- 
der along the drive by means of per- 
ennials. The service yard is confined to a 
low part of the cemetery having a separate 
entrance and connected by a short lane 
with the drive. Numerous parked areas 
have been provided as well as a planting 
strip around the entire cemetery. 
Arrangements are being made to place 
the old cemetery under perpetual care as 
well as the newly constructed part. Rea- 
sonable restrictions with reference to mon- 
uments, markers and planting on lots will 
insure the permanency of the park lawn 
effect. 
Problems of Park and Cemetery Law 
A department of Legal Advice and Diseiission on problems that confront 
parks and cemeteries. You are invited to ask questions which will be an- 
sivcrcd by an attorney without charge. A. L. H. Street, Consulting Attorney. 
Water Assessment Liens 
Editor Legal Department, PARK & 
CEMETERY: “We have had a lien entered 
against us on the cemetery for water front- 
age. We do not use the water and never 
will use it. It is on our back ‘avenue.’ 
Proceeds all go to the maintenance of the 
cemetery and no dividends are paid. Kindly 
answer through your valuable paper if you 
have a Pennsylvania law covering our 
case.” , , Pa. 
Since a lien is already imposed by pro- 
ceedings had, it is advisable that you retain 
local counsel for the purpose of taking 
such steps as a full disclosure of the facts 
of the case may warrant, if the amount in- 
volved is large enough to warrant litiga- 
tion. 
But the law editor of PARK & CEME- 
TERY, in an attempt to give as much perti- 
nent information to you as is possible, with- 
out knowing more of the facts, has spent 
some time in examining the Pennsylvania 
statutes and decisions. Apparently, the 
right of your cemetery to exemption from 
the lien turns on the following provision 
in Laws 1903, page 43, sec. 3: “Places of 
burial not used or held for private or cor- 
porate profit . . . shall not be subject 
to tax or municipal claims, except for the 
removal of nuisances, for sewer claims and 
sewer connections, or for recurbing, pav- 
ing, repaving or repairing the footways in 
front thereof.” If so, it would seem to be 
quite clear that the lien in this case can be 
defeated as not falling within the excep- 
tions of this statute which so broadly ex- 
empts cemetery property not held for 
profit. 
The general tax exemption law of Penn- 
sylvania (Laws 1909, p. 54, exempts “all 
burial grounds not used or held for private 
or coporate profit,” from county, city, bor- 
ough, bounty, road, school and poor tax. 
But by enacting the other independent 
statute above quoted the Pennsylvania leg- 
islature seems to have recognized the gen- 
eral rule of law that a general exemption 
from “taxation” does not exempt from as- 
sessments for local improvements. 
The fact that you “do not use the w'ater 
and never will use it” probably falls short 
of furnishing any independent ground for 
defeating the lien, although, of course, it 
would be worth while to couple that ob- 
jection to an objection that the property is 
exempt as constituting burial grounds. It 
is quite generally held by the courts that 
liability for a local improvement assess- 
ment cannot be defeated by showing that 
the property assessed is already provided 
with facilities afforded by the improve- 
ment, as where private sewers are con- 
structed before the establishment of a pub- 
lic one. It has been held by the courts that 
“future and indirect benefits from the im- 
provement of the surrounding premises 
may be considered, and the benefit of fire 
protection will support an assessment in 
the form of water rates against property 
on which no water is taken or used.” 
(28 Cyc. 1129, 1130.) 
That a cemetery’s right to exemption 
from a municipal assessment may depend 
upon some special provision in its charter, 
and that such exemptions are favored, is 
shown by the decision of the Pennsylvania 
