2 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
CONSTRUCTION IN CHICAGO SOUTH PARK SYSTEM 
Some remarkable construction work is 
under way in the South Park System of 
Chicago that will round out this great 
chain of parks into one of the most 
complete and efficient systems in the 
world. Chief among the works, which 
are described in the latest annual report 
of the commission, is the completion of 
Grant Park, the 205-acre tract reclaimed 
from the lake. Filling of the submerged 
area has been completed. Twenty-seven 
acres at the north end have been cov- 
ered with black soil and made ready for 
seeding, and trees have been planted. 
The laying out and grading of drive- 
ways and walks and the installation 
of sewerage and water pipes is under 
way. 
As a concrete basis for study the 
Commissioners had prepared, under the 
direction of Olmsted Brothers, the land- 
scape architects, a large plaster paris 
model of the park as it will appear when 
finally completed. This model, illustrated 
herewith, shows graphically the inter- 
esting features planned. 
As it is expected this park will be 
the most beautiful and most serviceable 
park contiguous to the business district 
of any city in the world, great care is 
being taken to secure practical efficiency. 
Grant Park, on account of its location, 
is destined to be the central beauty of 
Chicago’s inner belt of parks and boule- 
vards. In due course it will be con- 
nected with Jackson Park by a park- 
way built in the lake 1,000 feet from 
the short line. It, also, will be connected 
with Lincoln Park by a boulevard. 
When the outer belt of parks and park- 
ways is created. Grant Park will be the 
artistic center to which the outer recre- 
ation system will trend. 
The model was prepared in order 
that the treatment of certain puzzling 
elements of the design might be deter- 
mined with a more complete and vivid 
understanding of their bearing on the 
final result than can be obtained from 
plans alone. The railroad space from 
north of Van Buren street to south of 
Harrison street is shown as decked over 
and treated as if there were no railroad 
there, partly as a great paved plaza and 
partly in terraces clothed with turf, 
flower beds and trees. This treatment 
sumes, of course, the electrification 
of the railroad. 
The Field Columbian Museum must 
be seen effectively from Michigan ave- 
nue. Therefore whatever level may 
finally be determined upon as the min- 
imum for the cover of the railroad, the 
Museum, standing far to the eastward, 
must be set high enough to be seen to 
advantage from Michigan avenue boule- 
vard over the cover, and not appear to 
have its base cut off. The Museum 
being so far beyond the western edge 
of the tracks it is impossible to treat 
the space between Michigan avenue and 
the tracks at the level of the avenue 
and then step up by a terrace treatment 
to the level of the ground about the Mu- 
seum without cutting off all the lower 
part of the building from view; and 
even if the terrace were high enough 
to cover the railroad and the Museum 
were stilted up high enough above the 
level of the terrace to be seen over 
the edge of it from Michigan avenue, 
the division of the space would be of 
the most ungainly proportions. A ter- 
race wider than the space which it over- 
looks converts the latter into a mere 
depression. Such a treatment would 
make Michigan avenue and the space be- 
tween it and the tracks look uncom- 
fortably sunken. 
The model shows the only device the 
landscape architects have been able to 
discover for overcoming this difficulty, 
a difficulty which must be frankly faced. 
This device is to adopt a continuous 
sloping surface rising from Michigan 
avenue, across the tracks to a point 
comparatively near the building. 
Michigan avenue is shown as widened, 
the sidewalks from 20 feet to 30 and the 
roadway from 50 feet to 70. 
A location for the Crerar Library is 
shown as balancing the Art Institute 
about the Congress street axis. Jack- 
son boulevard and Harrison street are 
carried straight through to the water as 
park drives and a driving entrance is 
provided near the south end of the park 
by another bridge across the tracks op- 
posite Harmon court. 
East of the tracks, beside the large 
meadows which can be used for games, 
ample provision is made for athletics by 
an indoor and outdoor gymnasium, 
quarter-mile track, and swimming basin, 
thus permitting the transfer of the ac- 
tive sports of men and large boys from 
the inadequate space north of the Art 
Institute and the treatment of that space 
as a garden. The space set aside on the 
model for the athletic equipment is just 
east of the tracks between Hubbard and 
Harmon courts, corresponding with the 
space just east of the tracks between 
Jackson and Monroe streets, hitherto set 
apart for the expansion of the Art In- 
stitute. 
On the south line of the park, ad- 
joining the railroad on the east, is 
shown an administration yard with 
stables, offices, sheds and other nec- 
essary buildings. 
Along the water front extends a great 
avenue or mall, for driving and walking, 
shaded by six rows of trees and over- 
looking the quay, or strand, which forms 
the actual margin of the water. Rising 
towards each end the mall terminates 
north and south in great quadrangles 
surrounded by colonnades serving as 
shelters and places of refreshment — great 
public verandas for the people of the 
city. In connection with one of these, 
provisions for yacht and boat clubs and 
public boating establishments are shown, 
and through them connection may be 
made with any future extension of the 
water front park system to the south 
or north. 
The work of planting the park has 
begun. Three hundred and thirty-four 
elm trees, ranging from 7 inches to 8 
inches in diameter have been planted 
on the newly graded surfaces, mostly in 
the lines along the driveways and walks. 
The trees in such lines are set in pits 
10 feet by 20 feet, 4 feet in depth, filled 
with the best black earth obtainable. 
Suitable arrangements will be made for 
the irrigation and drainage of the tree 
pits. 
The atmospheric conditions in Grant 
Park are so unpropitious for the growth 
of trees, owing largely to the great vol- 
ume of smoke which is constantly dis- 
charged from the many locomotives us- 
ing the railroad which runs through the 
park, that it will be very difficult, if not 
impossible, to secure any satisfactory de- 
