38 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
UNIQUE PARK and BOULEVARD SYSTEM in OKLAHOMA 
By HOWARD EVA RTS WEED. 
BROOK NEAR PROPOSED OKLAHOMA 
They “do things dififerent” in Ok- 
lahoma. It is a new country and the 
people profit by the mistakes of oth- 
er localities. They take the short 
cuts to get the results and if a thing 
is practical, they know how to get it 
irrespective of precedent in proce- 
dure. The people of most of our 
cities grow from within outward and 
the outer park system is only pro- 
vided for when the inner parks be- 
come too crowded in proportion to 
population. The boulevards and 
pleasure driveways are only pro- 
vided for one at a time as slowly 
the people of the locality become edu- 
cated up to them. This results in 
the parks and boulevards being years 
behind the other things which go to 
make up civilization. It also makes 
them very costly. 
But this is not to be the Oklahoma 
way! Through the enterprise of Mr. 
Will H. Clark, Oklahoma City is to 
have a park and boulevard system 
which will be absolutely unique in its 
character. Mr. Clark is a park com- 
missioner and in his study of park 
conditions in other cities, he found 
restrictions as to the use of boule- 
vards. Thus in Milwaukee, he wanted 
to go over the parks and boulevards 
in an automobile! But no! It was 
not the day when automobiles were 
allowed. Then when he visited Chica- 
go, he found that the speed for auto- 
mobiles was very limited. This 
CITY BOULEVARD. 
caused him to say things generally 
indicated in print by . 
And so it is that Mr. Clark has 
been at work for two years past in 
the development of a park and boule- 
vard system well in keeping with the 
ambitions of Oklahoma City. A map 
of this system accompanies this arti- 
cle. Practically only the outer park 
system is now proposed — the inner 
small parks will follow soon enough 
as the people demand them. It is 
proposed to purchase two thousand 
acres of land adjacent to the city. 
Some of this will be. sold for build- 
ing sites after the boulevard is estab- 
lished and the real estate experts who 
have looked into the matter say that 
this will pay for the original cost of 
all the land. 
The boulevard at no place will be 
less than 200 feet wide — in most 
places much wider. The pleasure 
carriage drive will wind in and out, 
up and down the slight inclines. But 
the automobile drive will be entirely 
distinct from the carriage drive. 
There will be no sharp curves, only 
very slight grades and it will either 
go over or under all railway tracks 
and other roadways. At no point 
will this boulevard be m.ore than 
three and a half miles from the cen- 
tral portion of the town. Just im- 
agine an automobile track of 27 miles 
around a city of 50,000 without speed 
regulation! This will surely be a 
delight for automobile owners and 
make Oklahoma City the mecca to 
which all roads lead. It has been- 
my pleasure to go over the route of 
this proposed boulevard and I have 
never seen any place where a boule- 
vard could be made at such slight 
cost owing to such easy grades. From 
MAP OP OKLAHOMA CITY AND VICINITY. 
Black line Immediately around city shows course of proposed boulevard. 
