PARK AND CEMETERY. 
174 
CIVIC BEAUTY in PUBLIC GROUNDS 
Read before the National Farm Land Congress at Chicago, Novem- 
ber 18,- 1909, by E. F. A. Reinisch, Supt. of Parks, Topeka, Kan 
and four hundred vines were planted. 
These cost the department only about 
$750. 
Ground has already been partially pre- 
pared in Riverside Park with the 
intention of beginning a nursery which, 
with careful attention and intelligent di- 
rection, will in a few years furnish the 
most of the trees and shrubs which will 
be needed for park work. 
An important improvement in Riv- 
erside Park during the year was the 
building of the Athletic Shelter House 
at a total cost of $2,731.25. The increase 
in the number of those who were play- 
irtg golf on the north links in Riverside 
made imperative the furnishing of bet- 
ter methods of caring for their comfort. 
Henry Jameson is president of the 
Board and Leroy Snyder secretary. 
Landscape Architect Kessler presents 
an interesting report to the Board out- 
lining future plans in a broad and com- 
prehensive manner. We quote as follows 
from his report : 
“Our first year has been devoted largely 
to a very carefuj study of the needs of In- 
dianapolis and an attempt to lay down lines 
for future improvement which would be 
the most natural solution of your future 
problems, along lines determined and in 
fact imposed by the physical features of the 
city. I believe that the plan which has been 
prepared during the year, as far as it has 
been matured, is such a logical solution of 
the park needs of your city that succeed- 
ing boards will not only find it a most 
practical method of procedure, but would 
not venture to depart greatly from the lines 
laid down. 
“This plan is largely determined by the 
physical features of the city and takes the 
lines, for the most part, of parkways bor- 
dering the various streams which intersect 
the city. Let me explain at the outset 
that parkways of this nature do not pri- 
marily form merely driveways from one 
portion of the city to another, although 
their continuity for this purpose is impor- 
tant, but, at variance with the popular idea 
of the boulevard, they do form a chain of 
parks or a continuous park which is by its 
nature brought to the doors of all sections 
of the community. By obtaining here and 
there open spaces of considerable extent in 
addition to the space required for roadways 
and walks, you will provide a continuous 
series of small parks and playgrounds which 
will become very valuable and pleasureable 
to the neighborhoods in their immediate 
vicinity. Where such parkways, as they 
will in yours follow the lines of picturesque 
streams, an additional interest is presented, 
both in preserving the picturesque nature of 
the scenery and in the use of the streams 
for boating and bathing purposes. A no 
less important end is served in planning 
the bordering driveways in all cases so that 
they form levees protecting the low-lying 
land in places from intermittent overflow 
and thus become of great practical value 
in this regard. It will also be necessary, 
both from the standpoint of park beauty 
and that of public protection, that careful 
attention be given to the matter of sanita- 
tion, and that in all of these improvements 
every effort be made to keep the streams 
perfectly sanitary. The following out of 
this system will greatly enhance the beauty 
of your city, which is already known as a 
city of beautiful homes.” 
We are just merely beginning to un- 
derstand the- mission of the landscape 
gardener, the importance of his work 
and the value of the park as a means 
of instructing and familiarizing the pub- 
lic with the possibilities and the beau- 
ties of the art of landscape development, 
and educating the people to appreciate 
the beneficial influence of the- beautiful 
outdoors on the moral as well as the 
physical conditions of society. It is an 
undisputed fact that the taste and de- 
sire for ornamental gardening has kept 
pace with the progress of civilization 
in other lines. We have learned to real- 
lize that beside the esthetic, our parks 
have a great economic value in as much 
as they raise the standard of health, hap- 
piness and contentment of the people, es- 
pecially in large centers - of population. 
Appreciating this fact many cities of 
this country have reserved and acquired 
considerable land for park purposes ; 
have improved, and are maintaining the 
same in the best possible condition. First 
in this movement were the cities along 
the Atlantic coast, but by and by the 
idea moved west and we have magnifi- 
cent parks and boulevard systems in the 
middle west : Chicago, Kansas City and 
Colorado Springs, Denver and many 
other cities have made wonderful prog- 
ress in this direction in the last decade 
or two. 
Some cities have great foresight in ac- 
quiring park land when it is yet plen- 
tiful and before the price becomes pro- 
hibitive ; as an example I would mention 
a city of our sister state, Oklahoma. On 
a site that was but a few years ago 
considered a hopeless waste, stands now 
a city of 50,000 inhabitants, with a num- 
ber of eight, ten and twelve-story build- 
ings in its business center. It has ac- 
quired 500 acres for a 30-mile boulevard 
encircling the ciO, and 1,700 acres for 
parks, located in different parts of the 
city and ranging in size up to 600 acres. 
They are now in progress of develop- 
ment, according to definite plans. 
Railroad station parks offer a great 
field for the landscape gardener of the 
future. In the past little more has been 
done in ornamentation . of station 
grounds than planting of tender green- 
house material, so called bedding plants, 
which are generally grouped into more 
or less appropriate designs, carpet ef- 
fects, names and trade marks. This is 
not. landscape gardening in its proper 
sense, but rather work of the florist and 
designer. It is also quite expensive and 
transient, as the beds have to be renewed 
every year, and at best only last a few 
months in this latitude, leaving the 
ground bare and unsightly from the 
lime of the first frost in fall till the 
warm weather in May. The landscape 
gardener uses hardy material such as 
trees, shrubs and hardy herbaceous 
plants. This material is cheaper and the 
plantings perennial. It gives a more nat- 
ural effect and is attractive the year 
around. What could be more pleasing 
than a generous expanse of green turf 
with a background of varying forms of 
masses of shrubs with the everchanging 
tints of foliage and succession of flow- 
ers? In winter the different colors of 
bark ranging through all the tints of 
white and gray to almost black ; yellow 
and crimson to brown, contrasted with 
the heavy green of the' interspersed 
evergreens. 
Besides the ornamental, the emergency 
and economic plantings play an impor- 
tant part in railroad gardening, such as 
screens for shutting out unsightly fea- 
tures which are beyond the control of 
the railroad management. Hedges along 
the property lines, snow hedges to pro- 
tect cuts from filling up with snow and 
lastly timber plantings for posts, cross- 
ties and telegraph poles. 
The Santa Fe, with which I am con- 
nected in a consulting capacity, has car- 
ried out the simple plan of using hardy 
plants for the embellishment of- Station 
Grounds and has improved most of the 
larger stations in this manner. Several 
are more than one acre in extent. This 
area of well kept rich green turf fringed 
by a background of masses of shrubs 
wijh a varying skyline, is a picture long 
remembered and much appreciated by 
the weary traveler. 
Besides the Santa Fe, the Union Pa- 
cific maintains well planted station parks 
and at present is branching out into 
timber culture in planting extensive 
tracts of land with catalpa for cross 
ties, etc. Other large roads are planning 
systematic improvement of their stations 
in the same manner. 
The beautifying of institution grounds 
is of no less importance and the effect 
on their inmates can only be of lasting 
benefit. 
The schools and institutions of learn- 
ing, with a few exceptions, lack in 
beauty of surroundings and facilities for 
play and recreation. They have not re- 
ceived the care and attention which their 
importance and their very nature de- 
mands. It seems the equipment of 
classrooms and laboratories overshadows 
