223 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
The Essex County, N. J., Park Com- 
mission has notified the authorities that 
it is now ready to expend the $100,000 
appropriated by the legislature for 
Montclair parks. The town council has 
four tracts of land, for which it paid 
$100,000, to be used for parks and play- 
■grounds. When all the tracts are im- 
proved Montclair will rival any town 
of the state of its size. 
* * 
As a perliminary to beginning the 
work of making Joliet, 111., a “city 
beautiful,” preparations are under way 
to elect a park commission, and a 
“hurry call” is being exercised so as to 
get things moving. 
* * * 
Plans are perfected for improving a 
vacant area for a park and the erec- 
tion of a statue to Dr. Samuel G. Howe 
in South Boston, Mass. Dr. Howe 
founded and carried on for many years 
the Idiotic School and was one of the 
greatest benefactors of the district. 
* * * 
A ten-mile boulevard, part of which 
is under construction or completed, 
which will connect Cherokee, Iroquois 
and Shawnee Parks, Louisville, Ky., is 
a project only needing money to com- 
plete it. It is proposed to make a bond 
issue of $200,000. It has a width of 120 
feet, and will be a fine investment for 
the city in the way of increasing prop- 
erty values. 
* * * 
Plans for the improvement of Point 
Defiance Park, Tacoma, Wash., have 
been adopted by the Metropolitan Park 
Board. They include remodeling cer- 
tain portions of the park and the con- 
struction of a roadway from the south 
entrance to connect with the drive now 
leading to the boulevard .through the 
forest. Plans for a new animal house 
72 feet long were also adopted. 
PARK IMPROVEMENTS 
In order to increase the number of 
playgrounds and properly equip them, 
increase the park area and open the 
public school buildings to make the 
schoolhouse neighborhood social cen- 
ters, the park board of Holyoke, Mass., 
hopes to get an appropriation of $135,- 
000 for , 1910. The contemplated im- 
provements are : a recreation building 
for Riverside park, the further develop- 
ment of Elmwood park, enlargement, 
etc., of other parks, and the development 
of the Jones Point property, which is 
destined to be one of the best and the 
largest of the Holyoke playgrounds. 
The park board of Peoria, 111., is con- 
sidering the purchase of another small 
park area, and the laying out of a num- 
ber of small parks in various parts of 
the city is talked of. It is proposed 
to make the public parks far more at- 
tractive this season. 
The village council of Colfax, Wis., 
has purchased a five acre tract east of 
the main part of the village for park 
purposes. 
The New Brunswick, N. J., city coun- 
cil has authorized the purchase of a 
twenty-eight acre tract of land, not far 
from the Pennsylvania depot, for park 
purpose. This more than doubles the 
city’s park area, but efforts will not be 
relaxed to increase the area still further. 
The new purchase will be transformed 
into an up-to-date park. 
Kansas City proposes to extend its 
boulevard system during the coming 
year, and the board of park commis- 
sioners has instructed Mr. George E. 
Kessler, landscape architect, to prepare 
plants, to include a parkway on both 
sides of the Dodson line, in the general 
boulevard scheme. This is the city’s 
new territory on the south, and the ob- 
ject of a double parkway is to forever 
bar the development of factories and 
general freight business in a strictly 
residence district. 
The question of a public park for 
New Rochelle, N. Y., is still being urged 
by the taxpayers, and a 55 acre tract 
is now being considered. The neces- 
sity of a public school in the neighbor- 
hood makes it opportune for the city 
to purchase a school and park site at 
one and the some time. 
Expecting that it may be set aside as 
a national park. Monument Canon, a 
a tract of land near Grand Junction, 
Colo., famous for its scenic beauties, 
has been withdrawn from entry by the 
Secretary of the Interior. A bill is 
pending to make the canon a national 
park. 
Livermore, Cal., has elected to raise 
$10,000 by a bond issue to purchase 
property for a park, upon which will be 
erected a public library for which Mr. 
Carnegie has donated $15,000. Liver- 
more, with its 2,000 inhabitants, is one 
of the first of the smaller towns of 
the state to vote bonds for a public park 
successfully. The vote stood 242 to 18. 
Mrs. Jane C. Wrigley, widow of the 
late Thomas Wrigley, Paterson, N. J., 
has donated to the city for a public 
park some 36 lots, valued at $18,000. A 
tablet is to be maintained in the park 
inscribed as follows : “This park was 
donated by Jane C. Wrigley to the peo- 
ple of Paterson in loving memory of 
her departed husband, Thomas Wrig- 
ley, December, 1909.” 
Albany, Ga., which has been working 
for a public park for several years has 
recently completed negotiations for the 
purchase of twenty-eight acres in the 
north part of the town at a cost of $10,- 
500. Park making will be begun at 
once. 
The Garden of the Gods, in all a 
property of 480 acres, has been pre- 
sented to Colorado Springs by the late 
Charles E. Perkins, as an addition to 
its park system. This beautiful, in- 
deed marvelous tract, is well known at 
home and abroad, and Colorado Springs 
may well boast of its park system, prob- 
ably the largest and most varied, for a 
town of its size, in the world. A spot 
will be reserved for a memorial to the 
donor. 
As a result of the law enacted by the 
last legislature of Maine the commis- 
sioners of cemeteries and public grounds 
of Portland will not be dependent on 
the city for its appropriations. The tax 
on the assessed valuation of the city 
will provide some $58,453.41 for this 
year’s work. There is land to be paid 
for, and much old improvement work 
to be continued, yet it is expected that 
the fund will permit of some new un- 
dertakings. 
The park commissioners of Los An- 
geles have been considering a proposed 
gift of 30 acres of land by Mr. John T. 
Gaffey at San Pedro. It is an admira- 
ble piece of land for certain park pur- 
poses. The park will be named Arca- 
dia Park in honor of Mrs. Gaffey. 
Oak Park, 111., one of the north- 
western suburbs of Chicago, is a can- 
didate for an artistic plan of improve- 
ment. The Fine Arts Society has ap- 
pointed a committee of architects and 
artists to prepare a plan to embrace 
both public and private improvements, 
including the new systems of parks and 
playgrounds. 
Meridian, Miss., of which Mr. Adolph 
Arp is superintendent of parks, expend- 
ed $22,000 last year in improvements, 
comprising drives, walks, band stand, 
shelter houses, of which there are 
three, fountains, etc. A six-inch water 
main connected with the city water- 
works supplies the park. Two miles of 
roadway are yet to be constructed. 
Besides the shelter houses there is a su- 
perintendent’s residence and refectory. 
