465 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
PARK N EWS. 
5Ir. and 5Irs. Ferris 5\'. Colby have 
-donated a tract of land, to be known 
as Colb\- Park, to Aldine, Tex. 
Deeds coveying the entire Barn 
Bluff property to the city of Red 
Wing, IMinn., for park purposes were 
formally presented to the cit}- council 
on December 3, bj- 5Iayor A. P. 
Pierce. James Lawther's cash con- 
tribution, with which part of the 
property was purchased, supplemented 
P) 3 - the gifts of the Bank of Pierce, 
Simmons & Co., and Charles A. 
Betcher, who owned a large portion 
of the bluff property, made the pre- 
■sentation of this beaut}' spot possible. 
Plans are now under way for the park- 
ing of the bluff, which stands as a 
sentinel over the city. 
As soon as the plans and specifica- 
tions can be made, the Civic League 
of Columbia, S. C., will improve Rob- 
ertson Park. John 5IcNeal, the new 
city engineer, will begin work at once 
on the engineering portion of the 
work, and H. P. Kelsey, of Boston, 
landscape architect, has been engaged 
to take care of the landscape garden- 
ing. Robertson Park was presented 
to the city b}' Edwin W. Robertson. 
He also placed $1,500 in the hands of 
the Civic League to be used in im- 
proving the park. 
San Diego proposes to spend $1,- 
000.000 in the improvement of its 
1,400 acres of city park, the money 
coming from the sale of bonds to that 
amount voted by the people last Au- 
gust. At a meeting of the Panama- 
California exposition committee re- 
cently it was decided to devote $500.- 
000 to building a mnseum of fine arts, 
an auditorium, with a seating capac- 
ity of T.OOO and a stadium of still 
larger capacity. The other $500,000 
will be devoted to improvements of 
the park grounds, construction of 
drives and a lake. Air. John C. Olm- 
sted. landscape architect of Boston, 
has been engaged to plan and lay out 
the .grounds. 
^Milwaukee. Wis.. is planning to pur- 
chase some 100 acres of land on 
the lake shore, near South iMilwau- 
kee. to create a new park. The park 
commissioners have also asked the 
council for $45,000 for a bird house 
in Washington Park, 
The annual report of the park com- 
missioners of Springfield. Hass., states 
that five new parks have been added 
to the department during the year, 
making 49 in all, with a totaf'-oi 594 
acres. Van Horn reservoir and ad- 
.ioining land has been made into “Van 
Horn Reservoir Park,” Kenwood and 
Grenada terraces have been developed, 
as have Oak Grove Park and Sumner 
Terrace. Garrish Park has been ac- 
quired and developed. 
Senator R. W. Tirrill and wife, of 
Alanchester, Iowa, on December 22. 
executed a deed with certain proper 
reservation,*:, giving the city a tract 
of land for park purposes in the 
north part of the city, along the east 
bank of the Haquoketa river. fur- 
ther testamentary .gift, made of 
$50,000, will form a permanent im- 
provement fund, Tirrill Park will be 
the name. 
The citizens of the city of Petaluma, 
Cal., are very soon to hold a bond 
election for the purpose of purchasing 
the Kenilworth Park. This park was 
purchased by the late Henry Stover, 
a number of years ago. He made a 
great many improvements to the big 
tract, and gave it its present name. 
The entire tract is now offered for 
.*:ale for the sum of $25,000. ft is the 
pi'rpose of the municipal government 
of Petaluma to raise the money on 
the city's credit hy issuing bonds. 
sum. much larger than the purchase 
price, will be raised, and. whatever 
money remains in excess of that 
amount, will be expended in the fur- 
ther improvement and heautification 
of the park. It is the purpose of the 
citizens of Petaluma to expend quite 
a considerable sum of monev for the 
ornamentation of the grounds, and to 
make the park one of the best in 
central California: at least, the most 
beautiful in all Sonoma County. The 
several women’s clubs of Petaluma 
are taking a very active part in the 
’’p'v park project. 
James N. Burnes, president of the 
Empire Trust Company, and owner 
of .5yr Lawn, one of the most beau- 
tiful country estates situated near the 
city of St. Joseph. iMo.. has offered to 
give, absolutely free and without re- 
striction. twenty acres of the tract 
for park purposes, the park board to 
make its own selection of the ground 
desired. The offer was made by Mr. 
Burnes recently at a conference over 
the plans of the park board as they 
have been outlined. The donor was 
generous enough to say that the board 
may choose any tract of twenty acres 
of the 140 acres embraced in the Ayr 
Lawn homestead, save that immedi- 
ately surrounding the Burnes resi- 
dence. After the tender was made 
it was agreed that the choice of a 
tract will be left to George E. Kess- 
ler, landscape architect to the board. 
The postoffice department has ap- 
proved the recommendation of Post- 
master Scott, of Sault Ste. Marie, 
Mich., relative to improving the 
grounds about the federal building, 
taking in the old Fort Brady square. 
Mr. Scott is now having the necessary 
plans drawn and expects to have 
everything in shape so that the work 
can start early in the spring. If the 
plans as outlined by Postmaster Scott 
are carried out the federal grounds 
will be made into a park which will 
ultimately become one of the beauty 
spots of the Soo. A considerable 
sum of money will be required for the 
work. 
A herd of seven buffalo presented 
to the city of Topeka by Joshua Hill 
of Pontiac, IMich., are now located in 
their new home, Gage Park. jMr. 
Norris L. Gage, of Ashtabula, Ohio, 
donated five hundred dollars towards 
the expense of their transfer and a 
few loyal and patriotic citizens of 
Topeka have purchased 10 Virginia 
White Tailed Deer, some Muscovy 
Ducks and a number of Canadian, 
Chinese and Emden Geese, all of 
which they have donated to the city 
for the further enlargement of the Zoo- 
logical collection at Gage Park. 
A tract of land valued at $100,000 
was recently presented to the city of 
Philadelphia for park purposes by Mrs. 
J. Bertram Lippincott, Mrs. Harrison 
S. Morrison and Miss Mary Wharton, 
daughters of the late Joseph Wharton, 
who was- a millionaire iron manufac- 
turer of Philadelphia. The land is lo- 
cated in Germantown, a suburb, and is 
known as Fishers park. 
The Point Grey, Vancouver, munici- 
pal council has decided to accept an 
offer for the purchase of another park 
site of five acres in the municipality, 
the price being $2,500 per acre. This 
makes the sixth park site purchased by 
the council this year, a total of between 
thirty and thirty-five acres having been 
acquired. 
The payment into the Pennsylvania 
State treasury of $1,300,000, recovered 
from the defendants in the capitol 
cases, encourages the hope for the en- 
actment of a park extension bill this 
session. 
