PARK AND CEMETERY 
37 7 
twenty-five years many of our large park systems were 
evolved. It was during these years that Frederick Law Olm- 
sted was in his prime and doing his great work, which culmi- 
nated in the World’s Fair Grounds in Chicago in 1893. Also 
during this period several other skilled landscape architects 
came to the front. During the last ten years municipal park 
work has taken on a magnitude little dreamed of a quarter of 
a century ago, so that now the solitary individual park, which 
was the first conception, has grown into a series of parks, 
connected with boulevards and parkways, and is still further 
expanding into outer belts of parks or reservations of tre- 
mendous magnitude, or narrow strips of river banks or the 
seashore or lake front. Valleys, hilltops, forests and great 
meadows have been taken or are proposed to be taken for 
public use. More than this, and to my notion, better than 
this, are the neighborhood parks, field houses, gymnasiums 
and play grounds, which have recently multiplied many fold. 
Now all this is to me but the first step of municipal park work. 
Our first step was to learn how to weave the park fabric 
which is not only to cover our public ground, but will give a 
limited control over private grounds. To weave this park 
fabric has now been learned ; that is, be a park large or small, 
a public square or the street triangle, a large mountain or 
forest reservation, or a narrow strip on the shore; be it a 
children’s play ground, a field house or a gymnasium or the 
narrow strip of grass next to the sidewalk or the trees which 
overarch the street; let the ground be of any size or condition 
that may be, if the use of it is defined and the purpose it is 
to serve is known, then the man can be found somewhere 
who has just the knowledge, experience and skill to produce 
the results desired. We naturally believe that the main thing 
regarding parks is to get a piece of land which we can develop 
and make into a park, weaving there some pattern which we 
ourselves are skillful in weaving, and which we know is 
beautiful. Important as that may be from our standpoint, it 
is of less importance than to have the park so made and so 
located as to fit the conditions of the neighborhood or city 
that it must serve. And I believe a park can always be built 
suitable to the needs of a community, and within the means 
which that community can easily and will readily afford. 
We have for so long considered parks as being a sort of a 
living picture and artistic production that we strive to make 
them such, and we do right in so striving, yet, first of all, a 
park is made for use, and should be made usable, and to fit 
the needs of the community so they will use it. The second 
step in the park problem approaches the question from the 
standpoint of the people, and not from the standpoint of 
beautifying a piece of open ground in a city. 
Within a few days of each other representative men of three 
of the largest cities in the United States, one located in the 
east and the other two cities more than a thousand miles 
from Hartford and as much as that distance from each other, 
entirely unconscious that the others were considering the same 
problem, sought from the accumulated information in my 
office material for the study of the following problems : 
First: What proportion of private property should by law 
be kept from being built upon ; that is, reserved for the ben- 
efit of the city as a whole? 
Second: What should be the width of streets relative to 
the height of buildings, and what part does the street play in 
distributing light and air to the city, and what part does it 
take in the recreation of the people, or as play ground for 
children, and how far does it perform the function known as 
park function? 
Third: What part can streets take in providing plant life 
for cities in the form of street trees, grass or flowers, ,and 
what influence has plant life upon the health and happiness 
and sanity of the people? 
Fourth: What is the maximum number of people that 
should be allowed to live on one acre of the city’s territory, 
and what tenement or other laws should be enacted that will 
tend to limit them to that number? 
Fifth: What are the varying numbers of square feet that 
the different sections of a city need per capita for small 
parks and play grounds, and what is the minimum number of 
square feet a child needs when actually using a play ground? 
Sixth: What is the maximum distance a child should be 
expected to walk to its play ground, and what are the prin- 
ciples that underlie their location and distribution? 
Seventh: What is the maximum distance people should 
be expected to go to their neighborhood park, and how should 
they be located, constructed and cared for, and what should 
they provide for the people? 
Eighth: What is the minimum number of square feet of 
gravel space per capita that should be provided, and what 
ratio should this gravel space bear to the lawn and planting 
for scenic effect, and what accommodations should be pro- 
vided in these places? 
Ninth: What is the natural sub-division of the people in 
neighborhoods, circles or clans, and how is the cleavage be- 
tween neighborhoods to be recognized, and what are the 
needs of the different classes as to provision for light, air, 
open space and recreation? 
Tenth: All agreed that paternalism was not wanted, and 
the question was thoroughly discussed as to what policy the 
state and city could adopt which would make it possible for 
each neighborhood or city to provide for itself its own needs. 
Eleventh: All agreed that the first step towards discover- 
ing this policy was for a commission or for a committee of 
citizens to be formed in each city, and that they invite men 
not residents of their own cities, outsiders who could come 
and in cold blood, as it were, study the situation and see if a 
solution of these questions could not be found. 
Each of my visitors came to me convinced that such a com- 
mission of committee was the first step to be taken ; each had 
discussed the matter with some of the leading citizens in their 
own city before coming, and had partially arranged for such 
a commission to be formed. 
At the afternoon session Andrew Wright Crawford, 
of Philadelphia, gave an illustrated address on ‘‘City 
Plans and Outer Park Systems.” Those cities are most 
beautiful, he said, which had definite city plans to start 
with. Washington, our most beautiful city, and Buf- 
falo the second in beauty, were made so by their plans. 
The plan of long diagonal streets radiating from a 
central square or plaza, the essential features of the 
plans of both Buffalo and Washington, gives less build- 
ing space than the old gridiron plan, but offer far 
greater opportunities for beautifying the city, by fur- 
nishing sites at street intersections for open spaces in 
form of small triangles, circles and squares. The chief 
diagonal streets of Washington radiate from the Cap- 
itol and from the White House. On one of these streets^ 
Massachusetts Avenue, there are forty-eight open 
spaces and a total of 275 in the city. The plan for 
the city as prepared by the expert commission proposes 
one thousand of these open spaces. German cities, 
said the speaker, are more progressive than we in pro- 
viding city plans. They recognize the demands of the 
convenience of the people and the beauty of the city as 
against the commercial demand for the greatest 
amount of building space. A number of interesting 
plans for German cities and sections of cities were 
shown. The necessity of making these plans early is 
shown by the example of London, which is now open- 
ing up a wide thoroughfare through the center of the 
city at an expense of $30,000,000. Omaha and Kansas 
City, have gridiron plans somewhat alleviated by a con- 
necting system of parks and boulevards. Memphis, 
Louisville, Essex County, N. J., Portland, Oregon, and 
Ottawa, Ontario, were other cities mentioned as being 
improved by park systems of this nature. 
Mrs. Annetta E. McCrea, of Chicago, presented the 
report of the Railroad and Rural Improvement Depart- 
ment which showed very encouraging progress in im- 
provement by railroads. Nearly all of the 125 rail- 
road systems of the country are either making im- 
