238 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
A REVIEW OF RECENT PARK DEVELOPMENT IN AMERICAN CITIES 
Report to the American Civic Associatidn by Aiidrew Wrii^ht Crawford^ 
Vice President of its Department of Parks and Public Reservations 
The park movement during the past year has been marked 
by decided advances in six directions. Two are Fundamental. 
First, the study of the city plan and its effect upon parks and 
the effect of parks on the city plan have been reflected as 
never before in reports on the improvement of cities and 
towns. Second, the necessity of giving to American cities 
the power enjoyed by European municipalities of condemning 
properties that front on proposed parks and parkways in 
order to sell them at an increased price after the improve- 
ments are consummated and thus pay therefor, has been more 
clearly recognized and agitated. 
Third, another advance is the planning of park systems by 
cities of the second and third classes, and by towns. 
Fourth, the development of the uses of parks, has been 
signalized by the institution of recreation centers, the prac- 
tical ideal of the playground movement. 
Fifth, the opportunities for beautifying water fronts have 
been appreciated as never before, and plans on the lines of 
European water fronts are afloat. 
Sixth, the public’s interest in and understanding of methods 
for beautifying American cities by all of the foregoing means 
has been exhibited in a greater degree than ever before by 
the activity of old local associations and the formation of new 
ones, by the presentation of new reports on the comprehen- 
sive improvement of individual cities and towns, by a remark- 
able number of articles averaging, it is reported, twenty a 
month on the subject of town improvement, by the incor- 
poration in nearly a dozen magazines of regular departments 
on town and city beautification and by editorials and news- 
paper articles on the subject. A general interest is shown di- 
rectly by favorable votes on park loans and indirectly by 
favorable action by politicians, reform or stalwart, on the 
acquisition of new parks, parkways, and playgrounds and the 
appointment of park, art, and improvement commissions. 
The City Plan 
The chief study of the City Plan presented during the past 
year is Mr. Burnham’s report on the improvement of San 
Erancisco made more important by the opportunity to recon- 
struct the city after the fire. I do not make further comment 
upon the report because the association will hear from Ex- 
Mayor Phelan on the subject. 
The United Civic Associations of the Borough of Queens 
of New York City published during the past year a report of 
its Committee on the City Plan and Parks, three-fourths of 
which is devoted to the subject “Main Traffic Arteries.” The 
fifty-three specific recommendations as to these arteries are 
followed by the following general recommendations : “The 
main traffic arteries being the shortest routes between im- 
portant points should accommodate all needed kinds of trans- 
portation as part of their convenience. None should be less 
than 100 feet wide finally and all new ones built should have 
that as a minimum width. At intersections of important ar- 
teries there should be at appropriate places, circles or round 
points, as found in Washington, Paris, London, etc. These 
are necessary in order to facilitate distribution of traffic with 
avoidance of congestion. They, at the same time, add ele- 
gance to the plan. There should be a shore front highway 
developed as necessary around the whole water front of the 
Borough. In sections of the Borough where the surface is 
decidedly irregular we recommend that the roadways follow 
the windings of the valley as far as possible, avoiding all 
avoidable cuts and fills, and going from level to level by 
easiest grade. Actual recorded experience has demonstrated 
incontestably that land thus developed can bring more per 
lot than similar surface developed on the rigid undiscrim- 
inating gridiron plan.” 
In the report of the Civic League on the improvement of 
Columbia, S. C., a city of 50,000 inhabitants, the experts, 
Messrs. Kelsey & Guild, insisted upon the importance of the 
plan of the city’s streets. They say: “It is extremely un- 
fortunate that the original plan was so arbitrary, with ap- 
parently little, if any, consideration given to the topography 
of the land. Even on a flat plane, the gridiron plan can never 
be said to be entirely satisfactory, and with no diagonal or 
“ring” (encircling) streets the conditions are still more un- 
favorable, and become aggravated as the city grows. Had the 
engineer but provided diagonal streets, radiating from the 
capitol, and taken into consideration the contour of the land, 
a much better foundation would have been laid for a con- 
venient and beautiful city of large population. The following 
quotation shows the author’s appreciation of the inter-relation 
of park systems and the city plan and the interdependence of 
the two : “Such a plan, therefore, involves not only general 
consideration of city growth, but must include its main parts 
governing the establishment and extension of the parks, play- 
grounds, boulevards and streets and the location of public 
buildings and institutions. 
The report of Charles Mulford Robinson, ex-secretary of 
this association, on the proposed plan for the improvement of 
the City of Denver, issued by the Art Commission of that city 
in January of this year, calls attention to the Denver street 
plan as weak in arterial diagonal thoroughfares. The same 
author’s report on the beautifying of Honolulu, which by the 
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