47 ? 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
CONTINUED PROGRESS OF CHICAGO PLAY PARKS 
The annual report for the forty-first 
year of the corporate life of the South 
Park Commissioners of Chicago, just 
issued, shows a steady- progress in the 
development of the enlarged park sys- 
tem and a gratifying increase in the 
patronage of the parks. 
The intreas'e has been pronounced in 
the older and larger recreation areas 
around which there has been a rapid 
growth in population, as well as in the 
new parks, most of which have been in 
operation five years. Half a decade may 
be regarded as a sufficient period of 
time to test the practical value of the 
service rendered by the new parks. Sta- 
tistics gathered from year to year per- 
mit neither doubt of the civic value nor 
of the popularity of the field houses, 
g 3 nnnasia, athletic fields, swimming 
pools and playgrounds. Each year's ex- 
perience has made it possible to im- 
prove the service and increase the effi- 
ciency of the new parks as agents for 
providing healthful amusement, social 
recreation and certain education op- 
portunities for the people livin.g near 
them. 
During the year covered in this re- 
port a notable improvement was made 
in the employment of field house di- 
rectors to provide trained and intelligent 
supervision and guidance of the social 
activities in the field houses. From the 
first athletic instructors have been em- 
ployed. They have supervised the ath- 
letic fields and gymnasia, have given 
instructions to participants in sports 
and games, and, through field meets, 
tournaments and league contests' in the 
various games, have brought the physical 
phase of the park work to a high degree 
of efficiency. But social activites before 
the last year had been left largely un- 
guided. The assembly rooms and club 
rooms in s'ome cases were not used to 
their full capacity. 
For field house director in each of the 
ten new parks a man of refinement, 
education, initiative and social training 
has been chosen. A marked improve- 
ment has been brought about by the 
activity and intelligence of the new em- 
ployes, especially in parks in congested 
districts, where the need of direction in 
social activities was most pironounced. 
As an example, good results have been 
noticed in a park surrounded by resi- 
dents who were slow to appreciate the 
opportunities afforded, except the bath- 
ing facilities. Study of the customs and 
mode of life of these people enabled the 
director to promote various movements 
which stimulated the use of all park 
facilities. Once comprehended, the 
knowledge of the various advantages 
afforded spread rapidl.v. The park is 
now filling its place as a neighborhood 
center and supplying to the community 
wholesome physical and socal recrea- 
tion and an educational stimulus. 
Tn another instance, the assembly hall 
and club rooms were not being used 
sufficiently. After consulting with cler- 
.gymen. school teachers and leading citi- 
7ens of the neighborhood, the field house 
director e.stabli.shed “A Pleasant Sunday 
Afternoon,” at which musical entertain- 
ment furnished by amateurs and an ad- 
dress by a volunteer of merit, were 
offered. This supplied a needed recrea- 
tion in the neighborhood, where ques- 
tionable amusements were the only 
available attractions on the afternoon of 
the weekly rest day. Tt met with im- 
mediate favor. It was' the beginning of 
social movements which have brought 
the us'e of assembly hall and club rooms 
in this park up to within thirty per cent 
of the possibilities. 
Five years’ experience has demon- 
strated that the field house and gym- 
nasium facilities provided in the new 
parks, so far from being too elaborate 
as was 'first predicted by some adverse 
critics of the new venture, in most 
cases are inadequate to meet demands. 
Plans adopted for the buildings in the 
new park bounded by Forty-fifth street 
and Forty-sixth place, Princeton avenue 
and the Pennsylvania Railroad, will 
provide a recreation plant larger than 
in any other park. Not only the size 
will be increased, but the quality of the 
construction will be improved. This 
park embraces ten acres in the heart of 
a thickly populated district just east of 
the stock yards. The building for the 
men’s' and women’s gymnasia and shower 
baths, and that for the club rooms, read- 
ing room, lunch room and assembly 
hall, will surround an inner court 110 
by 116 feet in size. On three sides of 
this court will be a pergola covering a 
broad walk. The center of the court 
will be a garden. This attractive fea- 
ture, removed from the portions of the 
park devoted to youthful activities, is 
provided for elderly persons, who seek 
and require peaceful surroundings' that 
they may rest. 
The building for the showers and 
gymnasia will bound the north, east 
and west sides of the court, and the 
building for the assembly hall, club 
rooms, reading room and lunch room 
will be erected on the south side. These 
buildings will have solid concrete walls 
interlined with tile, and tile roofs. The 
swimming pool will be south of the 
main group of buildings. There will be 
a separate building for dressing booths. 
Each gymnasium will be fifty by 
ei.ghty feet in ground measure and 
twentv feet to the rafters, which is 
larger than in any other park. The 
walls will be of terra cotta and the 
floors of maple. There will be a bal- 
cony for spectators at games, and a full 
equipment of apparatus. Each locker 
room will be forty-three by fifty-six feet 
in size. The shower rooms will be 
larger than elsewhere, and more s'ub- 
stantially finished. For women there 
will be twenty-eight private showers, 
each with a dressing room with locked 
door attached. For the men there will 
be fifteen private and twenty-three open 
showers. Both shower rooms will be 
finished in marble and terra cotta. 
I'he main building, in which the as- 
sembly hall and its accompanying fea- 
tures will be located, will be eighty 
by one hundred feet in ground meas- 
ure and two stories high. On the first 
floor will be a large entrance hall, 
tw'enty-eight by sixty feet in size, 
from which ornamental iron stairways 
will lead to the assembly hall and club 
rooms above. The entrance hall will 
be finished in marble. On one side 
will be the lunch room and kitchen, 
and on the other side the reading 
room, where a branch of the Chicago 
Public Library w'ill be established and 
maintained. 
I'he assembly hall will be fifty by 
eighty feet in size with a stage twelve 
