PARK AND 
CEMETERY. 
508 
probable permanence of approprate surroundings should 
also be considered, for changes in the character and oc- 
cupancy of adjacent buildings have frequently turned 
harmony into discord. 
These principles in general govern the Art Commission 
in its decisions on the location of every monument. But 
these simple principles are frequently entirely ignored by 
those who offer monuments to the city. They seem to 
think that any unoccupied space in the streets or parks 
is suitable for any kind of a monument, provided only 
that it is conspicuous. Whether the place suits the char- 
acter of the monument or tlie monument is appropriate 
to the place is not given the attention it deserves as the 
most important consideration involved. 
PANTHERS AT ENTRANCE TO CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK; WELL-PLACED STATUES, EFFECTIVE AND 
LOGICAL IN THEIR RELATION TO TPIE PARK. 
AMERICAN CITY PARKS AND PLAYGROUNDS 
From a Reviezv of “Parks and Recreation Facilities,” in the Annals 
of the American Academy, by John Nolen. Landscape Architect. 
City parks are much better known 
than national parks or state parks. 
Every city worthy of the name has 
public parks of some sort, and they are 
now recognized as a necessity of city 
life — just as streets and water and 
schools are a necessity. They contrib- 
ute to the pleasure and health of urban 
populations more than any other recre- 
ative feature, and furnish the most nec- 
essary and available antidote to the ar- 
tificiality, confusion and feverishness of 
life in cities. At the present time the 
value of parks and open spaces in towns 
and cities is very generally appreciated. 
It is recognized that such facilities as 
parks afford are not only desirable, but 
increasingly necessary ; in fact, indis- 
pensable. In a vague way there is ap- 
proval, too, of a large increase in both 
parks and playgrounds. But few even 
of the more enlightened communities 
appear yet to understand with any 
clearness that these open spaces in cit- 
ies are of great variety, that they are, 
or should be, selected and developed by 
experts to serve essentially different 
purposes, and that the failure to appre- 
ciate this fact, and to keep it constantly 
in mind, leads to great waste and in- 
efficiency in our public grounds. 
The term “parks” is used in a loose 
sense to cover all public grounds. City 
squares, commons, public gardens, play- 
grounds, neighborhood centers, park- 
ways, the great outlying reservations, 
and parks proper — all are loosely 
termed “parks.” City squares, com- 
mons and public gardens are usually of 
small size, and are found in the business 
as well as the residential sections of 
cities. Their practical functions are to 
furnish agreeable views for those pass- 
ing by or through them, to provide a 
pleasant resting place for those who 
take the time to use them in this man- 
ner, and in some cases to afford an 
appropriate and agreeable foreground 
to public or semi-public buildings. Play- 
grounds are different from squares, and 
should be designed primarily for play. 
They are usually divided for conveni- 
ence into three classes, those for little 
tots, those for children of the school 
age, and those for older boys and men 
or for girls and women. In no other 
department of public recreation has 
there recently been such a development. 
The Year Book of the Playground As- 
sociation of America, just issued, shows 
that out of 950 cities and towns in the 
United States having a population of 
5,000 or over, 336 maintain supervised 
playgrounds, and the actual number of 
playgrounds conducted in these cities 
will number nearly 2,000. 
