PARK AND CEMETERY. 
>A.'. ■'■’’■rTi-' 
PATH THROUGH NEW SHEDD PLAYGROUND, LOWELL, MASS. 
some form of industrial work should 
be carried on; and that some shade 
from the heat of the sun should be 
furnished with some shelter where 
the sessions may be held in stormy 
weather. 
On no day during the summer, 
with the exception of the week-end 
intermission, was any one of the 
grounds unsupervised. On all of the 
grounds the afternoon attendance was 
decidedly greater than that of the 
morning. The atten.dance on Satur- 
day morning was very small, most of 
the children having extra, duties at 
home on that day. 
Industrial work was introduced and 
became very popular. Practically 
every scrap of material which was 
provided was used. Instruction was 
given in plain sewing, seaming, gath- 
ering, overcasting; in embroidery; in 
cardboard construction; in paper-cut- 
ting and folding; in bead work; in 
knitting; in sewing cards for the very 
youngest children; in raffia work; in 
reed and raffia basket weaving and 
cane-seating for the older girls. Dur- 
ing the last three days of August the 
exhibit of industrial work was dis- 
played in two show windows on the 
leading street. 
A meeting of the women directors 
was held once a week, in order to 
keep the work on all of the play- 
grounds somewhat uniform. Each 
playground had .different characteris- 
tics and conditions, so that absolute 
unity in working form of the differ- 
ent grounds was not strived for. At 
these meetings there was always a 
generous giving of help from one di- 
rector to another. The Play Fes- 
tival at the close of the season, when 
all of the children gathered together 
from all of the grounds, had the ef- 
fect of combining their little energies 
to make, not only their work, but the 
work done by anyone, on any ground, 
as good as it could be made. The 
Festival included an interesting pro- 
The period of park development 
prior to 1908, the time of the reor- 
ganization of your entire work, ac- 
complished many excellent things in 
the acquisition of splendid park prop- 
erties. This was evidently an ex- 
pression of feeling the need of places 
of recreation. It is true these ef- 
forts were all sporadic, without con- 
tinuity or connection, and with only 
an indifferent understan.ding of the 
uses that a community has for recre- 
ation grounds, or its specific needs in 
its different units. However, the 
properties were acquire.d and at least 
partly improved. But the rate of 
growth of the city went far in ad- 
gram of dances, games and drills 
given in the fine natural amphithea- 
ter on the South Common. The day 
on which the Festival was held was 
perfect, and thousands of people came 
to watch the results of the children’s 
supervised play. 
Besides the account of the play- 
ground work, the report contains the 
regular annual summary of the work 
of the park department, and a valu- 
able report on the street trees by Su- 
perintendent of Parks Charles A. 
Whittet. 
vance of the acquisition and improve- 
ment of properly situated park or 
parkway lands, and a certain measure 
of neglect in this respect becomes 
costly now in the second period or 
new era of the city’s development. 
With only a few exceptions Amer- 
ican cities generally in their forma- 
tion have made the same mistake, but 
there are few today that do not ap- 
preciate the need of the systematic, 
proper development of the best forms 
of outdoor recreation and of well con- 
ceived and properly placed lines of 
communication between the business 
and the residence districts of the 
cities and unifying outer areas. 
LOCAL CHARACTER IN PARKS 
From a Report to the Indianapolis Park Board 
by George E. Kessler, Landscape Architect 
