537 
PARK AND C EM ETER V. 
You are now facing, in the second 
period of your park development, the 
re-creative era of your city planning 
— the imperative need of unifying and 
tj'ing together the different and 
widel}’ separated districts of the city. 
In your fundamental planning, the 
central business .district was built 
ui)on broad lines, with wide streets 
and ample proportions and with 
splendid diagonal thoroughfares 
reaching out in the different directions 
from the business center. In your 
later period of development an evi- 
dentl}' penurious and entirely mis- 
taken system of street planning was 
permitted to creep in. resulting in a 
lack of wide streets and in failure 
e^■en properly to continue those which 
bad been begun. 
The salient and most important 
portion of the present movement in 
the re-creation of a beautiful Indian- 
apolis is based upon the existence of 
the streams flowing through the city. 
You are wise in your conclusions to 
adopt the idea of consecutive im- 
provement along the principal 
streams, creating a chain of parks of 
the very highest usefulness through 
long reaches of residential districts. 
Fortunately these streams lie in direc- 
tions which, as an incident to park 
development along their shores, serve 
as the finest and most direct lines of 
roadway communication. And while 
the fundamental importance of local 
recreation groun.ds is emphasized, the 
incident of fine driveways will in time 
becom,e that element which will sur- 
prise and gratify your own people in 
leading them into the real beauty 
spots of the city, and become an ele- 
ment of advertising value which will 
more than compensates' for jadi expen- 
ditures in their establishment. In 
this connection will you permit a ref- 
erence to Kansas City, almost identi- 
cal in numbers and population. That 
city permitted its park department to 
build up its boulevards, encircling and 
passing through the city, and permit- 
ted the acquisition and improvement 
of lands which were characteristic of 
its topography. That community has 
become proud of its development, 
and in the latter years has received 
perhaps even more than its share of 
favorable comment from its residents 
and visitors. A justification for such 
favorable comments lies merely in the 
use of properties characteristic to that 
region, and the keynote of the im- 
provement of those properties has 
been the conserving of the natural 
and characteristic beauties there. 
A YEAR IN WILMINGTON PARKS AND PLAYGROUNDS 
The last year's park work in Wil- 
mington, Del., brought some substan- 
tial additions to the park area, and 
some important betterments to the 
system. One of the most interesting 
improvements that shows the striking- 
transformation effected in a neigh- 
borhood by park-making is seen in 
the accompanying illustration of the 
"before and after" views of the Mar- 
ket street entrance to the North 
Drive. 
The only funds available for the 
use of the Commission have been an 
unexpended balance from last }'ear 
of $7,338.97, the annual appropriation 
of .$18,000 and the usual receipts from 
rentals, swimming pools, etc., of $2,- 
344.22, a total of $27,683.19. The ex- 
penditures have lieen $23, .520. 44 leav- 
ing a balance of $4,162.75. 
Notwithstanding the lack of funds, 
the city has been very fortunate in 
securing several very .desirable tracts 
of land which in the future will be 
of inestimable value. 
The largest tract was deeded by 
the E. I. Du ['out de Nemours Pow- 
der Company, through the exertions 
and by the generosity of William P. 
Pancroft, and contains 106.29 acres. 
Adjoining this is 16.7.5 acres placed 
in trust by William ]’. Pancroft in 
190.3. which has been transferred to 
the city. This land is for the most 
I)art hea\'ily wooded and is admir- 
ably adapted for a woo.dland jiark. 
In North Prandywine Park a new 
1 ath was laid along the north side of 
Jessups Road, and is of concrete 6..") 
feet wide and 2,200 feet long. At 
tl'.e >ame time Jessup’s Road bridge 
Continued on Pape XVI 
MARKET STREET ENTRANCE TO NORTH DRIVE, 
WILMINGTON, DEL., BEFORE AND AFTER IMPROVEMENT. 
