563 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
PARK AND IMPROVEMENT WORK IN 
DES MOINES 
PROPOSED GROUPING OF STATE 
BUILDINGS ABOUT THE CAPITOL AT 
DES MOINES. 
Des Moines, the capital city of 
Iowa, already widely known for its 
very successful form of commission 
government, is making rapid strides 
forward in many other lines of civic 
betterment. There are about thirty 
live improvement leagues scattered 
over the city, each with well defined 
policies, the strongest organization 
being the Commercial Club. This 
latter, through its various central- 
ized committees, has for several 
years carried forward a campaign of 
systematized advertising of the city 
and the state. In important matters 
affecting the city’s welfare, members 
of the city council consult with the 
Commercial Club, which practice 
tends to relieve friction and greatly 
facilitate the completion of improve- 
ments. 
When the Des Moines plan of com- 
mission government went into effect, 
the city practically owned about 700 
acres of park land, two unimproved 
boulevards each about one mile long, 
two large cemeteries, and about 
three miles of river frontage. A fea- 
ture out of the ordinary was that all 
this park land had either been pur- 
chased outright or was being bought 
under short term payments, so that 
this present year will see the last pay- 
ment for park property now owned 
by the city. 
Under the commission government 
the city’s affairs are handled by a 
mayor and four commissioners, each 
devoting his entire time to the city. 
The mayor exercises general super- 
vision and heads the department of 
public affairs; and the other four 
commissioners head the departments 
of public safety, hnance, parks and 
public property, and streets and pub- 
lic improvements. Under Superin- 
tendent John MacVicar of the de- 
partment of streets and public im- 
provements, is being carried on some 
very interesting improvement work. 
A couple of years ago the women’s 
clubs were instrumental, after secur- 
ing the co-operation of the commer- 
cial clubs and the various district im- 
provement leagues, in having Charles 
Mulford Robinson, of Rochester, 
brought to Des Moines to study the 
cial thought for suggestions applica- 
ble to Des Moines. 
During the summer and autumn of 
1910, the parkway previously sur- 
veyed was graded sufficiently to al- 
low a limited amount of pleasure 
traffic. The adjoining property own- 
ers are so far satisfied with the prob- 
able success of the new work that 
they will not only agree to give the 
city free title to the strip of right 
of way, but have also paid for the 
grading that was done last year. The 
new recreation highway was named 
Witmer Boulevard, after an aged 
patron of the work, since deceased, 
the thought in the district improve- 
ment league being to honor the old 
gentleman while he yet lived to en- 
joy the courtesy. 
The present year several leagues in 
other parts of the city are preparing 
to put in shape other sections of the 
boulevard scheme. Indications look 
very favorably toward the eventual 
completion of a comprehensive sys- 
tem of boulevards to add comfort to 
the city life and conserve the rare 
MODEL FOR GROUPING DES MOINES MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS ON RIVER 
FRONT. TPIIS WORK IS THREE-FOURTHSCOMPLETED. 
city and make report on its possibili- 
ties for betterment. In order that 
Mr. Robinson’s suggestions might be 
put in process of fulfillment, the 
Commercial Club agreed to defray 
the expense of securing a landscape 
engineer to supervise the survey for 
a valley boulevard or parkway, with 
the idea that enough interest would 
he created to push the work on 
toward the completion of a compre- 
hensive system of parks and boule- 
vards. Ray F. Weirick, of Kansas 
City, was selected to take charge of 
the surveys, and on the completion 
of the maps and estimates the city 
council was so well pleased with the 
possibilities of the parkway that he 
was selected to remain with the city 
as its landscape architect during the 
life of the present council, a part of 
the agreement being that he should 
spend the winter of 1910-11 in Europe 
studying the cities there with spe- 
natural scenery of the region in which 
the city lies. For its population, Des 
Moines spreads over more ground 
than any other city in the United 
States, so that up to this time no 
tenements are found and some of the 
most attractive features of the city’s 
site yet remain in a state of nature. 
Many citizens have expressed a will- 
ingness to give small tracts of park 
property to the city, so that this 
spirit of generosity, combined with 
the enterprising policy of the people 
as a whole, will eventually result in 
the completion of a large and effec- 
tive park system at minimum cost. 
The topography of Des Moines af- 
fords a very fine variety of attractive 
scenery. The city lies on both sides 
of the Des Moines river, the largest 
stream within the borders of the 
state. The plans cal! for shady river- 
side drives and a magnificent group- 
ing of municipal buildings on the 
