607 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
THE KANSAS CIT 
SCARKITT POINT COMMANDS MAGNIFICENT VIEWS. 
There is no city in the country that 
can show a better record on park 
progress than Kansas City, Mo. It 
stands out prominently also as a city 
where a combination of circumstanc- 
es, ethical and material, seemed to 
co-operate, with results eminently sat- 
isfactory; and even when opposition 
developed against particular propo- 
sitions or details, it vanished into the 
public spirit which must have per- 
vaded the body politic in its deter- 
mination to secure a park system 
worthy of the ambitious city. 
It was in the year 1893 that the then 
first board of park and boulevard 
commissioners reported a well con- 
sidered plan, well considered in that 
it comprehended some years of care- 
ful study of local conditions and 
prospects. This plan appeared to be 
overwhelming to the community, and 
impossible of accomplishment in the 
judgment of many of the city’s re- 
sponsible and intelligent citizens. 
In October, 1910, the board of park 
commissioners presented a report, 
purporting to be a detailed statement 
of the operations of the board for 
the fiscal year ending April 19, of that 
year, but containing also an account 
of the evolution of the system through 
what is practically a generation. A 
comparison of what was designed in 
1893 and what has been accomplished 
since that year is simply astonishing. 
In 1893 the design carried 9.85 miles 
of boulevards and 323.45 acres of 
parks; the longest boulevard was 3.4 
miles and the largest park 154 acres. 
Since the above date there have been 
constructed a total mileage of im- 
proved pleasure ’ drives, including 
boulevards, parkways and park drives 
amounting to 45.47 miles; and the 
park area is now some 2,118.25 acres, 
the largest tract being Swope Park, 
with 1,331.88 acres. 
The first few years of growth were 
slow. Considerable opposition devel- 
oped on the part of many large prop- 
erty owners, and legal obstacles were 
Y PARKS 
much in evidence; but in due time 
after the atmosphere had cleared and 
the legal basis became perfected, the 
actual work progressed rapidly. It 
is claimed, and not without well- 
grounded reason, based on successful 
experience in other places, that 
“Kansas City has this comprehensive 
system today” as the result of “two 
methods of procedure adopted in the 
very beginning”: First, the system 
was planned to embrace nearly the 
entire city as it existed seventeen 
years ago, and each feature was con- 
nected so far as practicable with the 
others. 
“Second, the city was’ divided into 
park districts, each of which districts 
bore the burden of that part of the 
system within its limits.” 
While the extent of the system 
naturally frightened the heavy tax- 
payers, and even aroused their active 
antagonism at the very same time it 
awakened a keen interest in every ele- 
ment of the population. The fair- 
ness of the proposition in its well 
distributed plan stimulated public 
sentiment, which in a great measure 
served to allay the irritation of its 
opponents, and any general opposi- 
tion was thereby weakened. 
The Kansas City park and boule- 
vard system is still a striking exam- 
lile of the results which follow a well 
digested plan, and it is quite remark- 
OPEIIATING PI.-'tNT FOR WEST SIDE PARKS. 
