PARK AND CEMETERY. 
640 
HISTORY and GROWTH of LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE 
A Definition and a Brief Resume of Its Past and Present; Presented Before the Congress of Technology, 
by Stephen Child, Landscape Architect and Consulting Engineer, of Boston and Santa Barbara, Calif. 
(Concluded) 
IV. — Parks and Public Grounds 
VIEW ON THE RIVERWAY, BOSTON PARK SYSTEM. 
citizen by offering to him and pre- 
serving for him the contrast of broad 
restful rural scenery unmarred by any 
of the sights and sounds of city life. 
This involves many considerations as 
to the choice of the tract of land, its 
bounds, its present scenic effect, its 
accessibility, and the design of roads 
and paths through it so that the 
public may enjoy but not destroy its 
beauties. Notable examples of the 
very best of this sort of design in this 
country are Central Park in New 
York, Prospect Park in Brooklyn, 
and Franklin Park in Boston, all the 
work of the elder Olmsted and sub- 
jects of the most careful study by all 
his followers. Space allows mention 
only of such important problems com- 
ing under this general head as public 
gardens, city squares and play- 
grounds, all requiring distinctive 
treatment. 
The distribution of city parks. 
Another great class of problems 
are those coming under the general 
head of public reservations including 
greater and lesser parks, city squares, 
playgrounds and the like, the mere 
mention of which indicates the vari- 
ety of conditions to be met. Here as 
in the domestic problem, however, we 
have again two main factors, namely: 
the local and the personal. In these 
problems, however, as we are now 
dealing with persons in the mass, 
the latter element becomes more 
stable and we strive to determine the 
wants of the average personality 
rather than those of the special or 
distinctive one. The Romans, as we 
earlier noted, showed us many vital 
principles in such designs and not 
the least in their study for the dis- 
tribution of these areas throughout 
the city. 
Definiteness of purpose is always to 
be maintained; that of a great coun- 
try park for a large city being to afford 
perfect relief and rest to the tired 
DEVEt&PEMENT 
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JvNE 1909 
A CITY PLANNING SCHEME FOR BOSTON. 
Stephen Child, Landscape Arch. 
