685 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
1 
RECENT PARK DEVELOPMENT IN PORTLAND 
By J. R. Wetherbee, Park Commissioner and Chair- 
man Civic Improvement League of Portland, Ore. 
tributary to this incomparable location 
for a great city. 
It is axiomatic that agriculture is the 
basis of all wealth, and is necessary to 
the healthy life and development of a 
great community. In view of these 
facts, it must be evident that a great 
city is to nestle on the banks of the 
mighty Columbia, and the majestic Wil- 
lamette, for here rail and sail meet, 
and nature smiles continuously at 
the cry of poverty. Here destiny has 
No one who has studied the geologi- of this single State of Oregon. These 
cal formation of the Pacific Coast with are but a few of the startling riches 
fixed the dwelling place of a multi- 
tude. 
Believing as we do that teeming mil- 
lions will soon call this land of promise 
home, it is but the part of prudence and 
good business judgment that we now 
prepare for their oncoming. The wise 
man plans his house before he builds. 
So should a city look out for the future. 
Portland has always been conservatively 
forehanded and the conscientious men 
who served as her park commissioners 
in the years past were not short sighted 
nor neglectful of the future. They 
sought the best advice obtainable. Sev- 
eral years ago Olmsted Brothers, of 
Brookline, Mass., were employed to 
make a study of and lay out for Port- 
land a system of parks and connecting 
boulevards. This was so ably done that 
succeeding park boards have followed 
the plans very closely. The confidence 
of the people in the future of their city 
impelled them to provide means, and 
therefore, a bond issue of $1,000,000 was 
voted for the beginning of this great 
system. The present park board is car- 
rying out these plans. 
During the past year large areas of 
park property have been acquired, 
and boulevard development set on 
foot. So that today no city on the 
Coast is anticipating for the future to 
a better advantage than Portland. 
The present year has seen several 
new areas developed. It is the policy 
PI.AY FESTIVAL JN ONE OF THE PORTLAND PLAY P.\RKS. 
BIRD’S EYE VIEW OF PORTLAND FROM CITY PARK. 
its present geographical features, and 
has taken into consideration the relation 
of these to centers of population can fail 
to note the location of the future com- 
mercial metropolis of the Pacific Coast. 
A study of the park development of a 
great city must of necessity revolve 
around that city’s future possibilities. 
Therefore, for the sake of a better un- 
derstanding of the claims of our citi- 
zens in the line of park development, we 
may be pardoned for digressing a little 
to give a more concrete reason for what 
must be in the future. 
Portland, the Rose City, is located on 
the only fresh water harbor that the 
Pacific Coast affords, at the junction of 
the two greatest rivers commercially 
west of the Mississippi and at the only 
water grade opening in that vast and 
beautiful mountain range which extends 
from Alaska to Mexico. When devel- 
oped there will be 3,000 miles of inland 
waterways tributary to this single point, 
backed by 2.50,000 square miles of rich 
agricultural territory, with 165,000 acres 
of orchards already planted and one- 
sixth of all the standing timber in the 
United States within the boundary lines 
r 
, 1 ; 
) 
L 
; 
< > 
i ■ 
i 
I 
