PARK AND C E M ET ERY. 
772 
voted by the people although by only 
a few votes over the three-fifths ma- 
jority required by law. It was soon 
proven however, that it takes time to 
carry out the wishes of the well mean- 
ing citizens for a clique of politicians 
who could not control the expenditure 
of this money under the guise of a 
disgruntled contractor contested the 
legality of the bond issue and after 
dragging for a year and a half the 
Supreme court gave the decision, as 
had the lower court, that the bond 
issue was valid. 
The bonds were sold, on December 
23, and this money along with the 
annual appropriation for maintenance 
(1 mill of the tax levy) this year 
about $90,000 gives the Park com- 
mission ample funds for the acquire- 
ment of new sites and starting im- 
provements on the parks already un- 
der their control. Among the im- 
provements which have already been 
started by Park Superintendent John 
\V. Duncan, that will be carried on 
this year are the estal)lishmcnt of 'a 
working headquarters at Manito Park 
which Park will in time be a regular 
arboretum. 
Here also will be located the city 
greenhouses, the Imilding of which 
has already been begun. Lord and 
Ifurnham Co. iron frame construction 
will be used. These greenhouses are 
built on a terrace overlooking a flow- 
er garden and beyond will be a rose 
garden both of which will be laid out 
this spring. .\n extensive nursery 
has already been established in this 
Park and every variety of trees shrubs 
that will prove hardy, will be grown. 
Last year by discreet management 
about $30,000 was squeezed from the 
Alaintenance fund for improvements 
chief among which were the grading 
and planting of Hays Park, a twelve 
acre neighborhood Park which had 
recei\cd no attention and was simply 
wild prairie land, the grading and 
planting of about fifteen acres of 
Audubon Park and the grading and 
planting of half of ,\dams Park. 
.\danis Park will now be completed 
and Liberty Park will bave much 
work done in the way of planting the 
National slopes to the lake. Corbin 
Park will be remodeled and many 
thousands of shrubs used. 
.Ml of these imitrovements are 
among small or neighborhood Parks 
but the Down River Park is likely to 
be the first large Park where extensive 
work will be done. Here a system 
of drives is being planned extending 
along the river bank for several miles 
and the work of sub-grading has al- 
ready begun. 
.\mong the much needed improve- 
ment will be shelter and sanitary 
buildings at Hays Park, Corbin Park 
and Adams Park. 
PLANNING A GREAT CITY PARK FOR SACRAMENTO 
One of the most interesting of recent 
park works on the Coast is embodied 
in the preliminary plan and report for 
Del Paso Park, Sacramento, Cal., re- 
cently prepared by John Nolen, the 
landscape architect of Cambridge, Mass. 
Del Paso Park is an unusual park un- 
dertaking for a city as small as Sacra- 
mento and is also typical of the way 
such work is being taken up on the 
Pacific Coast. 
The following description of the plan 
from Mr. Nolen’s report, gives a good 
idea of the scope and nature of the 
work. 
It is of fundamental importance that 
the purpose or purposes for which a 
park is intended should be clearly de- 
fined in advance. In the case of Del 
Paso Park, the property is so large that 
it ought to serve a number of different 
purposes and yet in order to do this 
successfully, the park must be designed 
so that the fulfillment of one purpose 
will not conflict with another. Del Paso 
Park should provide a beautiful sys- 
tem of drives, riding paths, and foot- 
walks, fields for games such as golf, 
tennis, and base ball ; bathing facilities. 
It should include a great formal or 
flower garden that would give oppor- 
tunity for the appropriate planting and 
development of the rich vegetation that 
thrives under irrigation in California. 
In connection with this formal park — ■ 
for it would be a park in itself — there 
should be suitable gathering places for 
the people, possibly in a building cor- 
responding to the open air Greek theatre 
at the University of California, and 
also in a Music Grove like that, for 
example, in Golden Gate Park, San 
Francisco. This formal garden would 
provide above all a beautiful promenade 
and the pleasure that comes from the 
perfect execution of formal design and 
from brilliant color, .'\nother purpose 
should be the scientific and popular 
interest that is represented in Zoologi- 
cal Gardens and botanical collections. 
Above all, however, a large public park 
property such as Del Paso Park is, 
should include some liroad landscape 
scenery, the kind of scenery that be- 
comes less and less accessible with the 
growth of city populations and more 
and more in demand. Of course, these 
effects should not only be broad, but 
beautiful, including careful composition 
of woods, lakes, and other naturalistic 
features. These, then, were the main 
purposes that I had had in mind in 
working out the plan for the park. 
The main features of Del Paso Park, 
as provided in the Preliminary Plan, 
are as follows ; 
(1) The Formal or Flower Garden and 
Music Grove (including Greek Theatre, 
as a terminal feature) occupying about 
SO acres. 
(2) The Zoological Garden and Bo- 
tanical Garden, about 70 acres. 
(3) The Lake, which has a water 
area of about 60 acres. 
(4) The Woodland or Forest, which 
covers approximately 160 acres. 
(5) The Golf Course, which com- 
prises about 30 acres. 
(6) Recreation Field, about 20 acres. 
(7) The Tennis Courts, 7 acres. 
(8) Picnic Grounds. 
(9) Children’s House and Children’s 
Garden. 
(10) Japanese Garden. 
(11) Bowling Green. 
(12) System of Drives and Walks. 
In addition, there might be some min- 
or features, such as Ostrich Farm. Cac- 
tus Gardens, and Casino and Museum 
buildings. 
(1) Formal Garden : The design of 
this area can best be appreciated by 
reference to the plan. Please note its 
size. The effect that I wish to pro- 
duce depends a good deal upon the 
scale and extent of this garden. It is 
nearly a mile long ami at the centre 
1,200 feet wide. The main central fea- 
ture which is shown in cross section in 
the upper left hand corner of the plan 
would be 300 feet wide, and the Great 
(Mali would provide space for eight rows 
of trees, probably palms, making four 
grand and impressive avenues. The sides 
of the garden would he framed in by 
vine-covered arbors or covered walks. 
There would be ample opportunity in 
this garden for the use of all of the 
tropical and sub-tropical plants and 
flower.s that can be grown in California. 
The arrangement of the beds shown 
on the plan is intended onlj' to be sug- 
gestive. It would have to be studied 
more in detail in later plans. This 
garden would also afford appropriate 
situations for large water basins, foun- 
tains, statuary, and other accessories of 
formal out-door art. 
At the east end of the main formal 
avenue, would be the Music Grove (350 
feet X 650 feet), where seats would be 
furnished under trees, and beyond the 
