PA^K AND CEMETERY. 
776 
PARK NLWS. 
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a 
Original Entrance Examinations for 
Head Florist and Florist have been 
ordered by the Civil Service Board, 
the West Chicago Park Commission, 
to be held at the Garfield Park 
Pavilion, Chicago, 111., on February 
27th. The examination will be both 
oral and written and will include, for 
the Head Florist, questions on horti- 
culture, botany, and the care and 
propagation of plants for exhibition 
purposes. For the Florist there will 
be an oral and a practical test in 
greenhouse work, and written ques- 
tions on the care and propagation of 
plants and greenhouse operations. 
The respective salaries will be from 
$140 to $200 per month for the Head 
Florist and from $2.25 to $2.50 per 
day for the Florist. Application 
blanks may be had by applying to 
the Civil Service Board, Room 706, 
Wendell Bank Building, 1551 West 
Madison St., Chicago, and must be 
returned before 5 p. m. of February 
26th, 1912. 
At the annual meeting of the Amer- 
ican Society of I-andscape Archi- 
tects, held in the Transportation, 
Club, Hotel Manhattan, New York 
City, on January 9, 1912, the follow- 
ing officers were elected for the 
year: President Harold A. Caparn; 
Vice President, Warren H. Manning; 
T reasurer, Henry V. Hubbard ; Secre- 
tary, Charles Downing Lay. Mem- 
ber of Executive Committee to 1915; 
Percival Gallagher. Mr. Charles A. 
Platt was the guest of honor, who 
spoke informally on “The Relations 
Between the Architects and the 
Landscape Architects.” 
For the first time in years, and 
perhaps for the first time, in their 
history, the trees of Capitol Park, 
Sacramento, Calif., are being sub- 
jected to a cleaning process, includ- 
ing tree surgery. The work is be- 
ing done under the direction of State 
Gardener W. Vortriede, who has had 
every tree examined, cleaned and 
trimmed. 
For some time past Charles J. 
Steiss, secretary of the Park Board 
of Fort Wayne, Ind., has been gath- 
ering up information, by correspond- 
ence, on the increase of value in 
property adjacent to city parks, and 
has found that a largely increased 
value in the surrounding property 
immediately follows the establish- 
ment of a park. The evidence as to 
whether the people believe in voting 
bonds for park purposes amply jus- 
tifies the wisdom of resorting to that 
method of obtaining funds for park- 
development. 
West Duluth, ]\Iinn., business men 
and residents are very much stirred 
up over the exorbitant prices being 
asked by the property owners in the 
vicinity of Kingsbury Creek, which is 
needed for the Fairmont park addi- 
tion. Condemnation proceedings 
might bring such citizens to reason. 
Park Improvements 
The Chicago South Park commis- 
sioners are preparing for extensive 
improvements this year. It is pro- 
posed to spend $25,000 on a pump- 
ing station for the supply of Wash- 
ington and Jackson Parks and the 
Midway. Improvements in many of 
the small parks are to be undertaken. 
Field houses are to be erected and 
swimming pools and gymnasiums are 
to be installed. All parks in the South 
Park System in the future will have 
field houses of much larger dimen- 
sions than those hitherto construct- 
ed; much attention is to be given to 
the field house proposition in con- 
nection with the neighborhood cen- 
ter idea. 
The 'improvement of the park on 
the hill overlooking the harbor at 
San Pedro, Calif., is nearing comple- 
tion. The unsightly sand bank be- 
side the city hall has been smoothed 
into a gentle slope and put into lawn, 
with a wide flight of concrete steps 
on the Front street side leading down 
to the sidewalk. The unsightly band 
stand has been torn away and re- 
placed with a concrete and rubble 
stone lookout roofed with Spanish 
tile, and considerable planting adds 
to the improvement. 
The last legislature of Tennessee 
made an appropriation of $20,000 for 
the improvement of the State Fair 
Grounds at Nashville, for which plans 
were prepared by Mr. Warren H. 
Manning. Among the improvements 
suggested are an additional loop car 
service, a large swimming pool in 
the center of the infield, with some 
500 benches about the infield, its 
beautification as a park, and the con- 
struction of two tunnels under the 
track to make it more accessible; an 
extension of the grand stand on the 
south end; the erection of a small 
administration building behind the 
Davidson County building, and a fire, 
police and press building southwest 
of the grand stand; a horticultural 
hall, and a building for the display of 
poultry, cattle and swine. 
Mayor Raker, of Cleveland, O., will 
ask that out of the $4,000,000 bond 
issue, $1,000,000 he devoted to the 
parks. It is planned to build play 
.grounds and improve the parks with 
more shelter houses, better recrea- 
tion fields, bathing beaches and bath 
houses. Superintendent Alber is out- 
lining a plan for the further develop- 
ment of the parks and city play 
grounds. He wants a zoo at Brook- 
side park that will be a real zoo. 
T’lans for the permanent improve- 
ment of Onondaga Park, Syracuse, 
N. Y., i)repared by Superintendent 
David Campbell, have been submitted 
to the Syracuse Park Commission and 
approved. Among the unique features 
are the lake, maple grove and system 
of driveways and walks leading up 
to the highest point in the park, 
where it is hoped tha*t some time a 
fine pavilion will be erected. The 
lake is already being constructed 
from the old Wilkinson reservoir. 
When completed it will be some 800 
feet wide and 1,600 feet long. Boat 
house and bathing facilities are to be 
provided in connection with the lake 
attractions. 
The Boston “Transcript” says; 
With the announcement that the Bos- 
ton Art Commission was having 
studies made of the Charles street 
side of the Public Garden to provide 
for the construction of a mall and 
the placing there of the Common- 
wealth avenue statues, interest was 
aroused over the possibilities of a 
new artistic effect and added con- 
venience to the public. A tentative 
plan has been drawn by Olmsted 
Bros., landscape architects, of Brook- 
line, and submitted to the Art Com- 
mission which suggests great attrac- 
tiveness. The plans provide for the 
placing of eight statues, six on the 
mall and two at the ends, and they 
would -be located in attractive set- 
tings. The Olmsted plans face the 
statues to the west with shrubbery 
and trees as a background against the 
existing fence, so that if one walked 
down the proposed mall of eighteen 
feet in width, from Beacon street to 
Park square, he would come upon the 
statues a little more than 150 feet 
apart on his left. The plans call for 
a setting of these statues in so re- 
fined and pleasing a manner that they 
will have an effect on the eyes of 
