PARK AND CEMETERY 
224 
CS JS3S TJvIJIS JUS&S 3S28& l-SgRgft 
1 ft PARK NOTES. ft | 
Co o r -o’^ oNo-wO 
The City Council of Clinton, la. , passed a resolution last 
month directing the city engineer to prepare plans, specifica- 
tions and estimates for the parking of the levee. There has been 
considerable agitation in Clinton looking to the improvement 
of the river front, of which the city owns some 15 acres. The 
Mayor, Mr. G. D. McDaid, has been very active in this matter, 
and has recognized the value and benefits to be secured to the 
city by this improvement. 
* * * 
The Biltmore school of forestry, on the estate of George 
W. Vanderbilt, at Biltmore, N. C., and which was opened Sep" 
tember 1st. last, ought to be able to prove the value of its con- 
ception and existence. The course lasts for twelve months and 
is open to graduates of American colleges and of the United 
States Military Academy, the object being to educate men in 
scientific forestry. 
* * * 
The design for the public library building of Oshkosh, VVis., 
by Mr. Wm. Waters, architect of that city has been accepted by 
the council. It is of the Renaissance style, the main plan cover- 
ing 90 feet frontage by a depth of 80 feet, surmounted by a dome. 
The portico will be 40 feet wide, designed in the Doric order. 
It will be constructed of Bedford, Ind , stone and will be fire- 
proof. The library will occupy the lower floor, the second floor 
being arranged for a museum and lecture rooms. The trustees 
have a fund of over $150,000 on hand. Of this $80,000 was be- 
queathed by the late Marshall Harris, $25,000 donated by Ex- 
Senator Sawyer, and $50,000 appropriated by the city. 
* * * 
At the meeting of the Chicago West Park Board of Com- 
missioners held this month, the annual report showed that the 
income of the department for the year from all sources had 
amounted to $623,659 70 and the total disbursements to $693,- 
500, creating a deficit of $69,840.30, due to an expenditure of 
$80,000 for an electric light plant. This will trespass upon the 
prospective improvements for the current year. The estimated 
income for 1899 is $600,000 and disbursements $593,500. Con- 
siderable work in the way of improvement will be carried out. 
In South Park affairs, the commissioners of that section of Chi- 
cago’s parks, have decided upon introducing a flock of sheep to 
serve a two fold object, to improve the landscape effects and 
crop the grass, and as there are large areas of lawn, the sheep 
may earn their keep by saving lawn mowers. They will be 
cared for by an expert shepherd. The annual report of the 
South Park commissioners showed a bonded indebtedness of 
$406,000. Cash on hand and receipts from all sources to Dec. 
31, 1898 aggregated $603,075.95. 
* * * 
The town of Marcus, in Northwestern Iowa, has recently 
purchased a piece of ground for a public park. The land adjoins 
the fair grounds and is beautifully located, affording a view in 
each direction of from five to fifteen miles of the finest prairie 
farms, homes and groves in Iowa. The tract has been platted 
and laid out by Mr. F. H. Nutter, landscape architect, Minne- 
apolis, Minn. The park and fair grounds comprise a tract of 
thirty acres, and the architect so arranged his plan as to com- 
bine the two. The drive leaving the park connects directly 
with the fair grounds’ splendid half mile track, and the whole 
makes practically a 30 acre park. Mr. Nutter also replatted all 
the unoccupied portions of the Marcus and Amherst Cemetery, 
on the lawn plan, in his combinations of the new and the old parts 
producing some very happy effects. It is now proposed to lay 
out a new street which will connect the park and the cemeter- 
ies, and by connecting also with one of the country highways 
will afford a very pleasant drive of about four miles in length, 
including the principal objects of interest in the vicirity. 
* * * 
The Park Memorial Tree Association, a society of women 
of Indianapolis, Ind., have interested themselves says Munici- 
pal Affairs, “in the improvement of street lawns and shade 
trees. Through their influence dead and unsightly trees have 
been removed, living trees properly trimmed, and the hideous 
work of the advertising fiend has been torn from the trees, tele- 
phone poles, bridges and other public structures. Memorial 
trees have been planted with appropriate ceremonies; the sub- 
ject has been kept before the public through the press articles 
and various other means have been used to increase the city’s 
interest and care for its trees. An ordinance in whose construc- 
tion the association had its influence is now pending. It gives 
to the park superintendent a partial control of the planting and 
removal of street shade trees, and it prohibits the placing of ad- 
vertisements thereon. The association formed a club of boys 
who were thoughtlessly ruining a fine stretch of street lawn. 
The boys were consulted regarding plans for its preservation 
and each was given some specific task for which he was respon- 
sible. A more neatly-kept strip of lawn is not now seen in the 
city, and each of those eight bo>s holds his head higher, because 
of the sense of citizenship engendered by the possession of re- 
sponsibility in the city’s improvement.” 
* * * 
Tacoma, Wash., prides itself on its park possibilities. Be- 
sides Wright Park, in the town proper, it possesses a natural 
park comprised by a peninsula, Point Defiance, of 740 acres 
which juts into the bay north of the city, and which is covered 
with the magnificent conifers for which Washington is famous. 
Its shores alternate with level, shingly beaches and wave-beaten 
cliffs facing the open Sound. The greater part of this woodland 
is still in its primeval picturesqueness, but for a long distance 
along the shore and approach nearest the city it has been im- 
proved and paths made from the water’s edge back into the 
green recesses of the forest. The scenery is very varied as may 
be surmised and all the shrubs for which Washington is noted 
grow in riotous confusion. The Tacoma Daily Ledger says the 
exquisite tasseled flowers of the white “Spirea” fill the entire for- 
est, and white syrmgia grows wild along the banks. Wild coral 
honeysuckles and snowy flakes of dogwood blossom form part of 
her summer offering, and she has given the sowers of fern seed 
“carte blanche.” It is reached by the City Park car line, which 
makes half-hourly trips from the city, six miles distant, and ex- 
cursion steamers ply along the shore. Almost in the center of 
the citv, is Wright Park, a garden of delights. The grounds, 
twelve blocks in area were given to the city by the late C. B. 
Wright, of Philadelphia, and were laid out by E. O. Schwageri 
the well-known landscape gardener. On one side a high terrace 
extends the full length of the park, commanding a broad view 
of the green slopes below and the residence district of the city 
beyond. These heights are imposingly planted out with ever- 
greens and other material. On a bold promontory overhanging 
the lawns stands a winged Mercury, the gift of Col. C. P. Kerry, 
who also donated the colossal lions which guard the entrance of 
the carriage drive from Sixth avenue. These figures are copies 
of the famous lions of Brussels. At the other end of the drive 
Canova’s dancing girls welcome the visitor. The lower mead- 
ows of the park are docted here and there with groups of trees 
and ornamental shrubs in endless variety, and from early March 
until December there are bright flowers in the beds, and in the 
spring the slopes are all afire with the golden Scottish broom. 
In the center are two little lakes peopled with flocks of ducks 
and snowy swans and a rustic bridges pans the strait between the 
two lakes.” 
