PARK AND CEMETERY. 
189 
and the pleasure of passing a leisure hour 
daily in the parks I have planned and con- 
structed. 
My professional work is now entirely 
confined to private estates and giving ad- 
vice on all matters relating to landscape 
work. In this line of effort I find congenial 
clients, good remuneration and healthful, 
congenial occupation. 
Wm. S. Egerton, L. A. 
Albany, N. Y. 
I am in receipt of your favor of the 25th 
inst., and in answer to same wish to say 
that our annual report is at the present 
time in the printer's- hands and will most 
likely reach us about May 1. This gives a 
complete account of all the new work per- 
formed in our park system. Our last an- 
nual report is undoubtedly already in your 
possession. If not, I shall be glad to send 
you a copy of same. 
I have just returned from a two weeks’ 
absence in the East and naturally I am 
crowded with work and unable to reply at 
length as requested in your letter. 
Theo. Wirth, 
Minneapolis, Minn. Superintendent. 
With reference to yours of the 25th inst. 
I am forwarding you under separate cover 
a copy of our annual report for 1914, which 
has just been issued. 
I would call your attention to the change 
in the staff, namely, that W. S. Rawlings 
is the superintendent of parks. 
W. H. Baggs, 
Vancouver, B. C. Secretary. 
In answer to your letter of March 25, I 
do not know that there are any particular 
accomplishments made in our system dur- 
ing the past year that are worthy of men- 
tioning, with the exception possibly of a 
landscape plan for Coggshall Park, which 
was prepared by Harris A. Reynolds, of 
Boston, and on which we are working this 
year. 
I am sending you by same mail copy of 
our annual report, which gives a copy of 
this map and some other details in regard 
to the work in this city the past year. 
Trusting that you may find this of some 
benefit, I remain, very truly yours. 
Wm. W. Colton. 
Fitchburg, Mass. 
SYSTEM OF PARKS IN ALBANY SECOND TO NONE 
By James Malcolm. 
Albany, the city beautiful, is steadily keep- 
ing pace as Albany, the commercial city, 
grows. This is shown by the engagement 
of an expert city planner, Arnold W. Brun- 
ner, who has prepared comprehensive plans 
for the further beautification of the Capital 
City, only some of which have been made 
public. When all are known, it is declared, 
there will be revealed great possibilities not 
only of municipal ornamentation, but of a 
happy blending of the beautiful, the con- 
venient and the practical. 
Mr. Brunner has a fine subject to work 
upon. Nature has supplied a magnificent 
river and inspiring hills as part of the set- 
ting and these have been supplemented by 
as fine a collection of man-made parks as 
may be found in any city of its size in the 
country. 
In fact, Washington Park, of ninety 
acres, located in the center of the city, is 
declared by travelers to excel any they 
have seen. Washington Park's special 
claim to loveliness lies in its old and stately 
elms and other foliage, the result of slow 
growth and great care. 
BEAVER PARK PROGRAM ELABORATE. 
The next park in order of importance is 
Beaver Park of seventy-eight acres, for 
which is projected one of the most am- 
bitious recreation grounds of any city of 
three or four times the population of Al- 
bany. To carry out the plan the city has 
already appropriated $50,000 and a few of 
the facilities now authorized are : 
A stadium 600 feet long, with a quarter- 
mile running track ; immense swimming 
pool for adults and children ; four or five 
baseball diamonds ; fifteen tennis courts ; 
coasting hills for winter sports; children’s 
playgrounds with all modern apparatus ; 
pergolas and buildings for clubs and asso- 
ciations. 
The topography of Beaver Park easily 
PLAN FOR DEVELOPMENT OF EAST- 
ERN SECTION OF BEAVER PARK. 
lends itself to the construction of a sta- 
dium of the Greek fashion, there being 
hills on both sides of such expanse as to 
afford an innumerable multitude oppor- 
tunity to watch what is going on in the 
natural amphitheater. The stadium is to 
be almost precisely the dimensions of a his- 
toric stadium restored recently in Greece. 
Albany’s parks will be connected by a 
boulevard system which will almost encircle 
the city, when the plans, under considera- 
tion by Mr. Brunner and city officials, are 
worked out. Manning boulevard, skirting 
the city on the west and north, will form 
the biggest section of this connecting high- 
way. Western avenue, also a part of the 
park system, is the link between Manning 
boulevard and Washington Park. Plans 
have been prepared showing how Washing- 
ton and Beaver parks may be linked by 
way of New Scotland avenue, Myrtle ave- 
nue and Leonard place. 
PLAN BOULEVARD FOR SOUTH. 
On the southwest, south and western 
border a plan is being developed for a 
boulevard, beginning at a point near Ken- 
wood on the Hudson River, running west 
to Delaware avenue, a short distance south 
of Second avenue and the Whitehall road, 
thence northwest to New Scotland avenue. 
In the same general plan it is suggested 
that a more direct route from Beaver Park 
to the river, over the Greenbush bridge, be 
made by widening and improving some 
streets for automobile traffic. Some of Mr. 
Brunner’s plans may not be realized for 
years, but he undoubtedly is urging a 
scheme which will serve as a guide to city 
administrations to come, so that park im- 
provement will proceed along harmonious 
lines instead of by a haphazard policy. 
Washington Park, now the particular 
beauty spot of the city, took the place of 
a cemetery, an old military parade ground 
and an unkempt residence section. It is 
not yet fifty years old, the first work toward 
making it a park having been undertaken 
in 1870. Its splendid elms were planted 
about a century ago when it still was a 
burial ground and then far removed from 
the .center of Albany’s population. 
Beaver Park, not many years ago, was 
a pestilential dumping ground. On its 
lower border was what was known as Mar- 
tinville, one of the city’s slum districts. 
For several jears it has rapidly been grow- 
ing into a beautiful pleasure ground. With 
the $50,000 available, it is the city’s purpose 
to add greatly to the tree and shrub orna- 
mentation of the park. The extensive view 
over the Hudson River and to the Rensse- 
laer hills gives it a scenic advantage over 
all other Albany parks. 
Of the smaller parks, Sheridan and Riv- 
erside will call for most attention in the 
