of his authentic works exist except in the 
most fragmentary condition, and the rec- 
ords of his designs are too meager to be 
given much careful study. Yet in his own 
day and in the immediately succeeding 
years his work was seen by all aspiring- 
young landscape architects and to them 
was inspiration, law and gospel. 
Next, and easily superior to his executed 
works, were his writings, and pre-eminently 
his book on “Landscape Gardening.” The in- 
fluence of these books and essays has been, 
and still is, of immeasurable proportions. 
The third feature of his service to us, 
and one which seems to have been widely 
overlooked, was his practical establishment 
in America of the profession of landscape 
architecture, as it is now fashionably called, 
though he always spoke of it under the 
good English term of landscape gardening. 
Other men had unquestionably practiced 
this art in America before him, but his 
genius soared so far above all else that 
had ever been done as to put the whole 
profession upon a new plane. Other men 
found it easy to follow in the path which 
had opened. Several of these disciples did 
so well under his inspiration as to have 
preserved their names to the present day. 
Frank J. Scott and H. W. S. Cleveland 
may be named as examples of this imme- 
diate discipleship. 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
Out of this story, which we necessarily 
trace with so much difficulty, of the per- 
sonal influence of Downing in the begin- 
nings of the profession, there emerges, 
however, one conspicuous incident. Cal- 
vert Vaux has already been mentioned as 
coming to America in 1850 to be associated 
with Downing in his professional work. 
This very able and well-trained young ar- 
chitect doubtless had a considerable influ- 
ence upon his acute and impressionable 
partner, but it is quite as certain that the 
stranger qualities of Downing left their 
impress upon Vaux. The professional work 
undertaken by them jointly was continued 
by Vaux after Dowming’s death. And then 
a few years later another most fortunate 
juncture occurred when Vaux in his turn 
became professionally associated with the 
late Frederick Law Olmsted. With the 
long and notable career of Olmsted land- 
scape architecture became an established 
and recognized profession, and one in which 
the highest ideals were so firmly fixed as 
never again to be lost or obscured. This 
triple association of Dowming, Vaux and 
Olmsted must ever form the great opening- 
chapter in the history of the landscape pro- 
fession in America. 
Finally, and most of all, as we remember 
Andrew Jackson Downing we come to 
realize that he was a man of rare and ex- 
297 
traordinary gifts, a genius in the large and 
good meaning of the word. Any man be- 
gining life in a new country, in poverty, 
almost without education, and with the han- 
dicap of physical weakness, who in the 
space of thirty-seven years reaches a posi- 
tion of commanding importance in four 
separate fields, such as pomology, archi- 
tecture. landscape gardening and literature, 
and who in each field leaves work to last 
a century — such a man is more than a 
genius, he is a prodigy. His powers ob- 
viously and altogether transcend those of 
ordinary men. 
Yet in Downing these prodigous facul- 
ties were so mixed and tempered with 
warm human qualities as to be largely lost 
to sight. We have learned so much to love 
the memory of the man as to forget the 
sum total of his genius. And today as we 
revisit the scenes he loved so well and 
bless ourselves with the inspiration of his 
memory, and try again to measure the be- 
quest of his life to us, we need not let our 
admiration for his work in pomology, or lit- 
erature, or landscape gardening stint our 
thought of his larger genius, nor need we 
dwell so long upon his superhuman genius 
as to lose our hold upon the man of flesh 
and blood who still commands the love and 
admiration of our common human hearts. 
THE KANSAS CITY IDEA OF PARK PUBLICITY 
THE PASEO — TROOST PARK LAKE. 
NORTH TERRACE— THE CANYON. 
The Park Board of Kansas City, Mo., 
has recently issued an illustrated souvenir 
book that is unique as an example of en- 
lightened park publicity. There have been 
many finely illustrated descriptive books 
issued as annual reports by other park 
boards, some of them larger, more elabo- 
rate and more beautiful typographically 
than this, but none with so definite a pur- 
pose or so admirably arranged for useful- 
ness to the people or for publicity for the 
parks. 
The Kansas City book is pocket size, 48 
pages, handsomely printed, embellished with 
r~ ~ ^ 
PENN VALLEY PARK. 
eighty small panoramic views of the parks, 
and is a condensed manual of the chief 
statistical and descriptive data about each 
park and boulevard. 
One of the most interesting and valuable 
features of the book is a page given to de- 
tailed itineraries for one, two and three 
hour trips for visitors to the parks. The 
one-hour itinerary, which is typical .of the 
others, reads as follows : 
ONE HOUR. 
Leave Union Station, through Penn Valley, to 
Broadway, to Armour, to Gillham Road via West- 
port High School, to Harrison, to Armour, to the 
Paseo, to Linwood, to Benton, to Gladstone, to 
Cliff Drive, to Maple, to Independence, to Admiral, 
to the Paseo — west side — to loth Street; return 
the Paseo — east side — to Admiral, to Grand Avenue, 
to Union Station. Distance, 17 miles. 
Next follows a synopsis of the main facts 
about the park system, as follows : 
The charter amendment providing for Kansas 
City’s park and boulevard system was adopted 
June 6, 1S95. Active work began at once. 
The park and boulevard system now comprises 
1.9S5.60 acres of parks, 590.32 acres of parkways, 
GO. So miles of improved boulevards and park drives, 
with an additional 52.44 miles of boulevard and 
park drives planned. 
Plans adopted for acquisition: Roadways in 
parkways, 25. S miles; parkways, 7G1 acres. 
Total mileage of boulevard and park drives im- 
proved and planned, 139.09 miles. 
Total area of parks and parkways acquired and 
planned, 3,330.92 acres. 
The cost of the park and boulevard system to 
April 21, 1914, is: 
Acquisition of lands $ 7,554,505.69 
Construction 4,05S,318.71 
Maintenance 1,678,346.60 
Total $13,291,171.00 
A brief, well-written history and de- 
scription of the park system is given, from 
which we quote as follows : 
The well distributed system of parks in all 
parts of the city, giving easy access within walk- 
ing distance to all residents, is connected by an 
equally well distributed system of boulevards and 
THE GROVE — POOL IN BATH 
HOUSE. 
