PARK AND CEMETERY. 
27 
them. But something has been done in 
each to make attractive paths and place 
rustic seats. 
Until recently, children had room to 
play without needing the city’s helo. But 
now the residence sections are g. owing 
so fast that the children must play in 
the street unless some other provisions 
are made. Playgrounds — some fairly well 
equipped and some rather sketchy — are 
maintained during the summer at eleven 
places. During the winter twelve skating 
rinks are kept up. Four of the parks have 
swimming holes. 
PARKING SAN 
San Jose, one of the most progressive 
cities in California, has long been in pos- 
session of a wonderful natural park reser- 
vation, known as Alum Rock Canyon. 
Some years ago, at the invitation of the 
Out-Door Art League of the city, Mr. 
Charles Mulford Robinson prepared one 
of his characteristically interesting reports, 
suggesting many improvements and rec- 
ommending that a land-cape architect be 
secured to make a plan for the best ulti- 
mate development of this reservation. This 
recommendation was particularly well re- 
ceived, and the progressive commissioners 
secured the services of Stephen Child, a 
well-known landscape architect of Boston 
and Santa Barbara, who, while especially 
The present equipment of playgrounds 
is as follows : 
Lincoln Park. — Swings, sand box, par- 
allel bars, swimming hole. 
Fairmont Park.— Sand box, swings, 
swimming hole. 
Chester Park. — Baseball diamond oppo- 
site Children’s Home, swimming hole and 
wading pool. 
Harrison.— Parallel bars, swings, teeters, 
skating rink. Thirty-eighth and Grand ave- 
nues. 
Athletic Field— (On private property.) 
Parallel bars, swings. 
reservation embracing its purpose and use 
by the metropolitan community surround- 
ing San Francisco Bay. The steep-sided 
valley or canyon of Penetencia Creek, a 
name recalling early Spanish days, where 
the padres of the near-by missions gath- 
ered "to penitently confess their sms to 
one another." 'the entire valley or can- 
yon originally belonged to the "pueblo” of 
ban Jose, but some of the upper slopes 
are now occupied by ranchers or farmers, 
tor which lost area Mr. Child makes a 
strong plea. About six hundred acres con- 
trolled by the commission extend along the 
rugged slopes of the valley for nearly 
three miles. At the upper or easterly end 
are two very beautiful falls, one nearly 
Nicollet avenue, between Fifty-sixth and 
Fifty-seventh, adjacent to Irving School. — 
No apparatus. 
Lester Park.— Swings, sand box, parallel 
bars, etc.; swimming hole. 
Portman. — Baseball, skating rink, etc., 
maintained by private contribution till last 
year. 
Washington^ — Sand box, .swings, etc. 
Portland.— Sand box. 
Cascade.— Swings, sand box, etc. 
Lake Shore. — Baseball, football, skating 
rink. 
Henry Cleveland is secretary and super- 
intendent of the Duluth park system. 
nor many years tnere have been crude 
arrangements lor baths, for which public 
accommouation (tnough entirely inade- 
quate; a narow-gauge street railway nad 
been built, the suggestion, prompted by 
tne best landscape design and the desire 
to preserve all tne beauties of this canyon, 
tnat tne street railway stop half a mile or 
so to the west of its present terminus, 
with the provision ol bath houses and 
otner facilities here, met with such op- 
position that it seemed necessary to al- 
low the road to be built to near its for- 
mer limits. 
The presence of this rearranged railway, 
together with a more or less publicly used 
and controlled county road in the westerly 
JOSE’S ALUM ROCK CANYON 
ALUM BOCK PACK CQMKJ33KW 
GENERAL PLAN 
ALUM LOCK 
familiar with California conditions, had 
also the benefit of the co-operation of Mr. 
Robinson as special consultant. With per- 
mision to publish Mr. Childs’ plan for this 
park, we give our readers the following 
brief review from his report in advance of 
its publication. 
Following a brief introduction by Mr. 
Robinson endorsing the landscape archi- 
tect’s study of the problem and empha- 
sizing important recommendations, there 
is a description of existing conditions of 
thirty-five feet in height. The ravages of 
the overflowing creek make the recon- 
struction of trails and roads necessary, en- 
abling the public to reach these beauties. 
All this is an important part of the plan. 
Beautiful as the canyon is, there are many 
such in California, though all too few in 
control of the peopile. The group of 
springs of such remarkable diversity — sul- 
phur, lithia, lime and alum — scattered 
along on either side of the rugged banks, 
give Alum Rock its distinctive character. 
end of the Reservation, makes this a 
broadened parkway — an approach unit. 
At the famous Alum Rock Cliff the 
street railway company met the sugges- 
tion of Mr. Child more than half way 
and are constructing ornamental concrete 
arches over the creek and roadway. These, 
together with the re-designed, attractive 
road bridge, also of concrete, make this 
the real portal or gateway to the park. 
The street railway extends for nearly half 
a mile further easterly, but is so located 
