PARK AND CEMETERY. 
65 
parkway to be known as Blue Valley 
Parkway, which, beginning at the la- 
goon in Swope Park, will follow the 
banks of the Blue to a point at or near 
Nineteenth Street, and thence, skirting 
the bluff above the valley of the Blue, 
will connect with the Cliff Drive and 
Gladstone Boulevard extending to 
Indian Mound. According to the 
plans, the Blue River can be made a 
pleasure highway by means of a 
movable dam constructed to let flood 
waters through, which will afford a 
boating course of more than fifteen 
miles in length, starting with a lake 
of one hundred and forty acres area. 
A plea for more park equipment is 
made in the annual report of the Mil- 
waukee park board for 1911. The 
park system includes 866 acres of land, 
of which 275 acres are unimproved, 
and comprises thirty-six parks and 
playgrounds. It was started in 1889 
with sixty acres of land. The city’s 
population at that time was 204,406. 
The report says: The boulevard sys- 
tem is also inadequate and it recom- 
mends a complete system of boule- 
vards which will connect all of the 
parks. It also criticises the slow 
progress being made in building the 
lake shore drive. The board recom- 
mends that an adequate appropriation 
be set aside to build a substantial ad- 
dition to the Mitchell Park conserva- 
tory; and the Washington Park zoo 
should be enlarged. The attitude of the 
school board favoring social centers 
and playgrounds is commended in the 
report. The board, however, believes 
that the city should ultimately build 
neighborhood centers as planned by 
the city planning commission. With 
the park board report is the annual 
report of Park Supt. C. G. Carpenter 
which shows that the cost of main- 
taining the parks during 1911 was 
$209,285.36. 
At a recent meeting of the Allied 
Civic Association of Queens Borough, 
held in Jamaica, L. I., N. Y., the mat- 
ter of public parks and playgrounds 
was discussed at length. There was 
considerable argument as to whether 
the matter of parks should be made a 
local issue or one to be taken up by 
the borough organizations. It was 
finally agreed that a park not only 
beautifies the section in which it is lo- 
cated, but also enhances the surround- 
ing sections. 
The bequest of $200,000 for the erec- 
tion of a memorial gate across the 
Panhandle entrance to Golden Gate 
Park, San Francisco, Calif., as pro- 
vided for in the will of Mrs. Honore 
Sharp, was before the Superior Court 
on April 16, on an application for 
permission to compromise it. It was 
argued that the estate is not worth 
$200,000, the amount set out for a me- 
morial to the memory of the late 
George F. Sharp, a pioneer attorney 
of San Francisco. 
Hearty indorsement of the proposed 
$300,000 bond issue for the completion 
of the Metropolitan park project was 
voted by the executive committee of 
the South Woodlawn Improvement 
Society, Pawtucket, R. I., on April 4. 
The Lake Shore Park, Racine, Wis., 
is to be improved on plans and speci- 
fications proposed by Jens Jensen, 
landscape architect, of Chicago. 
Chattanooga, Tenn., went on record 
as favoring an issue of bonds jn the 
amount of $250,000 for park improve- 
ment by a vote of 5 to 2. 
A contract for the preparation of 
plans for the improvement of East 
River Park, Davenport, Iowa, was 
awarded to Cole & Meersmen, of 
Chicago. 
Governor McGovern, of Wisconsin, 
is urging the purchase of more 
ground to afford a better park setting 
for the magnificent capitol building 
now under construction. 
A Congressional appropriation of 
$200,000 is asked for by the Washing- 
ton Heights Citizens’ Association, 
Washington, D. C., for the purchase of 
the Truesdell property at Columbia 
and Kalorama roads and Wyoming 
avenue, for park purposes. A park is 
badly needed in the neighborhood. 
The DeKalb Woman’s Club, De 
Kalb, 111., the organization which that 
city should thank for its new park in 
Annie’s Woods when it is given to 
the city, is meeting with most en- 
couraging co-operation from the vari- 
ous organizations about the city. 
Logansport, Ind., will get a $100,000 
hospital and 90 acres of ground for a 
park, and Cass County will also get 
a large park from the estate of Judge 
D. D. Dykeman, according to a re- 
cent decision in the Dykeman will 
case, by Judge Plummer at Wabash. 
The citizens of Amesbury, Mass., 
are about to take over the tract of 
land known as the Moody farm for 
park purposes, and have chosen com- 
missioners. The tract contains 30 
acres and it will be developed under 
expert advice, and the intention is, ap- 
parently, to make a useful as well as 
decorative civic feature. 
At certain places along the high- 
ways planned for Butte county, Cal., 
there will be built parks and picnic 
grounds for the convenience of tour- 
ists and the pleasure of local resi- 
dents, if present plans are carried out. 
The Humboldt Road Improvement 
Club, at a recent meeting, discussed 
the park question with favorable re- 
sults. J. H. Guill offered a small wal- 
nut grove on the south side of Hum- 
boldt road, and this will at once be 
fitted up with benches and swings, to 
be used as a playground and resting 
place. Other similar improvements 
are contemplated. 
A resolution was recently presented 
to the city council of Lincoln, Neb., 
giving the mayor an opportunity to 
have a hand in improving the city 
park system according to the plat- 
form of the business men’s associa- 
tion upon which Mayor Armstrong 
was elected. The resolution calls for 
the appointment of committees by the 
mayor for the purpose of raising 
funds for park improvements and for 
helping arouse the citizens to the 
necessity of such improvements. 
A handsome new brick building, 
taking the place of the old one at 28 
Newbury street, Boston, Mass., has 
just been completed for the Ameri- 
can Academy of Arts and Sciences 
as a result of the beneficence of the 
late Alexander Agassiz and his heirs. 
It is up-to-date in every respect, and 
was dedicated on May 1 to the mem- 
ory of the great scientist, and for- 
mally opened for use. Two years ago 
Mr. Agassiz gave $50,000 to the acad- 
emy to be used unconditionally. Af- 
ter he died his heirs, being anxious 
to have the building a monument to 
his memory, agreed to add enough 
to the $50,000, if the society were 
willing, to erect the structure. The 
total cost was upwards of $120,000. 
The new building presents an impos- 
ing frontage on Newbury street. It 
is a four-story structure of red brick, 
attractively finished about the door 
and windows with white rubble stone. 
At Selma, Cal., the latter end of 
March, over eighty men, with the di- 
rection of the Women’s Improvement 
Club, volunteered their services for 
the improvement of the primary 
school grounds. 
Condemnation proceedings will be 
necessary on the part of the Palisades 
Interstate Park Commission to ob- 
tain control of Hook Mountain as a 
part of the great Hudson scenic pano- 
rama of cliffs and highlands. Already 
the commission has had to pay $425,- 
000 for the quarries of the Manhattan 
Trap Rock Company, but it has failed 
to obtain control of the Rockland 
Lake Trap Rock Company and the 
Clinton Point Stone Crushing Com- 
pany there. Under the Interstate 
