86 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
GROWTH OF THE PARK MEN’S ASSOCIATION 
Summary of the Aims of the American Association of Park Superintendents; Portion of 
Address of Theodore Wirth, as President, Read Before the Convention in Washington, June, 1906. 
It seems only a very few years 
ago since some of us met in Boston 
to organize as the New England As- 
sociation of Park Superintendents; 
yet it is already 8 years and we are 
holding our 9th annual gathering, and 
the second convention as a National 
Association meeting for the first time 
in our National Capitol. 
Permit me to look back for a few 
moments upon the short but pro- 
gressive life of our organization. We 
met some 20 of us in Boston in 1898, 
and none of us present knew more 
than three or four of those we met 
at the time of that memorable gath- 
ering and our friend Charles Keith as 
usual struck the keynote of the truth 
when he said, “I came here as a 
stranger and left with twenty friends.” 
Yet all of us were living many years 
within an easy day’s journey of each 
other and we were all pursuing the 
same line of professional work, each 
one for himself, not knowing and 
not caring what the others were do- 
ing. 
This was the great mistake of our 
professional lives before 1898, and true 
to our conclusions and decisions of 
that Boston meeting we have made 
earnest efforts to keep in touch with 
each other ever since. Who can deny 
today that our efforts were crowned 
with unbounded success, success full 
of professional advancement and ben- 
efit. 
The principal factors to which we 
are indebted for our achievements as 
an organization are: first, our annual 
meetings, and second, our Bulletins. 
Our annual meetings have brought 
us twice to Boston, and who could 
go there ever so many times and not 
come back without constant renewed 
admiration for what that city has 
done and does every day in up-to-date 
park work, and who could visit there 
observingly without taking home 
some good lesson from the work per- 
formed by the fellow members of 
our first convention city? 
Then we have been in Worcester, 
the city that has the proud distinc- 
tion of having had the first park in 
the country. Here we saw what fore- 
thought and persistence of purpose 
by a few men can accomplish even 
if hampered greatly by lack of means. 
We have been in Providence and have 
enjoyed its famous Roger Williams 
Park, and have learned that “where 
PRESIDENT, W. H. Dunn, Supt. 
of Parks, Kansas City, Mo. 
SECRETARY-TREASURER, 
F. L. Mulford, Dept, of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C. 
there is a will there is a way,” even 
if it means the creation of extensive 
sheets of water and the building of 
dry land out of a useless territory 
of swamp. 
Next we met in Hartford and en- 
joyed the trip through a compara- 
tively young park system, well con- 
ceived and developed along lines of 
usefulness and beauty. We saw here 
how well directed public spirit will 
benefit a community and its people, 
for 75 per cent of all the Hartford 
park lands are gifts of philanthropic 
citizens. We also saw here how far 
public money can be made to go 
where no political and other influ- 
ences exist and interfere with the ad- 
ministration of a department. Next 
we met at Albany, N. Y., and under 
the guidance of Brother Egerton saw 
what the Capital City of the Empire 
state does in line of park work. We 
were all impressed with the taste- 
ful and artistic, yet simple and har- 
monious combination of natural and 
formal gardening, as shown in Wash- 
ington Park, and the possibilities of 
the future of the undeveloped terri- 
tories. 
New Haven was our next meeting 
place, and our gathering there was 
and always will be of special impor- 
tance. We all enjoyed the splendid 
drives and glorious scenery of those 
mountain parks, East and West Rock, 
and our long delightful drive over the 
whole of the extensive system made 
us wonder how Brother Amrhyn 
could keep it up so well with the 
few pennies left over after the pay- 
ment of his own small salary. Those 
that had the good fortune to go to 
Meriden the third day to enjoy the 
attractive sceneries of Hubbard Park 
with its outlook 1000 feet above the 
sea level, will always remember that 
glorious country and the generous 
hospitality of that grand old man, 
Walter Hubbard. 
The decision reached at the Con- 
vention held in New Haven to ex- 
tend the field of our work from what 
we thought to be the narrow borders 
of the New England States over the 
broad land of our great country, to 
abandon our christening name of 
“New England Association of Park 
Superintendents” for the one of 
American Association will stamp that 
meeting in the history of our organ- 
ization as one of special interest and 
importance. 
Our last meeting took place in Buf- 
falo and I am sure we. will all remem- 
ber with pleasure the very interest- 
ing and instructive visit to the parks 
of that city, connected as it was with 
a visit to the American and Canadian 
parks along the Niagara Falls and 
River, and crowned with the inex- 
haustible hospitality of the park au- 
thorities of all those three different 
administrations. Our Buffalo conven- 
tion was one of the most success- 
ful gatherings in the history of our 
association, and same found a very 
worthy and joyful conclusion through 
a visit to the parks of Rochester, 
where again attractive and instruc- 
tive park work and scenery were 
equaled only by the most generous 
hospitality of our hosts. 
So we have gathered from year to 
year, we have met each other and 
have seen numberless features per- 
taining to the work we follow and 
wish to advance. We have learned 
things which are worthy of adoption 
and repetition, and have seen other 
things which we have recognized as 
mistakes which we are all apt to make. 
So let us continue to gather at least 
once a year to compare notes, ex- 
change ideas and experiences, and last 
but not least, to make, renew and 
strengthen personal acquaintance and 
friendship. 
Our bulletins are of the greatest 
help to us all, for we learn much 
through comparing the notes of ex- 
