lawn. To many people, the architec- 
ture of the proposed memorial and 
that of the court house did not har- 
monize, so it was proposed that the 
city buy the “Black Estate,” a trian- 
gular shaped piece of land, two hun- 
dred and seventy feet long by one 
hundred and twelve feet wide. As 
may be seen from the diagram, it 
fronts on Douglas avenue and on 
Waco avenue with the Arkansas riv- 
er for a background. The property is 
just three blocks west of the “busiest 
corner in Kansas,” the corner of Main 
street and Douglas avenue. The city 
commissioners (for Wichita is gov- 
erned under the commission form of 
city government), took favorable ac- 
tion on the suggestion, and asked for 
a price on the land. The valuation 
given by the owners, and borne out 
by the tax assessors, was twenty-five 
thousand dollars. 
To the west of the tract is the Big 
Arkansas River, spanned at Douglas 
avenue by a new one-hundred-thou- 
sand-dollar concrete bridge. Across 
the river and south of Douglas is the 
station of the Midland Valley Rail- 
way. The River boulevard, connect- 
ing Linwood park with the Riverside 
Parks, follow the west bank of the 
river, at this point. On an island a 
little northwest of the site is located 
the base ball park of ' the Western 
League; and also Wonderland Park, 
an amusement park of the better 
class. 
It was proposed that this land be 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
SOLDIERS’ MONUMENT, WICHITA, 
KAS., AND TWO OF THE 
FIGURES MODELED FOR IT BY 
FREDERICK C. HIBBARD. 
bought by the city, transformed into 
a park; the city to deed to the coun- 
ty the exact amount of land that the 
monument would occupy, a space 
some twenty-five feet square, thus ful- 
filling the requirements of the county 
donation. With these points in mind, 
H. S. Mueller, a landscape architect, 
now at the University of Illinois, pre- 
pared a plan for the development of 
this site. He placed the monument 
far enough back so as to gain a good 
perspective view of it even from the 
edge of the property itself. There 
were four places from which a view 
of the statue would be interesting; 
one from a point directly across the 
river, one from a point nearly across 
the bridge, one from the east 
end of the bridge, and last, but the 
most important, one looking down 
Douglas avenue from the corner. He 
endeavored to mass the plantings so 
that the monument would stand out 
against a background of foliage, both 
summer and winter. 
To obtain the desired effect looking 
down Douglas avenue, the statue was 
so placed that it terminated the axis 
of the avenue. As a street is nearly 
always of a formal nature, it has to 
be treated in a formal manner. In 
this case it was done by having' a 
straight walk leading from the side- 
walk on Douglas avenue to the me- 
morial, with four small evergreens 
arranged in a formal manner, close 
to the monument. A low irregular 
planting around the base served to 
205 
bind the monument to the ground- 
The two deciduous trees immediately 
back qf it were so placed as to give 
a background in the summer time, 
while the conifers on the river bank 
furnished the dark setting in the win- 
ter. The informal planting along 
Waco avenue was put there to con- 
fine the lawn area and to keep peo- 
ple from walking across the grass. 
The view from the east end of the 
bridge was not so important as the 
one looking down the avenue, but it 
had to be attractive just the same. 
Here was put in a curved walk lead- 
ing up to the statue because this was 
not a formal approach. The junc- 
tion of the two walks was partially 
screened by a couple, of shrubbery 
beds. The two little conifers were 
put in to accentuate the entrance to 
the trophy room in the memorial. 
As the property that bordered the 
Black estate on the north did not 
afford a very pleasing outlook, it was 
necessary to have a rather dense and 
tall planting on that side. A row of 
maples, elms and conifers, together 
with some of the taller growing 
shrubs, were used to produce the de- 
sired effect. 
A striking vista was also left from 
the memorial to the Midland Valley 
station, at the west end of the bridge. 
The traveller must cross the bridge 
in order to get to the other stations 
or to reach his hotel. From the sta- 
tion, one sees the monument arising 
out of a mass of shrubbery and backed 
