210 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
OFFICIAL COMMUNICATIONS 
JAMES B. SHEA, Boston, Mass., President 
AND CONTRIBUTIONS 
J. J. LEVISON, Brooklyn, N.Y., Sec.-Treas. 
PARK NEW 
It is the purpose of this department 
not only to be a clearing house of cur- 
rent information on the best modern 
practice in park work and a forum for 
the discussion of matters on which there 
may be a difference of opinion, but also 
a record of current news concerning the 
members and their work. To make this 
end of the department of present, per- 
sonal interest, the Secretary asks that 
members send to his office news items 
I am soon about to circulate a letter 
inviting the members of the American 
Association of Park Superintendents to 
file all sorts of questions with me on 
matters relating to park work. It is 
the intention to publish these questions 
in Park and Cemetery and follow in 
the next issue with replies received 
from the various members. This “Ques- 
tion Box” department is therefore start- 
ed in Park and Cemetery for this 
purpose. 
The following four questions have al- 
ready been received, and members are 
invited to send replies to any or all of 
them : 
1. Approximate area of city parks in 
U. S acres. 
2. Cost of acquisition of land and 
permanent construction of city parks 
was about $ 
To those who believe in the doc- 
trine of “See America First” and who 
have journeyed to the far west to see 
the “Playground of America” this 
presentation will be no surprise, but 
to those who have not, I wish to say 
in the beginning that away out in the 
Pacific Northwest, there is a young 
city which is taking front rank with 
the leading cities of the United States 
in the matter of development along 
the lines of a city beautiful and that 
city is Seattle, located on the shores 
of beautiful Puget Sound, the “Medi- 
terranean of the Pacific.” 
S WANTED 
relating to themselves personally, to the 
work under their charge or to the prog- 
ress of park work in their city gener- 
ally. This information can be made of 
great interest and profit if all will con- 
tribute freely of anything in the nature 
of park news in their community. Ad- 
dress all matter of this character or 
anything pertaining to this department 
to the Secretary, J. J. Levison, Pros- 
pect Park, Brooklyn, N. Y. 
3. Cost of maintenance per annum of 
city parks, $ 
4. Number of new parks established 
in 1912, 
J. J. Levison,. 
Brooklyn, N. Y. Secretary. 
As to the questions on park area, etc., 
I can only make a wild guess for ques- 
tion one and say about 100,000 acres 
(not including large forest parks, such 
as the Palisades in New York). Mr. 
Mulford’s statistics of last year showed 
a total of 81,638 acres of parks in the 
cities he canvassed. I cannot answer 
the other questions with any degree of 
safety and must invite others to answer 
them. The United States Bureau of 
Statistics informs me that they possess 
no figures to answer these four ques- 
tions. 
Brooklyn, N. Y. J. J. Levison. 
The average easterner has, until 
recent years, had a very vague idea 
of Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. 
He thought of it in connection with 
Alaska probably and pictured it in 
his mind as largely populated with 
Indians, miners and cowboys and all 
of the other characters generally as- 
sumed to be the predominating fea- 
ture of the wild and woolly west. 
But during recent years our east- 
ern friends have been hearing and 
reading that at Seattle, a great city 
is in the building, almost unbelievable 
stories of regrades, sky scrapers, 
street and harbor improvements on 
a stupenduous scale, have gone forth 
and have been verified by those who 
have seen, until now our friends of 
the east realize that Seattle is not a 
frontier town but is a metropolitan 
city in every sense of the word, with 
a population of a quarter of a million 
people, all imbued with that energetic 
force, locally known as The Seattle 
Spirit. 
Contrary to the usual experience of 
cities which spring up and grow rap- 
idly, the city beautiful idea has not 
been lost sight of, in fact it has fully 
kept pace with, if not exceeded, our 
commercial growth. 
I will qualify this statement by stat- 
ing that Seattle has within the last 
five years appropriated five million 
dollars of public funds for parks, play- 
grounds and boulevards, a record 
which cannot be equalled by any 
other American city of equal popula- 
tion. 
Nature has blessed Seattle with a 
magnificient setting for a beautiful 
city. With the placid waters of Pu- 
get Sound, an arm of the Pacific, 
forming the western boundary of the 
city, Lake Washington, a beautiful 
body of water thirty miles in length 
as its eastern boundary, with the lofty 
Olympic Mountains across the Sound 
to the West and the Cascade Range 
across the lake to the east, the city 
rising on a series of hills between 
the Sound and Lake, with two large 
lakes, Lake Union and Green Lake 
within the city itself, what more 
could one conceive in the way of 
scenic environment. 
Our citizens were quick to realize 
that with nature’s endowment we had 
before us a wonderful opportun- 
ity to develop a park system which 
would attract the eyes of the nation. 
The first step was to secure a com- 
prehensive development plan and with 
this end in view Landscape Architect 
J. C. Olmsted was employed and af- 
ter spending many weeks during the 
winter of 1903-4, climbing our timber 
covered hills, viewing our snow- 
capped mountains and broad expanse 
of Sound and Lake, studying closely 
the topography of our city, he 
brought forth what has since been 
known as “The Olmsted Plan” which 
was officially adopted. 
THE ASSOCIATION QUESTION BOX 
THE PARKS OF SEATTLE 
Address at the American Association of Park Superintendents’ Convention at 
Boston, August 12, 1912, by Roland Cotterill, Secretary, Seattle Park Board 
