263 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
and that it was not at all the sort of thing 
to present to a public audience in the 
twenty minutes to which I am limited. 
So I concluded that I would at this meet- 
ing' just give the steps which led up to 
such a “crazy scheme,” as it is usually con- 
sidered. I think I never have made my 
proposition without having people look at 
me, as your president looked at me when 
I made it first to him, as if I not only 
ought to go to Missouri, but to some re- 
treat where I could no longer burden the 
public with my dreams. 
The first steps which led to this scheme 
were some five years ago, when J. F. Fos- 
ter, Superintendent of the South Park Sys- 
tem of Chicago, read a paper to the Ameri- 
can Park Superintendents’ Association, 
claiming that all sales, etc., should be man- 
aged by the Park Department, and not by 
sales of concession. The following year 
the question of concession at Elizabeth 
Park, in Hartford, came up. I presented 
the arguments of Mr. Foster’s paper to- the 
Park Board, and asked for the privilege of 
conducting the refectory as part of the park 
vvork. They reluctantly granted this ; I 
think they thought it would be a failure, 
but were willing to gratify my desire, espe- 
cially as it seemed the easiest way out at 
that time. I started in rvith the assump- 
tion that there would be no profit, that the 
refectory was truly park service, and 
that all money received should go back 
into that service. I improved the quality 
of the supplies, increased the quantity, 
added to the wages of the waiters, doubled 
the pay of the head-waiter, and employed 
a manager. I also made certain restric- 
tions as to the use of the service, and 
thought I had done everything necessary 
to eliminate all possible profit. Imagine my 
surprise at the end of the year when the 
profits, even under these conditions, were 
something over $1,200. The refectory at 
Elizabeth Park is an old dwelling house, 
and not really suitable for the work. 
My second experiment along that line 
was the skating house last winter. There 
was an old sheep-fold near the pond. I 
lighted and heated it, made paths to the 
ice, in one corner put in a checking sys- 
tem and a little short counter where we 
sold articles, at a cent apiece for the most 
part — the highest was five cents — hot dogs 
and coffee, and chocolate. And we had no 
expectation that the thing would pay. It 
is true that we had a very favorable skat- 
ing season, and you can imagine my sur- 
prise again at the end of that season to 
find that that little ten-feet counter had 
paid for all the service rendered — for heat- 
ing and lighting the building, for a hockey 
rink, for a double-headed curling rink, and 
in part for keeping the ice free from snow. 
A few years ago I went to Kansas City, 
and there I met Mr. Kessler, a very able 
man, who, although his point of view was 
different from the eastern one, showed me 
many things and opened my eyes to prin- 
ciples which I had not conceived of, and 
to many varying forces working in the com- 
munity. I learned also that the boulevards 
of Kansas City had been put into opera- 
tion without direct taxation, that they were 
troubled from being obliged to reject prop- 
ositions for making them where people 
wanted them. It seemed a queer position 
to me for a city to be in, when with us 
we have to seek for everything we want. 
I also saw the amusement park, and it was 
the best organized and managed pleasure 
park I had ever seen. From what I 
learned from Mr. Kessler at that time, the 
idea came to me, with my experience at 
Elizabeth Park, that it Yvas possible for 
some parks to pay expenses from the sales 
made in them. 
As a result, then, of our work in the re- 
fectory and the skating house, and from 
what I had learned at Kansas City, I con- 
ceived the idea that we might possibly take 
Colt Park and make it self-supporting. I 
worked out a plan which consisted of a 
building 380 feet in length, with a center 
piece in it and a basement under it (which 
was nearly all above ground) that would 
accommodate dances, moving pictures, 
bowling alleys, refectory, auditorium, etc., 
and the scheme, as it seemed to' me, would 
not only be self-supporting, but would also 
provide for the entire cost of that partic- 
ular park and give a sinking fund suffi- 
cient to pay for the original cost. 
I proposed that scheme to the Commis- 
sioner in charge of the work, and, while he 
looked askance at first, in half an hour he 
became convinced and enthusiastic, .took it 
to the full board of ten members, and after 
some discussion they unanimously adopted 
it and presented it to the Board of Finance 
of the City Council for $40,000. There we 
met a snag, because last year Hartford had 
to raise considerably over half a million 
dollars extra for improvements, and it did 
not seem advisable just at that time to put 
an additional $40,000 into this plan, because 
it might upset some other needed thing. 
Furthermore, the scheme was not presented 
until after the year’s budget had been made 
up, so it came in irregularly, and they ad- 
vised that the matter be held over until 
the coming year, when it might be put into 
the budget. That they had faith in it is 
shown by their giving $10,000 to do grading 
and to prepare the ground this fall. They 
also had faith, evidently, in playground 
operation, because they gave $2,500 to spend 
on small playgrounds where they were 
needed, on private land. They have been 
very successful. 
In some ways I am rather glad that the 
$40,000 did not go through just then, be- 
cause, while I realized from the experience 
I had had that it was possible for parks 
to become self-supporting, the idea had not 
occurred to me that a whole park system 
could take care of itself, as well as the 
individual parks. This idea startled me at 
first when it came to me, and I realized 
that there were some principles involved in 
this management, some forces at work, 
which brought problems for us in our park 
work which I did not fully understand. 
I realized that while the results were fairly 
successful, I did not know just why they 
were so, and I asked myself the question, 
what was required in order to maintain a 
park system and a recreation system for a 
city of a hundred thousand people; what 
they would have to furnish ; what it would 
cost to furnish it ; what would be the prob- 
able income from it, and why it was that 
we had made a profit under conditions 
where private parties in the same business 
could not have done so. 
To answer these questions somewhat in 
order, I will say first that the requirements 
of a city of a hundred thousand people 
that are well-to-do seem to be, at least, a 
large country park, a driving park of not 
less than four hundred acres, some smaller 
ores of not less than fifty acres, ten or a 
dozen of not less than two acres, and forty 
or fifty playgrounds on public or private 
land, which would vary in size, but would 
he sufficient for the children of the neigh- 
borhood. There should also be a decora- 
tive garden of something like twenty acres, 
a conservatory of not less than 10,000 
feet square, decorative squares or triangles 
at the entrance of each avenue into the 
city, and others scattered about the city as 
they could be obtained. Municipal build- 
ings should have their grounds well cared 
for, and all these things seem to be nec- 
essary for a city of that size. Furnishing 
these, there should be not less than ten 
thousand seats, forty ball grounds, seventy- 
five tennis courts, forty-five bowling greens, 
curling rinks, a dozen hockey rinks, an 
ample supply of drinking water, toilets, 
and shelters, and all the decorative features 
of roads, etc., which go to make an ordi- 
nary park. 
The maintenance of this, if fully used, 
seemed to me as I worked it out from my 
experience of rvhat it has cost and what 
it would cost if it were increased in that 
way to more than double the service any 
city now provides, likely to come to about 
three mills per visit per hour. That means, 
if we had 100,000 visits a day, $2,100 a 
week, about $110,000 a year, then adding to 
that the administration of the park system, 
it would make the total cost of maintenance 
about $120,000. This is just about double 
what it costs for the maintenance of Hart- 
ford parks now. 
Then, as to the number of visitors which 
a park system might exneet if fully pre- 
pared to meet their needs, I will not go 
into details which will make a dry essay, 
but ask you to accept certain things as 
what might possibly be true. The number 
of recreation hours in a city of one hun- 
dred thousand people is about 500,000 per 
