PARK AND CEMETERY. 
2 l8 
RIVERSIDE PARK, •JOI.EDO, (). — TERRAI K VIEW TO I HE SOU'I'II. 
The Parks of Toledo, O. 
Considering the short time during which any 
organized system of park work has been in opera- 
tion in Toledo, O., that city is to be congratulated 
on the progress so far made towards the acquisition 
of a system of public parks, adequate to the needs 
of a city of its size and importance, local conditions, 
and over 81,000 inhabitants. 
Active operations have onl)’ been in force for a 
little over three years, or since the season of i89i-’2, 
when the Board of Park Commissioners took charge. 
The total park area so far acquired amounts to 698 
acres, to which must be added numerous triangular 
spots in various parts of the city. The first care of 
the Commissioners after purchasing the properties 
was to secure in sufficient quantities trees and shrubs 
for their improvement, which were planted out in 
the nursery and cared for until actually required, 
and the result of which has been beneficial. While 
it has been impossible, in the short lapse of time, to 
create permanent effects, a surprising progress is to 
be noted, nearly all the new property has been un- 
derbrushed and prepared for immediate work, be- 
sides being available for public use to a considerable 
extent. 
The total cost of the acreage and improvements 
up to January i, 1896, amounts to $825,570, but 
at present untoward financial conditions are tem- 
porarily suspending all park work. It may be added 
that the work of the Commissioners has not been 
accomplished without severe criticism, a condition 
which generally attaches to such public functions, 
where the co’nservativc policy may be expressed by 
the idea; “We want the parks but do not want to 
pay for them.” This grade of conservatism loses its 
regulating force when directed against a properly 
devised park system, because the universal experi- 
ence is that parks are not only beneficial from the mor- 
al and sanitary standpoints, but their establishment 
at once increases the value of neighboring proper- 
ties in a very pronounced and profitable way. 
The plan pursued in the work of improvement 
and which has been carried out in the three years 
of actual operations, has been to open and clean out 
the properties, and shape and grade the ground to 
such an extent as to permit of the planting of shade 
trees and shrubbery at the earliest possible time. 
Toledo has a large amount of water frontage, 
which has had considerable influence in determin- 
ing purchases, and Riverside Park, a view of which 
is given, has been transformed from a ragged un- 
sightly strip of river land into a floral terrace, with 
good driveways and paths, making it the promen- 
ade and driving ground of the lower part of the city. 
It contains some 33 acres. 
City Park, an area of seven acres, possessed of a 
beautiful forest growth of fine trees, so thinned out 
as to allow of a flourishing lawn, and embellished 
