PARK AND CEA\ETERY 
319 
PARK NOTES. 
An attractive fountain has been presented by a Jewish order 
to the Home for the Aged at Yonkers, N. Y. It is a tasteful and 
serviceable gift, and in connection with this gift it may be men- 
tioned that there has, in recent years, been a remarkable growth 
of the love of art among the Jews of New York. 
-X- * 
A pleasing feature of the centennial celebration of Cleve- 
land, O., in July, was the presentation to the people by 
John D. Rockefeller, of a tract of land for a public park. 
The tract comprises 276 acres and is valued at $600,000. It 
was a generous and appropriate gift and will be a lasting'mem- 
orial of the donor. 
» * * 
The largest of Brooklyn’s parks, is Forest Park, which con- 
tains 570 acres as against 516 of Prospect Park. It is two and a 
half miles long and varies in width irom 1000 to 2500 feet. A 
large ridge affords magnificent views of ocean, sound, harbor and 
adjacent country. It is one of the newer parks and the prelimin- 
ary work of preparation for public use is nearing completion. 
* ^ * 
The town of Branford, Conn., has been the recipient of a 
valuable memorial in the shape of a library building costing over 
1300,000. It was erected by T. B. Blackstone, President of the 
Chicago & Alton R R., Chicago, in memory of his father. The 
Blackstone family occupies a prominent position in the town’s 
history and the Blackstone Memorial Library is an appropriate 
and magnificent gift. 
* * * 
Omaha, Neb., has been studying the question of profits of 
their park greenhouses and nursery. For 1895 the profits of the 
greenhouses were $4,226.89 and of the nursery $1,102.85. This 
appears to have been estimated from the value of the stock pro- 
duced for parks and boulevard purposes less the cost of product- 
ion. These figures substantiate the necessity of such adjuncts 
to the park establishments. 
•X- * * 
Jersey City, N. J., recently received a gift of two and a half 
acres of land in its midst for a city park. No more fitting and 
enduring memorial could be provided by wealthy land owners in 
most of our cities than small parks for breathing places. It is 
the crying need, which must be met by the municipalities, unless 
donated as above, where such gifts have a double signihcance — 
a benificence and a memorial. 
* * it 
One of the highest hills in the west end of Pittsburgh, Pa., 
is being converted into a park and will soon be completed. As 
a lookout this park will afford unrivalled views of picturesque 
country. A sixty foot driveway, 2.500 feet in length will wind 
around the face of the hill, and will command magnificent 
views out across the deep hollows and over the other hills of that 
locality. A lookout house is to be built at the summit. 
’f' * ♦ 
The report of the Board of Park Commissioners for the city 
of Milwaukee, Wis., for the year ending March 7, 1896, shows a 
total expenditure for regular employes and labor of 138,061 .17 
and for improvements and materials, $65,664.63. The receipts 
from rentals, sales and boats amounted to $904.11. The total 
receipts from taxes and all sources were $163,830 49, and the dis- 
bursements $105,887.84. leaving a balance available for current 
year of $57,942.65. 
* * » 
Manchester. N. H., is aroused in the cause of Parks, and its 
area of 118 acres, divided into 6 small parks containing some 20 
acres and two larger ones, are receiving attention with a view to 
making them all the more attractive and useful for the purpose 
of pleasure and lecreation The city is so conditioned as to make 
a system of parks, possessing characteristic beauties, easily att.ain- 
able. The amount appropriated for the care and improvement 
of the parks was $9,000. Manchester has 44,000 inhabitants. 
* * «• 
Patrick Calhoun, a southern capitalist, of late a resident of 
Cleveland, O., has presented that city with land on F.uclid Ave. 
valued at $175,000, for park purposes. The property runs paral- 
lel and in part adjoins the donation of Mr Rockefeller. This 
will assure the completion of a plan to straiten Euclid Av. 
and construct a small circular park. The only stipulation Mr. 
Calhoun made is that he shall retain a strip 20 feet wide to ena- 
ble him to operate a street car line or other means of conveyance 
to the residence property beyond. Money will be raised at 
once by bonds for improvement purposes. 
By the will of Jane Bayne Teece of Allegheny, Pa., it is 
provided that at the death of her sister, to whom she leaves a 
life interest in the estate, a lot of ground in conjunction with 
the residence and grounds of the said sister, Mrs M. A. Balph. 
shall be given to the borough of Bellevue for library and park 
purposes for the use of the residents of that borough. A sum of 
$10,000 in addition to a similar bequest of Mrs. Balph is provided 
for its maintenance. Managere are appointed for the gift and 
any further sum remaning after other bequests are paid shall be 
added to the fund. Under no circumstances shall the large elm 
trees on the said grounds be removed until after their natural 
death . 
* * * 
Paris will be made awonderfully attractive place for the in- 
ternational exposition of i 900. According to reports the propos. 
ed improvements will be of a permanent character as far as pos. 
sible. There will be public parks, gardens, and squares created 
in all parts of the city, for example at St. Philippe du Roule and 
in the St. Marguerite quarter. Rows of trees will be planted at 
the Place de Rennes, and the banks of the Canal St. Martin will 
be covered with turf. The rows of trees in the Champs Elysees 
will be doubled, and still more trees will be planted in the 
Avenue de Bois de Boulogne. The roads leading into the Bois 
from the Auteuil side will be arranged in terraces, covered with 
flowers, and overlooking the valley of the Seine. The park and 
the gardens on the Butte Montmartre will be finished by that 
time. At night the city will be brilliantly illuminated by an ex- 
tensive system of electric lights as far as the outer boulevards and 
including the Bois de Boulogne and Vincennes. 
* » * 
Speaking of the trees and other material features in our 
parks, Mr. Frederick Law Olmstead in one of his reports says; It 
would be more interesting and refreshing, byway of contrast 
with city streets and gardens, if the trees planted in local parks 
were less uniform in kind and appearance, less like trees; if the 
slopes were more gentle sloping shores, more mystery and intri- 
cacy of water-loving plants, marginal shrubbery and groups of 
trees, if what purport to be natural lawns were kept free from 
stiff beds of flowers, dropped here and there without regard to 
general landscape effect or good design of any sort; and if the 
surrounding houses were, at least, particularly screened by bord- 
er plantations of trees and shrubbery. Owing to their situation, 
restricted size, and to the necessity for accommodating people in 
such a way as to reduce the wear upon turf and plantations to a 
minimum, the walks and other artificial construction must ne- 
cessarily be disproportionately large, and often unduly conspic- 
uous, but care should be taken, both in the designing and in the 
grading and planting to render all artificial constructions as sub- 
ordinate as possible to the general effect of verdure. 
