PARK AND CEMETERY 
143 
The parks of Providence, R. I., are estimated to be worth 
between $2,000,000 and $3,000,000, and include 350 acres of 
large and small parks, the largest being the well known Roger 
Williams Park with an area of about 160 acres. 
j{£ l|C Jfc 
The park board of St. Joseph, Mo., is planning many new 
improvements. The new entrance to the park is expected to be 
completed this month. The gates will be of ornamental iron, 
of attractive design, and will cost about $600. 
* * * 
West Park, Joliet, 111 ., is accumulating a fine collection of 
cacti. About 20 species were recently received from Cali- 
fornia, and 30 more are on the way. Mrs. Benjamin Olin 
recently presented the park with twenty new plants, mostly 
cacti. The collection when complete will number about 200 
species. 
* * * 
An ordinance was recently passed by the City Council of 
Cleveland, O., appropriating $12,000 for parks and playgrounds 
for the rest of the year. The appropriation granted at the 
beginning of the year was $100,000, but this was found to be 
insufficient to meet the needs of the department. 
* * * 
Recent high water worked much damage to Pettibone Park, 
the island park of La Crosse, Wis. The wall at the head of 
the island was undermined, the road around the park was 
washed out and the entire island submerged. Mr. Pettibone, 
the donor of the park, is planning to build a new macadam 
road, and rebuild the wall. 
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The City Parks Association of Philadelphia is urging the 
establishing of more playgrounds in that city, and expects 
to induce the City Council to appropriate money for several 
new ones. The association's playground census for this year 
showed an average daily attendance of 12,156. 
The park board of Grand Rapids, Mich., has approved plans 
for the construction of a public convenience station in Monu- 
ment Park to cost about $4,500. The construction of a pa- 
vilion in this park, for which bids had been advertised, has 
been postponed, as all of the bids were above the appropria- 
tion. 
* * * 
There is a well organized movement on foot in Montgomery 
county, Kas., to establish a county park for the joint use of 
the towns of Independence, Cherryvale and Coffeyville. An 
electric railroad is to be built connecting the towns of the 
county and the Brewster farm near Independence is spoken 
of as the most favorable site for the park. 
* * * 
Gov. Bliss of Michigan has presented the plat known as 
the Campau farm to the city of Saginaw for a public park. 
It comprises eight city blocks, and the conditions on which it 
is given are that the city shall expend $2,000 annually for the 
care and maintenance for the first five years, and $1,000 each 
year thereafter. If the city fails to live up to the contract 
the property will revert to the owner or his heirs. 
* * * 
The park board of New York has authorized the issue 
of bonds for $150,000 for park purposes to be divided equally 
among the boroughs of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens. 
Park Commissioner Young of Brooklyn and Queens asked 
for $802,454 for the improvement of parks and parkways. 
The most expensive improvement which he desired was the 
widening of the Shore Road in South Brooklyn for the use 
of automobiles. 
^ 
George E. Kessler, engineer for the park board of Kansas 
City, Mo., has prepared plans for the improvement of a 100- 
acre park for Kansas City, Kas. It is to have a main driveway 
one-half mile long and a series of 20-foot drives winding 
around through the park. Other features of the work will be 
the construction of an artificial lake 1,000 by 300 feet, attract- 
ive shelters, band stands and a railway station. 
* * * 
Three monuments to illustrious Americans are under way 
for the south parks of Chicago. A statue of Lincoln on which 
the sculptor, Augustus St. Gaudens, has been working for 
seven years, is nearly completed. The statue of Washington 
is a replica of Daniel Chester French's statue in Paris, and 
D. F. Crilly, one of the park commissioners, is to defray the 
expenses of erecting a statue of McKinley in the new Mc- 
Kinley Park. 
* * * 
The annual report of the park department of Cincinnati 
calls attention to the large increase of bird life in the city 
parks, especially in the two larger ones — Eden Park and Bur- 
net Woods. There has been a much larger number and variety 
of native birds than ever before, which is said to account 
largely for the decrease in insect life which has for years 
been destroying the foliage. The total expenditures for the 
year were $42,062.20. 
* * * 
Mr. E. J. Parker, president of the Boulevard and Park 
Association of Quincy, 111 ., sends a suggestion for park amuse- 
ment that has met with favor in that city, namely that the Ger- 
man Musical Societies, found in all the larger cities, might 
add to the pleasure of the people by giving concerts in the 
public parks. The association is at present engaged in pro- 
moting the extension of the street railway to South Park and 
in finding a more favorable site for the band concerts to avoid 
congestion of traffic at Washington Square. 
* * * 
Samuel Parsons, jr., of New York, is preparing a planting 
plan for the park at San Diego, Cal. An outline of the plan 
and a list of trees and shrubs required has been finished. 
Native plants are called for in large quantities. Among shrubs 
to be used are one thousand each of the two native sumachs 
and the native cherry. Among trees to be employed in carry- 
ing out the planting plan, are peppers, selected species of rub- 
ber and acacias. Araucaria Bidwillii and Ceratonia Siliqua 
are also in that list, both being highly desirable for their or- 
namental qualities and thriftiness in that climate. About forty 
species of trees and shrubs are asked for by the landscape 
architects. 
* * >Jc 
The forty-third annual report of the park commissioners of 
Hartford, Conn., contains some interesting news of park work. 
In Pope Park an outdoor gymnasium was established ; in 
Elizabeth Park, the course of the driveway from the main 
entrance has been changed, the ponds extended and some 
shore and aquatic planting done. A map is attached show- 
ing the proposed improvement of Rocky Ridge Park, a tract 
now being used by the city as a quarry. The design is by 
Superintendent Theodore Wirth, and embodies a number of 
unusual landscape features. The tract is about 28 acres in ex- 
tent and is partly bordered by cliffs from 30 to 40 feet high. 
The report contains some fine half-tone views of park scenery. 
