PARK AND CEMETERY 
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MEMORIAL ARCH, ENTRANCE TO ELTON PARK. EAST BLOOMFIELD, N. Y. 
Annual reports or extracts from them , historical sketches , 
descriptive circulars , photographs of improvements or dis- 
tinctive features are requested for use in this department . 
The Elton Memorial Arch and Gateway to Elton Park re- 
cently completed at East Bloomfield, N. Y., was erected by 
James S. Elton as a memorial to his wife. The arch covers 
a ground space 32x11 feet and stands 17 feet high with an 
opening 9 feet wide and 10 feet high. The design is of the 
Roman Doric order with Doric columns of granite, of which 
the lower one-third is polished, carrying above a handsome 
moulded lintel bearing the inscription. 
At the side of the column are brick pilastered piers, and 
above all is a heavily moulded cap course crowned by a brick 
course carrying four elaborate urns and a carved finial stone, 
on both sides of which appear the words “Elton Park.” The 
walls are 13 feet long and 6 y 2 feet high, ending in face piers 
about three feet square. These will probably, in time, be sur- 
rounded by lamps of appropriate design or statuary. In the 
face of each pier is set a tablet of pink Westerly granite bear- 
ing inscriptions. The base course of the arch, the center 
columns and caps and the central pier caps are of Stony Creek 
granite and the brick work of New York hydraulic pressed 
brick. The coping stone and cap courses above the pier and 
column caps are of white oolitic stone and heavily moulded. 
Griggs & Hunt, of Waterbury, Conn., are the architects, and 
W. G. Potter & Son, of Geneva, N. Y., the contractors. 
* * * 
St. Louis has just secured its first municipal playground. 
This, in comparison with what other cities are doing in that 
line, is comparatively small, but to St. Louis it means much, 
for it commits the city to the policy of establishing down 
town parks in the crowded tenement districts. This new 
municipal playground is the result of the active campaign 
which the Civic Improvement League of St. Louis has been 
carrying on. Three years ago the League established six 
model playgrounds in the tenement districts. An ordinance 
was prepared under the direction of the League and intro- 
duced into the Municipal Assembly providing for the appoint- 
ment of a Municipal Bath and Playground Commission. This 
commission has been appointed from the members of the 
Civic Improvement League’s Committees. The bill providing 
for the playground was also prepared by the League and was 
readily passed by the Municipal Assembly. The League had 
shown the practical side of this work and carried it on so 
successfully that the city officials readily took up with the 
idea. Since this municipal playground has been acquired by 
the city, a movement has been started for the establishment 
of several others. 
* * * 
The 29th annual report of the park department of Boston 
for the year ending January 31, notes the securing of three 
small tracts within the city for playgrounds, and recommends 
an addition to the appropriation for maintenance to enable 
the board to rent additional tracts for this purpose. Superin- 
tendent John A. Pettigrew reports that the systematic thin- 
ning out of diseased and overcrowding trees in the old 
woodlands which has been carried' on for several years past 
throughout the park system, is bearing abundant fruit in the 
general effect of the woodlands, as well as in the more healthy 
appearance of the trees individually. The cutting has been 
done gradually, the effect of mass has not been impaired, 
and the letting in of light and air has encouraged the growth 
of side branches. 
The expenditure for maintenance for the year was $202,- 
601.07, including the following items: Roads, $55,891; walks, 
$7»776; grounds, $75,355 ; buildings, $20,227 ; office expenses, 
$10,075 ; general work, $12,547. 
An interesting table of park statistics is appended, giving 
the following facts about the different park areas: Year of 
purchase, cost to date, area, length of drives, length of walks, 
length of rides, area of ponds and rivers. The total cost of 
the park system, including land and construction, has been 
$17,997,735.14, and the total area is now 2,289.78 acres, includ- 
ing 125.4 acres of ponds and rivers. 
* * * 
The 35th annual report of the Park Commissioners of Buf- 
falo, N. Y., for the year 1903-4, gives the total expenditures 
for the year as $171,655.18, leaving a balance of $25,023.10, of 
