PARK AND CEMBTKRY 
168 
IMPROVEMENT ASSOCIATIONS 
CONDUCTED BY 
FRANCES COPLEY SEAVEY, 
A PROMISING FIELD. 
Established improvement associations everywhere 
are evincing a laudable ambition to accomplish work 
of permanent value. To such the improvement of 
school houses and grounds offers a promising field. 
Few communities possess grounds where no alteration 
for the better can be made, and in most school grounds 
the poverty of conditions suggests a positive embar- 
rassment of opportunities for the 
expenditure of ingenuity, energy, 
taste, time and money. 
The accompanying illustration, 
^‘A Cheerless Prospect,” by no 
means indicates the worst condi- 
tions obtaining in rural schools. 
It, as well as that of a “Model 
Country School,” is used by court- 
'esy of Mr. Orville T. Bright, Su- 
perintendent of Schools lor Cook 
County, Illinois. The building is 
better than the average in that it 
has a vestibule (though with its 
high and tiny windows it must be 
gloomy and otherwise objectiona- 
ble), the majority being destitute 
of this ordinary adjunct to com- 
fort; and although a few young 
trees are seen, it will be noticed 
that they are on adjoining proper- 
ty, so that the school officers of this 
district, as of most others, must be 
held guiltless of any intention to 
furnish either shade or beauty. 
Many worse examples exist even 
in wealthy district, but this exam- 
ple is chosen for several reasons. 
First, because it shows the double outbuildings some- 
times seen on school grounds, of which Prof. Bailey, of 
Cornell University, says “it is indecent to put the two 
outbuildings together,” while Superintendent Bright 
goes further and boldly asserts in his latest biennial 
report, “this” (a double outhouse) “is an unqualified 
abomination, and should be prohibited by law.” Sec- 
ond, because it suggests the possibility of materially 
improving existing buildings of similar type (and 
their name is legion) by the addition of a spacious 
and well-lighted vestibule to be used as cloak room, 
as storage room for a day’s supply of fuel, and as a 
protection against the elements. Third, because it 
offers an opportunity to suggest that simple planting, 
it done according to a carefully planned design, would 
so transform its cheerless aspect as to astonish even 
the most indifferent tax payer. 
In the first place the outhouse should be sawn apart 
and the resulting sections set at opposite corners on the 
rear of the grounds. Second, plow or spade up a 
large bed to border the entire three sides of the in- 
closure, something after the plan of the “blackboard 
di.maam,” which is intentionally rough to show how 
sligh.t a preliminary plan may be (on paper) and still 
serve as a guide to good and effective results, provided 
it is right in idea. Third, in this thoroughly prepared 
bed plant tall-growing trees where shade will prove 
most grateful, low-growing trees or tall shrubs next 
to the fence and to partly fill out the wider and denser 
parts of the border, and a variety of smaller shrubs 
to occupy the remainder of the bed. Hardy flowering 
perennials may also be introduced in places along the 
inner side of the border. Use low plants or leave an 
opening at points that command pleasing views. 
All of this material, trees, shrubs and flowering 
plants, should be such as are known to thrive in the 
neighborhood ; indeed much and perhaps all of it may 
often be collected from adjacent pasture and woodland 
at no expense except the labor. 
Prof. Bailey suggests in one of the Cornell Bulle- 
tins that a “bee,” somewhat in the fashion of an old- 
time “barn raising,” may be given for improving the 
school grounds. 
MODEL SCHOOL BUILDING. 
This attractive picture shows one of twelve schoolhouses of the same design in use in 
Edgar County, Illinois. 
The north side of the building has an outward curve and consists of a succession of windows 
which, with two in the rear, sufficiently light the room from the back and from the left side, 
as the pupils sit at their desks. There is a vestibule with spacious cloak rooms in the rear. 
There are good trees on the sunny side. One or two good shrubs set in the angles of the front 
steps and at the rear in those formed by the walls of main building and fuel room, and a nice 
clump of them in the blank space in the north wall, would greatly improve the already pleas- 
ant appearance of the premises. 
