251 
PARK AND CE-ME-TE-RY 
Proposed Street Improvement for Uniting 
Two Cemeteries. 
HALL STREET, (IRANI) RAPIDS, MICH., DIVIDING OAK HILL AND VALLEY CITY CEMETERIES. 
The illustrations on this page are designed to show 
how two cemeteries in Grand Rapids, Mich., are be- 
ing transformed into one, and the public street be- 
tweeen them changed into a central avenue or drive- 
way, embellished by ornamental planting and land- 
scape improvements. 
The engraving at the top of the page shows Hall 
street as it formerly divided Oak Hill Cemetery from 
Valley City Cemetery, and the diagram below shows 
the plans for its improvement. Valley City was for- 
merly the municipal cemetery, and Oak Hill under the 
control of a corporation, but the city of Grand Rapids 
recently purchased Oak Hill from the corporation, 
and merged the two tracts into one under the title of 
Oak Hill Cemeteries. 
The Common Council then authorized the Board of 
Cemetery Commissioners to take charge of the street 
between the two cemeteries, and embellish and im- 
prove it. The plan of improvement adopted was de- 
signed by Eugene V. Goebel, superintendent of the 
cemeteries, and is intended to make one harmonious 
whole out of the two cemeteries. 
Hall street, as shown, is a bare public thoroughfare, 
66 feet wide, and is to be remodeled into a boulevard, 
having as its chief features, a central park-like area, 
on each side of which is to be a twenty foot driveway, 
which will merge into one drive 30 feet wide as shown 
at each end of our diagram. To the right of the of- 
fice the drive descends a hill, and is bounded on each 
side by a stone wall, ranging in height from four feet 
at the top of the hill to twelve feet at the bottom. The 
sidewalk along the wall, about six feet in width, is to 
be removed, and replaced by planting to hide the 
wall which is rather unsightly. The cemetery drives 
running at right angles to the street, now terminating 
at a fence, will merge into the new central drive as 
shown in the drawing, and help to bind the two cem- 
eteries together. The telegraph poles and fences on 
each side of the street are tO' be removed, and the 
straight rows of shade trees on each side of the drive 
are all that remain to remind one that the avenue is a 
public thoroughfare. 
The improvements are now being carried on under 
the direction of Mr. Goebel and are to be pushed to 
early completion. 
PLAN FOR PLANTING AND REMODELING OF HALL STREET. 
BY EUGENE V. GOEBEL. 
