495 
PARK AND CEMKTERY 
ParK Notes 
A bill has been introduced in the Minnesota Legislature 
and favorably reported providing that park boards in cities 
of more than 50,000 inhabitants may retain receipts from 
privileges and other sources and utilize them for park pur- 
poses. Both Duluth and Hennepin now have park boards 
working under a similar provision. The charter of St. Paul, 
however, requires all such receipts to be turned into the gen- 
eral fund and it was for the benefit of this city that the bill 
was introduced. 
9(. ip. 
The park commission of five members for Fall River, 
Mass., established by an act of Legislature in 1902, was 
granted at that time a special loan of $100,000 for park con- 
struction, and considerable work has l)een done under the 
direction of Olmsted Brothers, the board’s landscape archi- 
tects. Plans have been made and work begun on the South 
Park and upon Ruggles Park, as well as upon two small 
plots of land and also upon the F.astern avenue boulevard. 
The cemeteries are also under the control of this commission. 
The receipts for the past year were $25,362.09 and the expen- 
ditures $21,740.68. 
The park board of Kansas City Mo., has estimated that it 
will require $1,000,000 to improve the ptirk land now owned 
by the city, and a popular movement is well under way to 
induce the city council to submit to the voters a proposition 
to issue bonds for that amount. The estimate is based on 
topographical surveys and plans outlined by George E. Kess- 
ler, the landscape architect of that commission. 'Fhe South- 
east Improvement Association and the Municipal Forestry 
and Artistic Improvement Association, two local organiza- 
tions devoted to beautifying the city. Col. Henry J. Latshaw, 
the City Forester. Sid J. Hare, and other members of the 
latter association are actively pushing the movement. 
* * * 
We have received the report of the Parks Committee of 
the Ottawa, Ont., city council for the first year that the parks 
of that city have been under the control of the council. The 
parks and squares under the control of the committee number 
about 120 acres, and the cost of maintenance up to Decem- 
ber I, 1902, was $2,520.97. The council appropriation for 
maintenance and improvement was $5,258, from which $1,354 
was deducted for overdraft and outstanding accounts of the 
preceding year, leaving $3,904 for running expenses. The 
accompanying report of Superintendent Luke Williams shows 
that considerable improvement work has been accomplished. 
The water works property, comprising about three acres, has 
been lowered and partially graded, and some grading and 
tree planting has also been done in Gladstone Street Square. 
Rockliff Park, the largest of the city parks, comprising 89 
acres, has been improved by the opening of a new driveway, 
and 1 15 maples and a number of evergreens have been added 
to its nursery. 
AMONG THE LANDSCAPE GARDENERS, 
Plans for improving the grounds of the Agricultural Col- 
lege at Ames, Iowa, are being prepared by O. C. Simonds 
of Chicago. The campus comprises about ninety acres. 
Frank H. Nutter, of Minneapolis, has been engaged to pre- 
pare plans for developing a new addition and making other 
improvements at Springdale Cemetery, Clinton, la. The land 
has. been secured and it is intended to develop the grounds on 
modern lines. * * * Joseph Earnshaw, of Earnshaw & 
Punshon, Cincinnati. O., has been employed to lay out and 
beautify a recent addition to Oak Hill Cemetery, Lebanon, 
Ind. 
Plans for the improvement of Kosciusko and West Parks, 
Milwaukee. Wis., have been submitted to the commissioners 
by Warren H. Manning of Boston. 
E.xtensive improvements which have been in progress at 
Riverside Cemetery, Pleasant Valley, Conn., on the plans pre- 
pared by J. Wesson Phelps, of Hartford, are now announced 
as completed. 'I'he grounds are laid out on the modern lawn 
plan and embrace some of the most picturesque scenery in the 
Farmington Valley. The work of improvement included the 
restoration of the old cemetery and the platting of six acres 
of pasture laud. Three thousand shrubs and trees were plant- 
ed, a complete water-works system installed, and a memorial 
gateway of rustic stone erected. Mr. Walter S. Carter, of 
Brooklyn, N. Y., who was born in the village, donated $10,000 
to the w6rk. ami is to bequeath an additional $10,000 for its 
perpetual care. E. N. Bunnell has been elected superintendent. 
Swain Nelson & Sons, Chicago, have been retained by the 
trustees of Miami Lhiiversity, Oxford, Ohio, together with 
Architects Patton & Miller of Chicago, to prepare plans for 
the arrangement of the buildings and the remodelling of the 
grounds of the college. The general plan locates the prin- 
cipal buildings on a large quadrangle 250x600 feet. The 
approach to the main building is treated on formal lines. A 
large grove of beautiful old shade trees now on the ground 
forms one of the natural attractions of the place. An arbo- 
retum is also in prospect for the future. The state legis- 
lature has made a generous appropriation for the buildings 
and improvements contemplated. 
Samuel Parsons, Jr., landscape architect of the New York 
park system, has been employed by the board of public im- 
provements of St. Louis to devise plans for the restoration 
of Eorest Park, when the World's Pair of 1904 is over. Mr. 
Parsons will present a report to the board in March from 
which the amount of surety bond to be exacted from the 
Fair officials will be determined. 'Fhe present bond is for 
$100,000. It is not intended to restore the grounds e.xactly 
to their present condition, but to beautify the bare spaces 
left by the buildings according to the plans prepared. It is 
probable that the lagoons will be allowed to remain and that 
the level portion of the site will be covered with shrubbery 
and flowers, and driveways constructed along the sides and 
tops of the hills surrounding the level space. Mr. George 
E. Kessler, the landscape architect of the World’s Fair, will 
collaborate with Mr. Parsons. 
* * 
A DECISION FOR A LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. 
A recent decision of Judge Peck of the Court of Common 
Pleas, at Hartford, Conn., gives judgment in an appealed case 
to the effect that advice and plans of a landscape architect, 
when the same are made with the knowledge and assent of 
the client, have a professional value, even though the plans 
are not entirely followed by the client. The case was J. Wes- 
son Phelps vs. Charles E. Sheppard, and the plaintiff sued 
to recover for services rendered in consultation and in pre- 
paring and executing plans. The defendant claimed that the 
bill was excessive, as only a portion of the plans was carried 
out. Landscape architecture is a comparatively new occupa- 
tion in this country and the recent decision recognizes its 
professional standing. 
J 
