PARK AND CEMETERY. 
247 
MEMORIAL BANDSTAND IN BOSTON COMMON 
The Parkman memorial bandstand in 
Boston Common is a fine type of monu- 
mental park structure that is handsomely 
designed and substantially constructed. 
It is a circular structure of marble and 
granite, embodying an open domed roof 
supported by twelve Ionic columns. 
The structure is 30 feet high and the 
diameter of the floor is 32 feet 3 inches. 
The columns are 14 feet 3 inches high and 
these and the entire superstructure are of 
Tennessee marble. 
Milford pink granite is used in the lower 
part of the building. 
William J. Sullivan, of Roxbury, Mass., 
furnished the marble work and the Webb 
Pink Granite Co., of Worcester, Mass., 
were the contractors for the granite part 
of the structure. 
The total cost of the building was 
$44,389. 
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PARKMAN MEMORIAL BANDSTAND, BOSTON COMMON 
MODERN CEMETERY WORK IN SMALL CITIES 
Sometimes an old cemetery or a group 
of old cemeteries can be taken, and with 
general and generous co-operation, and 
with infinite pains, and an overmastering 
desire for service on the part of those un- 
dertaking the enterprise, can be trans- 
formed into a modern cemetery. It may 
be that a group of old cemeteries can be 
associated together under one management 
and may be regraded and replanted and 
made over into a really modern cemetery. 
When such conditions obtain, it is most 
desirable that this should be done. The 
rehabilitation of old cemeteries is a diffi- 
cult undertaking, but as the community 
grows into an appreciation of the beauti- 
ful way to care for its dead and demands 
the establishment of a new cemetery, then 
if the population of the city is somewhere 
from 20,000 to 40,000 people, it would 
be advisable and feasible to establish a 
modern cemetery to meet the needs of a 
growing community. 
Let us say that there would be several 
comparatively small denominational ceme- 
teries with one or two city cemeteries, 
such as exist in almost every city, none 
of them with any or very little provision 
for perpetual care. Then if the city has 
a park system, community centers, play- 
grounds, etc., and it is awakening to a de- 
sire for beautiful surroundings in which 
to live, a desire will come to beautify the 
resting place of the dead. The remoteness 
of the possibility of adequately caring for 
the old cemeteries should foster the suc- 
cess financially as well as otherwise of a 
beautiful modern cemetery, and by success 
is meant that within a reasonable period 
Address before the Norfolk Convention 
of the A. A. C. S. by Owen T. Smith. 
of time, say ten to twenty years, such a 
new project may come to financial success. 
The new cemetery must be far in advance 
of all the other cemeteries, so far as land- 
scaping and careful planning can make it, 
and the people who must be ministered to, 
must be brought to see through years of 
service and care that the management is 
progressive, has character and ability to 
carry out the undertaking as planned. The 
new cemetery must be made so beautiful 
and kept so well that it will appeal to the 
people, whom it is meant to serve, so 
strongly that they will be drawn to pur- 
chase lots almost against their wills. 
The financing of a new cemetery in the 
smaller cities is beset with difficulties. If 
the idea is to organize an association of 
lot owners without profit, it is a man’s 
job to interest enough people to set it go- 
ing. That is undoubtedly the preferable 
way, but a more difficult way than most 
men care to undertake. The other alter- 
native is to organize for pecuniary profit, 
and procure as many small subscriptions 
to the capital as possible. Many will sub- 
scribe for one or two shares or more with 
the idea that it will never pay, yet with 
the hope that possibly some time they may 
be compensated for their public spirit. It 
may be that the necessity of showing the 
stockholders who are personally interested 
in what has been accomplished, will assure 
a better accounting system than under the 
former plan. A surplus should be planned 
for and built up beyond the amount set 
aside for perpetual care for future devel- 
opment and depreciation. When the enter- 
prise is thus started, we cannot look for 
it to make adequate returns to those who 
have fathered it for an extended time, 
because with all the push and energy that 
can be put into it, time will be required 
to win the confidence of the public and 
bring out the beauty of the landscape.’ 
Piecemeal development, according to the 
needs, retards its growth and beauty. It 
goes without saying that the new enter- 
prise starts out under the system of per- 
petual care for every lot, and the insistent 
question at the beginning is at what price 
must lots be sold, and -^hat percentage 
of the price shall be set apart for the pe- 
petual care fund and how shall it be in- 
vested so that an adequate amount may 
be available for the care required. The 
writer believes that in many, if not most 
cases, in a new enterprise, the price fixed 
is too low, and the amount set aside for 
perpetual care is inadequate. When the 
meaning of the word perpetual once dawns 
upon the directors or trustees, and they 
begin to realize what they have undertaken, 
straightway their ideas of price for the 
service rendered rises in proportion to their 
conception of the word. 
In the small city such prices as may ob- 
tain in the large city cannot be expected; 
the cost of service rendered, however, may 
be nearly or quite as great, and the ceme- 
tery must therefore be managed with the 
strictest economy and constant care that 
operating expenses do not go too high. 
In a city of the size to which we are 
addressing ourselves, how many times have 
we seen the old-time eity cemetery not only 
grown up to, but surrounded by the city 
