266 
Planting, made in the spring of 1916, 
consists of Mugho pine. Yucca, pyramidal 
Arbor Vitae, Japanese barberry, Weigela, 
lilacs and Kerria. 
No. 50 shows a group planting instead of 
long, continuous borders around open areas 
of lawn. We prefer the group planting for 
backgrounds. 
This planting is made up of Lombardy 
poplar, Catalpa Bungei, American elm, 
maidenhair fern tree, Philadelphus, For- 
svthia, lilacs and spiraea in variety. 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
No. 72 shows a hillside planting. My 
suggestion for planting this would include 
the following : Moss pink, memorial 
rose, periwinkle, creeping enonymus. Hall, 
honeysuckle, Ligustrum Regelianum (pri- 
vet), peonies, Desmodium penduliflorum, 
Mrrica, cerifera and asplenifolia (sweet 
fern), matrimony vine, Forsythia suspensa 
(golden bell). Rhododendrons, Azalaea in 
variety, Indian currant, Rosa rugosa, and 
Japanese Itarbenw. 
No. 74 shows a view of the Rogers mau- 
soleum in Mount Hope Cemetery, Joplin, 
Mo. A native woodland is used as a back- 
ground, with a foreground of shrubs, 
tamarix hydrangea, weigelia and lilacs. 
The tree in front of this picture is the 
hard maple, and the other planting includes 
Hydrangea paniculata grandiflora, Tamarix 
gallica, Weigela Eva Rathke, Althea, Per- 
sian lilac, with native oaks in the back- 
ground. 
SERVICE OF CHICAGO PLAY PARKS 
I. R. Richards. Sufcriiitcndcnt of Sports and Recreation, 
South Park Conunissio)i, Chicago, i)i The Playground. 
Chicago has a conception of public rec- 
reation that is as broad and as varied as 
are the uses of the leisure time of its 
thousands of individuals. Public provision 
for recreation, in Chicago, is limited to no 
age, no season and no particular group of 
activities. In fact, Chicago considers it to 
be the function of public recreation to pro- 
vide opportunities for developmental recre- 
ation for all the people. This conception 
has been evolved by fifteen years of service 
for the people of its various neighborhoods. 
Public provision for supervised recrea- 
tion in Chicago, began with children’s play- 
grounds, as has been the history of the 
movement in most American cities. The 
ground, however, had been prepared by pri- 
vately supported experiments during the 
last decade of the last century. With the 
beginning of the twentieth century, Chicago 
undertook to develop this service upon a 
scale unprecedented in any other city in the 
world. 
The parking boards were the only units 
of government existing at that time which 
seemed to be in any way organized and 
equipped to meet this new collective func- 
tion. These districts were, and are, unique 
in powers and organization. The large dis- 
tricts were created by an act of the legis- 
lature in 1869 which conferred upon them 
absolutely independent powers in taxation 
and operation. In the year 1899 these 
bodies were appealed to, to perform this 
service. 
I'he three large disricts of Chicago are 
the Lincoln, West and South Parking dis- 
tricts and their limits are quite accuratety 
defined by the divisions of the prairie upon 
which Chicago is built, made b}’ the Chi- 
cago river and the north and south forks 
of this stream. A new parking board, 
the Special Park Commission, was created 
in 1899, to provide play space for children, 
where it was deemed necessary and could 
not be done by the other parking boards. 
It is seen, then, that the operating bodies 
first taking charge of puljlic recreation in 
Chicago. were parking boards, and with the 
exception of the Special Parking Board, 
all were independent of the city govern- 
ment. 
In 1905 the South Parks opened ten 
year-round recreation parks equipped with 
facilities for service throughout the year. 
Appro.ximately five million dollars was 
spent on the grounds, buildings and equip- 
ment for the initial endeavor. 
The plans of buildings and service were 
worked out with little previous history from 
any source to draw upon. This fact made 
the Chicago plan a really original idea of 
service. 
The West and Lincoln Parking Boards 
soon followed the lead of the South Parks 
and today there are twenty-two recreation 
centers, completely equipped for year-round 
service. 
The buildings and equipment at one park 
are typical of all and consist of : 
( 1 ) A fieldhouse or central building, 
containing a large assembly hall, club 
rooms, a branch of the Chicago public 
librar}', a director’s office and lobby. _ 
(2) Locker rooms and shower baths 
for men and women. 
(3) Indoor gymnasiums for men and 
women. 
(4) Outdoor gymnasiums for men and 
women. 
( 5 ) Little children’s playgrounds with 
wading pool and sand court. , 
(6) Outtloor swimming pool. 
(7) Large play area with baseball field, 
tennis courts, footliall field. 
(8) Skating areas and warming houses 
for winter use. 
(9) In the West parks there are play- 
rooms with special instructors for little 
children too small to go to the gym- 
nasiums. 
These park centers have become great 
community clearing houses for all commu- 
nity needs. In the assembly halls the 
neighborhoods hat e their dramatics, musi- 
cals, concerts, lectures, dances and social 
and civic gatherings. The director of each 
park is a promotional officer and urges all 
the neighborhood organizations of a non- 
commercial character to make the field- 
house their headquarters. 
The numerous associations and organiza- 
tions of the city doing welfare work, such 
as the Infant Welfare Association, Chicago 
Tuberculosis Association, use the field- 
houses at the parks for their work in the 
neighborhoods. Civic clubs and improve- 
ment associations of all kinds find the parks 
a con\'enient meeting place. 
The indoor gymnasiums are in charge of 
trained instructors who organize classes for 
all who care to come, and assign to each 
class regular hours and lead them in physi- 
cal work adapted to their needs. Informal 
health talks are given at intervals by the 
instructor and a personal touch with the 
users is established. Games of simple or- 
ganization are taught little children. Gym- 
nastic. folk and social dances are taught 
to both sexes. 
Competitit'e games between teams repre- 
senting the different parks of the city are 
regularly scheduled each year and these 
contests cover the whole field of events 
used in standard competition. Inter-park 
contests in baseball, basketball, volley ball, 
tennis, track and field events, playground 
ball, wrestling, gymnastics and swimming 
are held each year. 
There are about sixty thousand boys and 
girls enrolled in the classes of the park 
gymnasiums of the city who are taking 
regular class work and participating in the 
life of the parks. 
During the summer the physical work is 
out of doors for men, women and children. 
The formal work of the indoor gymna- 
siums is discontinued and games and appa- 
ratus take its place. The children’s play- 
grounds are carefully supervised and led, 
and informal programs are carried out. 
These programs consist of constructive 
sandpile work, stor}" telling and imitative 
play, singing games, circle games, sense 
games, and to some extent, reed and raffia 
work. 
The playground in Chicago has passed 
beyond the remedial stage and is considered 
a constructive juvenile institution. It is 
not only a place where children may play, 
but where they may be given play knowl- 
edge to be used elsewhere. The playground 
must teach the child plays and games 
adapted to its age and habitat. 
The term playground has been used" in 
this article to describe the outdoor play 
spaces for children. The entire center used 
for recreation cannot be so described, al- 
though the term is generally so used in 
