PARK AND CEMETERY. 
207 
EXTRANCE AND SUPERINTENDENT'S RESIDENCE AND OFFICE, BELMONT PARK CEMETERY, YOUNGSTOWN, O. 
Space has everywhere been reserved for 
flowers and shrubbery, which have now 
had time to attain to a sizeable growth. 
The lagoons and their surroundings are 
the most distinct feature of the cemetery’s 
landscape architecture. They are not en- 
tirely artificial, but are the utilization of 
small ponds which were there when the 
park was laid out. They are quite large 
and are connected with each other by ce- 
ment runways, some of which are crossed 
by small stone bridges. The lagoons are 
fed by springs, but as an additional wa- 
ter supply, deep wells have been driven 
which provide the whole cemetery with an 
inexhaustible flow. Beautiful pond lilies 
in a variety of colors are now blooming 
* in several of the lagoons, and on one of 
them a family of pure white Pekin ducks 
has made its home. 
Two attractive lily ponds, connected by 
a waterway spanned by a substantial con- 
crete bridge, add to the attractiveness of 
the grounds. The bridge is 16 feet wide 
and 20 fet long. 
CEMETERY 
Twice during the existence of twenty- 
nine years the Association of American 
Cemetery Superintendents has met at Min- 
neapolis, Minn. First in 1893, the associa- 
tion's seventh meeting, and again in Au- 
gust, 1915, twenty-two years later. It is 
interesting to note that, with the exception 
of one day, the dates af the meetings were 
identical, and that of the forty-one mem- 
bers who attended the first meeting eleven 
were at the last. 
The progress that has been made in cem- 
etery management in the intervening years, 
very largely attributable to the influence of 
this organization, is nowhere better exem- 
plified than in the leading cemeteries of 
Minneapolis and St. Paul, now popularly 
known as the Twin Cities. Difficulties that 
seemed insurmountable to the cemetery re- 
former of two decades ago have been over- 
The new “Sycamore plat,’’ recently de- 
veloped, is a restricted section with care- 
fully planned shrubbery plantings to give 
unusual privacy to individual lots. 
About 4,000 shrubs and 100 trees have 
been planted in the last two seasons, and 
a half mile of macadam road, stone gut- 
ters, and the necessary catch basins built. 
Twelve hundred feet of iron fence six feet 
high has also been built. The superintend- 
ent’s residence cost about $5,000. 
The entrance to the community mau- 
soleum is ten feet south of the center of 
the cemetery. The building is of granite, 
150 feet long and 25 feet in height. It was 
erected at a cost of $60,000. 
The cemetery covers 100 acres, thirty of 
which have been improved. Every lot is 
sold with perpetual care and the perpetual 
care fund now exceeds $30,000, and is ex- 
pected in time, as the other lots are sold, 
to increase to $150,000. 
Apart from the investment in land and 
community mausoleum, about $80,000 has 
been spent in improvements. Most of this 
come, with such pleasing results in these 
modern cemeteries as to have afforded 
most profitable object lessons for the visit- 
ing superintendents, who must have re- 
turned to their homes with an enlarged 
vision of better work in their own grounds. 
The assembly hall in the West Hotel, 
the headquarters for the convention, was 
well filled with a representative gathering 
of superintendents and their wives from 
the Middle West, South and East when 
President Thomas Wallis, superintendent 
of Rosehill Cemetery, Chicago, called the 
convention to order on the morning of 
August 24. The convention was opened 
with prayer by Rev. Samuel J. Reed, D. D. 
Hon. W. G. Nye, mayor of Minneapolis, 
extended a very cordial greeting, in the 
course of which he took occasion to give 
some interesting information regarding the 
has gone into roads and drainage ; not 
only is every lot provided with 20-foot 
cross-section drainage, but every grave is 
under-drained to insure dryness. 
At present the number of lot owners 
is 774. John H. Fitch is president of the 
association; Judson Brenner, vice-president 
and auditor ; Fred G. King, secretary and 
treasurer; B. F. Wirt, counsellor; Fred I. 
Sloane, superintendent. The superintend- 
ent, who came to Youngstown last year 
from Ironton, O., has had many years of 
experience in his work, and is in addition a 
practical landscape gardener. Mr. Bren- 
ner, who gives a large part of his time to 
the cemetery's affairs and had a leading 
part in its establishment, has been inter- 
ested in cemeteries all his life, his father, 
John Brenner, having been superintendent 
of Oak Hill Cemetery from 1865 to 1883. 
Under the able direction of Mr. Brenner 
and Mr. Sloane improvements are steadily 
going forward and every effort is made to 
keep the management thoroughly abreast 
of the times. 
CONVENTION 
growth of the city, which has not yet 
passed its fiftieth anniversary. Edward G. 
Carter, superintendent of Oak Wood Cem- 
etery, Chicago, responded in fitting terms 
in behalf of the association. 
President Wallis presented his annual ad- 
dress, as follows : 
President’s Address. 
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Convention: 
It will be needless for me to even attempt to 
mention the many benefits derived from these* 
gatherings where plans are laid for research in 
many lines, current topics discussed, all tending, 
toward the one objective point — the Improvement 
of the Cemetery. It. is not my intention to* 
burden you with the facts regarding the advantages 
of combined effort of this kind, exemplified in our 
organization, with which you are all familiar, but 
I do ask. however, your indulgence for a moment 
in reviewing a few of the more important triples 
which have been brought up before for considera- 
tion by some of our worthy past presidents. They 
are topics which seem to me to be of such great 
MEN IN ANNUAL 
