270 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
to enable the Park Commissions to estab- 
lish a considerable variety of restrictions 
on private property in the vicinity of the 
parks and parkways, and perhaps also along 
streets in any part of the county without 
having to take the streets themselves. 
Some of the more important restrictions 
may be mentioned by way of illustration, 
but, if possible, the right should be broadly 
defined in the law as covering prohibitions 
of all things on real estate which affect, or 
which, if permitted, would affect the ap- 
pearance unfavorably, and also as covering 
such positive action by the Park Commis- 
sion as removal at cost, of rubbish, rank 
and pernicious weeds, deserted, tumbledown 
or partly burned structures, and so on, 
after failure of the owner to do so upon 
notice. 
This is the simplest and most frequent 
and most easily arranged for form of re- 
striction. The idea has been applied vol- 
untarily by conditions in the deeds in the 
case of so many real estate subdivisions 
that where similarly applied by public 
authority, it ought to cost the public noth- 
ing, except in special cases. 
The ordinary practice in deeds is to have 
it expire by limitation in 20 or 25 years. 
This comparatively short period has proved, 
in many cases, to be exceedingly unfor- 
tunate. The result after the expiration of 
the restriction in many cases is that al- 
though the majority of lots are occupied 
by still serviceable 'and attractive subur- 
ban residences, a few lots here and there 
will come to have saloons, or stores, or 
tenements, or flats, or apartment houses 
built right out to the street line and often 
with ugly blank side walls and hideous 
rears. The effect on the neighborhood is 
ruinous to its good appearance. 
Building limit lines ought also to be es- 
tablished in relation to the side and rear 
lines of lots facing on and in the vicinity 
of parks and parkways. 
The right should be reserved by the 
Park Commission to modify, in special 
cases, the side and rear building limit line 
restrictions so as to permit semi-detached 
houses, garages and private stables where 
the lots are necessarily narrow. 
Another useful restriction for the same 
general purpose would be one prohibiting 
the subdivision of land along and near 
parkways into lots less than 50 feet wide. 
A minimum of 60 feet width would be . 
much better and would probably be agreed 
to in most suburban districts. In some 
high class neighborhoods the minimum 
width of 100 feet should be the rule. 
Where a parkway passes through a dis- 
trict already subdivided, the land should 
be resubdivided wherever possible and in 
any case suitable restrictions should be 
established. 
Another very important restriction would 
be one as to height of buildings. In some 
cases it is very much needed to preserve 
valuable outlooks from being more or less 
completely blocked by three or four-storv 
flats, tenement houses, hotels, factories and 
so on. The law should permit this restric- 
tion to be applied by the Park Commission 
as far from a park or parkway as may be 
necessary to preserve the outlook intended 
to be protected by it. Ordinarily the limit 
of height would be 40 feet in order to 
permit two and one-half-story houses with 
steep roofs, but in many neighborhoods 
the restriction should be so worded as to 
also prohibit three full stories and flat 
roofs. The usual result of such a restric- 
tion would be to preserve in the neighbor- 
hood the agreeable somewhat open and 
fairly harmonious appearance which at 
present characterizes Mountain avenue and 
other well known residential streets. 
In furtherance of the idea that the land 
along and near certain parts of a parkway 
should be occupied by high class suburban 
dwellings, it is desirable, if the owners of 
the greater part of a given area of that 
sort are not strongly opposed, to restrict 
the lots to one dwelling for one family on- 
ly. This restriction should be modified in 
sections of moderate extent when condi- 
tions change to such an extent as to make 
it reasonable to do so. 
In some sections two-family houses could 
be permitted, provided the plans and speci- 
fications were required to be approved by 
the Park Commission, but care should be 
taken to prevent citified styles of two-fam- 
ily houses in suburban neighborhoods. 
The Park Commission should have the 
right to prohibit objectionable advertising- 
signs near parks or parkways. This an- 
noyance has been felt by many, and more 
or less successful attempts have been made 
by municipalities to regulate offensive ad- 
vertising, under the police power, but until 
a constitutlional amendment gives local 
governments the right to regulate the ap- 
pearance of real estate under the police 
power, with no more need of paying for 
its exercise than there has been for sani- 
tary, fire and safety control of buildings, 
the Park Commission can take by con- 
demnation before the land becomes valu- 
able for advertising signs an easement pro- 
hibiting all signs that do not advertise a 
business conducted on the premises, and 
regulating even these, and where condem- 
nation would cost too much the nuisance 
can be mitigated by the taxing power and 
by means of ordinances relating to fire 
hazard and safety (as regards being blown 
down), and by screening plantations in 
front of vacant lots along some parkways. 
Another important restriction is one to 
prohibit the sale of liquor and objection- 
able manufacturing, trade or business use 
of land within a specified distance of a 
certain parkway. Reasonable modifications 
or exceptions by permit should be made in 
some cases. Factories could often be cov- 
ered by vines, but the Park Commission 
might sometimes require its approval of 
plans, and thus prevent particularly uglv 
constructions. 
There are various other restrictions 
which should receive consideration when 
each parkway is being arranged for. The 
law should be broad enough to enable the 
Park Commission to restrict land fronting 
on or that is near a park or parkway to 
residential purposes and to restrict it 
against anything that would be injurious 
to that use. 
The general idea is reasonable and un- 
der normal conditions it should be re- 
garded as one to be carried out under the 
police power, without subjecting the county 
to having to pay damages. Yet there will 
be cases in which damages should be paid. 
For instance, if a singly owned 25-foot lot 
happens to come sidewise to the parkway 
and if the proposed building limit line is 
25 feet or more from the parkway, the lot 
would be made unsaleable for building and 
practically unsaleable for any purpose ex- 
cept to the owner of the adjoining land, 
who, knowing the conditions, might refuse 
to buy it or might give but little for it ; 
hence under existing law the lot would 
have to be paid for in full and retained 
as a park. This would usually be a case 
for the exercise of the right of excess 
condemnation, if the Park Commission is- 
given that right, as by that means the lots; 
could be rearranged. In case a restriction 
against trade would stop a going business, 
or would stop the use of an existing two 
or more family house, expense could be 
postponed by having a special exemption 
for a limited but renewable term of years 
embodied in the taking, in which case there 
would be no damage payable until the re- 
striction should be actually enforced, as it 
would be when worth while, and automat- 
ically if the building were torn down or 
burned. 
THE OBITUARY RECORD. 
Oglesby Paul, landscape gardener of 
Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, died sudden- 
ly while on a visit to friends at Boston, 
Mass., on October 6. His wife survives 
him. Mr. Paul was a landscape gar- 
dener of ability. He laid out and im- 
proved many fine places in Philadelphia 
and elsewhere. Flis work at Fairmount 
Park was marked by a determined effort to 
turn the waste spaces to account. The 
parterre, or sunken garden, was only plant- 
ed during the summers before his time. 
When Mr. Paul assumed command the 
garden was planted each fall with tulips 
and narcissi, so that there was always a 
crop in the ground. The great lecture room 
in Horticultural Hall, used at rare inter- 
vals was turned into a cactus house. The 
guard room and front room in the hall 
were removed to give more greenhouse 
room. The echeveria-alternanthera dates 
that had ornamented the east end bank of 
the hall for twenty years or more were re- 
placed by Scotch firs of dwarf habit. The 
new type of cannas were introduced. These 
are a few of the improvements made by 
Mr. Paul. 
