PARK AND CEMETERY. 
297 
THE GREATER USE OF PARKS AND PLAYGROUNDS 
An address before the Park Institute of New England, by 
James B. Shea, Deputy Commissioner of Parks, Boston, Mass. 
Some weeks ago the manager of the 
New England Park Institute requested 
me to read a paper or give a talk at the 
Lowell meeting on the “Greater Use of 
Parks and Playgrounds.” This is a pret- 
ty big subject and one to which, I fear, 
I cannot give the justice it deserves. It 
is, however, not by any means a new 
question to me or to many of my fellow 
park superintendents, particularly to 
those who attended the annual conven- 
tions of the National society. Many 
years ago this subject was thrashed out 
at Harrisburg at a convention held in 
that city, a convention brought there 
with the avowed purpose of converting 
the City Council and the leading civic 
societies of the town to advocate a larger 
appropriation for parks and playgrounds 
and to introduce more modern and ad- 
vanced methods in the management and 
control of the various activities. 
I have a very sincere respect for the 
earnest work of the city officials of Har- 
risburg in securing this convention for 
their city. They came to Boston to in- 
spect its park system and to see for 
themselves the various playground ac- 
tivities and the method of managing the 
same. Headed by the then Mayor of 
the city, Vance MacCormack, better 
known throughout the country perhaps 
as the great quarterback of the old Yale 
team, with seventy-five members of the 
city government and department officials, 
they arrived in Boston early in the 
morning, spent the entire day in the 
parks and playgrounds, and returned 
home on the night train. Some un- 
charitable persons might call this a jun- 
ket, but they were the most earnest and 
hard-working junketers I have ever seen. 
I have been assured time and again 
that the trouble and expense of this trip 
and the subsequent meeting of the Asso- 
ciation of Park Superintendents at their 
city, where we were most hospitably re- 
ceived, was more than offset by the 
benefits which they received through the 
increased knowledge and experience of 
their public officials. 
Later on we were treated to further 
dissertations on the subject of popular- 
izing parks and playgrounds, two cities 
which I have in mind being Minneapolis, 
where the society convened in the year 
1908, and Denver, in 1913. Both cities 
have made decided progress in the work 
and both have much to commend them 
to the seeker for information. 
It is, of course, to the larger cities of 
the country that we must look for ad- 
vance information on many of the mat- 
ters which would be properly treated in 
this article. Therefore it would not be 
amiss if I should present a few statis- 
tics from the great bulk of matter col- 
lected during the past few years. The 
City of Greater New York has a park 
system comprising an area of 8,600 acres, 
maintained at an annual cost of $2,860,- 
442, exclusive of the amount expended 
for construction purposes, which, while 
varying according to the needs, will 
amount to at least $1,000,000 additional. 
This area reduced to units means one 
acre to each 642 persons, or 1.56 acres 
to each 1,000 persons. 
The New York park system had its 
beginning in the year 1851; in 1853 a 
taking was made for what is now known 
as Central Park, embracing, as you all 
know, all that territory between 59th 
street and 106th street longitudinally and 
from Fifth avenue to Eighth avenue, an 
area of 776 acres. 
These facts I call to your attention 
because two years later, before the tak- 
ings were completed, the City Council 
passed a resolution cutting out of the 
park reservation all that portion of the 
above territory lying between 59th and 
72nd streets, on the ground that taking 
so much land for park purposes would 
injure the future growth of the city and 
would be detrimental to its commercial 
interests. 
Fortunately, the Mayor, Hon. Fer- 
nado Wood, vetoed this proposed legis- 
lation and the work of park building 
was not interrupted. A committee of 
citizens was called in by the Mayor as 
a consulting board, and among the num- 
ber was Washington Irving, George Ban- 
croft and Charles A. Dana. 
It is a difficult task to give reliable 
statistics on the park and playground 
system of Chicago, as the activities of 
this great city are divided among a 
dozen or more separate executive bod- 
ies. The total annual expenditures of 
the community are, however, greatly in 
excess of $3,000,000. In this city is to be 
found the latest word in playground de- 
velopment. In the management of its 
activities also it has shown the lead and 
we of other cities are obliged to sit up 
and take notice; in fact, when we con- 
sider the pace that has been set, partic- 
ularly by the South Park Commission, 
one is obliged to hold his breath and say, 
“Whither are we tending?” but, all in 
all, I believe that Chicago parks and 
playgrounds are used by the public to a 
greater extent than those of any other 
city in the country. 
Now just a few words on Boston’s 
parks and playgrounds. Since 1877, the 
establishment of the Park Commission, 
there has been expended for land $9,- 
000,000 and for construction $11,000,000, 
a total of $20,000,000. Of this amount, 
$3,000,000 was expended on the purchase 
and development of 42 playgrounds. The 
total park area contained in the above is 
about 2,500 acres. In addition to the 
above, there are upward of 80 small 
parks and squares acquired previous to 
1877 and eight beach bath houses and 
fifteen bath and gymnasium buildings, 
open all the year. 
Now, I have presented the foregoing 
facts to show that in three of the great 
cities of the country there exist park and 
playground systems that represent in 
each community an expenditure of from 
$30,000,000 to $60,000,000 for purchase 
and development, exclusive of the mil- 
lions annually appropriated for care and 
maintenance, and to demonstrate that it 
is incumbent on those responsible for 
the management of these magnificent in- 
stitutions to get the greatest amount of 
good for the greatest number of people. 
Now, how is it to be done? 
It is not sufficient that we select suit- 
able sites for our parks and develop them 
on the most artistic lines, or that we fur- 
nish a playground with a modern gym- 
nasium and all facilities for sports, and 
then say to the public, “There are your 
parks and there are your playgrounds; 
go in and enjoy yourselves.” Oh, no; 
we must devise some way of enticing the 
public into our carefully prepared beauty 
spots. 
Some time ago I chanced upon an ar- 
ticle by James Corbin in one of the 
magazines entitled “Wasted Opportuni- 
ty.” It was a plea by the writer to the 
public of New York for a greater appre- 
ciation of the benefits to be obtained 
from the Metropolitan Museum, and sug- 
gestions for practical ways and means 
for the cultivation of good taste in art. 
His valuable suggestions must not be 
considered solely in regard to the fa- 
mous museum which he uses as an ex- 
ample; in fact, they intermingle so close- 
ly with the subject which we have in 
mind that I take the liberty of quoting 
him at some length: 
We live in the day and in the land of waste. 
The waste in wealth, in food, material waste, 
is as nothing to the waste of opportunity, starva- 
tion of the mind based on neglect of opportunity. 
The sun sets and rises in the great cities; the 
moon shines and passes through its phases. More 
than half the population live and die without the 
inspiration of sunset or sunrise or the moon’s beau- 
ty among the clouds. No wonder city minds are 
dull. 
Parks are beautiful, and usually quite empty. 
They are there, but the people have not been 
taught to use them or enjoy them. 
Of all the great opportunities that n republic 
is supposed to offer to the citizens, practically all 
are neglected except the greatest of all — the public 
school. There, the children go because the parents 
send them. And parents send them because the 
law compels them to send them. 
