House & Garden 
THE SOUTH PHILADELPHIA PARKWAYS 
The pamphlet upon the city plan, pub¬ 
lished by the City Parks Association, has 
already been referred to. Easily the most 
notable proposal it contained was a capital 
plan prepared by Mr. Frank Miles Day 
for the improvement of South Philadelphia, 
beginning at the verge of the present built-up 
area. League Island Park is the largest park 
of Philadelphia, after Fairmount Park, and 
covers three hundred acres, nearly square in 
form. Immediately south of it, is League 
Island itself, where the United States Navy 
Yard is situated. Solid rows of houses have 
extended along South Broad Street, the 
natural approach to both Park and Navv 
Yard, as far as a street running east and west, 
nine blocks north of the beginning of the 
Park. At that street the plan under discus¬ 
sion begins. A square plaza taking in four 
city blocks is first provided for, and then 
comes a somewhat narrower reservation on 
each side of Broad Street, continuing to 
League Island Park. The central point of 
the plaza is the intersection of Broad and 
Johnson Streets, from which point a diagonal 
street runs southeasterly to the Delaware 
River. This is already on the city plan and 
Mr. Day’s scheme 
merely requires its 
widening. A square 
or two north of this 
point was formerly a 
crooked street which 
crossed Broad Street 
and ran in a gen¬ 
erally southwesterly 
direction to and 
across the Schuylkill 
River. By straight¬ 
ening this street, it 
is brought to the 
same intersection of 
Broad and Johnson 
Streets. From that 
point again a further 
diagonal has been 
added to the layout, 
running northwest¬ 
erly, and passing 
within a square of 
Girard Park, a por¬ 
tion of the farm of 
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PROPOSED-ARRANGEMENT- OF - PARKWAYS • FOR-THE ■ SOVTHERN-END-OF -THE 
CITY- OF-PHILADELPHIA 
MR. FRANK MILES DAY S PLAN 
the famous philanthropist. This diagonal 
continues to the Schuylkill River, which it 
crosses on the line of the northern boundary 
of Bartram’s Garden, a park that preserves 
the house and grounds of one of the most 
remarkable travelers and horticulturists of 
the eighteenth century. By a plan already 
confirmed by the city authorities, access is 
gained to one of the principal streets of West 
Philadelphia, which passes Black Oak 
Woods, and a mile or so beyond the latter, 
reaches Fairmount Park. It will thus be 
seen that this boulevard joins the principal 
land park of the city with what will some 
day, not very distant, be a great water park, 
and passes three other inland parks on the 
way. This plan, therefore, combines the 
advantages of diagonal streets, parkways and 
park connecting links. 
It will be noted in the illustration here 
that the plan is a formal one. To those not 
not familiar with the ground, it may appear 
that the natural contours could not have been 
consulted. But the whole district of South 
Philadelphia is low, flat land, and conse¬ 
quently lends itself admirably to a formal, 
architectural treatment. A strong feature 
of this plan, as of 
nearly all the pro¬ 
jects The City 
Parks Association 
has published, is 
that it concerns 
ground not yet built 
upon. The actually 
built-up area of the 
city has been ascer¬ 
tained by the officers 
of that Association 
in a most painstak¬ 
ing way; no less 
than by following 
afoot the zigzag line 
of buildings around 
the whole city from 
the river front on 
the north to the 
river front on the 
south. 
This plan of Mr. 
Day’s provides an 
ideal site at the 
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