H ouse and Garden 
the wooden station is ot the anciently familiar 
type. Beyond Worcester there is little to at¬ 
tract special attention until West Brookfield 
is reached. Here there are beautiful trees. 
Chatham, for all its planting, has much 
more the air of a station. Even without 
the telegraph poles its purpose could scarcely 
be mistaken. The same may be said of 
Canaan, which is interesting as a very small 
station with very small grounds. Both these 
structures are of the more distinct type de¬ 
signed by H. H. Richardson. The grounds 
at Canaan are so small that they might well 
have discouraged planting, but one finds that 
this has been done—around the borders,where 
it would shut out structures that might pos¬ 
sibly be objectionable. 'There is at least that 
chance, even on small grounds, if the station be 
good enough to prevent such an attitude from 
seeming ridiculous on the part of the railroad. 
And now, in running the length of the 
road, we have seen stations below the level 
and above the level of the nearest highway, 
with large grounds and small, with and with¬ 
out natural features of interest, even—at the 
extremes—stations at a point ot junction and 
in a civic center. Surely among these ex¬ 
amples, considered not for themselves but for 
their suggestiveness, there is many a hint 
for the suburban or village improvement 
society that wants to “ fix up ” the railroad 
approach to the town. There is not often a 
more popular place at which to begin work, 
nor is there often a better one. If the cor¬ 
poration sees that the society has popular 
support and is in earnest, it is almost sure so 
to co-operate as to make the movement a 
success. And success counts for much at the 
start. It is an old and true saying that noth¬ 
ing succeeds like success. 
Entrance to Vandc'venter Place Louis Mullgardt, Architect 
THE “PLACES” OF ST. LOUIS 
A FORM OF THE SUBURBAN COMMUNITY PECULIAR TO THE WORLD’S FAIR CITY 
By S. L. SHERER 
I T IS a noticeable characteristic of Ameri¬ 
can cities, that some peculiarity of laying 
out the streets, or type of building, dis¬ 
tinguishes them from each other. St. Louis 
is no exception to the rule, and the salient 
feature that so signally differentiates it from 
other cities is the numerous private places 
wherein the more notable residences are 
concentrated. While all of these places 
evince some attempt at landscape design, 
they are not especially remarkable in this re¬ 
spect alone, and serve to verify the observa¬ 
tion of Lord Bacon that “ men come to 
build stately, sooner than to garden finely.” 
Doubtless the idea of converting a tract 
of unimproved land into a semi-private park- 
