House and Garden 
TYPICAL ARRANGEMENT OF ROADS AND PATHS 
Test a nice regard to its use, its beauty and its cost. 
The ideal, then, is the greatest possible comfort and 
convenience in use, the minimum of cost, and the 
maximum of appropriate and consistent beauty. 
The question of boundaries presented no very 
serious difficulties. In the main those of the old 
West Roxhury Park were adopted. They do not 
conflict with the topography and, with one exception, 
they permit of a suitable boundary road of easy 
grade to separate the park from adjacent private 
property. 
In nothing, perhaps, has Mr. Olmsted shown 
greater skdl as a landscape architect than in 
dividing a tract of land into units each peculiarly 
suitable for its purpose. T his ability is well illus¬ 
trated in the design of all his parks hut in none better 
than in Franklin Park. His scheme provided for 
eleven sub-divisions as shown in the key plan for 
Franklin Park, which is here reproduced. They 
were: Fhe Country Park, The Playstead, The 
Greeting, The Music Court, I he Tittle Folks’ 
Fair, d he Deer Park, The Refectory, Sargent’s 
Field, Long Crouch Woods, Tdie Steading, and 
The Nursery. , Of these main diversions, four essen¬ 
tial features—I'he Greeting, d'he Music Court, The 
Little Folks’ Fair and the Deer Park—were never 
executed. For comparison see plan of Franklin 
Park as it is to-day. 
Fhe Country Park proper is, of course, the dom¬ 
inant feature of the design, occupying 334 acres of 
the total 527. The essential purpose of the whole 
park here reaches its main expression. The site 
contains several large areas of turf; in most parts 
it is rugged, everywhere undulating. It was well 
suited by nature for the use to which it has been put. 
Its original character and heauty have been preserved 
and enhanced and nothino; inharmonious or incon- 
gruoLis has been introduced. The scenery is con¬ 
sistent throughout. It com¬ 
prises two main parts, the 
open, central meadow, and 
the surrounding woodland 
or “Wilderness,” mainly to 
the west and northwest. 
These two parts have each 
their appropriate beauty and 
each adds to the interest of the 
other. 
An important feature of 
the Country Park is the view 
from the more elevated points 
—Scarboro Hill, (El. 156 ft.). 
Schoolmaster’s Hill (El. 
162 ft.) and Hagborne Idill 
(El. 168 ft.). These hills, 
especially Schoolmaster’s, 
command the broadest and 
quietest pastoral scenery that 
the park contains, and they also furnish points 
from which to enjoy the views outside the park, 
notably that of the Blue Hills in Milton, six miles 
distant. The preservation of this view to the peo¬ 
ple of Boston is one of the finest achievements of 
the maker of Franklin Park. 
The success of the “Country Park” is due as 
much to what has been excluded as to what has been 
included. It was Mr. Olmsted’s intention that 
nothing should be built or planted in it simply as a 
decorative feature, and that from no part of it should 
anything be visible except rock and turf and trees, 
and these only in harmonious composition with the 
“Country Park” itself. With the exception of the 
Refectory and the occasional glimpses of buildings 
outside the park, this intention has had already 
reasonable realization. 
The Playstead is a turf field thirty acres in area. 
It occupies the most nearly flat ground on the prop¬ 
erty at the north corner, separated from Seaver 
Street by tbe Long Crouch Woods and from Sigour¬ 
ney Street by a border plantation. It is designed as 
Its name indicates for play, for athletic recreation. 
To see it in use is to be convinced of its value. For 
the children of Boston have in this green field a 
perfect playground and the fact that it is surrounded 
by beautiful scenery adds greatly to its value. It is 
not natural that the normal chdd should be too 
conscious of the beauty about bim, but it is of great 
importance to his development that it should be 
there. In addition to the Playstead, ample oppor¬ 
tunities for tennis playing are afforded in Ellicott 
Dale, where over a hundred courts are free for 
public enjoyment. The Country Park itself is used 
in season for golf, forty thousand players patroniz¬ 
ing it in a recent year. And even in the winter it is 
utilized for wholesome sport, facilities for tobog¬ 
ganing and curling being provided. 
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