THE PHILADELPHIA PARKWAY 
AS OFFICIALLY DESIGNED 
T HE movement aiming at the beautifying 
of Philadelphia’s street plan has at last 
made definite progress, City Councils having 
committed themselves to two of the most im¬ 
portant changes proposed by the progressive 
element of the city. These are “ The Park¬ 
way,” leading from the City Hall to Fair- 
mount Park, and what is known as the 
“ Southern Boulevard,” or the widening and 
beautifying of the lower portion of Broad 
Street. T hese excellent schemes for reliev¬ 
ing the city’s drear area of gridiron streets, 
Ynr 
-------- _____ 
red - walled with 
brick, have already 
been illustrated in 
this magazine, 1 to¬ 
gether with other 
similar improvements which have 
been proposed, and readers in¬ 
terested in the subject cannot but 
feel gratified that the two most 
vital projects of all have now been actively 
furthered by the city authorities. 
“ The Parkway ” as we see it now offi¬ 
cially laid out and as proposed to be placed 
upon the city plan differs in several respects 
from The Parkway designed several years ago 
by public-spirited architects and endorsed by 
the art societies of the city. It is the differ¬ 
ence between the bold stroke of doing a 
thing right and of wavering for this or that 
unimportant consideration which results in a 
work being forever unsatisfactory. One of 
the objects of The Parkway was to utilize 
existing landmarks to the full, that they 
should enhance the effect of the new thor¬ 
oughfare and that it should bestow, in turn, 
upon the buildings an increased importance. 
Of all things desired by those best qualified 
to conceive this esthetic change was first that 
the lofty tower of the City Hall should lie 
exactly in the axis of The Parkway through¬ 
out its length ; also that the width of the 
avenue should be far greater than that of any 
other street in the city, and that both Logan 
Square and the Cathedral facing it should 
be made to assume positions architecturally 
prominent in the design. 
The present plan shows that the lines of 
The Parkway have been considerably juggled, 
chiefly for the benefit of certain vested inter¬ 
ests, as it also exhibits no little successful effort 
and skill on the part of the Bureau of Sur¬ 
veys at attaining any of the desired esthetic 
ends, in the face of exacting political 
conditions. The Parkway consists 
of two sections : the 
portion between Fair- 
mount Park and Logan 
Square and 
JL th at be¬ 
tween Lo- 
= gan Square 
PRE5ENT STAVTIOM 
INDICATES PROPOSED ADDITION 
to broad Street station 
CITY HALL 
the. circle indicates 
THE CENTRE or THE. 
TCWE.R. 
1 See “ House and Garden, 
Vol. 3, No. 3, March, 1903. 
Vol. 2, No. 7, July, 1902, and 
THE REVISED PLAN OF THE PARKWAY 
AS SUBMITTED TO THE PHILADELPHIA 
CITY COUNCILS 
47 
