The Park System of American Cities 
have much of the character of parks about 
them. One is occupied by the Buffalo State 
Hospital and the other by the Forest Lawn 
Cemetery. There is no reason why our 
cemeteries should not be as beautiful as the 
cemeteries abroad. The cemetery of Wei¬ 
mar, for example, the home of Goethe, is a 
beautiful mass of color. We have yet to 
realize how much can be done when ceme¬ 
teries are not made mere marble quarries. 
In the Forest Lawn Cemetery the landscape 
architects of many parks will find much to 
learn. A stream is left with its natural loam 
banks and the path is made to follow it 
without interfering with it. When you come 
to great rivers in cities it is necessary to wall 
them, as has been done with the Seine in 
Paris and with the rivers in many other 
European cities, but the smaller streams if 
properly treated can be left much as nature 
arranged them. 
Leading from the northeastern corner of 
Delaware Park, the Niagara Falls Parkway 
has been projected a short distance. East- 
wardly the Scajaquada Parkway, three hun¬ 
dred feet wide, follows a creek of that name 
for a half mile. From Agassiz Circle, the 
southeastern corner of Delaware Park, the 
H umboldt Parkway runs for a mile and 
three-quarters to Humboldt Park. A main 
feature of the latter is a wading pond, which 
is very popular with small children in sum¬ 
mer. From Humboldt Park, Fillmore 
Avenue continues the system southwardly to 
Seneca Street. The southeastern parks, 
Cazenovia Park, South Park, Heacock Place 
and two Circles, covering about two hun¬ 
dred and seventy acres, are also connected 
into a system by the South Side Parkway. 
It will be observed that the connection be¬ 
tween the southern end of the main portion 
of the system at the end of Fillmore Avenue 
and the northeastern end of the southern 
parkways has yet to be worked out. The 
avenues mentioned, with the exception of 
Delaware Avenue, are under the charge of 
the Park Commission, as well as the parks 
and parkways. 
One feature of the park system of Buffalo 
is distinctly obnoxious, namely, the allowing 
of buildings in their parks. Delaware Park 
is a country park, but in one section so many 
public buildings have been erected that, at¬ 
tractive though they are, they practically 
eliminate the rural feature of the park in 
their vicinity. This danger, that public parks 
may be appropriated for buildings of one 
kind and another, is one that will have to be 
faced constantly in the future throughout the 
country. 
In addition to the parks spoken of, Buf¬ 
falo has twenty-seven small triangles, the 
green spots that add so much to the beauty 
of any city. Its total park area is 1049 acres. 
Doubtless the future will see yet larger 
areas in the suburban sections secured for 
the use of the people and connected by park¬ 
ways with the open spaces already existing, 
and small children’s playgrounds opened in 
the heart of the city. Buffalo’s large per¬ 
centage of tree-lined streets, with houses set 
back, its fairly admirable city plan and its 
park system gives it a character that is much 
to be envied by many of its sister cities. 
100 
