House & Garden 
THE BOULEVARD PROJECT IN 
PHILADELPHIA. 
A FTER spasmodic agitation extending 
over a period of ten years, the scheme to 
beautify Philadelphia by means of a boule¬ 
vard connecting Fairmount Park with the 
center of the city at last seems assured of 
realization. Years ago such an avenue was 
placed upon the city plan ; but when an or¬ 
dinance was to be passed to appropriate 
funds for executing the improvement, it re¬ 
ceived a mayor’s veto and was followed by 
another ordinance to remove the avenue 
from the city map. The latter became a 
law. Since then, efforts to relieve Philadel¬ 
phia’s external monotony have been made 
by individuals and art societies. In these 
circles an architectural scheme has now been 
decided upon; and at a recent meeting of 
officials and influential citizens, a committee 
was formed to obtain legislation without 
further delay to make the Boulevard a 
reality. 
Three new designs have made their ap¬ 
pearance since the Boulevard was removed 
from the city plan. "That of Messrs. 
Schermerhorn and Reinhold, Architects, pro¬ 
vided a park-like avenue leaving Broad 
Street at right angles about half a mile north 
of the City Hall. After making two turns 
Fairmount Park was reached. The scheme 
won but qualified approval. A direct 
diagonal avenue from the intersection of 
Broad and Market Streets was soon con¬ 
sidered the only solution. The lofty tower 
of the City Hall at one end, the great dome 
of the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul 
upon Logan Square at an intermediate point, 
and at the farther end, the Fairmount 
Reservoir, overlooking the entrance to the 
Park, were the given conditions to which 
it was realized any design must be adjusted. 
Upon this basis two later schemes have 
been offered. One, prepared last February 
by Mr. William J. McAuley, Architect, 
provides an avenue 600 feet wide bordered 
upon each side by a wide area of parking. 
It runs direct from the City Hall Plaza to 
the Reservoir. Near the center of its length 
a circular planted space 900 feet in diameter 
takes in the Cathedral, and provides sites for 
monuments and future public buildings. At 
the far end of the avenue, defined within peri¬ 
styles upon the north and south, is an open 
plaza in the center of which is shown the pro¬ 
posed McKinley Monument, a feature which 
constitutes a focai point in the design, 
and toward which a chateau d'eau from the 
reservoir may direct its waters. In future, 
another boulevard reaching toward the north¬ 
eastern section of the city may abut on this 
point. In the event of the abandonment of 
the Reservoir as a water supply, a public art 
museum may, in time, crown the hill and 
transform into an acropolis the height which 
now bears a sheet of water invisible from 
the street below. As the avenue leaves the 
MESSRS. SCHERMERHORN & REINHOLD’s 
SCHEME, Looking from Broad Si rat 
3 1 9 
