House & Garden 
THE EXACT LINES OF THE ART FEDERATION S PLAN 
The committee which has been appointed 
to assist in drafting an ordinance for placing the 
Boulevard permanently upon the city plan fa¬ 
vors the narrower avenue obtaining an impres¬ 
sive vista of both the Dome and the Tower. 
The project will soon be before the people of 
Philadelphia as a straightforward practical 
proposition. The Boulevard is not only a drive 
to the Park, it brings the delights of that pleas¬ 
ure-ground into the heart of the city. 11 offers 
to rescue Philadelphia from an ugliness which, 
compared to the improvements going on in 
other cities, is sure to yearly increase. It is an 
opportunity to restore one-fourth of the cen¬ 
tral portion of the city from rapid decline to the 
importance its geographical position deserves. 
Building lots whose lines are diagonal—the 
most favorable of all sites—can be obtained, 
and real estate values will be greatly increased. 
A grid-iron plan of streets, with dull perspec¬ 
tives and uniform right angles, is offered a 
relief. There will be many spaces by which 
future buildings may be seen to advantage; and 
grass, flowers, trees, sunlight and fresh air will 
be where once was an area of squalor, a waste of 
factories, and cubes of brick ugly at best and 
painful in their delapidation. The change may 
be made for a reasonable sum, all of which need 
not be forthcoming immediately; but the lines 
of the new thoroughfare should be at once offi¬ 
cially established when the land needed is low 
in value, as indeed it now is. Beyond acquisi¬ 
tion of space, the cost of execution is slight. 
The time has gone by, let us hope, when these 
changes are looked upon as luxuries, when 
beauty is imagined the last thing for which a 
city should strive. Competition among our 
growing cities is keen, and not one can afford 
to fall out of the race for external adornment. 
Herbert C. IVise. 
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