General Features of a Park System
For Chattanooga, | ennessee

REPORT

TO

THE BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS

BY
JOHN NOLEN
LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. -

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PRESENTED BY

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PGENERAL FEATURES

OF A

PARK SYSTEM FOR CHATTANOOGA

BY .

JOHN NOLEN

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
CAMBRIDGE, MASS.

BOSTON
GEO. H. ELLIS CO., PRINTERS
1911

Getter of Cranamittal

To THE Boarp or ParK COMMISSIONERS,
Chattanooga, Tenn.

Gentlemen,—I beg to hand you herewith the Report and
General Plan for a Park System for Chattanooga. The oppor-
tunity that confronts your city to create a comprehensive
system of parks is seldom equalled; but Chattanooga is growing
rapidly, and the value of land is rising even more rapidly.
Therefore, if large and satisfactory results are to be secured,
action must be prompt and business-like. It is doubtful if
the preparation of the park plans could have been undertaken
at a more opportune time.

Yours very truly,
JOHN NOLEN,
Landscape Architect.

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., 10 March, 1911.

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ROY 1 18g

Members of the
Board of Park Commissioners
Chattanonga

R. S. FAXON, President
Dr. S. B. COOK
Dr. J. B. LEE

JOHN NOLEN, Landscape Architect

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“The life history of humanity has proved nothing more clearly
than that crowded populations, if they would live in health and
happiness, must have space for air, for light, for exercise, for
rest, and for the enjoyment of that peaceful beauty of nature
which, because it is the opposite of the noisy ugliness of towns,
is so wonderfully refreshing to the tired souls of townspeople.” —
Cuar_Les Exiot, Landscape Architect.

“TI have spoken of the utilization of public reservations as if
they were to be expected to yield only health and enjoyment and
umproved powers of perception; but I should deal with the subject
very umperfectly 1f I did not point out that the right utilization
of public reservations is a strong agency for promoting public
morality and a high standard of family life... . The appropri-
ate pleasures of forest reservations or country parks are all cheer-
ing, refining, and cleansing; they are soothing and uplifting;
they separate city men and women from the squalor, tumult, and
transitoriness of the human ant-hill, and bring them face to face
with things calm, lovely, grand, and enduring.”—CuHariEs W.
Exiot, President Emeritus Harvard University.

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ine

BOYNTON PARK

JAST LAKE PARK

I. Selection of Park Lands

The establishment of a system of parks and pleasure
grounds for a rapidly growing city is one of the most
difficult and responsible duties that ever falls to a city
government, involving as it does the expenditure of
large sums of money and the construction of many per-
manent public works. The principles which should
control the selection of park lands may be briefly sum-
marized as follows: (1) Accessibility for all classes of
citizens by walking, driving, riding, or by means of
ears. (2) Adaptability, or the selection of land possess-
ing in the greatest degree the natural physical charac-
teristics necessary for the particular park purposes to
be served, and thus requiring the least expenditure for
subsequent development. In this connection the boun-
daries of the property should have special consideration.
(3) Economy, or the selection, so far as practicable, of
inexpensive lands and lands which would least disturb
the natural growth of the city. (4) Early action, or the
selection of property for parks in advance of the settle-
ment of a neighborhood.

While there is a wide-spread appreciation in American
cities of the necessity for a large increase in the number
of parks and playgrounds, few even of the more en-
lightened communities seem yet to understand that these
open spaces are of great variety, that they are or ought
to be selected and designed to serve radically different
purposes, and that the failure to understand this prin-
ciple and to keep it constantly in mind leads to gross
waste and inefficiency in our public grounds. In few
other phases of public or private life is there so general

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CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM

a lack of clear thinking. This is an important matter,
because failure to select sites discriminatingly, to design
them for specific purposes, and to confine their use to
those purposes is to lose to a considerable degree the
benefits that might otherwise accrue to the people. Of
course, it is true in this, as in most other matters, that there
is some overlapping. The purposes are not absolutely
distinct, and most public grounds are serviceable in a
number of different ways. It is equally true, however,
that the greatest efficiency here, as elsewhere, depends
upon careful planning, upon a clear and intelligent differ-
entiation, upon a recognition that the ends to be served
are different, and that, therefore, different means must
usually be employed to meet them.

A park system for such a city as Chattanooga should
be planned comprehensively, and the recreational pur-
poses of each property selected should be clearly under-
stood. The units of a park system are: (1) city squares
or small open spaces; (2) playgrounds; (3) small or
neighborhood parks; (4) large outlying parks or scenic
reservations; (5) a chain of connecting drives or park-
ways. Few American cities have yet what can properly
be called a comprehensive, well-balanced, and well-
developed system of parks and pleasure grounds, but it
should certainly be the aim of park commissioners in
securing park lands to select them with regard to the
ultimate establishment of such a system. The recom-
mendations for Chattanooga embodied in this Report
provide fairly adequately for every feature except city
squares and the large outlying scenic reservations. The
former it is probably now too late to obtain: the latter
are unusually well provided in Chickamauga Park and
the other parks in or near Chattanooga belonging to
the National Government.

[2]

Il. Gist of Park Properties

The following is a list of existing and proposed park
properties for Chattanooga, all of which are shown on
the accompanying map.

1. CITY SQUARES AND SMALL OPEN PLACES

Houston Park
This is an existing square of an acre or more, and
is a type that should be duplicated in other sections
of Chattanooga. In a Southern city such open spaces
are even more needed than in the North.

Erlanger Park

It is desirable for Chattanooga to secure before it
is too late some small parks, like Houston Park, but
adjoining public or semi-public institutions. A good
example of such a property is to be found in the ten
or twelve acre tract extending from the Erlanger
Hospital grounds to East End Avenue and from Harri-
son Avenue to Blackford Street. It is a beautiful
grove of native trees, and would make a valuable
and permanent addition to Chattanooga’s proposed
park system.

Railroad Approaches
More openness for use and appearance is exceedingly
desirable in front of both of the railroad approaches
to Chattanooga. It may be impossible now to secure
additional space near the new terminal of the Southern

[3]

CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM

Railway, but it ought to be possible in the rearrange-
ment that appears inevitable at the Union Station to
provide for a Plaza in front of the station, and perhaps
a widening of Ninth Street from Broad Street to Market,
so as to secure an open place in the very heart of the
city where it is imperatively needed. At the same
time Ninth Street ought to be widened all the way to
Georgia Avenue.

A Plaza in St. Elmo at the Foot of the Incline Railway

At the present time this is a congested and ugly spot,
and yet it is one of the natural focal points of Chatta-
nooga. There should be a more liberal opening for
the traffic which centres here and a more orderly-
looking approach to Lookout Mountain.

A Public Garden

With the climate that Chattanooga enjoys, a centrally
located public garden, such as that of Boston or Hali-
fax, would afford quiet outdoor pleasure during many
days of the year. It appears difficult now to secure
land for this purpose unless some of the property in
the rear and at the side of the new Municipal Building
can be had.

2. PLAYGROUNDS
Public School Yards

In many cases, especially in outlying sections, the
school yards are liberal in extent, but, before they can
be made valuable for play and recreation, they must
be developed under carefully prepared plans. In
other cases the grounds around the school buildings
are inadequate, but, as few sections are yet built up

[4]

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ANDREW JACKSON PARK

LIST OF PARK PROPERTIES

closely, these grounds could be enlarged without great
cost. School yards of suitable size and construction
are indispensable for recess play and for the play
after school hours for small children.

Highland Playground
Here is an opportunity to get three full blocks extending
from Hawthorne to Hickory Streets and from Anderson
to Henderson Streets. It is relatively level land, well
located and ,admirably adapted for playground pur-
poses.

Locust Street Park

In Bushtown there is a low-lying tract, extending for
2,500 feet or more along Citico Street, which would
make a useful recreation park and playground for the
people residing in that section. It is property which
is not adapted for building purposes. Under private
ownership it is more than likely to become a nuisance.

Playground Sites in and along the River and Creek Parkways

If the proposed reservations are made on the Ten-
nessee River and on Chattanooga and South Chicka-
mauga Creeks, it would be possible to set aside small,
suitable, and convenient open spaces for play purposes
that would be available for different neighborhoods
throughout the city.

Olympia Playfield
This 70-acre tract, formerly an “‘amusement park,”
is ideal in location and well adapted topographically
for a central playfield, the culminating feature in the
grounds devoted to physical education and recreation.
The plans which have recently been made for similar

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CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM

grounds in some of the larger cities, including a sta-
dium, could be adapted to the needs of Chattanooga,
and a complete development gradually secured.

3. SMALL NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS
Boynton Park

Cameron Hill, or Boynton Park, as it is now called,
is a well-selected site for a small or neighborhood park.
Its value, however, would be greatly increased if the
land between the hill and the river could be acquired
and added to the present park. Most of this land is
steep and rough hillsides and not at all suited for
building purposes.

Jackson Park

Andrew Jackson Park is a centrally located tract of
fertile land, comprising about thirty-five acres, sur-
rounding the National Cemetery. It is covered with
a fine growth of native timber. Two years ago the
development of this property for park purposes was
begun and substantial progress has been made in
road-building and the construction of entrance gates
and shelters. I recommend that the present plans
for its improvement, which seem to me wise, be
continued.

Orchard Knob

The Federal Government owns and maintains this
small park, which was the site of Grant’s Headquarters.

East Lake Park

East Lake is the best illustration in Chattanooga
of what a neighborhood park may be. It is small

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LIST OF PARK PROPERTIES

(about 15 acres), and somewhat distant from the
city, and yet it furnishes the nucleus of a beautiful
small park. I strongly recommend that the additional
property shown on the map be acquired, extending
the present park to the Crest Road on one side and to
the Mission Ridge Circuit Drive on the other. The
city would then have a park of nearly 40 acres, well
located and well bounded, and, if a general plan were
prepared for its development, it would prove, I am
confident, a very satisfactory park.

Woodland Park

The 50 or 60 acre tract of well-grown woodland, bor-
dering on the Rossville Road near East End Avenue,
is one of the few remaining opportunities of Chatta-
nooga to secure a grove of large trees near the built-up
sections of the city. I recommend its acquisition.

Harrison Pike Park
This triangular tract is in the same class with “ Wood-
land Park,’ mentioned above, and would provide a
valuable park of about 45 acres in a section that is
Just beginning to build up rapidly. It is bordered by
Harrison Pike, McNiel Avenue, and the Southern
Railway tracks.

4. LARGE OUTLYING OR SCENIC RESERVATIONS

Tennessee River Park
At the mouth of South Chickamauga Creek, border-
ing on the Tennessee River, is a high and sightly
tract of 150 acres or more, covered with large trees,
which is an almost ready-made park. It possesses

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CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM

every requirement of an ideal park except transporta-
tion facilities, but, as it is only three miles from the
centre of the city, there can be no question that car
service will soon be provided for this section. Its.
acquisition should not be delayed.

Moccasin Bend

One of Chattanooga’s world-famous points, which
should not remain in private hands, is Moccasin Bend.
At present it is agricultural land, quite unspoiled
and inexpensive. It would pay the city to acquire

_ now several hundred acres or more and set the tract
aside for future development.

Lookout Mountain Park

Point Park on Lookout Mountain is already a park
reservation of the Federal Government, and from its
heights is commanded a scene rich in beauty and
historic associations. But Point Park is not enough.
The ground owned by the Federal Government is
limited in extent and in use. If possible, it should be
supplemented by the tract of 30 acres or more at the
top of the Incline, as indicated on the map. It is not
wise for the people of Chattanooga to confine their
enjoyment of the unique opportunities of Lookout
Mountain to the little piece of land which the Federal
Government has acquired and maintains primarily
as a military memorial.

The River Islands

Chattanooga Island, Tow Head Island, and Williams
Island should all be acquired for public use. Action
now would be relatively easy.

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ON WALDEN’S RIDGE

ON MISSIONARY RIDGE

LIST OF PARK PROPERTIES

_ Stringer’s Ridge
It is a question of judgment whether now is the time
or later for the city of Chattanooga to secure the land
necessary for a wild mountain park on Stringer’s Ridge.
A comprehensive park system should ultimately in-
clude such a reservation.

Chickamauga National Park

The biggest outlying park and scenic reservation is
that established by the Federal Government, two and
a half miles from Rossville, on the site of the battle-
field. It is finely situated, and comprises now 6,473
acres. It is true that the character of development
which the Government has adopted for its military parks
does not render the reservation ideal for recreation
purposes, and yet its roads and trees and outlooks,
not to mention the interest of monuments and forts,
make it a pleasure ground of no small value.

5. DRIVES, PARKWAYS, AND AVENUES

Riverfront Drive

It is too late to make a satisfactory parkway along the
Tennessee River in front of the built-up section of the
city, but it ought to be possible to secure a narrow
drive directly on the river, beginning at Chattanooga
Creek and terminating in the proposed Tennessee
River Park at the mouth of South Chickamauga Creek.
Such a drive could be so planned and constructed as
not to interfere seriously with the industrial and business
interests on the Riverfront. In fact, by providing
a good, continuous road on easy grades, it would be

[9]

CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM

an aid to these interests. I consider this one of the
most practical, important, and urgent of my recom-
mendations.

Hill City River Drive

The opportunity which has been lost to do something
really good on the Chattanooga side of the river still
remains on the Hill City side. Is there foresight
enough to take advantage of it? At the present time
there would be no serious difficulty in acquiring the
land that would make easy later on the construction
of a beautiful public parkway along the Hill City side
of the Tennessee River.

Rossville Road

The Rossville Road is now, and probably always will
be, mainly a traffic road. Nevertheless, because of its
directness and width, it is an important pleasure-drive
connection from the city to Rossville and beyond
to Chickamauga Park. The proposed drive along
Chattanooga Creek may ultimately divert much of
the pleasure driving from the Rossville Road.

The Hooker Road

The Hooker Road furnishes a somewhat indirect and
yet convenient connection from Rossville to the foot
of the Lookout Mountain Incline in St. Elmo, a dis-
tance of nearly four miles. I believe it does not follow
exactly the historic route of General Hooker, which
is to be regretted. It is also to be regretted that this
road, in common with nearly all the other roads of
the Federal Government, is of such inadequate width
(only 20 feet clear roadway) and completely lacking

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LIST OF PARK PROPERTIES

in planting or any other treatment that would make
its environment attractive and appropriate.

Chattanooga Creek Parkway

It would not be expensive to secure a strip with an
average width of 1,000 feet, following Chattanooga
Creek from the Tennessee River to the Georgia line,
as indicated on the map. While some of this land is
occasionally flooded, the water is high only for a very
limited period. This parkway, some six miles in
length, would be of great use and beauty and furnish
a location for drives and open spaces that could not
be duplicated.

South Chickamauga Creek Parkway

At the other end of the city from the Chattanooga Creek
Parkway would be the South Chickamauga Creek Park-
way. This has a good beginning in the Tennessee
River Park, and from there could be gradually extended
until in time it reached, perhaps, the great Chicka-
mauga Park of the Government. The valley in which
this creek runs is even more rugged and more lovely
than that of Chattanooga Creek, and the opportunity
to secure it for a parkway is now so favorable that it
would be altogether inexcusable to neglect it.

Mission Ridge Circuit Drive

The Mission Ridge Circuit Drive alone, if carried to
its logical completion and properly executed, would
lend distinction to a community. It should include
the present Crest Road of the Government, and a
park drive of adequate width and right character
skirting the foot of the ridge, and making an unbroken

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CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM

circuit of about thirteen miles, as shown on the general
plan. The views from the Crest Road of city, valley,
and mountain are unmatched, so far as I know, in any
American city.

In addition to these parkways and drives there are
some city streets that should be considered as main
avenues affording agreeable connections from the built-
up sections of the city to the outlying parks and reserva-
tions. In some cases it will be possible to widen and
plant these avenues; in others, while widening may not
now be practicable, they may in other ways be regulated
and rendered more attractive.* These streets are as fol-
lows :—

Market Street (part of) Broad Street

Eleventh Street Georgia Avenue
East End Avenue McCallie Avenue
Missionary Avenue Harrison Avenue
Main Street Cowart Street.

Ninth Street (part of)

Taken together, the small open spaces, playgrounds,
parks, parkways, and avenues, outlined above, comprise
a fairly complete system for the Chattanooga of to-day,

*The lack of foresight displayed by the Chattanooga City Council in 1849
is illustrated in the adoption of ordinances reducing the width of streets.
Cypress, Poplar, Walnut, and High were reduced from 100 feet to 60 feet; Mar-
ket Street was reduced to 100 feet; Chestnut Street, from 100 feet to 60 feet;
Cherry Street, from 60 feet to 40 feet; First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth,
Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Streets, from 66 feet to 46 feet. The ordi-
nance states “‘that the ground taken from the street shall be added to the lots
respectively to which it adjoins, and shall be taken and held as constituting a
part of said lots, according to the plan of the town and shall belong to the owners
thereof respectively, as fully and completely as if the same had been attached
to the lots according to the original plan of the town.”

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7% a

ie:

THE PROPOSED SOUTH CHICKAMAUGA CREEK PARKWAY

LIST OF PARK PROPERTIES

_with some far-sighted provision for the larger Chatta-
nooga of the future. All of the areas referred to have
been indicated on the plan at the end of this report, en-
titled ““General Features of a Park System for Chatta-
nooga.” On account of the lack of any satisfactory map,
especially one giving the topography, it is impossible to
show exact boundaries for the proposed parks, parkways,
and playgrounds. However, I believe that the boundaries
are indicated with sufficient definiteness for our present
purposes. Now, we need to get consideration and action
only on the general features which the plan presents.
Later, if public approval is obtained, it will be necessary
to take up the planning in more detail.

The actual average provision for parks and public
grounds for American cities is one acre for every two
hundred of the population. The cost of the land, taking
expensive and inexpensive property together, averages
about a thousand dollars an acre, and the cost of con-
struction, while it varies a good deal in different communi-
ties, averages nearly another thousand dollars an acre.
First-class maintenance amounts to about a hundred or a
hundred and twenty dollars an acre per annum. If we
assume that the real Chattanooga has a population of
100,000 or more, with the prospect of a steady increase
in the future, and that the cost of land here is below the
average, these figures would justify a city park system
of at least five hundred acres and an outlay for land and
construction of, at least, $500,000; and for annual main-
tenance $25,000, rising gradually, as the system develops,
to $50,000. Chattanooga should be compared in the
matter of parks with other cities of its class in various
parts of the country. For example, take such cities as
Dayton, Ohio; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Tacoma,
Washington; Wilmington, Delaware; Harrisburg, Penn-

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CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM

sylvania; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Hartford, Con-
necticut and Oklahoma City. Dayton has six parks,
for the acquisition of which it has issued bonds for more
than $100,000. One of its small parks includes a field
house, with gymnasium, baths, and swimming pool, con-
structed at a cost of $130,000. Grand Rapids has parks
comprising several hundred acres and worth $400,000.
The annual appropriation averages $50,000. Tacoma,
Washington, with the characteristic public spirit of the
North-west, has secured already 1,000 acres of parks and
levies an annual tax of 14% mills for their support. Wil-
mington, Delaware, by persistent and well-directed efforts,
has acquired and improved 300 acres of parks at a cost for
land and construction of about half a million dollars. A
loan of $250,000 is now being proposed for new parks and
playgrounds. Harrisburg has now 749 acres of parks and
playgrounds, for the acquisition of which it has issued
bonds for $250,000. The city appropriates annually about
$30,000 for maintenance. Cambridge, Massachusetts,
looks to the Boston Metropolitan Park system, in which
it is included, for its large parks, but for local use it has
many small parks, playgrounds, and open spaces which
are now valued at more than $4,000,000. Its park loans
amount to $1,519,000, and it appropriates about $40,000
a year for park maintenance. Hartford, Connecticut,
one of the most progressive of small American cities,
has now 21 parks and open spaces with a total of 1,335
acres. It appropriates in the neighborhood of $50,000
a year for maintenance and new work. Oklahoma City,
with less population than Chattanooga, has officially
adopted a plan which provides for 1,966 acres of parks
and 70 miles of parkways and boulevards. A bond issue
of $400,000, which is $8 per capita, has been approved
by the people by a vote of two to one.

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LIST OF PARK PROPERTIES

_ These figures will at first glance appear high as com-

pared with what Chattanooga is now spending, but it
should be remembered that the city is at present back-
ward in the matter of parks. Moreover, this expense
would be distributed over a period of years. The value
of land, if carefully purchased, would always equal,
indeed soon exceed, the total cost of acquisition and con-
struction with interest; and the cost for maintenance
would be covered by an expense of less than fifty cents
a year per capita, which is a low charge, considering the
benefits that each citizen would receive. But, to justify
Chattanooga in proceeding in this large and business-
like way, ample grounds should be selected in various
sections, somewhat as proposed, which would provide
for many years a comprehensive system for different
forms of recreation and for all the people of the city.

[15 |

Il. Park Administration

The recent act of the State Legislature, changing the
form of the city government of Chattanooga from the
present type to that of the commission form, means a
reorganization of all city departments, including the park
department. It may, therefore, be timely and of some
slight advantage to outline the points that have been
found by experience to be of greatest importance in
the effective organization and administration of parks.

First with regard to the composition of the park
board or commission, the best results have been secured
usually from a body composed of not less than three
nor more than five members, serving without pay, and
with overlapping and rather long terms of service.
The president of the board should be a distinctly able
administrator, accustomed to large affairs and resource-
ful. He should have some measure of constructive im-
agination, high ideals, and sympathy with the people.
Moreover, it is of great advantage if he has had some of
the fruits of travel, acquainting him at first hand with
the parks and public improvements of other cities. The
success of the park work of a city, especially in its initial
stages, must rest very largely in the selection of the right
man to head the park board.

The other members of the board should be men of
good taste, men capable of judging accurately what is
appropriate in the form of development for this or that
park. They should possess a nice discrimination as to
the best means to employ to produce consistent effects.
It is not yet customary to appoint women on park boards,

[ 16 ]

PARK ADMINISTRATION

but many of them possess the qualifications that are most
desirable. They have often a love of nature, a knowledge
of art and familiarity with the purposes of parks, espe-
cially the relation of parks and playgrounds to children,
which men do not possess to the same degree.

The board of park commissioners should confine
itself to questions of general policy. It should not
attempt to make plans or designs for park grounds, to
administer park laws and regulations, nor to supervise
park maintenance. Advice as to the selection of land
for parks, plans for their laying out and construction,
and occasional suggestions as to their up-keep should be
secured from well-qualified landscape architects, experts,
who have gathered up the best results of study and ex-
perience in this difficult field of art. There is danger
of serious mistakes, if dependence is placed upon men
who as engineers or gardeners know only a part of the
work, for the final and highest justification of parks
is their beauty; and, if they lack appropriate, permanent,
and ever-increasing beauty, they fail, and the money
spent for their construction and maintenance has been
largely wasted.

The execution of the plans of the professional land-
scape architect, the selection of park employees, and the
detailed administration of the park work should be
intrusted to a trained superintendent. While his quali-
fications are different from those of the landscape archi-
tect, they are of a high order, and the success or failure
of the parks as works of landscape art and their right
use by the people will depend largely upon the super-
intendent. Landscape art is different from any other,
except the art of city making which includes it, in that
it is an art which deals with growing things. It is not
fixed like a painting, a statue, or a building. From year

[17]

CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM

to year it changes, takes on new forms and proportions.
Therefore, if suitable and artistic results are to be se-
cured, this process must be steadily and intelligently
controlled and guided. Such work requires a man of
taste as well as knowledge, and there is to-day in this
field an increasing demand for superintendents of high
qualifications to serve in a vocation of unusual delight
and usefulness.

If a park board is to proceed economically and con-
fidently in the execution of large plans for park develop-
ment, it must be independent of financial or other control
by the city government. Otherwise, a vacillating policy
must be expected, inferior results, and considerable
waste of public funds. Independence in the matter of
the annual appropriation is especially important. There
should be a law giving the park board a fixed percentage,
based upon the assessed valuation of the city. This
automatic method is sound, because the regular park work
increases in proportion to the population and wealth.
Unusual needs should be provided for by additional
appropriations by the city government, in excess of the
regular appropriation. As clear a line as possible should
be drawn between maintenance, on the one hand, and
acquisition of land and permanent construction, on the
other. Maintenance expense should be met from current
funds, but the cost of acquisition and permanent con-
struction should usually be provided by long-time loans.
The most indestructible and permanently valuable asset
of the city is the land it owns, and its acquisition should
almost invariably be provided for by loans. One excep-
tion to this rule is when the method of payment followed
is that of special assessment on abutting or near-by prop-
erty. Kansas City adopted this method fifteen years ago,
and under it successfully developed its entire park system,

[18 ]

PARK ADMINISTRATION

providing for an expenditure of over ten million dol-
lars without the issue of any bonds whatever.

In park administration, then, the points of greatest
importance to keep in mind are the composition of the
park commission, the adoption of a sound general policy,
the liberal use of expert designers, the employment of
a highly qualified superintendent, and entire freedom
from political control. The park board may then be-
come an effective instrument for serving all the people
of the city, contributing in innumerable ways to their
health and joy.

Chattanooga has great natural advantages. Its noble
river, its bold ridges, its unique Lookout Mountain, its
fertile land, are all real resources. Its climate averages
43° in winter, 77° in summer, 60° in spring and autumn.
In historic associations it is equalled by few American
cities, and, as a result, we have the great parks and their
approaches created by the Federal Government,* and the
graceful shafts, memorials to war heroes, erected by the
several States. Chattanooga is growing by leaps and
bounds, steadily advancing in wealth, in industry, in
population. In a decade its banking capital has in-
creased 92 per cent.; its deposits, 181 per cent.; the num-
ber of industries, 77 per cent.; the value of its products,
220 per cent. Chattanooga’s increase in population has
kept pace with its increase in wealth and industry, jump-
ing from 49,706 to 94,000 in a decade,—a population,
too, that is noted for its energy and progressiveness
and drawn from almost every State in the Union.

What does Chattanooga lack? Not only the members

*In the neighborhood of Chattanooga the Federal Government has ac-
quired as parks or park approaches 6,875 acres at a total cost of $314,990, and
appropriates for their maintenance an average of $75,000 or $80,000 a year.

[ 19 |

CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM

of the Park Commission, but the business men generally,
have been open-minded enough to recognize that the
city lacks a modern city park system, a comprehensive
plan for the prompt acquisition and orderly development
of parks and other pleasure grounds. Its park posses-
sions at present are small indeed. Including the 65 acres
in Jackson Park given by the Federal Government, the
city owns less than 100 acres in parks. It has no play-
grounds and, what is even more surprising, no parkways
or pleasure drives connecting the city with the National
Parks in the neighborhood. The statement that Chatta-
nooga has depended too much and too long upon “God
and the Government” appears to have some justifica-
tion.

The importance of a comprehensive park system to the
business success as well as the health and pleasure of a
city is now widely recognized and often commented upon.
Morris Knowles, a distinguished sanitary engineer,
in writing recently on “The Development of Municipal
Utilities in the South,” said: “We hear a great deal
about attracting industrial and manufacturing concerns
to a community by all sorts of inducements, free water
and free power for a time; free sites, low or no taxation,
and for a while even cash bonuses. But there is a higher,
better, and more certain standard determining the de-
sirability of location. The careful, conservative business
man or manufacturer will look further than the short-
time effect of the above-named conditions. He will
ask not only what are your natural facilities, and what
are the inducements you will offer for a period of time, as
above, but more important still, what are your provisions
for public utilities, what of the methods and efficiency
and honesty of your governmental forces as they affect
the life of your community, and are they actuated by

[ 20 ]

pres

=

CHATTANOOGA CREEK, ONE OF THE PROPOSED PARKWAYS

PARK ADMINISTRATION

honest, right living, efficient effort? Are you planning
for commodious, sanitary, and safe housing facilities
and a proper building code? Are you planning for the
health of the community by a clear and pure water supply
and sanitary disposal of sewage, household refuse, and
waste? Are you planning for proper transit and traffic
facilities that the people can get about to and from work
and to the shopping districts comfortably and easily?
Are you planning for good, well-administered schools,
playgrounds, small. open-air spaces, and larger parks,
with plenty of opportunities for the children to grow
up wn a normal, open-air, healthful existence? We are
fast coming to the time, if it is not already here, when
the manufacturer, for his own advantage and his own
pocket-book, because his help will thus stay with him
as well as because of his broad humanitarian view-point,
will ask these last questions largely, rather than how
much power, water, or land can I get free or how many
years’ freedom from taxation.”

The first and last need of a city, the one that out-
weighs all others, is civic spirit and the expression of
that spirit in great and enduring public works, erected
for the common welfare. Chief among these, according
to modern standards and modern necessities, is a system
of parks, playgrounds, and open spaces, adequate in
extent, artistic in design, scientific in construction, and
liberal in maintenance. In Chattanooga the first step,
but only the first step, has been taken toward the forma-
tion of such a system. It now rests with the com-
munity to express its civic spirit, to manifest its faith
in the future of Chattanooga by rallying to the support
of the Park Commission and the great work which it
has inaugurated.

[ 21 ]

MEMORABILIA ON PARK MAKING SELECTED
FROM THE WRITINGS OF FREDERICK
LAW OLMSTED, SR.

“In scarcely anything to be determined by local public opinion
acting influentially upon local legislation and administration,
is a city as likely to be so much made or marred for all its future
as in proceedings in prosecution of a park project.”

“Tt must be kept in mind that the public grounds of most cities
have come to be what they are and where they are by various de-
tached and desultory proceedings, of which the result, as a whole,
illustrates penny-wise pound-foolish wisdom.”

“A man’s eyes cannot be as much occupied as they are in large
cities by artificial things, or by natural things seen under ob-
viously artificial conditions, without a harmful effect, first on his
mental and nervous system and ultimately on his entire consti-
tutional organization. ... Relief from this evil is to be obtained
through the enjoyment of pleasing rural scenery.”

“The value of no rural park to the people who habitually use
tt would be seriously impaired if every scrap of ornament to be
found upon it should fall to decay or be effaced.”

“Scenery is more than an object or a series of objects; more
than a spectacle, more than a scene or a series of scenes, more
than a landscape, and other than a series of landscapes... . But
there is no beautiful scenery that does not give the mind an emo-
tional impulse different from that resulting from whatever beauty
may be found in a room, courtyard, or garden.”

“No city possessed of a rural park regrets its purchase.”

“It cannot be questioned that a rural park is rapidly coming
to be ranked among the necessities of satisfactory city life.”

[ 22 ]

MEMORABILIA ON PARK MAKING

“No matter what may be ultimately expended for a park, its
value cannot fail to be largely determined by the expectations and
usage of at into which the public is led in the early years of their
resort to it.”

“The only justification of a large park near a growing city
is the necessity of spaciousness to the production of rural scenery.”

“The question of the economy of what is proposed in the plan
for a park is less a question of what the work of construction will
cost than of what ever afterwards will be required for reconstruc-
tion, repairs and for pursuing a system of maintenance adapted
to secure its intended qualities of beauty, and keep it in suitable
order for tts intended uses.”

“That those in charge of a park work may proceed economically
and with profit they must be able to proceed with confidence, method
and system, steadily, step after step, to carry to completion a
well-matured design.”

“For every thousand dollars judiciously invested in a park
the dividends to the second generation of the citizens possessing
at will be much larger than to the first; the dividends to the third
generation much larger than to the second.”

“Tt 1s an important test of the value of a park that it should
be found of such a character, so finished and provided with such
service, that a housekeeping woman would always find a visit to
aw economical, restful, tranquillizing and refreshing, for herself

and her household.”

“A highly important part of the business of a park is that of
arresting the progress of disease, hastening recovery, and con-
servating the strength of the weak and the infirm of a city.”

“The chief end of a large park is an effect on the human organ-
ism by an action of what it presents to view, which action, like
that of music, is of a kind that goes back of thought, and cannot
be fully given the form of words.”

[ 23 |

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY OF PARKS AND >
RELATED TOPICS

A CoMPREHENSIVE SysTEM oF Parks ror St. Pauu. As pro-
posed by A. B. Stickney.

A DercaDE oF Civic DEVELOPMENT. Charles Zueblin.

A DEVELOPMENT OF PuBLIC GROUNDS IN CITIES AND VIL-
LAGES. (The Clemson Agricultural College Extension
Work.) George A. Parker.

AN Essay ON THE PICTURESQUE, ETC. Sir Uvedale Price.

A Normat Course IN Pray. The Playground Association of
America.

A Park SYSTEM FoR CINCINNATI. George E. Kessler.

A SumMmeEr’s Work ABROAD, IN ScHOoL GrRouUNDS, HomE
Grounpbs, PLayGRouNDS, Parks, AND Forests. Mira
Lloyd Dock.

A TREATISE ON THE THEORY AND PRaAcTICE OF LANDSCAPE
GarpEnInG. A. J. Downing.

AMERICAN Park Systems. Report of the Philadelphia Allied
Organizations.

AMERICAN PuayGerounps. E. B. Mero.

ANNUAL Park Reports. Boston; Metropolitan Park Com-
mission, Boston; Chicago; Hartford, Connecticut; Balti-
more; Madison, Wisconsin; Portland, Oregon; Portland,
Maine; Cambridge, Massachusetts; Seattle; Rochester;
Savannah; Kansas City; Dayton, Ohio; Tacoma; Wil-
mington, Delaware; Grand Rapids, Michigan; and others.

BEAUTIFYING AND IMPROVING GREENVILLE, SoUTH CAROLINA.
Kelsey and Guild.

CHARLES Exiot, LanpscaPe ArcHitect. Charles W. Eliot.

CHATTANOOGA Park System. John Nolen.

CHILDREN’s GARDENS FOR PLEASURE AND HeEattn. Henry
G. Parsons.

[ 24 ]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

City DrveLtopMentT: A Stupy or Parks, GARDENS, AND
CutturE Institutes. Patrick Geddes.

Crry Maxine 1n Wisconsin. John Nolen.

Ciry Puannine. F. L. Olmsted. Published by American
Civic Association.

Civics AND HeattH. William W. Allen.

CopMAN BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. Bos-
ton Public Library.

Commons, Forests, AnD Footpatus. Lord Eversley.

COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING FOR SMALL TowNs AND CITIES.
John Nolen.

CONSTRUCTIVE AND PREVENTIVE PHILANTHROPY. Joseph Lee.

DEVELOPMENT OF PuBLIC GROUNDS FOR GREATER BALTIMORE.
Olmsted Brothers.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE FEELING FOR Nature. Alfred Biese.
Freperick Law OLMstepD, Sr., AND HIS WorkK. Studies of

Mount Royal, Montreal, and Franklin Park, Boston:
John Nolen.

FrENcH AND OTHER CONTINENTAL SYSTEMS OF TAKING LAND
FOR Pusiic Purposes. House Report No. 288, Common-
wealth of Massachusetts.

GERMAN Cities. Frederic C. Howe.

Kansas City Park System. George H. Kessler.
LanpscaPe. Philip Gilbert Hamerton.

LanpscaPeE Beavutirut. F. A. Waugh.

LANDSCAPE GARDENING STUDIES. Samuel Parsons.
Mapison A Mopen City. John Nolen.

Mopern Civic Art. Charles Mulford Robinson.
MouniciPaAL ENGINEERING AND SANITATION. M. N. Baker.
NatTionaL Parks. John Muir.

NotTES ON THE PLAN OF FRANKLIN Park, Boston. Frederick
Law Olmsted, Sr.

OBSERVATIONS ON MoprerRN GARDENING. Thomas Whately.
[ 25 ]

CHATTANOOGA PARK SYSTEM

Park AREAS AND OPEN SPACES IN AMERICAN AND EUROPEAN
Cities. (In American Statistical Association publica-
tions, New Series, Vol. 1, No. 2, 3, pp. 49-61.) E.R. L.
Gould.

Park Laws snp Orpinancres. See Reports of Hartford,
Connecticut; Boston; Minneapolis; Portland, Oregon;
Peoria, Illinois; Madison, Wisconsin; and Baltimore.

Park System oF THE District or CoxLumBis. Burnham,
McKim, Saint-Gaudens, and Olmsted.

PLANNING AND DerveLoprne a City Park System. Report
to the Park Board of Portland, Oregon. Olmsted Brothers.

PRINCIPLES OF City LAND Vatues. Richard M. Hurd.
Pusuic Parks. Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr.

Pusiic Recreation Facrities. Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science, February, 1910.

Pupuications of American Civic Association; American So-
ciety of Landscape Architects; American Association of
Park Superintendents; American Scenic and Historic
Preservation Society; National Trust for Places of His-
toric Interest or Natural Beauty (English); Metropolitan
Public Gardens Association (London).

San Dreco, A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN FOR ITS IMPROVEMENT.
John Nolen.

SHALL THEORETICAL AND PRactTicaL AGRICULTURE AND THE
PuysicaL DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDHOOD BE ADDED TO
THE CURRICULUM OF THE City Pusiic ScHoots? A. B.
Stickney.

SpeciaL ARTICLES ON Parks in Johnson’s Encyclopedia,
Encyclopedia Britannica, and Encyclopedia of Social
Reform.

SpeciaL NumMBERS oF “CHARITIES” ON “Parks,” “‘Puay,”’
AND “City Puannine,” dated July 7, 1906, Aug. 3, 1907,
Feb. 1, 1908.

State Parks For Wisconsin. John Nolen.
[ 26 ]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

REPLANNING THE City oF Reapinc. John Nolen.

Reports OF THE SouTH Park COMMISSIONERS, CHICAGO, ON
PLayGRounbDs. 1905, 1906-08.

REPORT UPON A SYSTEM OF PuBLIC RESERVATIONS FOR THE
Merropouitan District oF PROVIDENCE.

Tue Art or Lanpscape GARDENING. By Sir Humphrey Rep-
ton. John Nolen, editor.

Tue AWAKENING OF Harrisspure. J. Horace McFarland.
Tue First County Park System. Frederick W. Kelsey.
Tue IMPROVEMENT OF CoLumBtIA, 8.C. Kelsey and Guild.

Tue ImprovEMENT oF Towns AND Cities. Charles Mulford
Robinson.

Tue Maxine or A Park System in La Crossz, WISCONSIN.
John Nolen.

Tue Parks AND RECREATION FACILITIES IN THE UNITED
States. John Nolen.

THe Propite at Puay. Rollin Lynde Hartt.

Tue TREATMENT OF NATURE IN ENGLISH POETRY BETWEEN
PorE AND WorpswortH. Myra Reynolds.

Water Parks. John Woodbury.
Wauat 1s NEEDED IN AMERICAN City PLANNING. John Nolen.

MAGAZINES AND PERIODICALS

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE. New York City.

Toe AMERICAN City. New York City.

Park AND CEMETERY. Chicago.

Toe Piaycrounp. New York City.

THe Town Puannine Revirw. Liverpool, England.
GARDEN Cities anD Town Piannine. London, England.
Der StTADTEBAU. Berlin.

[ 27 ]

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