From the collection of the z n m Prelinger i a V Jilvna ibrary San Francisco, California 2006 PARKS A MANUAL O¥ MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARKS "Artists in verse, painting, sculpture, landscape architecture, have expressed the belief that the Giver of all good things esteemed the life of man in a garden the happiest that could be given. The creation of the Garden of Eden, the Elysian Fields, the Vale of Cashmere, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, bear idealistic or practical testimony to the human desire for vision of verdure and foliage. It is the popular notion that the garden builders of antiquity ministered chiefly to the delight of poets, students, philosophers, statesmen and brain- weary professors. The park or garden, in its modern aspect and under the sway of progressive humanity, has come to be regarded as a place where the weary, whether weary of headwork or handwork, may be refreshed by breathing pure air, gladdened by the sight of flowers and trees, and solaced by the sound of running waters." HUNTINGTON FALLS, GOLDEN GATE PARK, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Frontispiece to Volume I. PARKS A MANUAL OF MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARKS Compiled as a result of a nation-wide study of municipal and county parks conducted by the Playground and Recreation Association of America in co-operation with the .American Institute of Park Executives at the request of the National Conference on Outdoor Recreation. The study was made possible through funds granted by the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial EDITED BY L. H. WEIR DIRECTOR OF THE STUDY MUNICIPAL REFERENCE BUREAU scNrnAL cxTr.nr.iON DIVISION UNIVERGITY OF MltKiEGOTA MINNEAPOLIS NEW YORK A. S. BARNES AND COMPANY 1928 COPYRIGHT, 1928 PLAYGROUND AND RECREATION ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, INCORPORATED PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA THE MURRAY PRINTING COMPANY CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS THE WHITE HOUSE WAS H I NGTON Three years ago at the initial session of the National Conference on Outdoor Recreation, it was my pleasure to emphasize the need of a national recreation policy. At that time I expressed the hope that all agencies, official and unofficial, might co- operate in gathering information and formulating prin- ciples that would be helpful in meeting the recreation needs of the people. It is therefore very gratifying to write the foreword to this manual which represents a valuable contribution toward this end. This report embodies the findings of an exhaustive nation-wide study of our muni- cipal and county park systems undertaken at the request of the National Conference on Outdoor Recreation, and carried out by the Playground and Recreation Association of America in cooperation with the American Institute of Park Executives. Play for the child, sport for youth, and recreation for adults are essentials of normal life. It is becoming generally .recognized that the creation and maintenance of outdoor recreation facilities is a com- munity duty in order that the whole public might parti- cipate in their enjoyment. This presents a particular challenge to municipal and county administrations. I am hopeful that the results of this study may be widely used to the end that our people, even in cities, may not be deprived of opportunities for wholesome play and recrea- tion out of doors. ENDORSEMENT OF PRESIDENT COOLIDGE PREFACE Although the history of parks in municipal corporations in the United States may be traced to the very beginning of many of the oldest towns and cities, and while there has been a definite park movement since the middle of the last century, there is very little literature available on parks in local political corporations. For the past few years a number of public park offi- cials and private individuals interested in parks have felt it would be very desirable to gather together the experiences of the movement in the local communities and compile them into a reference work, covering as nearly as possible the varied fields of park planning, government, financing, executive administration and uses, as these are being developed and practiced today. Early in 1924 the Playground and Recreation Association of America had under consideration a study of parks throughout the United States which would result in the compilation of such a reference book. Plans for carrying out these projects were under way when it was announced that a conference of individuals and agencies interested in outdoor recreation would be called in Washington under the auspices of the Federal Government. In May, 1924, President Coolidge convened the conference known as the National Conference on Outdoor Recreation. One of the results of the conference was the definite request that an inventory of the outdoor recre- ational resources of the American people be taken for the purpose of secur- ing adequate data on which to base plans for a nation-wide systematic planning for outdoor recreation. The Playground and Recreation Associa- tion of America was requested in conjunction with the American Institute of Park Executives to undertake a study of municipal and county parks and their systems of administration. Early in 1925 a grant from the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Foundation enabled the Playground and Recreation Association of America to begin work, and the Association, in consultation with the Executive Committee of the American Institute of Park Executives, appointed Mr. L. H. Weir as director of the study, and formed a National Committee on the study of municipal and county parks. The personnel of the committee was as follows : C. E. BREWER, Recreation Department, Detroit, Mich. MARTIN G. BRUMBAUGH, Juniata College, Huntingdon, Pa. WILL O. DOOLITTLE, Executive Secretary, American Institute of Park Executives, Rockford, 111. LEE HANMER, Russell Sage Foundation, 120 East 22d Street, New York City. HENRY V. HUBBARD, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. x PREFACE DAVID I. KELLY, Secretary, Essex County Park Commission, Newark, N. J. PAUL C. LINDLEY, J. VanLindley Nursery Company, Pamone, N. C. OTTO T. MALLERY, Philadelphia, Pa. J. H. McCuRDY, M.D., Young Men's Christian Association College, Springfield, Mass. J. HORACE MCFARLAND, Mt. Pleasant Press, Harrisburg, Pa. HERMAN W. MERKEL, Superintendent, Westchester County, N. Y., Park System. ARTHUR RINGLAND, Executive Secretary, National Conference, Outdoor Recreation, Washington, D. C. MAJOR WILLIAM A. WELCH, Chairman, Palisade Interstate Park Commission, New York City. THEODORE WIRTH, Former President, American Institute of Park Executives, Minneapolis, Minn. During 1925 and 1926 information was secured, through field visits and correspondence, as to what more than two thousand, seven hundred munici- pal corporations and over forty counties had done in planning, developing and operating parks. The two volumes comprising this work are the result of the study and are based upon its findings, although much material has been drawn from sources other than the information compiled. Park development is proceeding so rapidly that some of the facts presented will not coincide with the present situation, but it is believed that the informa- tion offered will present a general picture of the park situation throughout the country. Both in the conduct of the study and in the compilation of these vol- umes, much valuable assistance was rendered by many individuals and organizations. The members of the National Committee on the Study of Municipal and County Parks have by their individual and collective advice and council been of great assistance. Special thanks are due to the members of the field staff of the Park Study and to a number of the office and field staff of the Playground and Recreation Association of America for their efforts in securing the information. Very grateful acknowledgment is made of the valuable services of all those public officials who gave of their time to assist the field staff in the local studies and to those individuals who answered the questionnaire sent to the smaller cities. It is impossible to give individual acknowledgment and thanks to all those individuals and organizations contributing text material and illustrative data used in the manual, but an effort has been made to give due credit throughout the text. It is hoped that the information given in this manual and the inter- change of experiences which it represents will be of assistance not only to park superintendents and governing bodies, but to all public officials and private individuals interested in promoting the widest possible use of parks for the people. CONTENTS OF VOLUME ONE Page INTRODUCTION. OLD PARKS AND NEW xix Original definition of a park— Gradual use of "park" for other types of properties — Introduction of active recreations and how this influenced original conception of parks and functions of parks and functions of park departments — Definition of "park" in modern usage. CHAPTER I. THE WHY OF PARKS i Man originally a dweller in open country— Rise and fall of city civilizations — Some defects of city dwelling upon physical well-being of people and how parks may aid in remedying undesirable conditions — Limitations of city living on man as a creator, lover of the beautiful, seeker after knowledge of the universe, happiness and neighborliness, and how parks and activities therein may remedy these limitations — Parks and safety measures as preventives of delinquency and as causing increase of property values. CHAPTER II. GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 14 Section I: Unit elements of a park system— Playgrounds for children — Neighborhood playfield areas or neighborhood playfield-parks — Miscellaneous types of active recreation areas— Areas in which landscaping is a predominating characteristic— Areas of very small dimensions — Intown or neighborhood parks — Large parks and the reservation — Boulevards and parkways— Areas devoted to a specific educational-recreational purpose and in which landscaping is a prominent feature, such as botanical gardens, arboretums and zoological parks — Miscellaneous areas. Section II: First steps in planning a park system — Some principles involved — Suggestions for organizing and conducting the study— The compilation and publication of the report— Putting plans into execution— How some communities have conducted their campaigns — Partial list of recreation surveys and city plan studies. CHAPTER III. EXAMPLES OF GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING . 70 A brief analysis of what is being done by municipalities of various population groups and by counties — Examples of park planning in all incorporated communities in the following population groups— Under 2,500; from 2,500 to 5,000; from 5,000 to 10,000; from 10,000 to 25,000; from 25,000 to 50,000; from 50,000 to 100,000; from 100,000 to 250,000; from 250,000 to 500,000; from 500,000 to 1,000,000 and over 1,000,000— Examples of county park planning. CHAPTER IV. ELEMENTS IN THE DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS . . 109 General suggestions on design — Design of children's playgrounds with space requirements for games and apparatus and examples of layout — Design of neighborhood playfield-parks, facilities, layout and principles involved, with plans from a number of cities — Design of miscellaneous active recreation areas such as athletic fields, stadiums, golf courses and clubhouses and camps — Sug- gestions for the design of small landscaped areas; for "intown" or neighborhood parks and the forms of recreation of a semi-active and active character which may be provided — Plans of neigh- borhood parks — Large parks and their problems of design and layout— Measures for making parks available through pleasure driveways, bridle paths and footpaths— The provision, design and lay- out for recreation activities and for games and sports— A discussion of educational-recreational features in large parks— The problem of providing for structures of all kinds — Examples of plans of large parks — The facilities the reservation should have — Boulevards and parkways with their problems of design— Waterfront development projects with diagrams and plans — Bibliography. CHAPTER V. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 237 Procedure in construction work— Surveys and preparation of designs — Installation of drainage — Construction of walks, trails and terraces; of curbs and gutters; of retaining walls and free stand- ing walls — Construction of turf areas for lawn sports in the Northern States; in the Southern — Surfacing of play areas; of areas for lawn sports — Construction of bowling greens; of areas for such sports as baseball, basket ball, football, playground ball, soccer, volley ball and the various types of tennis courts, with specifications and diagrams— Construction of athletic fields — Sugges- xii CONTENTS Page tions and plans for building pools of various types — Wading and swimming pools, bathing beaches, facilities for winter sports — Construction of ovens and shelters for picnic facilities — Park build- ings—Shelter houses, recreation buildings, golf clubhouses, outdoor theatres, music temples and dance pavilions. CHAPTER VI. GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS 422 Types of governing authorities — Comments on the various methods of governing parks — Examples of legal provisions establishing various types of general administrative control of parks — Com- ments on constitution and various powers, duties and responsibilities of general park governing authorities — Number of members; methods of selection of members; their qualifications; tenure of office; technical training; salaried and non-salaried commissions; political representation on park commissions — Powers relative to creation of executive organization — Committee organiza- tion; adoption of rules; executive organization; legislative functions; accountability for funds; pur- chase of supplies and equipment; limitation of expenditures; reports; acquisition and administration of properties; methods of handling extra territorial park properties; division of functions in juris- diction within incorporated limits of municipalities; cooperation with outside agencies — Comments on modern legislation as affecting scope of activities. CHAPTER VII. PARK FINANCING 471 The acquisition and permanent improvement of properties from current revenues; from sale of bonds secured at general taxation; special assessments; general bond issues and special assess- ments combined; gifts and bequests; installment payments out of the net proceeds from operation; excess condemnation; requiring a given percentage of all subdivisions of a given size to be set aside for park purposes — Examples of each method of creating park funds together with legal provisions and comments — Sources of revenue for operation and maintenance from municipal or county governing authority; special tax levy; special sources of income; gifts, legacies, bequests; fees from the operation of recreation facilities; miscellaneous sources of revenue — Examples of the various methods, with legislative provisions. LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Pagt Huntington Falls, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California Frontispiece Interior Block Playgrounds, Showing How They May Be Developed 16 Example of a Map Drawn to Show the Effective Service Radii of Existing Public Recreation Areas Used as Children's Playgrounds, Boston, Massachusetts 20 Example of a Map Showing Distribution of Juvenile Delinquency, Buffalo Recreation Survey ... 22 A Method of Graphically Representing the Existing Playground Facilities in Baltimore, Maryland . 24 Map Showing Density of Population on the Basis of the Number of People per Acre by Wards, Buffalo Recreation Survey 26 Graphic Method of Representing the Location of Existing and Proposed Playfield-Park Areas, Baltimore, Maryland 28 Map Showing Location of Public Open Spaces, Boston, Massachusetts 30 A Graphic Method of Showing Extent and Location of Undeveloped Lands within a City, Boston, Massachusetts 38 Method of Showing on a Map Residence Areas not Provided with Parks or Playgrounds within One- Quarter Mile, Boston, Massachusetts 42 Official Thoroughfare, Park and Open Public Ground Map, Cincinnati, Ohio, Illustrating a Method of Graphically Showing the Location of Parks and Other Open Spaces and Their Relation to Major Traffic Ways and Proposed Major Traffic Ways 46 A Diagrammatic Representation Showing Age Groups of Children Attending Public Playgrounds, Des Moines, Iowa 52 Chart Showing a Classification of Population and Recreation Facilities that Should Be Available for Each Classification 56 An Interesting Diagrammatic Chart Illustrating Changing Conditions Surrounding Child Life in the City and Supporting Arguments for Adequate Playgrounds at All Schools 58 Graphic Method of Representing the Different Types of Recreation Facilities Needed in a Modern Park and Recreation System 62 Diagram Showing Where Children Live Who Attended Des Moines, Iowa, Playgrounds, 1925 ... 66 Map of Litchfield, Minnesota 74 Map of Cedar Falls, Iowa 76 Outline Map of Marysville, California 78 Map of Park System of Great Falls, Montana ••'-«* • ^i Map of Park System of Eau Claire, Wisconsin 82 Map of La Crosse, Wisconsin 83 Map of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 86 Map of the Present and Proposed Extensions of the Park System, Houston, Texas 90 Outline Map of Proposed Park System, Birmingham, Alabama 93 Map of Park and Recreation System, Dallas, Texas 96 Map of Minneapolis Park System 98 Map Showing the Distribution of Parks and Open Spaces in the Philadelphia Metropolitan District . loo Map of the Boston Metropolitan Park District 102 Diagram Showing the Actual Situation with Respect to Provision for Parks and Playgrounds in the Philadelphia Metropolitan Area 103 Map of the Union County, New Jersey, Park System 104 Map of the Westchester County, New York, Park System 106 Plan Map of the Cleveland Metropolitan Park System 107 Playhouses in the Little Children's Playgrounds, Hartford, Connecticut no Little Children's Play-Area in Interior of Block, Sunnyside Development Project, City Housing Corpo- ration, New York City 112 One of the Several Attractive Little Children's Playgrounds in the Parks of Hartford, Connecticut . 114 Design of the Sixth Ward Memorial Playground-Park, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 116 •General Plan for Chinese Playground, Playground Commission, San Francisco 118 Plan of Green Brier Park, River Park District, Chicago, Illinois 120 xiv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page General Plan of Ohio Avenue Playground, Extension Department, Board of Education, Milwaukee, Wis. 122 Eugene Field Playground, Playground Board, Oak Park, Illinois 124 Eugene Field Playground, Oak Park, Illinois 124 Design for Fairmount Playground, Woonsocket, Rhode Island 126 Plan for Worthwhile Playground, Western Divirion, P. R. A. A. . . . . . 128 Plan of Paul Revere Park, River Park District, Chicago, Illinois . ... 130 Development Plan of the Auer Avenue Playground, Milwaukee, Wisconsin . .. . .. . . 132 Design of a Neighborhood Playfield-Park, Lynnhurst Field, Minneapolis Park System, Minneapolis, Minnesota 138 Plot Plan of Soverel Field, Board of Recreation Commissioners, East Orange, New Jersey .... 139 Sketch Plan Showing Typical Development for a Neighborhood Playfield-Park and Modern School Playground 140 Design of Hoboken Playfield-Park, Hoboken, New Jersey 141 Nicollett Field, Minneapolis, Minnesota 142 General Plan for the Development of a Neighborhood Playfield-Park, Newton Centre, Massachusetts 143 Design for a Combined Park-Playfield-Playground and School Site, Recreation Department and School Board, Detroit, Michigan 144 Working Plan of Riconada Park and Walter Hayes School Site, Palo Alto, California 145 An Airplane View of a Portion of the Fleishhacker Playfield, San Francisco, California 146 Improvement Plan of Folwell Park, Minneapolis, Minnesota 147 Plan of Buchmiller Park, Lancaster, Pennsylvania 148 Kingsland Point Park, Tarrytown, New York. Westchester County Park Commission 149 Plan for the Development of the Sidney Lanier Junior High School, Houston, Texas 151 A Section of Stadium, Brookside Park, Pasadena, California 152 Illustrating One Use of a Large Stadium Other Than for Competitive Athletics, Tacoma, Washington 153 Municipal Stadium, Lynchburg, Virginia 154 The Point Stadium and Recreation Center, Johnstown, Pennsylvania 154 Floor Plan, Golf Clubhouse, Municipal Golf Links, Dallas, Texas 156 A Combined Golf Clubhouse and Park Service Building, Credit Island Park, Davenport, Iowa . . . 158 Plan of Golf Clubhouse, Oakland, California 160 Golf Clubhouse and Starting Booth, Municipal Golf Course, Hermann Park, Houston, Texas . . . 162 An Attractive Type of Golf Clubhouse, Municipal Golf Links, Park and Recreation Department, Dallas, Texas 162 Plan Model of a Twenty-Seven-Hole Golf Course in Galloping Hill Park, Union County Park System, Union County, New Jersey .\ ..... 166 Example of a Formal Layout of a Boy Scout Camp 168 Topographical Layout of Municipal Camp, Sacramento, California 169 Semi-Topographical Plan Layout of an Industrial Recreation Camp, Lake Worth Reservation, Fort Worth, Texas 170 Thomas Circle, Washington, D. C. Illustrating a Simple Treatment of a Circular Area .... 173 Colonial Court, Union Hills, Kansas City, Missouri 173 Illustrating Treatment of a Very Small Circle at Intersection of Heavily Traveled Roadways ... 174 Simple Treatment of a Small Oval at Intersection of Heavily Traveled Streets and Roadways . . 174 Illustrating Landscape and Architectural Treatment of a Triangular Area, Washington, D. C. . . 175 Illustrating Treatment of a Central Parking Strip Traversed by Street Railway, Washington, D. C. . 175 The Fleischmann Gardens, Cincinnati, Ohio 176 General Plan of Library Park, Pasadena, California 178 Plan Illustrating the Development of a Downtown Park Used as the Site for a Civic Center, Longview, Washington 180 Katherine Chappell Memorial Park, Middletown, New York - • . 182 Plan for "A Typical Neighborhood Park," Atlanta, Georgia ' •-:»•' ..... 183 Bridle Path, Warinanco Park, Union County, New Jersey 184 The Children's Quarters, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California 186 Section of Brookside Park, Pasadena 188 Skating on Lake in Van Cortland Park, Bronx, New York City 190 Pistol Range in One of the Parks of Toledo, Ohio 19* LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xv Page Ball Field, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California 194 Boathouse, Lake Merritt, Oakland, California 196 Airplane View of Music Concourse (center) with Alusic Temple to Left, M. H. de Young Memorial Museum (above), California Academy of Science and Steinhart Aquarium (below), Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California 198 General Plan, Jackson Park, South Park Commissioners, Chicago, Illinois 200 Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York 202 Preliminary Plan, Warinanco Park, Union County Park System, Union County, New Jersey . . . 204 Bridle Path in Central Park, New York 208 Suggested Cross Sections of Pleasure Drives 220 Plan for Parkway Along Fowler Lake, Longview, Washington 222 Plan for Improvement of Lake Nokomis Baths, Minneapolis Park System, Minneapolis, Minnesota . 223 Path Along Riverfront Park, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 224 A View Along the Riverfront, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania ... 225 A Portion of the Great Highway and Bathing Beach from the Rocks at Sutro Heights, San Francisco, California ... 226 General Plan for the Improvement of Lake Harriet, Minneapolis Park System, Minneapolis, Minnesota 227 Waterfront Development Design, Mirror Lake, Lakeland, Florida 228 Plan of Water Areas, Orlando, Florida 229 Landscape Plan of Waterfront Park, St. Petersburg, Florida 230 Study for the Development of Glen Islands, Westchester County Park System, Westchester County, New York ... 231 Plan of Development of Cabrillo Beach, Point Firmin Park, Los Angeles, California 232 General Plan of F. M. Kirby Park, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania 233 Typical Inlets and Catch Basins 240 Drainage Details 242 Details for Drainage of Pools . 248 Details of Walk Construction (A) 252 Details of Walk Construction (B) 254 Details of Walk Construction (C) 256 Details of Curb and Gutter Construction (A) 272 Details of Curb and Gutter Construction (B) 274 Retaining Walls (Gravity) 278 Retaining Walls (Reinforced) 280 Free Standing Walls 282 Croquet (American) 304 Hand Tennis, Clock Golf and Tether Tennis 304 Field Hockey (American) 307 Roque Court 309 Courts for Quoits and Horseshoe Pitching 310 How to Set Stake 311 Details of Bowling Green Construction 312 Diagram for Layout of Baseball Diamond 317 Study of Orientation 318 Diagram for Laying Out Girls' Basket Ball Court 319 Diagram for Laying Out Basket Ball Court 319 Diagram for Laying Out Football Field 320 Diagram for Laying Out Paddle Tennis Court . 321 Diagram for Laying Out Playground Ball Field 321 Diagram for Laying Out a Shuffleboard Court 322 Diagram for Laying Out Soccer Field 323 Tennis Court Construction, Minneapolis, Minnesota 328 Tennis Court Plans and Construction Details for Concrete Court, Portland Cement Association . . 330 Plan of Construction of Tennis Court Backstops, Minneapolis, Minnesota 333 Diagram for Laying Out a Volley Ball Court 335 Table of Running Track Dimensions 336 xvi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Page Diagram Showing Detailed Construction of a Running Track . 337 Cross Section of Running Track, Waukegan, Illinois 338 General Plan of Field, Waukegan, Illinois 34.0 Water and Sewer Plan, Waukegan Field 341 Diagram of Areas for a Number of Field Events 341 Grading Plan, Waukegan Field 342 Parking Space at Stadium, Brookside Park, Pasadena . 344 Plan of Layout of Parking Space, Brookside Park 344 Garden Pools ; 346 Inlet, Outlet and Overflows 348 Dams and Spillways , 350 Winter Protection for Pools 352 Wading Pool, Elliot Park, Minneapolis 353 Suggested Design for Concrete Wading Pool 354 Plan of Wading Pool, Emerson Wight Playground, Springfield, Massachusetts 355 An Attractive Wading Pool in a Kansas City, Missouri, Park 357 A Toy Sea for Toy Ships in One of the Minot, North Dakota, Parks • • 357 A Type of Wading-Swimming Pool Used Extensively in Dallas, Texas 358 Plan of Wading-Swimming Pool Used in the Playgrounds of Dallas 359 Plan of Swimming and Wading Pools (i) 360 Construction Details (2) 361 Plot Plan (3) 362 Floor Plan and Front Elevation (.4) 363 Plan of Typical Swimming Pool, Bureau of Recreation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 367 Swimming Pool in Marine Park, Fort Worth, Texas 368 Plan of Municipal Swimming Pool in Sycamore Park, Fort Worth, Texas 369 Brookside Pool, Pasadena, California 370 Bintz Pool in Fair Park, Dallas, Texas 371 Plan for Large Oval Pool 372 Plot Plan of Swimming Pool, McKinley Technical High School, Washington, District of Columbia . 373 Floor Plan of Lake Nokomis Bathhouse, Minneapolis 374 Lake Nokomis Bathhouse and Frontal Grounds, Minneapolis Park System, Minneapolis, Minnesota . . 375 Ice Hockey Rink, Worcester, Massachusetts .378 Ski Slide, Gordon Park, Milwaukee 379 A Ski Jump for Amateurs 380 Plan of Ski Jump, Gordon Park, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 381 Knockdown Sled Slide Used by the Extension Department, Milwaukee 382 Sled and Toboggan Slides, Washington Park, Board of Park Commissioners, Milwaukee 383 Toboggan Slides in Franklin Park, Boston 383 Design of Knockdown Sled Slide, Milwaukee 384 A Type of Large Enclosed Oven Built of Native Stone in One of the Rural Parks of the Erie County Park System 385 A Simple Type of Open Hearth Oven in One of the Parks of the Erie County Park System, Erie County, New York 386 Design of Large Oven, Erie County Park System 386 Design of Oven Used in Baltimore Park System 387 Design of Table Used in Clarke County Tourist Park, Clarke County, Washington 388 Design of Combined Picnic Bench and Table 388 Type of Adirondack Shelter Used Extensively in the Rural Parks of the Erie County Park System . 389 Plans of Adirondack Shelter, Erie County Park System 389 One of Several Picnic Camp Shelters, Hills and Dales Park, Dayton, Ohio 390 The Simplest of All Types of Structures Consisting of a Roof Resting on Poles Set in the Ground or in Concrete (Erie County, New York) 390 End Section, Front Elevation and Floor Plan of Picnic Shelter, Hills and Dales Park, Dayton . . 391 Plans of Shelter Shown in Plate 187 392 An Interesting Picnic Center and Shelter, Brookside Park, Pasadena, California 392 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS xvii Page Shelter House, Board of Park Commissioners, Louisville, Kentucky 395 A Standard Type of Combined Shelter and Comfort Building Used by the Bureau of Recreation, Phila- delphia 396 Plan of Typical Playground Shelter Used by Bureau of Recreation, Philadelphia 396 Playground Field House, Auer Avenue Playground, Milwaukee 397 Basement and First Floor Plans, Auer Avenue Playground, Milwaukee 398 South Side Clubhouse, Sacramento 399 Kendrick Recreation Center Building, Bureau of Recreation, Philadelphia 400 Group of Park Buildings, Calumet Park, South Park Commissioners, Chicago 400 First Floor Plan, Kendrick Recreation Center Building, Philadelphia 401 Second Floor Plan, Kendrick Recreation Center Building, Philadelphia 401 Basement Plan, Kendrick Recreation Center Building, Philadelphia 401 Golf Clubhouse, Columbia Park, Minneapolis 402 Ground Floor Plan, Golf Clubhouse, Columbia Park, Minneapolis 403 First Floor Plan, Columbia Park Golf Clubhouse, Minneapolis 403 Rhodius Park Community House, Board of Park Commissioners, Indianapolis 404 First Floor Plan, Rhodius Park Community House, Indianapolis 404 Recreation Pavilion, Hamilton Park, Waterbury, Connecticut 405 Interior View of Auditorium-Dance Floor, Recreation Pavilion, Waterbury 405 First Floor Plan, Recreation Pavilion, Waterbury 406 Basement Plan, Recreation Pavilion, Waterbury 406 Outdoor Theatre, Willows Park, Salem, Massachusetts 407 Outdoor Theatre, Willows Park, Salem, Massachusetts 408 Outdoor Theatre, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York 408 Outdoor Theatre, Darlington, North Carolina 409 Rankin Memorial Garden Theatre, Woonsocket, Rhode Island 409 Plan for the Development of the Seating Space at the Miller Outdoor Theatre, Houston .... 410 Miller Memorial Open Air Theatre, Hermann Park, Houston, Texas 411 Stage and Park of Audience at the Municipal Theatre, Forest Park, St. Louis, Missouri . . . .411 Nibley Park Water Theatre, Salt Lake City, Utah 412 A Portion of the Auditorium of the Nibley Park Water Theatre, Salt Lake City 412 The Claus A. Spreckels Music Temple, Golden Gate Park, San Francisco 413 Open Air Dance Floor, Colt Park, Hartford, Connecticut 414 A Combined Dance Pavilion, Restaurant and Refreshment Center and Grand Stand, Washington Park, Milwaukee 414 Dancing Pavilion, Mitchell Park, Board of Park Commissioners, Milwaukee 415 Plan of Dance Pavilion, Mitchell Park, Milwaukee 415 Stationary Seat Used by the Park Department, Boston 416 Diagram of Baseball Grand Stand, Waukegan, Illinois, Athletic Field . 421 Typical Zoning Plan of Assessment for Neighborhood Playground, Minneapolis 481 Chart Showing Graded Assessments Across a Zone Line Which Is Parallel to the Length of the Lots. 482 Typical Assessment Curve for Neighborhood Playground, Minneapolis. A 482 Typical Assessment Curve. B 483 Typical Assessment Curve. C 483 INTRODUCTION OLD PARKS AND NEW The great pioneer park planners and builders in America had no great difficulty in denning a park. The term then had a definite technical and functional connotation. Eliot defined parks to be "lands intended and appropriated for the recreation of the people by means of their rural, sylvan, and natural scenery and character." Olmsted, Sr., stated the nature and function of a true park as "a place where the urban inhabit- ants can to the fullest extent obtain the genuine recreation coming from the peaceful enjoyment of an idealized rural landscape in rest giving con- trast to their wonted existence amidst the city's turmoil. " At the close of the first quarter of the twentieth century it is not so easy to state the nature and function of that conglomerate aggregation of properties found in a modern, well developed park system. The term "park" has been applied to many different kinds of properties which the original meaning of the term did not comprehend. As long ago as the eighties, Eliot protested against the growing tendency toward an almost universal abuse of the term "park," in that it was being applied to every kind of public property. Prior to the middle of the nineteenth century (1850) there were no public parks in America, in the sense defined by Eliot and Olmsted. There were plazas and pueblos (public lands) in the Spanish regions or South and Southwest, commons in New England and in parts of the old South, squares in nearly all of the thirteen original colonies and in the newer sections of the United States, and various other types of public properties of an open character. Many of these properties were, more- over, embellished by the planting of lawns, flowers, shrubs and trees. Because of the manner of developmental treatment, however, and the functional uses of many of these properties, it was inevitable when park departments began to be created that such properties should be turned over to them and the word applied to them as a generic term. THE CHANGING CONCEPTION OF PARKS During the past twenty-five years the confusion in terminology has become even more marked. The word "park" came to be applied not only to plazas, squares, ovals, triangles, places, monument sites, prome- nades and public gardens, but to other kinds of properties which func- tionally were the direct opposite to the "peaceful enjoyment of an idealized XX INTRODUCTION rural landscape." Even the great masterpieces of idealized rural land- scape created by Olmsted and others of the pioneers in park building had in many instances been transformed from places where "city dwellers could secure the genuine recreation coming from the peaceful enjoyment of an idealized rural landscape, " to active recreation areas. Broad, open meadows had been appropriated for golf or baseball diamonds; the swift moving automobile had usurped the pleasant carriage driveway, destroy- ing the restful atmosphere of the area, and in some rare instances even the amusement devices of the commercial amusement park had been per- mitted entrance. Intown parks had been appropriated either for children's playgrounds or for neighborhood playfields. Both Eliot and Olmsted recognized that the supreme functional use of parks was for the recreation of the people, but the type of recreation they advocated was of a passive and semi-active kind, the dominant ideal being peaceful enjoyment amid beautiful surroundings of a natural- istic kind. There can be no doubt that this conception was fundamentally sound then, especially as applied to city dwelling people. It is of even greater importance today, as cities have grown larger and the stress and strain of living has become greater. This phase of the teachings of the great early planners should never be lost sight of in all present and future planning of parks. It so happens, however, that the life needs of people which can be expressed in their leisure are far wider than those compre- hended in the early conception, and a wide range of active forms of recreation have come to be included. Beginning in the eighties with sand courts for children and outdoor gymnasiums in the Charlesbank area of Boston, the so-called "play- ground movement for children," expanding into the "recreation move- ment" comprehending all age groups in the two succeeding decades, exerted a most profound effect on the entire pioneer conception of parks and their recreational functions. It was natural that with the expanding idea of recreation people should turn to the agency then most closely identified with recreation for the facilities and supervisory services which the new movement demanded, and that there should be a strengthening of the feeling which had been growing up that properties then compre- hended in existing park systems should be rendering greater dividends in service. The effect was epochal both in regard to properties and to the func- tional services of park departments. The new movement for many forms of active recreation changed the functional uses of many existing park INTRODUCTION xxi properties and at the same time brought into existence a number of new types, such as areas devoted more or less exclusively to playgrounds, playfields, athletic fields, stadiums, neighborhood recreation parks, swim- ming and boating centers, golf courses and boulevards and parkways. It added to the services of park administrating agencies a series of com- plex and difficult social problems involved in organizing for the people a wide range of recreational activities of a physical, cultural, social and civic nature, involving cooperative relationships with other public and private agencies. This change was not unattended by growing pains. It was not always easy for members of park governing authorities and park administrators deeply versed in the fine old traditions of park technique to absorb and apply the new and larger ideal of the new recreation service. The period from the late nineties to the present time (1926) has been a period of adjustment and development, and this process of adjustment between the old and simple concept of the functional services of parks and park authorities and the new and more complex functions is still going on. On the whole, however, the expanded recreation concept has been accepted by park authorities. At the end of nearly three-quarters of a century of park development in the United States the term park1 has come to mean any area of land or water set aside for outdoor recreational purposes, whether it be recrea- tion of a passive or active nature or any of the degrees between those two extremes, and "that the recreation is expected to come in part at least from beauty of appearance." 'The term " public park" is defined in English law as including " any park, garden or other land dedicated to the recreation of the people." (Mortmain Act, 1888.} 1 "Development of Public Grounds for Greater Baltimore," Olmsted Brothers, 1904, page 21. CHAPTER I THE WHY OF PARKS Man is essentially an outdoor animal. So far as our knowledge of his origin goes he has always been found, until comparatively recent times (approximately seven thousand years), in an open country environment. That primitive man worshiped the sun is not strange when it is consid- ered how vitally necessary an abundance of sunlight is to every form of life, including man. All the other forms of worship included in the nature cult which deified the air, earth, water and the stars and moon are equally explicable because of the life-giving and perpetuating powers of these natural elements whose fundamental importance seems to have been deeply understood by primitive man. After untold aeons of living in a naturalistic environment from which he not only secured sustenance but from which he drew the very breath of life itself, man himself turned creator and builder and evolved the city community. For the past seven thousand years the history of the world has been the story of the rise and fall of city civilizations; in nearly every instance of the fall of these civilizations the place of the worn-out people has been taken by a fresh and more virile people from the open country, a process that is less obtrusively going on in the cities of the present day. In no period of the history of the world has city building been under- taken on such a gigantic scale as in America during the past half century. It is necessary, then, in considering the importance of parks to stress some of the disadvantages of city environment as contrasted with open country environment, which have made parks, with the open country atmosphere they create, so vital to the maintenance of wholesome conditions. PARKS NECESSARY TO MAINTENANCE OF GOOD PHYSICAL CONDITION In making the change from the open country type of life and civil- ization in which the great majority of people had lived for nearly eight generations after the first settlement of the United States, to urban con- ditions, many desirable things were no doubt gained. At the same time the people who gave up life in the country in response to the call of indus- try and commerce bartered away many things representing distinct losses - losses reparable only by more intelligent and humane city planning and building. One of the first and most undesirable defects of modern city living and working is that much of the sunlight necessary for man's existence 2 PARKS has been shut out. People are deprived of an abundance of the direct rays of the sun by the smoke and dust in the atmosphere, by the shadows of structures and by the fact that the major part of the work done in the modern city is conducted indoors. City planners are seeking to offset this by letting in more sunlight through the laying out of broad streets, the limiting of the height of build- ings, the installation of devices for the burning of materials which create a great deal of smoke and soot, and through the use of dust-laying mate- rials on our surfacing. The most basic of all planning measures, however, is the reservation of open spaces in such numbers and with such areas, both within and without the city limits, that the majority of people can easily frequent them, thereby getting away from congested living and working places into spaces where the air has unrestricted movement and is reasonably clean and pure. The planting of trees along city streets, of trees and shrubs in all open spaces where they may be grown with a rea- sonable degree of success, not only adds much to the beauty of city envi- ronment but is a great aid in keeping the air freshened. The nervous system of man, with its delicate and intricate organi- zation, requires repose, rest and relaxation. City life, with its noise and constant movement, gives little opportunity for a let down of the high tension to which the nervous system is subjected. The monotony of the highly specialized processes of modern industry not only leads to extreme irritation of the nerves but thwarts every impulse to initiative, imagina- tion and creation — in itself a source of great irritation to a being who for untold centuries was to a greater or less degree a builder and creator. The effect on children is equally harmful. Reared in an atmosphere of noise and kaleidoscopic-like motion, their natural impulses to activity restricted on every hand by physical limitations, their nervous systems are under a constant strain and they grow into highly strung adults lacking in power of repose. Nothing is more in harmony with the previous experience of mankind than the quietness and beauty of large reservations. Small landscaped areas scattered thickly by the cities both in business and residential sec- tions are also highly desirable. But the larger areas are fundamental as an antidote to the rush, hurry and strain of ordinary living and working conditions in modern cities. City dwellers need above all things to renew frequently contact with soil and growing things; to engage in activities that are different from the daily routine of living and work. Hence the necessity for outdoor and indoor facilities and opportunities which can be provided on children's playgrounds, at playfields, swimming centers and trails for hiking and THE WHY OF PARKS 3 riding in large parks. These and other forms of recreation go far toward making life worthwhile under the unnatural conditions of living in modern cities and communities. ALL-ROUXD PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT DIFFICULT UNDER MODERN CONDITIONS All-round physical development is extremely difficult for children and adults in modern city life. In common with the young of all animals, children need a tremendous amount and variety of physical exercise in the open air and sunlight. There is scarcely a city of any size in the United States today that has adequately taken care of this most fundamental need of children. The chores incidental to the daily acts of living in and around the homes in which all members of the family participated and which bore a vital relation to physical development have very largely gone from the city home. Walking and horseback riding, two of the best forms of physi- cal exercise, have practically become non-existent as a habit among the majority of people. Only two generations ago the majority of people (71.4 per cent) lived in a rural environment, and the conditions of life were such as to demand a great number of physical activities using the large muscle groups of the body. With the coming of the industrial revolution which substituted machines for the hands, minds and bodies of men and women, and for a time for many children as well, this all-round physical activity was cut off from vast numbers of people. The tending of machines frequently uses none of the big muscles of the body, a use vitally necessary to physical health, but instead utilizes excessively the finer muscular and nervous coordinations. Much of this labor is performed under conditions lacking sunlight and an abundance of pure air. The only hope for the preserva- tion of normal physical health in the majority of adults tied to machines and to office and professional work is sufficient leisure to engage in physical activities of an all-round nature. In modern urban communities these opportunities for both children and adults can best be provided in open areas of different types which allow a wide range of physical activities in the form of plays, games, sports, hiking, riding, gardening, although some of these needs may be met by types of indoor facilities found in gymnasiums and community centers. THE CONTRIBUTION OF PARKS TO CREATIVE RECREATION In the building of cities man did immeasurable harm not only to the physical development of mankind but to the qualities and powers which 4 PARKS make of man the creator, the lover of beauty and the seeker after happi- ness. Modern conditions of living and working tremendously limit the expression and the consequent development of the creative capacities of men and women. The labor process is purely mechanical, requiring little or no exercise of craftsmanship ability. Except for a comparatively few creative organizers modern industry holds little hope for the average worker to find an opportunity for creative self-expression. If his qualities as a creator are not to become atrophied he must find some other channel of •expression outside his hours of daily labor. Not only in industry but in the home as well have opportunities for creative expression become limited. Homes have become so transformed that most of the creative activities formerly carried on by the housewife and other members of the family are now cared for by communal agencies. Labor-saving devices, while undoubtedly desirable, are often body-weak- ening and creative-limiting forces. In limiting the physical activities of children, their opportunity for creative play has also been restricted. To provide opportunity for the •development, through actual expression, of the creative powers of chil- dren and adults in this mechanistic age, is one of the most difficult problems in modern life, especially in urban communities. In meeting the problem leisure is the first requisite. The utilization of leisure in creative, construc- tive activities cannot be met through the mere presence of open spaces, •except in so far as they provide opportunities for out-of-door activities for children and adults. The development of the creative faculties is largely a problem of organization on the part of park and recreation authorities, and the predominating need is leadership. Certain kinds of facilities are important, but these are merely accessory to leadership. And this need is as great in rural districts as in urban communities. To BEAUTY AND ART One of the predominating characteristics of American urban com- munities, especially industrial communities, is ugliness. Pathways and roads of wood, stone, brick and concrete have been substituted for wan- dering paths and winding roads through fields and woods; unsightly struc- tures have taken the place of the beauty of forest and field. All the great natural forces which create anew the spiritual qualities of man and have inspired the great masters to express their thought in beautiful forms, are for the most part lacking in the modern city environment. It is here that park planners can render one of the greatest services. The acquisition, preservation and care of large natural areas, the application of the land- scape artist's powers to the creation of beautiful, natural forms in large THE WHY OF PARKS 5 and small areas within cities, is of as great importance as preserving and creating areas for the admission of sunlight, pure air, and as places for rest and repose. Such places are the feeding grounds of that instinctive hunger which all people have for beauty. The contribution which a system of parks and recreation makes to the satisfaction and cultivation of the love of beauty among people does not end with the preservation and creation of beautiful, natural forms. A number of park officials have written and distributed short manuals on the growing of flowers, shrubs and trees; others have distributed plants on condition that they be planted and cared for about the homes of the people. In a few instances series of institutes have been conducted for the instruction of people in home landscape problems. Landscape art, however, is only one of the fields of art served by the park authorities. There are many examples of really fine architecture to be found in structures in parks, and more attention is being paid to beauty in style and form. There are several notable art museums located in parks, some of which are partially or wholly supported from park funds. This, too, is a contribution of the park to the cultivation of the appreciation of the beautiful. To Music AND DRAMA Music has received considerable attention from park authorities, and there is promise of better things in the few examples which exist in a limited number of cities of the presentation of operas, symphony concerts, concerts by great artists and organ recitals. Outdoor dramatic features in parks are becoming more and more common, and practically every com- munity contains a stage for the presentation of different forms of dramatic art. Best and most fundamental of all the art activities of park authorities is the encouragement of the people to be their own musicians, painters, sculptors, writers and dramatists. The parks are offering opportunities for satisfactions which come only through doing and participating, and a real foundation is being laid for the better appreciation of the work of the great interpreters of various forms of artistic expression. In a number of park systems full-time leaders are employed to develop music, drama, the graphic arts and handcraft. FOSTERING THE DESIRE TO KNOW Aristotle has said, "It is natural for men to want to know." This curiosity interest is the basis of all scientific investigation and achieve- ment and a proper development of it is one of the greatest needs of America 6 PARKS today. In general, modern city environmental conditions have robbed children, and older people as well, of direct contact with the first great instructor, Mother Nature. The very fount of general knowledge for the inquiring mind of youth is thus dried up at its source. His store of knowl- edge becomes a complex of all the sorts of things which he sees and hears within the limits of an artificial man-made environment. He is deprived of the natural environment from which he may draw a wealth of knowledge of the universe of life's processes. It is true that commercial industrialism has encouraged education and the pursuit of scientific study, but it has done this almost wholly from a purely utilitarian point of view. Happily, out of this industrialism which has threatened to destroy the innate desire of people to acquire knowledge for the pure joy of knowing, there is the possibility of securing the leisure which will enable people to acquire knowl- edge without linking the process to some utilitarian purpose. Simultaneously with the growing appreciation of leisure, agencies have been 'developing which are securing material properties and fitting them for the use of people during their leisure. The character of these properties is for the most part of such a nature that people in urban com- munities will once more be brought into contact with nature. Thus park departments are assuming a position of major importance in the future development of man as seeker after knowledge, possessing as they do the basic material laboratories for instruction in the knowledge of natural processes. The large open areas with growing things, rocks, wild flower forms, botanical gardens, arboretums, conservatories, greenhouses, aquari- ums, zoological gardens, natural history museums — all features found in modern park systems — provide opportunity for everyone who wishes to make exploration into the great field of knowledge relating to the con- struction of the universe. These great laboratories, however, have generally been accepted by the people as something interesting to look at without understanding. Instructional leadership is of prime importance, and only a limited number of park authorities have applied such leadership in connection with the vast equipment the parks offer. The time may come when every director of a zoological garden, arboretum, conservatory and natural science museum will think as much of his possible function as a teacher of the people as he does of his function as the scientific manager of his particular institution. The time may not be far off when there will be on the staffs of park departments men and women especially trained in nature lore whose sole function will be to lead people into the open spaces and interpret nature to them. THE WHY OF PARKS 7 PARKS INCREASE NEIGHBORLINESS For nearly two hundred years America may be said to have been com- prised largely of communities of neighbors. Up to 1880 over seventy per cent of the people lived in rural communities, where they were drawn together not only by their natural instincts for companionship but by their dependence on each other in carrying on their daily acts of living. They helped each other in clearing the land, in erecting their homes, in planting and in harvest. They fished and hunted and played together. With the invention and perfection of machine tools, making it unneces- sary for people to depend so largely on one another, neighborliness began to decline; quilting parties went out of fashion; spinning bees were no longer the occasion of gatherings of the housewives; the harvesting of hay and wheat, always a cooperative undertaking, began to be done by different types of machines; community recreations were largely destroyed; old folk dances and dancing parties gave way to modern dancing and commercial dance halls, and old-fashioned home parties and community picnics began to disappear. To crown all these social disintegrating forces the lines of social contact were broken everywhere throughout rural Amer- ica by migrations of large numbers of the people, especially the younger people, to the places where machines and capital were being amassed. The inevitable result of the present-day system of working and liv- ing, making as it does for individualism, has been a distinct loss in the old spirit of neighborliness and cooperation. Out of the leisure of the people comes the only hope for them to build a community life in which neigh- borliness will thrive. But leisure itself is not enough. There must be numerous opportuni- ties for people to use this leisure in a way which will promote mutual acquaintanceship, friendship and good will, through all manner of activi- ties which they enjoy together. The facilities and leadership furnished by park authorities which bring people together in their leisure time are steps in the direction of providing opportunity for people to create communities in which the spirit of neighborliness will predominate. It is not too much to say that park and recreation planners and executives and the citizens who are giving thought to the recreational needs of the people are perhaps the chief agents in restoring to modern American community life the spirit which made earlier life in America wholesome and desirable. THE CONTRIBUTION OF PARKS TO HAPPINESS Delight in life, or spontaneous happiness, is the thing most desired by all people. In a large sense the end and aim of all city planning and 8 PARKS especially the part having to do with parks and recreation is to increase joy in life; to help people satisfy the instinctive desires whose expression means happiness. There is urgent need for creating in urban life those conditions which will prevent children from growing old before their time, and will keep alive the spirit of childhood in the hearts of men and women. Many agencies are working to make this possible. None, however, have done more to help secure genuine joy in living than those groups working to advance the park and recreation movement whose ideal is well expressed in the motto of Parks and Recreation, the official organ of the American Institute of Park Executives and the American Park Society — "To make more abundant facilities for a more expressive life for all." PARK AND RECREATION AREAS AS SAFETY MEASURES The modern city has developed conditions which make safety to life very difficult. If children do not have space and facilities for play at home or in playgrounds conveniently situated, they will play in streets or in the danger zones of vehicular traffic. Properly located, supervised play- grounds such as those which many park systems are conducting furnish the means whereby children may play in safety. A study made by the National Safety Council gives some interesting facts: In a survey of Toledo it was found that out of thirty-two child automobile fatalities during the three years 1922 through 1924, only four occurred within the quarter-mile circle of the playground, and six more in the half-mile circles. In Cleveland, with a very high pedestrian fatality rate, less than thirty per cent of the victims were children. The city has over sixty supervised playgrounds fairly well distributed in proportion to- the population. This low percentage of child fatalities is in marked con- trast with the high percentage in some other communities where there are fewer playgrounds. In Hudson County, N. J., where there is a limited number of playgrounds, eighty-five of the one hundred and sixty-five pedestrians killed during 1923-24 were children under fifteen years of age. In Richmond, Va., with a high number of playgrounds in proportion to the population, child automobile fatalities were less than twenty-five per cent of the total number in which pedestrians were involved. Only twelve children were killed by automobiles during the three year period ending December 31, 1924. The Department of Recreation of Detroit (in 1926) made a study of playgrounds as safety agencies. Two spot maps were made, one show- ing the location of fatal accidents from September I, 1925 to July I, 1926, the period during which the playgrounds were not opened. The second map contained the fatal accidents from July I, 1926 to September I, 1926,, THE WHY OF PARKS 9 the two months when the playgrounds were opened. The study showed the following facts regarding five districts: District i: Here there were fifteen fatal accidents during the school year. Seven playgrounds were opened in the summer and there was not a single fatal accident. District 2: Here there were twenty- two fatal accidents during the school year; during the summer only two. District 5: Seventeen fatal accidents occurred during the school year; only one during the playground season. District 4: While a particularly large number of fatal accidents occurred here during the school year -- seven in the small district -- there was only one fatal accident during the summer, with ten playgrounds in operation. District 5: In this district of heaviest child congestion, there were twenty- five fatal accidents during the school year and only ten during the sum- mer. Thirty-four playgrounds were in operation last summer. In 1926, 2,128,723 children attended one hundred and twenty-two playgrounds, operated by the Department of Recreation. The police records show that for the entire summer there were only twenty-two fatal accidents, of which only four were within the vicinity of a playground opened at the time of the accident. PARKS AND RECREATION AREAS PREVENTIVES OF DELINQUENCY Juvenile court officials, social workers and educators have testified that play areas under wise leadership tend to diminish juvenile delin- quency. Many police and criminal court officials have stated that whole- some recreation is a potent force in the lessening of crime among adults. Every child is possessed of a number of impulses and interests which are normal and naturally good, all of which will be expressed in some fashion or other. The results of the attempts at the expression of these impulses are not always in line with the regulations and standards established by organized society. It is perfectly natural and right for boys to want to play baseball, but if they play in a place forbidden by the local laws of the community, as in the streets in some cities, or if some private property is damaged through playing the game, the results of the expression of this impulse become a misdemeanor. In the great majority of such cases the difficulty has come because the community has not provided the environ- ment through which children can express their natural interests. Many adult offenders are only continuing to repeat acts which they began without reasoning during childhood, when their natural impulses were thwarted by unfortunate environmental conditions. The checking of juvenile delinquency is the road to follow in checking adult crimes. If real progress is to be made in dealing with delinquency, the emphasis must be placed upon a policy of expression rather than one of repression. io PARKS The modern city planning movement, with its provision for parks and recreation, can accomplish much along this line, for its activities are mak- ing communities better places in which to live and so restoring environ- mental conditions that fundamental impulses of children and adults can find wholesome, normal expression. There are numberless instances showing the efficacy of this method of approach to the problem of delinquency and crime. A few statements and opinions follow: "There were fifty-nine thousand murders in the United States in a recent seven-year period. $3,000,000,000 represents our annual loss from stealing alone. It is said that $500,000,000 are invested in our prisons and that their annual cost of maintenance is $200,000,000; also that our total annual bill for dealing with crime is close to $200,000,000. It costs a state around $600 per year to care for one in a reformatory; on the other hand, one city recreation department reports that it can and does pro- vide recreation for seven and one-third cents per person per year." It has been shown in dozens of cities of fifty thousand population that for the cost of the care of one person at a reformatory sixty-seven children could participate daily at play centers during the full season. "Is it possible," writes the Chief of Police of San Francisco in the December n, 1920, issue of the Chronicle and the Examiner, "for you to extend the work of the Community Service Recreation League? I realize so fully the relation of the present outbreak of crime to the wrong use of leisure that I consider it my duty not only to strain every energy to suppress it by the means at my command, but to see if something more cannot be done in a constructive way to prevent it. The work of your organization has been effective in certain districts. Can't it be extended?" The following resolution was passed in 1925 by the American Prison Congress: "Be it resolved that we express our conviction that the value of con- structive, supervised play and recreation needs to be more largely under- stood by those who are dealing with problems of delinquency, and that if in every community really adequate facilities for the recreational needs of young people were provided, many of their wayward tendencies could be effectively averted and at the same time health, morality, joy, and good citizenship be promoted, and we further believe that recreational activities, properly conducted, may be made a powerful instrument for the restoration to normal living of delinquents who may be upon proba- tion or in the custody of correctional institutions." It is stated that eighty per cent of the crimes committed in New York City are the acts of youths under twenty-two years of age. In commenting on this Warden Lewis Lawes of Sing Sing has said: "I can see as the only effective way for the prevention of delinquency the wider extension of community system activities such as establishment of more playgrounds, THE WHY OF PARKS 11 especially where congestion is greatest, and the establishment of com- munity centers to provide opportunities for playing and wholesome recreation. ': When St. Paul, Minnesota, checked up on its delinquency, it found that in areas where playgrounds were operating the definite programs the cases of delinquency had decreased materially, but in sections where there were no playgrounds, there were large numbers of delinquents. For the opening of supervised playgrounds in the public park area of Ana- heim, California, in the summer of 1924, according to Judge E. J. Marks of the Juvenile Department, Orange County Court, juvenile delinquency decreased. During the first six months of 1925 it was seventy per cent less than for the same period in 1924. Analysis of a Philadelphia neighborhood by District Attorney Fox, who covered the district for five years before and a like period after the establishment of playgrounds, led him to state, "I discovered the remark- able fact in five years of playground recreation, the neighborhood showed a fifty per cent decrease in juvenile delinquency as compared with pre- vious years." In providing such material facilities as parks and playgrounds, it should always be kept in mind by community leaders and governmental officials that these facilities constitute only a part of the necessary body-building, mind-developing and character-forming environment. A vital part is leader- ship. Just as parents are the most important factor in the home, the teacher in the school, the trained executive in the business organization, so on the playground, at the swimming center, in the park, the leader is the most important and fundamental of all environmental factors. PARKS AND RECREATION AREAS INCREASE PROPERTY VALUES It is inevitable that when living conditions are made more desirable in any section of a city, people are more willing to pay for the better oppor- tunities of living they thus enjoy. Sunlight, beauty of surroundings, the opportunity to enjoy wholesome exercises and to renew acquaintance with the things in nature — these are the real reasons why parks and recrea- tion areas increase property values and people are willing to pay for the privilege of having them. To offer increase in property values as a basic reason for acquiring, developing parks and open spaces is to place the stamp of commercialism on the life needs of the people. Since the argument, however, is potent with many of those who control the destinies of America's communities, the following statements are given as testimony to the value of recrea- tion areas in increasing property values. 12 PARKS REPORTS OF PROPERTY VALUES INCREASED BY PARKS Extract from the Annual Report of the Board of Park Commissioners, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1925: "The people of our city are, as a majority, not aware of the fact that from the viewpoint of mone- tary interest alone, the park system has cost the city nothing, because the increased property values pro- duced on account of the park system are several times the amount of the total investment of $15,240,000 made during the Board's administration of forty-two years. Moreover, what is the monetary value of our park system as compared to the value of the great joy, pleasure, and good health which these facilities for outdoor recreation afford to the people?" Extract from "Parks as Investments," published by the Metropolitan Conference of City and State Park Authorities, New York City, New York, February, 1926: "Comptroller Hawes, writing in 1856, shortly after the city acquired title to Central Park, said the in- crease in taxes by reason of the enhancement of val- ues due to the park, would afford more than sufficient means for the interest incurred for its purchase and improvement without any increase in the general rate of taxation. And the New Parks Commission quoted figures from the tax returns of the city to show that while the property in the other nineteen wards of the city increased but twofold, the property of the three wards in which Central Park was located advanced from about twenty-six and a half millions to over three hundred and twelve millions. They asserted that whereas before the making of the park, these three wards paid one dollar in every thirteen received as taxes, after the making of the park they paid one- third of the entire expenses of the city and this not- withstanding the fact that the taking of the ground for Central Park removed ten thousand lots from the tax books of the city." Extract from an address by Henry f '. Hubbard, Har- vard University, on " Parks and Playgrounds " presented before the International Town Planning Conference, 1924: "The same general reasoning applies, of course, to parks, although in their locations there is usually a greater range of choice. They must exist somewhere, and when the best location has been found, then the park must be created, or at any rate the land ac- quired, even if the development of the land as a park must be postponed. There is of course a credit item in the city's accounts that may go far to offset the price paid for the park. After the park is established the land abutting upon it is increased in value, which value comes back to the city in increased taxes; and in addition to this localized increase in values on account of the visible and obvious advantages which accrue to the abutting property, there will also be a general rise of values because the park has raised the tone of the city as a whole. The local benefits are less noticeable in the case of playgrounds. Indeed in some of the more desirable residential areas the presence of the playground is considered to lower the value of the abutting property, as the exclusion of playgrounds by zoning ordinance from the most restricted residence districts in several cases would go to show. But wher- ever a playground is necessary, it cannot be denied that its presence raises the values of the whole neigh- borhood. Moreover, in the case of a congested neigh- borhood the land value increase is both local and general, because, however noisy the playground may be, it is less bad than a street and more airy and open than the blocks of tenements which it has replaced." Report of the Board of Park Commissioners, Essex County, N. J., 1926: In 1916, the Board of Park Commissioners in Essex County engaged the services of an expert to make a report as to the actual value in dollars and cents of the County Park System. The report was made on four of the Newark parks. The following extract is taken from a summary published in the Newark Sun- day Call: "The reports show that the parks themselves have increased in value from $1,000,000 to more than $5,000,000, but this increase of $4,000,000 is not em- phasized, as it is not available for taxing purposes. The property immediately adjoining the four parks named was assessed in 1905 for $4,143,850, and in 1916 for $29,266,000, an increase of $25,122,150, or 606.3 Per cent. At the same time property in the same taxing district and perhaps not wholly outside of what may be called the 'park influence,' was assessed in 1905 at $36,606,907, and in 1916 at $111,531,725, a gain of $74,924,818, or 204.6 percent. In plainer words, while the property adjoining the parks has increased more than six times in value, property in the remain- der of the same taxing districts has about doubled in value. "If the increase in valuations adjoining these parks has been the same as in other property in the same taxing districts, and no more, it would have been $8,453,454, leaving an increase as a result of the parks of $16,668,700. The fortunate owners of this property have been enriched by this large sum beyond what they would have been had the parks not been estab- lished. "But this is not all. The cost of these four parks was $4,241,540. The increase is enough to pay for them four times. The cost of all the parks in the county was $6,929,625.47 — say $7,000,000. The in- crease of property adjoining these four parks alone, beyond what it would have been if the parks had not been constructed, is sufficient to pay for all the parks in the county 2.4 times, and the increase from the THE WHY OF PARKS other parks in the county, while not so great in pro- portion, is undoubtedly much more than their cost. The increased revenue to the county is already suffi- cient to pay the interest and sinking fund charges on the bonds issued for park construction, and almost the entire cost of the annual maintenance." BIBLIOGRAPHY "The Reasons for Parks," J. Horace McFarland, Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual Convention of the American Association of Park Superintendents, August, 1910, pages 35-37; discussion of address, pages 34-38. "Parks as Value Stabilizers and Value Creators," Andrew Wright Crawford, Park International, Vol. II, Xo. 2, March, 1921, pages 165-167. "Acquirement of Kansas City Park and Boulevard System and Its Effect on Real Estate Values," W. Bucholz, Proceedings of Ninth National Conference on City Planning, 1917, pages 96-105. "Reasons for Parks," John W. Duncan, Parks and Recreation, Vol. VIII, No. 4, March-April, 1925, page 297. "Some Samples of the Influence of Public Parks in Increasing City Land Values," John Nolen. (In his general plan of a park and playground system for New London, Conn., 1913, pages 28-41.) "National Existence and Rural Recreation," Arthur H. Carhart, Parks and Recreation, September-October, 1922, Vol. VI, No. i, pages 15-17. CHAPTER II GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM Park planning in the general sense of setting aside areas for recrea- tion in communities has been going on to a more or less intensive degree in American municipalities for the past seventy-five years, and for a much shorter period of time in some counties. Out of this experience it is now possible to distinguish several different types of properties, each type designed to meet some major need of the people or special groups of the people. Likewise certain principles have been evolved as to the gross amount of recreation area any given community should have and as to the distribution and size of certain types of recreation areas, although these principles are not yet fixed upon an absolutely scientific basis. Further developments in the future may show the need of other types of open spaces not yet existing in any community park system. Future experi- ences and study in planning will, without doubt, result in a more certain establishment of the principles involved. SECTION I. UNIT ELEMENTS OF A PARK SYSTEM Among the various types of park and recreation areas actually in use in American communities it is possible to distinguish the following more or less clearly: I. Children's Playgrounds. These are of two types as follows: 1. Playgrounds for children of kindergarten age and under. 2. Playgrounds for children from five to fourteen years of age. II. Neighborhood Play field Areas or Neighborhood Play field-Parks. III. Miscellaneous Types of Active Recreation Areas. 1. Bathing Beaches on river, lake or ocean. 2. Golf Courses. 3. Athletic Fields and Stadiums. 4. Municipal Camp Sites. IV. Areas in Which Landscaping is a Predominating Characteristic. 1. Ovals, triangles, circles and other areas of very small dimensions. 2. "Intown" Park Areas or Neighborhood Parks. 3. The Large Park Areas. 4. The Reservation or Forest Park. V. Boulevards and Parkways. GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 15 VI. Areas devoted to a specific educational-recreational purpose, and in which landscaping is a prominent feature. 1. Botanical Gardens. 2. Arboretums. 3. Zoological Parks or Gardens. VII. Miscellaneous Areas. 1. Sites for Bath and Swimming Centers. 2. Sites for Community Houses. 3. Sites for Museums of Different Types. 4. Sites for Utilitarian Structures and Uses. In actual practice there is not always the clear line of demarcation among these several types of areas as indicated above. Thus a single area may include a kindergarten playground, a children's playground, a neigh- borhood playfield or a neighborhood playfield-park, an athletic field and similar facilities. In fact, the inclusion of several different types of areas in one area is more the rule than the exception, but there are a sufficient number of exceptions to make it worth while to take note of the possible classification as presented above. In the following sections each of the types outlined will be considered in more or less detail relative to size, location, general character, and primary and secondary functions. I. PLAYGROUNDS a. Playgrounds for children of kindergarten age and under.1 The pri- mary function of these areas is to provide a safe place for the active open- air play of little children of five or six years of age and under and for the sleep and rest periods of such children in the open air. Their second- ary functions are to provide a rest and relaxation place for the mothers, nurses, "little mothers" from the surrounding homes — an isle of beauty and a fresh air breathing spot for the immediate inhabitants. These playgrounds should preferably be located in the interior of blocks, but a definite area of this type may be located in a playground area for larger children, in neighborhood playfield-parks, in neighborhood parks and in large parks. They are most needed in the congested sections of cities and in tenement or apartment house districts where backyard spaces are lacking, and should be as near as possible to the center of each child population of one hundred children below school age. Children should be able to reach the playground without crossing streets. 1 The age group under five years of age comprised the following percentage of the total population for each of the following decades: 1880, 13.9 per cent; 1890, 12.2 per cent; 1900, 12.1 per cent; 1910, 11.6 per cent; 1920, 10.9 per cent (United States Census). The average for the five decades is 10.1 per cent. Note the decrease in the percentage from 1880 to 1920. i6 PARKS The play lot, Mr. George Ford of the Technical Advisory Corpora- tion has stated, may be as small as fifty feet by one hundred feet. It is desirable to have it as much larger than this as possible. The committee on recreation problems in city planning appointed by the P. R. A. A. states that the size of such playgrounds should be from six thousand to ten thou- sand square feet. This is not too high a standard in view of the rapid growth in apartment dwelling and the increasing hazards of street play. As a matter of fact, play lots as such are chiefly conspicuous by their absence in park systems. Special provisions are made by many park depart- ments in other types of areas for play of little children. It is doubtful whether play lots as separate and independent areas will ever become an integral part of many park systems. If the ideal plan of having one such lot in the center of every block of dwelling should ever be universally practiced — and this would be highly desirable - — • they would become so numerous that any park department would find it exceedingly difficult to exercise more than a perfunctory service in their care and operation. The probabilities are that such central block areas, while representing open spaces of tremendous importance to this age group, forming from ten to eleven per cent of the total population of any community, will be ptoi/a/r'a-iorcriiMnFnMSfas es- senf/o/ /b every bfod: as fte srreer? PLATE No. i. INTERIOR BLOCK PLAYGROUNDS Showing how they may be developed in old and new sections of a city. (City Plan Commission, Toledo, Ohio. Designs by L. D. Tilton, Bartholomew and Associates.) GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 17 held in private ownership under easement by all the residents of each block. Park departments might aid in designing and planting these areas, and it is conceivable that they might maintain the plantations just as they function now in the landscaping of the numerous small triangles and other small properties found in most cities. Mr. Harland Bartholomew has pointed out that the city may do certain specific things to aid in the provision of interior block playgrounds. These he lists as follows: a. Prevent platting of two small building lots. b. Preserve rear yards by building regulations. c. Encourage real estate promoters to develop interior block play- grounds, the common property of all residents of the block. d. Purchase numerous protected sites for junior playgrounds to which little tots may go with brothers and sisters. e. Develop attractive parks and pleasure drives which can be used by parents and small children. In Chapter IV, page 112, Plate 34, is illustrated a type of interior block park-playground in the Sunnyside housing project of the City Hous- ing Corporation of New York City. This subdivision, comprising approx- imately seventy acres, is located only fifteen minutes from the Grand Central Station in New York. Practically every block is laid out to include an interior block park and little children's playground. This housing proj- ect is an outstanding example of the practical possibilities of providing small parks and little children's playgrounds in the interior of blocks in a region of high land values and a fairly high density of population. b. Children's Playground Areas. These are areas intended for the play of children from about five years of age to fourteen years -- the age group usually comprising about twenty-two per cent of the total popu- lation of any community.1 In school organization the group includes chil- dren from the last year in kindergarten through all the grades to the ninth inclusive. Above the kindergarten (five years of age) the group is usually classified as primary (grades from first to sixth inclusive), and interme- diate or junior high school (grades from seventh to ninth inclusive). The first group includes children from about six years of age to ten or twelve; the second, children from about eleven or twelve to fourteen. There is no hard and fast line between the two groups, and recent studies in certain cities seem to indicate that the pre-adolescent age is beginning sooner than formerly, at ten instead of eleven or twelve. There is wide variation among children in this respect. 1 United States Census: 1880, 24.3 per cent; 1890, 23.3 per cent; 1900, 22.3 per cent; 1910, 20.5 per cent 1920, 2O.8 per cent. The average per cent for the five decades is 22.4 per cent. 1 8 PARKS In educational systems two general methods are employed in hand- ling the children from the kindergarten to the eighth or ninth grade inclu- sive. These are as follows: (/) Grouping of all grades from the kinder- garten or the first grade to the eighth grade inclusive in one center. This is the common practice in rural districts and in most small urban centers, although this practice is still prevalent in many cities. (2) Grouping of all grades from the first, including the kindergarten, to the sixth inclusive in one center; and all the grades from the seventh to the ninth, inclusive, in another center. The former is known as a primary school and the latter an intermediate or junior high school. These groupings are important in view of the growing feeling that playground areas for children of this age group, particularly the primary group, should be a fundamental part of the equipment of every properly equipped educational center, and that the school has a very definite respon- sibility in the provision of both indoor and outdoor facilities for the fullest possible expression of the play impulses and needs of children. There are a number of reasons why the school should assume this responsibility. a. The play impulses, needs and desires of children bear the most profound relation to their growth and development, or, in other words, their education. This is the basic reason why every school center should provide play space and equipment. b. The distribution of primary schools, combined primary and inter- mediate schools, and, to a lesser degree, of the junior high schools, is based upon reasonable walking distance from the homes of the children. This applies to the rural district except in the case of the consolidated school, as well as in towns or cities. This principle of reasonable walking distance is exactly the principle fixed upon by the city planners and recre- ation planners for the distribution of children's playground areas. c. Next to the home, the school is the most important center of the daily life activities of children for the greater part of the year. It is therefore poor economy for a community to plan these centers in such a way that the play needs of children must be provided for elsewhere. d. On every children's playground there is need of certain service facilities such as drinking fountains, toilets and shelter, all of which can be supplied through the use of the school facilities without duplicating their cost, as would be the case if separate areas were provided. To a con- siderable extent the same is true of playground equipment of other kinds. A more or less ideal community plan, therefore, for children's play- ground areas, would be to have as many of them as there are primary and intermediate schools, with the possible addition of areas here and there GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 19 throughout a community in sections isolated by topographic conditions or transportation lines, or which for some reason or other it is not practicable to use the school centers. In actual practice throughout America today, municipal park author- ities and recreation departments have secured many areas of this type separate and apart from public schools, partly because the school authori- ties have failed to provide areas of sufficient size or failed to develop areas owned, and partly because of jurisdictional difficulties in working out the problem of joint use of school properties for public playground purposes. A further reason lies in the fact that while in building new centers, or in erecting new schools in outlying sections, it is possible to secure sufficient land for playfields — and there is a rapidly growing tendency on the part of school boards to secure larger and larger areas for school sites -- it often happens that in the case of old school buildings it is impossible for the school board to secure land adjacent to the school, however much it may desire to do so. In such instances it is most important for park departments to provide playground areas in neighborhood playfields and large parks. Radius of Influence. Reasonable walking distance may be construed anywhere from a quarter of a mile to one-half mile. Preference, however, is given by most planners to such a distribution of these areas that their radius will be approximately one-quarter of a mile. At the 1924 annual conference of the American Institute of Park Executives, Mr. C. E. Brewer, Chairman of the Playground and Recreation Committee of the Institute, presented the following conclusions as a result of a study of the use radius of chil- dren's playgrounds in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Washington, Detroit and St. Paul. "In the average city 50.4 per cent of the children travel one- fourth and one-half mile; 10.5 per cent travel between one-half mile and three-fourths mile; while 14 per cent travel a mile or more." Size of Children's Playgrounds. In considering the size of children's playgrounds it is important first to decide whether children's playground areas should be limited to chil- dren up to twelve years of age or should include children to fourteen years inclusive. As a general rule it is desirable to plan for children's playgrounds for the larger group. Most rural schools and a large percentage of urban schools are still organized on the basis of an age grouping including all children up to fourteen years of age inclusive in one center, and even in public playgrounds separate from ' MUNICIPAL nrFinr^r-c DUREAU iiY CK ui: MINNEAPOLIS 2O PARKS ^fmMJfrl?"" M'.V. VV Vlv CITY OF BOSTON ^ - „ PARK. DEPARTMENT LOCATION OF RECREATION AREAS ^ j SHOWING ONE QUARTER MILE DISTANCES . .SCALE APTH'JP.A SHURJLEFF- LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT il 3EACOH STREET-BOSTON MASS 1325 PLATE No. 2 EXAMPLE OF A MAP DRAWN TO SHOW THE EFFECTIVE SERVICE RADII (% MILE) OF EXISTING PUBLIC RECREATION AREAS USED AS CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUNDS (Report on Future Parks, Playgrounds and Parkways, Boston Park Department, by Arthur Shurtleff, Landscape Architect.) GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 21 viewpoint to handle the children up to fourteen in one center divided on the basis of a three-division layout. This larger area will also prove more practicable for general neighborhood use by older groups in the evenings and at other times when not in actual maximum use by the children. It is only in the older sections of very large centers with a high density of population that it is perhaps fundamentally necessary to consider play- .ground area limited only to children of the age group from five or six to ten or twelve. Numerous attempts have been made to fix standards whereby it will be possible to calculate the amount of space needed in a given situation, having a known number of children to serve. Mr. Henry V. Hubbard of the School of Landscape Architecture, Harvard University, in an address before the Fourteenth National Con- ference on City Planning at Springfield, Mass., 1922, said, in reference to this type of playground area, that it should allow one hundred and forty square feet for every child. "Reckoning one-quarter mile as effective radius, a population of two hundred people per acre, one-fifth of whom .are children under twelve, and one-third of whom might be expected to be on the playground at the same time, the maximum size of the play- ground should be about seven acres. This type of playground would gen- erally include space for the little children's playground so that the two are not differentiated in actual practice." Mr. George Ford of the Technical Advisory Corporation has esti- mated that a playground for children from six to twelve should provide from one hundred and fifty to two hundred square feet per child actually playing. Such a school site including school building and setting should •cover at least two acres and preferably four or five. At the 1923 Annual Recreation Congress of the Playground and Recre- ation Association of America it was stated that the normal amount of play space per school child at the maximum development of the elementary school should be two hundred square feet with one hundred square feet as the absolute minimum, and the following standards were set as the ideal toward which school and recreation authorities should work: For Elementary Schools: The minimum total area should be eight acres, including the land on which the school is located. For Intermediate Schools: The minimum total should be from ten to twenty acres. The method of attempting to estimate play area on the basis of so many square feet per child is liable to error for the obvious reason that a small school unit having all the grades from the first to the eighth or .ninth as is the case in most rural schools and in many urban schools, or 22 PARKS PLATE No. 3. EXAMPLE OF A MAP SHOWING DISTRIBUTION OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY (Buffalo Recreation Survey.) GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 23 a neighborhood of low density population having children of all ages up to fourteen, will require more space per child than any of the standards advanced, if the older boys and girls are to have the opportunity to play the organized ball games which it is desirable for them to play at their age. By actual measurement it can be determined that for a playground for children from five or six to fourteen years of age, laid out on a three- division plan and fully equipped with the necessary game facilities, appa- ratus, shelter or playground clubhouse, small swimming pool and with a proper plantation of ten or more feet in width, approximately three and one-half acres will be required as a minimum irrespective of whether the child population is one hundred or five hundred within its effective radius. As much more land should be secured as is possible to allow for further growth and for the use of the ground for community purposes if this is desirable. 1. The desirability of estimating the size of a children's playground on the basis of the amount of space necessary for certain games which children should have rather than merely on the basis of the number of square feet per child, the density of population and similar features, is borne out by the standards which are being set for rural schools where the number of pupils is small, but where it is believed adequate space should be set aside to make possible the playing of games of many types. Dr. George Strayer, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York City, has suggested the following standards for rural schools — and many of them are in operation in Delaware, Texas and other states: For one-room school, minimum of two acres; for two-room school, three acres; for a three-room school, four acres; for a consolidated school, not less than ten acres; for a junior high school, eight to twelve acres; for a senior high school, twelve acres or more. All these standards for rural schools which place the minimum of the school site at two acres for one- room schools are fundamental and sound, notwithstanding the fact that the square feet of play space may range from as much as four hundred square feet to two thousand square feet per child. 2. In making estimates as to the amount of public playground area needed in any given neighborhood, allowance is sometimes made for the possibility that not more than one-fourth, or one-half, or one-third of the children within the radius of influence of the playground will use the area at any one time. This principle should be applied with a good deal of caution. In the first place, if the general principle of considering children's playground areas in rural and urban planning as areas for the use of chil- dren up to fourteen inclusive be accepted, the operation of the principle PARKS REPORT OF THE CITY PLAN COMMITTEE TO THE PARK BOARD PLAN G PRESENT PLAYGROUND FACILITIES FOR BALTIMORE PLATE No. 4 A METHOD OF GRAPHICALLY REPRESENTING THE EXISTING PLAYGROUND FACILITIES IN BALTIMORE, MARYLAND (Report of the City Plan Committee to the Park Board, 1926.) GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 25 of shifting attendance should not be used to affect the minimum acreage space requirements, although it might affect slightly the acreage require- ments above the minimum. Suppose in a given neighborhood there are eight hundred children up to fourteen years of age inclusive and in the calculations for providing play space for them two hundred square feet per child is used, the total free space requirements would be approximately three and six-tenths acres, which is about the lowest practical minimum for a playground of this type even though there were only two hundred children. If in the calculations it is estimated that only one-fourth of the children will attend at one time and the acreage is reduced accordingly, the size of the playground would be about nine-tenths of an acre, or if one- third attended the area would be about one and two-tenths acres, or if one-half attended the area would be about one and eight-tenths acres. In all these cases the acreage would be too small for practical use. It would be far preferable to consider the area need from the view- point of the peak-load use rather than from the minimum-load use. Noth- ing would be more likely to discourage the children from coming to a play- ground than to find, when they did come in large numbers, that the area was so crowded there could be no real fun in attempting to play there. In schools certain administrative devices, such as the work-study-play plan, the platoon system and the class system, enable the effective use of smaller areas for certain kinds of play activities requiring more limited space than would accommodate all or a large part of the children at one time. It is interesting to note, however, that in the city where the work- study-play plan originated the school grounds are all of extraordinarily large size. II. NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYFIELD-PARK AREAS The primary function of this type of area is to provide opportunity for the older boys and girls, young men and young women and all other actively inclined adults, to engage in all manner of outdoor games and sports, especially such games as volley ball, tennis, basket ball, playground baseball, baseball, football, soccer, hockey and others, and such sports as swimming and all the different activities of track and field. If the area is large enough another primary purpose might be served, i.e., a landscaped area ministering to the aesthetic needs of the people and providing opportunity for recreations of a passive kind. Such an area may also include a space for a little children's playground, thus func- tioning in two other primary capacities. The secondary functions of neighborhood playfield-park areas are: to provide fairly large spaces for the admission of sunlight and the free circu- 26 PARKS ^ NXX- \ x ^xx ^ v \x>N SN C \-N XN A^^>\N X> X\XXX X^\^ XXX% $V NUMBER OF PEOPLE PER ACRE BY WARDS Under x SS xV \\ N^N\V N\VxS ^!x-ix^xxx DENSITY - OF - POPULATION CH-MSUS -I9SO TOTAL 5O6.775" - COMPILED BY - CITY PLAlWiG COMMITTEE - OCT -\9ZO- - BUFFALO - PLATE No. 5. MAP SHOWING DENSITY OF POPULATION ON THE BASIS OF THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE PER ACRE BY WARDS (Compiled by the City Planning Committee oi Buffalo and taken from the Buffalo Recreation Survey, 1925 .) GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 27 lation of air; to freshen the air by a more abundant growth of trees, shrubs, flowers, grass, than the size of the average children's playground will per- mit, and to add a valuable adornment to the neighborhood by the pres- ence of ample plantations, especially around their borders. Size of Neighborhood Playfield-Parks. The size of playfield-park areas throughout the United States varies so greatly that it is exceedingly difficult to lay down a principle that would not be distinguished chiefly by exceptions. Playfield-park areas so called and so used are to be found as small as three or four acres — although of course such small areas have no park features — and from this minimum they range upward to fifty, seventy-five, and even a hundred or more acres. Some very large parks of several hundreds of acres that were laid out many years ago as large landscaped parks, have, within recent years, become primarily neighborhood playfield-parks. This has been due to the growth of population around them and to the development of wide inter- est in active recreation among the people. Such areas, when equipped with many different kinds of facilities for games and sports, attract participants from a much wider radius than do the smaller playfield-parks, especially if the facilities include a golf course, a large number of tennis courts, a number of baseball diamonds, large swimming and boating centers and similar facilities. Mr. Henry V. Hubbard has said in regard to playfield areas for the active play of adults and young people that this type of area is determined in its minimum size and possible shape by the size and shape of the units which make it up, and that a minimum size for a playfield might be set, for the sake of giving figures, at four acres. If one acre of playfield is allowed for each ten thousand of population and the playfield has an effective radius of a half mile in a district of one hundred people per acre, the play- field should be about six acres in extent. Mr. George Ford of the Technical Advisory Corporation distinguishes two types of playfields, the first for children from twelve to fifteen years of age and the second for adults and for young people of the senior high school age. The first type, he points out, should be attached to the junior high school, and its maximum practical area, including the high school site, playfield and setting, is about six and one-half acres. With reference to playfields for adults and young people, Mr. Ford states that they should rarely be smaller than four or five acres. Some of these should be located in large parks. The Committee on Recreation Problems in City Planning, appointed by the P. R. A. A., designates this type of area as a district playground, 28 PARKS REPORT OF THE CITY PLAN COMMITTEE TO THE PARK BOARD PLATE No. 6 GRAPHIC METHOD OF REPRESENTING THE LOCATION OF EXISTING AND PROPOSED PLAYFIELD-PARK AREAS (Report of City Plan Committee to the Park Board, Baltimore, Maryland, 1926.) GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 29 and states its purpose is "for the active adults and young people over twelve years of age. It offers natural advantages for some park effects, especially where connecting with or touching main streets. To do this playgrounds must be large enough for a generous layout of games such as baseball, football, tennis and camp athletics and yet offer park develop- ments with one or more small group of trees. They must be capable of use for picnics, field days and national celebrations for the district without crowding the regular games fields. The size should be from ten to twenty- four acres. There should be one such playground for every ten or twelve thousand inhabitants. Another good guide is to figure one for every five hundred children of high school age. The most effective radius is one-half to one mile." Another authority suggests that five per cent of every square mile of inhabited area of the city should be set aside for this type of recreation area. The term playfield-park is used in this manual to designate the type of property under consideration for the reason that even in minimum size this area should be large enough to allow some genuine parklike treat- ment while at the same time permitting its major area to be developed for active recreations. As it is increased in size above the minimum there are greater possibilities for multiplying its parklike features, and the more nearly ideal area would be of sufficient size to permit of the development of a neighborhood park together with all the necessary active recreation features for the people within its radius of influence. Any area so small as to make exceedingly difficult or impossible a parklike treatment of at least the border should be considered an inferior and undesirable specimen of this type of property in a park system. As a practical principle in planning a community park system it appears desirable to limit the standard types of properties for active recre- ations to two — children's playgrounds (children from five to fourteen inclu- sive) and neighborhood playfield-parks. Special conditions in communities may make a greater differentiation in these two types, and there will, of course, be special areas for active recreation such as stadiums, athletic fields, golf courses, swimming centers and similar facilities. Just as it has been suggested that children's playgrounds areas should be thought of as providing opportunities for the active play of all the children within its radius of influence up to and including fourteen years of age, so the neigh- borhood playfield-park should be thought of primarily as providing active recreation opportunities for all ages above fourteen years and in many instances as including a children's playground. It appears undesirable and unnecessary, except in special circumstances, to attempt to provide an PARKS v "4 '(.f •- "•• dj> 2 — * .-. . ,.'..- & \ ,>.\ sp x\ - •• M^-e&^-~\^~, - ' — •-- f > /93 /' ;"J%f-HiI41 c » •' •*-./' .T-+ ^^k. ^— CITY OF BOSTON PARK DEPARTMENT LOCATION OF PUBLIC OPEN SPACE5 EXISTING CONDITIONS COMPILED BY ARTHUR A 5HURTLEFF-LANDSCAPEARCHITECT 1 1 BEACON STREET BOSTON MASS. 1925 LEGEND LANDS OF CITYOF BOSTON SMOWN •• PARKS OF METROPOLITAN DISTRICT SSS OTHER. PUBLIC OPEN SPACES PLATE No. j MAP SHOWING LOCATION OF PUBLIC OPEN SPACES, BOSTON, MASS. A list of numbered properties accompanies this map. (Report on Future Parks, Playgrounds and Parkways, Boston Park Department, by Arthur A. Shurtleff, Landscape Architect.) GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 31 area for the young people of the intermediate age group. Modern edu- cational systems organized on the six-three-three basis recognize three groups, it is true, but from the community recreation viewpoint junior and senior high school sites should each be large enough to be considered as integral parts of the community system of neighborhood playfield-parks. The community system of neighborhood playfield-parks is likely to include other properties in addition to the sites of these high schools. Almost invariably in a well planned and balanced system of play- grounds and neighborhood playfield-parks each of the latter may include one of the children's playgrounds comprised within the radius of influence of the neighborhood playfield-park. In determining the desirable minimum size of a neighborhood play- field-park the important factor is not the possible number of patrons, although above the desirable minimum size the possible number of patrons becomes important in determining the desirable size in a given neighbor- hood. The important factors in determining the desirable minimum size of any playfield-park are the requirements for a proper divisional layout and for a proper layout of play facilities in each division of the area. A fully developed neighborhood playfield-park may have five more or less distinct divisions — children's playground area, girls' and women's games and athletic field, boys' and men's games and athletic field, site for field house or for a community house and swimming pool, a fairly wide parked border and if possible a neighborhood park. To secure this type of layout the least possible minimum would be ten acres, and fifteen acres would be preferable, especially if the site hap- pens to be also the site of a junior or senior high school. This desirable minimum size is regardless of the density of population for the reason that the gross area depends upon the desirable unit elements which com- prise the layout rather than the number of young people and adults within its effective radius. The most desirable size of a neighborhood playfield- park, in order to satisfy amply all possible requirements, would range from twenty to thirty acres. III. MISCELLANEOUS TYPES OF ACTIVE RECREATION AREAS It is not uncommon now to find in park and recreation systems throughout the United States areas specifically designed to minister to one major activity. Their distribution as a general rule does not conform to any principle of distribution in relation to the population as in the case of children's playgrounds and neighborhood playfields and certain other areas comprised in a fully developed park system. Natural advantages, as in the case of swimming beaches; topography, as in the case of golf 32 PARKS courses; central location, as in the case of stadiums and fully developed athletic fields, are determining factors. Due regard is given in every case to accessibility, nearness to street railway or traction lines and automobile traffic ways. The park system adapts itself to them and not they to the park system. Among such types of properties may be distinguished the following: 1. Bathing Beaches on river, lake or ocean. They may be found in a large park or in a neighborhood playfield-park, but very often they repre- sent distinct units of the system of recreation, selected because of the pecul- iar advantages for the one form of recreation. No general principle governs their size or their location. 2. Golf Course Areas. It is becoming more and more the practice to secure specific areas for municipal golf courses, and to avoid locating them in already existing large landscape parks. This is a highly desirable tendency for the reason that the large landscape park has functions pecul- iarly different from that of a golf park and vice versa. It may be true, of course, that a golf course may be laid out in very large landscaped parks or public reservations, in parks, for example, of from five hundred acres and upwards, without interfering seriously with the primary functions of such areas; but as a general rule it is more desirable to secure areas devoted exclusively to this game. The size of golf parks may range from forty acres as an absolute min- imum for a nine-hole course to one hundred or one hundred and fifty for an eighteen-hole course. 3. Athletic Fields and Stadiums. Both the athletic field and the sta- dium are types of the neighborhood playfield-park but distinguished from it by a much more highly developed equipment, by their comparatively limited use as to the types of games and sports, and by the fact that they are enclosed, and by their greatly reduced numbers in any community. They are designed primarily for highly organized competitive games and sports, to which as a general rule an admission fee is charged. Extensive provisions are made for spectators. In their location, accessibility from all parts of the community is a primary consideration. Another important consideration in the develop- ment of athletic fields and stadiums is the reservation of a large area out- side of the enclosed space for parking automobiles. A parked area entirely around the athletic field site is another desirable feature. The athletic field or the stadium may be located in a large landscaped park or in a large neighborhood playfield-park, if these happen to be prop- erly located with respect to accessibility to all parts of the city or to those parts of a large city they are designed to serve. As a result of the highly GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 33 organized form which certain games and sports have taken among high schools the athletic field or stadium is becoming more and more a perma- nent equipment of senior high schools throughout the nation. While these to some extent may serve the athletic needs of the general community, as a general rule it is likely to be more satisfactory in communities of from forty thousand to one hundred thousand inhabitants to have at least one municipal athletic field or stadium. In order to provide a proper landscape area, automobile parking area and ample site for athletic building, seats for spectators, and field for play- ing, the size of the athletic field or stadium site should be at least fifteen acres, and ranging from this minimum upwards to twenty or thirty acres — in other words, about the desirable average size of the neighborhood playfield-park. No general principle has yet been evolved as to the desirable number of such highly developed areas in communities of different sizes. One authority estimates that every city of fifty thousand should have at least one athletic field or stadium.1 4. Municipal Camp Sites. These are areas designed primarily to provide summer outing facilities for boys and girls and, in some instances, for entire families. Because a reasonable degree of isolation and entire change of environment are primary considerations in selecting camp sites, they are usually located outside the city limits, the distance ranging from a few miles to over three hundred miles. A few camp sites conducted by park and recreation systems in this country are located within the city limits, but as a general rule this is undesirable, defeating the very pur- poses for which camping is organized and conducted. Municipal camp sites may be owned directly by the municipal park or recreation department as in Detroit; Fort Worth, Texas; Bronx Park Department, New York City; or located in county park reservations as in Cook County, Illinois; Westchester County, New York; or in state parks as in Pennsylvania and New York and other states; or in Federal Forest Reserva- tions as in California (Los Angeles, Oakland, Berkeley, and other cities), or private property may be rented or leased or loaned for such purpose. It is not desirable to have a camp site of less than a minimum of ten or twenty acres. A study of two hundred and twenty-six private and com- munity organized camps in 1922 showed that the average size of the imme- diate camp sites was approximately twenty-five acres and that the gross average acreage was one hundred and five acres.2 Numbers of camps occupy sites of several hundreds of acres. 1 Mr. George Ford, Technical Advisory Corporation, New York City. Address, National Recreation Congress, Atlantic City, 1922. 2 " Camping Out, A Manual on Organized Camping," The Macmillan Company, New York, 1922, pp. 23-24. 34 PARKS Camping has not yet developed as a part of the functional activities of park and recreation departments in the United States to the extent that will give a clue to the possible number of camps and camp sites any munic- ipal community of a given size should have. Los Angeles (population 1,222,500 — 1925) has four camp sites; Oakland (population 263,700- 1925) has four; Detroit (population 1,242,044 — 1925) two; Highland Park, Michigan (population 72,289 -- 1925) two. The great volume of camping conducted throughout the country today is under the auspices of private individuals and of community groups such as the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Camp Fire Girls, boys' clubs, church groups, welfare agencies, industrial and commercial establishments, and under the auspices of private individuals. The rapidity with which this movement has grown during recent years in general, and t,he success which has attended the efforts of those park and recreation departments which have conducted camps, warrants the conclusion that camping for both children and adults will become an important feature of municipal and county park and recreation depart- ments in the future throughout the entire United States. IV. AREAS WITH LANDSCAPING THE PREDOMINATING CHARACTERISTIC Among areas of this general character several types may be distin- guished in existing park systems in this country. I. Ovals, triangles and other small areas formed usually by the inter- section of streets. Owing to attempts to get away from the deadly uni- formity of the checkerboard system of street plan layouts in American cities, this type of property has multiplied amazingly during recent years. Those cities that were planned or that are now being planned with wide diagonal avenues or boulevards radiating from the center of the city have a very large number of such properties, e.g., Washington, D. C. ; Indian- apolis, Indiana; Buffalo, N. Y. ; Springfield, Mass. As a general rule there is no conscious city-wide plan of such properties. They simply happen and are usually dedicated by the subdivider to park purposes and turned over to the municipal authorities and eventually to the park departments, often to the dismay and disgust of park officials. Their care is no easy problem, and how to preserve them, especially in very congested sections of cities, with anything like a landscaped aspect, taxes the ingenuity of the most resourceful of park executives. Their primary purpose is that of embellishment of the neighborhoods in which they are located. Some of them may be of sufficient size to permit the placing of a few benches, serving thus as rest and relaxation places. When large enough to be used for this purpose they shade off imper- ceptibly into the class of the "small town park" group of properties. GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 35 2. Intown Park Areas or Neighborhood Parks. As to size there is no common relation among this group of properties. They range from the small squares through commons, public gardens, large or long promenades to parks of hundreds of acres in extent. Some of the finest examples of this type of property in small size are to be found in Savannah, Georgia, in the plan of the old city as laid out by General Oglethorpe, an example that was followed in many cities of the old South. The plazas character- istic of the Spanish towns and cities, the squares laid out by William Penn in Philadelphia in the original plat of the city, those laid out by General Sutter in the original plan of Sacramento are others among a great many examples of original city planning in this country in which this type of park was incorporated. Next to small triangles, ovals, places, "the small intown park" type of property is the most numerous type in the park systems of American municipalities. Great numbers of them have suc- cumbed to the attacks of the organized recreation movement, and no doubt many more of them will go over into the class of children's playgrounds or neighborhood playfield-parks. But this type of property should always be preserved as an integral unit element in any well developed park system. Functionally these areas provide as near an approach to nature as many dwellers in large cities ever see or come in contact with; they adorn the neighborhoods in which they are located; they enhance property values; they provide breathing, rest and relaxation places for the inhabitants, and to a more or less extensive degree a certain amount of opportunity for semi-active recreation in the form of walking, listening to band concerts, taking part in or observing a festival, play, pageant, and other public meet- ings of various kinds. The number of parks of this type should practically duplicate the neighborhood playfield type of area. In fact their numbers should be slightly larger in the larger cities than the playfield areas for the reason that the small park areas should be provided in downtown sections of cities where playfields are not needed. They may exist as separate properties or combined with a playfield or the playfiejd with the park. They are espe- cially desirable in those sections of cities having a high density of popu- lation but valuable for all sections, industrial, commercial, residential. It is not only in cities that these small landscaped areas are desirable. Every village, small town and small city should have one or more of them. Even in rural districts counties have found small natural parks of great value for picnicking and overnight camping. 3. The Large Park or Country Park Area. This is an area "designed to give as far as is consistent with intensive use all the sense of freedom that the unspoiled country gives, and is the nearest thing to unspoiled 3 6 PARKS country that most of the city dwellers can commonly take time to enjoy. It is fitted to receive large crowds and not be spoiled by them, for its main use is still to relieve a man from too close contact with his fellows."1 It is further defined as "a city park to provide for the average man and woman, as far as it is consistent with fairly intensive use, access to open areas away from the man-made stone city with its heat and noise and dangers from traffic; to rest his sense of sight and hearing and smelling and touch by the colors and noises and odors of nature and the contact with Mother Earth."2 To accomplish these purposes large areas are required. The Com- mittee on Recreation Problems in City Planning of the National Recrea- tion Congress (1922-23—24) has suggested that this type of property should range from one hundred to two hundred and fifty acres. In point of fact there are many large parks of this character to be found in park systems of American cities comprising much larger acreage than the maximum mentioned above, and there are some smaller than the minimum that func- tionally fulfill the purposes of a large park. Fairmount Park in Philadel- phia comprising 3,881.7 acres; Pelham Bay Park in the Bronx, New York City, with 1,756 acres; Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, having 1,013 acres, are a few examples of parks of this character having very large acreage. Parks of this type are likely to change their character in process of time through the growth of population around them. Central Park in New York City (843 acres), formerly a large country park, is now practi- cally a park of the "intown" class; Delaware Park (365 acres), in Buffalo, has become a cross between a large neighborhood playfield-park and an "intown" park; the same thing has happened or is happening to Hermann Park (545 acres) in Houston, Texas. Likewise through expansion of cities large park reservations, a type of property to be subsequently mentioned, may become large city parks. For the protection of these areas against the encroachment of commerce, industry and transportation every power of modern zoning should be invoked. It has been suggested by one group of experts in park and city plan- ning that there should be one such park for every forty thousand inhabit- ants and that it should be located tangent to or near the city limits of such population.2 In providing opportunities, through large parks, for people of cities to renew frequently contact with nature, it is exceedingly difficult for anyone to say under what circumstances a given number of acres will suffice. 1 Henry V. Hubbard, Harvard University, editor of Landscape Architecture, in an address before the Fourteenth National Conference on City Planning, Springfield, Massachusetts, 1922. 2 Committee on Recreation Problems in City Planning, National Recreation Congress, Atlantic City, 1922, and Springfield, Illinois, 1923. GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 37 Natural beauty and spaciousness are prime considerations in areas of this character — a spaciousness so large that the natural beauty cannot be greatly marred by the presence of large numbers of people, and even a single individual may find some place where he can be alone, if he desires, without being too conscious of the crowd. Because it is desirable that people frequent them as often as possible, these areas should be reasonably accessible. Their size and the element of cost in acquisition will as a rule require their location on original acquisition toward the outskirts of the city, although they may later be completely surrounded by the city. If a city is growing evenly in all directions a diagrammatic representation of where large parks should be might properly show one at each of the major points of the compass, and as the city grows around these a more numerous ring of them might be shown some five or more miles beyond. Topographical conditions frequently determine the location and the size of large parks for the reason that rough broken areas of cities and lowlands along water courses, while undesirable for residential or other purposes, may present very good or ideal possibilities for large parks. Certain topographical features may be very desirable for other community purposes, but their possibilities for large parks are so valuable that other possible uses should give way to park use. An example in point is the presence of lakes in the vicinity of cities or of certain portions or the whole of a river front. 4. The reservation. The invention of the automobile, its subsequent possession by so large a percentage of the people, coupled with the develop- ment of an exceedingly large mileage of good roads, especially in the vicinity of cities, are factors that have brought into existence, within recent years, a new type of park property known as the public reservation or forest park. These factors have partially reversed the point of view of park planners of twenty-five to fifty years ago whereby they sought to bring the country into the city through large landscaped parks; whereas now they plan to take the people out of the city into the country into large forest reservation parks. These same factors have caused the projection of mis- cellaneous types of active recreation areas many miles outside the city limits, such as bathing beaches, golf courses, and municipal camps. The function of the forest park or reservation is practically the same as that of the large city landscaped park, although it will probably be less intensively developed and used, except in the vicinity of very large cities. There is no general principle governing their size nor their distance from the city, although so far as daily or week-end use is concerned it is not desirable to have them located more than fifty miles from the city limits. PARKS ; !.'a>.'or"«£3? tp'^V "-" £V4 •j/to, >'°&A ^-, ^,-^' -w'^&v V, •! ^0r&i&BilL ' r/^^/7^ ' HAR-'0fc ^^^^^^'"'^-•'^r^^'^^'^ /^0^^l • ^-^^ , i-.;-: '" ' ^4- : '*Sl^-'^^Wrif^*' * ^r-^'i^^i'-j^" «*•»•-"."-«'-'• -- '' -'-'/•• *-^' '^,' ^- / * ^^^ll" ,£«?.**;;-!• vtfy*^/u-^?'.* ;'/^^ ^^--"=i.^.j^:nV*r"~^" x'7'- '* '^^t' \&+**-~ • &£ ;*;M<¥, ^7t> ^.••'•'•^•h f''~'''"-'''W^ °^~ '^ f^:fy^^ »^!|P^ "". ®^^;^*:JiW^ ?!^l»jC^; T %'t^€. •'.." ' • . ^ " 6 r-i '•'• - ^ j'^fiJSrt?""^ *•" — -^-- * M - ^T "~ \ ^ ?* . : . ' "". '•'/.-*. \' * - *^^lrf '^ 'W / CITY or BOSTON PARK DEPARTMENT LOCATION' OF UNDEVELOPED LANDS PLATE No. 8 A GRAPHIC METHOD OF SHOWING EXTENT AND LOCATION OF UNDEVELOPED LANDS WITHIN A CITY (Report on Future Parks, Playgrounds and Parkways, Boston Park Department, by Arthur A. Shurtleff, Landscape Architect, 1925.) GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 39 While the ownership and control of forest parks or reservations may be vested in municipal authorities, these areas, in contrast to most of the other types of recreation properties heretofore mentioned, may be owned and controlled by other public agencies, sucl? as the township, county, state and Federal Government. In a few instances special commissions known as Metropolitan Park Commissions have been created by state legislation to purchase, develop and operate such areas in the vicinity of large cities. In not a few instances large outlying reservations, owned and controlled by water departments, boards or commissions of cities, provide some of the services of forest parks or reservations. Typical examples of these various types of ownership are as follows: a. Municipal ownership. I. The mountain forest park areas com- prising 10,239.14 acres (1925) owned by the city of Denver, Colorado, and Phoenix Mountain Park of 15,080 acres under the control of the city of Phoenix, Arizona, are two among many examples of outlying parks owned and controlled by municipalities throughout the country. 2. There are many examples of large outlying areas of land and water under the control of municipal water departments which in some instances are used, or parts of them so used, as recreation areas. One of the notable examples is that of Lake Worth Reservation at Fort Worth, Texas. This reservation comprises over 9,000 acres, of which approximately 2,779 acres are definitely dedicated to park and recreation purposes. b. Townships. In several states, townships are authorized by law to acquire parks and forest reservations. Near Youngstown, Ohio, is a large township park comprising approximately 850 acres of land and water, under the control of a township park commission. In Massachusetts, numbers of "towns" (townships) have acquired areas known as "town forests" -wooded tracts designed primarily for the growing of timber, but which may be used recreationally by the people living in the near-by vil- lages and cities, very much the same as though they were outlying forest parks. Municipalities in Massachusetts are also authorized by law to acquire such forest tracts. The town forest is a comparatively new type of area in this country, although in Europe it is centuries old. The distinction between a town or municipal forest and a municipal forest park reservation is that the former is held primarily for economic purposes and only incidentally for recreation, while the latter is for recreation primarily. c. Counties. The Cook County Forest Preserve Commissioners, Cook County, Illinois; the Westchester County Park Commission of West- chester County, New York; Essex and Union County Park Commissions in those counties of New Jersey, are among the notable examples of county 40 PARKS authorities handling large forest park reservations which are used exten- sively by the people in the neighboring cities. d. State Ownership. A study of state park and forest developments throughout the United States during 1925 showed a total of approximately 2,550,000 acres in state parks, including areas under other designations but of equivalent service. Many of these state areas are so located as to serve as large outlying forest park reservations for the inhabitants of neighbor- ing municipalities. Two of the notable examples of such location and service are the Palisade Interstate Park and the Allegany State Park, both in New York, the one serving the people of New York City and neigh- boring cities and the other the inhabitants of Buffalo and other cities in that region. e. Special Park Districts. A few cities throughout the country have secured a system of outlying park and recreation areas through special park districts. The Metropolitan Park District of Boston and the Metro- politan Park District of Cleveland are outstanding examples of this method of acquiring, developing and managing a system of outlying parks and recreation areas that may be used by the inhabitants of the city which the districts surround. The Boston Metropolitan Park System comprises. 11,035.80 acres (1926) and the Metropolitan Park System of Cleveland comprises approximately 10,000 acres (1926). These districts are organ- ized under special acts of the state legislatures of the respective states. /. Federal Government. Cities in the vicinity of Federal Forest Pre- serves, e.g., Los Angeles, Oakland, Berkeley and others in California, Denver in Colorado, Salt Lake City in Utah, and others, make use of these preserves for municipal camps and various other recreational pur- poses. In fact millions of people from all parts of the United States make use of the recreational opportunities provided through the Forest Service of the Department of Agriculture and the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior. In this sense these areas serve as outlying wild parks for the use of the people of the entire nation. The possible mileage limits of the use of properties of the character of forest park reservations by the people of cities may be greatly increased in the future, possibly in the near future, by the further perfection of the airplane and its production at wholesale quantities at a price within reach of the average person. V. BOULEVARDS AND PARKWAYS These types of park properties are given a separate classification because they are, in design and primary function, totally unlike any other type of properties to be found in a park system. GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 41 While the primary function is the same, the difference between a boule- vard and a parkway may be denned as follows: a boulevard is a glorified street or roadway embellished, as a general rule, on either side, in the center, or both on the sides and in the center, by strips of lawn, shrubs or trees. A parkway is likewise a roadway, but distinguished by areas on either side of the roadway bed, of sufficient depth to give a parklike appearance to the entire parkway area. A parkway may perhaps be more truly defined as an attenuated park with a roadway through it, or along the side of it. The primary functions of both boulevards and parkways are to serve as ready means of access to the various larger units of the park system from different parts of the city and from one large unit to another; to facilitate the movement of the people out of and into the city and to pro- vide a pleasurable medium for that form of recreation known as motoring. Parkways may also include as a primary function provisions for hiking and horseback riding. Boulevards and parkways serve as air lanes in cities, adorn sections of cities through which they pass, often serve as mediums for the redemption of unsightly areas, especially in the vicinity of streams. and low grounds, and enhance values of properties adjacent to their courses. The widened areas of parkways often serve as children's playgrounds, neighborhood parks and neighborhood playfield areas. All these may be con- sidered secondary functions, notwithstanding the importance of each one. It is practically impossible to state any standards as to the number of miles of boulevards and parkways that any city of a given size should have or the number of acres that should b.e included in them. In point of fact, there are many so-called boulevards in park systems of this country that might better be classed as a part of the general street systems, so far as there being any difference between them and other particularly fine streets. Their status is different in that as boulevards it is possible to regulate or prohibit entirely their use by commercial traffic, thus making them more desirable residence streets. In the last analysis, however, any boulevard that has merely been made a boulevard by ordinance is prac- tically subject to the legal status of a street. Parkways, on the other hand, have the status of parks and cannot be interfered with except by action of the entire body of citizens. VI. AREAS DEVOTED TO SPECIFIC EDUCATIONAL-RECREATIONAL PURPOSES, IN WHICH LANDSCAPING is A PROMINENT FEATURE There are certain types of areas which because of their peculiar func- tions cannot strictly be classed with any of the other more common types mentioned, although these areas may be included in other types of park areas, especially large parks. Among these areas are the following: PARKS CITY OF BOSTON PARK DEPARTMENT RESIDENCE AREAS NOT PROVIDED WITH PARKS OR PLAYGROUNDS WITHIN ONE QUARTER MILE ARTHUR. A SHUR.TLEFF-LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT II BEACON STREET-BOSTON MASS I9ZS LEGEND RESIDENCE AREAS NEEDING OUNOS LARGE CEMETER.IES INSTITUTIONS PLATE No. 9 DARK AREAS ARE EITHER PROVIDED WITH PARKS AT PRESENT OR ARE ZONED FOR OTHER THAN RESIDENTIAL USE In the original report a plan map showing the location of the schools was printed on thin paper and super- imposed over the above map so that the relation between schools and suggested park areas could be studied. GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 43 i. Botanical Gardens. These are areas devoted to the propagation, culture and display of plant life. They are intended primarily to serve as sources of information on plant life for the general public, to provide aesthetic enjoyment and to serve as a laboratory for the scientific study of plants. As such laboratories they may become of great value from the economic standpoint. They may be located in large landscaped parks, as in South Park, Buffalo, or may occupy areas used exclusively for botanical gardens, as in Washington, D. C. (National Botanic Garden), or St. Louis (Shaw Botanical Garden). The question whether botanical gardens should be located in large parks or in areas devoted entirely to garden purposes is debatable. It is suggested, however, that a garden set apart from all other park areas estab- lishes a special identity in the minds of the people, and that as a result greater educational-recreational values can be derived therefrom than if located in some large park where the minds of the people would be divided among several different attractive features. The educational-recreational value of botanical gardens cannot be overestimated. Far too littje attention has in general been given the devel- opment of such areas by park authorities in this country. It is a feature that even comparatively small park systems might practically develop. Botanical gardens should be rated among the very important features of any park system and their use as actively promoted and organized as is that of playgrounds, playfields and community centers. No principle governs their size, which may range from a very few acres to several hundreds of acres, depending on the variety and numbers of each variety of plants cultivated. Primary considerations in their loca- tion are atmospheric conditions, qualities and conditions of soil, and acces- sibility to the public. 2. Arboretums. An arboretum is a botanical garden devoted exclu- sively to the culture, care and display of shrubbery, plants and trees. As in the case of the botanical garden, its primary purposes are the general education of the public as to these types of plant life, an enjoyable and profitable source for the use of leisure, ajid its service as a laboratory for the scientific study of shrubs and trees. Growing out of the scientific culture and study may come results of great economic importance to the locality, state and nation. The few genuine arboretums in this country are located either in general botanic gardens or occupy a specific area devoted exclusively to the purpose. In point of fact any landscaped or naturalistic park con- tains some of the elements of an arboretum. There is no general principle governing their size. A very large variety of shrubs and trees can be grown 44 PARKS on a very few acres if only one, or at the most a few of each variety are used. However, in order to get the best results the area used for an arbo- retum should comprise several hundred acres. Primary consideration in location would include atmospheric conditions, qualities and conditions of soil, topography and accessibility. 3. Zoological Parks. These are areas devoted to the care and dis- play of specimens of the animal kingdom. The reasons for their inclusion in a park system are to be found in the intimate association in nature between animal and plant life, the never-failing interest and curiosity that people have in animals and the evident enjoyment derived from viewing and studying them. To the scientific student of animal life the zoological park is a laboratory. To the art student it is the source of many interesting models. Zoos are generally to be found in medium-sized or large landscaped parks, but a few occupy areas devoted exclusively to zoo purposes, as in Washington, D. C. (the National Zoological Park); Cincinnati, Ohio; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the new zoo in Detroit, and the new zoo for the city of Chicago. The tendency is toward setting aside specific areas for zoos separate and apart from other types of park properties. There is no standard as to size. A small exhibit of native animals or a few specimens of exotic animals kept in a menagerie-like fashion would occupy only a very small space. A small zoo, however, developed along naturalistic lines, especially if it includes grazing animals, may occupy many acres. Zoos developed naturalistically (the only way any zoo should be developed), with a large collection of both native and foreign specimens, would occupy anywhere from fifty acres upwards. The Bronx Zoo in New York comprises two hundred and sixty-four acres of land and water. The location of a zoo involves consideration of good atmospheric conditions, topography, adequate space, and accessibility by means of good motor roads, trolley or rapid transit lines. VII. MISCELLANEOUS AREAS In many' park systems there are areas used for sites of structures of various kinds, the structure being the primary features and often covering the entire area. They may be for recreational, or educational-recreational or utilitarian purposes. Among these types of areas are the following: i. Sites for Bath and Swimming Centers. Before the development of modern school buildings with shower baths and swimming pools, and of the modern recreation movement with numerous swimming centers, munic- ipal authorities throughout the country, especially in the larger cities, were quite active in establishing bathhouses both as a health and conven- GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 45 ience measure. With the widening scope of activities of park and recreation departments many of these areas and structures were turned over to such authorities for operation and management. Thus some of the properties of this type have been inherited by park authorities. In other instances, in order to meet the need for facilities of this char- acter in congested centers of population, park authorities of their own initiative have acquired sites and erected structures, generally combining both shower bath and swimming facilities. Buffalo, New York City, Phila- delphia, Chicago and Boston are a few of the cities where areas of this type are under the control of park and recreation governing authorities. The necessity for areas and structures of this character is chiefly con- fined to those sections of cities having a high density of population. 2. Sites for Community Houses. An ideal location for a community house is in a playfield-park; in fact a community house is considered an essential feature of a fully developed playfield area. While there are hun- dreds of community houses publicly owned throughout the United States on sites separate and apart from the common types of park properties, especially in the small municipalities, examples of such structures on indi- vidual sites u,nder the control of park and recreation authorities are exceed- ingly few. It is a form of development to which park and recreation authorities as community-wide recreation agencies may well give serious consideration, especially in congested sections of cities where high realty values prohibit acquisition of playfield areas and the erection of community houses thereon, but where it might be possible to secure a building site upon which to locate a community house for the indoor recreations of the people. In the better residential sections, a community house is a most valuable social-recreation asset even if not located on a playfield property, although it is more desirable wherever possible to combine on the same site both outdoor and indoor recreation facilities. In lieu of actual ownership of sites for structures providing indoor recreation facilities and of ownership of the structures themselves by park and recreation authorities, these authorities, as the major agencies for handling community recreation, will of necessity have to make use of facili- ties owned or controlled by other public agencies or private associations or corporations. This cooperative use of facilities owned by other agencies is practiced to an extensive degree by recreation authorities in Buffalo, Detroit, Oakland, and many other cities throughout the country.1 1 There is considerable confusion in terminology with respect to structures providing indoor recreation facilities or services. Thus field house, recreation center and community house are often used interchangeably. Field house in this book will be denned as a structure providing the necessary facilities needed in connection with athletic fields or other sports and games centers. A community house is a structure providing facilities for a wide variety of activities for both children and adults. Recreation center as used to refer to a building is practically synonymous with community house. The term is sometimes used to refer to an entire area, inclusive of the building. 46 PARKS S s w llil1 , 1 OJ Cfl GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 47 3. Sites for Museums of Various Types. There are numerous exam- ples of museums of art, of natural history, and of natural science, located in public parks throughout the country. Most of them are in large parks where spacious landscaped areas provide a fitting setting for the style of architecture which these structures usually affect. They are not always in these parks because the original design provided for them, or park authori- ties particularly wanted them, but because the officials and friends of the associations backing and controlling the museums desired to use park spaces as sites and were powerful enough to put their plans into execution. Functionally, however, there is such close harmony between the services rendered by these institutions and the aims and purposes of the park move- ment as to warrant their location in parks. The question might be raised whether it would not be better in many instances to locate them on sites used exclusively for this purpose rather than to place them in large land- scaped parks. For the widest use these institutions should be located as near as possible to the center of the daily congregation of the people. This is not always accomplished by locating them in large parks; moreover, their introduction in such parks opens the door for the bringing in of other structures, perhaps equally as worthy, but which by their multipli- cation would in time more or less destroy the original design and purpose of the park. The example set by Kansas City and by Minneapolis, where individual areas have been set aside by the park authorities as sites, is, on the whole, worthy of emulation by other cities. 4. Sites for Utilitarian Purposes. Because of the difficulty in fitting barns, yards, shops and storehouses into landscape designs, some park authorities have provided special areas for such utilitarian purposes. As a practical matter it would often be more desirable to have such an area centrally located as a radiating point from which to work than to have them located in various park properties or in one park property not cen- trally located. VIII. CEMETERIES In practically every section of the United States there are examples of cemeteries under the control of park departments. It requires a consid- erable stretch of the imagination to say that a public cemetery has any of the attributes of a public park, but from some points of view they do per- form some of the functions of parks. They admit sunlight and free air, provide places for people to walk about and rest, and furnish many pleasant landscape features in the form of lawns, flowers, shrubs, trees and delightful vistas. Some of the public cemeteries throughout the country, in point of 48 PARKS landscape beauty, rival the most beautiful of landscaped public parks. The plan of designing cemeteries whereby the conventional monu- ments are forbidden and only plain slabs or small stones sunk to a level of the ground are allowed, makes possible still more beautiful landscape treatment of these areas. This plan is slowly coming into vogue in some sections of the country. IX. STREETS Streets, as such, cannot properly be classed as units of a park system, but in many municipalities the park department is responsible for street planting, the care of trees and of parked areas along streets. From the standpoint of play of children, streets always have been, and very likely always will be, in large cities, important areas of play. Many community recreation systems have made organized use of streets as playgrounds, safeguarding them not only by supervision but also by temporarily barring from traffic the areas used under special authority from the city council or the chief of police. SECTION II FIRST STEPS IN PLANNING A PARK SYSTEM The process of determining which of the types of unit elements dis- cussed in the preceding section any given administrative area (munici- pality, metropolitan district, county) should have, and the number, location and the individual sizes of each type desired, constitutes the preliminary and basic step in planning a park system. This section is limited to a brief consideration of this phase of park planning together with some notes on putting a plan into execution when once formulated. Those phases of planning which relate to the design and construction of individual areas are considered in subsequent chapters. SOME PRINCIPLES INVOLVED IN FIRST STEPS IN PARK PLANNING 1. The allocation of areas for recreation (parks, playgrounds, neigh- borhood playfield-parks and similar areas) must be considered an integral and fundamental part of general city planning. Areas for recreation cannot be considered apart from the uses of land for streets and trans- portation (land and water); for housing (numbers and distribution of population); and from the probable growth and movement of population, the location and distribution of industrial and commercial establishments, and the number and location of institutions of different kinds, such as sites for schools and sites for other public and private-public institutions. 2. The plan should take under consideration not only present needs but also the estimated needs twenty-five to fifty years hence. GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 49 3. Every unit selected in the system should be chosen with a view to its usefulness for one or more specific services. 4. The areas selected should be well balanced with respect to func- tional services. A few large parks connected by boulevards and parkways do not constitute a system in the modern sense; neither would a complete plan of children's playgrounds and neighborhood playfield-parks alone con- stitute a park system in the modern sense. The plans should give due con- sideration to all the different types of areas that experience has shown to be necessary to meet the needs of specific groups of people and to areas that meet the needs of the people in general. Lack of adherence to this prin- ciple, coupled with past neglect of proper planning, has brought about the badly balanced systems so frequently found in American communities today. Without this balance among such basic areas as children's playgrounds, neighborhood playfield-parks, intown parks, large parks, reservations and boulevards and parkways, any general principle, such as the allocation of one acre for every hundred inhabitants in any given community, is prac- tically meaningless. Thus a given city might have a total park acreage of such size that the ratio would be one acre to every fifty inhabitants, and yet the actual recreational resources for the children and young people would be very low, were the property, for example, all in one large area too far removed from the majority of the homes of the people to be of daily use to the children and young people. Likewise the principle that a certain percentage of any given administrative area — for example, ten per cent, twelve and a half per cent or twenty per cent — should be set aside for parks, should be used with a great deal of reservation partly for the reasons stated above, but chiefly because there is no constant ratio in American political units between population and the area within political bound- aries. Thus one city may have a population of seventy tho'usand within incorporated limits of one square mile, while another city with approxi- mately the same number of inhabitants may have incorporated limits of ten, or thirty or even ninety square miles. 5. To ensure the securing of a plan which will take into account all of these elements and principles, it is important that a study of needs and resources be made. Such a study, and the laying down of the plan, should be done by someone who is not only thoroughly trained in the art and science of modern park planning but who is also fully conversant with the principles of community planning. This principle is so important for both large and small communities that it might well take precedence over all others stated. 50 PARKS CONSIDERATIONS ENTERING INTO THE STUDY In incorporating these general principles into a comprehensive park plan for a community there are many elements to be considered, and study must proceed along several lines before it is possible to vision the com- munity-wide plan. Among these considerations are the following: Topographical Features. A more or less detailed knowledge of the chief topographical features of a community is fundamentally important for the reason that these features frequently determine the location of cer- tain types of park and recreation properties, such as scenic parks, large landscaped parks, forest reservations, parkways and boulevards. Not infrequently they influence the location of playgrounds and playfields. These features also influence the location quality and character of the homes of the people, the location of industrial plants and transportation systems, and cause all too frequently an unwholesome mixture of resi- dential, industrial and transportation properties. A good topographical map is a prime necessity in planning any community, urban or rural. Population Studies. It is of the greatest importance that detailed information be secured on the population history of the community, including the rate of growth, probable future growth, distribution of the population throughout the community, the trend of movement of the pop- ulation, the numbers in each age and sex group, and the composition of the population as to nationality and character of occupations. These facts are important because the types of properties, number and approximate size of each type and their location and distribution are based very largely on this data. Transportation. In planning a system of parks a thorough study of the transportation situation of the community is necessarily involved. Large parks and active recreation areas designed to draw large crowds must have good transportation facilities to them. Large parks, however, should not be so located or shaped in such a manner as to interfere seri- ously with major traffic lines, neither should major traffic lines run through them if it can possibly be avoided. Children's playgrounds should, if pos- sible, be so located that the children need not cross main traffic ways to reach them. Boulevards and parkways should be properly integrated with the major street system, permitting of ready entry into the heart of the city or exit to the suburbs and the open country or to large parks, or they may be so planned as to provide a system of pleasure driveways encircling the city and connecting the larger park units. GENERAL PLANNING OF A PARK SYSTEM 51 Knowledge of Existing Park and Recreation Facilities Important. The study should include a detailed record of all existing publicly-owned open spaces, whether controlled by the school board, park board or any other civil division of the municipal or county government. Account should also be taken of recreation areas controlled by the state or Federal Government within the vicinity of the community. It can be stated almost as an axiom in planning that few, if any, com- munities in America are actually using to the maximum possible limit the public recreation resources available. While some attention should be given to areas and facilities provided by the people through their own initiative, or by persons for commercial purposes, it is doubtful whether these privately-owned areas or facilities will vitally affect the need for a thoroughgoing system of publicly-owned park and recreation areas. Zoning. One of the most important factors that has been introduced into laying down a plan for recreation areas in communities is zoning. Zoning may be defined as the outlining of a set of agreements as to the primary use or uses of different sections composing the total area of a city, and the fixing of these agreements legally by ordinance. Through fixing the use or uses to which different sections of a community may be put there is introduced a factor of certainty and stability in planning a park system that earlier planners did not enjoy. In the first place the planner can be reasonably sure that certain sections will be used for residential purposes and he will further know the probable congestion of these resi- dential sections. This vastly simplifies the problems of the planner with respect to selection of sites for future local recreation areas and at the same time stabilizes the continued usefulness of such areas after they have been acquired and developed. Those are factors of such importance that the zoning of a city and the enactment of a zoning ordinance ought really to be made an initial step in planning a park and recreation system, espe- cially with reference to areas primarily of local use and significance. With respect to such areas as stadiums, highly developed athletic fields and bathing beaches, zoning may not be of such fundamental importance, for it is conceivable that they might possibly be located and successfully con- ducted in regions zoned for industrial or commercial purposes, providing topographical conditions, central location and good transportation facili- ties were desirable. General Social Conditions. It is now generally admitted that parks and other recreation areas, properly equipped and managed, are important factors in the promotion and maintenance of health, nervous stability and higher standards of conduct among the people. A more or less detailed PARKS § 8 I4>387- Area within incorporated limits, 4,250 acres. Park Areas: There are four park areas with a total acreage of 818 acres or one acre to approximately every 17 inhabitants. The areas of the properties are 8, 10, 125, and 675 acres respectively. The two last men- tioned properties are practically one area. In these two properties there are three lakes (25, 50, and 100 acres respectively) and a water raceway one mile long and with an average width of 20 feet. In these two prop- erties there are: one band stand; two rustic wood shelter houses 40 feet square; one public comfort station; two tennis courts; 30 acres landscaped; one private canoe concession house with storage for 315 canoes; one large old dwelling; three picnic places provided with 20 tables and 80 benches; swimming facilities; five miles of gravel roadway; six miles of footpaths; five miles of bridle paths. The ten-acre properties are chiefly covered with trees but has one baseball field with a small set of bleachers. The eight-acre property has one ball field, but is chiefly covered with a fine growth of trees. Plans are under way for construction of a municipal golf course, athletic field and children's playground in the largest of the properties mentioned above. The John- son Reeves Playground of two acres is a public play- ground but owned and operated by the Bridgton Play- ground Association. The property was a gift of a public spirited citizen at a cost of $13,500 — land and improve- ments. School Areas: There are seven school sites with a gross total of 17.05 acres and a free play space of ap- proximately 14 acres. Of the gross acreage 12 acres are in the senior high school ground which has a six-acre athletic field. GLENDALE, CALIFORNIA Population in 1920, 13,536. Estimated population, 1925, 21,290. Total area within incorporated limits, 16.83 square miles or 10,771.01 acres. Park Properties: The park properties comprise four separate areas of .75 of an acre, 3 acres, 8 acres, and 800 acres, respectively, or a total of 811.75 acres all within the city limits. This gives a ratio of park area to population, based on 1925 estimate, of one acre to approximately every 26 persons. School Sites: There are twelve grade schools with sites as follows: 4.15, 4, 5, 4.5, 2.5, 4.3, 3.5, 4.2, 3.9,! 3.8, 3, 4.6 acres respectively. Such a layout of school areas should provide very amply for the play needs of the children. There are two high school sites of 7.5 and 20 acres respectively. In 1925 plans were under way for the development of six new school sites, five of which would provide an average of three acres of free play space at each school and one would have seven acres of free play space. Three of the present sites were to have increases total- ing 3.75 acres. Other Properties: This city is located within easy reach of huge national forest reservations, and some state and county recreation areas. GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA Population, 1920, 19,861. Estimated population, 1925, 47,132. By reason of its extraordinary growth Greensboro belongs within the group of cities follow- ing, but because the 1920 census has been used as the basis for all groupings and general calculations, has been retained in the group it belonged in 1920. Park Areas: The park system of Greensboro com- prised up to the middle of 1926 a total of 377 acres with 490 acres more in process of acquisition. The properties actually possessed included the following areas: a neighborhood park of 10 acres; a neighborhood park of 20 acres; colored park of 20 acres; stadium site of 17 GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING 81 acres; and a continuous series of tracts along Buffalo Creek running through the city of 3 10 acres. Few small cities have as comprehensive park plans as does Greens- boro. School Sites: The school sites of Greensboro comprise the following areas: .25 of an acre; .5 of an acre; 3, 7, 9, 10, 12, 12, 15, 17, 75 acres respectively (1925), or a total of 160.75 acres. As is readily seen the majority of these provide not only amply for children's play- grounds but also may serve as neighborhood playfield- parks. Other Properties: There are in the city and within a radius of 10 miles of the city 29 different properties owned and controlled by private institutions, such as private schools and colleges, real estate companies, industrial and commercial concerns, country clubs, fair associations. These properties, totaling 2,404 acres, are all used more or less for recreational purposes. The majority of them have water acreage, five have swim- ming pools and nearly all of them are equipped with clubhouses. Few cities are so lavishly provided with public and private facilities for all manner of outdoor recreations as is this thriving city of North Carolina. The park and driveway system of Great Falls, Montana, is an excellent example of original planning by the town site company followed by con- tinuous expansion of the system as the community grew. The total area within the incorporated limits of the city is 8.1 square miles or 5,218 acres. The population in 1920 was 24,121. The estimated population in 1925 was 27,000. The total area of the park system, exclusive of 37 miles of boulevard driveways, was, in 1925, 686.77 acres. Based on the 1920 census there is one acre of park property to approximately every 35 inhabitants. PLATE No. 19. GENERAL MAP OF THE PARK SYSTEM OF GREAT FALLS, MONTANA Parks and driveways shown in heavy black. 82 PARKS The selection of properties as to size and location has been admirably planned. The system comprises 17 properties exclusive of the 37 miles of boulevard driveways. These properties include six large parks of 48.5, 60, 100, 100.8 and 240 acres, respectively, distributed at strategic points both within and without the city limits; five neighborhood playfield-parks com- prising 5, 5, 8.1, 10, and 14 acres, respectively; six neighborhood squares, each 2.5 acres. The courthouse square of 2.5 acres adds a seventh to the list of neighborhood parks. In addition to the park area there are ten school sites comprising 13.85 gross acres. The total area within the incorporated limits of Eau Claire is 16.5 PLATE No. 20 GENERAL MAP OF THE PARK SYSTEM OF EAU CLAIRE, WISCONSIN GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING 83 square miles, or 10,560 acres. The population in 1920 was 20,906. Esti- mated population in 1925 was 22,375. The total park area comprised (1926) 361.8 acres. There was one acre of park property to every 61 inhabitants, based on the 1925 population estimate. The park system includes 14 properties owned by the city and one small bathing beach property leased by the city. The large parks include two properties of 115 and 172.4 acres, respectively. There are two lesser properties that in some respects serve as large parks. These comprise 19.5 and 20 acres, respectively. Two small waterfront properties of 10 and 14.3 PLATE No. 21 OUTLINE MAP OF THE PARK AND RECREATION SYSTEM OF LA CROSSE, WISCONSIN (See page 85 for descriptive matter.) 84 PARKS acres; five properties of the neighborhood park class, 1.5, 1.6, 1.6, 2, and 2.8 acres, respectively; two small triangles and a parked site of a municipal auditorium complete the present layout of the system. Other public prop- erties possessing to some extent a parklike character include a courthouse square of one acre and a water department property of 30 acres. In addition to the park properties and other public properties of a parklike character there are u school sites comprising 10.9 acres, of which 7.9 acres are free play space. This would appear to be inadequate provision for the outdoor play of the school children. This inadequacy is remedied in some instances by use of neighborhood squares adjacent to schools. Private properties of a recreational character include a country club of 83 acres and several commercial recreation centers of which the area of the properties was not reported. Among other cities in this group especially worthy of note are Boulder, Colorado, with 16 properties totaling 6,000.66 acres; Casper, Wyoming, with 9 properties and 780.25 acres; Burlington, Iowa, with 529.75 acres in 7 properties; Ithaca, New York, with 12 properties totaling 340.5 acres. It is often true that many cities with less acreage than those specifically mentioned may be equally efficiently or even better provided with outdoor recreation resources because their properties may have been better selected from the viewpoint of functional uses and more advantageously distributed. A large gross acreage does not always mean efficient park planning. The use of areas for outdoor recreation not comprised in the actual park systems is another noteworthy feature of the recreational resources of many of these communities, a condition which appears as well in connection with communities in all the different population groups. Thus Vicksburg, Missis- sippi, which has 219 acres in 9 park properties, municipally owned, is almost surrounded by the National Military Park of 1,322 acres, beside having a courthouse park, a fairground of 75 acres and a country club. Other instances of such additional recreational resources have been cited in pre- vious examples given. A considerable number of cities in this group have had the foresight to have definite plans made for their park and recreation systems by skilled city and park planners, a step that is strongly recom- mended to all others that have not done so. Group V. Cities Having a Population of from 25,000 to 50,000. In 1920 there were 143 such urban communities, with a total popula- tion of 5,075,041, or 4.8 per cent of the total population of the country. In 1910 the total population of this group represented 4.4 per cent of the total population of the nation. Reports were received from 134 of the 143 GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING 85 cities, or 93.7 per cent of the total number of cities. Of the 134 cities reported, 133 were reported as having parks and one without parks. The 133 cities were stated to have 30,129.57 acres of parks exclusive of 357.25 acres in township parks in the vicinity of two cities in the group. This represents an average of 226.6 acres per city. Taking 37,50*0 as an average population of this group of cities in connection with the average number of acres per city, the average ratio of park acreage to population would be one acre to approximately every 165 inhabitants. Selecting twenty cities of this group as most adequately provided with park areas, the reports showed a total population (1920) of 739,201; a total park area of 13,729.48 acres; total number of park properties, 261; total average number of acres per city, 686.47; and the average number of properties per city approximately 13. The ratio of park acreage to popu- lation for the entire group is one acre to every 53 inhabitants. These statistics show, in general, a far more ample provision for out- door recreation in these small cities than in any single city in the United States with a population approximately the same or larger than the aggre- gate population of these twenty small cities. However, the total number of acres per community in the twenty cities is three times the average number of acres per city for the entire group of 133 cities. This indicates that general park planning has not proceeded evenly throughout the entire group. This unevenness is still further shown by the fact that the 20 cities, while only 15 per cent of the total number of cities reported as having parks, have about 45 per cent of the total park area of the 133 cities. Nineteen of these 20 cities had a total of 917.01 acres in school sites, and there were 300 different school sites. The average number of school sites per city was between 17 and 18, and the average number of acres per community was 48.2. A FEW EXAMPLES IX DETAIL OF PARK, SCHOOL SITE AND OTHER OUTDOOR RECREATION AREAS IN CITIES OF THIS GROUP LA CROSSE, WISCONSIN appointed by the donor. This park is endowed and is The population of La Crosse in 1920 was 30,421. used by the public as a public park. The area of the city is 9.943 square miles or 6,364.8 acres. If this were added to the above as it should be the Public Parks, 1925: The park areas under public total park acreage would be 778.7, and the ratio of park control in 1925 comprised 16 properties totaling 518.7 acreage to population would be one acre to every 37 acres. The areas of these properties are as follows: inhabitants. .2, 1.2, 1.3, 1.3, 3, 3, 5, 7, 10, 14, 17, 37, 40, 67.5, 70, School Sites: Nine primary schools have a total of 240 acres. There was in addition a park of 40 acres 13.5 acres or an average of approximately 1.5 acres per the ownership of which by the city was in question. school. The junior high school has a site of four acres Total area of parks without the 40 acres, 518.7 acres and the senior high school a site of 4.7 acres. The total or one acre to every 58 inhabitants. With the 4O-acre area of free play space for all the schools is 17.8 acres, park added the ratio would be one acre to every 54 Six of the schools are equipped with gymnasium, and inhabitants. See page 83 for illustration. the high school has a swimming pool. All the primary Private Public Park: There is one large park of 260 school grounds are equipped with playground apparatus acres privately owned but under a special park board and have facilities for playing organized games such as 86 PARKS OUTLINE MAP LAHOMA CITY PARK SYSTEM PLATE No. 22. OUTLINE MAP OF OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA Showing location of park and school site areas. (For description see page 91.) GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING basket ball, volley ball and playground baseball, etc., and the high schools have athletic fields. Other Public Properties: These include State Normal campus comprising 7.5 acres. State park within fifteen miles of city comprising 300 acres. County court house park of two acres. Several county picnic parks through- out the county equipped with tables, benches, toilets, water. City water department lands comprising 130 acres. Facilities in Public Parks for Active Recreation: Four parks have children's playgrounds. There are three basket ball courts; four regulation baseball diamonds; nine playground baseball diamonds; two football fields; six horseshoe courts; one running track; two soccer fields; two tennis courts; five volley ball courts; three skating rinks; one golf course of nine holes privately controlled; one shooting range; one bathing beach; 1.5 miles of footpaths; 3.25 miles of driveways. Service and comfort facilities include: two grand stands seating 2,200 and 4,800 respectively; one band stand; one refreshment stand; one shelter house; one shop; one storehouse; four toilet buildings; one auto- mobile tourist camp; 362 benches. The game courts and fields on both public and private property include five regulation baseball diamonds; five football fields; 12 tennis courts; 14 basket ball courts; 17 playground baseball diamonds (soft ball); one run- ning track; n volley ball courts; six horseshoe courts. COUNCIL BLUFFS, IOWA Population, 1920, 36,162. Estimated population, 1925, 39,795. Area of the city, 16.5 square miles, or 10,560 acres. Park Areas: The park system of the city comprises 15 separate properties, counting the boulevards as one property, with a total area of 972.61 acres, or one acre to every 40 inhabitants. The area of the individual properties is as follows: .10, 1.6, 2.15, 2.5, 2.58, 3, 3, 3.6, 4.5, 6, 90, 102, 270, 444 acres respectively. The boulevards comprise 37.58 acres. All of these properties are located within the incor- porated limits of the city with the exception of the park of 102 acres which is outside about four miles. SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA Population of the city, 1920, 39,642. Estimated pop- ulation, 1925, 43,551. Total area of the city, 6.8 square miles or 4,352 acres. Park Areas: The park system of San Jose comprises 659.42 acres or one acre to every 66 inhabitants. There are nine properties the areas of which are as follows: .13, .43, 2.23, 2.23, 3.2, 3.2, 8, 13, and 627 acres respectively. The large park is located five miles out- side the city limits. This system is not well balanced as there should be more larger intown properties of the neighborhood playfield-park type of property. School Sites: There are 16 school properties, which may be classified according to size as follows: No. Sites Area Acres I I.O 2 6 5-2 22.1 5 2 25.7 21.0 "l6 75-o 1 to 2 acres 2 to 3 acres 3 to 5 acres 5 to 8 acres 10 to 12 acres Totals Other Available Recreation Areas: Within a radius of thirty miles of the city the state owns three properties totaling 14,626 acres, and within twelve miles the county owns a park of 200 acres. Within a radius of approximately 35 miles there are nine privately owned recreation places providing picnicking facilities, camp- ing, hunting and fishing. Four of these properties total 1,638 acres. DECATUR, ILLINOIS Population, 1920, 43,818. Estimated population, 1925, 53,859. Area of the city, 9.37 square miles or 5,996.80 acres. Park Areas: The park system of Decatur is under the control of a District Park Commission, the jurisdiction of which extends over a territory larger than the city of Decatur proper. The park properties comprise the following areas: 2, 2, 18, 19, 20, 22, 45, 83, 138, 172 acres respectively and various tracts along Lake Decatur totaling 210 acres. The grand total of all park properties is 731 acres, or one acre to about every 73 inhabitants. Of these properties 383 acres are located within the city limits and 348 acres outside the city limits. Lake Decatur, in the near vicinity of the city, is a magnificent body of water 14 miles long, approxi- mately one-half of a mile wide and contains 4,000 acres. School Sites: There are 18 school sites with a gross area of 57.9 acres. The majority of these sites are too small to provide adequate play space, but the following grounds have acreage areas: 4, 5, 8, 8, 20 acres respec- tively. All these are grade schools and newer schools in- dicating an admirable policy of securing larger grounds. Other Recreation Areas: There are four country clubs having areas totaling 480 acres, and an athletic field of eight acres provided by one of the largest manu- facturing companies. This has a grand stand seating 4,000. It is used by the town baseball teams and by the high school athletic association. PASADENA, CALIFORNIA Population of city in 1920, 45,354. Estimated popu- lation, 1925, 56,732. Total area of the city, 20 square miles or 12,800 acres. Park Areas: The park and recreation system of Pasadena comprises 15 separate properties totaling 1,001.05 acres or one acre to every 56 inhabitants. The size of the park areas is as follows: .86 of an acre, 1.25, 2.6, 3.1, 3.4, 4, 5.53, 6.6, 8, 9, 9.53, 13, 22.46, 67.03, 334.03, 516.26 acres respectively. This appears to be a very good distribution as between neighbor- 88 PARKS hood parks, or neighborhood playfield-parks and large As can readily be seen from the table, the large properties. majority of these sites provide amply for playgrounds School Sites: The school sites classified according to for children and some of them are large enough td size are as follows: vr ?• Total Acres Prov'^e sPace for neighborhood playfields. Other Available Recreation Areas: National Forest From I to 2 acres 4 5.50 . „ Reservations, county park 01 over 5,000 acres, beach From 2 to 3 acres 6 J4-25 . f • • ? i „ resorts, etc., are within easy reach of the people of the From 3 to 5 acres 25.50 / .-. city. Ihere are three private golf courses totaling Over 5 acres 3 15.00 „ approximated 450 acres, and two large private estates- From 10 to 20 acres 5 74.00 f^_ totalling 450 acres which are at times open to the Over 20 acres I 40.00 public. Totals 26 I74-25 Other cities in this group especially worthy of mention include Colo- rado Springs with 2,788.14 acres in 13 properties, exclusive of boulevards and parkways; Petersburg, Virginia, with 506.6 acres in 6 properties;. Meriden, Connecticut, with 1,344.5 acres in 5 properties; and Beaumont, Texas, with 689.4 acres in 13 properties. A considerable number of the cities are especially noteworthy because of the adequacy of their school site areas. Group VI. Cities Having a Population of from 50,000 to 100,000. These numbered, in 1920, 76 cities comprising 5,265,747 inhabitants, or 5 per cent of the total population of the nation. In 1910 the percentage of the total population was 4.5. Reports were received during the survey (1925-26) of 73 of the 76 cities in this group. The 73 cities were reported to have a total of 37,203.94 acres of park properties or an average of 509.64 acres per city. Taking 75,000 as an average population per city of this group, together with the average acreage per city, the average ratio of park property to population would be one acre to every 147 inhabitants. Fifteen cities were selected as most representative of this group because of the gross acreage of their park properties. The average gross acreage of these cities was 1,348.68 acres or 2.6 times the average for the entire group reporting parks. The average number of park properties per city for the 15 was between 21 and 22. While these 15 cities represent but 20 per cent of the total number of cities reported, they had 20,230.29 acres of the total of 37,203.94 acres, or 54 per cent of the total. The 15 had also in 1920 approximately 20 per cent of the total population of all the cities of this group. The lack of uniformity in planning is still further shown by the fact that ten cities, or only 13.6 per cent of the entire number reported, had 16,863.33 acres of the total of 37,203.94 acres of park properties, or 45 per cent. The population of the ten cities was in 1920 only 828,584. In 14 of the 15 cities mentioned above the average acreage of school GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING 89 sites per city was between 32 and 33. This amount of school site area per city if properly distributed ought to provide fairly amply for the play of the children from 5 to 14 years of age in those cities. A FEW EXAMPLES OF PARK AND SCHOOL SITE AREAS OF CITIES IN THIS GROUP SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA Population, 1920, 65,908. Estimated population, 1925, 72,260. Area of the city, 13.92 square miles or 8,908.8 acres. Park Areas: The park and recreation system of the city comprises 19 properties exclusive of municipal camp site in Federal Forest Reserve, totaling 1,185.99 acres. This is one acre to every 60 inhabitants. The size of the areas is shown by the following classifica- tion: Under I acre 1 to 2 acres 2 to 3 acres 7 acres 22.6 acres 32.0 acres 36.8 acres 236 acres 828 acres Totals EAST ST. Louis, ILLINOIS Population, 1920, 66,767. Estimated population, 1925, 71,423. Area of the city, 13 square miles, or 8,320 acres. Park Areas: There are 13 properties in the city's park system, totaling 1,355.5 acres. There is a small parked area about the city hall of .8 of an acre in addition. The size of these areas is shown by the following table: No. Properties Total Acres I to 2 acres 3 i-5 3 to 5 acres 2 2-5 5 to 10 acres 8 19-59 10 to 20 acres 7.00 25 acres 22.60 130 acres 32.00 Over 1,000 acres 36.80 Totals 236.00 828.00 The majority No. Properties Total Acres 2 3-o 3 IO.O I 7-5 4 50.0 I 25.0 I 130.0 i 1,130.0 13 1,355-5 19 1,185.99 To this total should be added an area of 35 acres in a Federal Forest Reserve used for a municipal camp site. Most of the smaller properties noted above are neigh- borhood parked squares which were laid out in the original plan of the city. School Sites: There are 21 different sites totaling 159.5 acres gross. The size of the sites is shown by the following table: No. Properties Under I acre I 1 to 2 acres I 2 to 3 acres 9 4 acres I 5 acres 3 6 acres 2 7 acres i 8 acres i 30 acres I 60 acres i dren's playgrounds during the summer months. The small areas are admirably distributed over the city. The large park of over a thousand acres immediately adjoins the city at its southeastern extremity. In fact the suburban area of the city in this direction is building around the park. School Sites: There are 29 school sites totaling 57.5 acres. The size of these areas is shown by the following table: Total Acres Under I acre •5 i to 2 acres i-5 2 to 3 acres 21.5 4-0 3 to 5 acres 6.5 acres 15.0 7 acres I2.O Totals 7.0 8.0 It is clearl; 30.0 60.0 equipped wit! it should ha\ No. Properties Total Acres 6 3-o 6 7-0 12 26.9 2 7-i I 6-5 I 7.0 29 57-5 Totals >59-5 Sacramento furnishes a fairly effective demonstration of the important principle in planning a community system of recreation areas, that the school sites should be large enough to provide for the children's playground areas and to some extent the neighborhood playfield areas. It is clearly apparent that the school system is not equipped with as much play space about the schools as it should have, which no doubt accounts for the fact that the District Park Commission has had to provide a considerable number of small areas which are used as children's playgrounds. Sioux CITY, IOWA Population, 1920, 71,227. Estimated population, 1925, 76,411. Area of the city, 46 square miles or 29,440 acres. 9o PARKS Park Areas: The park system of the city comprises 22 properties totaling 1,120.257 acres or one acre to every 68 inhabitants. These areas classified according to size are as follows: No. Properties 4 6 Under I acre 1 to 2 acres 2 to 5 to 10 to 20 to 50 to 5 acres 10 acres 20 acres 30 acres 70 acres 100 to 125 acres Over 800 acres Totals Total Acres 1.507 7.960 9.580 H7SO 45.410 52.770 66.840 120.440 801.000 1,120.257 School Sites: There are 33 school sites with a total gross area of 42.869 acres and an estimated free play space of 18.852 acres. Only five of the school sites (gross area) are over two acres, and only one has an estimated free play space of slightly over two acres. The school system is very inadequately provided with play space for the children. SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA Population, 1920,74,683. Estimated population, 1925, 106,047. Area of the city, 90 square miles or 57,600 acres. Park Areas: The park system of the city comprises 34 different properties totaling approximately 2,260 acres. This is one acre to about every 46 inhabitants. The areas classified according to size are as follows: No. Properties Total Acres Under I acre 15 4-825 I to 2 acres 6 7-840 2.5 acres I 2.500 3 acres i 3.000 5 to 10 acres 6 44-54O Slightly over 10 acres i 10.290 60 acres I 60.000 Slightly over loo acres i 116.900 Slightly over 600 acres i 610.000 Over 1,000 acres i 1,400.00 Totals 34 2,259,895 About 6 1 per cent of these properties are small and chiefly of use for adornment and for breathing spots. However, taken with the large school grounds the city appears to be fairly well provided with neighborhood playfield-park properties and large parks. School Sites: The school sites comprise 35 different properties totaling 145.2 acres, gross. These areas classified according to size are as follows: HOUSTON -TLXA5 MAP SHOWING PBISLNT AND PBOPOiLD S PLAYGROUNDS.! BOUUVARDS PLATE No. 23 MAP OF THE PRESENT AND PROPOSED EXTENSIONS OF THE PARK SYSTEM OF HOUSTON, TEXAS (Plan by Hare and Hare, Landscape Architects and City Planners, Kansas City, Missouri. See page 93.) GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING Under i acre 1 to 2 acres 2 to 3 acres 3 to 4 acres 4 acres 5 to 10 acres 10 acres 12 acres 17 acres Totals No. Properties Total Acres 2 .90 8 11.70 8 18.80 5 16.80 3 12.00 4 26.00 3 30.00 I 12.00 I 17.00 35 145.20 Nearly 50 per cent of these school sites are too small for efficient children's playgrounds after taking out building sites and areas for beautification. Other Areas Available for Recreation: Twenty miles outside the city is the beginning of the Cleveland National Forest of nearly 550,000 acres. About the same distance from the city is a 2O-acre county park suitable for picnicking. There are, of course, several pri%~ate golf clubs and organized camps, etc. TULSA, OKLAHOMA Population, 1920, 72,075. Estimated population, 1925, 124,478. Area of the city, 12 square miles or 7,680 acres. Park Areas: The park system of Tulsa comprises 23 different properties totaling 2,576.5 acres or about one acre to every 48 inhabitants. In addition there are about a dozen miscellaneous triangles totaling seven acres. The park areas arranged according to size are as follows: No. Properties Total Acres Under i acre 3 1.5 1 to 2 acres 3 4.5 2 to 4 acres 2 5.5 4 to 8 acres 8 38.0 10 to 20 acres 3 45.0 25 to 50 acres 2 67.0 200 to 220 acres I 215.0 Over 1,000 acres I 2,200.0 Totals 23 2,576.5 School Sites: There are 29 school sites with a gross area of 128.2 acres and an estimated free play area of 1 1 2. i acres. These areas classified according to size follow: No. Properties Total Acres 1 to 2 acres I 1.7 2 to 3 acres 8 17.5 3 to 4 acres 3 9.0 4 to 6 acres II 52.0 6 to 10 acres 3 18.0 10 acres 3 30.0 Totals 29 128.2 This layout of school sites ought to provide fairly amply for the play of the children from 5 to 14 years of age inclusively, and some of the areas are large enough for sports and games of older people. Other Areas: There are four privately controlled golf courses, two amusement parks, one professional ball park, and one fairground area of 240 acres. OKLAHOMA CITY, OKLAHOMA The area of the city comprises 17.9 square miles (1925) or 11,456 acres. The population in 1920 was 91,295. The estimated population (1924) was 104,080. Park Areas: The total park area comprised 2,248 acres in 1925. A classification of these areas as to size No. Areas Total Area 4 follows : Under I acre i to 3 acres 3 to 5 acres 5 to 10 acres 10 to 25 acres 25 to 50 acres 50 to loo acres loo to 200 acres Over 600 acres (620,800) Totals 2.3 6.0 16.9 13.8 113.0 113.0 70.0 488.0 1,420.0 31 2,243.0 To the grand totals should be added five acres in miscellaneous parkway strips, also 26 miles of un- improved boulevards connecting the outer parks, area not reported. School Sites: A classification of the school sites as to size follows: Under I acre 1 to 2 acres 2 to 3 acres 3 to 5 acres 5 acres and over Totals No. Areas Total Area 4 2.0 7 8.5 18 42.0 10 32.0 6 33-5 45 118.0 TACOMA, WASHINGTON Population, 1920, 96,965. Estimated population, 1925, 104,455. Area of the city, 43.63 square miles or 27,923.20 acres. Park Areas: The park area of Tacoma comprises 21 different properties totaling 1,253.68 acres. This is approximately one acre to every 80 inhabitants. The areas classified according to size are as follows: No. Properties Total Acres Under I acre 2 l.oo i to 2.5 acres 2 3.15 10 to 15 acres 6 61.91 15 to 25 acres 2 38.40 25 to 50 acres 3 105.68 50 to 75 acres I 60.30 Over 300 acres (339.34; 637.9) _2_ 977-H Totals 18 1,247.68 There are in addition three small street parking strips totaling six acres. School Sites: Fifty school areas were reported (1925- 26) totaling 200.265 acres. A classification of these areas according to size follows: 92 PARKS Under i acre 1 to 2 acres 2 to 3 acres 3 to 4 acres 4 to 5 acres 6 to 10 acres 10 to II acres inclusive 60 acres and over Totals No. Properties Total Acres 8 5-703 10 to 20 acres 17 28.413 20 to 50 acres 10 24.900 50 acres and over 6 20.447 Totals 2 8.178 4 3I-34I SPOKANE, WASHI: 2 21.083 Population of I 60.200 population, 1925, No. Sites 5 3 i Total Area 57463 78.220 57.000 295.063 200.265 FLINT, MICHIGAN Population, 1920, 91,599. Estimated population, 1925, 130,310. Total area within the city limits (1925) 18,985 acres. Park Properties: Flint has (1925) 30 different park and recreation properties under the control of the Park Department. As to size these properties may be classified as follows: No. Properties 3 Under i acre i acre to 5 acres 5 acres to 10 acres 10 acres to 25 acres 25 to 50 acres 50 to 100 acres 100 acres and over Totals 9 4 5 i 4 4 30 The properties have been well chosen both as to distribution and as to size. School Sites: Flint is especially distinguished by the number and size of its school sites. The majority of the sites are not only large enough to provide ample areas for children's playgrounds but to serve also as neighborhood playfield-parks. The following is a classification of the existing areas: Under I acre i to 3 acres 3 to 5 acres 5 to 10 acres No. Sites 3 8 ii 7 Total Area 1.674 15-744 42.603 42-359 city, 1922, 104,437. Estimated 897. Area of the city, 39.25 square miles or 25,120 acres. Park Areas: The park system of Spokane comprises 46 different properties totaling 2,218.01 acres. This is approximately one acre to every 50 inhabitants. The following table shows the distribution of the unit areas in the Spokane park and recreation system arranged according to size: No. Properties 2 troi 01 me Size Classification ties may be Under I acre i to 2 acres Total Area 2 to 3 acres •95 s J 3 to 5 acres 19.00 5 to 10 acres 26.00 10 to 25 acres 63.00 25 to 50 acres 37.00 50 to 75 acres 277.00 75 to 100 acres 637.00 100 to 250 acres 1,059-95 250 to 500 acres both as to Totals Total Acres 1.6 8.51 7.87 18.10 47.87 101.45 182.66 158.11 180.00 752.84 759-QO 2,218.01 From the viewpoint of size of properties and the dis- tribution of these properties over the total area of the ctiy, the Spokane park and recreation system is admira- bly planned and executed. There is hardly a part of the residential sections of the city that is not within walking distance of a park property, and the properties are for the most part of such size as to provide a wide range of recreation opportunities. The system is not burdened with a large number of small properties of the triangle and oval type. Much has been done also to preserve areas along the banks of the beautiful Spokane River which flows through the city. This generous allowance of play space might well be emulated by every municipality large or small throughout the United States. Group VII. Cities Having a Population of from 100,000 to 250,000. In 1920 this group comprised 43 communities with a total population of 6,519,187, or 6.2 per cent of the total population of the nation. In 1910 this percentage was 5.3. During the decade from 1910 to 1920 this group of cities made a more rapid growth in population than any other of the groups except Group IX (cities from 500,000 to 1,000,000). The 43 cities were reported to have a GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING 93 total park area of 40,869.79 acres, or an average of 950.46 acres per city. Only six of the cities had a gross park area under or approximate to every 100 inhabitants (Houston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Spokane, Salt Lake City, Springfield, Massachusetts). These six cities had 35 per cent of the total gross park area of the entire group, while their total population (1920) was only 11.5 per cent of the total population of the group. Nineteen cities (44.1 per cent of the group) having 1,000 acres and over of park properties had a total of 31,836.68 acres, or 77.8 per cent of the total park acreage of the group. The aggregate population of these 19 cities, 1920, was 3,139,962, or 48 per cent of the total population of the 43 cities. This indicates that, in general, the 24 remaining cities with 52 per cent of the total population of the group and only 22 per cent of the total park acreage are very inadequately provided with park area. Their inadequacy is still further emphasized by the fact that not all of the 9 cities are ade- quately provided with outdoor recreation areas. This plan is presented to illustrate the conception of one of the fore- most park and recreation planners in America of what a modern growing city of the size and prospects of Birmingham should have in park and recreation area. The existing park acreage at the time this plan was made (1924) comprised 687.40 acres. The proposed additions to existing parks totaled 177.75 acres. Proposed new parks within and near the city totaled IX TUNE MAP SHOWINT, PRESENT AND PROPOSED PARK AREAS WITHIN THE CITY PLATE Xo. 24. OUTLINE PLAN OF PROPOSED PARK SYSTEM FOR BIRMINGHAM (Olmsted Brothers, Landscape Architects.) 94 PARKS 2,828.75, making a grand total of 3,540.9 acres. The large outlying reserva- tions are not shown on this map. This system is especially admirable from the viewpoint of the volume of service that it renders to the people. There are 38 equipped playgrounds, which means that practically every section of the city is provided with a place for the children to play; there are 17 swimming-wading pools and one exceedingly large swimming center; 30 baseball diamonds; 45 tennis courts; 23 centers for outdoor moving pictures; and 4 golf courses, one junior and three adult courses. Two large outlying reservations are not shown on this map. These combined comprise 3,100 acres and provide excellent oppor- tunity for camping, picnicking, boating, fishing. Houston has made remarkable progress in the extension and develop- ment of its park and recreation system within recent years. The above plan is noteworthy in the extensive provisions for neighborhood playfield-park areas, in the redemption and preservation of the stream courses, in the system of parkways and in a ground system of cross city and encircling drives of which the parkways form an integral part. Additional large parks are to be added but are not shown on the map. Equally progressive is the policy of the School Board whereby, for all senior and junior high schools and for many of the grade schools as well, areas have been and are being acquired of sufficient size not only to provide very amply for the play and organized games needs of the children as stu- dents, but also to serve as neighborhood playfields in the general park and recreation system. Group Fill. Cities Having a Population of from 250,000 to 500,000. There were 13 such cities in 1920 with a total population of 4,540,838, or 4.3 per cent of the population of the entire country. In 1910 this per- centage was the same, or 4.3. The 13 cities in this group were reported to have a total of 37,516.25 acres of park properties of various types, or an average of 2,885.63 acres per community. Over ten thousand of this total acreage, however, was in the Denver Mountain Park System. The cities in the order of their gross park acreage, beginning with the city having the largest acreage and continuing in order to the city having the lowest, are as follows: (i) Denver; (2) Minneapolis; (3) Washington; (4) Kansas City, Mo.; (5) Cincinnati, Ohio; (6) Indianapolis, Ind.; (7) Portland, Ore.; (8) Seattle, Wash.; (9) New Orleans, La.; (10) Rochester, N. Y.; (11) Milwaukee, Wis.; (12) Jersey City, N. J.; (13) Newark, N. J. This arrangement does not credit Jersey City and Newark with the county park properties within their boundaries. The same group of cities arranged in the order of their population (1920), beginning with the largest and continuing in order to the smallest, GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING 95 Number School Sites 74 88 59 Total Park and School Site Area 12,032.51 2,455-53 are: (i) Milwaukee, Wis.; (2) Washington, D. C.; (3) Newark, N. J.; (4) Cincinnati, Ohio; (5) New Orleans, La.; (6) Minneapolis, Minn.; (7) Kansas City, Mo.; (8) Seattle, Wash.; (9) Indianapolis, Ind.; (10) Jersey City, N. J.; (n) Rochester, N. Y.; (12) Portland, Ore.; (13) Denver. This shows that so far as planning is concerned such planning as has been done has borne no special relation to the numbers of people to be served. The following is the complete list of the cities falling into this group as based on the census of 1920. Population Park Number School 1920 Area Parks Site Area 1. 'Denver, Col 256,491 11,764.87 236.0 2. 'Portland, Ore 258,288 2,181.36 55 274.17 3. Rochester, X. Y 295,750 1,771.86 31 205.6 4. 'Jersey City, N. J 298,103 85.90 20 5. 4Indianapolis, Ind 314,194 2,566.16 73 6. Seattle, Wash 315,312 2,144.56 130 7. 'Kansas City, Mo 324,410 3>237-67 69 8. Minneapolis, Minn 380,582 4,735-58 132^ 9. New Orleans, La 387,219 1,885.00 10. Cincinnati, Ohio 401,247 2,718.87 88 1 1. Newark, N. J 414,524 28.74 48 12. Washington, D. C 437,57! 3,424-5l 564 13. Milwaukee, Wis 457,147 1,001.16 49 1 Of the total park acreage 1,557.37 (42 different areas) acres are in the city park system and 10,239.14 acres in the Mountain Park System outside the city limits. 2 Area given includes four parks totaling 856.173 acres outside city limits. In addition there are 88 acres in a county park within city limits. 3 Within city limits are two country parks totaling 267.2 acres. 4 Exclusive of three state owned areas of 25.3 acres but under the control of the Park Department. 5 Exclusive of eight small properties the area of which was not reported. 6 Exclusive of no acres in Tidal Basin. The table shows for each city the population as of 1920, total park acreage, number of park properties, total school site acreage (where avail- able), number of school sites, and the total of park and school site acreage, together with special comments. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation System is one of the most out- standing systems in America from the standpoint of the number of acres, types of properties, distribution of properties, character of development and quality of maintenance. The following table shows the distribution of the properties according to size: Size Classification No. Properties Total Acres Under 5 acres 78 63.22 5 to 10 acres 15 110.578 10 to 25 acres 13 221.182 25 to 50 acres 8 277.979 50 to 75 acres 4 267.017 75 to TOO acres I 83.016 IOO to 250 acres 8 1,430-955 250 to 500 acres 3 1,080.073 500 to 1,000 acres 2 1,203.761 Tota Is 132 4,735-58 96 PARKS MAP AS TEXAS SHOMNC PUBLIC PARKS AND Sc WOOL / RiRKS PLATE No. 25. MAP OF THE PARK AND RECREATION SYSTEM OF DALLAS, TEXAS (See page 93.) GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING 97 Taking into consideration only those properties within the city limits or in close proximity to them, Minneapolis is the only city within this group that comes within the ratio of one acre to every hundred inhabitants. Denver, of course, if the mountain park system be included, far exceeds this ratio. The majority of the cities have had comprehensive plans made and in some instances supplementary plans have been made. There is a marked lack of comprehensive metropolitan area planning among the cities of this group. Denver, with its great system of mountain parks, has made marked advance in this respect, while Milwaukee is meet- ing this need through the development of a county park system. To some extent the county park systems in the vicinity of Newark and Jersey City are meeting this need. Every one of the cities is lacking in adequate provisions for children's playground and neighborhood playfield-park areas. Even Minneapolis, which has the most comprehensive system of municipally owned properties within easy reach of the people, needs additional neighborhood playfield- park areas. Washington, which has the largest number of individual prop- erties, is especially lacking in children's playground and neighborhood play- field-park areas. This system is an example of what a radial system of streets or avenues superimposed over a gridiron street plan does in creating a very large number of small properties which because of their size, and especially because of their location, contribute very little to the active recreation resources of the community. In most of these cities the school play areas, taken as a whole, are totally inadequate. It appears that the fields for intensive attention now and in the future in these cities lie in supplying the deficiencies in playground and neighbor- hood playfield-park areas and in planning a system of metropolitan areas. The children's playground area need should be a primary duty and responsibility of the various school boards in cooperation with the municipal authorities. The planning and providing of neighborhood playfield-park areas is a primary duty and responsibility of the municipal authorities in cooperation with the boards of education. The planning of a metropolitan system of areas and the securing of these areas is a primary function of the municipal authorities in cooperation with county authorities. However, it is more desirable to plan a metropolitan system on a district basis than upon a county basis for the reason that often it is necessary to go outside the limits of a county in which a given city is situated to secure needed properties. Group IX. Cities Having a Population of from 500,000 to 1,000,000. In 1920 there were 9 such communities having a total population of Note: For more detailed information concerning some of these cities see list of survey and city plan reports, Chapter II, pages 68 and 69. 98 PARKS MAP OF MINNEAPOLIS PARK SYSTEM - PAVED and UN PAVED PORTIONS y PARKWAYS <"^y CITY STREETS USED <" CONNECTING LINKS + Paved Parkways — — — * Unpaved Parkways *===» Paved City Streei Links Unpaved City .street Link •••• J» MINNESOTA PLATE No. 26. MAP OF MINNEAPOLIS PARK SYSTEM, 1925 GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING 99 6,223,769 or 5.9 per cent of the entire population of the nation. In 1910 the percentage of the total population of this group of the total population of the nation was 3.3. The group includes San Francisco, Buffalo, Los Angeles, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Boston, St. Louis, Cleveland and Detroit. This group of cities increased more rapidly in population in the decade from 1910 to 1920 than any other group, and they will probably show a greater increase at the 1930 census than any other group. The nine cities in this group were reported to have (1925-26) a total of 24,920.87 acres of park properties of various types, or an average of 2,768.98 acres per city. The ratio of park acreage to population ranges from approx- imately one acre to every 220 inhabitants in San Francisco to one acre to every 421 inhabitants in Cleveland. These ratios are based on the 1925 estimates of population. It is interesting to note that these 9 cities with an estimated aggre- gate population of over 7.500,000 (1925) have over 5,000 fewer acres of park properties than the 133 cities in Group V with only about 5,000,000 population; over 12,000 fewer acres of parks than the 73 cities in Group VI with about 5,500,000 population; nearly 16,000 fewer acres than the 43 cities in Group VII with a population of approximately 7,000,000; and over 12,600 fewer acres than the 13 cities in Group VIII with an estimated population of approximately 5,000,000. These figures substantiate a well-known fact that as cities grow larger it is increasingly difficult to provide the necessary outdoor recreation areas, especially when comprehensive planning has been too long neglected. In all these cities the most notable deficiency as to types of properties is in children's playgrounds and neighborhood playfield-parks, two types of properties in a park system that were not given serious consideration in planning until well along in the past quarter of a century. These types are most difficult to obtain after land has once been built up; if they are to be secured in sufficient numbers and area steps should be taken as far as pos- sible ahead of residential development just as the streets are set aside. Every one of these nine cities has a planning commission and every one has a more or less comprehensive plan for the extension and develop- ment of its park area. Every one, likewise, has a regional park plan either actually formed or in process of formation. The Boston Regional Park plan is an accomplished fact; Cleveland has made great progress in the development of a regional park plan within recent years; Buffalo and Detroit have made substantial progress through county park systems, but both have Note: For literature concerning surveys and plans of a number of the cities in this group see list of Survey Reports in Chapter II, page 68. For maps of the Boston Park System see Chapter II, Plates 2, 7, 8 and 9. For maps of the suggested plans for children's playgrounds and neighborhood playfield-parks in Baltimore see Chapter II, Plates 4 and 6. IOO PARKS W / o «V iT* f / * ***.*# ^* v. :^^ t3 cfl s 0 PM o p< i £'£ PH t" J S w Q iJ o Pi « Ss § s°- ' H w ~ H O ^ — I - GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING 101 regional plans more comprehensive than the county park systems; large areas are being acquired in the region about Pittsburgh through a county park plan, and St. Louis, Baltimore and Los Angeles all have regional plans either in process of formation or actually formulated. While notable progress has been made by school boards in most of these cities in providing children's playground areas, especially in Los Angeles with approximately 1,300 acres in 290 school sites and in San Francisco with 1,346 acres in 100 sites, on the whole, school playground area is very inadequate. In Detroit, through cooperation between the municipal Recreation Department and the Board of Education, large sites combining school site, children's playground, neighborhood playfield and neighborhood park are being secured. Inasmuch as provision for children's play is a subject of general public policy, and at the same time of tremendous importance in the education of children, it should be adopted as a fixed policy in planning that wherever necessary the municipal government and the board of education work always cooperatively in providing these areas. Group X. Cities Having a Population of 1,000,000 or More. In 1920 there were three cities within this group comprising 10,145,532 inhabitants or 9.6 of the total population of the entire country. In 1910 this percentage was 9.2. The three cities in this group were reported to have (1925-26) a total of 22,467.35 acres in park properties of various types. These were distributed among the cities as follows: New York City, 10,178.49 acres; Chicago, 4,487.21 acres; and Philadelphia, 7,801.65 acres. See pages 100 and 103. As compared with the park acreage in any one of the groups of cities from 25,000 inhabitants upwards this group of three largest cities has, in proportion to population, the smallest park acreage. Every one of them began park planning shortly after the middle of the last century, but plan- ning did not keep pace with the growth of the population within the limits of the municipal boundaries. New York and Chicago are both richly endowed in outlying reservations, the former through state parks and county park systems and the latter through a great system of county forest preserves. Philadelphia while having the lowest ratio of park property to population of the three cities has no such outlying reservations. COUNTY PARK PLANNING The county courthouse site in addition to serving in its primary capacity as the site for a building has functioned from the beginning of county govern- ment in this country as a kind of "intown" park in county seat towns. County fairgrounds have likewise functioned as a type of large park. Up to the close of the last century these two types of properties represent the 102 PARKS PLATE No. 28. MAP OF THE BOSTON METROPOLITAN PARK DISTRICT The Boston Metropolitan Park System is the oldest and most highly developed of the park systems of this type in the United States. The park district comprises an area having a radius of approximately fifteen miles from the center of Boston. Within the area are fourteen cities and twenty-four towns (townships). The system comprises 9,570.83 acres of parks and 1,464.97 acres of parkways or a grand total of 11,035.80 acres. There are 46.66 miles of parkways. (Figures as of March i, 1927.) GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING 103 interest that county governments had in parks, and this interest was purely an incidental one. In 1895 Essex County, New Jersey, undertook the pioneering effort of establishing a county park system. The idea was not of rural origin but came out of the metropolitan park needs of cities and was no doubt inspired in part by the example of the Boston Metropolitan Park District established a few years previous. The plan, while eminently successful in Essex County, was slow in being adopted elsewhere. Eight years later (1903) Hudson County, New Jersey, adjoining Essex County, adopted the plan. Twelve years (1915) after Hudson County established a park system, Cook County, Illinois, established a system of county forest preserves. The same year DuPage County, Illinois, adjoining Cook County, took similar action. Since 1920 a number of county park systems have been established in the Middle Atlantic, Southern, Middle Western, Southwestern, Rocky Moun- tain and the Pacific Coast States. While the idea has spread to nearly all PUBLIC PABK5 AND ACBEAGE PEG 1000 POPULATION OF THE TO-STATE DISTRICT PLAYGROUNDS IN INCOBPOEATCO PLACES CITIES ACB6-S — P^B — i(Xx5 MBGMCTON •• • •OYWTOW* BMW BUBUNGTON •• OIMKN •• 04C5TU Ml BOCO •W COAT CONS tXJVL GLOU HIGH! KCNN NCV» Mi PAUL! PB1NC XI EJ ,NTOW tx tSVlLLt HOHOCKB EST10WN CtSTtB •S7OWN ETTSO. HOPC 000 >Boeo ETON ES80GO I6UBY EWWIWrt Ml MUUKVXLt •••• L»HSOHS mm NORISTOMN ••••• PMJilVCA •§ PUKASK •••• PHILAOCLPH.A MM • POVMN • WOOC Note Figures are 01 Incc have nc SOUOKTON • TECNTON BM UPLAND • 1 WtSTCHtSTSC •• WSTVILLt • WLMINGTON BIMBIM •• WOOOSTOWN mmmmim < > Figures are exclusive of school ground acreage 81 Incorporated places in the region have no public parks or playgrounds. Accepted minimum national standard 5 Acres per 000 population REGIONAL PLANNMG FEDGCAnON OT THE PHttADOPHA TO-SHOT OBTBCT NCVttCR 1926 PLATE No. 29 THIS DIAGRAM SHOWS THE ACTUAL SITUATION WITH RESPECT TO PROVISIONS FOR PARKS AND PLAYGROUNDS IN THE PHILADELPHIA METROPOLITAN AREA, 1926. (Diagram reproduced by courtesy of the Regional Planning Federation of the Philadelphia Tri-State District.) 104 PARKS > H c/2 -t. £ J "-> u * 1 t-3 *^ z 1 >H" 'S ^ -i §1 2 I H Z P 8 X P w E 3 rt B o 5, GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING 105 sections of the country it has not as yet been intensively applied. During the recent study of municipal and county parks reports were received of thirty-eight counties having park systems, and the total area of these sys- tems was 61,656.56 acres. The Cook County Forest Preserve system com- prised 31,600 acres of this total, and the Westchester County Park System (New York) comprised approximately 16,000 acres. Seven other countries were reported as in the process of developing park systems. Considering the fact that there are over three thousand counties in the United States, the number of counties haying already established park sys- tems or are in process of establishing such systems appears very small. The counties as political units admirably adapted to park planning under certain conditions are, in fact, undeveloped fields of tremendous importance in the general outdoor recreation movement. They have proven their use- fulness both in the metropolitan regions of great cities and in regions more rural in character. Up to the present time most of the outstanding county park systems have been developed as a unit or units for handling metropolitan park prob- lems. Essex, Hudson, Union counties, New Jersey; Westchester and Erie counties, New York; Wayne County, Michigan; Cook County, Illinois; Mil- waukee County, Wisconsin; Los Angeles County, California, are examples. Marathon County, Wisconsin; Henry County, Indiana; Converse County, Wyoming; Muskegon and Jackson counties, Michigan, are examples of county parks in regions more rural in character. As a general policy in regional planning the use of counties as planning and administrative units for parks in metropolitan regions should be con- sidered with a great deal of caution for the reason that a single county rarely ever comprises within its borders the entire metropolitan region. Regional planning in connection with cities should if possible be considered as a unit, and administrative machinery for handling such a common need as out- door recreation spaces may be more effective if the jurisdiction covers the region regardless of existing political boundaries. The Boston and Cleveland Metropolitan Park District plans are admirable in this respect. In the environs of New York the fact, that parts of the metropolitan region lie in different states renders both planning and administration of metropolitan affairs exceedingly difficult so far as unity is concerned. Under such conditions the use of counties as planning and administrative units for parks in regional areas is perhaps the only feasible way out of the difficulty. On the other hand it is unfortunate that the Cook County Forest Preserve District is coterminous with the boundaries of Cook County. This district properly should not only include Cook County but also parts of other counties and perhaps in time the whole of other counties. io6 PARKS PLATE No. 31. MAP OF THE PARKS, PARKWAYS AND RESERVATIONS OF THE WESTCHESTER COUNTY PARK SYSTEM, WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NEW YORK, 1926 Westchester County is within the Metropolitan Area of New York City. It comprises an area of 286,720 acres and its population in 1920 was 344,436. It is a region of great natural beauty and is rapidly being developed as a residential suburban area immediately adjacent to New York City. It was foreseen that unless the existing open spaces and wooded areas were acquired now they might never be available again except at tremendous expense. Traffic conditions also required the development of a comprehensive system of pleasure driveways con- necting with major outlets from New York City and another system running across the county from Long Island Sound to the Hudson River. The efficiency with which this system has been planned and the rapidity with which the plans have been carried out make one of the most heartening and romantic chapters in the history of park planning and development in America. In the space of about four years approximately 16,000 acres have been acquired, or over 5.5 per cent of the total area of the county, and large areas have been developed and thrown open to the use of the people. GENERAL MUNICIPAL AND COUNTY PARK PLANNING 107 No such caution need be suggested as to the use of the county as a planning and administrative unit for parks where the municipal corpora- tions within the boundaries range from villages to small cities. While large numbers of the nearly 13,000 villages in the United States under 2,500 inhabitants have acquired one or more parks, their financial resources are really too small to maintain a vear-round recreation service with a trained PLATE No. 32 PLAN MAP OF THE CLEVELAND METROPOLITAN PARK DISTRICT SHOWING THE PROPOSED METROPOLITAN PARK SYSTEM The Cleveland Metropolitan Park District was created in 1917 under the authority of an act of the Legislature of the State of Ohio. It comprises approximately the whole of Cuyahoga County but provision is made in the law for its extension into other surrounding counties. Up to the early part of 1926 approximately 10,000 acres of the plan outlined in the above map had been acquired. 108 PARKS park and recreation executive in charge. The same may as truthfully be said of the majority of the incorporated places from 2.500 to 8,000 popu- lation. Nearly all these small municipalities are business, social and recrea- tional centers for the surrounding open country population who may make almost as much use of parks and other recreation facilities provided by the villages and small cities as the inhabitants of the villages and cities them- selves. The only effective and equitable way of acquiring, developing, oper- ating and maintaining the necessary recreation area and facilities under such conditions is to make use of a larger political unit with larger revenue- producing resources. The county is an admirable unit for this purpose, as has been demonstrated by the county school systems and by the few county- parks systems organized under such conditions. CHAPTER IV ELEMENTS IN THE DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS In the chapter on the General Planning of a Park System it was noted that each type of property is intended to perform certain primary functions in the life of the people. After the areas have been acquired, the next step in planning is so to design or plan and develop these areas that they will serve the people effectively in the ways intended. This is the proper purpose and function of design. GENERAL SUGGESTIONS ON DESIGN There are two preliminary steps to actual designing of park and recrea- tion properties that are of the highest importance. The first of these is the accurate establishment of the boundaries of the areas. This should be done previous to actual acquisition, but unfortunately this is not always the case. The second step is to have a topographical survey made of every property. Topographical surveys are of fundamental importance for the reason that the work of the landscape architect, the construction engineer and the recreation expert is based upon them. The services of the topographical engineer is, in general, too greatly neglected in park and recreation systems throughout the country with the result that much time, energy and money have been wasted and poor designs have resulted. Usually these surveys may be made by the city or county engineer's office or by the engineers of the park department. With boundaries accurately established and the topographical surveys in hand, the designing of the properties can be effectively undertaken. The designing of the numerous types of areas now comprised in a modern park system presents many different and difficult problems. While there are general principles that may be followed each property will present its own peculiar individual problem or problems. In most instances designing requires the services of several different types of specialists -- the landscape architect, the recreation expert, the building architect and lighting engineer. The advice of the construction engineer and the sanitary expert may also be necessary. In making the original design the most important of these various types of specialists is the landscape architect. The preservation and crea- tion of beauty on all types of recreation areas should be accepted as an axiom in designing any and all these types whether it be a children's play- 109 no PARKS o w X X 8 q" 3 • K Q § O < z ^ s Q 3 S3 co W CO § ffi DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS in ground, a playfield, or a purely landscaped area, a large city park or a forest reservation park. While it is certainly true that children's playgrounds, playfields and athletic fields often seem to present few art possibilities, nevertheless the designing of such areas from this viewpoint should more and more become an object of serious consideration by landscape architects with a view to perfecting designs that will overcome the ugliness which characterizes so many active recreation areas throughout America. Many school play- grounds are particularly unattractive, and it seems folly to attempt to teach the appreciation of beauty in the schools while at the same time the school grounds are permitted to become and remain the ugliest places in the neighborhood. Many active recreation areas under the control of park and recreation authorities are also totally lacking in beauty. Less should be made of the so-called distinction between art and utility. Beauty of surroundings should always be considered of the highest utility, and utili- tarian things should have some elements of beauty. This is especially true of areas comprised in a park system and particularly of the areas devoted to active recreation. In the designing of purely landscaped areas, or areas predominatingly landscaped, the landscape architect should be the supreme arbiter. In the designing of active recreation areas, and of areas predominatingly land- scaped but including active recreation facilities requiring supervision, it is recommended that the architect associate with himself recreation experts, unless the architect is skilled in the management of active recreation facilities and activities. The reason for this is that a landscape archi- tect not skilled in the organization and management of activities may not always perceive the most effective arrangement of the facilities from the viewpoint of supervision, especially when it is remembered that most active recreation areas are undermanned. Similarly, if there are to be included in the design structures requiring the services of a building architect it is desirable for the landscape designer and the building designer to consider together the general design of the area and the plans of the building. If the structure is one to be used for indoor recreation or as an adjunct to an athletic center or a swimming center, it is desirable that the recreation expert be asked to go over the plans of the interior arrangement, considering them from the viewpoint of super- vision and management. In the designing of areas calling for a great deal of heavy construc- tion work or requiring some particularly difficult piece of construction work, it is advisable for the landscape architect to consult with the engineer of the department or with some competent engineer employed temporarily for 112 PARKS consultation purposes. It would be a very fortunate arrangement if the engineer who is to have charge of the construction work could be consulted. In modern park systems the lighting engineer is another specialist whom the landscape architect will find it desirable to consult. From the standpoint of adornment, general public service, and especially from the viewpoint of wider use of active recreation areas, lighting has assumed a position of major importance in the design. Designing of special areas such as those devoted to zoos, botanical gardens, arboretums and similar features requires the services of a specialist in the care and operation of such institutions. There appears to be a very widespread feeling among the officials of villages, towns and small cities and some counties having one or more park areas, that they cannot afford to secure the services of a landscape archi- tect to make plans for their areas, and furthermore, they probably would PLATE No. 34 LITTLE CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND AREA IN INTERIOR OF BLOCK, SUNNYSIDE DEVELOPMENT PROJECT, CITY HOUSING CORPORATION, NEW YORK CITY Every block in the entire subdivision has a space similar to this. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 113 not have the resources to carry out the plans when secured. Inasmuch as most of the leading park and recreation designers in this country are more accustomed to dealing with the problems of the larger cities and counties than small city, village or open country problems there is a possible need of caution with respect to the cost items involved in carrying out designs for small communities. In a few examples noted during the course of the recent study of park systems throughout the nation, planners had made designs so elaborate and expensive in execution that the small communities for which they were made could not possibly carry them out without too great a drain upon their financial resources. However, small communities need this service as well as large ones. This is a problem for the landscape architects of the country to consider through their national organization with a view to devising some plan whereby the needs of the small communities can be met. A few states through their agricultural colleges or through a planning department of the state government have established such a service for small communities. This invasion of the field of the professional landscape architect by publicly supported institutions has sometimes met with opposition from the pro- fession. It is suggested that in the long run this plan of state aid to small communities will be a benefit to the profession because it is an effective means of educating and opening up a large field that hitherto has been more or less closed to landscape architects.1 TYPES OF AREAS The term "design" is used in this chapter in a very limited and loose sense, referring primarily to an enumeration of the features that are deemed necessary for the proper fulfillment of the function or functions of each type of property considered. The actual arrangement of these features in a harmonious whole in relation to each other, which is the proper content and meaning of design, is the function of the landscape architect. Notes on the following types of areas will be presented in the succeed- ing pages: 1. Little Children's Playgrounds. 2. Children's Playgrounds. 3. Neighborhood Playfield or Neighborhood Playfield-Parks. 4. Special Active Recreation Areas: Athletic Fields, Stadiums, Golf Courses, Organized Camps. 5. Small Landscaped Areas. 6. Intown or Neighborhood Parks. 7. Large Parks. 1 In 1920 over 25,500,000 people lived in incorporated communities under 25,000 population, or approxi- mately one-fourth of the entire population of the nation. 1 14 PARKS 8. Reservations or Forest Parks. 9. Boulevards and Parkways. 10. Waterfront Areas. 11. Service Areas. LITTLE CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUNDS Topography. In general the little children's playground should be level, but slight elevations in the form of hillocks or mounds or ridges are not undesirable and form in themselves very interesting equipment for play. Surfacing. Turf makes the ideal surface. This will usually stand up under use by little children unless the space is exceedingly restricted and the number of children very large. However, it is desirable for play out- doors, after a rain, to have a small area surfaced with concrete or asphalt, or a wooden platform. If there is a shelter on the area this might provide the floor space needed during and after inclement weather. PLATE No. 35 ONE OF THE SEVERAL ATTRACTIVE LITTLE CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUNDS TO BE FOUND IN THE PARKS OF HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT Note the small playhouses and the arrangement of seats as a fence. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 115 Play Equipment. Desirable play equipment would include swings (low hung swings of the ordinary type, baby scups, chair swings, small canvas hammocks); small slide; sand box or pile; wading pool; playhouses; small teeters; platform provided with building blocks of various sizes. If there is a structure with a play room, a collection of toys would be an admir- able feature. Wooden designs of characters in Mother Goose Rhymes or fairy stories, painted in colors and set up in the playground, prove a great source of pleasure. Benches should be provided for mothers. Buildings. Unless sheltered by trees, the sand box should be protected by a pergola, under which benches may also be placed. Where the play- ground is an interior court in the center of a block no special structure for toilets and shelter will be necessary because the children can use their own homes. Where a little children's playground forms a part of a school play- ground all the indoor facilities necessary for shelter and comfort may be supplied in the school building. Where it is located in a public playground apart from a public school or in a neighborhood playfield or large park, some kind of structure for comfort and shelter is desirable. The simplest type of structure needed would be a small combination toilet and shelter house with a wood floor. The shelter part might be open, latticed or par- tially enclosed. If, as is usually the case, the shelter also serves the other groups using the playground or playfield, it may provide toilets, wash room, office for leader or leaders, storage closet and a large room designed and equipped as a genuine kindergarten. Separation from Other Play Areas. It is highly desirable that little children's playgrounds located in areas used by other children be separated from the spaces used by the older children either by a fence, a thick hedge or by some other device so as to give safety and privacy. Plantations. These include the lawns previously mentioned for play surface; border plantations of vines and shrubs; trees either inside or out- side or both inside and outside of boundary, and scattered over parts of play- area; flower boxes on building; vines trained on or over the building and playgrounds; protected flower beds, etc. A great effort should always be made to have the little children's playground a retired, quiet, restful spot, and a veritable bower of beauty. Space Requirements for Equipment. The following table contains approximate space dimensions for the different types of equipment suit- able for a little children's playground. The space dimensions given for the swings, slide, and teeters, are approximate use spaces. The areas given for the other items of equipment are the actual spaces, which they occupy, and the use space is approximately twice as large as the area given. PARKS Approximate Space Length Height Required 10 feet at top 8 feet 20 x 18 feet 20 feet at top 8 feet 20 x 30 feet 10 feet at top 6-8 feet 20 x 18 feet 8 feet 4^ feet 9x18 feet 12 feet 24 inches 18 x 16 feet any shape or size 10 - 20 feet in diameter any size 6 x 8 feet to 8 x 16 feet 4-6 feet 4 x 4 feet or larger 4x6 feet or larger An unobstructed area thirty feet square or larger should be provided for free play, circle games and similar activities. OLDER CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUNDS It has been noted (Chapter on General Planning of a Park System) that some planners limit this type of playground to children from five or six to ten or twelve years of age. In point of fact such areas are nearly always used by children of all ages up to fourteen or fifteen, and at certain times, under special conditions, they may be used by the older young people Type Chair Swings (set of 3) Chair Swings (set of 6) Scup Swings (set of 3) Kindergarten Slide Teeters (set of 4) Wading Pool Sand Box Playhouses (any number desired) . Building Platform PLATE No. 36 DESIGN OF THE SIXTH WARD MEMORIAL PLAYGROUND-PARK, LANCASTER, PENNSYLVANIA This playground is apparently intended primarily for children from 4 or 5 up to n or 12 years of age. A dis- tinguishing feature is a small park area dividing the kindergarten and girls' playground from the boys' playground. The extension of the paved walk in front of the shelter building into the wading pool is designed to be used as a band stand, the park area across the pool forming the auditorium. By rearranging two or three pieces of apparatus in the boys' section a space for volley ball and basket ball could be provided. It is questionable whether a merry- .go-round should be included in the kindergarten playground. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 117 and adults. As considered here the children's playground is an area designed to provide for the play needs of children from five or six to fourteen years of age inclusive. Age Groupings. The age group comprised within the years from five or six to fourteen inclusive, by reason of psychical and physical differ- ences naturally divides into two groups. The first group is composed of children from five or six to approximately ten or eleven years of age. This period is sometimes called the "Big Injun Age." The chief characteristics of this group are that its members desire to do individualistic stunts and to play loosely organized games in which each child has a chance to be a "star." The second group is composed of die children from ten or eleven to fourteen. This is sometimes called the "Age of Loyalty." The desire to do stunts carries over to a considerable degree, but the chief characteristic of the play of children of this age group is to form more closely organized groups, such as teams, clubs, "gangs," and to play the more highly organ- ized games. This group naturally divides into two groups on the basis of sex. The sexes are mutually repellent and should have separate spaces upon which to play, although there are certain kinds of running games and organized games like tennis, croquet, and volley ball where they might play together very satisfactorily. Out of these physical and psychical differences arises the necessity for a three-division 'layout of children's playground areas — a space for the children from five or six to ten or eleven; a space for the older boys, and a space for the older girls. Planners very frequently place the older girls with the younger children. This is not a desirable practice although the limitation of space very often forces this situation. If the children of the "kindergarten age" and younger are permitted to use the playground a fourth division will be necessary. Topography. The space or spaces in children's playgrounds used for games and sports of all kinds should be reasonably level. If they are not naturally level they should be made so by grading, care being taken to ensure good drainage. There is no objection to different topographical levels. Some very excellent playgrounds have been fashioned out of fairly steep slopes by grading into different levels, forming natural topographical divisions according to age and sex classification. There is no serious objec- tion to fairly uneven tree-shaded areas where apparatus may be located. In fact a broken area topographically, provided it will allow sufficient level space for organized games and play, makes an even more attractive play- ground than one that is entirely flat. Broken topography often presents better opportunities from the standpoint of landscape embellishment than a perfectly flat surface. PARKS PLATE No. 37 GENERAL PLAN FOR CHINESE PLAYGROUND, PLAYGROUND COMMISSION, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA This plan is a striking example of the utilization of a small uneven area (approximately^half an'acre) as a. children's playground in a congested section of a city. Note that the playground is laid out on three different levels, with retaining walls and stairways. It provides a variety of play areas and facilities for children of different ages. The sections devoted to games are surfaced with an asphaltic material; the others with a combination of tanbark and gravel. The playground is effectively planted with vines and shrubbery and the attractive_field house and pergola are strictly Oriental in design and architecture. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 119 Surfacing. This problem is treated in the Chapter on Construction Notes, pages 302, 303. Space Divisions. I . Area for children from five or six to ten or eleven years of age. (a) Apparatus. This may include swings, teeters, slides, climbing ropes, poles and ladders, horizontal ladders, trapeze, traveling rings, hori- zontal bars of varying heights, giant stride, jungle gym, merry-go-round, sand box or table and wading pool. That apparatus is most desirable which provides an outlet for certain well-known interests of children in such activities as swinging, climbing, hanging with hands or feet combined with motion of some kind, moulding things in sand or clay or mud, and wading or paddling in water — the sort of things they would do if they were in the open country with trees and fences and hills to climb, brooks or ponds to wade and paddle in, and sand or mud to fashion things of. The basic principle back of the design of all the best pieces of playground apparatus is to provide an opportunity for the children to do the kinds of things they have done from time immemorial in a more naturalistic environment than the modern town and city provide. Some play leaders tend to minimize the importance of play apparatus. This is believed to be a mistake if carried too far because play apparatus properly selected provides for certain interests and needs of the children that are as old as childhood itself. The basic principle to be followed in the placement of apparatus on the playground is so to place it that the largest possible open space will be left for activities that do not require apparatus. This result can usually be obtained by locating it along one or more edges or sides of the playground area. It is also advisable as a safety measure to place such apparatus as the giant stride in the corners. Moveable apparatus, such as swings, are often separated from the free play area by a low fence or railing in order to prevent children from running into it. (&) Open area. By this is meant space for playing loosely organized games of many kinds. It should comprise by far the larger part of the playground area. While it may be bordered by trees or shrubs the actual play area should be free of plantations of any kind. There are, of course, certain well-known running games that could be played very satisfactorily in a grove. (c) Shaded area. The interests of children are many, and they do not care to engage in activities continuously requiring a great deal of physical exertion, although an excess of physical energy is a prime characteristic of this group. They enjoy quiet games of different kinds and especially making I2O PARKS PLATE No. 38 PLAN OF GREEN BRIER PARK, RIVER PARK DISTRICT, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS (Design by Jacob L. Crane, Jr., Chicago.) A good design of a rectangular area of approximately three and one-third acres for use as a children's play- ground. Entire area screened by a border plantation approximately 10 feet wide. Play areas for boys and girls separated by plantations and by facilities which will be used in common. Apparatus is located around edges of play areas, thus reserving maximum area for active games. It might have been desirable in the boys' area to provide for a playground ball diamond, perhaps in the south- east corner, placing the gymnastic apparatus at the north end of the area. In practice the little boys and girls generally use the same area, and not separate areas as this design appears to provide. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 121 things with their hands. Hence, it is well to provide some shady place where quiet games can be played, handcraft activities carried on, and stories told. This area or areas might be provided in the shelter building, but a shady grove, even though a very small one, is more desirable during good weather for most of these quiet activities than the best indoor facilities. Elaborate equipment for handcraft activities should, of course, be housed. The ideal playground would have a little theatre, indoor perhaps, but preferably some tree-shaded nook where the children might express their well-known interest in dramatic representations. Closely allied with the dramatic interest are the innumerable folk games expressed in rhythmic forms. For these there should be a platform either of wood or some other hard surface, although a good turf is best of all, located in a shady place. 2. Area for boys from ten or eleven to fourteen. (a) Apparatus. Boys of this age will still find delight in using some of the pieces of apparatus listed for the smaller children's area, but in general the apparatus should consist more of the outdoor gymnasium type, including horizontal bars, trapeze, and parallel rings. As in the case of the younger children's play area, all apparatus should be so placed that a maximum free space will be left for organized games.1 (b) Space for organized games. Special emphasis should be put on organized games and sports of many different kinds for this age group. These games will include playground ball, baseball, volley ball, basket ball of a modified type; handball, quoits or horseshoes, soccer and hockey. Space may be set aside for marbles and rings. The field sports will include running and jumping, chiefly. Swimming, of course, is a universal interest. (c} Handcraft. Boys of this age still find delight in making things with their hands. Unfortunately, too little provision is made in the average public playground for a full and rich expression of this great constructive interest. Practically the only agency that has a great deal of equipment for the expression of this interest is the public school, but in every play- ground building there should be a room equipped with work benches and some simple tools where the boys can fashion things they desire to make. 3. Area for girls from ten or eleven to fourteen. (a) Apparatus. The apparatus for this age group may include some of the types of apparatus as designated for the smaller children's playground such as teeters and swings, but in general the apparatus should be of the gymnastic type. A balancing beam is a valuable piece of apparatus for girls. The general principle governing the location is the same as that for the 1 In many cities, children's playgrounds are equipped with only one set of apparatus, which is intended primarily for the use of children from six to ten years but which also serves the older boys and girls who wish to- use it. 122 PARKS GENERAL PLAN OHIO AVE. PLAYGROUND MILWAUKEE WISCONSIN T Ci.EGG-PuiKii.oiw> E.NOtNtt»- ..Z5.«, J.MV...V 1917 PLATE No. 39 GENERAL PLAN OF OHIO AVENUE PLAYGROUND, EXTENSION DEPARTMENT, BOARD OF EDUCATION, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN This plan illustrates the possibilities of creating a parkiike effect in a school playground of nearly 3.5 acres. The boys and girls are completely separated; the two sections providing for each are separated by the facilities used in common, such as wading pool, shelter house and tennis courts. Practically the same equipment and game areas are provided in the boys' and girls' sections, each of which apparently serves children of a wide range of ages. Although this is typical of many school playgrounds, it does not provide special play areas for the various age groups referred to earlier in the chapter. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 123 smaller children's play area. It should be so placed that the maximum area be left for organized games of different kinds. (b) Space fgr organized games.1 As in the case of the boys, special emphasis should be placed upon organized games including a modified form of playground ball, basket ball and hockey; volley ball, tether ball, hand and paddle tennis, croquet and many other types of ball games that might be mentioned. Areas should be provided for running games of different kinds aside from ball games, and for some forms of track and field sports. (c) Shaded area. This should be provided for handcraft activities and quiet games, story telling and folk dancing. For the latter a platform of wood is desirable, although this form of activity may be carried on indoors if there is a shelter or community house with the necessary floor space. In fact, all these activities could be carried on indoors, but whenever possible it is desirable to have all activities outdoors. 4. Little children's playground area. If a little children's playground is included in the area for the chil- dren's playground a fourth space requirement will have to be met, and the layout and equipment of it will correspond to that already stated under the section on the little children's playground. 5. Miscellaneous space requirements. There are certain facilities that may be used in common by all the chil- dren coming to the playground and areas that may be considered common space. Among these facilities and areas are: (a) Tennis court or courts. It may be possible and sometimes desir- able to have a tennis court or courts for both the older boys' and girls' play spaces, but in general if they be included in a children's playground at all, it is more economical to construct such courts in a group unit to be used in common by both boys and girls. They might be located on the dividing line between the older boys' and girls' play spaces or, if the total area is large enough as in a combined playground and neighborhood park, in some other part of the area. (b) Area for the building with a frontal planting space and with perhaps some space for planting about it. This structure should be so located that it will be readily accessible from all the different space divisions and will conserve the maximum space for play purposes. It is the focal point for management, shelter and service facilities. It may be any type of build- ing from a simple combined shelter and comfort station, including perhaps 1 Because of limited space in many playgrounds, there is only one open play area for the use of both boys and girls. On such playgrounds the program should be so arranged that the use of the play area is divided between the two sexes. I24 PARKS < o o - II MH-i *J O O V Division DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 125 an office for the leaders and a small storage room, to a structure including all the features of a building of the community house type, such as a gym- nasium, play room and auditorium, club rooms, workshop, toilets, lockers, shower baths, office, storage room, etc. (See Plate 191, page 393; Plate 194, page 396.) If the playground is a school site the school building might provide all the facilities pertaining to the simple type of structure mentioned above, and if the schoolhouse is a thoroughly modern building it would provide all the indoor facilities of the community house type of structure. In some large cities where school grounds are widely used for public play and recre- ation purposes, it has been found desirable to erect a separate building for playground purposes on the basis that it is cheaper to erect and operate such a structure than to keep open the larger building. There appears to be no fundamental reason, however, why in the average community a school building cannot provide the necessary facilities for indoor activities and needs of the children on the school playground. (c) Wading or swimming pools. Every playground should have a wading pool, even though a small one. It will serve primarily the children from six to ten and may be located either in the section set aside for this group or in a space accessible to all three age divisions. If the playground is located in a neighborhood playfield or large park it may not be necessary to provide a swimming pool. In a number of cities where other swimming facilities are lacking, small swimming pools, approximately 25 x 50 feet, have been provided in the children's playgrounds. These pools may also be used as wading pools by partially filling them during certain periods. If possible they should be located in close proximity to the playground building (otherwise simple dressing facilities should be provided). (See pages 353-359-) (d) Fence and plantation space. The entire playground should be fenced with a strong woven wire or iron picket fence. The fence serves to aid in the management of the playground, protects apparatus and planta- tions around border, and gives the playground area a distinct identity. Anyone who has had experience in trying to organize and conduct activities or enforce discipline on a playground where the children could run out or enter at any point they desired, or who has the care of unprotected equip- ment, readily appreciates the absolute value of an adequate fence about a playground. The fence, if the space is large enough, should be set far enough in from the outer border to allow an ample planting space entirely around the play- ground. Next to the fence on the outside, vines or tall growing shrubs should be set, with lower growing ones toward the outer boundary. This 126 PARKS PLATE No. 42. DESIGN FOR FAIRMOUNT PLAYGROUND, WOONSOCKET, RHODE ISLAND This is an unusual design for a very uneven property of five acres. The comparatively level areas are utilized for games and sports, and the slopes for paths and plantations. Note the grouping of the playground apparatus, and the slides from the roof of the shelter house. These can be used for coasting in the winter. Special provision has been made for all ages from babies to old folks, so this area has some of the features of a neighborhood playfield. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 127 plantation should be of such density that when the vines or shrubs attain their full growth the playground will be effectively screened off from the outer world. If the area is so small as to require the placing of the fence on the property line in order to conserve space, vines of different kinds may be planted along it for a screen and adornment. It is desirable to have a row or two of trees entirely around the playground, either inside or out- side the fence, and there should be trees in those sections of the various divisional spaces where the apparatus is located. Wherever possible, patches of lawn and flower beds should be planted in odd spaces. If space permits, a grove, serving somewhat as a neighborhood park, is a very desirable feature in connection with every children's playground. It would add very much to the attractiveness of the playground if each divisional space were fenced off from the others and a narrow strip of shrubbery planted along each fence. In this case an auxiliary but less strong fence or a railing might be necessary for the protection of the shrubbery. Miscellaneous Equipment. 1. Drinking fountains. An abundance of pure, cool water is an abso- lute essential on every playground. There should be at least one drinking fountain on each space division of the children's playground. 2. Flagpoles. One or more flagpoles should be provided. These may be placed near the entrance in front of the shelter or at some focal point on the playground. 3. Lighting. The most delightful time for play in practically all sec- tions of the country is during the hours after the evening meal. This is generally a period of great activity among the children and the time when they are most likely to get into mischief unless there are proper places for the expression of their energies. In some sections of the country many of the daylight hours are too hot for successful play. For these reasons it is highly desirable that children's playgrounds be lighted for evening use, unless, as in the extreme north country, darkness does not set in until time for the children to go to bed. But even in those sections having long eve- nings of daylight or twilight, there is an hour or more after the children should be in bed that these playground areas could be used by young people and adults. Lights are essential to provide for this wider use. Space Needed for Given Types of Activities. In an article entitled "Play Space for Elementary School Children,"1 Prof. George E. Johnson prefaces his conclusions as to the minimum stand- ards of play space needs of primary school children by a discussion of " Plays and Games that Every Boy and Girl Should Know," to the end 1 The Playground, October 1926. 128 PARKS that certain developmental results may be secured in the lives of the chil- dren. A summary of his discussion is presented here not only for the reason that it gives a philosophical-educational background for the kinds of pro- vision that should be made for the children of the primary group on the playgrounds, but also because it leads up to a statement as to the amount of space required for games of different types. Most of his discussion is applicable to the needs of the older children (ten or eleven to fourteen) also. The plays and games every boy and girl should know include: I. Plays and games that conserve the essential biological and physi- - P LA N - FOI^A- WORTHWHILE- PLAYGROUND - -SiZE 3OO «.(?,OO FT - - PLAYGROUND AND RLCP.EATIGN - ASSOCIATION or .\MCPJCA — -SCALE 2O'= i"- ;Ti:PN -DIVISION - •-N-Sw.' PLATE No. 43 PLAN FOR A WORTHWHILE PLAYGROUND 300 BY 600 FEET WESTERN DIVISION, P. R. A. A. Designed by F. N. Evans, Sacramento, California. This plan illustrates one method of designing a rectangular area of approximately four acres intended primarily to provide activities for children up to fourteen or fifteen years of age. The main features of the design are: A playground clubhouse, triangular in shape and located in the corner where it will occupy the least possible space; a large wading pool so located that it can be used freely by the children from all the play areas; boys' and girls' gym and minor games area; a pergola and little children's playground; two croquet courts, children's gardens and two tennis courts. More than half the entire area is devoted to an open space for major games and sports. This field and some of the other facilities in the playground might be used by adults. The entire area is admirably screened by border plantations, and there is ample shade on all the playing areas where this is possible and desirable. Unless there is a special reason for including a running track, it might better be omitted from a playground of this type, since it interferes with the most effective use of the playfield area. A loo-yard straightaway along one side of the field would be very desirable. The area along the fence near the tennis courts might be used for volley ball, horseshoes and similar activities. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 129 ological growth of children such as good posture, depth of chest, strength of heart, active circulation, and good digestion. Plays and games recom- mended to accomplish these results involve walking in difficult places; digging, lifting and hauling; running, throwing, striking, swinging, hanging by the arms; running, dodging and chasing; swimming, playful fighting and wrestling. Good health and sound physical growth are the ends and aims of these plays and games. 2. Plays and games that tend to make the body the perfect organ of feeling, thinking and execution even under the stress of great excitement. Plays and games recommended involve activities tending to complete inte- gration of mind and body and include all the innumerable games of skill beginning perhaps with the game of hopscotch, jumping rope, hoop rolling, bean bag board, ring toss, the simple games of ball, tip cat, top spinning, jackstones, marbles, and concluding with the more complicated games of ball. 3. Plays and games that develop the individualistic virtues. Plays and games recommended involve activities tending toward development of courage, self-respect, admiration for skill, desire for efficiency, persistence, sense of justice, love of fair play, sympathy and sociability. Games recom- mended as developing sociability are the traditional singing games, folk plays and dances; as developing sympathy, games of impersonation or dra- matic plays, and games where the players alternate in having the desirable and undesirable parts; as contributing to the development of the sense of justice and fair play, all games that are or must be played according to rules. 4. Plays and games that tend toward a higher expression of the indi- vidual in social relationships and for social ends. Games recommended are group games involving not only an expression of the individualistic qualities mentioned under the preceding paragraph, but their expression under a higher order of social organization. Some of such games are dodge ball, volley ball, captain ball, basket ball, baseball, hockey, and football for boys; and, for girls, such of these games as have been modified for their use. All the plays and games specifically mentioned above, except modified ball games, require, on the average, not more than forty square feet per child. The traditional games of skill, too commonly neglected (marbles, hopscotch, jackstones, tops, jump rope, etc.), require even less space. Space Requirements for Apparatus on Children's Playgrounds. In the following table are given the dimensions and approximate use areas of several types of apparatus frequently installed on children's playgrounds. Since the types of equipment made by the various manufacturers differ somewhat, the dimensions and areas given are merely suggestive. Further- 13° PARKS more, it is not likely that all of the apparatus listed will be found on a single playground. It is desirable to provide the safety zones around all apparatus, especially that which is moveable. PLATE No. 44 PLAN OF PAUL REVERE PARK, RIVER PARK DISTRICT, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS An area of approximately 9.25 acres designed as a children's playground and neighborhood park. The three- part division of play areas in this design is frequently used in children's playgrounds. The general arrangement of the various facilities and the location of equipment are excellent. This area is adopted for evening use as a play center by young people and adults. Plan designed by Jacob L. Crane, Jr., Chicago. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS Type of Apparatus Dimensions of Apparatus Length Height Circular Traveling Rings 10 feet diameter 12 feet Gang Slide / 16 feet 8 feet Giant Stride 12 feet Horizontal Bar 6 feet 8 feet upright Horizontal Ladder 16 feet ^% feet Merry-go-round 10 feet diameter Size and shape varies Sand Box or Table 6 x 10 feet to 10 x 20 feet Slide i6feet 8 feet Slide-Spiral 35 feet 18 feet Swings (set of 3) 15 feet at top 12 feet Swings (set of 6) 30 feet at top 12 feet Teeters (set of 4) . 12-15 feet x 2K feet Traveling Rings (set of 6) 40 feet at top 14 feet Approximate Use Space in Space Requirements Square Feet 25 feet diameter 490 20 x 45 feet 900 32 feet diameter 804 12 x 20 feet 240 8 x 24 feet 192 30 feet diameter 707 12 x 16 feet to 16 x 30 feet 12 x 30 feet 360 25 x 35 ^t 875 30 x 35 feet 1050 30 x 50 feet 1500 20 x 20 feet 400 20x60 feet 1200 The Junglegym and other outdoor gymnasium outfits are manufactured in several sizes and combinations which occupy widely different areas. It is advisable to have all such equipment placed at least 15 feet from the nearest fence, building or other apparatus. The wading pool may be any desired size or shape, although it is usually rectangular or circular. The circular pools generally have a diameter of from 40 to 75 feet. The platform for dancing may be of any desired dimension. An average size would be 20 by 30 feet to 30 by 40 feet. According to a number of authorities from 40 to 50 square feet per child is the amount of space which should be provided for apparatus play. Space Requirements for Organized Cannes and Sports on Children's Play- grounds.1 The following table gives the approximate space requirements for a number of games and sports played on children's playgrounds. The space required for a number of these games is variable, and smaller areas may be used for soccer, field hockey, football and some of the other sports. If the game areas in the children's playground are to be used by adults during certain periods it would be advisable to set aside the amount of space given in the table on pages 133 and 134. Dimensions of Name Play Areas Baseball 75 foot diamond Basket Ball 35 x 60 feet Clock Golf Circle 20-24 feet m diameter Croquet " 30 x 60 feet Field Hockey 150 x 270 feet Football 160 x 360 feet Hand Ball 20 x 30 feet Horseshoe Pitching. . . . Stakes 30 feet apart Paddle Tennis 18x39 feet Playground Ball 35 x 45 foot diamond Soccer 150 x 300 feet (min.) Tennis 27 x 78 feet (single) 36 x 78 feet (double) Tether Tennis Circle 6 feet in diameter 20 x 20 feet 400 Volley Ball 25 x 50 feet 35 x 60 feet 2,100 Use Space Required Number of Dimensions Square Feet Players 250 x 250 feet 62,500 18 50 x 75 feet 3,750 10-12 30 foot circle 706 Any number (4-8) 30 x 60 feet 1, 800 Any number (4-8) 150 x 270 feet 40,500 22 I Sox 360 feet 64,800 22 30 x 40 feet 1,200 2 or 4 10 x 40 feet 400 2 or 4 26 x 57 feet 1,482 2 or 4 I2ox 120 feet 14,400 20 150 x 300 feet 45,000 22 60 x 1 20 feet 7,200 2-4 2 I2-l6 1 Detailed direction for laying out these courts will be found in "Construction Notes," Chapter V, pages 316 to 335. 132 PARKS Design of Children's Playgrounds. In this chapter appear a number of plans illustrating various methods of developing children's playgrounds. These include Sixth Ward Memorial Park, Lancaster, Pennsylvania (p. 116), Chinese Playground, San Fran- cisco (p. 118), Green Brier Park, River Park District, Chicago (p. 120), Ohio Avenue Playground, Milwaukee (p. 122), Eugene Field Playground, Oak Park, Illinois (p. 124), Fairmount Playground, Woonsocket, Rhode Island (p. 126), Plan for a Worthwhile Playground, Sacramento (p. 128), Paul Revere Park, River Park District, Chicago (p. 130), and Auer Avenue Playground, Milwaukee (p. 132). They are accompanied by brief com- PLATE No. 45 THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN OF THE AUER AVENUE PLAYGROUND MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN This plan illustrates the present tendency to group most of the apparatus in the section set aside for the younger children (six to ten years) and to utilize most of the playground area for organized games. Note that separate sports fields are provided for the older boys and older girls, although the tennis, basket ball and volley ball courts are used jointly. A small field house is erected on the Milwaukee playgrounds, even though adjacent to school buildings. (The barracks shown on this plan have been removed.) For photograph and plan of the field house see pages 397 and 398. The total area of this property including that on which school is built is approximately DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 133 ments upon the general arrangement of our special features of the individual plans. Some criticisms are also given. It is possible that some of these criticisms may not be entirely justified because the design may be the most effective one possible under the peculiar local conditions for which it was made. It is believed, however, that comments and criticisms offered may be helpful in considering these designs in the typical situation or under average conditions. NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYFIELD-PARKS While people fifteen years of age and over will play some of the organ- ized games noted as suitable for children on children's playgrounds, other games and sports belonging peculiarly to young people and adults require a great deal more space than the play activities of the children. Not only is more space demanded for specific activities but the population to be served in the general age group fifteen and above is much greater than the child population. Moreover, the games and sports of the young people and adults are, for the most part, highly organized and specialized with a limited number of players engaged at one time. If large numbers are to have a chance to play, greater spaces are needed. The following table of the principal games and sports engaged in by young people and adults gives the dimensions of the play areas and the estimated amount of space required for the various games. It will be noted that in the case of some games like tennis, considerable space must be left free around the court, whereas other games such as croquet and roque require very little if any space beyond the borders of the playing court. Some of the dimensions given, especially for use areas, are merely approxi- mate, and greater or less space may be provided depending upon local conditions. Space Requirements for Organized Games and Sports. Dimensions of Use Space Required Number Name Play Areas Dimensions Square Feet of Players Baseball 9O-foot diamond 300 x 325 feet 97,5°o 18 Basket Ball 50 x 94 feet (max.) 60 x 100 feet 6,000 10 35 x 60 feet (min.) Basket Ball (women's) .. 451 90 feet 50x100 feet 5,ooo 12-18 Bowling Green1 14 x 1 10 feet (l alley) 120 x 120 feet 14,400 32-64 Clock Golf Circle 20-24 feet diam. 3O-foot circle 706 Any number (4-8) Croquet 30 x 60 feet 30 x 60 feet 1,800 Any number (4-8) Field Hockey 150 x 270 feet (min.) 180 x 300 feet 54,4OO 22 180 x 300 feet (max.) Football 160 x 360 feet 180 x 360 feet 64,800 22 Hand Ball 20 x 30 feet 30 x 40 feet 1,200 2 or 4 Hand Tennis 16 x 40 feet 25 x 50 feet 1,250 2 or 4 Horseshoe Pitching. . . . Stakes 40 feet apart IO x 50 feet 500 2 or 4 LaCrosse 210 x 390 feet (min.) 225 x 410 feet 92,250 24 255 X435 feet (max.) (average) 1 Most bowling greens in public recreation areas are 120 x 120 feet providing for eight alleys. The amount of space required for a single alley would be 20 x 120 feet. 134 PARKS Space Requirements for Organized Games and Sports (Continued). Dimensions of Use Space Required Number Name Play Areas Dimensions Square Feet of Pliyers Paddle Tennis 18 x 39 feet 26 x 57 feet 1,482 2 or 4 Playground Ball 35 x 45-foot diamond 150x150 feet 22,500 20 Polo 600 x 960 feet 600 x 960 feet 576,000 8 Quoits Stakes 54 feet apart 25 x 80 feet 2.000 2 or 4 Roque 30 x 60 feet 30 x 60 feet 1,800 4 Shuffle Board 10 x 40 to 50 feet 15 x 50 feet 750 2 or 4 Soccer 150 x 300 feet (min.) 210 x 330 feet 69,300 22 300 x 390 feet (max.) (average) Tennis 27 x 78 feet (single) 2 36 x 78 feet (double) 6oxi2ofeet 7,200 4 Tether Tennis Circle 6 feet diam. 20 x 20 feet 400 2 Volley Ball 30 x 60 feet 40 x 80 feet 3,200 12-16 Track and Field. A one-quarter track laid out in an oval with 330- foot sides and a radius of approximately 105^ feet will enclose approxi- mately 2.3 acres measuring from inner border of the track. A one-half mile track with 66o-foot sides and a radius of 210.0841 feet will enclose approximately 9.5 acres. Spaces for various field sports may be laid out within the oval of the running track. Swimming Pool. Artificial pools may be of any size or shape. Some pools operated by park and recreation systems have as much as three acres of water surface. Such a pool would accommodate considerably over four thousand bathers at one time, allowing thirty square feet per bather. Fifty by one hundred and fifty feet are the dimensions frequently used for out- door pools. (For a discussion of swimming pool construction with photo- graphs and plans, see "Construction Notes," Chapter V, pages 358 to 374.) The Layout of Neighborhood Play fit Ids. A properly planned neighborhood playfield will have approximately five distinct sections or areas in the layout. They would be as follows: 1. Children's Playground, the layout of which should follow the plans as outlined in the section in this chapter on children's playground. 2. Girls'' and Women's Play and Athletic Field.1 This should be divided into two sections — a very small area devoted to various kinds of outdoor gymnastic apparatus and a platform 30 x 40 feet for dancing; a major area devoted to game facilities like volley ball, basket ball, tennis and croquet, and a free area devoted to playground ball diamonds and a hockey field. There should also be a short running track and jumping pits. 3. Boys' and Men's Play and Athletic Field. This should be divided into two sections, a very small area devoted to various kinds of outdoor gymnastic apparatus, and a major area devoted to game facilities like volley ball, basket ball, playground ball, handball, tennis courts, baseball 1 As a rule in the case of tennis courts and some other game areas, only one set of facilities is provided used, in common by both sexes. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 135 diamond or diamonds, and an area which may be used for football, soccer, and in the winter for skating. There should be a running track, four laps to the mile if possible, enclosing the field used for football and soccer. In this field provision should be made for facilities for the regular field events. 4. Area for Location of a Community House or Field House. The dis- tinction between a community house and a field house in this book has already been noted (page 45). The area necessary for either of these struc- tures will depend, of course, on the size of the building. Either of these buildings should be set back from one side of the playfield ten, twenty or forty feet, depending on the size of the field, so as to give a proper setting, and should be so located that it will be readily accessible from all the divi- sions of the playfield. Sometimes a proper setting would be on the line marking the division between the boys' and men's athletic and games area and the areas devoted to the athletic and games field for the women and girls and the children's playground. The interior arrangements possible in community houses and field houses are discussed in the Chapter on "Construction Notes" (pages 397-399). The site for the swimming pool should as a general rule be a part of the area set aside for the community or field house. If not an integral part of the layout of this area, whereby the baths, lockers, and dressing rooms are located within the community house or the field house, it should at least be within the area set aside for structures, that is, within fairly close prox- imity to the community house or the field house. Wherever the site of a junior high school or a senior high school is large enough to serve the purposes of a neighborhood playfield these buildings, especially if they are modern, will possibly provide all the essential facilities of a community house and a field house. There are instances where modern grade schools have both sites large enough and indoor facilities ample enough to serve as well equipped playfield centers. 5. Parked or Landscaped Area or Areas. A definite area should be set aside in all playfields of ten acres or more for the development as a small neighborhood park. This should be equipped with benches, tables, band stand and drinking fountain or fountains. It may be possible so to con- struct the band stand that it may be used for a small outdoor theatre. Not infrequently, areas of the neighborhood playfield type may naturally possess a wooded area, and often the topography is such that a natural outdoor theatre is possible. In the selection of areas for playfields it is desirable to secure properties that already possess a combination of natural landscape and open fields. It may seem incongruous to suggest a neighborhood park as a part of a neighborhood playfield because the purposes of such a park are so distinct from the purposes of a playfield, but many people secure 136 PARKS great enjoyment from watching the children and young people play and gain rest and relaxation at the same time. The main idea, however, in suggesting this is that people of all ages prefer to play and take their recreation amidst surroundings that are naturally beautiful, and where they can comfortably rest and relax after vigorous exercise. There is no par- ticular reason why the very little children's playground should not be located in the parked area and the apparatus for the children's playground located in the edge of it adjacent to their open space for play. The space in front of the building should be landscaped and shrubbery planted wherever possible about other sides of the building. It is desirable that the entire area be planted with a border of trees and shrubbery, the width of which depends on the size of the playfield. Single or double rows of trees along the lines marking the various space divisions of the active recreation areas add greatly to the attractiveness of the entire playfield. In general all spaces not definitely used for active organized play and recreation should be landscaped in some simple fashion. Examples of Suggested Divisions of Playfield Areas of Different Sizes. No definite rule can be made for the proportion of a playfield which should be allotted to each of the five suggested divisions. It is practically impossible to provide all five areas on a site of less than ten acres. A reason- able ratio between the three areas used for active recreation might be to have the area for young men and boys equal that allotted to both the chil- dren's and the women's areas. Naturally the area for buildings will be comparatively constant, regardless of the total area of the playfield. The proportion given over to park areas will usually be increasingly greater, the larger the total playfield area. The following division of a seven-acre playfield has been suggested by Arthur A. Shurtleff, Landscape Architect for the Boston Park Department.1 It will be noted that no provision is made in this division for the older girls and women except for tennis. Two full-size ball diamonds are listed under the men's section, although the outfields will overlap excessively if only three acres are allowed for them. Playfield of seven acres. a. Space for two full size ball diamonds, which space can also be used for a regulation football field with room for a locker building and bleachers, about 3 acres b. Space for children's playground with trees, swing shelter and play area large enough for basket ball \% acres- c. Add to (a) or (b) space for two tennis courts in districts where patrons of the games are to be found, about % acre d. Park space separated from the playground spaces, and containing trees, shrubbery, small lawns, foot paths, and space for many outdoor seats, about 2 acres 1 Report of Future Parks, Playgrounds and Parkways, Boston, November 1925, page 35. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 137 Suggestions for space divisions in areas of larger size follow: Playfield of ten acres. a. Space for children's playground, about 2 acres b. Space for women's and girls' athletic field, about 2 acres c. Space for men's and boys' athletic field, about. ..." 4 acres d. Space for small park, about I acre e. Space for community house, swimming pool, and additional parking, about I acres Playfield of twenty acres. a. For children's playground, about 3 acres b. For women's and girls' athletic field, about 4 acres c. For men's and boys' athletic field, about 6 acres d. For park and parking, about 6 acres e. For site for community house and swimming pool and grounds adjacent, about. . . I acre Some General Considerations Relative to Layout of Playfield Areas. 1. Pleasure Driveways. Pleasure driveways should never be permitted in neighborhood playfield areas, no matter how large those areas may be. Only such service driveways as are absolutely essential to maintenance and operation of the playfield should be introduced into the design. 2. Fencing. In congested residential sections of cities, playfield areas will generally have a minimum acreage, that is, they will rarely ever be over ten acres, and very few will be as large. In such situations it is highly desirable that the total area be fenced with a strong woven wire or iron picket fence at least seven feet high. This is for the purpose of better disciplinary control, protection of apparatus, structures, and border plan- tations. For purposes of better organization control and to give more exclusiveness to girls, women and children, it is desirable that fences sepa- rate the various space divisions of the playfield area. If plantations are used as borders between various space divisions the fences will also serve as a measure of protection. In residential districts composed chiefly of one-family houses it is not so important to introduce a border fence into the design, although if the area is comparatively small it is desirable to have it fenced. It would likely be quite possible in districts of low density of population to establish and maintain border plantations without the protection afforded by a fence. 3. Path-ways. As a rule all pathways in playfield areas should run in straight lines except in the space allotted to a park. A good position for such pathways is on the lines marking the various space divisions. How- ever, it might be possible in the larger areas to lay out the games and sports areas in the form of large ovals with plantations of trees around them and the pathways laid down with curved lines through the plantations. Neighborhood Playfield Plans. The accompanying plans — Plates 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56 and 57 — illustrate the design of a num- ber of neighborhood playfields and playfield-parks. An additional design I38 PARKS of a park with neighborhood playfield features will be found on page 183 of this chapter. The following plan for the improvement of Lynnhurst Field (see Plate 46) is typical of a number of modern playfields of about ten acres re- cently constructed in Minneapolis. The improvement of such a field costs between $75,000 and $100,000, depending upon such factors of the amount of grading and drainage necessary. The cost is paid for by the neighborhood in which the field is located, the assessments ranging from $70 for a 5O-foot lot adjacent to the park, to $10 for the lots located about a half mile from the playground. The cost of grading is usually about 40 cents a cubic yard, or a total of $30,000 to $40,000; of drainage, about $10,000; of water supply, approximately $1,200; of shelter building, from $i 2,000 to $16,000; of cement walks, steps and curbs, about $7,000; of four concrete tennis courts, approxi- mately $6,000; of playground equipment, about $15,000; of lighting, $3,000; of plantings, $5,000, and of engineering and contingencies, $3,000. lARD CH? PARK COMMISSIONERS MINNEAPOLIS MINNESOTA ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT PLATE No. 46 DESIGN OF A NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYFIELD-PARK, LYNNHURST FIELD, MINNEAPOLIS PARK SYSTEM, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA One of the fundamental principles followed in the design of practically all of the neighborhood playfield-parks in Minneapolis is to surround the areas, especially those devoted to active recreation, with a wide border plantation. The effectiveness of this border is often enhanced both as a screen and as an adornment by depressing the major playing area or areas and raising the elevation of the borders. This plan also enables the playing areas to be more readily adapted to winter sports. The field houses are always located so that they are readily accessible from all the divisions and so they interfere as little as possible with a maximum active use of the total areas. This field of 8.268 acres is typical of the many neighborhood playfield-parks of about ten acres in the Minneapolis park system. Note the tables for checkers near the shelter house. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 139 140 PARKS SKJ rcH n >.-. TYPICAL D A NEIGHBOR PAR] VLODEJLN PLATE No. 48. SKETCH PLAN SHOWING TYPICAL DEVELOPMENT FOR A NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYFIELD-PARK AND MODERN SCHOOL PLAYGROUND (Design by L. D. Tilton, of Harland Bartholomew and Associates, St. Louis, Missouri.) This plan is distinguished by the wide range of provisions made for diverse types of recreation, children's play- ground, open areas for playing highly organized games, areas for archery, tennis, horseshoes and other minor sports, music concourse, field house and refectory, outdoor theatre, picnic grove, and ample opportunity for rest and enjoyment of natural beauty. The section indicated as "A Modern School Playground" is laid out according to a plan recommended by Bartholomew and Associates for school play areas. As a general rule, however, it is not desirable to have a major roadway running through a park-playfield of this type. It is especially objectionable if it passes close to the outdoor theatre. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 141 HOBOKLN - PARK, PLATE No. 49. DESIGN OF HOBOKEN PLAYFIELD-PARK, HOBOKEN, NEW JERSEY One of the properties of the Hudson County Park System, Hudson County, New Jersey. (Design by Charles N. Lowrie, Landscape Architect, New York.) The different features of this plan are referred to a main axis running east and west through the area. At the extreme west end of the park is a large athletic field for the use of older boys and men. It is depressed about eighteen inches below the level of the adjacent paths. This gives a more pleasing effect, protects those outside the field, permits the flooding of the field for skating, and makes for economy in the amount of fill. At the south end of this field, and separated from it by the main axis path, is a narrow strip equipped as an outdoor gymnasium for the older boys. East of this field and separated from it by a path are a ball field and playground for the younger boys and girls. A cinder running track surrounds the ball field. Narrow strips equipped with gymnastic apparatus for the girls extend above the south end of the park near this playground. The central feature of the park consists of a field house with a semi-detached band stand surrounded by a music court. The first floor of this field house may be arranged as an open pavilion in summer and may be con- verted into an enclosed hall in winter. Among the other facilities provided in the east end of the park are an ornamented lagoon, a wading pool for small children, an outdoor swimming pool and bathhouse, and semi-circular graveled areas along the lagoon suitable for the use of older people and family parties. This playfield is located in a region of great density of population and is surrounded by factories and railroad yards. Aside from the general excellence of the plan from the viewpoint of the variety of facilities for active recrea- tion, this playfield is distinguished by remarkable success in achieving beauty of landscape adornment by the use of shrubs, trees and flowers under conditions commonly believed impossible for growing things. It is a shining: rebuke to anyone who considers that it is impossible to make areas of limited extent attractive while at the same time providing a wide variety of active recreation facilities. Since this has been done here successfully under the: worst possible environmental conditions and subject to an extraordinary intensity of use, it can be done anywhere. 142 PARKS g I w X X I— I 2 < w 2 2 ^ I— I 03 k^< (LI 2 tj ns Q ^? W ^ I— I CTS fe y T3t-" >- U T3 « <- -r •g-S3 £.2 £ C/D ^j -— &0 nS w •S g" C " 11 c« u "O •3,Si'= U 'w to -c y n: •*-> rt o 5, W' 't>. ir, T3 « C <-> „,-« « rt +j u S 2^ 1 a^ bo-cTc-1 ^ § •§83 g^J ri'i u 0) rt 0-C u <*- 4-J U Jsi- 2 "O v- J O O O o u fe-^s •^"O-T: • -s DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 143 00 i~-v *-~\ fl> f-l M "H § u .gfc G Qrt eS T3 ^S -. *-* K — c u « W W 'S cu ^"O >-4 '*3 b rr S 3 00 U 4-> (0 > 3 O s§L5 BBl ,'CT; § « l_ C — cj 8, £ glja rt J3 3 « o,aw 2 n, .5 s . " w »- c e-g-" . >. TI 3 rt— ] S •*> C C u C Q s ca c« ij « Z 'S I-^-Q! r\ s, ^ t- u +j ^** ii W) w i> ^x X 3"P = _ C rt O 8«^ ii"5 * O «v-, '^ C « 60_, co •- ^G ^ u O £X £ w co M C u < S' 146 PARKS PLATE No. 54 AN AIRPLANE VIEW OF A PORTION OF THE FLEISHHACKER PLAYFIELD, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Distinguishing features of the playfield, which has an area of 60 acres, are as follows: Swimming Pool and Bathhouse. The swimming pool is 1,000 feet long by 100 feet wide, with an offset in the center section 150 feet wide by 100 feet in length, which has been so designed as to accommodate 5O-yard straight- away races, water polo, and other swimming events requiring arbitrary spaces. This section has an average depth of six feet. The pool in its entirety has a depth graduated by a uniform slope, with a maximum of nine feet on the north and three feet on the south end. At the north end there is also a diving section 50 feet square and 14 feet deep equipped with diving towers. The capacity of the pool is 8,000,000 gallons of salt water, affording a surface sufficient for 10,000 bathers at the same time, with appliances for filling and refilling rapidly. The retaining walls are of reinforced concrete with the submerged surfaces so treated as to be completely proof against the action of salt water, thereby ensuring its sanitation as well as permanency. The bathhouse on the ocean side of the pool contains 800 dressing rooms, hundreds of steel lockers, fresh water showers and ample rest rooms on the first floor, while on the second floor are an elaborate cafeteria and ice cream saloon with entrances from the Sky Line Boule- vard. Approximately 1,000 full grown trees have been placed to protect the pool on the ocean side. A promenade 50 feet wide surrounds the pool which is further beautified by a bisecting strip of lawn, with an Alameda effect of pine trees 25 feet apart to furnish shade and shelter. Athletic Field. Closely adjoining the swimming pool is the athletic field, which is provided with five baseball diamonds and ten tennis courts. Children's Playground. In the more secluded section beyond the athletic field is the children's playground, most of which is heavily wooded. This is equipped with the usual playground equip- ment and in addition has a mammoth merry-go-round and a miniature railway. On the edge of this area is located "The Mothers' House." Picnic Grounds. In a still more secluded and shaded section of the playfield are the ample picnic grounds. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS '47 FOLWELL PACK PLATE No. 55. IMPROVEMENT PLAN OF FOLWELL PARK, MINNEAPOLIS PARK SYSTEM, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA The total area of this property is 26.75 acres. On this is an excellent example of combining a neighborhood playfield with a neighborhood park. The playfield contains all five of the divisions suggested for such an area and they are well arranged and proportioned. The field house is so located as to be readily accessible from every division. The entire playfield is surrounded by a wide border plantation. 148 PARKS <5 si 8KI if : §§ < S!P nif iJ < 03 22 X ^ bo e .= c £ . - T3 OJ 3 " I -C S O 5 £ ±! 60 O 4) 3 — O » o to O C _c , op o.S jfe ° g ^ J 0 is, ^ -^ 5? o bJ-a c ••-- v«» ; " WAJ -^ sjl-l! S'iSdg t]j C 4J "a 4! •5 -S>O 5 cs1^; t**3 T3 o c a, ° g o rt 3 S O « * » d S • O £ v w .5 ^-^ 4) '^ 3 J3 C 2 ^ n . u 'o .4) ' 4) OJ DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 149 KINGSLAND POINT PARK VESTCBE4.T-EK C O V N T Y PARK COMMISSION B R O N X V I I I. K N Y PLATE No. 57. KINGSLAND POINT PARK, TARRYTOWN, NEW YORK Property of the Westchester County Park Commission. This playfield-park of 93 acres has some of the characteristics of a large park. It provides abundant facilities for land and water sports, as well as opportunities for the more quiet forms of recreation. Note the many struc- tures for the use of persons using the various park units — bathhouse, boathouse, shelter near auditorium, field house near athletic field and the "Community Service House" near children's playground. Ample parking space is provided near bathing beach. The area set aside for the picnic grove borders on the river and is apart from the other areas. Much of this park area was in marsh land. The lake was made by dredging and the materials taken from it were used for filling the playground area at the southerly end. 150 PARKS MISCELLANEOUS ACTIVE RECREATION AREAS 1. Athletic Fields.1 As here considered an athletic field is an area separate and apart from all other areas in a park and recreation system and devoted exclusively to the major and minor organized games and to track and field sports. It has already been noted that athletic fields appear as parts of the design of neighborhood playfield-parks. They may also be found as parts of the design of large parks. Frequently they are provided on high school and junior high school sites. Wherever found, however, their general design, if fully developed, will include the following features: (a) Large open space for running track and ball games requiring com- paratively large areas such as baseball, football and soccer. (b) Smaller space or spaces for games requiring limited area such as tennis, basket ball, volley ball, quoits and horseshoes. (c) Area for seating accommodations — grand stand, bleachers. (d) Site for field house and surrounding grounds. The facilities that a field house is designed to provide are sometimes made a part of the design of the grand stand. (e) Area for parking passenger vehicles. (/) High fence entirely around the area or at least that part of the area designed for competitive contests to which an admission fee is charged. This fence may be of wood, concrete, brick or stone. Occasionally a fence of heavy woven wire or iron pickets may be used. To these features might be added another part of the design, a space or spaces given over to landscape treatment. It may be asserted that there is no athletic field, even of a minimum area, that does not present some possibilities of landscape treatment although it may be nothing more than the planting of a row of trees around the area. For details as to design and construction of athletic fields of various sizes see Chapter V on "Construction Notes," pages 316-341. 2. Stadiums. The stadium is a highly specialized type of athletic field chiefly dis- tinguished from ordinary formal athletic fields by unusual provisions for seating accommodations. While the stadium may be and is used in the United States for various community gatherings involving a variety of activities, its general design is determined more by the requirements of certain types of games and sports than by any other uses. By far the majority of the stadiums are general purpose stadiums, that is, they are 1 The term "athletic field" is generally used in a very loose sense throughout the country. It is often used to refer merely to an open space where ball games such as baseball, football and soccer are played, with no running track or provisions for minor games. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS HAZ.AT&D 5T J»».»-L l '^__— v ~" ' AAseeAUL- >J" !*»•> | FOOT BAJ.C L. "" *> M/OODHEAD ST JIOU^TOH INDtPENOtNT 3CHOOL DISTRICT LAMIIR. NIO& HiaM 5cnoot. flooirow -Tt» AS 3AUTHO 1 r hM*4'**M«iMMBMfcMWA»^CJTy MI»S^M PLATE No. 58. PLAN FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SIDNEY LANIER JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL, HOUSTON, TEXAS The dimensions of the entire site are 518 x 725 feet, comprising approximately 8.6 acres, of which five acres are given over to the athletic field. The areas for the various games and sports are well arranged. It will be noted that all of the essential features with the exception of the parking space are provided including the landscaped area. The school building serves the purpose of a field house. 152 PARKS designed for the practice, exhibition and viewing of several types of games and sports such as baseball, football, soccer, and track and field sports. There are a few designed for the playing of special games such as the Yale Bowl for football and the Forest H^ills Stadium for tennis. All the municipal stadiums existing at the present time are general purpose stadiums. The original Greek stadium took its form primarily from the require- ments of track and field sports. These same requirements to a very large degree determine the general design of most of the stadiums in America, although to the original purpose of the stadium has been added the playing of several types of highly organized competitive games. The general design of a running track layout is that of an elongated oval within the inner borders of which there is ample space for laying out the playing areas necessary for football, baseball, soccer, and various types of field sports. There is sometimes sufficient space to provide some minor game areas. A few stadiums have a playing area within the track large PLATE No. 59 A SECTION OF STADIUM, BROOKSIDE PARK, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA This stadium seats 52,250 but can be expanded to seat 75,000. The field is 275 feet wide and 475 feet long. The entire stadium area covers 14 acres. There are 20 tunnel entrances and two portal entrances; 60 rows of seats at one end and 78 rows on the sides. It is open at one end and elliptical in shape. This illustrates the use of mounds to support the seat tiers which rest on embankments formed by excavation and dirt fill. The retaining walls and tunnels are of concrete and seats are of wood. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 153 enough for laying out a polo field. The average stadium has a total playing area sufficient to amply accommodate the conventional quarter-mile running track. The general design of the seating plan, which is one of the most char- acteristic features of stadiums, follows closely in plane outline the design of the running track. The seating plan may be so designed as to enclose entirely the playing area, to enclose two sides and one end, or two sides, leaving both ends open. Some so-called stadiums have a seat- ing deck along one side only. In order to secure a two hundred twenty-yard straight-way in a stadium enclosed entirely by the seat decks it is generally neces- sary to tunnel through the seat tiers at one end. The determining factor in the design of the seating plan is visibility for the spectator, which requires that the seats be con- structed in steplike tiers and be grouped so that as many as pos- sible of the spectators have the best possible view of the activi- ties on the field. Most of the stadium seat decks have been constructed on a uniform plane around the playing area. It is suggested that more attention be given to the design of the seating plan with respect to visibility than has hitherto been the case. Unfortunately, in general purpose stadiums it is not entirely possible to satisfy the best requirements for viewing baseball on the one hand and football and track and field sports on the other. The most desirable points for viewing foot- ball are on either side of the field opposite the center. It so happens that a stadium well designed for viewing football or soccer is also efficient for viewing track and field sports. For viewing baseball the vantage points of visibility differ decidedly from the best points for viewing football. Because of orientation and in order to secure sufficient playing areas the location of the diamond must be at an angle at one end of the arena. Spectators, in general, prefer seats along the first base line, next behind home plate and next along the third base line. If baseball were viewed by as large crowds as generally attend PLATE No. 60 ILLUSTRATING ONE USE OF A LARGE STADIUM OTHER THAN FOR COMPETITIVE ATHLETICS Five thousand school children participating in a Field Day, Tacoma Public School Stadium, Tacoma, Washington. This stadium is an example of the use of a natural slope for the support of seat tiers. The concrete amphitheatre seats 40,000 people and the record attend- ance is reported to be more than 60,000. 154 PARKS PLATE No. 61. MUNICIPAL STADIUM, LYNCHBURG, VIRGINIA This stadium is located in center of city. Seats 8,000. Opened for use under the supervision of the Depart- ment of Recreation and Playgrounds, October 1926. PLATE No. 62 THE POINT STADIUM AND RECREATION CENTER, JOHNSTOWN, PENNSYLVANIA Excellently adapted to viewing baseball games. This photograph taken during a football game illustrates the choice of seats for viewing this sport. Most of the seats rest on a framework of reinforced concrete, although one section rests on a natural slope. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 155 football games these considerations would call for a modification of the seating design with the provision of more seats at the vantage points men- tioned above. However, the seating plan usually followed in the general pur- pose stadium meets fairly satisfactorily all necessary seating requirements. The municipal stadium at Johnstown, Pennsylvania, is an excellent illus- tration of a type of seating design admirably adapted to viewing baseball but less suitable for viewing football. (See Plate 62, page 154.) There are three general methods of handling the problem of supports for the seat tiers. These are: (i) using natural slopes as in Tacoma High School Stadium; (2) constructing mounds as in the case of the Baltimore, Maryland, and Columbus, Georgia, stadiums; (3) erecting a framework of reinforced concrete as in the Chicago Stadium. Sometimes more than one method is used in different parts of the stadium. Of these three methods the first and second are better from the stand- point of general park design. By using these methods even so huge a struc- ture as a stadium usually is can be handled somewhat in harmony with the ideals of park treatment. The loss in three methods is that there is no space under the seat decks for all the needed indoor facilities, thus necessi- tating the construction of a special field house as at Baltimore. It may, of course, be possible to construct cellarlike rooms in the embankment under the seats but this is not as desirable as having a special field house. There appears to be no special reason why the first row of seats should be elevated several feet above the field. The occasion for such an arrange- ment in ancient stadiums was often real, but there is no such element of danger in the use of modern stadiums. By locating the first row nearly on a level with the field considerable economy of space is attained and it may not be so necessary to extend the tiers of seats so high. At regular intervals there should be openings through the seat tiers on the ground level for the proper circulation of air. Some stadiums in this country are almost unbearable both to the players and spectators on a hot afternoon because of lack of provision for air circulation. For a stadium with both ends open this provision is not so necessary, although it is desirable for the purpose of securing cross currents of air. In the installation of water pipes and sewers in stadiums it is desirable to make the capacity at least one-third larger than the normal demands will require. Few stadiums erected in this country have not been taxed at times far beyond their capacity in this respect, creating very unfortunate conditions and suffering among the spectators, due to the inadequate capacity of these facilities. i56 PARKS 3. Golf Courses. Everyone knows that the game of golf consists of striking a golf ball with the purpose of getting it into a series of holes that are placed at varying distances upon the course, in as few strokes as possible. To facilitate the following out of this purpose, the course is arranged so that a good play is rewarded and a poor one penalized, and so that everyone who plays may, as far as possible, be kept interested. Moreover, an effort is made to elim- inate as much as possible the element of chance, i.e., if the player has made a poor shot, it must be impossible for him to land his ball on the green in the same number of shots as players who have made a better showing. n^H 4 it-Hii | 'T ' . _ 7T. ~~ PLATE No. 63 FLOOR PLAN; OF GOLF CLUBHOUSE ON THE MUNICIPAL GOLF LINKS OF THE PARK AND RECREATION DEPARTMENT, DALLAS, TEXAS As shown byjthe plan, the facilities in this building are conveniently arranged and no space is wasted. As a rule it is advisable, on account of the moisture, to have the showers in an enclosed room, separate from the locker room. See page 162 for picture of clubhouse. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 157 A golf course is composed of a certain number of what may be called units, nine or eighteen of them, determined by the number of holes in the course. Each of these units has a start and a finish --the "tee" and the "green" - the former the point from which the ball is driven, the latter the point to which it is driven. This putting green at the end of the unit consists of a carefully main- tained area of smooth, closely cut turf, containing the hole. The greens may be level or slightly undulating, true, not full of excrescences, must be well drained, and should be arranged so that the "cups" can be changed around to distribute the wear. The most difficult greens are often fortified by pits of sand dug into them as hazards. The greens are usually kept at about sixty feet in diameter, for to make them smaller adds to the difficulty of playing, concentrates the wear and the tendency to keep them in poor condition, and to make them larger adds to the expense of the course and to the encouragement of the careless player. In general the shorter the holes the smaller should be the greens. Putting greens may be of three general types as far as location is concerned; they may be placed in a valley, on a hillside, or on a hilltop. The first of these is probably the least interesting of the group because it is most easily approached and usually needs to be surrounded by traps to make it more difficult. It is difficult to approach a green upon a hilltop and for the ball to stay upon it when at last it has been gained, and there- fore this green may become a good sporting green. It is not desirable to place a green at the end of a long shot. The good view to be had from a hilltop green also adds to the player's interest. It is a kind, however, that is used rather infrequently, because of the expense of properly building it. A green upon the hillside is in some respects the most interesting, if it is designed to offset the curvature of the ball, and the tendency of the same, after a long drive, to roll away from the hole. A fair proportion of all three types should be introduced where possible, because of the variety of interest that they offer the players. Tees and greens of different units should not be too close together, because of the danger from flying balls both to players and spectators. Neither should they be more than one hundred or two hundred feet apart as a general thing, because the distance would unduly impede the progress of the game. Strictly speaking, the ground that lies between the tee and the green (exclusive of hazards) is known to the player as the "through-the-green." The elements that compose it are the "fair-green" (or fairway) and the "rough." The first of these constitutes the fine playing surface, lying midway between the teeing ground and the putting green. The second of 158 PARKS these, the "rough," which is somewhat of a hazard, is made up of patches of uncut grass and sections of uneven ground, that are located on either side of the "fair-green" and generally for a considerable distance in front of the tee. The purpose of the "rough" is to penalize the shot that is too short or off direction. Although hazards are not technically considered as part of the " through- the-green," yet they do lie within it, and can be discussed conveniently at this point. Hazards are introduced for the purpose of adding zest to the game, by interfering with the course of the ball from poorly played shots. They may be either natural or artificial in character. They may take the form of a bunker (which is a mound of earth or an embankment), of a sand trap, pond, stream, marsh, road, fence or tree. There is apparently no well- defined practice when it comes to the location of these. The most important thing to remember is that they should not occur in such positions as to catch good plays. They should be so placed that they are not a monoto- nous repetition of similar positions over the course. They should be introduced not further than one hundred and fifty yards from the tee because, so placed, they constitute a penalty that is too severe, and give the advantage only to the very long driver. They should never be more than ten or twenty yards from the direct line to the hole, because bunkers off the fairway are not likely to be interesting. The location of hazards around greens is an important consideration, because greens that are guarded by bunkers of one kind or another are made more difficult and interesting since they compel pitch shots upon the PLATE No. 64 A COMBINED GOLF CLUBHOUSE AND PARK SERVICE BUILDING, CREDIT ISLAND PARK, DAVENPORT, IOWA DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 159 approach and more accurately placed shots. Four general arrangements are in use, the "bottle-neck" arrangement with ramparts on both sides of the green, causing the opening between the hazards to be narrow; the one-sided arrangement with a bunker on one side only; the back hazards that give the appearance at least, if not in fact, of the green's being well protected; and the circular or all-around scheme, in which the green is entirely enclosed by bunkers. This is the most difficult of the four types to play and therefore one of the most interesting. The location of the course with relation to the natural hazards should be considered with care. Water hazards, for example, should not occur so that they will involve compulsory carries that are too long, as they are apt to be the cause of too many lost balls, too much congestion along the course, and of too much discomfort to the short driver. The proper construction of the hazards is almost as important as the proper location of them. Artificial hazards must be so constructed as to stop every ball hit into them and to allow the player to extricate a ball in one well-played shot. They must penalize by causing a loss of distance but not by completely crippling the player. Their size and character will depend in large measure upon the amount of money that is available to construct them. The ordinary type of artificial hazard is the bunker, which consists of a sand pit lying in front of a cop or rampart of earth. When the cop is high and the pit before it is narrow, the bunker is rendered unplayable. When the reverse is the case where the cop is low and pit is wide, it becomes an insufficient penalty. In general the wider the pit, the higher should be the cop. A satisfactory ratio of average depth to width will prove to be about one to four. The ramparts should not be constructed to such a height that they prevent the player who is playing a position close to the bunker from sizing up a shot to the green. This places too much of a premium upon local knowledge of the course. The main objection that applies to the construction of artificial haz- ards in the past is that they have assumed an appearance too stiff and geometrical in effect. They are immeasurably better when naturalistic in character and more nearly in the spirit of the surrounding landscape. The various holes or units comprising the course may follow different directions or lines of play, and in so doing may be made to fit a large variety of needs. They may be arranged in a clockwise or in a counter-clockwise manner, they may wander back and forth over the ground ad libitum, and at all sorts of angles, or they may see-saw or parallel each other and verge dangerously upon the edge of monotony, for the parallel arrangement is the least interesting of all. Under no circumstances, however, is the crossing of the line of play from one hole to another allowable. i6o PARKS The clockwise plan accomplishes two important results. Where the course moves around in the direction of the hands of a clock, the club property of necessity lies to the right, and because of the tendency of the average player to slice the ball and cause it to fly off to the right, this tends to keep the golf balls upon the grounds. Also, conducting a player around the tract, as this scheme succeeds in doing, it gives him varied scenery as well as varied play. PLATE No. 65. PLAN OF GOLF CLUBHOUSE, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA This building was constructed in 1923-24 at a cost of $16,678. Facilities are well arranged, with separate shower rooms. If positions of showers and toilets were interchanged, a slight advantage might be gained. The ample terrace takes the place of club facilities which are not provided in the building. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 161 It is often possible to use the counter-clockwise scheme between the ninth and eighteenth holes following the clockwise arrangement used in the first half of the course. Sometimes a change of direction within single units or lines of play may be introduced, through the medium of angles and turns in the fair- green known as "doglegs." The essential things to keep in mind about them are that they should be placed so that the ball of the good player will land, upon the first or second shot, at a distance of from one hundred and fifty to two hundred or even four hundred yards from the tee. The angle of turn is usually obtuse, though it may be a right angle. There should be a radius of leeway allowed at each turning, so as to permit the player to exceed or fall short with his shot by a slight distance without penalty. Groups of trees ought to mark the bounds of this area so as to make it more easily distinguishable. A "dogleg" is not placed at the first hole, because anything that tends to hold up play is undesirable at this part of the course (as noted later). As many as one-third of the fair-greens may be in the form of these angles or turns. As to orientation, a change of direction in the line of play is often affected by the probable glare of the sun. North and south plays are safest from the annoyance of the morning and afternoon sun. East and west ones are not so pleasant. The need for variation in direction of lines of play is accompanied by the need for variation in the lengths and distances. There are long lines of play and short ones as well as various kinds between, some of them designed to afford interest and variation, others to test skill, and still others to "hurry the course." Obviously interest and variation will be missing if successive lines of play are similar in length. Tests of skill will be lacking where simple shots are too numerous; and on the other hand, if shots are too long and too difficult, the players will soon become exasperated. Short holes should be hard and interesting, should not succeed each other and should not be too numerous — not more than a total of five in an eighteen-hole course. The longer holes serve mostly to test a player's ability and to speed the course. The last of the first nine holes and the last of the second nine are desirable places to stage tests of skill. In fact, the last three holes of a course might well be severe tests. The first and second holes may be rather long but should be free of unnecessary hazards, so as to get the players away from the clubhouse, thus avoiding congestion at the start. Whatever may be the length of play from tee to green, it is determined primarily by the number of strokes that are involved in covering the dis- tance. There may be three-, four-, five- (rarely six-) stroke holes which 162 PARKS PLATE No. 66 GOLF CLUBHOUSE AND STARTING BOOTH, MUNICIPAL GOLF COURSE, HERMANN PARK, HOUSTON, TEXAS This illustrates a very simple and inexpensive clubhouse for temporary use. PLATE No. 67. AN ATTRACTIVE TYPE OF GOLF CLUBHOUSE This was erected on the municipal golf links of the Park and Recreation Department, Dallas, Texas. (Designed by H. A. Overbeck, Architect, Dallas, Texas.) DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 163 means that so many shots are required to go from the tee to the hole. The number of strokes in turn will depend upon the kinds of shots that are made with different clubs in the hands of different players. It will be found, however, that an average in the number of strokes and in the distance can be assumed, and indeed must be assumed. For a three-par or three-shot hole (allowing two strokes upon the green) an average distance of from 1 20 to 234 yards may be negotiated by the average player. For a four-par hole (allowing two shots upon the green) an average distance of from 330 to 424 yards may be attained. In connection with a four-par hole it is best to avoid lengths of from 260 to 330 yards as they cannot be reached in one good and can be negotiated in two bad strokes, which obvi- ously has the effect of giving undue advantage to the bad player. The latter yardages constitute what are known as "leveler holes," which, being neither long nor short, give both good and bad players equal chance. The greens of the latter usually are given special interest by being well fortified with hazards. For a five-par hole (including two plays on the green) an average dis- tance of from 425 to 595 yards is usually possible. In speaking of these shorts it is necessary to differentiate between "par" and "bogey." By the former is meant theoretical perfection in the number of strokes for a hole. The latter has reference to a good average score, the number of strokes in which a good player might reasonably be expected to make each hole. When the lines of play have been decided upon in plan, the widths of the fairway must be properly considered. It is customary to have them not less than 150 feet, when near a hazard 200 feet, and where between trees, 250 feet clearance should be allowed. They should be cut into irregular curves, gradually becoming wider where long drives arrive. This information, and what has preceded it, should enable one to pro- ceed with the preliminary layout of the course. Some persons with con- siderable experience behind them can locate lines of play upon the ground without a preliminary plan on paper. Such persons are very rare. Others find it convenient and necessary to have a complete topographic survey to work upon. Schemes to facilitate preliminary study upon paper are nu- merous. One of these consists of using colored strips of paper to varying average lengths of holes, so as to total an average of 73 shots in an i8-hole course and a total of 6,000 to 6,400 yards. These strips to begin with may be in eighteen such lengths as the following: 130, 160, 190, 220, 250, 330, 345, 36o, 375, 390, 405, 420, 435, 450, 470, 500, 530, and 560 yards. Tenta- 164 PARKS lively these slips may be tacked in place upon the contour map and later moved, enlarged upon, or shortened wherever adjustments seem necessary.1 Golf Clubhouse and Grounds. On every golf course a special area of varying size as among courses must be set aside from the fields of active playing of golf for certain service activities and needs connected with the conduct of the course. Unless some other very vital considerations enter into the selection of this area it should be located as near as possible to the main line of travel to the golf park. The most prominent feature of the design of this particular area, and an essential feature of the design of the golf course in general, is the club- house. The size of this structure on existing golf courses ranges from a very simple inexpensive structure designed primarily for shelter to a large structure with all the facilities and equipment of a true clubhouse. For illustrations and floor plans of several types of golf clubhouses now in use on municipal courses see Plates 63-67 and Chapter V, pages 402-403. These, as will be noted, are for the most part examples of the more simple types of structures. The essential features of a comparatively small serviceable clubhouse include the following: locker rooms — small one for women and larger one for men; toilets; wash and bath facilities in close proximity to each locker room; office for the manager; small lunch room; storeroom pos- sibly including a small shop; general lounging room, and as an auxiliary to this an ample veranda on one or more sides of the building. The more elaborate golf clubhouses might include in addition a dining room and kitchen, large social hall suitable for dancing, card rooms, ladies parlor and other facilities. In general it is recommended that for the large majority of the munic- ipal golf courses the smaller type of clubhouse be constructed providing only those facilities necessary for the comfort and convenience of the players and manager. The reasons for this suggestion are: a golf course is intended primarily for outdoor activities and not for indoor social center activities; as there is generally a shortage of funds for the purpose of land and the construction of the entire course and its attendant service facilities, it is wiser to expend money that might be used for an elaborate clubhouse in the construction of the course proper; the management will not be dis- tracted by the problem of handling groups of people who care more for the social activities than for the playing of golf; the cost of maintenance will be lessened. In addition to accessibility to main lines of travel to and from the course, the location of the clubhouse and grounds should, if possible, take advantage of good views and fresh breezes, and conform to the design of 1 The information on golf courses which has been given here is taken from "The Design of Golf Courses," by Karl B. Lohmann, Landscape Architecture, October 1926. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 165 the course whereby the ninth and eighteenth greens will be in the vicinity of the clubhouse. Other divisions of the clubhouse grounds may include: an entrance which in design should conform to the best ideals of entrances to large parks; an ample parking space for automobiles; area for one or more tennis courts, although this is not absolutely essential; a shaded area for a chil- dren's playground where parents may leave their children while they are playing; an area for caddies when not on the course, equipped with a few simple pieces of gymnastic apparatus, horseshoe courts, basket ball goal and playground ball diamond; and possibly a site for a service structure housing golf supply, and repair shop and office for the caddy master, as occasionally such a structure is deemed desirable separate and apart from the clubhouse. Operation Service Structures. The maintenance of a golf course requires a considerable amount of machinery, tools and supplies, and for the proper care of these there should be an operating service house. This should be located in some incon- spicuous place on the course, preferably in a wooded section on courses having woodlands. Other Structures. For protection against sudden storms and for shady rest places as well as to aid in keeping the drinking water supply cool it is sometimes found desirable to erect small shelters at various tees. There is opportunity for the designer to exercise considerable skill in the design of these small struc- tures to the end that they will blend as harmoniously as possible into the landscape. Some General Comments Concerning the Laying Out of Golf Courses. Of all active recreation areas golf courses present the greatest oppor- tunity for harmonizing landscape beauty with active play. The design of a golf course is largely predetermined by the topography of the area, and the problems in design are as varied and different among courses as are the topographical conditions. However, there are certain general principles in designing golf courses that are more or less applicable to all courses. The designing of golf courses is a science in itself, and the remarkable development of the game in the United States has developed a group of experts in the design and construction of golf courses. The following are a few general principles concerning the laying out of golf courses: i. The golf architect should try to take advantage of any striking natural topographical features that give beautiful views, or that may add 1 66 PARKS to the enjoyment of the game by reason of the skill called for in overcoming these features. If the golf architect is not a skilled landscape architect it is very desirable that he have associated with him such an architect, not only for the benefit of the landscape architect's skill in noting existing scenic possibilities, but also in seeing the possibilities of creating new scenic resources. An instance of the latter was noted where young trees growing in a projected fairway, instead of being rooted up and burned, were care- PLATE No. 68 . PLAN MODEL OF A TWENTY-SEVEN HOLE GOLF COURSE IN GALLOPING HILL PARK, UNION COUNTY PARK SYSTEM, UNION COUNTY, NEW JERSEY The course occupies about two hundred and fifty acres. The fairways have been cut through wooded sections, and beautiful vistas meet the eye from almost every angle. The length of holes and the par value of each hole is shown by the following table: No. Length Par No. Length Par i 35° 4 IO 450 4 2 342 4 II 35° 4 3 450 4 12 150 3 4 1 60 3 13 480 5 5 530 5 H 433 4 6 435 4 15 208 3 7 375 4 16 375 4 8 217 3 17 417 4 9 460 5 18 452 5 Out 3,329 36 In 3.3IS 36 No. Length. Par i 358 4 2 385 4 3 185 3 4 310 4 5 170 3 6 385 4 7 580 5 8 35° 4 9 390 4 3, "3 35 Total 6,644 yards Par 72 Th ird Nine Holes 3,113 yards Par 35 DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 167 fully removed and transplanted on spaces between fairways, giving a delightful forestlike effect to this section of the course. Any unnecessary destruction of tree growth should be avoided. 2. A golf course should never start with a short hole for the reason that it slows the game at the very beginning. It is not desirable to intro- duce a short hole until the third or fourth hole, and never more than two in any public course of nine holes. 3. As a general rule, where a community has only one course, a design that makes play so difficult that only very good players or professionals find enjoyment in playing, should be avoided. Likewise it is debatable whether it is good economy to go to the expense of constructing a course of professional perfection for beginners or poor players to practice over. If a community has two or more courses one of them at least should be designed for the exercise of skilled play. 4. In so far as it is possible orient the fairways in a general northerly and southerly direction so as to avoid the rays of the morning and evening sun falling directly in the line of play. 5. A golf course should never be so located that one or more of the fairways run adjacent to or parallel to a heavily traveled highway, nor should a course be laid out where fairways will cross pleasure driveways or any other type of highway. These two serious faults are frequently found where golf courses are laid out in old landscaped parks whose original designs did not include such a feature as a golf course. In most of these situations noted throughout the country the systems of driveways should be replanned if the golf courses are to remain features of the parks. On the whole it is undesirable to introduce golf courses in a large city recrea- tion park unless the park is of such size that an area for golf can be set off completely from other parts of the park. 6. The layout of a golf course should never require players in going from a green to the next tee to cross the line of play on another fairway. Organized Camps.1 The laying out of an organized camp is city planning in miniature. It involves practically all the problems that are met in planning a small community. Some of the principles to be followed in planning an organized camp are: I. Surveys. In addition to boundary and topographical surveys those responsible for the selection of a camp site should make careful surveys of the following: water supply, general health conditions in the neighborhood, sources of fresh milk, meat, vegetables, etc., kinds and quantities of food 1 For a full discussion of a camp site planning see Chapter III, 'Camp Site Planning,' "Camping Out — A Manual on Organized Camping." The Macmillan Company. i68 PARKS PLATE No. 69. EXAMPLE OF A FORMAL LAYOUT OF A BOY SCOUT CAMP Mess hall and administrative headquarters grouped at one end of the immediate camp site. Officers' quarters at opposite end and so placed as to give view of the campus. Flag pole in front of the officers' tents. Water closet in rear of one line of sleeping quarters. Wash bench in rear of other line of sleeping quarters. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 169 supplies that can be secured in the neighborhood, and facilities for trans- portation. In planning the site, therefore, it is desirable to have the expert opinions of the following persons: an experienced camp director, a civil engineer, a sanitary expert, and a landscape architect, if there is to be a great deal of landscaping of the immediate site. It would probably be wise to consult also a building architect and a construction engineer. 2. Types of Camp Layouts. Among different types of camp layouts are: (a) The military plan. This consists of arranging the sleeping quarters in rows forming either streets or a hollow square with other facilities such as kitchen, dining hall, headquarters, hospital, etc., in a certain formal relation to the sleeping and living quarters. (See Plate 69, page 168.) (b) Council ring plan. This is a form of the military plan type with the living quarters arranged in the segment of a circle or an ellipse, the service structures being placed in a certain formal relation to the housing quarters. PLATE Xo. 70 TOPOGRAPHICAL PLAN LAYOUT OF MUNICIPAL CAMP, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA Sleeping quarters so arranged that no single unit has its view obstructed by another. Dining room, office and flag pole on lower ground. Water for camp taken from river far above camp. Camp lighted by electricity from its own hydroelectric power plant. 170 PARKS PLATE No. 71 SEMI-TOPOGRAPHICAL PLAN LAYOUT OF AN INDUSTRIAL RECREATION CAMP, LAKE WORTH RESERVATION, FORT WORTH, TEXAS Sleeping quarters on high ground; dining hall between two divisions of sleeping quarters. Well and water storage facilities on highest ground. Recreation hall in vicinity of games fields, games courts, and boating dock. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 171 (c) Topographical plan. No formal or semi-formal layout is followed in this plan, with the possible exception that the living quarters are grouped in one area of the site but scattered here and there in conformity to the peculiarities of the topography. Other structures will likewise be placed in conformity to topographical conditions. Very picturesque landscape effects may be produced by this plan. (See Plate 70, page 169.) 3. Location of Kitchen and Dining Hall. In general these structures should be located at least one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet distant from the sleeping quarters, and at least two hundred feet from the latrines or toilets, unless the latter are of the most modern type. 4. Location of Outside Latrines or Toilets. These should be located preferably to the rear, or to the right or left of the sleeping quarters and at least from seventy-five to one hundred feet from them. 5. Location of Cesspools, Septic Tanks and Toilets in Relation to the Water Areas. No cesspool, septic tank or privy toilet should be placed closer than one hundred feet to water areas used for domestic purposes and swimming, and a greater distance is desirable, especially if the subsoil be of limestone or other open formation. These facilities should always be located below the source of water supply for drinking and washing purposes, or at such a distance as to prevent any possible contamination. 6. Location of Wells and Springs. If possible the areas occupied by dwellings and all service facilities should be laid out below wells and springs which are the source of the water supply. The same principle should hold if the water supply is drawn from a running stream. In that case care should be taken to ascertain whether there are possible sources of con- tamination on the higher reaches of the stream. A knowledge of the geo- logical formation of the camp site is extremely important in determining the relative position of the water supply and the various structures of the camp and especially of the various facilities used for the disposal of sewage. 7. Location of Barn, Stable or Corral. Any structure or pen used for housing or confining livestock of any kind should be located at least six hundred to eight hundred feet from the sites occupied by the housing units and the kitchen and dining room. VERY SMALL OVALS, TRIANGLES, CIRCLES, TRAFEZOIDS, SQUARES The primary function of these areas, if they can be said to have any special function, is to adorn the vicinity in which they are located, and when numerous enough throughout a city, their ensemble effect is to adorn the city as a whole. Since they are too small to use effectively for any form of recreation, either active or passive, except occasionally as resting points, the problem of their treatment is entirely a landscape one. Such landscape 172 PARKS treatment as they may receive must necessarily be very formal and usually of a very simple nature. As these areas are generally closely related to the street plan they should be brought to the grade of the street parking strip or sidewalk and the entire area curbed and guttered as are the surrounding streets. This is a general rule. There may be exceptions as to topography now and then. Their plantings may include merely a simple lawn, or a lawn with one or more flower beds, or lawn and low growing shrubs, or lawn and one or more trees. Since they are usually located at street intersections, planting that will obstruct the vision of drivers of motor vehicles is not desirable. In congested sections of cities it is often exceedingly difficult to main- tain any kind of plantations on these areas, and for this reason they are sometimes completely hardsurfaced, either on a level with the surrounding streets, thus becoming a part of the street, or else hardsurfaced on a level with the sidewalks. In this case they become isles of safety for pedestrians and have some value, perhaps, in the prevention of automobile accidents by dividing the lines of traffic. If an attempt is made to adorn these areas in congested sections of a city with any kind of plantations, a strong fence entirely around the planted area becomes an absolute necessity. If the areas happen to be at important points of passenger transfer, a very practical way of treating them is to lay a sidewalk entirely around each area, erect a fence on the inner line of the walk and place the planta- tions inside the fence. Some very attractive effects have been secured in this way and with some degree of assurance that the plantations will not be destroyed. Sometimes, for the further comfort of persons waiting for a street car or bus, seats have been placed around the fence and either anchored to the fence or to the pavement, or to both. A rather common use to which these small areas is put is as sites for statues, monuments and small fountains. A few instances have been noted where a living Christmas tree has been grown in such an area. The following illustrations show examples of the treatment of a number of small areas of various shapes and sizes of a central parking strip. (See Plates 72,-77, pages 173-175.) DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 173 PLATE No. 72. THOMAS CIRCLE, WASHINGTON, D. C. Illustrating a simple treatment of a Circular Area. PLATE No. 73. COLONIAL COURT, UNION HILLS, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI This design by Hare & Hare illustrates the treatment of a "Court" Area. '74 PARKS PLATE No. 74 ILLUSTRATING TREATMENT OF A VERY SMALL CIRCLE AT INTERSECTION OF HEAVILY TRAVELED ROADWAYS PLATE No. 75 SIMPLE TREATMENT OF A SMALL OVAL AT INTERSECTION OF HEAVILY TRAVELED STREETS AND ROADWAYS DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 175 PLATE No. 76 ILLUSTRATING LANDSCAPE AND ARCHITECTURAL TREATMENT OF A TRIANGULAR AREA, WASHINGTON, D. C. PLATE No. 77 ILLUSTRATING TREATMENT OF A CENTRAL PARKING STRIP TRAVERSED BY STREET RAILWAY, WASHINGTON, D. C. 176 PARKS "INTOWN" OR NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS The wide range in size, shape and topography, and differences in the location of these areas, make it impossible to present anything of imme- diate practical value concerning their design in the limited space of a section of one chapter. The most that will be attempted will be to give a few general observations concerning their treatment, followed by illustrations and plans of some existing parks of this type. It was noted in Chapter II, page 35, that the primary functions of this type of park were to provide, in an environment of growing things, rest, relaxation and breathing places for the people of the area where they LDCHMANN GARDEN5 PLATE No. 78. THE FLEISCHMANN GARDENS, CINCINNATI, OHIO (Design by A. D. Taylor.) This is an excellent illustration of the recent development of an area of the neighborhood park type as a public garden. The area was formerly the site of the home of the late Julius Fleischmann and the grounds were already noted for the fine collection of flowers, shrubs and trees. This situation gave the cue to the present development of the area as a public garden. The area of this property is approximately three acres. (For a full description of the plan including cost estimates of development see Parks and Recreation, March-April 1926, pages 401-409.) DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 177 are located; adornment of these areas, and, under certain conditions, a limited amount of semi-active recreation. It cannot be too strongly emphasized that the first of these functions is the most fundamental one, and that all designing of these areas should proceed with this objective in view. In an age when millions of people are subjected to the high nervous tension of a commercial-industrial city civilization, the need of landscaped areas where some degree of beauty, peace and quiet can be found close to the homes of the people is even more important in some degree than the need for active recreation areas, although the people themselves may not always appreciate this fact. From this point of view the problems in design are chiefly problems for the landscape architect alone, although in some instances, as in the development of certain types of small waterfront parks, or waterfront promenades, the construction engineer may play a more important part. General Factors That May Influence Design. Perhaps one of the most important general factors influencing the design of intown parks is the factor of location. According to location they may be classified as follows: 1. Areas in those sections of urban communities where people congregate in large numbers because of public or private business or for social inter- mingling. Thus in both small and large communities an intown park may be found about a city hall, a courthouse or other public building. In other instances such parks may be found in industrial districts, and in sections devoted chiefly to shopping and the professions. Small waterfront parks and short or long waterfront promenades are a special type of the intown park where people are likely to go for social intermingling or to enjoy the fine views and cooling breezes. 2. Areas located in residential districts. As to the location of intown parks in residential districts a further differentiation may be made as affecting design. This differentiation is as follows: (a) Park areas in highly congested sections in cities, such as tenement or low grade apartment house districts. (b) Park areas located in the better class apartment house districts. (c) Park areas in residential sections where the people for the most part live in single family or dpuble family houses. The severe use given all these park areas, located in downtown sections of cities where people congregate in large numbers, and in tenement dis- tricts, demands a design of the utmost formality and simplicity. The same is likely to be true in factory districts also. While it is desirable to have a decorative and naturalistic treatment in these districts, the prac- I78 PARKS tical difficulties of making grass, flowers, shrubs and trees grow in such regions, and the especially difficult problem of protecting them from destruc- tion by the people themselves, make simplicity imperative. In sections of better class apartment houses a wider range of design may be possible, but in general a formal design will more likely be in harmony with the surrounding architecture than a park designed along more or less naturalistic lines. In residential districts of slight congestion a wide range of treatment may be possible, running from the severely formal to semi-formal and naturalistic designs. Naturalistic designs are especially possible and appro- priate in residential sections where the topography is broken, as is often GE,/\TEPAL PLAX "poR. EBDEJIG.N" op LIBRARY PARK , CiTXop PASADB/TA,CAL. ^s As FiAALty APPR.OVBD ^CALK^: UM. = 40 f T. :.:' BOAR.D op Cr AA W. WAD5UOR.TH,CH'/~V'/1 FRED PL. HARRIS . DIRECTORS fHA/IKLI/1 THOAA5.VICE. CHAiR/IA/1 JOH/I H SIAPSO/I fRAAKL /AA>' AACDOUGALL 3no\tt>ALL • C/- KOI/IE.R. ,CITV AA/iA&ER- • G.L.SKUTT, PA; y 6 H> ,LL , RALPH D. Connr.L L L HCBITECTI 6 CITY Pn/uiflc CMSULT- I.W.HtLinjui BLDO. LosA/isius. /! O B. T A R A_y/"\O /ID A V E.. PLATE No. 79. GENERAL PLAN OF LIBRARY PARK, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA (Cook and Hall, Ralph D. Cornell, Landscape Architects, Los Angeles.) This park of 5.53 acres is located near the center of the city. The heavy border plantings serve as a screen, and the trees and stretches of lawn create a restful effect. The music shell and court and picnic terrace are special recreation features. Note the generous provision of seats along the paths. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 179 the case along deep bedded streams or in hilly regions. Small parks of the naturalistic type may have more than a neighborhood appeal because of some particularly fine specimens of native tree growth, or because of fine views that may be had from a prominent elevation or other unusual con- ditions. In point of fact there are many intown parks of a natural char- acter that provide some of the conditions which are found at their best only in large parks and reservations. 3. Areas used by pedestrians. One other location factor is likely to affect the design of areas located in any of the above-mentioned divisions - the location of the park in such a position as will cause it to be used largely by pedestrians as a part of the general street plan. Examples of such locations are large triangles and circles at street intersections or where squares are located directly across street lines. In such locations the system of pathways and walks becomes of prime consideration, and arrangements for seats must not be such as to obstruct unnecessarily the movement of the people. The terminal points of the walks will need to be so designed as to connect with the adjoining street system in such a manner as to enable people to go, without too much wan- dering, directly to the point they desire. 4. Design as affected by some distinct educational-recreational purpose. Occasionally an area of the intown park type may be designed to serve some direct educational-recreational purpose. The Boston Public Gardens and the Fleischmann Gardens (Cincinnati) are examples, although in such instances they might properly fall into a separate and distinct classification of their own. Statuary in Intown Parks. All over the United States the small intown parks have been seized upon as sites for statues and monuments, and as repositories for cannon balls and cannon and various other things of supposedly memorial char- acter and value. To some extent such use of very formally designed down- town squares and plazas may have some justification, but on the whole the cluttering up of these spots has no justification from the standpoint of taste and certainly has no justification from the standpoint of the funda- mental purpose of the areas. The Use of Water in the Design of Intown Parks. The use of water in intown parks, either in the form of fountains, ponds, miniature lakes, running streams with cascades and falls, may be a most pleasing feature, for if skillfully handled it may contribute very much indeed to the fundamental purpose of these areas. A fountain that is not too active (and without too much architecture), the gurgle of a little water- i8o PARKS fall, the lazy flow of a stream, the placid peace of a pond or miniature lake, are all very conducive to that feeling of peace, repose and relaxation which the park should produce. Forms of recreation of a semi-active and active character that may be provided for in the design of Neighborhood Parks. When forms of semi-active and active recreation are considered in con- nection with the design of intown parks, the designer begins to tread on dangerous ground, for the reason that it is easy to do violence to the funda- mental purpose of these areas and transform entirely their primary char- acter. The introduction of one form of recreation leads to that of another and in this way properties of this type have been transformed into full- fledged children's playgrounds or neighborhood playfield-parks. As a general principle only those forms of semi-active and active recreation should be included in the design of neighborhood parks as will _ TO N PLATE No. 80 PLAN ILLUSTRATING THE DEVELOPMENT OF A DOWNTOWN PARK USED AS THE SITE FOR A CIVIC CENTER, LONGVIEW, WASHINGTON (Design by Hare & Hare.) DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 181 not seriously interfere with their primary purpose of providing maximum opportunity for rest, relaxation and repose or which are of such a nature as will not seriously interfere with the maintenance of the environmental characteristics conducive to those desirable physical and mental conditions. Some of the types of semi-active and active recreation that may possibly be considered in designing these areas are as follows: 1. Little children may be permitted to play at will about the lawns under the eyes of their mothers, nurses or older sisters, or a special pro- tected nook may be designed for them where a few simple pieces of equip- ment may be provided. 2. Games especially adapted to lawns and which may be played by both older children and adults, such as lawn croquet, hand tennis, etc., may be permitted. 3. Quiet games, such as checkers, dominoes and chess, which may be played by both adults and children. The equipment necessary consists of tables and benches scattered about the park. These are quite necessary for other purposes to which the park may be put. 4. Music, in the form of band concerts, solo and chorus singing, victrola and radio concerts, might properly be conducted in parks of this character. The essential equipment requires a band stand which might be so designed as to serve as a shelter with a storage place underneath the band stand floor. This structure might also be so designed as to serve as a small theatre, although a naturalistic stage would be more appropriate in this type of park. 5. Dramatics, in the form of small pageants, plays, small play festivals, might very appropriately be presented in these parks. A small naturalistic stage could more often be included in the design of those parks located in residential neighborhoods than has hitherto been the case. 6. In small communities and in neighborhoods of larger communities these parks may serve admirably for social gatherings of various kinds and also for public addresses and community or neighborhood celebrations. In some large cities the design of downtown squares provides special areas for public addresses. These areas are usually graveled and have no special provision for seating. In many communities of the country where the Spanish influ- ence prevails the downtown plaza or square is a genuine social center. In country communities all over the United States the downtown square serves much the same purpose. For all these purposes very little equipment of a material character foreign to the landscape environment is required. The most conspicuous would be a combined shelter and band stand, seats and perhaps a few tables. In the larger intown parks throughout the country there are numerous 182 PARKS rt -o BLS Sc-y DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 183 examples of the introduction of more active recreation facilities into the design. The "frog pond" in Boston Common is a very interesting feature of this historic intown park, as is the battery of tennis courts, and even a baseball field. Many such parks have fully developed children's play- grounds. The introduction of such features may perhaps be countenanced where the area is so large that the spaces set aside for active recreation are only a minor part of the entire park area. When these active recreation areas begin to assume a position of major importance as to space occupied, the park passes over into the character of a neighborhood playfield-park and ceases to be a true neighborhood park, although it may retain some of the characteristics of such a park. It has already been pointed out that wherever possible a playfield-park should have a section that is entirely landscaped and designed to serve as a neighborhood park. Plans of Neighborhood Parks. Throughout the section on Intown or A TYPICAL NEIGHBORHOOD AN ABEA OF TWENTY- FIVE ACCK . tocuincT PARK Copyright, Underwood & Underwood Photo Service, Washington, D. C. PLATE No. 82. PLAN FOR "A TYPICAL NEIGHBORHOOD PARK" (O. J. Haslett Bell, Landscape Architect, Atlanta, Georgia.) This idealistic conception of a neighborhood park of 25 acres shows the relative position and space allotted to the three divisions: (i) a "real park area," (2) a "playground and community area," and (3) a "buffer area" between the noisy and quiet sections. The park area occupies most of the space and offers vistas across lawn and water. The playground areas are for directed play of children not over twelve years of age. It is assumed that older children and adults will have the use of facilities elsewhere. Band pavilion, rose garden and community building are other important features of this typical plan. A plan of a neighborhood park adjacent to a neighborhood playfield will be found on page 147 of this chapter. 1 84 PARKS Neighborhood Parks are to be found plans and illustrations of a number of neighborhood parks which show some of the many methods of developing this type of park property. These plans include the following: Fleischmann Gardens, Cincinnati (p. 176), Library Park, Pasadena (p. 178), Downtown Park used as a site for a civic center, Longview, Washington (p. 180), Katherine Chappell Memorial Park, Middletown, New York (p. 182), Typical Neighborhood Park, Atlanta, Georgia (p. 183). LARGE PARKS In general there is nothing in the design of the small or intown park that is new or original or characteristically American. The formal method of treatment which necessity in most cases imposes upon them is in prin- ciple almost as old as civilization. It is quite otherwise with the large city recreation park. The designs of these parks in American cities is a distinct and original contribution to PLATE No. 83 BRIDLE PATH IN WARINANCO PARK, UNION COUNTY PARK SYSTEM, UNION COUNTY, NEW JERSEY (Cut from Parks and Recreation.) DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 185 landscape architecture upon principles evolved by the pioneer park planners and builders in this country. While there may be spaces here and there in larger city recreation parks treated after a formal design, the predominating characteristic of the large park areas in American cities is their naturalness. This naturalness has been attained through the skill of the designers in utilizing already existing natural features or in more or less transforming, topographically and botanically, given areas of ground. Factors to Be Considered in Selecting Large Park Areas. 1. Accessibility. If large parks are to perform the functions intended of them they must be readily accessible not only to those owning their own means of transportation but especially to those who do not. Distance from the people to be served is more or less a relative matter. A property twenty miles from a city with a rapid transit line to or near it would likely be as accessible as another property ten miles from the city but reached only by an ordinary street car line. The latter property, on the other hand, would be as near as one located only five miles from the city if there were no means of transportation within a reasonable distance from it. Due regard therefore should be given to the question of existing transportation or to the possibilities of securing transportation in the immediate future. 2. Interference with major traffic ways. It is very desirable that the property selected will not in the future interfere with major traffic ways. Otherwise it will likely be necessary to destroy its desirability by projecting these lines through or across it or else ingress to the city or egress from the city will be seriously obstructed. This problem may be obviated some- times by securing property in the form of a huge wedge, the edge of which projects toward the heart of the city. 3. Boundaries. Special attention should be given to the boundaries. If the property is within an area that is already platted, boundaries should extend to the street; if in the vicinity of a roadway, entirely to the road; if along a river, the entire bank of the river should be secured. Properties facing upon back yards are not particularly desirable. It is sometimes possible by donating some land and by making an agreement with the property owners to get an extra street run through in such a situation. By building a mound and using heavy screen planting the undesirable view may be shut out, but property owners are likely to object to this. 4. Topographical features. Care should be exercised to secure the whole of any topographical feature. Thus, if there is a lake, stream, or hill, the entire area in which the feature is situated should be secured, and not merely a part of it. i86 PARKS Desirable Landscape Characteristics. Desirable landscape characteristics in large city recreation parks are: 1. Topography. While there are some very beautiful and useful large parks in America where the topography is predominatingly level, on the whole it is more desirable to secure an area that presents some elevations of varying heights — plateaus, mesas or lowlands; water, either in the form of brooks, creeks, rivers or lakes or more of these different water forms, or places where bodies of water can be readily created. 2. Botanical features. Botanically desirable features are tree growth either in the form of extensive woodlands or clumps of trees scattered here and there over the area, shrubs along borders of woodlands, especially along the boundaries of the park and here and there along the borders of water areas and other locations; grassy glades and meadows; wild flowers, ferns, mosses and other flora. PLATE No. 84 THE CHILDREN'S QUARTERS, GOLDEN GATE PARK, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA This section of Golden Gate Park is equipped with a large variety of facilities for the play, amusement and entertainment of the children. It is a never failing source of interest to the parents as well. The picture illustrates an average Sunday attendance at the Children's Quarters. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 187 3. Zoological features. Presence of specimens of native animal, bird, insect and water life is desirable, except for those specimens that are either dangerous or troublesome to people. There are some large parks in this country that at certain times of the year are practically useless because of swarms of mosquitoes. Every large park should be a bird sanctuary, not only because of the pleasure that people have from their songs, plumage or habits, but also because of the protection which they afford to plant forms. Elements Involved in Design. Designing of areas selected for large parks involves : 1. Conservation of natural resources of the areas. 2. Making such additions as will preserve the integrity of the park as, for example, screening the park by heavy plantations or by mounds and plantations against the city, which nearly always tends to press upon these areas; or bringing out some possibility, as in creating a lake by empounding water, planting some barren spot which might be more beautiful and useful if covered with trees and shrubs, or filling up some marshy area that would be more beautiful and useful as a meadow. 3. Making the various parts of the park accessible by a system of driveways, bridle paths and footpaths. 4. The introduction of such recreational, educational-recreational, and service facilities as will enable the people to secure greater enjoyment and comfort from their temporary sojourn in the park. 5. The introduction of service facilities necessary for the proper main- tenance and operation of the park. The general principle to be followed in designing the facilities men- tioned under 3, 4 and 5 is so to design them that they will merge as com- pletely as possible into the surrounding natural forms and not assume a primary and important position in the general design. This is especially true of those facilities under 4 and 5. Making Parks Accessible. Among the measures for making various parts of a park accessible are the following: i. Pleasure driveways. Before the advent of the automobile a primary feature of the designs of all large parks was a system of carriage driveways. These driveways were, as a general rule, comparatively narrow, often quite winding, and did not require an excessively heavy and costly roadbed and surfacing. The use of such driveways by fairly slow-moving, horse-drawn vehicles was not inconsistent with the primary purpose of the park. The automobile has changed all this to such an extent that the presence of these driveways is an anachronism, a distinct detriment to the primary purpose or purposes of these areas and of very little recreational value to motorists. They have become in many instances avenues for rapid move- 188 PARKS ment between the city and suburban sections rather than pleasure drive- ways. At the same time, the peaceful, quiet atmosphere of the parks has been to a great degree destroyed. The usefulness of these driveways for pleasure driving can be gauged when one remembers that an automobile going at the rate of twenty miles an hour would run through a park of a square mile area (if in the form of a square) in about three minutes, and if it ran completely around the park would take only about twelve minutes. Very few motorists like to be so circumscribed in their driving. The inclusion of automobile pleasure driveways in the design of any large park of less than six or eight hundred acres should be seriously ques- tioned, and in most instances they should be absolutely excluded from an interior of the park. It would perhaps be better design to construct the pleasure driveways in the form of boulevards or parkways around the park or along one rather than through it. 2. Service-pleasure driveways. Even though pleasure driveways were excluded from the smaller of the large parks, it would still be necessary to PLATE No. 85 A SECTION OF BROOKSIDE PARK, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, DEVOTED TO ACTIVE RECREATION Swimming center, athletic field, parking facilities and stadium are shown in the distance. Other active recreation facilities in Brookside Park, which contains 516 acres, include: five tennis courts; ten-acre children's playground; stadium seating 60,000 and costing $300,000; riding academy; twelve miles of bridle paths; three miles of driveways; fifty picnic nooks equipped with tables, benches and ovens. (See pages 191-201.) DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 189 have a system of minor service-pleasure driveways which might be com- posed of a major circuit driveway so designed as to come as near as possible to all the major points of interest, with radical service driveways leading to these points of interest, if off the main line, and terminating in spaces providing for parking. This major circuit driveway would not need to be so broad, so expensively constructed, nor so free from comparatively sharp curves and reasonably steep gradients as would be the case if the drive- ways were to be primarily for pleasure driving. It would be necessary to enforce rigidly rules of low speed movement. The primary purpose of this system of driveways would be merely to get the people to the various points of interest and service in the park, and its use for mere pleasure driving should be discouraged. A series of "thank-you-ma'ams" constructed in the roadways at such intervals as to cause no discomfort at a low rate of speed but capable of causing a great deal of discomfort if passed over rapidly might be a very effective method of enforcing speed rules. 3. Bridle paths. With the revival of horseback riding throughout the country the bridle path is once more becoming an important feature in the design of large parks. Obviously it is not desirable to allow horsemen to ride at will over the park area, hence these paths must be regularly laid out, preferably in a circuit or series of circuits, conforming in some respects to the line of the major service-pleasure driveways mentioned above. However, because it is not so necessary to give attention to gradients and sharp curves, these paths may be laid out in parts of a park where it would be impossible or difficult to build roads. The kinds of surfacing commonly used (cinders, gravel, tan bark, etc.), in case special surfacing is needed, blend inconspicuously into the landscape. 4. Footpaths. The ideal situation with respect to walking and hiking would be to allow pedestrians to wander at will wherever they desired in large parks, and in point of fact much of the walking in them is done after this manner. However, there are two purposes involved in walking. There is the walk for the pleasure of leisurely movement, of viewing plant, geo- logical, animal forms, fine vistas and for the pleasure and value of the exercise. Walking may also be used as a method of reaching some particular objective such as a music court, a ball field, tennis courts, swimming pool, skating center or other feature in the park. For the first of these objectives, especially in the case of individuals or small groups, a system of pathways is not so important, but for the second purpose it is absolutely essential to have a system of paths following rather closely the system of driveways. To a considerable degree the first-mentioned purposes of walking can be attained by following a regularly laid out system of pathways. No difficulty will be experienced in keeping vehicles to roadways, and 190 PARKS PLATE No. 86 SKATING ON LAKE IN VAN CORTLAND PARK, BRONX, NEW YORK, NEW YORK Lake is lighted for night use — skating in winter and boating in summer. very little difficulty will be experienced in keeping horsemen to bridle paths, but with pedestrians there is always the possibility of their breaking away from the established paths for some shorter cut or better grade unless extraordinary care is exercised in planning the pathways so that they will lead as directly as possible to the objective or objectives. It is desirable, however, to avoid monotony in this respect. Frequently, by judicious plant- ings of screens at the points where paths may be directed in a longer route than would be possible otherwise, the tendency to break through by a shorter route may be obviated. On the other hand the planner can some- times learn a great deal as to where paths ought to go by observing where people naturally form them. In the remote and more or less woodland sections of large parks, paths may be in the form of trails, with no special preparation other than the clearing out of obstructions in the form of bushes, fallen logs, rocks and other debris. If used fairly intensively, a surfacing of gravel, tan bark or pine needles may be all that is necessary to prevent mud and keep down dust. On steep grades it is advisable to use some hard surface with gutters to prevent undue washing. On main lines of travel where use is intensive, paths will have to be specially surfaced, gravel, cinders, tarvia being most commonly used. Special attention should be given to their shape as elements in the design. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 191 Entrances to Large Parks. Major entrances to large parks throughout the United States range from broad roadways of extremely simple naturalistic design through formal mall-like courses to monumental gateways of stone, brick or other material. "The main entrance should have special emphasis and consideration. The component elements of the main entrance are roadway, paths, architecture and planting, all of which in varying combinations obviously allow con- siderable variation and ingenuity of design. The road for the main entrance may come into the grounds straight or at right angles to the road upon which the park abuts, or it may come in at an acute angle, but the angle must not be so acute as to interfere with traffic or as to spoil the desired architectural effect. The road may be wide or narrow, or it may be divided into two parallel ways; it may lead up into the park, which is the most desirable approach, or it may lead down into it. A single path may parallel the road, or more than one, or in cases where a more convenient path of entrance may be elsewhere provided, there need be none at all along the main road. The architecture of the entrance may consist of gates, piers, railings, shelters and waiting stations. Whatever the treatment chosen, it is better to be too massive than too small in effect, and it should be harmonious, consistent and appropriate in scale, style, ornament and gen- eral workmanship. Similar care should be given to the choice of planting material that is used to accentuate the effect of the design of the entrance. Nothing detracts from a dignified, massive and inviting entrance more suc- cessfully than a cluttered and inharmonious collection of plants" (Karl B. Lohmann, Head Division of Landscape Architecture, University of Illinois, in Parks and Recreation, November-December 1925, page 121). Minor entrances to large parks may serve as exits or as convenient entrances to points of interest. They are usually treated in naturalistic design but may have some architectural effects in the form of pillars or gateways. It may be pointed out that the monumental architectural effects which characterize major entrances into some of the large parks of this country represent not only an expenditure of time, money and energy that might have been better applied otherwise, but also an effect completely out of harmony with the general nature of the parks. PROVISIONS FOR VARIOUS RECREATION ACTIVITIES Picnic Facilities. Picnicking by both small and large groups is one of the most extensive uses to which large parks may be put, providing they naturally, or by design or both, present the proper locations for picnic grounds. Any planner of a large park for general use who intentionally omits ample opportunities for picnicking does the one thing that will immeas- 192 PARKS urably limit its use. Woodland areas that are reasonably level, groves of trees, wooded places along streams or on the shores of other water forms, scenic points providing shade nearby, are some of the natural locations for picnic facilities. (See Chapter on "Construction Notes," pages 385-392, for plans and illustrations of such facilities.) Picnic grounds intended to provide for medium-sized or large crowds should preferably be located in wooded areas bordering upon open spaces sufficiently large to permit athletic events, for nearly always a more or less informal field day is a part of the program of affairs of this character. Some of the desirable facilities at picnic grounds are: 1. Toilet facilities. Two structures will be desirable, the size of which and the number of seats in which depend upon whether the ground is intended for small groups or large crowds. Modern sanitary plumbing should preferably be installed, but if this is not possible other types of toilets which conform to good sanitary standards may be used. (See Volume II, Chapter XVI on "Park Sanitation.") The structures should be so de- signed and placed as to blend with the natural landscape. 2. Drinking water. The safest and best method of providing water is from lines connected with the municipal water system, with one or more sanitary drinking fountains and faucets for drawing water. The designer will have an opportunity to exercise skill and ingenuity in devising natural cover forms for these modern facilities. It is generally exceedingly dangerous to use springs, and if wells are used they should be deeply driven and the area immediately around the pump carefully protected against seepage. 3. Facilities for warming, cooking and serving food. Eating is nearly always one of the main features and pleasures of picnicking. It is not always necessary to provide equipment for warming, cooking and serving food at PLATE No. 87. PISTOL RANGE IN ONE OF THE PARKS OF TOLEDO, OHIO DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 193 picnic grounds, but in general it is desirable to do so. Inconspicuous stone or concrete ovens or fireplaces, small enough to be economical of fuel, are in general all that will be required. Picnic grounds intended for taking care of large crowds at barbecues and outdoor banquets may be equipped with barbecue pits or larger ovens. The number of ovens at any one picnic ground will depend upon the number of people the ground is intended to accommodate. For the serving of food, tables and benches are more or less necessary. These may be installed in permanent locations in a certain relation to the small ovens and fireplaces, or they may be movable. Movable tables and benches, however, are very likely to come to an early end. The tables and benches should have as rustic a design as possible, and if painted, colors should be used that render the equipment inconspicuous. 4. Shelters. As a protection against sudden storms a shelter of some type is essential at a picnic ground. At places intended for small group parties this need not be very large. At the larger picnic grounds the struc- ture may be of very generous dimensions, serving also as an informal dance hall. In the wilder portions of large parks the inconspicuous type known as the Adirondack Shelter (see Plate 184, page 389) would be sufficient for small picnic centers. Attractive log cabins, equipped with an open fireplace and sometimes with an oven in addition, have been erected at some picnic centers serving large groups. These are used for picnicking in winter, a season that has not been sufficiently used for this form of activity in the large parks of the colder sections of the country. This is largely because structures suitable for use in the winter months have not been provided at picnic centers. 5. Play apparatus for little children. Picnic grounds used by family groups or by mixed crowds of children and adults should be provided with a few simple pieces of play equipment. These might include a few swings, teeter boards, slide and sand pile, although other types might be added. These should be located in an inconspicuous place among the trees. A great deal more ingenuity might be exercised in providing this equip- ment than is commonly employed. Instead of installing steel apparatus, as is usually done, teeter boards across a log, swing frames constructed of heavy timbers, and a huge sand pile would be even more attractive and certainly fit in better with natural surroundings. A wonderfully fine piece of equipment can be made of a long, straight;, springy tree pole mounted on two logs or strong horses with the slender end projecting so that it will readily spring up and down. This forms an excellent balancing beam and a capital hobby horse. 194 PARKS GAME AND SPORT FACILITIES IN LARGE PARKS In the designs of the earliest large parks in this country very little provision was made for games and sports. In fact it was considered a principle of good design that the introduction of facilities for highly organ- ized games was incompatible with the primary purposes and aims of a large park. Facilities for water recreation and winter sports were often included, and the game of tennis was permitted. But on the whole these provisions for active recreation were rigidly subordinated to landscape effects and to passive and semi-active uses. Many of these earlier large parks have become largely transformed during the past twenty-five years or less because of the extensive introduction into their areas of a great variety of active recrea- tion facilities. It is to be expected, of course, that as a city spreads and the population completely surrounds these large areas, there will be greater PLATE No. 88. BALL FIELD, GOLDEN GATE PARK, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA Illustrating the use of a large meadowlike space in a large park for organized games. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 195 and greater demands for more of the space to be given over to active recrea- tion and the park take on more the character of a huge playfield with a wide drawing radius, than the original large landscaped park. This is a condition to keep in mind always, both in the selecting of large park areas and in making original designs. The list of different kinds of games and sports facilities found in large parks of today is a long one. Among these facilities are the following: 1. Golf. This game has made very great inroads into the total area of large park spaces in the United States. It happens that of all the games that have been introduced into these parks golf does least violence to the general landscape effect, unless the topography is so level as to require a large number of artificial hazards or large areas of tree growth are removed for the installation of the course. However, in a very large number of instances golf courses should never have been introduced into existing large parks for the reasons that the driveway plans and the layout of the courses are often incompatible and that large areas of parks have been withdrawn from general use, to say nothing of the occasional necessity for destroying considerable areas of tree growth which it has taken many years to produce. In general no golf course should be introduced into a large park unless the area to be used for golf is in itself a distinct entity, separate and apart from areas through which roadways or other pathways pass, and unless the remaining portions of the park are sufficient in themselves to provide all the necessary resources to meet the other needs of the people. In other words, unless the park is large enough to reduce a golf course to a distinctly minor feature, the course would better not be introduced. An alternative is to utilize the whole of an existing large park for a golf park but only in case another area is provided for general park purposes. Except in the case of exceedingly large city recreation parks it is desirable that separate and distinct areas be secured for golf courses. 2. Tennis. Tennis is one of the games commonly found in large parks and its history in such parks is almost contemporaneous with them. For the purposes of ease in maintenance and the better handling of players, tennis courts in large parks are generally constructed in groups ranging from a few in a group to twenty-five, fifty and even a hundred or more. As a general rule the courts are of clay, but occasionally one finds hard surfaced courts and turf courts. The necessity of erecting wire enclosures or at least wire backstops introduces an element that is often very hard to deal with in a landscaped park. This condition is sometimes overcome by locat- ing the courts in such positions that heavy screen plantings will give the impression from the outside of being a part of a larger landscape unit. From the landscape standpoint one of the most desirable methods of intro- 196 PARKS ducing tennis courts into large parks is to use lawn areas, erecting the nets on posts stuck into sockets sunk flush with the soil and using no back- stops. There are instances where more than one hundred courts are installed in one turf-covered area (see Frontispiece No. 2). This method is not likely to meet with widespread favor, however, because of the trouble players have in continually chasing balls, and because large lawn areas in large parks are not likely to be sufficiently even to make playing enjoyable. 3. Baseball. The tremendous interest of American youth in this game and the consequent demand for spaces to play upon have caused the laying out of large numbers of diamonds in large parks throughout the country wherever these parks included areas level and large enough to permit play- ing the game satisfactorily. Except for occasional informal ball diamonds in the vicinity of picnic groves the designs of large parks originally did not provide special areas for this game. However, large and small level meadow areas have been appropriated, and in modern designs areas have been defi- nitely included for one or more baseball diamonds. As in the case of tennis courts and for practically the same reasons, diamonds are frequently laid PLATE No. 89. BOATHOUSE, LAKE MERRITT, OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA Boathouse and recreational activities on lake under the supervision of the Oakland Recreation Department. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 197 out in groups. Thus a large meadowlike area is often completely covered with diamonds. There appears to be no satisfactory way of merging bleach- ers and backstops into any kind of landscape setting and the skinned areas of diamonds can never be anything but unsightly. It would seem that an ideal arrangement for baseball diamonds would be to locate them in a level turf-covered area surrounded largely or completely by a thick growth of trees and shrubs, thus giving the game a distinct area to itself, something after the manner of the German Waldspiel. 4. Soccer, Football, Hockey, La Crosse, Cricket. These games may be played over the same area or areas allotted to ball diamonds. 5. Stadiums. This form of a highly developed athletic field is now found in some large parks. The stadium, as a structure of concrete above ground, presents a problem exceedingly difficult to harmonize with any principles of landscape architecture. However, if the topography of a large park presents a natural site whereby the necessary structural features can be built into the surrounding landscape, there appears no special reason why a stadium might not be more or less harmoniously worked into the general design of the park. It might be possible to secure a degree of harmony by locating a stadium near the border of a large park or of a large landscaped unit of the park, using a type of construction whereby the seats would rest upon a mound of earth. The outside of this could be heavily planted with shrubs and trees in such a manner as to appear a part of the border design. A large park that is already occupied by one or more great structures cannot have its general character greatly affected by the inclusion of a stadium of the conventional type. 6. Athletic field. What has been suggested relative to stadiums in large parks applies equally to a fully developed enclosed athletic field. No great additional harm can be done to a landscape design by including an athletic field of the informal enclosed type in the area set aside for highly organized ball games. 7. Bowling on the green. This game requires comparatively small space, and an exceedingly fine turf. It is very easy to screen with shrubbery, if desired, and consequently lends itself admirably to introduction into large landscape parks. 8. Polo. Except in large cities, in cities adjacent to army posts or in resort cities frequented by the wealthy, there is likely to be no demand for the inclusion of this game in large parks. It requires a large turf area and as such does no particular violence to the general landscape effects of meadow areas, except through the presence of goals at either end and a slight board boundary entirely around the playing area. 9. Water sports, (a} Boating, canoeing, yachting. Any large park 198 PARKS which Includes a lake, good-sized creek or river or which fronts upon a lake, river or an arm of the ocean, presents opportunities for water sports with various kinds of water craft, the types depending upon the size and char- acter of the water areas. The presence of water areas generally adds to the possibilities of landscape design, (b) Swimming. Where there is suffi- cient water for water craft there is almost always opportunity for swimming unless the water is contaminated. However, there are certain topographical conditions necessary to make desirable natural swimming places, such as a more or less extensive, level, sandy beach. If this does not exist naturally, PLATE No. 90 AIRPLANE VIEW OF MUSIC CONCOURSE (CENTER) WITH MUSIC TEMPLE TO LEFT, M. H. DE YOUNG MEMORIAL MUSEUM (ABOVE) AND CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND STEINHART AQUARIUM (BELOW), GOLDEN GATE PARK, SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA This section of Golden Gate Park comprises one of the most remarkable educational-recreational centers to be found in any large park in the United States. All these architecturally beautiful and highly useful structures have been the gifts of public-spirited citizens. This center taken as a whole is a shining example of the important place that the modern park and recreation movement is taking in the educational-recreational development of the people. The "auditorium" space of the Music Concourse has been admirably sheltered by the planting of trees and this entire section of the park has been attractively landscaped. A photograph of the Temple of Music is shown on page 413. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 199 it may sometimes be successfully constructed. Artificial swimming pools have been built in many large parks, but it is usually desirable to screen them with plantings and special care must be given to the design of the bathhouse. 10. Winter sports. In sections having cold winters, all water areas in large parks, long slopes of sufficient declivity for coasting, steep slopes for ski jumping and tobogganing present natural opportunities for winter sports. If water areas are large enough they provide opportunities for ice boating and horse racing. Toboggan slides made in sections, so that they can be taken down during the spring, summer and fall seasons, are often erected in large parks. Winter sports have always been considered a proper use of large parks, but are a feature deserving a much wider development in regions favorable to these sports. 11. Shooting range. Shooting ranges found in large parks are of two types: for trap shooting, and for rifle and revolver practice. These facilities are not numerous in large parks throughout the country, chiefly because of the difficulty of making them safe. Children's Playgrounds in Large Parks. Aside from the play facilities mentioned as being valuable in connec- tion with picnic grounds, it is sometimes desirable to devote one or more areas in a large park to a regularly equipped playground that will be under supervision. This is especially true if there are built-up districts in the vicinity of the park where no other playgrounds are provided. Irrespective of the needs of adjacent built-up sections, the children's playground may become a necessity merely to take care of the children who come to the park from considerable distances either by themselves or with their parents. By the judicious planting of screens of trees and shrubbery protected by a concealed fence, such areas may be made to fit into the general character of the park. Tourists' Camps in Large Parks. Within recent years tourists' camps have been established in many large city parks throughout the United States. Aside from the disturbing effect the establishment of such a facility has upon the general landscape design and appearance of the park, the withdrawal of several acres of a large park for the continuous use of people from outside the city is hardly justifiable in principle, desirable as it may be to provide accommodations for tourists visiting the city. The public tourist camp is a large problem in itself, and so far as the site is concerned, it is more desirable to secure a special area for this purpose. 2OO PARKS uf) u c 3 < u — X u - -sr o ~-|-s S g;o"o h-3 _, "O "O nJ -S a ?. § C^ ^— ' a i> 2 O o h-| 2 u X w o J-i "O i 0 ^_ D, Z 3 ^^ *T3 d PH 2 J '^ H-, o 3 a. ^.o^-c ^ o"5 ^ .S RU.O ^' DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 2or Group and Family Camping. While this is an activity perfectly proper and permissible in large outlying reservations, it is not to be recommended for large city recrea- tion parks. There are only a few examples of such use of this type of park areas in the United States. So far as group or organized camping is con- cerned, too close proximity to regions from which the campers come and the inevitable presence of large crowds making general use of the park, create a condition that renders the organization and conduct of a group camp next to impossible. The general environmental condition for this type of activity is also likely to be undesirable. Moreover, because of the extensive and intensive demands for general daily use of various facilities in such parks, it is unwise policy to set aside any portion for the exclusive and extended use of any group. The chief objection to family camping in large landscaped parks is that no citizen and his family has the right to preempt any portion of a public property of this type designed for general public use. In the few large parks where camping is permitted, a few hundred families have grown through the course of years to feel that they have almost a proprietary right to the season's use of a portion of a public property that was purchased by all the people for the use of all the people. The nominal rent that is usually charged is no adequate return for this service even if the policy were a correct one. Educational-Recreational Features in Large Parks. While many of the activities listed under the head of Provisions for Recreation Activities in Large Parks are somewhat educational in their effects, other features found in large parks in the United States may be char- acterized as educational-recreational. Among these features are: botanical gardens, arboretums, conservatories, museums, art galleries, aquariums and zoological gardens. 1. Botanical gardens. The almost inevitable necessity of using a formal design in laying out a botanical garden introduces a jarring element into the general design of a large park. The same may be said of the intro- duction of a rose garden, or a commemorative garden such as a Shake- speare garden. If a botanical garden or any of the special varieties of gardens are introduced — and there are many of them in large parks in the United States — the only thing that can be done is to give such a garden a specific place and treat it as though it had no primary relation to the design of the park as a whole. 2. Arboretums in large parks. The arboretum, on the other hand, may lend itself to introduction into a large park without changing the 202 PARKS a -a. <£ § o — -5 o c t; H rt *"• „, t , j-i D «J U 3 > H .2 -3 *3 P-, Tn 5 ^* CO « ™ . »*H oj D. » <-• - u C " to .j >.ti 3 DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 203 essential character of the park. In fact, the entire park might be used as an arboretum and the various specimens worked into the design without affecting the character of the entire design. 3. Conservatories. The introduction of a large conservatory into a large park brings up the age-old question as to the desirability or unde- sirability of putting structures into large landscaped parks. However, because the environmental conditions in large parks are better adapted to growing plants both indoors and outdoors than smaller locations would present unless located outside of the city, and because the uses of a con- servatory and the adjoining greenhouses are so closely related to park needs, the introduction of a conservatory might be pardoned. 4. Museums and art galleries. These are structures that in general have no proper place in large parks. For a brief discussion of this matter, see pages in the section "Unit Elements of a Park System." 5. Zoological gardens and aquariums. However naturalistically a zoologi- cal garden may be designed, it cannot be anything but a warring element in the general design of a large landscaped park. The necessity of a reasonable degree of concentration of the exhibits, the presence of many different struc- tures, the numerous walks and roadways, all are foreign to the spirit and character of a large landscaped park. As in the case of botanical gardens, if the zoological garden must be placed in the park, a definite area should be assigned to it and its treatment follow the lines of its needs without special relation to the design of the park as a whole. CLASSIFICATION OF BUILDINGS The following classification of structures to be found in large parks in the United States is presented here in order to give a more o,r less compre- hensive picture. The classification is as follows: 1. Structures necessary for the comfort and convenience of those using the park in general. 2. Structures that are necessary adjuncts to specific recreation areas. 3. Structures that in themselves are recreation centers. 4. Structures of an educational-recreational character. 5. Structures necessary for the care and maintenance of the parks. i . Structures necessary for the comfort and convenience of patrons. These may include: (a) Comfort stations. These should be found at places throughout the park where the people are likely to congregate in considerable numbers, such as picnic groves, in the vicinity of band stands, outdoor theatres, etc. Comfort stations will, of course, be included in all facilities provided as adjuncts to active recreation areas, such as field houses, boathouses and 204 PARKS PLATE No. 93. PRELIMINARY PLAN, WARINANCO PARK, ELIZABETH, N. J. (Plan by Percival Gallagher, Olmsted Brothers, Landscape Architects, Cambridge, Massachusetts.) The total area of this property is 207 acres, distributed as follows: Playfields, including ball fields, children's playground, tennis and athletic field, 39.50 acres; meadows and other turf areas, 41.40 acres; woodland and planta- tions, 85.50 acres; lake, nine acres. The park contains 3.05 miles of drives, 1.95 miles of bridlepaths and 8.33 miles of walks. "The purpose of Warinanco Park, according to Landscape Architect's report, 'is to provide near the center of population of the County a pleasure ground of sufficient size and character that will possess the best elements of a park of pastoral landscape.' Ample facilities for games and sports have been provided, so located as to interfere as little as possible with the desired 'pastoral landscape' effect. This park being the most accessible from all parts of the County contains the administration building, the stadium and fully equipped athletic field. . . . One of the most important features is a moderate-size lake for boating and skating. In the heart of a park and immediately west of the proposed lake and occupying the rise of land, there is proposed a series of groves and picnic grounds distributed along a straight, broad walk or promenade called the 'Mall.' The central feature of this region is a semicircular terrace upon which two sections of the Mall converge. Below the terrace, forming the center of the scheme, is a circular plaza with seats and a decorative fountain. This focal point gives access to the lake below it, while above and extending westward is to be another sitting place or overlook, slightly raised above the general level of the ground from which views over the open landscape to the west may be had. The stretch of ground between the two is to be planted with a special collection of evergreen and flowering plants to form a feature of special interest and enjoyment. A music grove is also a feature of the design. A driveway with an accompanying bridle path makes the circuit of the park. One of the principal points from which to view the length of the park landscape is the elevation of land on the northerly side where the circuit-drive gives access to a proposed refreshment building, from the terrace of which one may enjoy the views of much of the interior landscape of. the park. Another part of the circuit-drive on the westerly side traverses the length of 'Spinning Woods,' an existing growth of old trees which adds materially to the beauty of the park. Midway in these woods, and yet convenient to the driveway and the playfield lying beyond on either side, is located a proposed field house with toilet facilities for the use of the public. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 205 bathhouses, and in structures of an educational-recreation character. It is sometimes desirable, even in more or less remote parts of large parks, to have small comfort stations in the vicinity of trails and bridle paths. (b) Refreshment stands. The presence of refreshment stands often causes park officials a great deal of trouble when, through political influence, a concessionaire secures the right to place them wherever he chooses and to erect any kind of structure he desires. The location of these stands and the type of architecture employed should never be determined by anyone except by the park designer, or, if introduced later, by the superintendent. They will, as a general rule, be located near the places where people con- gregate, but they should be so designed and located as to be as inconspic- uous as possible. When located in larger structures the problem is much simplified. (c) Restaurants. These are nearly always a part of some larger struc- ture, although there are some examples of structures in large parks used primarily for dining purposes. Old mansions or other buildings, the pres- ervation of which is desirable because of some historical or other local significance, have been remodeled into restaurants or more often into com- bined restaurants and clubhouses. Locations that present fine views over water or long vistas are admirable as sites for restaurants. (d) Shelters. Aside from the protection provided by larger structures erected primarily for other purposes, it is necessary at various points about large parks to erect shelters of various types. Such structures are nearly always a necessary adjunct to picnic places, and small shelters should be scattered here and there along trails or at places presenting especially fine views. If a children's playground is included as a distinct unit of a large park, a shelter is a necessary adjunct to this area. Shelters may be of a very simple rustic character or they may be designed to present very splendid architectural effects. The same structure may serve as a shelter and comfort station. 2. Structures that are necessary adjuncts to active recreation areas. These may include field houses, boathouses, bathhouses, golf clubhouses, warming houses. The location of these is predetermined to a great degree, although the specific location in the vicinity of the area to be served and the design of the structures should always be under the guidance of the landscape architect and the building architect, with the advice of a trained and expe- rienced recreation organizer. The size of such structures and the variety of service facilities they may include will vary with local conditions. 3. Structures that in themselves are recreation centers. These include dance floors or halls, roller skating rinks and clubhouses. There are a few large parks in the United States where the park offi- 206 PARKS cials have permitted the introduction of most of the structures and para- phernalia of a commercial amusement park. The scarcity of such examples, however, indicates the almost universal disapproval of park officials of such a procedure. 4. Structures of an educational-recreational character. Among these are included museums, art galleries, war memorial buildings, aquariums, con- servatories and all the structures that enter into the composition of a zoological garden, outdoor theatres, band stands and music courts. Many civic storms have arisen and raged over the introduction into large parks of certain of the structures mentioned above, especially museums, art galleries and memorial buildings. Notwithstanding the strenuous objection by all who understand the essential rural character and the primary purposes of large parks, such structures have been introduced and more are liable to be introduced in the future. (For a brief discussion of the location of museums, art galleries, zoological gardens, see sections devoted to these subjects in the section "General Planning of a Park System," page 14.) The same principles discussed in those sections might be applied to the location of aquariums and conservatories. It is possible so to construct an outdoor theatre in a large park that it may seem an essential part of the landscape. Likewise, places for band concerts might be so constructed, but this is not usually the case. 5. Service structures necessary for care and maintenance of large -parks. These may include house for the foreman or superintendent, houses for laborers, barn, shop, greenhouses and power house. Occasionally the headquarters building of the entire department may be located in a large park. It is not always necessary to attempt to locate these various service structures in secluded parts of large parks, since it is possible to have buildings of artistic design and the grounds surrounding them beautiful. However, the usual conditions relative to such structures and their sur- roundings, with the possible exceptions of the superintendent's house and the greenhouses, especially in the vicinity of a conservatory, are such that they need to be secluded as much as possible. Plans of Large Parks. A number of plans in this chapter illustrate methods of designed large parks. These are Jackson Park, Chicago (page 200) ; Prospect Park, Brook- lyn (page 202) ; Warinanco Park, Union County, New Jersey (page 204). Those laid out in the early stages of city p anning were almost exclusively landscaped areas with little if any provision for active recreation, although many such facilities have since been added. The more recently designed parks show a general provision for recreation although the parks are primarily landscaped areas. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 207 THE RESERVATION The human use purpose of the reservation is practically the same as that of the large city park. Hence the fitting of the reservation for human use follows very much the same lines as are followed in designing large parks. The distinct difference is that, as a general rule, the natural topog- raphy and plant growth are left more as they came from the hand of God than in the average large city park. The effort of the landscape designer is directed to maintaining the wildness of the reservation, for after all this character is fundamentally its chief charm. On the basis of size two distinct types of reservations may be dis- tinguished, although the one shades imperceptibly into the other. The first of these types is the small reservation ranging from a few to a hundred or more acres. The small reservations are generally wooded tracts bordering upon streams, shores of lakes or the ocean or arms of the ocean, although there are some instances where there are no water forms of any kind in their topography. Several states, notably Michigan, Iowa, New Hamp- shire, Texas, Oregon, Washington, and many counties, have provided num- bers of these reservations. They are intended primarily for picnicking and temporary camping for tourists and family groups, although some of them may present natural features which make them important bathing and boating centers. The fitting of these areas for use by the people involves the designing and construction of service roadways, footpaths both for getting about the various picnic grounds with ease and for hiking through the wilder portions, the development of a water supply usually through deep driven wells, the erection of toilet facilities, construction of a shelter house or houses, outdoor ovens or fireplaces, and tables and benches. A home for a caretaker will also be a necessity unless someone living in the vicinity is employed in that capacity. Some of these small reservations have elaborate bathhouse facilities, boating docks and a fleet of boats. Those highly developed for tourist camping may have a shelter house in the form of a small community house, wash house and possibly a special structure for cooking and dining. At some of these small reservations quite commodious inns have been erected, providing not only dining facilities but sleeping accommoda- tions as well. The sleeping accommodations may be provided in the inns, or in cabins or cottages, or in both types of structures. The large reservations are distinguished from the smaller, not only by their size but also by a greater variety of topography, plant growth, and by the more varied uses to which they may be put. 208 PARKS In designing them for the use of the people a system of roadways to open up their scenic and other recreational possibilities is of first consid- eration. In very large reservations this system of roadways will be of two types, first a major highway through or encircling the reservation with cross connections here and there, and second a system of service drive- ways branching off from the major highway or highways and leading to scenic points of interest, picnic grounds, camping centers or other places more or less intensively used by the visitors. The major highway or high- ways may be of such width and permanency of construction as to serve as pleasure driveways as well as focal lines for opening up the reservation. It cannot be too strongly emphasized, however, that an elaborate system of major roads used as pleasure driveways is absolutely antagonistic to the primary purpose and function of large reservations. Next, special attention should be given to developing a system of hiking trails. These should be numerous and so designed that every part of the reservation, except perhaps those parts set aside for game and bird refuges, shall be readily accessible to visitors. At intervals cross trails should be laid out connecting the major trails so that either long or short hikes may be taken. In addition to their recreational value these trails are likely to prove of some worth as fire breaks. Copyright, Underwood & Underwood Photo Service, Washington, D. C. PLATE No. 94. BRIDLE PATH IN NEW YORK'S CENTRAL PARK This is seven miles long. There are no grade crossings, all motor roads carrying over paths on viaducts. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 209 Large reservations present almost ideal conditions for riding horse- back, but unless stables are maintained either by private individuals in the vicinity, on concession from the management or by the governing authority of the reservation, this splendid recreation is not likely to be much practiced. Where horses are available, a system of riding trails should be made a part of the design of the reservation. The riding trails, because of their greater width, are a more effective fire break than the hiking trails. Next to those features of the design of reservations which open them up to the public are those which have to do with water supply and disposal of human waste. Some very bad conditions have been brought about in reservations by constructing roadways and thereby admitting people before the fundamental necessities of water supply and waste disposal equipment have been provided. From the time that numbers of people begin to use reservations, all natural sources of water supply (streams, lakes, springs, etc.) become sub- ject to pollution. Every possible precaution should be taken to protect springs, if, because of their natural position, nature of the terrain and sub- soil conditions it appears possible to maintain the purity of their waters. If this seems impossible they should be closed. (See Chapter XVI, "Park Sanitation," for methods of protecting springs.) While it is quite possible, and often highly desirable, to develop a modern system of water supply in reservations, especially in centers used intensively, such as inns, large picnic grounds and organized camps, it is likely that the least expensive and most reliable source of water supply can be gotten from deep-driven wells. (See Chapter XVI, "Park Sanita- tion," for methods of protecting wells to ensure the sanitary quality of water.) Where a storage water supply can be developed, the only type of sanitary facility that should be considered is the modern flush toilet with a cesspool,- if the subsoil is of sand and gravel, or the septic tank and drainage system if the subsoil is of clay or limestone formation. In the majority of reservations the use of modern sanitary appliances is not generally possible and resort must be had to various other devices of disposing of human waste. (For a discussion and examples of the various types of toilets that may be used see Chapter XVI, "Park Sanitation.") Beyond the provisions for opening up the reservation and for funda- mental comfort facilities is a wide range of facilities all designed to aid the people in the better use of their time and of the opportunities for recreation which the reservation affords. Among these may be enumerated: i. Picnic places. There should be many of these, for this is one of the widest services which the reservation provides. The picnic places should be cleared of underbrush and debris, well drained if on low ground, 210 PARKS and equipped with one or more outdoor ovens or fireplaces, one or more shelters, preferably of a rustic design, tables and benches, water supply and toilet facilities. In the construction of ovens, care should be taken to use a design that is not too large. Except at picnic places intended for the accom- modation of large crowds as one party, large ovens or fireplaces are never necessary. Any practiced picnicker or camper knows that it does not require a great deal of fuel or a large fire to cook an ordinary meal, and for heating coffee or warming up food, or doing a small amount of cooking, a very small fire is all that is needed. In some reservations ovens have been installed which, because of their large size, if kept supplied with fuel, would prac- tically deforest the area within a few years. 2. Camping. There are three types of camps which may be provided for in large reservations — tourist camps, organized camps and family or small group camps. The facilities at tourist camps may consist of nothing more than the facilities provided for an ordinary picnic ground, but in the more elaborate tourist camps a shelter in the form of a small community house, bath and wash house and possibly a common dining shelter may be provided. The camps are liable to become very great nuisances unless operated under fairly strict rules and under the constant supervision of the managing authority of the reservation. If the management is not prepared to equip and properly supervise this type of camp, it is better not to include it as a feature of the reservation service. The organized camp for boys and girls and even for adults is one of the finest recreational uses to which the large reservation can be put. (For a discussion of the layout of organized camps, see the section of this chapter on organized camps, page 167. For a discussion of the sanitary facilities that may be provided, see Chapter XVI, "Park Sanitation. " For a very detailed presentation of the entire subject of organized camping, see "Camping Out — A Manual on Organized Camping," Macmillan, New York City, 1924.) Those who are interested in the financing of organized camps as a part of reservation service can secure most valuable information from the manage- ment of the Palisades Interstate Park (Major William A. Welch, lona, New York). The admission of family or small group camps into reservations should be considered with very great care. While this type of camping is prac- ticed with apparently much success in Federal forest reservations, in some state forest reservations, and in a few municipal reservations, the with- drawal, under a system of rentals or leases, of even small portions of reserva- tions for practically private use, on the whole makes this form of camping undesirable in large reservations. Added reasons for this lie in the super- visory problems involved and the tendency to a feeling of proprietary DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 211 ownership on the part of campers. A possible plan, and one which gains the same service ends, is for the governing authority of the reservation to erect numerous cabins or cottages at suitable places about the reservation, provided with necessary water and toilet facilities, and to rent them to families or small groups for camping for longer or shorter periods of time on such a rental basis as will retire the original investment within from ten to fifteen years and at the same time provide a fund for maintenance and general supervision. This type of equipment in reservations is espe- cially valuable for week-end parties and is likely to be in demand the year round. 3. Bathing and boating. Practically every large reservation, if the terrain has been well selected, will include either one or more natural water forms or else present opportunities for the creation of artificial-natural lakes. Bodies of water of adequate size and depth are always desirable in the vicinity of organized camps, not only because of the attractiveness of water itself, but also because camp programs should include water sports. They add greatly to the attractiveness of all types of camps and to picnic grounds. Ocean beaches, lake shores and some riverfronts may present conditions adaptable to the development of large swimming centers separate and apart from picnic and camp sites. Even small reservations often present such conditions. 4. Inns. In some reservations a prominent feature of the design is an inn or hotel providing dining and sleeping accommodations. These inns are becoming quite common in state parks and have always been a prominent feature of many of the national parks. The apparent popularity of these places indicates the need of them. Often old mansions on reserva- tions can be remodeled into attractive inns or clubhouses. In designing inns and hotels every effort should be made to keep them in harmony with the environment. At best they represent something that the reservation is intended to help people escape from, but to the degree that they entice people away from cities into the open country they are justifiable. 5. Refreshment stands. To enable people to secure refreshments and minor supplies which they have failed to bring with them, the refreshment stand is perhaps a necessity, especially in those places where considerable numbers of people congregate. The refreshment stand is liable, however, to become an eyesore and a general nuisance if handled as a concession. In one of the largest and finest systems of reservations in this country the refreshment stands which clutter the landscape are offensive to the taste, not only in the style of construction but especially in location and because of the very bad sanitary conditions which accompany them. The general administrative authorities handling reservations will do well to leave the 212 PARKS design and location of refreshment stands entirely to their general execu- tives, even though the operation of them is through concession. It would be better still if their operation were handled entirely by the executive departments. 6. Active recreation facilities not previously mentioned. Among types of active recreation which may be introduced into reservations in addition to walking, riding, swimming and boating, may be mentioned golf, ball games, children's playgrounds, skating, tobogganing, skiing and other forms of winter sports. (a) Golf. A golf course may be included in the designing of a reserva- tion without doing violence to the general intent and spirit of the reserva- tion. The use for this game of a hundred or even two hundred acres out of perhaps several hundreds or thousands of acres can hardly affect the general character of natural wildness of the reservation. Aside from the interest in the science of the game as a game, it does attract many people to undertake considerable feats of walking who would not be induced to make use of the trails in the reservation for this purpose. A very practical question to be considered in relation to golf courses in reservations is whether the patronage would be large enough to secure an income suffi- cient for maintenance and supervision. If there is no reasonable assurance of this the inclusion of a course might better be deferred. (b) Ball grounds. As a general rule these should not be introduced into reservations except as adjuncts to large picnic grounds or in the grounds in the vicinity of inns, especially if a large picnic ground is located in the vicinity. If the topography permits, a ball ground is desirable for each organized camp. (c) Tennis courts. These may be deemed necessary or desirable in the vicinity of inns and organized camps. (d) Children's playgrounds. Children's playgrounds, or at least some play apparatus, may be found very useful in connection with large picnic centers, tourist camps, inns and organized camps caring for little children. In some reservations it was noted that playground apparatus had been located in open fields near picnic grounds. Apparatus so located is poorly placed from a landscape standpoint and possibly also from the viewpoint of the enjoyment of the children using it. It is better to locate playground apparatus in the woods adjacent to the picnic ground where it will be inconspicuous and the users will have shade. It would seem undesirable to introduce the sort of things that modern city life has made necessary on city playgrounds, into regions where there are trees to climb, woods to roam, streams to wade in, hills to climb and roll down. The superintendent may well use ingenuity in devising pieces of apparatus indigenous to the 213 region, such as a climbing pole made of a tree, a "jolly log" or balancing tree, rope or pole swings hung from the limbs of trees, a natural paddling pool made by damming a small stream, great sand hillocks or piles uncon- fined by boards or concrete, teeter boards of heavy planks put across logs and similar equipment appropriate to the environment. (e) Winter sports. In northern regions a great deal can be made of winter sports in reservations. This is especially true if cabins or cottages are so constructed that they may be used for week-end outings in winter, or if inns are kept open for the reception of parties during the winter months. The sports that may be provided include skiing, tobogganing, skating, sliding, snowshoeing, and if there are water areas large enough, ice boat sailing. Outdoor vacationing in northern regions during the winter months is becoming more common and is capable of greater development through the provision of greater facilities and well organized promotion. 7. Nature museums and nature study classes. Of all types of park areas the large reservation presents the best possible opportunities for learning about the universe and how it is constructed and inhabited. There is a growing interest throughout the country in this great and fundamental field of knowledge, an interest that is being recognized by the controlling authorities of some reservations through the establishment of nature museums and the rendering of aid in the establishment of centers for instruction in nature study. This use of reservations should be promoted to its utmost limits. BOULEVARDS AND PARKWAYS In his report on "The City Plan for Memphis, Tennessee," Harland Bartholomew makes the following statement in reference to the design of a system of boulevards and parkways. The fundamental principles to be followed in the design of the system may be summarized as follows: 1. Pleasure drives should be wide, ensuring dignity, impressiveness, comfort. 2. Traffic should be restricted, to preserve the street scene from incon- gruous, disturbing notes. 3. Paving should especially contribute to the pleasure of using these thoroughfares. 4. Private building development should be regulated, to secure unity and harmony. 5. Planting should be of the highest type, for upon this one feature depends a considerable portion of the effectiveness of either formal or informal pleasure drives. 2i4 PARKS 6. Special care should be given the lawn areas, and planting and proper maintenance of roadway should be assured. 7. A generous building set back will add spaciousness to the pleasure drive and permit a wider planting of trees. 8. Car lines, if need be, can be accommodated on streets of this type, but they should be planned for and isolated as much as possible in a wide central strip bordered by planting. All these measures will contribute to the creation of a first-class pleasure drive system. Most of them cost little or nothing beyond the regulation costs of any ordinary street. BORDER ROADS FOR PARKWAYS AND PARKS* "I have faced the problem of border roads vs. their omission in parks and parkways under the widest variety of conditions and from every point of view — from that of the general public using the parkway and that of the general taxpayer, to that of the dealer in abutting real estate and that of the individual lot owners. I have made mistakes both ways, and learned to recognize them. I have learned especially to distrust sweeping general- izations on this subject and mechanically standardized practices, and to realize that each case ought to be considered on its own merits without preconceptions and with an openminded regard: first, for the controlling purposes which each particular parkway or park can best be made to accomplish; and second, for the local conditions, topographic and otherwise, including conditions affecting the probable and possible ways in which abutting land may be developed. As to the first, to illustrate something of the wide range of different purposes which under different circumstances may properly control the design of things called parkways, consider these types: 1. An elongated park, the dominant purpose of which is to connect two or more broader parks in such a way that people may pass from one to another under pleasant conditions without any appreciable sense of interruption of the parklike environment, without feeling that they have got out of a satisfactory park into something quite different before getting back again. 2. A more or less glorified and ornamental street, such as is sometimes created by subdividers, the prime purpose of which is to add to the value of abutting property while incidentally serving the general public for travel and enjoyment. 3. A thoroughfare, boulevard, or parkway, the prime purpose of 1 This statement by Frederick Law Olmsted is such a valuable discussion of the problems involved in the acquisition and design of such areas that it is reprinted with the permission of the editor of Landscape Architecture in which it was originally published. (January, 1926, issue.) DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 215 which is to enable the public to travel from one part of its course to another under conditions which are made more enjoyable, by almost any means, than those of an ordinary city street. Many of the important streets and avenues in the older part of Washington, D. C, are better entitled to classification in this group than many so-called 'boulevards' and 'park- ways' laid out as such in other cities with much blowing of trumpets. And obviously the group may be considered to include anything from a reasonably dignified and handsome street with no more than a single row of trees in each sidewalk (there are few pieces of such so-called 'parkways' only seventy feet wide between property lines, to be found among the 'parkways' of the Boston Metropolitan Park System) up to such elaborate undertakings as the Fairmount Parkway in Philadelphia. What distin- guishes them from the first type is that they are in effect parts of the general city street system (even though much glorified and embellished parts, and even though their roadways may be limited in whole or in part to passenger vehicles) and that normally the buildings abutting upon them largely influence, if they do not mainly determine, the net aesthetic impression made on those who travel over them. 4. A type of parkway somewhat intermediate and transitional between the first and the third is one which includes considerable widths of ground treated in a more or less parklike way with turf and plantations and often with water in the form of a stream or ponds or lakes, and in which the main aesthetic interest centers in these parklike features regardless of the adjoin- ing private buildings, but in which no deliberate attempt is made, as it is in parkways of the first type, to effect so complete a separation between the abutting private buildings and those who drive along the parkway that the former are unnoticeable and the users of the parkway might feel that they have got inside of a park of indefinite extent. In some parkways of this fourth type the main drive is at one side and serves as a street of access to buildings on the side of it which is away from the parklike area. A large part of the beautiful Riverway in the Boston Park System is of this description. In some there is a main drive of this sort on each side of the parklike area, each drive having buildings abutting upon it at a moderate distance on the side away from the central ribbon of park. Where the total width is rather limited, say up to two or three hundred feet, or sometimes even more, and where a distinctly parklike aspect of spaciousness within the parkway is regarded as more important than avoiding a sense of close proximity to buildings at the expense of hedging in the park drive in a narrow space between dense plantations, this type of parkway has the great advantage (except under peculiar topo- graphical conditions) that pushing the roadway or roadways to one or both 216 PARKS sides leaves a greater width of land in one body for parklike treatment uninterrupted by roads. Other things being equal this is very advantageous to those who resort to the central area on foot. And those who use the parkway by automobile at least have an outlook to one side over a wider parklike area, other things being equal, at the expense (if they feel it to be such) of being within immediate sight of the abutting buildings on the other side of them. Now we come to the point about border roads or border streets in connection with these various types. Of course in the fourth type men- tioned normally there are no roads except the border roads and no question arises as to their omission or addition. That question arises most often and in the most complicated way in respect to parkways of the first type. The prime purpose of this type is, as I have said, that of an elongated park, in which people can drive with the feeling that they are continuously within a park, as distinguished from driv- ing on an exceptionally agreeable street or 'boulevard' lined with buildings, and from driving along the edge of a park as in parkways of the fourth type. To accomplish the purpose of a parkway of this first type at all per- fectly usually requires considerable width on both sides of the main drive. Where the total width and the topographic conditions are such that this purpose cannot really be successfully accomplished, it is generally better to recognize that fact frankly and aim at a purpose which can be success- fully accomplished under the circumstances: that is to say, make a good parkway of some other type rather than a poor one of this type. But where this purpose is deliberately adopted, the first concern in regard to the boundaries is that their proximity should not be noticeable to the users of the parkway drive and paths, and that buildings and other objects adjoining on the outside, and obviously not appropriate objects to find within a park (whether excellent in themselves or the reverse), should be hidden from sight as much as possible, together with any obvious reminders of their existence close at hand, such as vehicles and people going and coming to and from them or roads or paths obviously meant for such use. Toward that end the first requisite is an adequate screen of parklike aspect between the users of the parkway and any existing or prospective buildings or other unparklike objects which would otherwise be visible beyond the boundary. Such a screen might be a high cliff or wall rising beside the parkway road arid crowned by a few trees or bushes, and such a screen may be absolutely effective without requiring more than three or four feet of horizontal width. It might be formed merely of trees and shrubs unassisted by any natural or artificial differences in elevation of the ground or by any walls or fences. I have known some such foliage screens not ten DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 217 feet thick to be impenetrable to the eye, while on the other hand through some high-stemmed woodlands the eye can range freely for a quarter of a mile or so and see buildings beyond the trees almost as plainly as if no trees were there. To state in general terms how much space is required for such a screen is therefore much like saying how big is a piece of chalk. One can say, however, that to secure a screen really adequate to the purpose of this type of parkway within a space which is not considerably more than a hundred feet wide (without peculiarly favorable topographic conditions) is apt to produce a monotonous effect, especially if the space is uniform in width or nearly so, and still more so if it is also straight for long distances. Where danger of monotony from this source is serious it may be best to make a virtue of necessity and aim deliberately at those qualities which in a formal landscape treatment can lift uniformity and repetition to the plane of dignified impressiveness, as in the great avenues of the Park of Versailles; or else to modify the controlling purpose of the design, and, avoiding an attempt at a type of parkway which cannot be successfully made under the circumstances, aim at the third or fourth type, which can be done to perfection under the existing circumstances. But assuming that the type of parkway here under consideration is the aim and can be successfully secured under the actual conditions of the case, what bearing has all of the above on the question of whether or not, in addition to the primary roads and paths within the parkway, to provide also for border roads or streets for the frontage of abutting property? The width required for such a border street is apt to be about fifty feet and may sometimes be even less, as there is seldom need for any sidewalk on the side toward the park or parkway. In some cases, on the one hand, the use of street purposes of that amount of the total space which it is practicable to withdraw in one strip from private occupation would so cur- tail the space available for plantations as to make all the difference between success and failure in accomplishing the primary public purpose of the parkway. Where this is the case the argument against a border road is practically conclusive. It would be far better to fence off the private prop- erty from the parkway, plant it out and forget it. Conditions at least closely approaching this extreme case are to be noted on the east side of the Rock Creek Parkway in Washington northward for a few hundred feet from Q Street, where a border road would accomplish little or no good and at enormous cost would work serious injury to the landscape of the parkway by exposing the backs of houses in full view from the main drive. On the other hand, in many cases such use of some fifty feet of the total available space would make little or no practical difference in the effectiveness of the landscape enclosure of the essential parts of a park- 2i8 PARKS way of this type, bearing in mind that the main plantations can usually overhang the roadway and that at least one additional row of trees with adequate space for full foliage development can be secured on the sidewalk toward the private property. The advantages of such a border road are normally, in the case of a parkway of this type, quite secondary and subordinate to its prime purpose, but they are often considerable. For example: (a) If no means of vehicular access to abutting private property is provided along the border of a parkway, experience shows that such property is almost sure to be developed with the backs (or sometimes sides) of buildings toward the parkway, and that it is only in the most exceptional cases even of very high class residential development that such rear premises are not more disagreeable in appearance than the front. Where the enclosing screen plantations of the parkway are absolutely perfect in effectiveness, this may make no difference in the value of the parkway for its prime purpose. But such perfection is rare, and in so far -as the abutting buildings are glimpsed through or over the plantations the usual ragged back-side effect is distinctly more objectionable than that of fronts. (b) Back yards in immediate contact with park plantations offer the temptation to trespass, to throw rubbish over the fence, and to other things which complicate the problem of policing and maintenance. (c) The property abutting on a parkway is normally more valuable if it can be said to front on the parkway and has convenient access by a street or roadway which is physically integral with the parkway. Of course, from this point of view, considering solely the value of the abutting prop- erty, even more valuable than a border street would be the privilege of using the main drive of the parkway itself as a frontage and approach street with only a short space intervening and with no plantation that would obscure the view from the private property of all that is pleasant to see in the parkway. Such an arrangement, with the parking of cars by the abutters on the main drive and with frequent paths and garage entrances cutting up the space between the main drive and the private property, is obviously very injurious to the prime purpose of the type of parkway we are considering and should not be conceded unless abso- lutely unavoidable. If permitted it must be recognized as a serious even though unavoidable defect. In other words the prime purpose should not be avoidably sacrificed to a secondary and incidental value. (d) Because of the value of frontage even on a border street of a parkway, agreement to provide for such a street often makes it possible to secure a greater total width of land for the same cost, or otherwise to secure DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 219 better terms in land acquisition. It should be noted here, however, that it is of the utmost importance in negotiations for land purchases and dis- cussions of plans to be extremely careful about the terms of any agree- ments or promises, express or implied, which can possibly be interpreted as obligations legally or morally binding the public authorities to do or to leave undone at the demand of the abutters any particular thing within the park lands. Especially where there is any question of prospective legal right of abutters to have access to their own lands over parkway lands, either by border streets or otherwise, it is essential to have a clear under- standing in each case, in the light of well considered general policies, as to whether and to what extent the cost of facilities provided primarily for their benefit (such as paving, sewering, etc., in border streets) is to be borne by the abutters through special assessment or otherwise. Of course what is expedient and just in this respect depends wholly on the circumstances in each case, including other terms of the negotia- tions for land purchase. In Massachusetts, where the terms of the Act under which special assessments are levied are far from satisfactory, it is the usual practice of park commissions in making purchases and in settling condemnation cases out of court, to waive the right of 'assessing better- ments' on abutting property of the owner from whom they acquire land, using this waiver as one of the considerations offered for settlement at a price satisfactory to them. But in such cases especially it is very important to make certain of a clear understanding as to what specific improvements, if any, of special benefit to the abutter, the park authorities are obligated to install at the expense of the general taxpayer, and what improvements, if any, within the parkway land the abutter has a right to demand at his own cost. Where border roads are determined on, whether for parkways of the * elongated park type' under discussion here, or for parks not elongated into this form, there are many advantages in laying these border ways out as 'streets' and putting them under the jurisdiction of the agency in charge of other streets, even though they be one-sided streets and though the jurisdiction of the park authorities begin at the curb on the park side of the street. The entire legal status of parks is very different from that of streets and from that of most other public lands, as has been very ably discussed by the Legal Department of the Regional Plan of New York and its Environs; and it is important to avoid all doubt as to whether any so called 'parkway' land has one status or the other. What looks like a border street along a park, and is used like a street, may be, and in some cases may advantageously be, legally speaking, part of a park and not legally a street at all. For example, at the Revere Beach 220 PARKS A BUILDING SET MGKOFJDIVQMgKjMM GREATLY TO THE DIGNITY Of THE STREET PROPER. ggig TREE PLANTING WILL GIVE fT CHARACTER. ?**« THE FOUR LINE BOULEYART/CAN BE REDUCED TO A MINIMUM Of 80 FEET IF NECESSARY BUT THIS WIDTH t-. -5 -i -V- OOfS NOT PROVIDE FOR A FIRSTOASS TREE PLANTING DOUBLE ROADWAY BOULEVARDS 41 V £> EIGHT LINES SIX LINES FOUR LINES THE CENTER STRIP OF DOUBLE ROADWAY BOULEVARDS SHOULD BE GENEROUS A THOROUGHFARE OF THIS TYPE SHOULD NOT BE LESS THAN IOO FEET WIDE TRIPLE ROADWAY BOULEVARDS ,'. "v- V-J^- , -ijiiMGUjv •'*_*&'•*.' \w\"*5\t? ' . '-^jpj?-** -, " ' "'rilfr^^i'' •<*xl3^" Jt_^LS^ 1^ _T_^Jl l! MOTE ARRANGEMENT Of LOTS TO TAKE ADVANTAGE Of PARKWAY PLATE No. 95. SUGGESTED CROSS SECTIONS OF PLEASURE DRIVES Designed by Harland Bartholomew and Associates for City Planning and Zoning Commission, Orlando, Florida. Used to illustrate types of pleasure drives. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 221 Reservation of the Metropolitan Park System of Boston there is along the edge of the beach an asphalt roadway flanked by a paved sidewalk on each side. Abutting on the landward sidewalk is a mile or so of private amusement resorts, restaurants, etc., the patrons of which come and go almost wholly by way of that sidewalk. These private properties run through to a city street in the rear in which they have the usual rights of abutters on streets; but the beach front drive and sidewalk, which is the ordinary and extremely valuable means of access to them, is not legally a street but a 'park,' in which they have no rights not possessed by any other citizen. Occasionally when the owner of one of these places has conducted it in a manner unsatisfactory to the park commission, the com- mission has simply fenced his place of business off from the sidewalk under their control until he came to terms. These abutters received, in fact, great special benefit from the commission's opening and continued main- tenance of the roadway and promenade on what was formerly a railroad right of way, but they were not assessed as abutters having special rights in the land taken by the commission; and they have no special rights in it, but merely privileges extended to them on sufferance and revokable at will. The above, however, is a very special case, and ordinarily where a strip of land along the border of a park or parkway is expected to be used by abutters in a manner substantially equivalent to that of a street, it is better that the abutters should acquire definite street rights in that strip and that it should be legally a street and dealt with as to improvements and assessments like any other street. I have diverged to the legal aspect of border streets from the question of physical design, because it is so intimately related to it and so important. I now return to the question of physical design in connection with park- ways of the third group. We are not concerned with those of the second type, where enhancement of the value of the abutting land is the prime consideration, except to point out that this consideration properly enters into the design of parkways laid out by public authorities solely as a second- ary and subordinate consideration — a thing to be sought so far, and so far only, as the means by which it is sought are wholly compatible with the most perfect possible accomplishment of the primary and public purpose of the undertaking. To that extent and with that limitation always in mind it should be sought, not only because enhanced value of property is a good thing for the community, but because under plans calculated to have that effect the land necessary for the public purpose can often be secured more cheaply than otherwise, or even secured as a gift. Parkways of the third group normally occupy the legal status of streets rather than of parks, or of streets enclosing islands of land having a 222 PARKS o g Q o « t-J C •8 u w ^ £ p-1 — u ;>. CT! , o c3 3 ^ '?-S rt -S < K. (X ? ffi o Q t» - — "S, s DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 223 park status. As to arrangement of roadways they fall with few exceptions into three distinct classes: (a) Having only a single roadway, flanked by 'parked' borders which include paths, trees, and various ornamental features and from which abutters have access to their properties. The beauty and dignity of such a 'parkway' or 'boulevard' or street is largely dependent on the width and treatment of these borders. If they are of sufficient width and the necessary means of paved access to abutting properties are not too fre- quent, too wide, or otherwise unpleasantly conspicuous, the effect may be really verdant and may justify the name 'parkway.' But the tendency under urban conditions is to cover these bordering spaces spasmodically SATMO LOCI II O «---.» LI I DETAIL • PLAny--ro» iMOOovtMtnT • or • Lift • noftoro; ^ PLATE No. 97 PLAN FOR IMPROVEMENT OF LAKE NOKOMIS BATHS, MINNEAPOLIS PARK SYSTEM, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA (See Waterfront Development Projects, page 227.) An interesting and attractive design of a lake shore bathing center. (For photograph and floor plan of bath- house, see pages 374-375). The plan on page 229 shows a series of special studies of the lakes in Orlando, Florida, by L. D. Tilton. Bartholomew and Associates, City Plan and Landscape Engineers. Not many cities in America are, like Orlando, fortunate enough to have within their borders, or in the near vicinity of their borders, a number of beautiful, natural lakes. "The lakes of Orlando, being perhaps the principal attraction in the city, should be owned, developed, and maintained with the object of adding to and conserving their natural beauties. A well-established policy is required for the proper handling of water areas. The lakes must be either all public or all private. A divided ownership and control brings about neglect and abuse of the water and shores, and a slow reduction of value of these wonderful assets." In Minneapolis the policy of complete public ownership of the lakes encircling the city was adopted and carried out. Such a policy is strongly recommended to cities everywhere possessing such wonderful natural assets. 224 PARKS and unsystematically with more and more strips and pieces of pavement for the convenience of abutters. Even in strictly residential districts, unless the abutting properties are interdicted from direct access by automobile over the 'parkway' and are provided with another street or suitable alley in the rear, the construction of garage runways and of paths from the curb of the central roadway across the area of parkway planting to the lots is apt to impair very greatly any special beauty that might otherwise distinguish the so-called parkway from an ordinarily good residential street. (£) Having one roadway on either side with a strip of ornamental treatment in the middle and usually with at least one row of trees in the sidewalk planting space between each road and the abutting private prop- erty. This class of course has no roads except 'border roads,' and where the central strip of ornamental ground becomes wide and parklike in character it merges into the fourth type of parkway previously discussed. There are several practical advan- tages in these 'double barrelled boule- vards' as they are often called, but aesthetically they are apt to be in- effective and 'ribbony' unless the central ornamental ground is much wider than each of the roadways. Where a parkway is to include within a limited width a natural water course and some of its valley, or a cliff, bluff or other long and narrow declivity, this 'double barrelled' sort of park- way is logical and may have a great deal of picturesque charm. Otherwise, unless the central space is very wide, the type is more often adapted to a formal rather than a picturesque or naturalistic treatment. A good ex- ample is the older portion of Commonwealth Avenue in the Back Bay district of Boston. Other examples are Unter den Linden in Berlin, the Ring- strasse in Vienna, and many of the Chicago and Kansas City parkways. (c) Having a central roadway immediately flanked by 'parked' areas — ranging from mere formal strips of grass with one, two or more rows of trees with or without footpaths and bridle paths, to elongated gardens or parks, both formal and informal — beyond which are other roadways to PLATE No. 98 PATH ALONG RIVERFRONT PARK, HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 225 provide for the frontage of buildings more or less visible from the central roadway. This three-road group includes some of the most notable orna- mental urban boulevards in the world, such as the Champs Elysees in Paris. Other examples are the wider portion of the Fairmount Parkway in Philadelphia, and Grand Boulevard in Chicago. To sum up: There is a strong presumption in favor of providing border roads except in cases where the narrowness of the land which can be acquired forces adoption of a design which is no more than a dignified ordinary street with some planting on its sidewalks (group (a) of type three just discussed), and except in case of parkways of the first or elongated park type in those portions where limited width or topographic conditions, or both, make it PLATE No. 99. A VIEW ALONG THE RIVERFRONT, HARRISBURG, PENNSYLVANIA The beautiful, well-wooded park, two views of which are shown, is one of the outstanding riverfront develop- ments in the United States. The entire river frontage comprising approximately five miles is owned by the city, and the greater portion of it has been improved, resulting in a 55-acre park. Under the 14-foot promenade shown in Plate 99 is a sewer, which is protected by the walk and by the series of steps leading down to the river. A special feature of the construction is the electric light standards which are removable in order to avoid damage by ice during spring freshets. The depressed path shown at the left between the parked area and the thoroughfare above, affords long and pleasant vistas. This park is intensively used not only for rest and as a promenade, but also as a place from which to watch water events. 226 PARKS DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 227 locally impracticable or inexpedient to provide separate border roads and where the abutting property can reasonably be barred off from access to the parkway." DESIGNS OF WATERFRONT DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS Waterfront development projects may occur in several different types of park areas. They may be adjuncts to the "intown" or neighborhood park type of properties, neighborhood playfields or large parks, or a special feature of the system in themselves. They are mentioned separately in this GENERAL PLAN FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF LAKE HARRIET BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS MINNEAPOLIS MINNESOTA ENONERING KKMHMEM PLATE No. 100 GENERAL PLAN FOR THE IMPROVEMENT OF LAKE HARRIET, MINNEAPOLIS PARK SYSTEM, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA This is a valuable illustration of the preservation and development of a natural recreational resource within the vicinity of a city. Lake Harriet is only one of a series of inland waters in the vicinity of Minneapolis, all of which have been taken over by the public for recreational purposes. Lake Harriet Park comprises 402.073 acres, of which 353 acres are water and 49.073 land. Twenty acres of the land area are devoted to active recreations of various types, and 29.07 to landscaping. 228 PARKS •O o DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 229 r MM UREAS OWNED OK CONTROLLED W THE CITY ORLANDO-FLORIDA WATER AREAS MADE ACCESSIBLE TO PUBLIC BY SHORE DRIVEN OR. BY PARK LAND -R JUL ]nn THREE DIAaAMS ILLUSTRATING EXISTING OWNtRSKIP Of IAKE AREAS V LACK. Of FIXED POLICY WITH" REGARD TO CONTROL Of KATFA SUREKES V SHORES omotSNPOtKX Hints pitvuii o«. PUHC ON INI toon1; of »s: PRIVME OWHtRSHIPOf *ll SHORf IOTS COHTKX Of WMER'S EDO* t/ OWNERSHIP Of tAND IN" LAKE BY A -PROPtRTY OWNERS KSOCIMIOIT PR.IVATE OWNERSHIP Of All SHORE IOTS RUNNING TO THE CENTER Of THE- IAKE- PLATE No. 102. PLAN OF WATER AREAS, ORLANDO, FLORIDA 230 PARKS chapter for the reason that they represent a distinct set of problems in design. The use of waterfronts of streams, rivers, lakes or ocean has been alto- gether too largely neglected in park and recreation planning in American cities. On the whole these most desirable of recreation areas have been £T PETEV3W LANDSCAPE WATEBFPONT PAR> YACHT 6A 5 1 N l-n I H"H ww ., <&:.:•.*' , .,.*>* PLATE No. 103. LANDSCAPE PLAN OF WATERFRONT PARK, ST. PETERSBURG, FLORIDA (Design by Charles W. Leavitt and Son, Landscape Engineers, New York.) The Waterfront Park, plan of which is shown above, has an area of approximately 65 acres and it is divided into several distinct sections. The yacht basin is enclosed by two tree-lined moles upon which are two children's playgrounds. Plenty of space for the anchorage of yachts and small boats is provided. The south end of the park is devoted entirely to recreation. It provides an athletic field with ample seating facilities for important athletic events, several baseball and football fields, 24 tennis courts, 14 handball courts and a locker building. The Shore Drive is connected directly with main arteries from the central portion of the city. The section west of the Shore Drive is divided into two parts by a formal Mall, the central feature of which is the Fountain of Youth. On one side of the Mall is the Ornamental Park informally designed and planted. On the other side of the Mall is a more formal area. This is bounded by paths bordered by colorful perennials and tropical plants. At the center of this formal park are wading pools for children, surrounding which is an area thickly planted with shade trees. Sand, instead of grass, is used to cover the ground in this area, making a delight- fully cool place for children to play. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 231 STVDY FOR DEVELOPMENT OF GLEN ISLANDS OVKTY PARK COMMI33IOV •WBTCf*^ PLATE No. 104 STUDY FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF GLEN ISLANDS, WESTCHESTER COUNTY (NEW YORK) PARK COMMISSION This property of 102 acres situated in Long Island Sound just outside the limits of New York City has been purchased by the Westchester County Park Commission. This development plan illustrates how this type of waterfront property may be used for the recreation of the people. In addition to the bathing beaches and bath- houses, the plan includes a large recreation field, a children's playground, a restaurant and one or two shelters. In order to make the park accessible it is proposed to construct a bridge with a 2O-foot roadway connecting the island with the mainland. Note the large area set aside for the parking of cars. 23 2 PARKS appropriated by private individuals, by transportation and industrial inter- ests or have been neglected entirely. Moreover, the common practice which still prevails throughout the country of draining sewage and other wastes into water adjacent to cities and towns has quite generally made the use of the waters undesirable for recreational purposes. The solution of the sanitary problems involved in water development projects is quite likely to prove of basic importance as preliminary to developmental design. No attempt will be made here to discuss the principles of the design of waterfront areas, for each area presents distinct and separate problems. The representation through pictures and plans of various designs already put into effect or in process of execution, will carry its own story in a sug- gestive way to communities contemplating such development projects. CABRILLO- BEACH LOS AHGr.LES PLAYGROUfID R LCR CATjOri J3 HIPT. .-•. ABE PLATE No. 105 PLAN OF DEVELOPMENT OF CABRILLO BEACH, POINT FIRMIN PARK, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA Total area proposed beach, 25 acres. With the government breakwater as an axis, two new beach sites will be made by the use of hydraulic dredges. One is of approximately twelve acres on the inner harbor side and the other about thirteen acres on the ocean side. More than a million cubic yards of material dredged from the inner harbor will be used in making the two fills. Plans of the Los Angeles Playground and Recreation Department for this development also include a bath- house, an anchorage for yachts, boathouse, a beach picnic ground and a comprehensive program of water sports. The development also provides for roadways, automobile parking spaces and a park overlooking the beach. DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 233 co lit cr c « 2 « £ £ o ns O M u _ W rt ^3 - • o o H-3 ° c . « S^ S * uO 3 «_, c MO '5.V-&H >.4J Wi •*-» W3 -'s a — o ii > «J.S O^ S iA y c « 05 ot E J3 o ^^ S 234 PARKS ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, AQUARIUMS, BOTANICAL GARDENS, ARBORETUMS, CONSERVATORIES These features of park systems are each considered in separate chapters or sections of chapters. Their design involves highly technical scientific problems and in the case of zoological gardens, aquariums and conserva- tories, structural engineering as well. These problems are separate and apart from those involved in the design of active recreation areas or of the different types of park areas in which the application of the principles of landscape architecture is of prime importance. They will be discussed in detail in chapters or sections of chapters. SERVICE AREAS Those areas in park systems devoted to the location of barns, shops, storehouses, greenhouses and other structures and uses connected with operation and maintenance are often the most unsightly places imaginable. Ugliness and disorder are not necessarily fundamental characteristics of such areas. By proper designing of the areas and especially by everlasting maintenance of order, system and upkeep these areas may be made very attractive. Examples of the design of service areas are given in Chapter XI, "Maintenance." BIBLIOGRAPHY DESIGN OF PARKS AND RECREATION AREAS "Landscape Gardening for Playgrounds," Charles "Athletic Facilities to Meet Modern Needs in Towns Mulford Robinson. Pamphlet No. 22, published by the and Cities," Gavin Hadden. Reprinted from The Amer- P. R. A. A. icon City. Published by Gavin Hadden, 607 Fifth "The Landscape Treatment of Parks," F. L. Olmsted, Avenue, New York City. Contains illustrations, plans jr Bailey's Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, 1916, and descriptions of various types of athletic field lay- Vol IV> pages I8oi-i8o7. Plans and tables of statis- outs- tics; includes also brief definitions of types of public "Block Interior Parks," F. J. Herding. Park Inter- parks. national, March, 1921, Vol. II, pages 116-125. Illus- "Layout and Equipment of Playgrounds." Sugges- trated, plans. tions for laying out playgrounds and athletic fields with "Construction and Beautification of Playgrounds and plans, the selection and placing of apparatus and the Recreation Fields," Karl B. Lohmann. The Playground, construction of homemade apparatus. Published by July, 1926, pages 205-208. the P. R. A. A. "The Design of the Larger Municipal Park," Karl B- "Park and Playground Design and Ornament." Lohmann. Parks and Recreation, November-December, Parks and Recreation, September-October, 1925, page 1925, pages 115-135. 72; November-December, 1925, page 161. Round table "Fundamentals of Design to Create Beauty in Play- discussion at the convention of American Institute of grounds," Charles N. Lowrie, Landscape Architect, Park Executives. New York City. The American City, April, 1927, page "Parks and Playgrounds," Frederick Law Olmsted. 445. The Playground, September, 1920, page 347. A plea "An Introduction to the Study of Landscape Design," for the beautification of the playground. Henry Vincent Hubbard. Macmillan Company, New "Playgrounds and Parks from the Designer's Stand- York, 1924, Part IV. point," Frederick Law Olmsted. Proceedings of the DESIGN OF PARK AND RECREATION AREAS 235 Eighteenth Annual Convention of the American Asso- ciation of Park Superintendents, October, 1916, pages 30-32. Discussion of address, pages 32-47. "Public Park Status," Percival Gallagher. Parks and Recreation, Vol. VI, No. I, September-October, 1922, pages 53-56. A very discriminating statement of the true meaning of the term "Park" and the fundamentals, characteristics and functions of a park. " Should Playgrounds Be Landscaped?" C. H. Meeds, Chief Engineer, Park Department, Cincinnati, Ohio. Parks and .Rmra*i'cm,.September-October, 1923, page 71. "Landscape Design," Henry V. Hubbard and Theo- dore Kimball. Macmillan Co. STADIUMS "Athletic Stadia," The Portland Cement Associa- tion, in West Washington Street, Chicago, 111. n pages, ii illustrations. "Concrete Grand Stands and Stadia," The Portland Cement Association, 1923. n pages. "The Cornell Crescent," Gavin Hadden, C. E. Re- printed from The Architectural Record, March, 1925. 1 1 pages, 8 illustrations. Copies may be had from the author, 607 Fifth Avenue, New York City. "First Steps in Stadium Operation," V. K. Brown. Reprinted and available from Parks and Recreation. "Mobility of Seats, " Gavin Hadden. Reprinted from The Athletic Journal, June, 1927. Illustrated. Copies may be had from the author, 607 Fifth Avenue, New York City. "Stadium Design," Gavin Hadden, C. E. Paper pre- sented before the New York Section of the American Society of Civil Engineers, May 20, 1925. Reprinted from the Athletic Journal. Copies may be had from the author, 607 Fifth Avenue, New York City. 16 pages, 41 illustrations. "Stadium in the City of the Average," Daniel N. Casey. Reprinted from The American City, August, 1924, Portland Cement Association. Illustrated. "Stadiums." Published by P. R. A. A. n pages. Contains the following information on 71 stadiums in this country: Name, date of erection, managing authority, seating capacity, size, shape, construction, cost, method of financing, means of maintenance, uses. GOLF COURSES "Golf Architecture in America," George C. Thomas, Jr. D. Scott Chisholm, 703 Grant Building, Los Angeles, Calif. "The Design of Golf Courses," Karl B. Lohmann. Landscape Architecture, October, 1926, page 8. Illus- trated. "The Golf Course and the Land Subdivision," Prof. Henry V. Hubbard. Landscape Architecture, April, 1927. Illustrated with plans. "Golf Turf of High Quality; How to Produce It and How to Take Care of It." Stumpp & Walter Company, New York, N. Y. "Laying Out a Golf Course." Spalding Official Golf Guide, 1923. American Sports Publishing Company, 45 Rose Street, New York City. "Municipal and Public Golf Courses in the United States. " Public Links Section of the United States Golf Association, New York, N. Y., 1927. This pamphlet contains statistical information on size, fees, costs, etc. "Municipal Golf in a Hundred Cities," Rebecca B. Rankin. Reprinted from The American City, June, 1924. Available from the P. R. A. A. Contains informa- tion regarding acreage, number of players, cost of main- tenance, etc. " Municipal Golf — Its Influence on Park and Recrea- tion Affairs," H. S. Wagner. Parks and Recreation, November-December, 1926, page 147. "Municipal Golf — Construction and Administra- tion." The P. R. A. A., 1927. A practical discussion of problems involved in the construction and administra- tion of municipal golf courses, with statistical tables. BOULEVARDS AND PARKWAYS "Boulevards of San Francisco, Cal.," C. W. Geiger. Good Roads, January 4, 1919, Vol. XVII, pages 1-3. Notes on the history and construction of the scenic drives in and near the Golden Gate City. "Boulevards, Parkways, Avenues and Plantations," T. H. Mawson (in his Civic Art, 1911, pages 147-158. Illustrations, cross-sections). "The Bronx River Parkway," J. Downer. Proceed- ings of the Ninth National Conference on City Plan- ning, 1917, pages 91-95. Illustrated. "Parkways on Great Avenues," C. M. Robinson (in his Modern Civic Art, 1918, etc., pages 206-227, 3°7~ 320. Illustrated. "Report on a Proposed Parkway System for Essex County, New Jersey," Olmsted Brothers, 1915. Pub- lished by the Essex County Park Commission, Newark, N.J. MISCELLANEOUS "Automobile Tourist Camping Grounds," Calvert Swing Winsborough. Published by the author, Central National Bank Building, St. Louis, Mo. "Bridle Paths in City Parks," Wayne Dinsmore. Park International, November, 1920, Vol. I, pages 245- 249. Illustrated. "Bridle Paths in Parks." Parks and Recreation, January, 1921, Vol. IV, page 148. 236 PARKS "Camping Out — A Manual on Organized Camp- ing." The Macmillan Company, New York, available from the P. R. A. A. Chapter II, Selection of Camp Site. Chapter III, Camp Site Planning. "The Design of Flagstaff s." Park International, Janu- ary, 1921, pages 85-90. Plates, plans and tables. "The Design of Park Cemeteries," Karl B. Lohmann. Parks and Recreation, January-February, 1927, page 216. "The Influence of the Automobile on the Design of Park Roads," C. W. Eliot, 2d. Landscape Architecture, October, 1922, Vol. XIII, pages 27-37. Diagrams. "Memorials in Parks — Flagpoles, " C. H. Walker. Park International, January, 1921, Vol. II, pages 53-56. Illustrated. "Memorials in Parks — Fountains," W. Eyre. Park International, May, 1921, Vol. II, pages 244-247. Illus- trated. "Park Architecture," H. W. Peaslee. Park Inter- national, 1920-1921, Vols. I-II. Illustrated. "Park Furniture." Park International, July, 1920, Vol. I, pages 83-86. Plates, plans. "The Relation of Sculpture to Parks and Buildings," H. Adams. Journal of American Institute of Architects, April, 1912, Vol. I, pages 161-165. "Report of the Committee on the Subject of Statues in Central Park." Publication of New York City, Department of Public Parks, Document No. 46, year ending April 30, 1873, pages 3-10. Discuss the prin- ciples for the placing of statuary in parks. "Tourist Camps," Rolland S. Wallis. Engineering Extension Department, Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa, 1925, 64 pages. Illustrated. "The Tourist Camp Site, Equipment and Mainte- nance," P. J. Hoffmaster. The American City, April, 1925, Vol. XXXII, page 401. Illustrated. CHAPTER V CONSTRUCTION NOTES The construction problems involved in the development of different types of recreation areas included in a park system are so many and varied that it will obviously be impossible to deal adequately with all of them within the limits of a single chapter. The notes presented in this chapter, therefore, are intended as merely a preliminary presentation of the subject. The natural order of procedure in the construction work involved in the development of any given undeveloped area is approximately as follows: 1. Topographical surveys. 2. Preparation of design or designs by the landscape architect, including grading and planting plans. 3. Construction surveys by the engineer. 4. Preparation of engineering plans — grading, drainage, irrigation, roads, walks, trails and bridges, sewers, water supply, planting — including estimates, specifications, contracts, etc. 5. Simultaneous with, or following the above-mentioned basic con- struction features, comes the preparation of plans for the construction of specific areas devoted to play, games and sports, and of necessary structures. In so far as the information has been included the suggested order has been followed as nearly as possible in the presentation of the material in this chapter. As has been noted in Chapter IV, pages 109-113, the landscape architect and the park engineer must work hand in hand; and, when the property includes active recreation features and structures of importance, the special technical services of the recreation expert and of the building architect should be used by the landscape architect and the engineer. The special services of lighting, electrical, heating and sanitary engineers may also be needed. TOPOGRAPHICAL SURVEYS The topographical survey, including the hydrographic survey in prop- erties having water areas, is the basic preliminary step to the preparation of the design by the landscape architect. The making of such surveys is an engineering function. No attempt will be made in this chapter to discuss the making of such surveys. Full information can be had from any good engineering manual. In "Parks and Park Engineering" (Lyle, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., N.Y., 1916), Chapter II, pages 25-32, inclusive, may be found a brief discussion of the subject. (See Chapter IV, page 109, for a statement 237 238 PARKS of the fundamental importance of having a careful topographical survey of every property in a park system.) LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT'S PLANS AND DESIGNS The preceding chapter is devoted to suggestions on elements of designs of different types of park and recreation areas. In construction, the designs of the landscape architect stand in the same general relation to the park engineer as do the designs of the building architect to the building engineer. No park governing authority should attempt to begin construction work on any property under its jurisdiction without first having obtained a design by the most competent landscape architect who can be secured. This is just as important in small systems as large ones. GRADING Grading in construction has two purposes. First, the topography in most recreation areas will need certain changes to make it conform to the picture which the landscape architect believes the given property should present from a landscape viewpoint. An elevation may be required in one place; in another an elevation may need to be lowered. It may be desirable to create a body of water in a certain location; in another to fill a depression. These are general purposes. Secondly, grading is almost invariably involved in the construction of specific features such as the preparation of a roadbed or the beds for walks and trails, the planning of areas for various kinds of games and sports or the erection of certain structures. The preparation of general grading plans is the function of the land- scape architect. Except as grading is touched upon in dealing with other subjects in this chapter, no attempt will be made to discuss the technical processes of handling this important phase of construction work. DRAINAGE AND OTHER ENGINEERING PROBLEMS Drainage is one of the most fundamental considerations in the physical layout of park properties, and careful consideration must be given to it. The following pages contain a detailed discussion of drainage and other engineering problems. Most of this material was prepared by Albert D. Taylor, landscape architect and town planner of Cleveland, Ohio, and was first published in Landscape Architecture. NOTES ON INSTALLATION OF DRAINAGE1 Purposes of drainage. The kinds of drainage to which these notes refer are tile drains, vitrified or porous, laid with open joints or with cemented joints. The general purposes of drainage are as follows: 1 Albert D. Taylor in Landscape Architecture, July 1922. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 239 (a) For direct removal of surface water which may accumulate as the result of storms, or of water which may be confined in pools of various types. Thus in the case of surface water to prevent erosion by admitting it to an underground channel. (b) For removal of ground water in order to accomplish the following results: (i) To eliminate the danger of damage from expansion during freezing weather in the vicinity of foundation walls, graves, walks and roads. (2) To aid the normal growth of vegetation by preventing the drowning of roots in supersaturated soil, and by reduction of moisture content to encour- age bacterial activity for root growth. (3) To eliminate undue softness of areas, caused by surplus ground water where a firm surface is desired. Fundamental principles of drainage. There are certain fundamental principles which apply to the practical analysis and eventual solution of a drainage problem. The general method of approaching a drainage problem may be summarized in the following tabulation: (a) Determine the exact nature of the problem — that is, whether the problem is one of surface water removal entirely, one of subsurface or ground water removal where it is desired to effect a permanent lowering of the water table, or whether the problem is a combination of these factors. In so doing a decision will be reached regarding the portion of surface water to be removed by surface channels and the portion of surface water together with ground water to be removed by underground pipes. (b) Determine the time element in the removal of surplus surface water or ground water — that is, whether temporary backing up is per- missible and if so at what points in the system. (c) Determine the quantity of run-off from the area to be drained and the resulting size of open ditch or sizes of pipe required under the time element. (d) Determine upon the solution of the out-fall portion of the problem, so that the total construction cost will be most economical. (e) Determine upon the type of channel, pipes and inlets in different parts of the area to be drained which will accomplish the most economical and effective solution under the conditions imposed. (/) Determine upon a proper spacing of the individual drainage lines so that the entire system will be adequate to remove surface or ground water as required, and allow a factor of safety which will meet with demands of abnormal and unexpected quantities of water. (g) Determine the proper depth for various drainage lines in order to answer the requirements of their individual functions. (k) Determine the available minimum grades which can be accepted, and plan if possible the entire system as a unit, making ample provision for future extensions without readjusting the entire plan. 240 PARKS BRICK FLOOR LAID DRY TO ALLOW SfffAGC ^ 6" V.S.P INLET. Fi,.2 CATCH BASIN WITH CURB INLET. (PACKING OVAL PARK, INLET. V.S.P. CATCH BASIN. TYPICAL INLETS AND CATCH BASINS. PREPARED IN THE OFFICE OF A. 0. TAYUOR. CATCH BASIN. PLATE A, PLATE No. 107 CONSTRUCTION NOTES 241 Areas Requiring Drainage and General Problems of Each. (a) Roads. Roads are usually crowned for drainage of their surface- This crown will usually approximate a half inch to each foot of width between the middle line and the side line for macadam roads, one-fourth inch for smooth impervious surfaces. On roads which are comparatively flat (2% to 5%) the crown may be as slight as three-eighths of an inch to each foot, while on roads of steeper grades (7% to 12%) the crown may be increased to three-fourths of an inch to each foot or even more in order to ensure the prompt removal of surface water to the gutters and thereby eliminate washing of the road surface through streams of water which might find their way over the road surface from some distance before finally reach- ing the gutter. This applies to macadam roads. For smooth impervious surfaces the crown is not increased with the gradient. There are various types of gutters which are not discussed in these notes. The types of inlets and catch basins to meet the requirements of road drainage are shown on Plate 107. In the heavier clay soils it is extremely desirable that the subgrade of the road should be thoroughly drained. This may be accomplished either by crowning the subgrade and removing the water through four-inch tile drains (similar to figure 3 on Plate 108) installed within the road area and along the immediate side of the road, or by one single similar tile drain installed in a depression in the subgrade under the middle line of the road. The usual depth of these tile drains under the road approximates twelve inches below the surface of the subgrade. (b) Walks. It is quite essential that the surface of walks of all kinds should be so graded that the surface water will be promptly carried to the sides, and it is equally essential that the surrounding surface of the ground on either side of the walk should be so graded that the minimum amount of surface water will find its way to the top of the walk. Walks constructed on the clay soils are usually drained with a line of four-inch tile installed under the middle line of the walk in a trench approx- imating twelve inches in width and twelve inches below the subgrade of the walk, and filled with cinders to cover the tile. Such underdrainage removes promptly all surplus water which would cause damage in the presence of freezing conditions and which might also cause a soft condition of the walk surface, especially on gravel and turf walks. (c) Lawns, garden areas, farm areas. The modeling of the surface of lawns and gardens is a question of practical and aesthetic grading too long to discuss here. Subdrainage of all these areas is similarly largely a horti- cultural or agricultural question. Tile drainage for lawns is shown in figures i, 2 and 3 on Plate 108; for gardens in figures I and 4 on Plate 107. 242 PARKS *s « .. I *-/*:- CINDERS -BOARDS 4 W CONTROL % TO PS OIL TOP50IL SUBSOIL ' SHALLOW DRA/M,-FtELD. \ <- SUBSOIL SHALLOW DRAIN,- LAWNS. \ VAff/OUS METHODS OF BACKFILLING TRENCHES. COMNECT/NG SHALLOW MD D£EP DRAMS BRICKS /T END Of TAf? PAPER *- SMALL STONE ELEVATION. \.-'\^SETTING LINES & GMDES. COYER/NG JO/NT5 OF T/LE, V- \ \ TYPICAL LAYOUTS OF DflAIN flFES / \ • -\ \ / V / / / \ x-.^.^^-.^ DRAINAGE DETAILS. PREPARED IN THE OFFICE OF ALBERT D. TAYLOR, LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT a TOWN PLANNER. CLEVELAND, 0. JUNE 10, 1922. PLATE B. PLATE No. 108 CONSTRUCTION NOTES 24j (d) Foundation walls. (Include retaining walls, cellar walls and pools.) Such walls must invariably be protected by a line of drain tile installed immediately at the base and on the back of the wall and discharging by tile drains or weep holes in order to remove the surplus ground water that will otherwise cause damage by frost action, or seepage through the wall. (e) Wooded areas. The drainage problem of wooded areas is prefer- ably solved by open channels for the surface water, and lines of drain pipe where necessary to remove the ground water, especially in picnic areas and woods which are frequently used during the wet season. These drains should be installed with the greatest of care in order that the natural ground water conditions in the soil may be changed very gradually, thus per- mitting the root systems of the trees to readapt themselves to the changed moisture conditions of the soil. (/) Cemeteries. In cemetery drainage, besides modeling the surface of the ground so far as possible in order to remove to proper inlets and catch basins the surplus surface water, there is also an important problem of providing drainage, especially in the heavier types of soil, for each grave by installing a line of drainage below the level of the grave similar to figure I on Plate 108. (g) Recreational areas. The drainage of .recreational areas is one of the most important problems of drainage. Such areas as playgrounds, tennis courts, bowling greens, polo fields and baseball fields must present a firm surface soil condition at all times and must be as little affected as possible by storm water which should be removed in the shortest time both by surface drains and by underground drains. It becomes necessary to install drainage on these areas with short intervals between the parallel lines of drains, especially where such areas are constructed on the various types of clay soil. (h) Steep bluffs having a tendency to disintegrate and slip in large sections on the face of the slope. These conditions present a problem of removing all surface water before it reaches the top of the slope and usually of removing all ground water through the installation of a deep line of drain tile in the bottom of a cinder filled trench. Figure I on Plate 108 is for the purpose of intercepting such ground water as will eventually find its way to the lower impermeable hardpan subsoil and follow this layer to the face of the slope. (i) Meter pits, boiler rooms, newly transplanted trees, etc. These areas should always be thoroughly drained. This is important with tree pits especially when made in the heavy type of clay soil. Kinds of pipe used for drainage. The two most common kinds of pipe used for drainage purposes, so far as this discussion is concerned, are agri- 244 PARKS cultural tile (either round or octagonal) and vitrified clay pipe (called vitrified sewer pipe or salt glazed or Akron pipe). There are two grades of vitrified sewer pipe known as first quality and second quality. Where the source of supply for such pipe is close at hand, it is sometimes equally as satisfactory to use second quality vitrified sewer pipe at a less initial cost for the main lines into which the agricultural tile lateral drains empty. The agricultural tile of unglazed burned clay, being quite porous, is most com- monly used in the various types of subdrainage. Some engineers claim that the octagonal tile will hold its alignment much better than the round tile, otherwise there is no real reason for the use of one type in preference to the use of another type. Some experienced men say that since most of the underground water enters the pipe through the joints in any case, and since there is no extra cost except that of the pipe in installing vitrified pipe with open joints, this is preferable to agricultural tile because more permanent. Computing sizes of pipes required for drainage. In the work of deter- mining the required size of pipe for drainage in order to meet the require- ments of any specific drainage problem, one must first consider the problem of surface water removal and second the problem of ground water removal. (a) Surface water. The area to be drained should be studied to deter- mine its smaller individual areas, each of which collects its own quantity of surface water and each of which should be served by one or more inlets or catch basins. With this information in hand, compute from rainfall and run-off tables the size of the outlet pipe required to remove the water as rapidly as it will collect at any given low point, allowing in the computa- tions for the time necessary for the surface water from the periphery of the drained area to reach the inlet. The second step is to join these units into groups by combining the quantity of surface water collected in pipe lines coming from two or more catch basins and adopting a proper increase in pipe diameter. From these simple groups more complicated groups may be combined until finally the entire surface water is emptied into one or more main outlet lines. Since the greater the grade on which the pipe is laid, the faster the flow and the smaller the pipe which is required, for these and other considera- tions it is more economical at times to depart from the apparent natural outfall location and to incur additional expense for excavation on some other part of the system in order to procure a steeper grade on the drainage lines. The time allowed for the removal of storm water is an important element in computing pipe capacities. Many situations arise where tem- porary backing up is allowable, and consequent economy of cost is effected through the use of smaller pipe. The calculations for the size of pipe should CONSTRUCTION NOTES 245 of course be simplified in practice by the use of engineers' tables for the flow of water in pipes. (b) Ground water. Ground water finds its way to drainage outlets much more slowly and more constantly than surface water. Therefore the element of time required to remove surplus soil-moisture is more favorable, and smaller pipe may be used. Drainage lines to meet the requirements of surface water and ground water may often be combined for the reason that in practically every instance the surface water is removed so promptly, following a storm, that the bulk of the flow in the drainage lines is com- pleted at the time when the ground water flow reaches the pipes. In other words the same pipe line may serve both requirements, bearing in mind that it is not necessary to adopt a pipe of much additional capacity to care for surface water and ground water near the immediate points where this type of drainage originates. If this double use is made of the pipes, however, there should be proper catch basins to prevent silting up the lines with surface dirt. Also there is danger that the open joint pipe, if more than full of surface water, will irrigate, not drain, for a time at least. Practice has shown the four-inch tile to be the best minimum size for general ground water drainage and the six-inch tile to be the best minimum size for drainage from inlets and catch basins. The question of determining the required sizes of pipes in different portions of a drainage system is an important one, and the factor of safety as stated above should always be allowed, to meet the requirement of abnormal conditions. The installation of a slightly larger pipe when the trench is once open is small additional cost, while the expense of reexcavating and installing a larger pipe is a tremendous relative cost and inconvenience, as well as possibly a source of temporary damage to finished surface conditions. Effect of soil types on spacing and depth of pipes. This refers primarily to ground water drainage. Gravel and sandy soils need very little or no under- draining. Stiff clay soils on recreation areas may require laterals at inter- vals as frequent as 10 feet, while normal farm practice is to place laterals approximately 40 feet apart. Under garden areas and average lawn areas the spacing of laterals at 2O-foot intervals is reasonable unless extremely stiff clay conditions are common, in which case 12 to 15 feet is the average spacing. Laterals placed under recreational areas such as tennis courts, bowling greens, turf terraces, will average from 10 to 15 feet apart depending upon the condition of the soil (whether heavy clay or light clay loam). All laterals and mains for drainage areas should be laid, in general, to conform with figure 8 and figure 9 on Plate 108. It should be remembered, in determining the spacing of laterals, that the hydraulic gradient for ground water in a heavy clay soil is much greater than the 246 PARKS hydraulic gradient for ground water in a sandy loam, and therefore the spacing of the laterals will depend to some extent upon the depth at which the laterals are installed. The depth for the installation of tile drains will vary with the type of soil in which the lines are installed, more than the spacing does. In a heavy clay soil the laterals should be laid slightly deeper (approximately 3 to 3^ feet) while in the lighter clay loam two and a half to three feet is ample. The general rule is that the deeper the laterals are located, the slower the action, but the wider the area which can be drained. Therefore quick drainage of ground water would require the minimum depth of laterals with the minimum spacing. The following are some notes on the average depth of laterals in different kinds of soil and for different drainage purposes: Underdrainage of normal lawn areas on heavy clay loam, 3 to 3^ feet; on lighter clay loam, 2 to 3 feet; of roads and walk areas, 12 to 18 inches below the subgrade of such areas; of garden areas on the lighter clay soils, 2 to 3^/2 feet; of areas in the vicinity of graves, 7 to 8 feet; of wooded areas, 3^ to 4^ feet (intervals of 30 to 40 feet between laterals) ; underdrainage of intensely used recreational areas, 18 inches to 2^ feet (spacing between laterals,. 10 to 15 feet). Determining location for drainage lines. The location for drainage lines should be selected with a view to reducing as far as possible the total length of drain pipe required and especially the lengths of deep laid pipe or of pipe of large diameter. Whenever it is necessary to connect shallow pipe with deep pipe, this may be accomplished in a manner similar to that shown in figure 4 and figure 5 on Plate 108. It is quite essential that important drainage lines should be installed within the boundaries of any extremely wet portions of the area being drained. Drainage pipes should also be located where if in the future it is necessary to get at them in order to correct any clogging condition of the pipes or condition where pipes are out of alignment, such excavation can be made without destroying finished surface conditions which cannot be easily repaired. Setting lines and grades. All drainage lines should be carefully laid out on the ground with stakes at least twenty-five or fifty feet apart along the center lifie of the drain. Batter boards should be erected as shown in figure 6 on Plate 108 at a uniform height over the flow line of the pipe and a nail or tack driven into each batter board directly over the center of the drain. The posts supporting these boards should be at least twelve inches and preferably farther from the sides of the proposed ditch in order not to be disturbed by excavating operations. Batter boards should be carefully erected for each catch basin or inlet and allowance made for the CONSTRUCTION NOTES 247 additional width of excavation at these points. A grade stake should be carefully set to one side of each inlet or catch basin as a reference for the elevation of the top of the grating. It should be placed so that the top of the grating can be reached by a straight edge not more than ten feet long. Excavating trenches. In the excavation of all drainage trenches, espe- cially through lawn areas, great care should be exercised to excavate the top soil to the full depth and pile it along one side of the trench. The sub- soil should then be excavated to a point slightly above the finished grade for the bottom of the trench, and this subsoil should be piled on the oppo- site side of the trench. Great care should be exercised in excavating for the bottom of the trench, and frequent checks should be made from the string line stretched between batter boards. This grade at the bottom of the trench is usually a flow line grade for the bottom of the inside of the tile, and an allowance equal to the thickness of the tile should be made in determining this surface for the bottom of the trench. It is very important that no part of the trench should be excavated below the finished grade, because all pipes for the best results should rest firmly upon solid, undisturbed soil. Laying pipe lines. The method of installing tile drainage is practically the same in all cases. Tiles with open joints should be spaced and covered as shown in figure 7 on Plate 108. Each tile as it is laid should be covered and firmly supported on either side in order to prevent any possibility of getting out of line. The approximate spacing between the ends of the tile is one-eighth to one-fourth inch, and the joints are covered with a strip of tar paper approximately three inches wide and long enough to cover the upper two-thirds of the circumference of the tile. The object of the tar paper is to prevent silt from getting into the tile at the top. Vitrified pipe, having bells, needs no tar paper, but the soil must be cut out below the pipe to fit the bell. Backfilling trenches. All trenches should be carefully backfilled in layers not exceeding six inches in depth. Each layer should be thoroughly tamped and preferably puddled except immediately around the pipe before a succeeding layer is applied. The method of backfilling with cinders, sub- soil and topsoil is shown in figures I, 2 and 3 on Plate 108. The great danger in backfilling trenches comes from a subsequent settlement which causes oftentimes irreparable damage to the surface conditions above the drains. All drainage trenches on all areas except wooded areas should be care- fully backfilled with screened cinders up to a point where the proper depth of topsoil is required. (See figures I, 2 and 3 on Plate 108.) In abnormally deep trenches where it seems advisable to conserve the supply of cinders, the trench can be backfilled, using a board partition on one side of which a backfill of cinders is made and on the other side of 248 PARKS '//i 1 T'« 'ROUND LINE HATER LEVEL ~ m rl *$!$$${£. \ oi ^ ?^/|; ..* • • . ' •.. •^_— -_ ;'i '•'• ^•'•.~ ..• . • « .• • A • ; / ?! — — . = • - :'•' '.'+'• •>''. .'.A- . ' A. '.. * •5/7/»55 */g BKA "f/PE 5? \ ^•*-.v; •• •'• A ' •.' *. '.' « — ' ' « ' ^ '^•^•A >JT ^> : :~; ''•'•/• :'•'*. '•'.'•.• VALVE CONTROLLING h *^~ WATER SUPPLY SH-LEAD SUPPLY PIPE C \ ~V^ J' tf / DRAW QCJST IP 0^ corm W/TH i/rr ft/H '/t BRASS PIPf' VALVf BOt- a/r/cx O TO DRAW POOL ELEVATION Fic. 2 arffff-J. OH PIPE Vtf. / DPAIH 'E PO OL ^L/ffl_ Fiq.4 DETAILS FOR DRAINAGE OP POOLS. PREPARED IN THE OFFICE OF A. D TAYLOR PLATE C. PLATE No. 109 CONSTRUCTION NOTES 249 which a backfill of natural subsoil is made. The installation of tile drainage in heavy clay soils without a backfill of cinders or light sandy loam accom- plishes little, and many times a backfill of clay will practically destroy the entire value of the drain. Catch basins. Inlets and catch basins are of various types, as shown on Plate 107. They may also be of varying depth depending upon the depths of the pipes entering and leaving from these basins. The various types of sand traps are shown in figures 2, 3 and 5 on Plate 107. A detailed discussion of catch basins is omitted in this paper because of lack of space. Drainage of pools. There are two important problems in the drainage of pools. The first is the problem of the overflow, and the second is the problem of completely draining the bottom of the pool. On Plate 109 the writer has shown various common methods for draining pools. It is very important in the overflow drainage of a pool that the drainage outlet should earn* the water from the surface of the pool, thus constantly removing a certain amount of dust and other foreign materials that may rest upon the surface of the water. The methods of controlling the height of the water in the pool are shown in the figures on Plate 109. Cost Data Notes. All cost data figures include no charge for teaming or carting of materials to or from site of the trench. The excavated material is thrown immediately along the sides of the trench, from which location it is shoveled into the trench as backfill. Cinders are delivered in piles along the side of the trench. No allowance is included for cost of materials, superintendence, or contin- gencies, nor for cleaning up after the work is completed. All excavations made in average clay loam during dry weather. Shallow trenches. The cost per cubic yard to excavate trenches for drain pipes will vary according to the soil and the depth of the trenches. The following tables showing man hours required to excavate trenches to various depths in different soils have been compiled from the cost records of a number of operations over a period of several years, when trenching has been done under varying conditions of soil, labor and weather. Man Hours per cubic yard of excavation Depth of Average width Easy Average Tough Hard- trench of trench earth earth earth pan 1 foot 12 inches I 1.25 1.75 2.5 2 feet 15 inches I 1.25 1.75 2.5 3 feet 1 8 inches 1.25 1.5 2 3 4 feet 18 inches 1.5 1.75 2.25 3.5 5 feet 21 inches 2.25 4 6 feet 24 inches 2.75 250 PARKS Man Hours per one hundred linear feet of trench excavated Depth of Average width Easy Average Tough Hard- trench of trench earth earth earth pan 1 foot 12 inches 3.7 4.6 6.5 9.2 2 feet 15 inches 9 n.6 16 23 3 feet 1 8 inches 20.8 25 33 50 4 feet 1 8 inches 33 39 50 77 5 feet 21 inches 81 130 6 feet 24 inches 122 When restricted areas compel the disposal of excavation on one side of the trench only, the man hours should be increased one-sixth to cover the extra labor required to keep the material pushed back from the edge of the trench. In any excavation work where it is necessary to handle materials twice, always endeavor to shovel the material on planks in order to decrease the cost of handling it the second time, as materials can be handled at nearly half the cost if shoveled from planks. Trench excavation (shallow trench not over six feet deep, see Plate 108, figures 2 and 3). Depth of excavation, 3 feet. Width of trench, 18 inches. Total length of trench excavated, 2,113 feet. Total excavation, 359 cubic yards. Total labor hours required, 722. Labor hours required per cubic yard of excavation, 2.01. Labor hours required per linear foot of trench, .342. Deep trenches. In excavating trenches more than six feet deep it will be necessary to shovel the earth back from the edge of the trench even for narrow trenches. Loose earth just thrown out of trenches is easily handled, especially if that handling consists in merely pushing it back from the edge of the trench. For trenches from six to eight feet deep, one-half of the total excavation will be handled twice, the second handling costing only one-third that of the first. The following rates in man hours per cubic yard will cover the cost of initial materials handled for trenches six to eight feet deep: Easy earth, 2 man hours. Average earth, 2.5 man hours. Tough earth, 2.75 man hours. Hardpan or wet clay, 4 man hours. Therefore the average cost per cubic yard in man hours for trenches from six to eight feet deep will be: Easy earth, 2.33 man hours. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 251 Average earth, 2.925 man hours. Tough earth, 3.21 man hours. Hardpan or wet clay, 4.66 man hours. The cost for excavating of trenches figured at these rates will not cover the cost of removing the surplus material not needed for backfill, and a separate estimate should be made to cover this cost if there is to be any material removed. Trench excavation (deep trench over six feet deep, see figure I on Plate 108). Depth of trench excavation, 7 feet. Width of trench, 27 inches. Total length of trench excavated, 697 feet. Total excavation, 406.6 cubic yards. Total labor hours required, 1,220. Labor hours required per cubic yard of excavation, 3. Labor hours required per lineal foot of trench, 1.75. Backfilling of trenches. Depth of trench, 3 feet. Width of trench, 1 8 inches. Total length of trench backfilled, 654 feet. Total cubic yards of trench backfill, 109. Total labor hours required for backfilling, 90.5. Labor hours required per cubic yard of backfill, .83. (This includes backfilling in layers not exceeding 12 inches in depth and tamping or puddling.) Laying tile (open joints, see figure 7 on Plate 108). Total length Total labor hours Labor hours p?r Size of tile of tile laid required lineal foot 4 or 6 inches V. S. P. 198 linear feet 9 .045 4 inches Agricultural 450 linear feet 15 .033 1 8 inches V. S. P. 180 linear feet 12 .066 Laying tile (cement joints, see figure 4 on Plate 108). Total length Total labor hours Labor hours p:r Size of tile of tile laid required lineal foot 12 inches V. S. P. 225 linear feet 15 .066 1 8 inches V. S. P. 320 linear feet 40 .125 Catch basins (brick, see figure 2 on Plate 107). Approximate size of catch basin, 6 feet deep by 3 feet wide inside. Total materials required, 600 common brick plus 4 bags cement. Total cubic yards of excavation, 4.5. 252 PARKS SANDY LOAM / C/NDERS C/MDEK3 / GKOUT U/VDEtt T/LE t-2 M/XTURE WELL MOISTENED CONCRETE /••3-f CONCRETE I-3;S CINDERS FLAGSTONE ON C/MDEBS AMD LOAM < - FLAGSTONE 2*- FLAGSTONE ON CONCRETE JBASE i_ FORHEAVr WEAK TOP ttf" COURSE OF I* /•' 3 I MIXTURE FALL '/z- % P£fp rr CONCRETE CONCRETE WALK TO WITHSTAND Ff?OST (NORTHERN CONSTRUCT/ON) •J:J-z^Fy^^^^]P^g^jo^-':^:y^7;^^5^: i" CONCRETE WALK WHERE FREEZING CONDITIONS ARE NEGLIGIBLE-SOUTHERN CONSTRUCTION) ^ % CH/PS %-/•$" 5TOME. FIGURE 5 FIGURE 6 MACADAM Off GffAVfL DETAILv5 OF WALK. CON5TRUCTION D IN THE OFFICE or ALBERT D • TAYLOR LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT ftTOWN PLANNER CLEVELAND, O- JUNE 1,1915 PLATE 'A" PLATE No. no CONSTRUCTION NOTES 253 Total mason hours required for laying brick, 5. Total labor hours required for excavation, 6. Total labor hours required for mason's helper, 5. Labor hours per hundred for laying brick, .833. Mason hours required per hundred for laying brick, .833. Labor hours required per cubic yard for excavation, 1.33. Catch basins (vitrified sewer pipe, see figure 3 on Plate 107). Size of vitrified sewer pipe, 12" or 15". Labor hours required for complete installation, from 8 to 9. Tabulation. The following is a tabulation of statistics taken from a number of undertakings, showing the total hours required per hundred linear feet for the complete installation of drainage lines of various sizes of tile. This labor item includes excavation, laying of pipe and backfill. Complete labor required for one hundred linear feet 3,000 lin. feet of 4" Agr. tile laid i' deep =i8>^ hours. 1,200 lin. feet of 4" Agr. tile laid 3' deep in clay =40 hours. 1,152 lin. feet of 4" Agr. tile laid 2^2 to 3' deep in wet weather =47 hours. 170 lin. feet of 3" Agr. tile laid in stiff clay =38 hours. 1, 1 80 lin. feet of 4" Agr. tile laid 2' deep with cinder backfill =31 hours. 200 lin. feet of 6" Agr. tile laid 3^' deep in loam and clay =50 hours. 25 lin. feet of 4" V. S. P. tile laid 2' deep =36 hours. 516 lin. feet of 6" V. S. P. tile laid 3^2' deep in stony clay =40 hours. 140 lin. feet of 6" V. S. P. tile laid 2 to 4' deep in loam =22 hours. 260 lin. feet of 6" V. S. P. tile laid 3^"' deep in loam =38 hours. 400 lin. feet of 8" V. S. P. tile laid 3 'deep in hard gravel and clay = 5i hrs. 590 lin. feet of S" V. S. P. tile laid i' deep =26 hours. 38 lin. feet of 15" V. S. P. tile laid 3^' deep in old stone road =285 hrs. 260 lin. feet of 18" V. S. P. tile laid 3 to 7' deep in stony soil =100 hours. CONSTRUCTION OF WALKS, TRAILS AND TERRACES1 The methods of constructing and draining flagstone walks laid upon a concrete foundation and upon loam with cinder, slag, or stone founda- tion were discussed in a previous installment of these notes. The following discussion is confined to the detailed methods covering the fundamental principles of construction for various types of walks. The construction of terraces has been included in this discussion for the reason that the prin- ciple of terrace construction is similar to that of walk construction, with the exception that the problems of subsurface drainage are similar to those on tennis court areas and other recreation areas. Terraces surfaced with flagstone paving on various types of foundation have the same principles 1 Albert D. Taylor in Landscape Architecture, July 1923. 254 PARKS arr/c/r on £D• V'1 ••." ..t.-. ~ MACADAM i WJTHPERM/ IN roNrr? ^-r1 T* «•-/«" * — * b:^V w?E\ ^* :<:;•'. ffl'^; V -a:-^ rjrv cj.;.'.^-, :/>;«:;, •>R GRAVEL WALK \NENT CURB SET FTP :.v & :/5" .•: FT FIGURE 4 V FIC-5 ^lLT GJfATIHG fOI? DTMJNACE. FKi-7 //V>L£r LOCATION DRAIN ItllET LOCATION ON WALK W,THOUTCURB On WALK WTH CU** DffAINAGf ON SLOPING WALKS WITH OR WITHOUT STEPS DETAILS OF WALK CONSTRUCTION PREPARED IN THE OFFICE OF ALBERT D- TAYLOR LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT <» TOWN PLANNER CLEVELAND, O- JUNE 1,1915 PLATE "5* PLATE No. in CONSTRUCTION NOTES 255 controlling the method of construction as those outlined under flagstone walks in the previous discussion. The first step in the construction of any walk is that of establishing correct lines and grades. These should be permanently established and checked prior to the beginning of any construction work. Stakes (2x4 inches or 2 x 2 inches) should be set at least twelve inches outside of the side line of the walk, and usually parallel to the middle line. If the walk is located in a cut or a fill the line stakes should be set outside of the area to be regraded. Grades should be established on these stakes. The following discussion, in order to be as brief and as definite as possible, is subdivided under five headings, which are arranged, as far as possible, without dupli- cation, according as the same method applies to more than one type of walk. 1. Excavation for foundations of walks. 2. Subgrading for foundations of walks. 3. Drainage (surface and subsurface). 4. Foundation courses and wearing surface. 5. Curbs for sides of walks. I. Excavation for Walks (General Considerations). (a) Brick, tile, concrete, macadam, gravel, cobblestone and medina block. Rough excavation may be done with scrapers. All excavation within two and one-half inches of the finished subgrade should be hand work, carefully done with shovels, so as not to cause unnecessary loosening of material below the proposed subgrade. If the proposed walk is to be constructed on a fill, such fill below the subgrade should consist of thin layers approximating six inches in depth, and each layer should be thoroughly puddled, tamped or rolled. If a heavy fill (exceeding 18 inches in depth) is made, such fill should be allowed to settle for several months (during the winter if possible) before any permanent walk is constructed. In such cases the cinder foundation may be put in place and rolled, and used as a temporary walk until such time as it is advisable to complete the permanent walk. Too much atten- tion cannot be devoted to this question of fill, because any settlement after the permanent walk is constructed would be ruinous to the paved surface and would cause a greater expense to repair than water-bound macadam or gravel walks. The excavation for all walks, the foundation courses and wearing surfaces of which are constructed upon a prepared subgrade and are of other materials than the natural surrounding soil, should be to the required depth as shown in Plate no, figures i, 2, 3, 4, 6; Plate in, figures I, 2, 3, 4; and Plate 112, figures 2, 3. 256 PARKS RUNNING &OND HERRING £0/Vf PATTERN BASKET PATTERN III, I~T i . i . i . i i . i . i . i 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 ' 1 ' • ; i ; i ; i 1 1 r1-- i i i i ' . i ii L_ 1 . i — \—L 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Tld-i SOME METHODS OF LAYING PATTERttS AND BONDING &RICK WALK SURFACES BK/C/f OH EDGE OK FIAT SAffO BJT/CJt OH £0G£ COffCfi£T£ JSPICKON5AND CU3H/ON C/NDCR FOUNDATION FI&- 2. FIC 3 FALL '*- *+ P£/f FT. BRICK ON CONCRETE BASE CINDER FOUNDAT/ON SURFACE DPAINAGE^..^ HG-(.A i i i i i iii ii f- — -• «• -» "•-*•-- «• f Of ZXCAVATfOtf r i Q 7 DETAILS OF WALK CONSTRUCTION PREPARED IN THE OFFICE OF ALBERT D TAYLOR LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT 8- TOWN PLANNER _. . . . CLEVELAND, 0 JUNE1.192J KLAFtC PLATE No. 112 CONSTRUCTION NOTES 257 (b) Tanbark walks (excavation}. If tanbark walks are constructed on a gravel foundation the same principles for excavation apply as are out- lined in the foregoing paragraphs under la. If tanbark walks are con- structed on a sand loam foundation then the same principles for excavating apply as are outlined under ic in the following paragraph. (c) Turf walks and woodland trails (excavation}. In the construction of turf walks and woodland trails there are two principles of construction to be kept in mind with reference to the excavation for foundation. Woodland trails are usually constructed in a most inexpensive manner, accepting the natural soil, with or without surface and subsurface drainage, and there- fore there is little or no excavation unless it be necessary in order to procure easier gradients or cross-slopes. Turf walks may be constructed in con- nection with refined formal gardens and lawn areas and subjected to inten- sive traffic. Turf walks under such conditions vary from woodland trails in that the problems of surface and subsurface drainage require careful study. Where the natural soil is heavy clay or clay loam an excavation should be made as for a gravel or hard surface walk and of sufficient depth to provide for a foundation course of cinders (6 inches deep) and a wearing surface of sandy loam (6 inches deep). On natural sandy loam soils this excavation is unnecessary. (d) Stepping-stone walks (excavation}. The excavation for stepping- stone walks is usually confined to an area covering the full width and length of the proposed line of stepping-stones, especially where the stepping-stones are in larger units (20 to 24 inches square) and laid with a distance of two to four inches between individual stones. (See figures 6 and 6A, Plate 112.) If the individual stepping-stones are in smaller units (18 to 20 inches square and less) and spaced at greater intervals than four to six inches (see figure 7, Plate 112) then the most economical method of completing the excavation for the foundation of such walks is to first space the stones on the finished grade of the walk and then to excavate, to the proper depth, only that portion of the soil directly beneath the individual stones. (e) Board walks (excavation). Inasmuch as board walks are either of a temporary character to tide over the requirements of traffic until a perma- nent walk can be constructed, or are constructed for use in summer colonies, especially along the beach where inexpensive construction is desired, there is no problem of excavating for the foundation of such walks. Variations in specifications for excavating walks under varying conditions of soil and climate. In the southern latitudes where there is no frost action the problem of excavating for a foundation is not important. Under such climatic conditions excavation is necessary only in clay soils, for drainage, and is not necessary in sandy soils except to sufficient depth to provide space to construct the wearing surface. 258 PARKS 2. Sub grading for Walks. (a) Brick, tile, concrete, macadam, gravel, cobblestone and medina block. The subgrade should be completed to an even sloping surface as required for subsurface drainage (figures 1-4, Plate 107) and at the required depth below the proposed finished grade of the walk. In sandy soils the surface of the subgrade should be parallel with the finished grade of the walk sur- face, no drain being required. Where frost action extends deep into the ground, especially in clay soils, careful attention must be devoted to the proper drainage of the sub- grade, which subgrade should slope from either side of the walk (]/2 to ^ inch per foot) toward the middle line in order to remove quickly any sub- soil water which may find its way into the area under the walk surface. This is especially important in the construction of all types of walks included in this group, particularly those with a definite paved surface, the heaving of which through frost action causes serious injury. (b) Tanbark walks (subgrading). Tanbark walks constructed on a sand-loam soil require no subgrading other than that necessary to procure the desired surface. Tanbark walks constructed on a gravel foundation, especially in a clay soil, require the same solution as that outlined above under za (subgrading for walks). (c) Turf walks and woodland trails (subgrading). Woodland trails require little or no subgrading other than that necessary to develop the desired surface. The subgrading of turf walks requires the same careful work, for the best results, as that outlined under la. (d) Stepping-stone walks (subgrading). The subgrading of the area under a stepping-stone walk presents the same problem as that outlined under 2a with the exception that when the stepping-stones are spaced at a considerable interval it is not necessary to finish the surface of the sub- grade to meet any drainage requirements. If the stepping-stones are placed at closer intervals, making it necessary to excavate and to subgrade a con- tinuous area under the line of stepping-stones, then provision should be made for proper subsurface drainage. (e) Board walks (subgrading). The problem of subgrading the area on which board walks are to be constructed involves only the work of making a proper subgrade on t.he desired profile as a foundation on which the board walk surface is to be constructed. 3. Drainage (General Considerations). (a) Brick, tile, concrete, macadam, gravel, cobblestone and medina block. The surface of the subgrade should be so finished that all ground water will readily drain away. The presence of excessive quantities of water in CONSTRUCTION NOTES 259 the subsoil under such walks will involve injuries on account of frost action. Drainage may be provided by tile or blind drains extending under the middle line of the walk and located as shown in figures 1—4, Plate 107, with proper outlets. The outlets from the four-inch tile drains should be at sufficiently frequent intervals to remove the ground water into larger drainage lines before these smaller pipes are loaded beyond their capacity. The trenches in which any drainage lines are installed should be of a mini- mum width and have a depth of six to twelve inches below the finished subgrade for the walk. If such walks are constructed upon a soil which is porous and has ample subdrainage to keep the ground water at a depth below the frost line, then the installation of drainage lines under the walk surfaces is unnecessary. On any of the above walks with a well-defined hard surface it is neces- sary to provide a slight transverse grade, approximating one-fourth inch per foot (figure 4, Plate 112), to the surface of the walk in order readily to remove the surface water during heavy rainfall. This is especially true if the walk is constructed on a more or less level grade or is used intensively as a public walk. On all garden walks of whatever character it is quite necessary that the surface drainage problem of the walk area itself and of the surrounding area should be given careful study and that inlets (see figures 5 and 6, Plate in) should be installed at the proper locations to remove this surplus surface water in the shortest possible time. The surface grades should be so studied that the surface water will readily flow to these inlet locations. Wherever any walk is constructed on a steep grade, especially in a cut or on the side of a slope (see figure 5, Plate 112) where the surface water during storms will naturally follow the line of the walk, definite gratings (see figure 7, Plate in) should be installed, especially at the top of any steps or at sufficiently frequent intervals along the length of the walk to remove the surplus surface water before it annoys those using the walk or causes injury to the walk and the surrounding area. As a general practice it is desirable to have the finished surface of the walk slightly above the sur- rounding area on either side. On macadam walks and gravel walks it is quite essential that this surface water should be removed at much more frequent intervals than on brick, tile or concrete walks. Wherever walks are constructed parallel to a well-defined slope there should be, if practicable, a very definite sod or other type of gutter on the uphill side of the walk, provided with catch basins at frequent intervals to remove the surface drainage coming from the slope before this surface drainage has an opportunity to flood the walk and cause serious damage. (b) Tanbark walks (drainage). The same principles of drainage as are 26o PARKS previously outlined (under 30) should be applied to the construction of tanbark walks with the following exceptions: Tanbark surfaces are much more susceptible to injury from any surface flow of water and therefore such walks should not be constructed on steep grades (6% or greater) nor on slopes where it is not possible to remove entirely the danger of damage from surface wash. On such walks the problem of subsurface drainage is exceedingly important and provision for this should be very adequate and complete. (c) Turf walks and woodland trails (drainage}. The principles above outlined (under 30) apply to the drainage of turf walks and woodland trails with the following exceptions: Woodland trails do not require, because of their natural characteristics and the firm texture of the soil on which they are made, the provision for drainage normally installed for tanbark walks. Subsurface drainage for woodland trails is seldom desirable, not only because of the expense but also because of the great variation in sur- face profile and the danger to surrounding trees. Turf walks not only require adequate surface drainage as discussed under 3*3, but they also require adequate subsurface drainage, especially if such walks are constructed on a clay foundation and are frequently used. Turf walks constructed on a light sandy loam require little or no drainage other than surface drainage. The presence of excessive ground water under the area of turf walks does not cause the same injury to turf surfaces that it causes to walks with hard surfaces as listed under ^a. It causes the greatest difficulty through the development of soft surface conditions after a rain, or during early spring and fall. (d) Stepping-stone walks (drainage}. Stepping-stone walks present the same problems of drainage as outlined under 3*2 and 30 with the exception that unless stepping-stones require a continuous excavated area the problem of subsurface drainage is usually ignored. Such subsurface drainage as is necessary for the turf surrounding the stepping-stones is provided for by the general solution of the drainage problem on the surrounding lawn or garden area. (e) Board walks (drainage). Board walks are usually constructed with a surface at least two inches above the surrounding grade and therefore the problem of surface drainage is a negligible factor. 4. Foundation Course and Wearing Surface (General Considerations). The types of foundations required for various kinds of walks are so varied that a detailed discussion of each is included in these notes. In locations where frost action is slight (with freezing conditions occurring only occasionally and the depth of frost action seldom being more than CONSTRUCTION NOTES 261 2 or 3 inches) or where the natural foundation soil is of gravel or sand, sufficiently porous, the wearing surface (brick, concrete, cobblestone, stepping-stones, etc.) may be laid on the prepared subgrade of the original soil. In no instance, if a foundation is desired for added safety, should this foundation course under such conditions exceed a depth of two or three inches of cinders or similar material. In every instance where a founda- tion course is necessary (see figures 1-4, Plate no) this course should be put in place in layers, approximating not more than four inches in depth, and each layer should be thoroughly wetted and tamped or rolled and brought to an even surface parallel with the proposed finished grade, and at the required depth below the surface of the walk. Walks with a wearing surface of brick, concrete, cobblestones and medina block may be laid either upon a foundation consisting only of porous material, or upon a concrete foundation (see 4^). The other types of walks are almost never laid upon concrete foundation, with the exception of tile walks, which should never be laid upon any other foundation than concrete. The wearing surface of any walkr with the exception of tanbark walks, should be firm, of an even grade within the limits allowed by surface drainage requirements, and of a suitable texture and color to meet the requirements imposed by its use and appearance. The wearing surface should also have a firm bond with its base course; especially is this true in the construction of walks where a bond between the foundation course and the wearing course is by means of cement. Inasmuch as the great differen- tiation in walk construction occurs largely in the problem of completing the foundation course and the wearing surface, each of these walks will be discussed from this point on as a separate type with its individual prob- lems, although in a small part these problems may be similar. (ad) Brick walks on concrete base (foundation courses and wearing sur- face}. Walks of brick may be constructed on a concrete base with a cinder foundation, or on a sand cushion with a cinder foundation. On the sub- grade prepared in accordance with the previous instructions and at a depth of approximately twelve to fourteen inches below the finished grade of the walk (see figure 3, Plate 109) a foundation course of cinders is put in place as specified heretofore in two layers of equal depth, making a total depth of six inches at the side of the walk when thoroughly watered and tamped or rolled. On this foundation course thus prepared is placed a base course of concrete (1:3:5 mixture), bringing the surface of this concrete to the required lines and grades, allowing proper provision for the economical con- struction of a brick curb or concrete curb (figures I and 2, Plate in) if such is required. On this concrete foundation thus prepared and after the concrete has been given twenty-four hours for setting, the brick is laid in 262 PARKS mortar (1:3 mixture) in accordance with the desired pattern, care being taken not to get mortar on the surface of the brick. When these bricks thus placed have had a sufficient time for the mortar to set, clear cement if the joints are small (y£ inch or less), or a dry mixture of cement and sand (1:2) if the joints are larger, is swept into the joints and the walk is then sprayed carefully in order thoroughly to wet the cement in the joints. With joints larger than one-fourth inch it is best to pour a very wet grout (i : 2 mixture) carefully into the joints until they are rilled. On certain types of brick with other than a very smooth surface it is extremely difficult to remove the surplus cement, which may permanently mar the surface of the finished walk. Brick surfaces are brought to an even grade by laying a board on the surface of the walk and tamping on the top of the board before grouting the joints and before the mortar in which the brick are placed has set. If brick walks are constructed with a herringbone pattern (figure i, Plate 112) it is very desirable that the curved portions of such walks should be radial curves; otherwise considerable difficulty will be experienced in adhering to a uniform and economical method for laying the design in actual construction. (ab) Brick walks on sand cushion without concrete base (foundation courses and wearing surface). On the subgrade prepared in accordance with previous instructions and at a depth of approximately 14 inches below the finished surface of the brick at the sides of the walk if the brick is to be laid on edge, and 12 inches if the brick is to be laid flat, a foundation course of cinders is put in place in two layers of equal depth, making a total depth of eight inches at the side of the walk. On the surface of these cinders, which have been thoroughly watered and tamped or rolled, is placed a layer of fine sand (passing J/g-inch screen) to a depth approximating between one and two inches when tamped or rolled. Brick are then laid upon this course of sand, firmly put in place and the joints filled with the same fine sand, to which may be added if occasion required ten per cent of dry cement. The entire surface of the walk is carefully flushed and the brick then care- fully tamped, using a board, in order to bring the surface of the walk to the desired finished grade. On all brick walks of this type it is desirable to have a border course of brick as shown in figure i, Plate 112. (ac) Brick walks for southern conditions where frost action is a negligible factor. The following variations from the foregoing instructions are adopted in the construction of brick walks under southern conditions. In clay soil the depth of cinder foundation under the concrete base may be reduced to four inches as a minimum depth and the concrete base may be reduced to three inches in thickness. If walks of this type are laid on sand, the cinder foundation may be omitted entirely, and the concrete base made with a thickness of three inches. In the construction of brick walks on a sand CONSTRUCTION NOTES 263 cushion without a concrete base the bricks may be laid directly on the foundation of natural sand after the sand has been thoroughly wet and tamped or rolled. (ad) Tile walks on concrete foundation (foundation course and wearing surface}. Tile walks are usually constructed in locations where refinement of grade and permanence of surface are required. For this reason such walks are built as solidly as possible and without any sand cushion between the bottom of the tile and the top of the concrete base. A foundation course of cinders is put in place in the same manner as for brick walks, allowing the proper depth to provide for the thickness of the tile and bed of mortar under the tile (see figure 3, Plate no). The depth of cinders at the side of the walk should be six inches, the depth of concrete four inches (1:3:5 mixture), and the depth of mortar one inch (1:2 mixture), well moistened but not thoroughly wet. On this mortar surface the tile are carefully laid to the desired pattern and grade. Neat cement is then brushed into the joints between the tile, and the entire surface of the tile walk is sprayed carefully with water. Any trace of cement on the tile may be removed with a diluted solution of muriatic acid (not over one pint of acid to each gallon of water) after the cement has set for a period of three or four hours. (ae) Concrete walks (foundation course and wearing surface). The foundation course of cinders is installed as outlined under \aa. On the surface of the cinders a layer of concrete four inches in thickness (1:3:5 mixture) is put in place and is then finished with a smooth trowelled surface or with a wood float. If the concrete walk is to be subjected to intensive traffic then this concrete course should be constructed in two layers, both of which must be completed during the same day. The bottom layer of concrete three inches in depth (1:3:5 mixture) should be placed and the wearing surface of one-inch depth (1:3 mixture) should be applied within a period ranging from four to six hours after the bottom course of concrete has been finished (see figure 4, Plate no). Forms are necessary for construction of concrete walks. These forms, usually two by four inches, are securely staked on required lines and grades. Cross strips are placed at four or six-foot intervals. Sometimes every other section is constructed, the cross pieces removed, and tar paper is then put in place for the joints, extending the entire depth of the concrete. Surface colors of concrete walks may be varied by the use of lamp- black (to darken the walk) ; copper filings (to obtain brown tone) ; hematite (to obtain reddish brown). These substances are mixed with the surface layer only. Concrete walks should not be used for a period of 48 hours after completion. During early spring and late fall, walks should not be used for a period of four days after completion. Newly finished concrete 264 PARKS surfaces should be protected from heavy rains for at least twelve hours, and during exceedingly hot weather in open exposure to the sun's rays the surface should be sprinkled freely subsequent to the end of one day, during one week. Covering the surface with a two-inch layer of sand or loam will protect it against undue evaporation until the concrete has set. Freezing conditions are apt seriously to injure new concrete. New walks should be protected during late fall by a covering (4 to 6 inches deep) of straw or stable litter, or by tar paper, which should be kept in place for a period of two or three weeks if freezing conditions prevail. (of) Macadam walks with tarvia-bound surface (foundation course and wearing surface}. The foundation course of slag or crushed stone (passing a 2^-inch screen) should be put in place in a single layer to a depth of four inches when rolled. This foundation course of stone should be thor- oughly bound with one-half-inch screenings only sufficient to fill the voids. The foundation course should be thoroughly watered and tamped or rolled. On this course should be spread a layer of crushed stone passing a one and one-half-inch screen. If the walk area is wide and of considerable extent this course as well as the foundation course may be rolled with a two or three-ton drum wheel roller. This wearing course should be rolled but once in order to detect any depressions before the tarvia is applied. The tarvia should then be applied in accordance with standard specifications for com- pleting wearing surfaces of tarvia-bound macadam roads, with the exception that the quantity of tarvia used per square yard of walk will be at least 25 per cent less than for road work. The success in completing a tarvia- macadam walk will depend largely upon the selection and application of a desirable and interesting type of washed gravel or one-fourth-inch stone screenings for the surface, as this decides the color and texture. (ag} Macadam walks with water-bound construction (foundation course and wearing surface}. The total depth of the foundation course and wearing surface for water-bound macadam walks should approximate six inches at the side of the walk. With the subgrade properly prepared and drained, crushed stone or slag, passing a one and one-half-inch screen, should be put in place to a depth of five inches when rolled. On this foundation course a one-inch layer of crushed stone or slag (passing a %-inch screen) should be carefully spread, watered and tamped or rolled. Crushed stone screenings (passing a 3^-inch screen) should then be applied to the surface of the walk only in the quantity necessary to fill the voids and thoroughly bind the surface of the walk into a permanent condition. It is very desirable slightly to crown the surface of water-bound macadam walks. (ah} Gravel walks (foundation course and wearing surface}. The sub- grade should be prepared as shown in figure 6, Plate no, with a minimum CONSTRUCTION NOTES 265 depth of six to eight inches below the finished grade of the walk at the side of the walk. On this subgrade a layer of slag or crushed stone (to pass a 2 or 2^2-inch screen) should be put in place, thoroughly tamped or rolled, leaving the surface at a grade parallel with and one and one-half inches below the proposed finished grade of the walk. On the surface thus pre- pared a layer of pit gravel (much preferable to washed gravel because of the clay content) should be spread, thoroughly watered and tamped or rolled to a depth of one and one-half inches. If it is necessary to use fine washed gravel, then approximately 15 per cent of limestone dust (not screenings) should be incorporated into this gravel wearing surface to bind the surface. The gravel used for this wearing surface should pass a one- half-inch screen. It is much preferable to construct permanent gravel walks in this way; because if gravel is used for the foundation course the condition of the walk during the wet months of the spring and late fall become extremely soft unless this gravel has been thoroughly screened, excluding all particles which pass a three-fourths-inch screen. (ai) Cobblestone or medina block walks on cinder foundation (foundation course and wearing surface}. Cobblestone and medina block pavements when used for the average walk are usually laid on a sand cushion base with a cinder foundation and are seldom laid on a concrete foundation. Walks of this character should be subgraded to allow at the side of the walk for a depth of six inches of cinders plus a two-inch cushion of sand and the thickness of the cobblestones or medina block. It is quite necessary in this type of walk construction to lay the cobblestones or medina blocks firmly in the sand cushion, leaving an even surface on the top of the walk, and thoroughly to fill the voids between the stones with fine sand. See also \ab. (b) Tanbark walks (foundation course and wearing surface}. Tanbark walks differ from gravel walks only in the method of surfacing, except where a tanbark walk is developed as a woodland trail, in which case the foundation of the walk is constructed in accordance with the notes for woodland trails. On the surface of the gravel walk completed in accordance with previous notes under Gravel Walks a layer of tanbark not exceeding one-half inch in thickness should be carefully spread, watered and rolled. It is quite essential to bear in mind that tanbark walks, because of the loose texture and lightness of the surfacing material, cannot be constructed in any location or on any grade where the surface of the walk will be exposed to any flow of surface water. (ca) Turf walks (foundation course and wearing surface}. Ideal drainage conditions, both surface and subsurface, and a sandy loam soil permanently compacted make for the greatest satisfaction in the construction of turf walks. It is quite essential to install a line of drainage at a depth of not 266 PARKS less than two feet with the trench back-filled with cinders to a point eight inches below the finished surface of the walk and located immediately under the middle line of the proposed walk. The foundation course for the turf on this walk should consist of six inches of sandy loam topsoil thoroughly rolled to an even grade and supplied with a much less amount of fertilizer than would be used for the average lawn. This fertilizer should not come in contact with the roots of newly laid sod. If such a walk is sodded the sods should be laid lengthwise so as to break joints and get the long way of the sods in the direction of greatest travel and of mowing. When turf walks are in contact at the sides with other surfaces they should be laid wider than required and trimmed to an even line after all other work on them is done. If a turf walk is seeded no clover should be sown, but an attempt should be made to secure an even fine turf of the better sorts of grasses. Kentucky blue grass is one of the best turf grasses where the soil is not wet or sour. Chewings New Zealand red fescue is often used as it is indifferent to the presence of lime, does well in shade or open conditions and is at its best in midsummer. The bent grasses and redtop, which is closely allied, are best for soils which are wet or deficient in lime. Hard or sheep's fescue or timothy or meadow grass should be avoided. Not less than one pound of fancy recleaned high-germination seed should be sown to each thirty square yards of walk, and a special effort should be made to have a favorable germi- nation layer in which to sow the seed. All soft spots and inequalities in line or grade should be corrected before the seed is sown. (cb) Woodland trails (foundation course and wearing surface}. Wood- land trails are generally constructed in an inexpensive way as a part of a wild garden area, or a trail system through the woods, in order to make woodland areas accessible. The usual method of procedure is that of clear- ing the undergrowth in the path of the proposed trail, making an even grade of the existing surface and scattering leaves or sowing woodland grass seed mixture over the surface of the trail on the existing soil. (d) Stepping-stone walks (foundation courses and wearing surface). There are two types of stepping-stone walks as heretofore discussed under id, involving either a continuous excavation under the full length of the proposed walk, or an excavation only under the area of each individual stepping-stone. The subgrade in either case should be prepared to a depth of 10 to 12 inches below the finished surface of the walk. The cinder foundation should be put in place in layers as heretofore specified and the stepping-stones should then be laid directly on the top of the cinders without any loam cushion. This applies to the construction of stepping-stone walks in heavy CONSTRUCTION NOTES 267 clay soil where the frost action creates a serious problem. On sandy soils and in the southern climates stepping-stones may be laid directly on the natural soil which has previously been tamped to the required surface grade. Terraces. Terrace areas with various types of surfaces present much the same problems as those involved in the construction of walks with similar surfaces. There are a few important points which should be kept thoroughly in mind as contributing largely to the successful construction of terraces. The surface of the subgrade should be so formed that any water reaching it will immediately be carried over it to drainage lines installed at intervals not exceeding ten feet. The surface of any terrace should be very carefully studied so that no surface water will stand on any portion of the terrace without ready access to a drain inlet. Preferably such terraces should slope on a grade of one-fourth inch in each foot of terrace width away from the house. If split flagstone is used in terrace surfacing this flagstone should present a rather even surface, especially if the terrace is to be used freely as an outdoor dining room or living room area. Where a terrace is to be used for such purposes the joints between the stones should either be filled with cement and the terrace constructed on a concrete base, or the joints should be filled with a sandy loam, and be not greater than one-fourth to one-half inch in width in order that the legs of chairs cannot readily slip into these crevices. 5. Curbs for Walks. Where it is desired to construct a curb along either side of any walk this curb should be constructed in a permanent manner in accordance with figures I and 2, Plate in, unless it is not necessary that the curb should maintain permanently the line of the original plan. Curbs for concrete walks may become a part of the concrete foundation and wearing surface, and should preferably be constructed as a single operation in connection with the construction of the walk. Curbs for the sides of brick walks on concrete foundations (see figure I, Plate in) should be constructed by immediately putting the brick curb in place before the surface of the walk is paved with brick. Curbs for any walk, other than a walk surface on a concrete foundation, should be constructed as shown in figure 4, Plate in, in order to be permanent. The depth of the concrete foundation or such curbs should approximate eighteen inches with a concrete mixture of 1:3:5. For items of cost data as follows: excavation and trimming to sub- grade; spreading and tamping cinders; concrete foundation; cutting and laying flagging; laying drain tile, see Landscape Construction Notes I, Volume XII, No. 2, January 1922. 268 PARKS Brick walk (not on concrete base}. The labor and materials required to lay a brick walk on cinders and sand base for a walk 180 feet long by two feet six inches wide was 2,000 bricks, five cubic yards of cinders, three cubic yards of sand and 100 hours of labor. The amounts per square yard were thus 40 bricks, one cubic yard of cinders, .06 cubic yard sand and two hours labor. An excavation eight inches deep would be required, but this is included in the above labor. Brick walk (on concrete base). The following items enter, in various degrees, into the cost of a brick walk laid on a concrete base: (a] exca- vation and trimming subgrade; (b) spreading and tamping cinders; (c) concrete foundation; (d) bricks. A mason and helper will lay about 31 bricks per hour in a simple pattern. American standard bricks are eight by two and one-fourth by three and three-fourths inches, and allowing half- inch joints, will run between 35 and 40 to the square yard if laid flat or about 60 to the square yard if laid on edge. Any pattern requiring breaking bricks, such as basket weave, will increase greatly the cost of laying a brick walk. Concrete walks. In addition to the cost data given under concrete foundations, the following will be useful. Cost of mixing, placing and tamping rough concrete will be five man hours per cubic yard, plus one- half man hour for each 100 linear feet which the concrete must be wheeled in addition to the first 100 feet. The mixing and finishing of the mortar for the top finish will require one man to mix the mortar for each finisher. A helper is also generally necessary to assist in trowelling and screening. If the mortar is fairly dry, and can be drawn ahead of a straight edge, one finisher and helper should finish eight square yards of ordinary walk in one hour. The average day's work of a finisher and helper on walks is 64 to 72 square yards for an eight-hour day. The actual work done during the last two hours is likely to be 14 to 15 square yards per hour, while the first two hours are practically lost waiting for some fresh rough concrete to be laid ahead of them. Tile. A tile setter and helper should lay marble or burnt clay tiles at the following rate : Hours per squarg foot Square feet per hour Tile setter Helper Two-man team 2 inches square or hexagonal 142 .142 7 3 inches square or hexagonal 125 .125 8 4 inches square or hexagonal in .111 9 6 by 6 inches square 1 f . I .1 10 6 by 12 inches square '; - .083 .083 12 12 by 12 inches square .071 .071 14 The concrete base is not included in these labor items. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 269 Turf walks. Turf walks are always laid on fine soil without any ferti- lizer, so the only materials required are sod and topsoil if the existing soil will not serve. Two experienced men qan cut, roll, pile and load sod at the rate of about nine square yards per man per hour, or .11 man hour per square yard. In the case of less experienced men this will amount to .15 man hour per square yard. Hauling by team will cost one team hour per hundred square yards per mile haul. Laying sod where accuracy is required may require as high as one man hour per square yard but ordinarily should not run on straight turf walks over one-half man hour per square yard. Maintenance in the form of sprinkling will be required in dry weather as often as once a day and ordinarily two or three sprinklings will be necessary in any event. A man with 100 feet of three-fourths-inch hose can sprinkle from 475 to 500 square yards an hour. Woodland trails. The average labor cost of four woodland trails about three feet wide, exclusive of the cost of logs for steps, was $.049 per linear foot with labor $.22 per hour. A fair average would be from .2 to .25 labor hour per linear foot. Gravel or macadam walk. To construct a walk made with a three-inch cinder base on a rough foundation (of stones picked up on the job) and a two-inch trap rock dust surface layer (including some drainage) required .16 labor hour per square foot. SPECIFICATIONS FOR TARVIA WALKS1 Subgrade. Grade walk to elevation three inches below finished grade as shown on walk profile, and roll thoroughly with light roller. Foundation. Upon subgrade spread crushed limestone one-fourth to one inch size (small amount of screenings allowable) and roll dry until thoroughly keyed or compacted. Surface of foundation to be brought to elevation one inch below finished grade line. Wearing surface. Upon foundation spread one inch of mixture of stone, sand and tar prepared as follows: crushed trap rock, one-fourth to one- half inch, four cubic feet; coarse washed sand, two cubic feet; tarvia k. p., three gallons. Mixed cold in batch concrete mixer. This mixture spread and raked to a depth sufficient to meet contour of finished grade, when thoroughly rolled with 500 hand roller. Cover surface with coarse sand sufficient to leave surplus after interstices in stone are filled and rolled again with light roller. Crowns. Walk crowned one-fourth inch per foot of width each side of center lines. 1 Park Department, Minneapolis, Minnesota. 270 PARKS Memorandum of Cost Labor: Material: Indirect $0.085 Base course $0.204 Grading 168 Top course 286 Limestone Total material $0.490 Base course 104 Total cost per square yard $0.942 Tarvia top Surface 095 Total labor $0.452 BRIDLE PATHS The following notes on the construction of bridle paths are by J. F. Foster, formerly superintendent South Park Board, Chicago, Illinois.1 "When the path has been located and its width determined the sod should be removed from it and used elsewhere. The surface should then be disked and later scraped with a road grader, scraping two inches of dirt from sides to center of the path, thus giving drainage from the center to the sides. Surface water accumulating along the edges should be drained off by means of drain pipes laid and connected with neighboring sewers. In the event that there is no main sewer near they may be drained into the nearest ditches which drain the surrounding country. Special attention should be given to drainage. Two inches of fine cinders should then be used to surface the bridle path. It requires about 500 square yards per mile, and the drain- age will usually require about 3,300 linear feet of drainage pipe per mile. A well constructed, properly drained bridle path is easily maintained. The only subsequent attention that it will need will be to scatter and roll fresh cinders. It will require about 100 square yards of cinders per mile per season. From time to time as the surface becomes compact it should be harrowed and the paths should be sprinkled enough to keep down the dust. We have also used some oil with favorable results." The surface of the bridle paths in the Minneapolis parks is of six inches of clay gravel or road gravel. This surface is kept oiled to compact the surface and lay the dust. The range in width of the paths is from ten to twenty feet. CONSTRUCTION OF CURBS AND GUTTERS2 I. General Considerations. Success in the construction of walks and roads many times depends upon the proper construction of the curbs and gutters, one or both of which may be required primarily to remove the surface drainage. Curbs become necessary sometimes as a feature of formal design but more often as a means of confining traffic to the roadbed or confining drainage water within the road area. 1 Parks and Recreation, May-June 1926, pages 489-491, "Bridle Paths in Parks," Wayne Dinsmore. 2 Albert D. Taylor in Landscape Architecture, April 1924. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 271 II. Types of Curbs, Gutters and Combined Curbs and Gutters. The fol- lowing tabulation shows the various kinds of materials most frequently used for the construction of curbs, gutters and combined curbs and gutters: (a) Curbs, i. Concrete (usually cast in place, Plate 114, figure 2, page 274); 2. Stone (Plate 113, figure 4, page 272). (b) Gutters, i. Turf (Plate 113, figure i); 2. Brick (Plate 114, figure i); 3. Concrete (Plate 113, figure 3); 4. Cobblestone (Plate 114, figure 3). (c) Combined curbs and gutters, i. Concrete (Plate 114, figure 4 -£ c a ! 4^ cP- 5 • 1 « i i I \ 1 - 1 * °| >|| T ~"ar ~v" j q- -4-1 d- c*- > ^ 5 s jC*. . o ' t* — *" — *h *• (-5 Q- V Uj 2 PLATE A 308 PARKS or easel, sloping slightly backward so that the center of the target measures just four feet from the ground. The contestants shoot at one target of the pair, and then cross over and shoot back at the other target. The field needs no special preparation other than smoothing out and possibly drain- ing the areas about the targets and eliminating from them any long grass or other cover in which arrows may be lost. The area between the targets should permit easy passage. There should be no obstacles which might obstruct the view from one target to another, and the targets should be approximately on the same level. The ground between may be a deep valley or ravine if a means of crossing is provided. The whole field or property should be fenced in and warning signs posted to prevent people from coming unknowingly within the dangerous area. Distances for various American and English rounds are: York Round American Round 72 arrows at 100 yards 30 arrows at 60 yards 48 arrows at 80 yards 30 arrows at 50 yards 24 arrows at 60 yards 30 arrows at 40 yards 144 arrows 90 arrows Columbia Round National Round 24 arrows at 50 yards 48 arrows at 60 yards 24 arrows at 40 yards 24 arrows at 50 yards 24 arrows at 30 yards 72 arrows 72 arrows Potomac Round Gentlemen's Team Round 24 arrows at 80 yards 96 arrows at 60 yards 24 arrows at 70 yards 24 arrows at 60 yards Ladies' Team Round 96 arrows at 50 yards 72 arrows Roque (see Plate 121, page 309). Roque is never played on a turf court, but on a surface prepared very much like a clay tennis court. The court is 60 feet long by 30 feet wide, each corner cut off by a diagonal line six feet long, running at a 45-degree angle with the side and end lines of the court. The court is surrounded by a raised concrete or wooden border not smaller than four by four inches, laid flat; the border should be beveled to prevent balls from jumping off the ground. The surface of the court should be made as smooth and flat as possible and should be nearly level; i.e., the slope should not be more than two inches in the width of the court. The court should be sprinkled with fine sand to hold the balls. A boundary line is marked 28 inches inside the border. The stakes, which are one inch in diameter, are located in the center of the width of the field, just clearing the boundary line; the stakes extend one and a half inches out of the ground. The first wicket is located six feet from the stake and the second six feet from the first on a line extending through the center CONSTRUCTION NOTES 309 t (_e ^p\ of the field. The center of the side arches is five feet, nine inches from the border and thirteen feet, four inches from the end of the field. The double wicket in the center of the court is set parallel to the end lines and measures eighteen inches in length and three and three-eighths inches between the wires. The other arches should measure three and a half inches between wires. The arches are made of steel and should not be less than seven- sixteenths of an inch in diameter, and are driven into four by six by eight- inch blocks of hardwood and the blocks, in turn, buried beneath the ground so that they are covered for about one and a half inches. The arches stand eight inches high. The area should be brought to a subgrade approximately parallel to and 10 or 12 inches below the proposed finished grade of the court. If any fill is necessary it should be very carefully built up in thin layers and rolled with a heavy roller. Tile drains should be installed at 10 or 12-foot inter- vals in a heavy clay soil, but may be at 2O-foot in- tervals in a soil of a po- rous nature. The trenches should be back-filled with coarse cinders, gravel or PLATE No. 121 broken stone, to a level of the subgrade. The subgrade should slope at all points towards some one of these drains. The whole area should then be covered with a layer of coarse cinders, screened gravel or broken stone to a depth of about six inches. A two-inch layer of finer material, followed by a light covering through a quarter-inch mesh screen, is then applied. Each layer must be thoroughly tamped or rolled as laid. The surfacing is now laid, usually from IT* ROQUE COURT ALBERT D. TAYLOR UAND3CAPC ABCMITtCT If. TOWN PLANNCB CLEVELAND, O. SEPTEMBER, it PLATE-D 3io PARKS two to three inches deep, and of uniform thickness. A two-inch surfacing, if it is properly laid and the preparation of the subgrade has been well done, is all that is to be desired in firmness and binding quality, with the added advantage that it dries out much more quickly after a rain, so that the court is in a serviceable condition much sooner than a court which had four or five inches of surfacing mate- rial. A clay-sand mixture such as used on a clay tennis court, as described in the April 1922 issue of Landscape Architecture, is often used with satisfac- tory results. Quoits (see Plate 122). A quoit rink should measure 80 x 25 feet; these measurements leave ample room outside of the actual pitching dis- tance. Two circles three feet in diameter are ex cavated 54 feet apart to a depth of about 12 inches. These circles are refilled with a stiff clay thoroughly rammed while moderately wet. In the center of each circle a steel pin or mott, 40 inches long and one inch in diameter, is driven QUO/TJ PITCHING ALBERT D. TAYLOR PLATE.- G PLATE No. 122 into the ground until the head is flush with the clay. The player, in throwing, stands on a line through the mott perpendicular to the line be- tween motts and not more than four feet, six inches from the mott. Horseshoe pitching (see Plate 122). The grounds should be as level as possible. The stakes are of iron, one inch in diameter, driven into the ground and inclined one inch toward the opposite stake, eight inches remaining above the ground. The stakes are forty feet apart. The pitcher's box extends three feet on either side, to the rear and front of the stakes, CONSTRUCTION NOTES and should be outlined by wooden joists two by four inches, which should not extend above the level of the ground. The pitcher's box should be filled with a stiff clay thoroughly rammed while moderately wet (as in quoits) to a depth of six inches for at least eighteen inches around the stake. When de- livering the horseshoe the con- testant may stand anywhere inside the pitcher's box, and when finished he should stand back of a line even with the stake and out of the pitcher's box. The pitching distance for women in contests and tourna- ments is thirty feet. When several courts are being con- PLATE No. 123. HOW TO SET STAKE The above diagram illustrating the method of setting a stake for horseshoe pitching has been prepared by J. R. McConaghie of the Bureau of Municipalities, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. structed, they should not be closer than eight feet, i.e., from stake to stake. Hand tennis (see Plate 119, page 304). The playing area is 40x16 feet. The net divides this area latitudinally into equal parts, the net being two feet in depth and hung with its bottom two feet, six inches from the ground. Foul lines are drawn parallel to the net, one on each side, at a distance of three feet from the net. Each playing court is then divided longitudinally into two equal parts; this line does not ex- tend through the area between the foul lines and the net. In seasonable weather the game is best played on a clay court, but it may be played on a turf court. Cement and asphalt courts are sometimes used. CONSTRUCTION OF BOWLING GREENS1 Bowls or outdoor bowling is played upon a level lawn area. The bowl- ing green is divided into alleys or rinks about no feet long by 14 feet wide. In practice the greens vary from 96 to 120 feet in length and may be greater than 14 feet in width. A small green for two rinks may be of the form shown by figure I, Plate 124. Where the bowling green is frequently used the green is often made square, as in figure 2, in order that the rinks may be laid out in more than one direction. When the turf is worn, the line of the rink is changed to a new position perpendicular to the former. The nature of the game does not require any especial orientation, so that the 1 Albert D. Taylor in Landscape Architecture, April 1925. 312 PARKS BOWLING GREEKS SECTION ON AXIS A-B iBLrf _JI rA 3± ^tti>rv<'r»1' °* J t L I TURF SLOPE h p G'D.I. IOO O -4' + roo.3 TURF GUTTER G HI. IOO.O Q rJ7< 1 IOO.4 1 o + pi 1 J T ? 1 1004 t 1O 0.4 u j o 'T 100.4'* i ,,oJ t + I | f to n £ ° 2^ & LU 1- n /i ! V . - ** Q V & '-?>V':':v?;?.v '••'• ':•• '••'. : ,::^v .-S~*^— ^ OT i^Sfftv c - t y^C/o> ->. ,,>;-^.-,-.>;^-t: ^•vc^'-.i^^fe r'L^_^z. ^QT FIC2C -CT SECTION OF BOWLING GREEN DETAILS OF BOWLING GREEN CONSTRUCTION PREPARED IN THE OFFICE OF ALBERT D. TAYLOR. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT fc TOWN PLANNER. CLEVELAND,©. DEC. 6,1924. PLATE No. 124 CONSTRUCTION NOTES 313 changing of the rinks is feasible, excepting that the game is better when played with the sun at the player's back or side. The green may be surrounded by a barrier to keep the bowls from rolling too great a distance and a gutter to act as a trap to keep the bowls from reentering the field of play. The barrier may be simply constructed of boards, either nailed to stakes set in the ground or nailed to a movable support. The barrier of figure I is a curbing placed on the far side of the surrounding gutter which may be in turn enforced by a turf bank. On private places with a curbing five to seven inches high, the area behind may be used for planting if desired. Public bowling greens may be developed with the gutter and turf bank shown by figures 2a and 2b. General grading and drainage. The simplest form of a bowling green is a perfectly level turf area. The ideal green should have a level true surface covered with a short, dense, springy turf. Level greens must usually be underdrained in order to prevent the development of soggy pockets which will quickly ruin the turf. The type of underdrainage will vary with the soil and climatic conditions, however, and porous or sandy soil which absorbs water quickly may not need drainage at all. Agricultural tile, either three or four-inch, should be used, varying in amount from a single line around the outside of the green, or around the outside and across the two diagonals, to numerous lines running across the green every ten feet apart. See figures I and 2. The gutter surrounding the bowling green is for the purpose of collect- ing the surface water which falls on the area outside of the green, and drains towards it. In the diagram of figure I, the six-inch drain inlets located at the four corners of the bowling green are at the same elevation and the gutters are pitched to them from high points halfway between inlets. Excavation. The bowling green is carefully laid out and reference stakes offset at a distance of three or four feet from the excavation. On a line with these stakes, reference grade stakes should be set. The area of the bowling green is excavated from eight to eighteen inches below the level of the finished playing surface. The topsoil is stripped and saved for replacement. The trenches for the tile drains are excavated and the sub- grade shaped to give drainage to the tile trenches, a slope of one-quarter inch per foot on the subgrade being sufficient for this purpose. See figure 2<:. Bowling greens to be constructed on a fill over two feet in depth should be allowed to settle over one winter season. Fills shallower than two feet should be made in layers which do not exceed six inches in depth, each layer being thoroughly compacted by puddling and rolling. Tile drainage is then installed and the joints suitably protected. Curbing and side boards. If curbing, as in figure I, or side boards, as PARKS in figures 2( of /he jan and the pitcher throwing the hatf across the svn. <3ome one *v/// have to fence the' jon, on any ball field. It is better to hare asun outfield than a son /n field. Th/3.- /s really the plan on which (090. Adapt yoor ground the best way you coin to use «// of it to goool advantage, but tatte care of the /nf/e/ot as much aj possible drawinq Shows the- meridian as ft e>x/sts ts/oon sorne of ?/>e jy&/<*.yers. -Son's azjmoth obta/necJ from ffyf Director of S)/]co,hMa\. SO Feet - £ if £ o _J 0 Lett Fbrua.** CKT <»f 3 -Pert in width and which shall be at every point at least three feet from any obstruction. The lines on the long sides of the court shall be termed the side lines; those on the short sides, the end lines. The center circle shall have a radius of two feet and it shall be marked in the center of the court. A diameter parallel to the end lines shall be drawn in this circle. The free throw lanes shall be spaces marked in the court by lines perpendicular to the end lines at a distance of three feet on either side from the middle points of the end lines. These perpendicular lines shall be termi- nated and the lanes further marked by arcs of circles having a six-foot radius and centers at the middle points of the free throw lanes. A free throw line shall be drawn across each of the circles described. It shall be one inch in width, and extend parallel to, and at a distance of 17 feet from the inner edge of the end lines. Backboards must be provided, the dimensions of which shall be six feet hori- zontally and four feet vertically. These back- boards 35 ts s~o 4^-. shall be made of plate glass or wood, or of any other material that is flat and rigid. The faces of the back- boards shall be painted white. The .. backboards shall be located in a position at each end at right angles to the floor, ^ parallel to the end lines, and with their lower edges nine feet above the floor. ^ Their centers shall lie in the perpen- diculars erected at the points in the court two feet from the mid points of I the end lines. The faces of the back- boards shall be 15 feet from the far edges of the free throw lines. The backboards shall be protected from spectators to a distance of at least three feet behind and at each end. The baskets shall be nets of white PLATE No. 127. DIAGRAM FOR coi"d, suspended from black metal rings LAYING OUT BASKET BALL COURT 1 8 inches in inside diameter. The nets rod, PLATE No. I26A DIAGRAM FOR LAYING OUT GIRLS' BASKET BALL COURT 320 PARKS shall be so constructed as to check the ball momentarily as it passes through the basket. It is recommended that the cord used in the baskets be not less than 3O-thread nor more than 6o-thread seine twine. The ring shall be rigidly attached to the backboard; it shall lie in a horizontal plane 10 feet above the floor and shall be equidistant from the two vertical edges of the backboard. The nearest point of the inside edge of the ring shall be six inches from the face of the backboard." The game of basket ball has been modified for the use of women and girls as follows: "Maximum court, 100x50 feet, use three divisions. Minimum court, 50 x 25 feet, use two divisions. Regulation size court, 90 feet x 45 feet for college players, 70 x 35 feet for high school players, use three divisions. The face of the backboard should be two feet from the end wall, but on short courts when the backboard is placed against the wall there shall be an end line, the inner edge of which is two inches out from the wall." Football. A level, well-drained turf field is required for football. The following statement is taken from the Official Football Rules: "The game shall be played upon a rectangular field, 360 feet in length and 1 60 feet in width. The lines at the ends of the field shall be termed end lines. Those at the sides shall be termed side lines and shall extend indefinitely beyond their points of intersection with the goal lines. The goal lines shall be established in the field of play ten yards from and parallel to the end lines. The space bounded by the goal lines and the side lines shall be termed the field of play. The spaces bounded by the goal lines, the end lines and the side lines shall be termed the end zones. These lines shall be marked in white. The field of play shall be marked at intervals of five yards with white lines parallel to the goal lines. The goal posts shall be placed in the middle of each end line, shall exceed 20 feet in height and be placed 18 < 1 1 1 A Siie L»«-e 3tfl \6eT ^-Tr«vit Etv<^ J-ift.e ~tt> 100 -feet (fro we. Groa-l l-i«a t. &oa. EcxlU *\ . > i i * c - - - — t ,J)-..?! tlo-ft? z T\ i i i i Q L r~ f s < 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 m rn £ 2 r m ? i \ i • i •k f c_ 1 5 10 is 3ia W 4o W -10 AC So 4^40 35" 3o 2S" *o iy 1o 5" PLATE No. 128. DIAGRAM FOR LAYING OUT FOOTBALL FIELD LUN WU LJLS 321 / ^ C > u 1- Z LJ LL_ j 2 _i 2 9 u LJ 2 H o Ij t u UJ Z I LJ V) ON -D 00 \y *--• IO; FEET-----* <---9 FF_ET--> SIDE LINE B 3Q FEET PLATE No. 130 DIAGRAM FOR LAYING OUT PADDLE TENNIS COURT feet 6 inches apart, with a horizontal crossbar ten feet from the ground. Offset goal posts are permissible. " Golf. For discussion of the lay- out of golf courses, see pages 156— 167. Hayidball. One wall handball is played on a smooth surface court of concrete, asphalt or wood, the play- ing dimensions of which are approxi- mately 20 feet in width by 34 feet in length. The smooth surface should extend at least five feet beyond the boundaries of the court on all three sides. The wall, which is usually of wood, is 1 6 feet high and 20 feet in width. It is erected at one end of the court and should be securely braced to avoid vibration. In addition to the line marking the boundaries of the court, there is a service line at least 13 (usually 1 6) feet from and parallel to the base of the wall. By boarding both sides of the supporting posts, and constructing courts on both sides, a double wall is secured which will serve both courts. Paddle tennis. This game may be played on any kind of smooth sur- face, turf, wood, dirt, asphalt or concrete. The court is laid out similar to a regular tennis court, except that all the di- mensions are halved. The playing area is 18 x 39 feet. The height at the top of the net should be two feet, four inches at the posts and two feet, two inches at the center of the court. Playground ball. This game requires a fairly level field, preferably turf. Adults need an area of approximately 150 feet square if a 12-inch ball is used, while children can play on a space 100 feet square or less. If a 14-inch ball is PLATE No. 131 used, a smaller area will suf- LAYOUT FOR PLAYGROUND BALL FIELD fice. The diamond is laid out Win. 322 PARKS much the same as in baseball, except that when a 12-inch ball is used the bases are 45 feet apart and the distance from the back edge of the pitcher's plate (6 x 12 inches) to the center of home plate (12 inches square) is 35 feet. When a 14-inch ball is used, the bases are 35 feet apart and the pitch- ing distance is 30 feet. The above dimensions are varied considerably depending upon available space, size of ball used, and age of players. Shuffleboard. No standard rules have been adopted for this game, which is usually played on a concrete or wood surface about 10 feet wide and 40 to 5,0 feet long. Round wooden disks are delivered by means of a cue, and in dealing them the player must not step over the foul line. Various ways of marking out courts and scoring are in use. Soccer. Soccer may be played on any level field, preferably turf, although this is not as essential as in the case of football. The following statement is from the Laws of the Game, and it is reprinted with the per- mission of the American Sports Publishing Company: "The dimensions of the field of play shall be: Maximum length, 130 yards; minimum length, 100 yards; maximum breadth, 100 yards; minimum breadth, 50 yards. The field of play shall be marked by boundary lines. The lines at each end are the goal lines, and the lines at the sides are the touch lines. The touch lines shall be drawn at right angles with the goal lines. A flag with a staff not less than five feet high shall be placed at each corner. A halfway line shall be marked out across the field of play. The center of the field of play shall be indicated by a suitable mark, and a circle with a ten-yard radius shall be made around it. The goals shall be upright posts fixed on the goal lines, equidistant from the corner flagstaffs, eight yards apart, with a bar across them eight feet from the ground. The maximum width of the goal posts and the maxi- mum depth of the crossbar shall be five inches. Lines shall be marked six yards from each goal post at right angles to the goal lines for a distance of six yards, and these shall be connected with each other by a line parallel to the goal lines; the space within these lines shall be the goal area. Lines shall be marked 18 yards from each goal post at right angles to the goal lines; the space within these lines shall be the penalty area. A suitable mark shall be made opposite the center of each goal, 12 yards from the goal line; this shall be the penalty kick mark. In international matches, the dimensions of the field of play shall be maximum length, 120 yards; minimum length, 1 10 yards; maximum breadth, 80 yards; minimum breadth, 70 yards." PLATE No. 132. DIAGRAM FOR LAYING OUT A SHUFFLEBOARD COURT Designed by August Fischer, Superintendent of Recreation in Winter Haven, Florida. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 323 I 60' /32' * Tennis. Tennis is played on a variety of surfaces — turf, clay, dirt, asphalt, concrete and wood. The following rules for laying out a singles tennis court are from the Official Playing Rules , and are reprinted with the permission of the American Sports Publishing Company: "The court shall be a rectangle 78 feet long and 27 feet wide. It shall be divided across the middle by a net, suspended from a cord or metal cable of a maximum diame- ter of one-third of an inch, the ends of which shall be attached to, or pass over, the tops of two posts, three fee t six inches high, which shall stand three feet outside the court on each side. The height of the net shall be three feet at the center, where it shall be held down taut by a strap not more than two inches wide. There shall be a band covering the cord or metal cable and the top of the net for not less than two inches nor more than two and one-half inches in depth on each side. The lines bounding the ends and sides of the court shall respectively be called the base lines and the side lines. On each side of the net, at a distance of 21 feet from it and parallel with it, shall be drawn /5o' TO 300 PLATE No. 133. DIAGRAM FOR LAYING OUT SOCCER FIELD 324 PARKS the service lines. The space on each side of the net between the service line and the side lines shall be divided into two equal parts called the service courts by the center service line, which must be two inches in width, drawn halfway between and parallel with the side lines. Each base line shall be bisected by an imaginary continuation of the center service line to a line four inches in length and two inches in width called the center mark, drawn inside the court and at right angles to and in contact with such base line. All other lines shall be not less than one inch nor more than two inches in width, ex- cept the base lines, which may be four inches in width, and all measurements shall be made to the outside of the lines. In the case of the International Lawn Tennis Championship (Davis Cup) or other official championships of the International Federation, there shall be a space behind each base line of not less than 21 feet, and at the sides of not less than 12 feet." For the doubles game, the court shall be 36 feet in width, i.e., four and a half feet wider on each side than the court for the singles game. In other respects the court is similar to the singles court. Practically all public tennis courts are laid out for the doubles game because they accommodate twice as many players. (See diagram of tennis court, page 330.) Because of the many problems involved in the construction and main- tenance of tennis courts, and the increasing interest in the game, more space is devoted in this chapter to tennis courts than to most of the other play areas. Four of the most important factors in the construction of tennis courts are drainage, orientation, grading and surfacing. Unless there is natural drainage, special provision must be made for it. Low, swampy places, or places where there is a tendency of adjacent ground to drain upon the court should be avoided. The question of subdrainage should be given special attention. If the ground drains readily, the amount of exca- vation necessary will be greatly reduced. The court should be laid out from north to south so that the morning or late afternoon sun will not be in the eyes of any of the players. A dark background is desirable, but plantings which cast shadows across the court should be avoided. There are several ways of grading tennis courts, but in all of them uniformity in grade of surface is essential. For a court constructed alone, Mr. Taylor recommends the gable roof type in which the drainage is from the long axis of the court to both sides. For courts in batteries he sug- gests the end to end pitch with but one plane surface. In many courts the drainage is from the ends of the court to the net. Turf courts. Many of the principal tournaments are played on turf courts, but continuous attention is required to keep them smooth and free from bare spots and weeds. In some parks large lawns are used for tennis, but because it is generally impossible to play a fast and accurate game CONSTRUCTION NOTES 325 upon them, and because of the time and energy lost in running after balls, they are not especially popular with good players. Asphalt courts. For many years asphalt tennis courts have been used on the Pacific Coast and in the Southwest. The popularity of these courts is largely due to the fact that they are so easily maintained, whereas it is difficult to maintain turf or clay courts where there are periods of heavy rainfall and prolonged drought. Because of the extremes in temperature in the East and Middle West considerable difficulty was experienced with some of the first courts to be constructed; courts cracked in the winter and blistered in the summer. The difficulty has been remedied, however, and there has been a rapid increase in the use of these paved courts in the East and Middle West. Among the advantages of asphalt courts is that they provide a much longer playing season, being usable during most of the year. Furthermore, since their surface is non-absorbent they are available for play, if properly graded and drained, within a few minutes after a rain. One of the greatest advantages is that there is practically no expense involved in maintaining them. If painted lines are used in marking the courts, it may be necessary to renew them every year, but if laid in the cement, they will not have to be replaced. The negligible expense of maintaining asphalt courts as com- pared with that of maintaining clay and dirt courts is an important item, especially in the case of park and recreation departments which usually operate on a limited budget. Unless there is constant supervision, children and even adults wearing street shoes may play or run on the courts. If the surface is clay or dirt, much damage may result, but street shoes do not injure paved courts. Paved surfaces also permit of faster and more accurate play than is possible on courts where pebbles or irregular or soft surfaces may deflect the ball. There is no loose dirt or dust to annoy players or spectators when the paved courts are used. Under certain conditions it is possible to flood the courts and use them for skating during winter months. One disadvantage of asphalt courts is that they become very hot during extremely warm weather. The chief objection that is raised to asphalt courts is the high initial construction cost. It is true that this cost is greater than in the case of clay or dirt (or even concrete) courts, but over a period of years, they are cheaper. It has been claimed that asphalt (and concrete) courts are hard on the feet of players, and some have felt that harmful effects might result from playing on such courts. In the opinion of many authorities, however, no harmful effects have resulted and this is probably due to the use of thick- soled shoes by tennis players. It is not an easy matter to arrive at the probable difference in cost of an asphalt court as compared with others and 326 PARKS the cost will vary considerably in different localities, due to the soil con- ditions and price of labor and materials. Once constructed, these courts present a minimum of maintenance, especially where they are subjected to constant playing. The following statement concerning the probable cost of constructing an asphalt tennis court was made in October 1926 by Mr. Walter E. Rosen- garten, traffic engineer of the Asphalt Association. It should be kept in mind, however, that this figure does not include the cost of excavating where this is necessary or of erecting the backstops. "In order to give simply a rough idea I would estimate that the mixed types of asphalt surfaces on well prepared foundations for a paved area of 60 x 120 feet might be in the neighborhood of #1,500; for the penetration type of construction about #800, and for the gravel surface treated about #500. If anyone is considering constructing an asphalt tennis court, I would strongly recommend that he discuss the matter with a local asphalt paving contractor who would give a much more reliable estimate. If he is unable to locate an asphalt paving contractor it is quite likely that the city engineer could either give him the information or direct them to a contractor."1 The following are specifications of the Park Department at Pasadena, California, for a 60 x 120-foot asphalt tennis court: Subgrade. The subgrade should be excavated preferably to a grade of .30 foot fall from the center to each end of the court, or almost equally as good the fall may be .60 from one end to the other end. The surface should be brought to as near a perfect plane as is possible. Sub-base. A layer one inch thick of No. 4 crushed rock should then be placed upon the subgrade and thoroughly rolled, then thoroughly oiled with 60 gravity oil. Upon the No. 4 crushed rock should be placed a layer of pea gravel to cover the oil completely, and the pea gravel in turn thoroughly rolled and oiled. Surface finish. Fine sand or crushed stone dust should be placed upon the surface, thoroughly rolled to absorb any excess oil and the surplus removed, at which time the court is ready for service. Asphalt courts in Detroit. Among the cities making extensive use of asphalt courts is Detroit, Michigan, and the following are the specifications used by the Department of Recreation in that city: Excavate eight inches, and if subsoil needs draining, four inches of agricultural tile should be laid. On top of this, five inches of crushed lime- stone or granite two inches in size should be uniformly spread, thoroughly wet and rolled with a steam roller. On top of this enough limestone screen- ings ranging in size from dust to three-fourths of an inch should be spread over the surface and broomed into the voids until all voids are filled to within one-half inch of the top of grade. Excess screenings should be swept from 1 The Asphalt Association, 441 Lexington Avenue, New York City, has issued a bulletin entitled "Proper Methods in Constructing Asphalt Tennis Courts," containing specifications for materials and detailed directions for constructing a court. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 327 the base in order to leave the large aggregate protruding to form as an anchorage for the Kentucky rock asphalt. On top of this spread two inches of Kentucky rock asphalt cold. This should be straight-edged and rolled with a hand roller to an even finish. Broom over this a light coating of white Portland cement and allow to set two weeks before using. Lines can then be painted on this court with street marking white paint, which is practically the only maintenance required for the remainder of the season. Concrete courts. Most of the statements in favor of asphalt courts apply equally to concrete surfaces, and park and recreation departments in many cities have installed concrete courts. In 1916 the Board of Park Commissioners of Minneapolis constructed sixty-five tennis courts of various types, only two of which were concrete. The concrete courts proved so satisfactory that twenty-four new concrete courts were constructed by the board in 1925. The average cost of these courts was $1,240.38 per court, including enclosures, net posts, and drainage — an unusually low price.1 Specifications for Minneapolis courts. The following is a summary of the specifications for two or more concrete courts constructed in 1925 by the Board of Park Commissioners in Minneapolis: The subgrade to be stripped of lawn and excavated to nine and one-half inches below finished surface of court if clay, or four and one-half inches if sand, gravel or readily drained material. Subgrade to be compacted uni- formly, fill within nine and one-half inches to be made of steam boiler cinders or gravel, not exceeding four inches; this to be spread in layers not to exceed six inches in thickness and compacted. Tile drains to be installed in ditches back-filled with pebbles or stone not smaller than one-half inch. Sub-base to be of steam boiler cinders or gravel kept thoroughly wet, to be spread and rolled thoroughly to a surface at least four and one-fourth inches below finished grade. Grade of each finished court to be two plane surfaces, intersecting at net line and with pitch of three inches from rear edge to valley at net line, the valley to be constructed separately, itself monolithic for each court, and to have pitch of three inches from side of court adjoining second court to outside edge of court. Highest point of valley to be one-fourth inch below edge of adjoining plane surface, expan- sion joints to be provided. Surface of court to be at its lowest outside point three inches above natural level of adjoining ground, which shall be shaped up to court. Construction. Thickness of concrete to be not less than four and one- fourth inches. Strips of prepared felt four and one-fourth inches wide and one-half inch thick to be placed to form a joint at net line on each side of valley. Construction joints to be formed by placing the concrete of slabs directly against slabs that have hardened. Concrete base to be mixed in proportion by volume of one sack of cement to two and one-half cubic feet fine aggregate and four cubic feet coarse aggregate of graded crushed rock 'The Portland Cement Association, with headquarters at in West Washington Street, Chicago, Illinois, but with branch offices in many of the larger cities, has issued an illustrated booklet entitled "Tennis Courts for All-Year Sports," containing much information and detailed directions for constructing concrete courts. 328 PARKS ii •S! $! Q ^ j j ii • 1 ^ K. i ^ J \ H, <£\ t p. ^ | * .c <,*.<& *• | 3f ^ N 3? All lines I'k tvide—' x VO f or painted lines are fr for center line. .§ I i i N>v £ Joint at net line ^ » * 1 <0 -2; :? * VO — Court slopes 2' 21- o" J6:6" ^ N « 60-0" — PLAYING PLAN CONSTRUCTION PLAN PLATE No. 135. TENNIS COURT PLANS AND CONSTRUCTION DETAILS FOR CONCRETE COURT, PORTLAND CEMENT ASSOCIATION Used with permission of the Association. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 331 Base. The base should be constructed of 1:3^:3^" concrete, in which the aggregate should be three-fourths inch crushed rock. The forms should consist of 2 x 4 inches x 20 feet Oregon pine, surfaced four sides, especially selected for straightness. Some twenty pieces will be required. The forms should be set so there is a clear space of 12 feet between them and a header should be centered at the 1 2-foot point. The bay is then to be filled to a point three-fourths inch below the top of the forms with concrete well tamped and allowed to take the initial set, after which the surface finish is to be placed. Surface finish. The surface finish is to be mixed from one part of cement to two parts fine sand to which are added two pounds of lampblack for each sack of cement. The space occupied by the header is to be filled with surface finish in order that the surface line may be cut through to the subgrade with ease. After the surface has been brought to a plane the 12-foot lines are cut through to the subgrade, and the alternate lines are cut through to the base. The surface is to be troweled smooth, then allowed to set to the proper stage, and finally steel trowel floated in order to slightly roughen the surface. The proper stage for floating is quite critical and great care should be exercised in order to do this operation at exactly the right time. Fence. The finished fence should be 12 feet high, constructed of half- inch and two-inch galvanized pipe and of one-inch mesh galvanized poultry netting. The two-inch pipes should be spaced 10 feet center to center, placed in concrete three feet deep, and centered upon a line four inches outside of the finished paving. The two-inch pipes should be cut off at a height of six feet above the paving, except the corner posts, which should be two inches throughout their entire height. The one-inch pipes should be placed above the two-inch pipes as a part of the posts, and horizontally between posts at six feet and 12 feet above the paving. The half-inch pipe is to be placed through the eyebolts embedded in the concrete coping and the bottom of the poultry fence attached to it. Openings for 3x7 feet gates should be left at such points as may be desired. A serviceable gate of these dimensions is made by the American Steel and Wire Company. Coping. The coping is to be of similar mixture to that in the base, plastered with regular finish, eight inches wide and the top six inches above the paving. The two-inch posts shall be placed along the center line of the coping. The coping shall be reinforced by two lines of one-fourth-inch reinforcing placed one inch from the surface on both inside and outside faces. At six-foot intervals two-inch drain pipes approximately eight inches long should be placed in the coping at the low end or ends of the court. Galvanized eyebolts three-eighths by six inches should be embedded in the coping at three-foot intervals and the galvanized half-inch pipe inserted therein. Pipe posts. The posts should be of four-inch galvanized pipe made as per accompanying sketch, and embedded in a concrete block two feet square by three and one-half feet deep. Lining. The lines should be painted with concrete, three inches wide on the ends and all others two inches wide. 332 PARKS The court as described has no reinforcing in the paving. The expan- sion and contraction due to temperature changes is accommodated by the cuts through to subgrade. The court if properly constructed is divided into independent blocks 12 feet square. Clay courts. As in other types of courts, the construction of clay and dirt courts depends a great deal upon existing soil conditions. The amount of money available is another factor. The following are a number of sugges- tions taken from various sources: Mr. Paul B. Williams, of the United States Lawn Tennis Association, states that "usually the best way to proceed in building a dirt court is to cut away the earth to a depth of about one foot. This space must be care- fully leveled and about six inches of broken stone one to two inches in diameter put in. This layer should be thoroughly compacted, after which a three-inch layer of finely broken stone or crushed gravel should be added. For the top layer a mixture of sand and clay is used, but the proportions vary greatly. If the clay is sticky, one part of sand to four of clay is a good mixture. Usually, however, the proportion runs about eight of clay to one of sand. If the court seems very soft when finished, it needs more clay; if the surface is sticky, more sand is required. This top layer should be from three to six inches thick. After it is applied, the court should be well watered and rolled a couple of times daily for about two weeks before it is used. Every effort must be made to keep the surface free from hollows or humps, but by light raking, careful rolling and sprinkling, a true and firm surface can be obtained. In case it is not necessary to use a stone foundation, the process is to cut away the topsoil to a depth of several inches until the firm subsoil is reached. Then a true grade must be estab- lished. From two to four inches of top-dressing of clay and sand should be used, this being raked into the under soil. Unless this raking is carefully done, the top-dressing will form a distinct layer and the results will not be so satisfactory as when it is carefully worked into the subsoil." According to a detailed statement by Albert D. Taylor, published in Spalding's Tennis Annual for 1923, in constructing clay courts all soil should be removed to a depth of one foot below finished surface. This should be rolled and four-inch tiles laid at right angles to the direction of slope. Upon the subgrade a layer of cinders is placed five inches in thickness after rolling. Upon this a layer of one and one-half-inch crushed light stone slag or coarse gravel is placed to be three inches in thickness after rolling. The voids in this surface are filled by spreading on crushed gravel, crushed stone or slag not exceeding three-fourths-inch dimension. At this stage, net posts and center iron should be placed. The next layer should be a stiff clay contain- ing no loam or organic material, pulverized sufficiently to pass through CONSTRUCTION NOTES 333 three-fourths to one-inch mesh screen. This should be spread to depth of not less than three inches. The finished surface, which should be one inch in thickness, should consist of equal proportions by weight of sand (to pass through 3^-inch screen), pure clay (to pass through y^-inch screen) and silt. One part of salt by weight to forty or fifty parts of surfacing material should be added. The finishing surface should be spread by use of wheelbarrow and planks and the entire surface of the court should be covered before any rolling of finished surface is undertaken. Mr. J. B. McConaghie, landscape architect with the Pennsylvania Department of Internal Affairs, recommends the following procedure in constructing a clay court: "Upon a two-inch cinder foundation rolled hard seven or eight inches of trap rock one 'and one-half to two inches in diam- eter should be laid. On top of this should be placed two inches of trap rock one-half to one inch in diameter filled with pebbles to grade. All crevices should be filled with coarse sand, after which court is rolled damp and given half a day to harden. On top of this surface is added one inch of blue TtMhlS COUBT BACKSTOPS Or PABN COMMIS&IONtBS MINNEAPOLIS MINN May 1924 PLATE No. 136. PLAN OF CONSTRUCTION OF TENNIS COURT BACKSTOPS, MINNEAPOLIS The following are the specifications for the above backstops with top and bottom rail. End posts: To be standard weight galvanized tubing three inches in diameter, 13^ feet long, fitted with a neat ball top ornament. Line posts: To be of standard weight galvanized tubing two and one-half inches in diameter, 13 feet long, fitted with malleable tops to carry top rail. Top rail, bottom rail and end posts braces to be standard weight galvanized tubing one and five-eighths inches in diameter. Truss rods braces: Used at each end of the fence, to be of three-eighths inches mild steel. Fence fabric: To be Armco, Cyclone or equivalent, No. n gauge, one and three-fourths-inch mesh. Bidder shall specify wire fabric contemplated, when submitting prices. Fence fittings and fabric to be galvanized. 334 PARKS clay well dampened, after which is added a light top-dressing, consisting of three parts sand and one part clay with 300 to 400 pounds of salt per court." The following is a statement of the construction and estimated cost of a clay tennis court by the Park Department, Minneapolis, Minnesota. It provides for an area 50 x 120 feet, with a six-inch slope from the net line to the backstop for drainage. A layer of six inches of sandy clay is rolled on a solid even sub-base. This clay should be constantly rolled when putting it in place and must be of the right dampness to pack readily. When the surface of clay is rolled to an even grade a fine layer of limestone screenings is rolled into it. These screenings should be spread on the clay about one-eighth inch thick when dry, and then moistened and rolled. Following is a rough estimate of the construction of a fairly level piece of property: Labor: Subgrade ....................... 675 square yards at $ .10 $67.50 Place and roll clay ................... 675 square yards at .10 67.50 Place and roll screenings ................ 675 square yards at .03 20.25 - Material: Sandy clay ...................... 115 cubic yards at .75 $86.25 Limestone screenings . . _ ................ 2>£ cubic yards at 2.00 5.00 Pipe posts set two inches in concrete ........... 2 cubic yards at 5.00 10.00 Pipe and wire backstops ................ 140 feet at 1.50 210.00 Total ......................... $466.50 Dirt courts. It is possible to construct a dirt court at little expense, by removing only two or three inches of topsoil and covering area with a clay, sand and salt mixture. If the soil does not drain readily, special pro- vision must be made for drainage. Such a court, although inexpensive to construct, requires a great deal of maintenance expense, and wears out much more quickly than a well-constructed court. Fencing tennis courts. Galvanized iron pipe and wire mesh are com- monly used in the construction of court backstops. Frequently it is desirable to enclose the entire court in order to control it better, but many cities use backstops similar to those in Minneapolis, the specifications for which are practically standard. Volley ball. Volley ball may be played on any level surface; frequently the same area is used for both basket ball and volley ball. The following dimensions for volley ball courts are taken from the Official Volley Ball Rules: "The playing surface shall be a rectangular court 60 feet long and 30 feet wide, free from obstructions and having a height of 15 feet or more which is free from apparatus or other obstructions or projections. The size of the court may be modified for either indoor or outdoor informal games, to accommodate larger or smaller groups to suit local requirements. It is CONSTRUCTION NOTES 335 o *> 4 urged that the standard size court be used in all match games, where possible. The court shall be bounded by well defined lines two inches in width, and which shall be at every point at least three feet from walls or any obstruc- tions. The lines on the short sides of the court shall be termed the 'end lines,' those on the long sides the 'side lines.' A center line, two inches in width, shall be drawn on the court immediately beneath and parallel to the net. The net shall be three feet wide over all and of sufficient length to reach from side line to side line. It shall be made of a four-inch square mesh of black or dark brown No. 30 thread. The net shall be bound top, ends and bottom with one-quarter-inch rope. A double thickness of white canvas, two inches wide, shall be sewed to the top of the net through which shall be run a wire cable one-quarter inch in diameter. The net shall be tightly stretched by the four corners between walls or uprights which are entirely outside the court, and it shall cross the court midway between the end lines and parallel to them. The cable shall be drawn so as to permit as little sag as possible and the top of the net shall be level and measure eight feet from the center to the ground." It is recommended that for chil- dren and also for women, the size of the court be reduced to 25x50 feet, and that the top of the net be from seven to seven and a half feet from the ground, depending upon the ages of the players. Running tracks. The running track is an essential feature of an athletic field, although on account of the space it requires, and the maintenance and construction cost, it is frequently omitted from neighborhood playfields. Among the most important considerations in track construction are tem- perature, rainfall and soil bed. Although these vary in different sections, the following suggestions should be helpful. Many of them are taken from the replies to a questionnaire sent out to more than fifty university track coaches and compiled by H. F. Schulte of the University of Nebraska.1 "It appears to be generally accepted that a well-constructed running track should be put down in three layers or strata: (i) A coarse layer, consisting of coarse rubble, stone or clinkers. This should be leveled and heavily rolled. (2) A middle layer of straight-run cinders of rather coarse grade, but with- out heavy clinkers. This must be well rolled. (3) The top-dressing, a finely screened cinder mixed with clay, black loam or coal ashes." For the rough fill crushed stone is generally preferred, although some 1 See Official Track and Field Guide, N. C. A. A., publishecTby the American Sports Publishing Company 45 Rose Street, New York. PLATE No. 137. DIAGRAM FOR LAYING OUT A VOLLEY BALL COURT 336 PARKS believe that coarse cinders serve the purpose better. The depth may vary from three to ten inches, depending upon local conditions. The fill should be leveled and well rolled before the middle stratum is laid. This middle layer should be made of medium-sized to relatively fine cinders, the depth varying from five to twelve inches. This should be leveled and well rolled before the top-dressing is added. Top-dressing. Each coach seemed to have his own particular depth, screen or proportion for the top-dressing, (i) Front or head end cinders have the preference. (2) These cinders to be run through a screen variously recommended at from one-fourth to one-half-inch mesh, with the preference nearer one-fourth inch. (3) The screened cinders to be thoroughly mixed with a binder, clay and black loam seeming to rank about even as the best for this. The selection of a binder should depend upon local conditions of weather, as well as peculiarities of soil. Too much soil robs the surface of resiliency; too little allows it to pack or roll. Experimentation only can solve the problem for any particular locality. (4) The mixture recommended ranged from three to five parts of cinders to one of clay or loam, with a four-to-one proportion having the preponderance of votes. A quarter-mile track is strongly recommended for general use, and although it is not always possible to have a track of this length it is seldom desirable to build a longer one. The measurement of the track is 12 inches from the inner edge. If it is intended to use the track for official meets, it is suggested that the park or city engineer check the measurements and have his figures certified. If possible a 22O-yard straightaway should be provided. It is recommended that the radius of the curve be from 95 to RUNNING TRACK DIMLNSIONS (l) MILES * •• TOTKL LENGTH 660.'0" 330:0" LENGTH OFSIDE 1320.0 330lo" Ib5.'0" CIRCUS OF END 66010" 330'.0 I6S)0" WO" 5*0:0" RflDil/S £/ O'Mt ios.r AZOUNP TI2ACK. PLATE No. 139. CROSS SECTION OF RUNNING TRACK, WAUKEGAN, ILLINOIS CONSTRUCTION NOTES 339 interfere with each other or place the officials or spectators in jeopardy from miscalculated throws. "After a track has been built it should not be allowed to run down, constant attention being necessary to keep it up to a high standard of efficiency. It is simply money wasted to build an athletic track and then expect it to keep in condition without any further attention. A grounds- man should be employed, whose duty it should be to care for the track exclusively. In dry weather it should be sprinkled every day or two and gone over daily, scraped and rolled, and all uneven surfaces brought up to a level. The best made tracks will develop these depressions and the best way to discover them is to go out on the track immediately after a rain- storm and note where the puddles occur. Throw into each puddle a block of wood, to serve as a marker when the water has disappeared. These imperfections should have immediate attention. It is also a good plan to have several loads of the finest sieved cinders on hand, which should be worked in from time to time with the top-dressing, rolled, scraped and watered. 1. Track (quarter mile). 14. Start of 1 20 yards hurdle race. Use same sets of 2. Running high jump. hurdles as for 220 yards hurdle race, adjusting to correct 3. Pole vault. Standard, vaulting poles, take-off height. board. 15. Finish 100 yards run, 120 yards hurdle race, 880 4. Running broad jump. Take-off board. yards run, one-mile run, five-mile run. Finish posts. 5. Running hop, step and jump. 16. Football field. Use tennis marker for making- 6. Fifty-six-pound weight throw for distance. Official whitewash lines. 56-pound brass shell filled weight, iron circle. 17. Football goal posts. 7. Sixteen-pound shot put. Official i6-pound brass 18. Movable baseball backstop, shell filled shot, iron circle, stop board. 19. Home plate (rubber). 8. Javelin throw. Official javelins, toe board. 20. First base. Base bags, use tennis marker for 9. Sixteen-pound hammer throw. Official lo-pound making foul lines, etc. brass shell filled hammer, iron circle, sector flags. 21. Pitcher's plate (rubber). 10. Discus throw. Official Olympic discus, iron circle, 22. Basket ball court. sector flags. 23. Goal and backstop. Goal nets, use tennis marker 11. Protective cage, hammer and discus throws. for boundary lines. 12. Metal sector flags for hammer throw and discus. 24. Single and double tennis court. Marker for lines- 13. Start 220, 440, 880 yards run; 220 yards hurdle of court. race. Sets (three or four) of ten combination official 25. Net and posts. Single and double nets, adjust- hurdles. able posts. Accessories. Platform (movable) for judge at finish, gong to attach to finish post to announce beginning of last lap, red worsted for finish line, stakes and cord to make lanes for sprints, whistle for officials, pistol for starter, megaphone for announcer, steel tapes for measuring, rake for jump- ing pits. Timers provide their own stop watches. It is also advisable to have a bench, with smooth board in front, securely nailed, to serve as a desk for reporters." The plans for the Waukegan Township Athletic Field designed by Jacob L. Crane, Jr., Chicago, illustrate many of the features discussed in this chapter. The drainage plan is more elaborate than is usually required,, since the field had a natural heavy clay soil. (See pages 338, 340, 341, 342.) 340 PARKS CONSTRUCTION NOTES STTT 341 35 <; r£XS5?-j .V •" ^ > IT* / ii PLATE No. 141. WATER AND SEWER PLAN, WAUKEGAN FIELD Drain Lines. O.D.I. — Drain Inlet. Water Lines. The following diagrams of areas for a number of field events have been prepared by J. R. McConaghie, Landscape Architect. 3' * / 2.0' 1- PIT its'* 6' * /ao PLATE No. 142 PARKING SPACE In this day of keen interest in competitive games and sports, pageants, and other kinds of public activities which attract large crowds, provision 342 PARKS for parking motor vehicles adjacent to places of large assemblages has become a problem of major importance. In the construction of these places, drain- age, grading to a reasonable level surface, and surfacing with gravel or asphalt are prime considerations. In the arid sections of the country it may be possible to use a turf-surfaced field and at certain seasons or times the same may be true in practically every section of the country. But on the whole, in all sections where there is liable to be considerable rainfall, the parking area should at least be covered with several inches of gravel. Each of the ovals is approximately 60x210 feet, and is bordered by heavy boulders. The roadways between the ovals are 50 feet wide. Cars are parked perpendicular to the ovals. Roadways are surfaced with oiled gravel. Apparently the ovals are to be embellished with plantations and equipped with tables, water and some facilities for cooking. (See page 344.) CONSTRUCTION OF PooLS1 Pools. The following pages of this chapter contain a discussion and illustrations and plans of various types of pools commonly found in parks and other recreation areas. Although the notes by Mr. Taylor pertain to various types of formal garden pools and informal pools and ponds, many -^t/^L-^L ^r*j> I \ N A r^ftfer^ /- -*—\ \\\~\ EZf_: PLATE No. 143. GRADING PLAN, WAUKEGAN FIELD 3 Albert D. Taylor in Landscape Architecture, January 1924. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 343 of the statements may be applied equally to pools intended primarily for wading and swimming. General considerations. This discussion (with the exception of that portion relating to winter protection of pools) pertains specifically to the construction of various types of formal garden pools and informal pools and ponds. The problem of water supply should be thoroughly investigated as to the available quantity and the probable cost in order to be certain that the construction of any pool is practicable. In connection with larger pools, and especially pond areas which depend upon natural supply from springs or from surface drainage, there may be seasons of the year when, on account of the lack of adequate supply, the loss through excessive evap- oration may create a stagnant and an unsanitary condition in any pool. Pools constructed where frost action is negligible, and especially in sandy soils, do not need the extent of drainage and reinforcing that is required elsewhere. It is very wise, however, in protecting any pool against action from frost, and especially under clay soil conditions, to provide a large factor of safety. Bird baths, whether as shown on Plate 146, figure I, or of the standard type, are usually constructed of concrete, or marble or other stone. Pools of the type shown on Plate 146, figures I and 2, are usually constructed of concrete (reinforced when under severe climatic and soil conditions). Such pools may be entirely of concrete or may be veneered on the inside of the pool with brick, stone or tile. Informal pools and pond areas, such as shown on Plate 146, figure 4, are usually constructed of concrete, reinforced where climatic conditions require this precaution. It is seldom that such pools of an informal character are veneered with any material. Excavation for pools. The first step in the construction of any pool is to set stakes to indicate definitely the correct lines and grades for the location of the pool and for the proposed elevation at the top of the coping sur- rounding the pool. After stripping the topsoil over the site, the area of the pool should be carefully excavated to conform to the proposed lines of the finished subgrade as shown on Plate 146, figures 2, 3, 4. The depth of this excavation will vary with the water depth required in the proposed pool. The bottom of the side walls surrounding the pool should be below the line of normal frost action if permanent construction is desired. Oftentimes pools are constructed where this wall does not extend so deep, but this is not advisable. The area excavated for the pool should, in heavy clay soils and under severe climatic conditions, extend at least 10 to 12 inches beyond the outside face of the surrounding walls in order to allow for a proper back-fill of cinders to provide necessary drainage. The excavation for any pool should extend to a solid subgrade, and only in exceptional conditions 344 PARKS PLATE No. 144 PARKING SPACE AT STADIUM, BROOKSIDE PARK, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA Illustrating the extraordinary demand for parking space in connection with a facility which accommodates and attracts large crowds. PLATE No. 145 ILLUSTRATING THE PLAN OF LAYOUT OF PARKING SPACE, BROOKSIDE PARK, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA CONSTRUCTION NOTES 345 should even a small portion of any pool extend over soil which has been recently filled or which is not thoroughly settled. The excavation for informal pool and pond areas which are to be lined with concrete on the bottom, should extend to the natural subsoil, thus removing all topsoil or soil with any root growth or humus contained in it. Drainage for pools. Drainage for pools is installed for two principal purposes: (i) To remove quickly all free surface water which might bring foreign material in suspension into the pool or which might cause unde- sirable soil conditions in the immediate area surrounding any pool (espe- cially bird baths and small fountains). (2) To remove adequately all free water in the subsoil the accumulation of which under freezing temperatures might prove injurious to the bottom or to the walls of the pool. When the coping is raised above the surrounding finished grade (Plate 146, figure 2, right) this surface drainage is not so essential. When the surface of the coping is flush with the surrounding finished grade (Plate 146, figure 2, left) it is very desirable that the surface water should be promptly removed. In the case of swimming pools where it is very neces- sary to keep all surface water away from the pool, a small gutter is often installed immediately behind the coping. In the case of formal garden pools where the surface of the coping is flush with the surface of the surrounding walk, the walk should be sloped slightly away from the pool in order to remove the surface water. The area around bird baths (Plate 146, figure i), due to the splashing of the water by the birds, often becomes soggy and soft unless a proper drain is installed to remove the surface water. The drainage necessary to remove the free subsoil water from the area under the bottom of any pool, and from the area immediately surrounding the walls, is provided as shown on Plate 146, figure 2. A four-inch agricultural tile drain should be installed at the base of, and immediately against the outside of the concrete wall surrounding any pool. This drain should be connected with some main drain which is easily accessible. This drain should have a fall of at least one-eighth to one-fourth inch per linear foot. The drain to remove water from the subsoil under the bottom of the pool should, in connection with the average small pool (ranging from 10 to 20 feet in width or diameter), be installed as shown on Plate 146, figure 2, and extend if possible parallel with the longest dimension of the pool. The subgrade should be sloped approximately one-eighth to one-fourth inch per foot toward the drain to prevent accumulation of free water. Water supply. The problem of installing pipes for supply and control of water for any pool is illustrated on Plate 146, figure i, and on Plate 147, * 1 See also the article "Landscape Architecture Pool Control," by Robert Wheelwright, in Landscape Archi- tecture, July 1920. 346 PARKS SANDY LOAM I '/2.'.'- CINDERS 8"-Jo". + V.S.P. 5HUTOFF. BIRD BATH. FIQ. 1. FLAGSTONE WALK)\ ^-STONE COPING. STONE COP IN (f. Tff^}^^i,/^9^ii^M^//^yy^/'^^/^''^^^iSS! CONCRETE FOOL. FIQ. 2. BRICK COPING-—) STO/ff Off BRICK VENEER (4-" THICK). STONE COPlNGrj TILE DRAIN. CONCRETE POOL VENEERED WITH STONE OR BRICK. . 3. 6" V.S.P DRAIN INFORMAL FOOL. FIQ. 4. QARDEN POOLS. PREPARED IN THE OFFICE OF ALBERT D. TAYLOR.1. LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT a TOWN PLANNER. CLEVELAND, O. g: DEC. 10, 1923. PLATE A, PLATE No. 146 CONSTRUCTION NOTES 347 figure i. Water is often brought into the pool through various types of fountain arrangements located either at the end or at the center of the pool. The two important points to be kept in mind in the installation of water supply for pools are: (i) To provide a pipe of adequate size so that under the normal available pressure a sufficient supply of water can be easily obtained. (2) To arrange so that during freezing weather the water supply may be so shut off that those pipes containing water will still be below the line of normal frost action. (Plate 146, figure i, and Plate 147, figure i.) Where limited supply of water is available it sometimes is advisable and economical to install an automatic electric pump in order to recirculate the water in the pool through some desired type of fountain. The pipes for water supply as well as the pipes for drainage should be completely installed, with the exception of nozzles or finished fountain features, before any cinder foundation or concrete foundation is put in place. Under no conditions should any cinders, used in the area surrounding the pool or under the pool, be allowed to come in direct contact with any water pipes. Whenever iron water pipes pass through a fill of cinders such pipes should be protected by a sleeve of terra cotta or tile. Cinder foundation under pool. Whenever pools are constructed where there is no frost or in a sandy and well-drained soil, the cinder foundation under the pool and the cinder fill around the outside of the pool walls may be eliminated. Where frost action is severe and where the pool is con- structed in a natural clay soil not easily drained it is very necessary to install a layer of cinders from four to eight inches in depth under the bottom of the pool (see Plate 146, figures i to 4). It is also necessary to install a layer of cinders from four to six inches in thickness entirely surrounding the pool as shown on Plate 146, figures 2 and 3, and Plate 147, figures I to 4. These cinders should preferably be screened in order to be free from ashes. The layer of cinders placed over the subgrade under the bottom of the pool should be thoroughly wet and tamped before the forms are built or any concrete put in place. The cinders around the walls of the pool should be put in place and thoroughly tamped in layers not exceeding six inches in depth after the forms have been removed. Constructing floor and walls of pool. Under severe climatic and soil conditions the bottom or floor of all pools should preferably be reinforced with j^g-inch rods, 1 8 inches on center at the top of the floor, and 12 inches on center at the bottom of the floor. The bottom rods should be turned up into the inside face of the side walls. These rods should be at least two inches from the upper or lower face of the floor. The bottom rods should 348 PARKS ~4- />Hn\vhur}ifflMi\,\..fK-': ^ .L^_- INLET, OUTLET AND OVERFLOWS. PREPARED IN THE OFriCE OF ALBERT D. TAYLOR LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT a TOWN PLANNER CLEVELAND, O. DEC. 10, 1923. PLATE B. • PLATE No. 147 CONSTRUCTION NOTES 349 extend in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the rods at the top of the floor. The depth of the concrete in the floor should approximate eight inches. The thickness of the side walls if reinforced will approximate 12 inches. If these side walls are not reinforced the thickness will approxi- mate from 14 to 17 inches and may be affected by the width of the pro- posed coping. If the pool is more than three feet in depth it will probably become necessary to reinforce the side walls, otherwise in shallow pools, used mainly for reflection purposes, it is not necessary to reinforce the concrete. The mixture for concrete should be one part cement, two parts sand and three parts screened gravel or crushed stone. In connection with shallow pools where the surrounding soil is of a sufficient texture to support itself in a vertical position, the natural soil may sometimes be used as a substitute for any outside form. Specially constructed forms will be neces- sary if any drainage of the surrounding soil is necessary. The problem of constructing forms for the inner face of walls is important. It is often necessary, especially where it is practicable to pour the bottom and the walls as a unit, to suspend the forms for the inside surface of the walls. Wherever the inside surface of the pool is to be veneered with any material such as stone, brick or tile it is quite necessary to place small ties in the inside face of the concrete wall in order to hold the veneering in place. This is not essential on the bottom of the pool. The use of any material to veneer the inner surface of the pool does not reduce the thickness qf the proposed concrete walls. Coping. The coping may be installed as shown in the drawings accom- panying this discussion. The two important points to be considered in the proper construction of the coping are: (i) To provide dowels for holding the coping permanently in place. (2) Wherever the coping overhangs the outer face of the wall a cinder fill should be provided so that the vertical action of frost will not dislodge the coping. Outlets and overflows for pools. On Plate 147, figures 2 to 6, are shown various types of outlets and overflows for garden pools. The first principle of a correct overflow is that the overflow should remove the water from the surface instead of from the bottom of the pool in order thus to remove constantly a certain proportion of the dust and dirt which must collect on the surface water of any pool. (See Plate 147, figures 3 and 4.) The type of overflow shown on Plate 147, figure 5, is not desirable because it removes the water only from the bottom of the pool and thus it becomes necessary to clean the surface of the pool either by draining the pool entirely or by removing the scum of dust and, dirt through other artificial methods. This type of overflow (Plate 147, figure 5) should always be provided with 350 PARKS TOP or 3TKOVGLY fl(9= TfEINFORCED CONCRETE CROSS SECTION. WALLS SUPPORTING «w • » «-' • «-' - i+*rrwmrft f * +,, , . r — — . — • — jr/74. L » *)L/r r \sr\ i //FCT BELOW NORMAL FROST LWE U ,i_ai iL !_! CONCRETE APRON DOWNSTREAM ELEVATION. CONCRETE DAM. F 1 C,. i. BU/LT rN (>"-1", LAYERS PUDDLED UPSTKCAM FACT- SLOPE" f:3 *$ SLOPE i:z TUf?A L S UBS OIL: ^•CUT-OFF TRENCH WW%S3/RiWiW^YaWWI^^\\V/fl8^^\\l^»^/A«1^^l"r^IW^ CROSS SECTION OF CLAY PUDDLED DAM. FIQ. £. SIOPF i:Z TOP OF LEVEE '2") SOIL im?mmmrbma& s»- \*3¥JliSMmStUK'MI/K8/0>0« • mesh, o.3S Ib.per Sf. ft £" Concrete PLATE No. 151. SUGGESTED DESIGN FOR CONCRETE WADING POOL (Used through the courtesy of the Portland Cement Association.) A suggested design for a wading pool is shown on this page. As planned, the maximum depth of water is uniformly 12 inches. This maximum can be decreased if desirable by placing the outlet lower, thus lowering the water level correspondingly. This pool has an over-all diameter of 50 feet. A sloping pavement permits easy entrance to the water. The construction throughout should be of 1:2:3 concrete, mixed and otherwise handled as recommended in the construction of swimming pools. On account of the sloping sides of the pool formed by the slabs that constitute its rim, there is little or no possibility of the pool being injured by allowing the water to freeze. For this reason the pool will form a safe skating pond during the winter months. An approximate estimate of the materials necessary to construct a wading pool of this plan and dimensions is as follows: Portland cement, 91 barrels; sand, 27 cubic yards; pebbles or broken stone, 41 cubic yards; reinforcement, 735 pounds of wire fabric (0.35 pound per square foot); concrete tile, 190 feet of six-inch. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 355 desirable to use roofing paper or other paper which will prevent free water from coming in contact with the surface of the tile. (3) (See Plate 149, figure 3.) It may be desirable to leave the water, during the winter, within a deep pool. On the theory that water increases approximately one-eleventh of its volume when transformed into ice it then becomes advisable to anchor barrels or other similar materials on the surface of the pool. During periods of freezing conditions the ice will, under this arrangement, have a tend- ency to heave, and thus the lateral pressure on the walls of the pool will be greatly reduced. The main object in the protection of any pool is not to prevent the walls from being subject to freezing conditions, but to prevent the sudden changes of temperature within the area of the pool. These sudden changes of temperature have a tendency to create conditions of expansion and contraction which may prove extremely dangerous to the concrete in the walls and bottom of the pool. It is further very desirable to keep outlet drains of any pool open during the entire winter. If a quantity of water is allowed to enter the PLATE No. 152 PLAN OF WADING POOL, EMERSON WIGHT PLAYGROUND, SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS This pool was constructed in 1917 at a cost of $1,200, all labor and supervision having been furnished by the Springfield Park Department. The id-inch curb surrounding the pool extends six inches above the water line, and there is an i8-inch surrounding apron sloping two inches from the curb. The basin consists of two inches of trap rock, spaces between which are filled with sand, and which has a gallon of Tarvia X per square yard of surface, making a three-inch impervious bottom. The feed pipes are one inch in diameter. Around the pool is a six-inch pipe drain laid in 48 inches of cinders at a depth of five feet below the curb. The purpose of this is to prevent outside water from reaching the pool bottom. In the central pedestal six inches below the level of the curb, is a drain outlet, and a clean-out drain is placed at the base of the pedestal in a bowl-like depression three inches lower than the pool bottom. Since the maximum depth of this pool is three feet, it is really a wading-swimming pool. 356 PARKS pool from frequent rains during the winter it is also desirable to cover this outlet with a box arrangement so that any free water will be drained through a mass of salt, thus creating a saline solution. This will often prevent any ice forming over the drain outlet. COST DATA Clay lining for lily pond. This pond was long, narrow, irregular and about 90 square yards in extent. Some large stones were embedded in the bank after a layer of clay was placed. This layer was four inches thick after compacting. All work was hand labor and the materials were mixed dry in batches of one-half cubic yard on a platform lox 14 feet. Hours per Hours per Item cubic yard square yard Screening gravel twice 2 2 Breaking up and screening clay 3 Mixing clay, sand and gravel i Wheeling and spreading I Wetting and ramming I Total . ~8 Where a job was about 900 square yards in area and teams could be used the cost was as follows: Hours per Hours per Item cubic yard square yard Wheeling and spreading by hand I .in Mixing by harrowing (two-horse teams) .25 .028 Wetting, including laying and removing temporary pipe (160 feet) .25 .028 Rolling with two-horse sectional roller (weight 3,400 pounds) .25 .028 Total man hours 1.25 .139 Total team hours .50 .056 Tile setting for pool linings. The following figures are for setting tiles on the walls and floor of an ordinary pool after a scratch coat has been applied and the surface trued up to receive the tile. Each tile setter has one helper and the tile must be unpacked and alongside the job. Labor hours per square foot Item Size of tile Tile setter Helper Grueby faience in a repeating design and 3 or 4 shades ... 4x4 inches Curved walls .4 .4 Straight walls * .2 .2 Floor .08 .08 Grueby faience, one color 4x4 inches Curved walls .264 .264 Straight walls .132 .132 Floor .053 .053 Ceramic tile ^ to I inch square Straight walls .16 .16 Floor .05 .05 Ceramic tile hex. ^ to I inch Straight walls .16 .16 Floor .04 .04 Wading pools. Most wading pools on playgrounds vary in depth from zero at the shallow end or edge to eighteen or twenty-four inches at the deepest point. The size depends largely upon the area of the playground CONSTRUCTION NOTES 357 and the number of children served. A circular pool of fifty feet diameter is a good size for the average playground. Most concrete pools are either rectangular or circular in aH^nMBBMBM^^BBBB^B^^HBBBIBHaBl^HB^BIH^BIHHBHIBBB^^HIH^^^Hp shape, but a pool which fol- lows the natural contours of an uneven area is more in- teresting and attractive, especially in a park. In the wading pool recently con- structed in one of the West- chester County parks the bottom of the pool and the surrounding walk were sprinkled with small rounded pebbles soon after the concrete was poured. It is believed that the pebbles will prevent the children from slipping on the wet concrete. It is desirable to have a concrete walk around the pool to lessen the amount of dirt carried into it. If the walk is provided with drains, as in the pool on page 353, the muddy surface which surrounds so many wading pools can be avoided. One or more sand courts are frequently constructed close to the wad- ing pool. Frequently wading pools are constructed adjacent to a swimming pool as a part of a swimming center plan. W ading- swimming pools. In a number of cities, espe- cially where outdoor swim- ming facilities are lacking or limited, wading pools have been constructed which have a section of sufficient depth to permit swimming. The depth of these pools generally slopes from about six to thirty-six or forty-two inches. Many park and recreation officials are 1 These illustrations are used through the courtesy of the Portland Cement Association. PLATE No. 153. l AN ATTRACTIVE WADING POOL IN A KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI PARK PLATE No. 154' A TOY SEA FOR TOY SHIPS IN ONE OF THE MINOT, NORTH DAKOTA, PARKS 358 PARKS opposed to this type of pool, because of the problems of sanitation and administration which they develop. When filled, a pool of this sort must have constant supervision to ensure the children's safety. A bathhouse for changing of clothes, and equipped with showers, should be provided, and the same provisions should be taken for keeping the water pure as in the case of swimming pools. The cost of changing the water and fencing the pool area is another factor which must be considered. In some cities the problem of providing wading-swimming pools is solved by having a pool of comparatively uniform depth, for example, three feet. The pool may be filled during part of the day for use as a swimming pool, after which the water is lowered to a depth of twelve to eighteen inches, when it is used by the small children for wading. This arrangement over- comes some of the objections to the type of pool described above, but it is not an ideal one. Because the wading-swimming pool has been used in many cities, it is given a place in this chapter, but the problems such a pool presents should be considered carefully before this feature is included in a park or playground. Swimming pools. The problems involved in the design and construc- tion of swimming centers are so many and varied that it will be impossible to enter into an intensive consideration of the subject in this manual. Among these problems, which vary with each individual pool, are layout, structural design, waterproofing, plumbing and mechanical equipment, fin- PLATE No. 155.* ILLUSTRATING A TYPE OF WADIXG-SWIMMING POOL FOR CHILDREN (Used extensively in the system of children's playgrounds, Park and Recreation Department, Dallas, Texas.) 1 Used through the courtesy of the Portland Cement Association. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 359 ishing and decorating. The following statement concerning the nature of these problems was prepared by the Hasbrouck Company, swimming pool engineers and contractors, of New York: "First there is the problem of planning the layout. The pool must be properly located in regard to other parts of the building or grounds, and in regard to structural conditions. Dressing rooms, shower baths, rest rooms, toilets, Turkish baths, galleries for spectators and such other conveniences as are desired must be properly grouped around the pool. The size and depth of the pool itself are important considerations; in many cases the A. A. U. and Intercollegiate swimming rules must be taken into account. The second group of problems is structural. Supports for the pool must be provided. The strength of the walls of the pool must be calculated. Usually these walls are built of reinforced concrete, but in many locations steel tanks lined with concrete may be necessary, and here experience must dictate. Closely allied to the structural problem is the problem of water- proofing. There are many methods of providing against leakage. In some cases the concrete shell is covered with a waterproofing membrane, and this in turn is covered with concrete waterproofed integrally. Occasionally the integral method alone is sufficient. On work below the ground level, pressure D PLATE No. 156 PLAN OF WADING-SWIMMING POOL USED IN THE PLAYGROUNDS OF DALLAS, TEXAS The cost of these pools ranges from #2,500 to $4,500, depending on soil and building conditions. 360 PARKS plays an important part; in addition to keeping the tank water in, seepage water must be kept out. Architects without previous experience in water- proofing this type of work have difficulty in providing for all these consid- erations, which may result in a failure. The fourth problem is that of mechanical equipment. Water for the pool must be supplied, heated, steri- lized, drained and recirculated. Owing to the complexity of the necessary equipment and to the fact that it must stand up under constant service, it should be designed and specified by engineers who are familiar with this type of work." SWIMMING POOL CONSTRUCTION l This article deals chiefly with the construction of an outdoor pool of reinforced concrete, designed especially to meet the demands of large attend- ance and at the same time to provide amply for conducting simultaneously a number of forms of aquatic activity. While economy in construction and operation are given careful consideration, none of the sanitary features necessary in a modern pool are omitted. The specifications here outlined were included in the design of a municipal pool for Fort Worth, Texas. Following are the main features and the reasons for including them: 1. Rectangular shape. Advantages: Uniform starts and turns for swimming events. Regulation field play for water polo, water basket ball, etc. 2. Size 75 x 200 feet. Advantages: (a) Width, being a multiple of five, provides 15 swimming lanes of regulation five-foot width, but is still narrow enough to ensure safety if the depths here given are used, (b) Length pro- :. rcxx JOISI PLATE No. 157. PLAN OF SWIMMING AND WADING POOLS 1 By W. C. Batchelor, Superintendent of Recreation, Pittsburg, Pa. The plans used in this statement were prepared by Glasgow & Longley, Architects, of Fort Worth, Texas. Reprinted in part from The American City, April 1926. Copyright, 1926, by W. C. Batchelor. Drawings copyright, 1926, by Glasgow & Longley. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 361 vides flying finish for all standard distances, (c) General size. A pool of this size, with the depths as indicated, solves the problem of conducting all the common forms of organized aquatic activity without interfering with the general use of the pool by those not enrolled in these organized groups. 3. Depths. Minimum depth of three and one-half feet at each end gradually sloping to a depth of five feet at a distance of 75 feet from each end. Area 40 x 50 feet at one side of the remaining 5O-foot section with sharp slope from depth of five feet to maximum depth of 10 feet at sump 17^2 feet from edge. Gradual slope from four and one-half-foot depth at opposite side of pool to five-foot depth at edge of this 40 x 5O-foot deep area. Advantages: (a) Eighty-seven per cent of pool area is between three and one-half and five feet in depth and thus available for non-swimmers, beginners, and fair swimmers. (&) Area at one end, 50 x 75 feet, with depth from three and one-half to four and one-half feet (considered ideal depth for instruction and for beginners) will accommodate a class of maximum size (100 or more). An area of equal size and depth is available at the opposite end for free use. An area 50 x 75 feet, that is, one-half of the remaining center section, which is 100 x 75 feet, is sufficient for water polo or water basket ball (played across pool), while the other half of this section is available for the free use of swimmers and divers. A class in life-saving or the coaching of a swimming team could also be conducted and still pro- vide ample opportunity for free use of this section of the pool, (c) Three and one-half-foot depth at ends is accepted by the A. A. U., the N. C. A. and the N. A. A. F. as sufficient for swimming starts and turns, (d) The cz =»------^«^--~B------^«~'»"««^"--«---=-"«=--=B=--<«= DUAILJ . MIAC« xjiici:: PLATE NO Q PLATE No. 158. CONSTRUCTION DETAILS 362 PARKS five-foot maximum depth at any edge makes it impossible for a person to enter deep water except from springboards, but still gives sufficient depth for diving from edge, (e) The deep area is sufficient to accommodate divers from the four springboards and diving tower. Except for the purpose of diving, a few aquatic games and practice in life-saving, deep water has little utility, and, when sufficient areas at depths less than five feet are provided, is used very little. (/) Except in depths greater than five feet, slope of bottom is nowhere more than two per cent, thus eliminating all cause for slipping from this source. This slope is still sufficient to afford good drainage in cleaning bottom of pool, (g) With the entire area, 15,000 square feet, deep enough for swimming, and 87 per cent of it less than five feet in depth, the maximum of utility in proportion to water volume is secured. 4. Depths marked with lo-inch numerals of brass or mosaic tile at 12 points on edge of runway surrounding pool. Advantages: Shallow depth of greater area of pool makes it more important to place depth markings so as to be readily seen by persons approaching pool than in edge above scum gutter for information of those in the water, as is customary in the old-style pool. 5. On diving tower which is located adjacent to deep area, sign is placed reading as follows: "Seventeen and one-half feet from edge of pool opposite tower, water is 10 feet deep." At foot of each low springboard is sign reading: "Two feet from end of springboard water is seven feet deep." At each high springboard sign reads, "Five feet from end of springboard OlAJCOI . UDIGllY DUIGI JKIHKlTo fOOi BAiu uom PLATE No. 159. PLOT PLAN CONSTRUCTION NOTES 363 water is eight feet deep." Advantages: With depth from edge varying, these signs, together with depth markings on edge, give adequate warning to divers. 6. Lines running entire length of pool at five-foot intervals across pool. These lines are four inches wide and start at upper edge of side of pool, continue to bottom, and end at edge at opposite end of pool. Lines on bottom to be of asphaltum set two inches in the concrete. Advantages: This is the standard method of minimizing interference in swimming races. The presence of lines is an incentive for swimmers to practice keeping eyes open under water and swimming in lanes or on lines. Asphaltum ensures perma- nency. Painted lines, while not permanent, would effect a saving of $300. 7. Lines across bottom of pool five feet from each end. No other cross- lines. Advantages: These act as a warning to swimmers approaching end of pool. Absence of other lines avoids the confusion caused when lines on bottom are used to mark distances. 8. Continuous scum gutter around entire pool, recessed in wall. Gutter to be broad and deep, and cross section a continuous curve. Advantages: Gutter around entire pool gives maximum of surface sanitation and pro- vides handrail at all points. Broad, deep gutter prevents back splash into pool, and continuous curve facilitates cleaning. 9. All ladders at sides of pool. Advantage: Leaves ends unobstructed for swimming competition. 10. Ladders recessed flush with side of pool. Advantage: Eliminates all danger to swimmers from this source, and entire 15 lanes are clear of obstructions. B M IIOII I1IWIOI . BMU UCUI OCAJCOW » IOICUY *ILC«I:IGTS D1SIGK SKimnTp foot. BATH UO13I PLATE No. 160. FLOOR PLAN AND FRONT ELEVATION 364 PARKS 11. Flat treads for all ladders. Advantage: Reduces to minimum danger of slipping. 12. Four springboards, two three feet from surface of water (edge of scum gutter) and two 10 feet, and diving tower with platform 16 feet from water, meeting as far as possible all requirements of N. C. A., A. A. C., and N. A. A. F., centralized at deep area extending 50 feet at one side of pool midway of length. (See Plate 157 for location.) Advantages: Pro- vides regulation equipment for all swimming meets. Concentration of springboards at one point in a large pool is an advantage from the point of view of supervision and safety. This arrangement also minimizes the danger of divers striking swimmers, the latter being free from this form of interference except at this one location. This concentration, however, must not approach the point of congestion. The proper location of ladders is important in avoiding this danger. 13. Diving tower 8x12 feet with platform 9 feet from water, provid- ing station for life guard as well as base for two springboards (10 feet high), and second platform 6x8 feet, 16 feet from water, waterproofed. Advan- tages: Places life guard in most advantageous position to observe deep area of pool as well as to supervise diving. Second platform affords some protection from sun. 14. Bronze chain supported by wooden floats suspended across pool 50 feet from each end at depth of four and one-half feet. Advantages: Chain is superior to rope, which very soon becomes slimy and rots, Bronz-e chain is recommended for the purpose of permanency, but galvanized chain is quoted in the estimates submitted herewith. 15. Thirty-inch concrete drain and 1 2-inch supply. Local conditions must be considered in deciding on size of drain and supply pipes. Former should take available sewer connections into consideration, and latter is dependent on available water pressure and size of supply main. Advantages : If local conditions allow drain and supply pipes of sizes indicated, this makes possible emptying the pool in three and one-half hours and refilling in an equal length of time, with supply at 30 pounds pressure. Allowing five hours for cleaning pool, water can thus be changed in 12 hours. 1 6. Intake distributed at four points at one end of pool. Advantages: High pressure of large main is thus reduced before entering pool, mini- mizing erosion. If purity of water is maintained by continuous flow method, stirring up of sediment on bottom is reduced to minimum. 17. Concrete runway 10 feet wide entirely around pool sloping away from the edge at pitch of three-fourths inch in one foot. Advantages : Wide concrete runway reduces dirt and other impurities carried into pool. Slope prevents water from draining back into pool, especially when cleaning runway. This slope obviates necessity of raised edge around pool. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 365 1 8. Separate pool 20 x 75 feet with water depth of one foot, six inches, at edges and sloping to two feet at center. Advantages : Provides swimming and wading pool for children, under eight years in particular, who will probably be brought by parents. Aside from greater safety, this obviates necessity of depths of less than three and one-half feet in main pool, which is considered minimum depth for practical swimming purposes for adults. 19. Rough finish for runway and bottom of children's pool. Advan- tages: Prevents slipping and is still capable of being cleaned by ordinary pressure from hose nozzle combined with scrubbing as conditions require. 20. Six-tier bleachers, 100 feet long, midway along side of pool opposite diving tower and bathhouse. Advantages : Adequate provision for spectators popularizes swimming as a sport and may be a source of revenue. Location suggested gives all spectators unrestricted view of all aquatic events. 21. Pools, bathhouse, and bleachers located on 200 x 3OO-foot area, and all unoccupied area grassed. Advantages: Provides area for active recrea- tion while out of water and is a stimulus toward inducing people to spend more time exposed to the sun. For this purpose grass is superior to sand, the chief advantage of the latter being its association with a natural beach. 22. Eight-foot chain link wire fence enclosing the whole. Advantages: Limits use of pool to those authorized. Limits persons in bathing suits to immediate vicinity of popj. Provides absolute control in the collection of fees where desired. 23. Separate entrance for spectators and three-foot chain link wire fence separating them from swimmers. Advantages: Avoids dirt from shoes being carried into pool as a result of spectators on runway. Simplifies admitting spectators at lower fee than swimmers. 24. Pool designed to maintain hygienic conditions of water by com- bination of fill and draw and continuous flow methods. Pool to be refilled weekly and splash replaced daily. Advantages : Fill and draw method gives opportunity to clean inside of pool at frequent intervals. Size of drain and supply pipes incurs no loss of time in use of pool. Maintaining three parts per million of chlorine in the water would provide additional safety. If cost of water is so high as to compensate for the installation and operation of a filtration plant, recirculation might be considered. In case this were done, three 84-inch pressure filters, each with the usual capacity of 115.4 gallons per minute, would filter an amount of water equal to the total volume of this pool in approximately 24 hours. 25. Bathhouse provides for collection of fees, supplying of towel, suit, locker key, etc., by one for men and one for women. Advantages: This arrangement makes possible operation with a minimum of supervision, which can be further reduced during hours when smaller numbers are in 366 PARKS attendance. Arrangement of exits from locker rooms makes possible collec- tion of towel, suit, and key by same attendant by whom distributed, when desired. 26. A locker is provided for each bather, a common dressing room for men, and booths for women; 494 lockers for men and 258 lockers and 44 booths for women ensure sufficient dressing facilities for maximum use of pool. However, it may be necessary at times to assign more than one person to a locker or dressing room. Advantages: The individual locker is recommended in preference to the basket system. The latter necessitates more help, and even then does not permit of handling large groups rapidly, since each basket must be handled four times for each bather. 27. All bathers must pass showers and toilets from locker room to pool.1 Advantage: Added incentive to their use. 28. Three inches of water in vestibule at entrance from pool to locker room. Advantages: Feet of all bathers are thus rinsed upon entering and leaving locker room. Particularly valuable where area around pool is not completely turfed. None but bathers may enter locker room from pool. None but bathers may enter the pool enclosure. These basins are not unsanitary if properly cared for. 29. Bathhouse of stained shingles with rough stone porch columns; fence and grounds as well pleasing to the eye. Advantages: A swimming pool may be a beauty spot, and being such is an added incentive to patrons to maintain hygienic and sanitary conditions. Tapestry brick is conceded to be one of the most attractive of materials for a bathhouse, but the above is suggested as one of the most attractive of frame structures. Construction costs for a pool embodying the foregoing specifications, based on estimates secured in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1925, follow: Swimming and wading pools: Excavation $3,400.00 Grading for floors 423.00 Concrete work 7,000.00 Sidewalks 1,569.00 Forms 1,450.00 Reinforcing 2,700.00 Tile drains 400.00 Concrete pipe 300.00 Sumps 300.00 Springboards 200.00 Asphalt markings 350.00 Water supplies 1,000.00 Ladders and galvanized chains 300.00 Diving tower 300.00 Miscellaneous iron 3 50.00 Total $20,042.00 Brought forward Bleachers . $20,042.00 450.00 Bathhouse: Foundations $500.00 Concrete floors 800.00 Shingle roof 450.00 Framing and finish 2,700.00 Miscellaneous Stone porch Windows . 500.00 600.00 600.00 Plumbing 1,500.00 Electrical work 500.00 Painting 2,000.00 Fence 1,000.00 Total $11,150.00 11,150.00 Total cost of project .... $31,642.00 1 In many pools, showers are so placed that persons entering pool are obliged to pass under them. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 367 Park and recreation officials may find much valuable information in the publications listed in the bibliography at the close of this chapter. The report of the Committee on Bathing Places of the Conference of State Sanitary Engineers is especially recommended. The examples of swimming pools that are presented here are intended to be illustrative of various types of swimming centers. This Philadelphia pool is an example of a type suitable for large cities with congested neighborhoods, and is well planned for the effective han- dling of a large number of bathers in a limited period. The Philadelphia Bureau of Recreation, Department of Public Welfare, operates approxi- mately 36 of these swimming pools, 14 of which are located on recreation center areas and 12 on separate pieces of property at various places about the city. All the pools are constructed on a more or less standardized plan. The gross area of the swimming plant occupies approximately 100x130 feet. The pools are approximately 35 x 90 feet and are intended to care for approximately 100 bathers at one time. The building at one end of rectan- gular space provides waiting room, storeroom and office. There is a dressing booth space just beyond entrance building, which is usually provided with approximately 100 dressing booths, 4x4x7 feet. A brick wall, generally about 10 feet high, is placed on the sides and other end of entire area of swimming center. A small structure at the entrance of the pool contains toilets and shower baths. At all the pools the sexes bathe at separate times, three days a week being allowed boys and men and three days for girls and PLATE No. 161 PLAN OF TYPICAL SWIMMING POOL, BUREAU OF RECREATION, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA (John Molitor, City Architect.) 368 PARKS women. Pools are not operated on Sunday. No fees are charged. Cost items are: general construction, including bathhouse, $37,574; plumbing, $4,183; electrical work, $1,090; total cost, $42,847. The following is a statement concerning the construction and cost of the Fort Worth pools. Eighty per cent of this loox I5o-foot pool is wad- able and 95 per cent is swimmable. It provides seven five-foot lanes with at least three and one-half feet of water, which makes possible the con- ducting of large official swimming meets. Three springboards, four, six and ten feet high, are set on a steel platform on the sidewalk, and two are anchored on steel platforms in the water. The top of these platforms extends one foot above water level. Two rigid boards are set over four and one-half feet of water for the use of beginners. Three slides are installed, one of them for children. The pool is provided with a scum gutter and handrail, and chlorin- ators are used for purifying the water. It enters the pool through fountains which are placed over colored lights. Sand beaches with concrete bottoms two feet deep have drains every ten feet, permitting the sand to be washed and chlorinated. The entire pool area is fenced. The bathhouse provides about 600 lockers, with dressing booths for women. A separate section for boys with lockers, showers and toilets has been wisely provided. On the whole the layout of the building is satis- factory, although in the men's section it would be advisable to move the showers into a separate compartment near the door leading to the pool so bathers would be obliged to pass through it on their way to the pool. It PLATE No. 162. SWIMMING POOL IN MARINE PARK, FORT WORTH, TEXAS Although the facilities are differently arranged, this pool is similar in many respects to the Sycamore Park Pool in the same city. (See Plate 163.) CONSTRUCTION NOTES 369 PLATE No. 163 PLAN OF MUNICIPAL SWIMMING POOL IN SYCAMORE PARK, FORT WORTH, TEXAS Designed by E. W. Van Slyke & Company. PARKS should be possible, however, to reach the toilets without passing through the shower room. Cost of pools (constructed 1925) : Sycamore Park swimming pool: General construction $23,949.74 Plumbing 6,153.15 Electric work 761.84 Water equipment 840.00 Locker equipment 2,038.50 Pump house equipment 5>399-57 $39,142.80 Marine Park swimming pool: General construction $24,358.40 Plumbing 5,640.00 Electric work 752.00 Water equipment 847.00 Locker equipment 2,038.50 $33^35-90 The Brookside pool illustrates a type of double swimming pool found in a number of cities. One pool is intended for children and beginners, and its depth usually varies from two or three feet to four or five feet. The other pool is for expert swimmers and is of sufficient depth to permit high diving. One of the Brookside pools was built in the year 1914, and the other in 1923. The older pool has a width of 50 feet, a length of 100 feet, and a depth varying from two to four feet in a distance of 70 feet, 6 inches, at which point a baffle wall six inches thick is placed. The remaining 29 feet varies from four to eight feet in depth. The shallow portion of this pool is used primarily by young children, the deeper portion by those who are moderately good swimmers. In the accompanying picture this pool is shown in the foreground. It requires 155,400 gallons of water to fill it.1 The newer pool has a width of 50 feet and a length of 150 feet. Its depth PLATE No. 164. BROOKSIDE POOL, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA 1 From The American City, May 1927. CONSTRUCTION NOTES varies from four to five feet in the first 60 feet, thence from five to 12 feet in the next 40 feet, and from 12 to 12 feet, 6 inches, in the last 50 feet. There is no baffle wall or other obstruction inside of this pool. It requires 457,200 gallons to fill it. Alongside this pool are a three-foot and a ten-foot springboard and a diving tower having one platform 12 feet and another 22 feet above the water. In the photograph (Plate 164), this pool, as well as the three units of apparatus, appear in the background. In order to care for the large number of patrons, there has been built on the men's side 89 dressing rooms and 440 lockers, while on the ladies' side are 112 dress- ing rooms and 169 lockers. The facility has a Page woven-wire fence 84 inches high entirely around it. The accompanying plate (No. 165) shows another type of pool. The pool proper is a 100 x i5O-foot ovoid with square ends 40 feet in length, and its capacity is 400,000 gallons. The pool stands nine feet above the ground. It is equipped with scum gutters and a recirculating system for the sterilization and filtration of the water. It is also fully provided with diving platform, springboards, slides, electric fountain, guard ropes and floats, drinking fountain, etc. The concrete floor around the pool is i6^4 feet wide and a handrail separates the bathers from the spectators. Separate stairways are provided for each group. Around the entire pool wall extends a bath- house which is approximately 14 feet wide and 475 feet long. The room con- tains 307 steel lockers, and on the women's side are 54 changing rooms. Sixteen showers serve the men, and the women have 18 private showers. PLATE No. 165. BINTZ POOL IN FAIR PARK, DALLAS, TEXAS 372 PARKS There are four sets of toilets for bathers and spectators, providing thirteen toilets, eight urinals, six lavatories. An office and first-aid room are also provided. The lighting system consists of four i,ooo-watt lights over the pool, nineteen 2OO-watt lights on the railing standards for lighting the con- crete floor, and thirty-one loo-watt and sixty 6o-watt lights for lighting the bathhouse. The entire cost of this structure including engineering fees is practically $70,000. The plan of this type of pool has been patented by Wesley Bintz of Lansing, Michigan. Plate 1 66 illustrates a type of pool found in many parks, especially where large numbers of bathers must be accommodated. Sometimes circular pools are constructed. In this type of pool the deep water is in the center and most of the area can be used by non-swimmers. For the most effective use the minimum depth should not be less than fifteen to eighteen inches. An illustration and description of the mammoth swimming pool in Fleishhacker Playfield, San Francisco, will be found in Chapter IV, page 146. ^Concrete nalk L irinq Platform Tf r Water leve/^ ^ 1 Vg"7;/e 33 In \ ^ S5:O" IM 1 ?o'o" \io'-a J-5>- "•"-' - PLAN AND ELEVATION OF DIVING PLATFORM ,~l8"Discharqe pipe ~Mesh J CNLAKGCO SECTION Clastic joml filter-?, ', Jj x_va» coat meJted asphalt on troweled surface DETAIL OF DETAIL OF VER.FLOW TKOUSH EXPANSION JOINT PLATE No. 166. PLAN FOR LARGE OVAL POOL1 1 Used through the courtesy of the Portland Cement Association. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 373 PLATE No. 167. McKINLEY HIGH SCHOOL POOL, WASHINGTON, D. C. Plate 167 describes a pool which has been designed by the Hasbrouck Company of New York for the Depart- ment of Public Buildings and Grounds, Washington, D. C. The bathhouse features are well arranged, and special attention is drawn to the toilets which are provided near the pool proper; also to the foot baths at the entrances to the pool areas. A pergola is provided for the swimmers, and two shelters in connection with the wading pool. Underneath the pergola and tool rooms are the filters, pumps and chlorinating equipment. The plan calls for four flood lights at the corners of the pool enclosure, and three searchlights near the top of the diving tower where the life guard is to be stationed. This is a very attractive layout. 374 PARKS 5 jssa $ (ill o -^ CO 13 jv] c Z .^ § £ S 8 -1 w z 2 6 W 5§ -r « J5 •a CONSTRUCTION NOTES BATHING BEACHES 375 Cities having lakes or beach frontage may not find it necessary to build outdoor swimming pools. Minneapolis maintains a number of lake bathing beaches, which are lighted for night use. The beaches are roped off at two different depths. One rope is stretched at the three-foot depth and the other at four and one-half or five feet. There is a small roped area especially for children. COST ITEiMS OF LAKE NOKOMIS BATHHOUSE (1919-20) Foundations, concrete, 179 cubic yards £3,019.63 Filling, i, 600 cubic yards 691.62 Concrete floors, 1,175 square yards 2,046.46 Framing, 32,700 board feet 2,276.56 Sheathing, 15,600 board feet 1,990.48 Tile walls, 16,500 tile 3>*96.76 Brick coping, 24,000 brick 2,648.22 Plaster and stucco on tile, 2,350 square yards 3,987.41 Plaster and stucco on metal lath, 690 square yards 1,483.75 Dressers and toilet stalls, 129 5>335-52 Roofing, 46 squares 4&l-95 Millwork, ticket booth and benches 8,126.27 Plumbing and toilets __ 3»5S8-5° Water connections to building, 2,027 ^eet I>47°-I4 Electric connection to building, 150 feet 372.00 Electric wiring and fixtures, 176 outlets 1,504.48 PLATE No. 169 LAKE NOKOMIS BATHHOUSE AND FRONTAL GROUNDS, MINNEAPOLIS PARK SYSTEM, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA 376 PARKS Sheet metal work $1,029.74 Painting and staining, 15,000 square feet 731-63 Gates, turnstiles, railings, etc 4-15-53 Hardware 383.70 Lockers 6,087.37 Watching, insurance and miscellaneous expenses 1,520.68 Engineering and supervision 1,727.78 General administration expenses 1,046.77 Total cost $55,112.95 Cost per square foot floor space, $5.19; cost per cubic foot capacity, 38 cents; cost per locker capacity, $40.82. FACILITIES FOR WINTER SPORTS The increasing interest in out-of-door winter activities has resulted in a great demand for facilities for skating, tobogganing, skiing, ice hockey and other sports. The supplying of the facilities is largely a responsibility of park and recreation officials. Ice Skating Rinks. The following suggestions on the construction of ice skating rinks have been prepared by J. R. Batchelor, field secretary of the P. R. A. A. : The ground and surface. The surface should be approximately level, because it takes longer to flood an uneven area. The best surface is of clay, but many playgrounds have a surface of gravel over clay, or some other foundation, and this is not hard to freeze. It is practically impossible to freeze a sand surface. Banks. The best bank is one which has been plowed up and tamped before freezing weather. One furrow should be plowed around the rink and the dirt packed down to make it sufficiently solid to prevent air holes through the bank. If work is not started in time to do this plowing, a board bank may be constructed of two-inch planks ten or twelve feet long, laid on edge after the loose surface has been scraped to enable the plank to rest on a solid foundation. The planks are laid end to end around the rink; two by four-inch stakes about three feet long are driven one or more feet into the ground at each intersection and nailed to the planks. This prevents any moving of the planks. The dirt scraped from under them should be tamped around the bottom of the planks. If a heavy snowstorm should come before these steps are taken it may be necessary to make a snow bank. At best, these banks are not very satisfactory, and a great deal of time is consumed in making them, as the snow must be entirely frozen through before any attempt can be made to flood the surface of the rink. The sprinkling and freezing process. After the bank has been made, the rink is ready for sprinkling and freezing. This process requires a great CONSTRUCTION NOTES 377 deal of time and it must not be hurried. People often forget that water put on a bank or rink is much warmer than the ice formed by a previous flooding. Rinks should not be flooded except in extremely cold weather, and after a base has been thoroughly prepared. It is necessary to freeze the bank thoroughly, especially at the base. This may be done by using a regular garden hose without the nozzle spray, sprinkling the bank night after night until the possibility of leakage is eliminated. The surface should be frozen in the same manner as the bank; that is, by starting the sprinkling at the far end and working toward the water supply. This process should be repeated until the ice is from two to four inches thick. If the water then shows no sign of leaking through the bank it may be added more rapidly. A satis- factory method is to use a two-inch hose, applying the water at the far end of the rink and drawing the hose toward base of supply as the water approaches. A good hose to use is the mill hose, rubber inside and out, with regular hose coupling. It is well to have the connection through a building with a valve on the inside. If the rink is too large to flood in this way a special line of pipe may be laid along the edge of the rink below freez- ing line, with two or three flooding valves coming to the surface in boxes about four feet square, the shut-off cock being in the ground. This should be well protected from freezing by manure. The shelter house. Where the weather is very cold it will be necessary to have a warming house. The knockdown type is very convenient and can be removed at the e^d of the season. It should be large enough to accom- modate the attendance, but not so large as to encourage loafing. A house about twenty-four feet long and twenty feet wide makes a good size. A round oak stove in the center, which will burn either hard or soft coal, makes a satisfactory heating plant. The presence of a warming house makes supervision necessary. The workers selected to help clean the rink should be able to cafe for this supervision. Care of the rink. If the rink is constantly used, almost as much ice will be shaved off during the day as was put on the preceding night. This ice must be scraped off before the rink is used and the process should be repeated several times during the day. The best scraper consists of sheet iron about four feet long and three feet wide, and is made like a dust pan on runners, the edge being about eighteen inches high at the back. It is not necessary to sweep the rink, as the water will absorb what is left. Where there are holes or cracks a little hot water may be poured into them. The sprinkling of the rink should be done at the coldest time of the day. The final scraping may be done at 10 p.m., after which the water is sprinkled on and left to freeze all night. Lighting. A number of methods of lighting are used. Many people 378 PARKS prefer the flood lights placed where they will cover the surface. Five hundred-watt lamps are used for this, as many as are needed for the size of the rink. Good lighting effects have been secured with a cable strung at intervals of fifty feet across the rink, with a string of incandescent lights fastened to it. Construction of Ice Skating Rink. The following statement by George H. Browne of Cambridge, Massa- chusetts, published in Landscape Architecture, January 1915, describes a method of building up an ice surface: "To build up ice on the ground it must be sprayed up from the bottom. It cannot be gotten by flooding unless the pool is water-tight and at least two zero nights are in prospect. No matter how shallow the pool, provision must be made for draining off surface water that will inevitably run in during a thaw. This may be done by inserting a board in the clay bank or wall at the most appropriate place for drainage, through which a hole is bored to drain off the water. The process of spraying a smooth ice surface is analogous to electroplating, that is, it has to be done in the thinnest layers possible. Success may best be obtained from the intelligent manipulation of simple devices rather than from the use of mechanical sprinklers. A simple method is for one man PLATE No. 170 ICE HOCKEY RINK, PARK AND RECREATION SYSTEM, WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS The rink is 80 x 190 feet. The height of boundary wall is 3.5 feet. The two lower boards are removable for planing the ice. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 379 to hold the sprinkler and hose not far from the ice, going back and forth, often on the run, so as to catch the previous strip of water before it freezes, and another man to keep the hose in proper position behind the man handling the sprinkler. When the entire area has been covered, go through the whole process again if the first coat is frozen. If not frozen, wait until it is. If more than the thinnest film of water is put on to the foundation surface it will soak through or out at the bottom and leave a white glassy shell. Warm water is better to spray with than cold water. The amateur notion that spraying into the air will cool the water and hasten its freezing is erroneous. Crystallization sets in more quickly if the water is warm. Warm water melts, levels and smooths better, but it must be put on thin. Any approach to flooding will produce shell ice. The ice must be kept clear of twigs, grass and dust, and must be swept clean before a frosty night, whether sprayed or not. Skate snow, if left to evaporate, rots the ice. With the thermometer about ten degrees above zero, the best time to spray is after sun-up, about seven or eight o'clock in the morning. A temperature much PLATE No. 171 SKI SLIDE, GORDON PARK, BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN 380 PARKS below five degrees above zero will cause the ice to crack badly. Cracks may be mended by pouring hot water into them. The equipment necessary for making such a rink and keeping it in condition consists of a hose connection four or five feet under the ground in the middle of one side, or within a near-by building properly located, fifty feet or more of three-fourths inch garden hose, a fine rose sprinkler, one Wimbledon scow (with a sharp two- steel edge), some snow shovels and heavy broom-corn brooms." Ice hockey. This game requires an ice surface at least 112x58 feet. At each end of the rink a goal is placed, the uprights of which are four feet high and six feet apart. The goals are frequently provided with nets. It is advisable to surround the rink by a wooden fence or snow bank, which defines the boundaries and also protects other skaters in the vicinity. Ski jumps. The following suggestions for the construction of a ski jump for amateurs have been prepared by Fred H. Harris, organizer of Jumping Platform _/ Approach Jumping Platform PLATE No. 172 ALIGHTING GROUND, THIRTY DEGREES STEEP Outrun Dotted line indicates flight of jumper. the Dartmouth College Outing Club. "An ideal ski jumping course consists of the following: Approach, take-off, alighting ground, outrun. As to loca- tion, a hill sloping to the north or northeast is preferable to one sloping in other directions. Approach should give all speed necessary. Take-off should be level or sloping slightly down hill, and angle from approach to it should be gradual. Alighting ground should be thirty degrees steep. Measure this accurately, as it is important in making successful jumps and safe ones. Take-off can be made of piles of boughs covered with snow, or entirely of snow or of planks covered with snow. Take-off should be located back from edge of steep slope. Jumper should never land from take-off on level ground, but must land on the steep slope for safety. The alighting ground at the foot of the hill should gradually grow less steep, until it merges into a safe level outrun where jumper can swing or stop. If jumps of fifty feet are to be made, the take-off should be from three to four feet CONSTRUCTION NOTES high. The alighting ground should be about one hundred feet long for a fifty-foot jump, and should have the snow packed moderately compact." Ski jumps for experts. In order to provide facilities for expert ski jumpers it is frequently necessary to construct a slide of steel or wood. A railing around the starting platform at the top and along both sides of the slide should be provided. Unless the starting platform is reached by climb- ing a natural slope, a walk may be provided along one side of the slide, furnished with cleats to prevent slipping. Beginners should not be permitted to use these jumps. Sled and toboggan slides. Where natural facilities for coasting are limited or lacking, artificial slides should be constructed. A slide of only a few feet erected in a park or playground will provide healthful exercise and fun for hundreds of children. Few expenditures are more easily justified. In more than one city the roof of the shelter house is used as the platform or starting place for a slide. This may be used only in winter or throughout the entire year. Frequently chutes are constructed, using a grand stand or b eachers as a foundation. The sides of the trough are usually not more han one foot high, although in the Milwaukee Park slides the height of LMOtt •• tr^mtj Cross 5ftcj/orj Scab: I'M' PLATE No. 173 PLAN OF SKI JUMP, GORDON PARK, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN, ERECTED AT A COST OF APPROXIMATELY #5,000 382 PARKS the sides is three feet, four inches. Sometimes knockdown sled slides are set up on the playground in the winter (see Plates 174 and 177). In Oak Park, Illinois, a double slide has been constructed, with one trough for toboggans and the other for sleds. The top of the auditorium bleachers, twenty-eight feet high, was used as the starting point of the slide, and the bot- tom rested on the ground at a point one hundred and fifty feet away, although the chute extende,d fng the ground tor an additional one hundred feet. The uprights used in the construction were four by four inches, and the tot a 1 cost was $750. The slide is PLATE No. 174. ILLUSTRATING A TYPE OF KNOCKDOWN SLED SLIDE Used for winter play on the public playgrounds conducted by the Extension Department of the Milwaukee Public Schools, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. See page 384. summer. Plate 175 illustrates a similar adaptation of a grand stand in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. In many cities it is possible to build toboggan slides using a natural slope, but frequently slides supported by framework have been constructed, which have a steep grade, making possible a terrific speed on the part of the toboggan. The following are several factors to be considered in toboggan slide construction: (l) Make the trough of proper width; if too wide the toboggan may lurch from side to side and possibly jump the track. Twenty inches at bot- tom of trough is ample. (2) Make the outrun level, thereby preventing the toboggan from upsetting. It is a good plan to build banks of snow the same width as the trough or continue the sides of the chute on the outrun. (3) Use good wood in the construction of the toboggan, thus avoiding danger of slivers. (4) Make sides of trough high enough so that the toboggan will not jump the track. (5) Have trestle work strong and solid, thereby avoid- ing vibration. (6) Have crossbars near enough together to avoid vibration and strain on the bottom boards. (7) All woodwork in the slide should be painted each year with creosote, which preserves the wood and serves as a disinfectant. (8) Build entire slide straight. Curves in a toboggan slide CONSTRUCTION NOTES 383 PLATE No. 175. SLED AND TOBOGGAN SLIDES (Washington Park, Board of Park Commissioners, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.) The pavilion is used for dancing during the summer months. PLATE No. 176. TOBOGGAN SLIDES IN FRANKLIN PARK, BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS 384 PARKS give a chance for the toboggan to go over the sides. (9) After leaving the wooden slide there should be a runway clear of trees, poles, fences, etc. (10) To prepare the ice, fill the chute with snow and beat it down firmly until a layer about two inches thick is formed in the bottom. If the tem- perature is favorable this should be sprinkled until it forms a keen icy surface, (n) Keep the ice in the chute from becoming worn. If holes form in the ice, they may be patched with snow sprinkled until it forms a slush, and beaten smoothly into the holes. (12) If the slide is too icy-- therefore too speedy — mix equal parts of sawdust and sand and spread to slow speed. The Manchester, New Hampshire, Park and Playground Commission has constructed a very fast slide with two parallel chutes, which has proved satisfactory. The slide is built of planed spruce boards in sections ten feet long, each length being in the shape of a trough; the inside width of each chute is nineteen and one-half inches at the bottom and thirty inches at the top, the side planks being twelve inches wide and set at an angle of JTETAILtD CROSS SECTION KNOCK-DOWN SLED SLIDE IX P. W. -pL/,YiROUNX> PLATE No. 177. DESIGN OF THE KNOCKDOWN SLED SLIDE Used for winter play on the public playgrounds conducted by the Extension Department of the Milwaukee Public School System, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 385 twenty-two and one-half degrees. Four four by four crossbars are used to hold together the boards of each section. Each crossbar extends four inches beyond the bottom boards and to it are nailed brackets cut from the same timbers, to hold the sides in place. The upper crossbar is exactly at the end of the boards; the lower crossbar is four inches from the end. This allows each trough to lap four inches into the next. The end crossbars are so placed as to butt tightly against each other. The other two crossbars are evenly spaced. All edges and corners are planed off to prevent splinters. The troughs are thoroughly nailed together, but no nailing is done in putting the lengths together; they are simply placed in position on the ground, beginning at the lower end and fitting in each section, leveling under the crossbars as the ground may require. PICNIC FACILITIES Perhaps no park facilities encourage family recreation as much as do picnic facilities, and they are being increasingly provided in large city parks, reservations, and especially in county parks. The following pictures and plans illustrate various types of fireplaces, picnic tables, shelters and other equipment which have been provided for the use of picnickers. PLATE No. 178 A TYPE OF LARGE ENCLOSED OVEN BUILT OF NATIVE STONE IN ONE OF THE RURAL PARKS OF THE ERIE COUNTY PARK SYSTEM, ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK 386 PARKS Anchor cfiajn /- fire c/tf Opening /5"i /8 "k /I " hioA. PLATE No. 179 A SIMPLE TYPE OF OPEN HEARTH OVEN IN ONE OF THE PARKS OF THE ERIE COUNTY PARK SYSTEM, ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK / V. / Ctmut •PUWW <— i i S|T»|> E ] PLATE No. 180 DESIGNS OF LARGE OVEN, ERIE COUNTY PARK SYSTEM, ERIE COUNTY, NEW YORK Unless fuel is very plentiful this type of oven is not desirable. See Plate 178. CONSTRUCTION NOTES ///-e Brick- CITY Of DETAIL, or GG.ATC. DETAIL OF OVEN PLATE No. 181 DESIGN OF OVEN USED IN BALTIMORE PARK SYSTEM, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND 388 PARKS •* required C/caf /?// 'bolts to be supplrecJ w/fh nuts &• ivajhen-j 4-- required PLATE No. 182 DESIGN OF TABLE USED IN CLARKE COUNTY TOURIST PARK, CLARKE COUNTY, WASHINGTON It was designed by United States Forest Service in Oregon, known as the Eagle Creek Camp Table. The particular feature of this table is that it can be knocked down by removing two bolts. This facilitates its storage at such times as it is not in seasonal use. ^^^ »*• I i* V r * * .1 <,v- :• •fH-i v< . » 1 »*** i" 1 1 * t , i *•>« "«v ? 4 1 J VJ Vv I I \ t 3 '„, H * ; i .J>M " V! ^ K i V i /A--'1 PLATE No. 183. DESIGN OF A COMBINED PICNIC BENCH AND TABLE Design by J. R. McConaghie, Bureau of Municipalities, Department of Internal Affairs, State of Pennsylvania. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 389 PLATE No. 184. A TYPE OF ADIRONDACK SHELTER Used extensively in the rural parks of the Erie County Park System, Erie County, New York. % ' i - -'^'-•-"-i- '^" ----i % JP-FH yurCU^k*' fly* PLATE No. 185. PLANS OF ADIRONDACK SHELTER SHOWN IN PLATE 184 Erie County Park System, Erie County, New York. 39° PARKS PLATE No. 186 ONE OF SEVERAL PICNIC CAMP SHELTERS, HILLS AND DALES PARK, DAYTON, OHIO PLATE No. 187. A SIMPLE TYPE OF SHELTER The simplest of all types of structures, consisting merely of a roof resting on poles set in the ground or on concrete. (Erie County Park System, Erie County, New York.) (See Plate 189 for plans.) CONSTRUCTION NOTES 391 f*cii c . *— ' T l~*t~. \roni C^i/ B a 3 — — - j_^ _£ *— D i [ •» JD >*^^-J ' JJS £ t -c He* H Lrt" (V ' — a r rLL < v n. •«j u& m/m/////m yf I? ^ ; < Z' 7 ^r /n'-//' /o'-{," PLATE No. 188. END SECTION, FRONT ELEVATION AND FLOOR PLAN OF PICNIC SHELTER, HILLS AND DALES PARK, DAYTON, OHIO 392 PARKS r fy'lf^~~^f |^X >? 1 ^ ifc I I f - i ii i i **/ •- \ u'Co~. \ fVSti, PLATE No. 189. PLANS OF SHELTER SHOWN IN PLATE 187 Erie County Park System, Erie County, New York. PLATE No. 190 AN INTERESTING PICNIC CENTER AND SHELTER, BROOKSIDE PARK, PASADENA, CALIFORNIA Poles, set on concrete foundation stones, support a thatched roof. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 393 PARK BUILDINGS In order to render the various services required of it, a park system must be provided with many different types of buildings. The design and construction of these buildings are important phases of park development. Not only should park buildings effectively serve a practical purpose, but they should also be "so designed that they seem to belong; that they seem indigenous." Careful study should be given to the uses to which each building is to be put, and it should be planned so as to give the maximum of service. The material in this section, describing various types of park and recreation buildings, has been grouped under the following general headings: Shelter and Comfort Buildings, Recreation Buildings, Golf Club- houses, Outdoor Theatres, Miscellaneous Structures. Some simple buildings have previously been described under Picnic Facilities, pages 385-392. For bathhouse plans and illustrations, see pages 374-375. Shelters and Comfort Buildings. Under this general classification are included buildings which are intended primarily to provide shelter and comfort facilities, rather than a place in which recreational activities are to be carried on. Many buildings of this type are used, however, for recreation, and in some instances certain recreation facilities have been included. It will be noted that shelter buildings generally provide toilets for both sexes, an office, storage space for supplies, and a large room or open area which serves as a shelter, and is also available for recreation use. The type of building shown in Plates 191, 192 has been adopted for its playgrounds by the Bureau of Recreation of Evanston, Illinois. The building shown has a central office and comfort station and two wings which provide rooms for recreational use. On some of the playgrounds, buildings have been erected with only the center section. The wall panels used in the wings may PLATE No. 191. COMBINED SHELTER AND COMFORT BUILDING, EVANSTON, ILLINOIS 394 PARKS be removed to form open shelters during the summer months. These panels have four by four-inch posts and one and a half-inch sash, glassed with D. S. glass. They are fitted with stops, and at the foot of each post is an iron shoe with pin fitting into the concrete. Some of the Evanston buildings are similar to the one shown in Plate 191 except that they have only the central section without the wings. In the case of the smaller build- ings, lattice screens are provided at the toilet entrances. The dimensions of the central unit are twenty by twenty and one-half feet and each of the end sections is approximately twenty by twenty-four feet, making the total length of the complete shelter sixty-eight feet. The height is sixteen feet. The construction is largely brick, with cut stone window sills and a roof of prepared shingles. The floors are cement. The building is heated by steam on the low pressure gravity system, and is provided with an Ideal Arco Heater. The shelter rooms are each heated by three radiators placed on the ceiling. The following is a detailed statement of the cost of the Evanston building in 1926: Large shelter and comfort station with two wings: Masonry, concrete and carpentry work. Electrical work Steam heating Plumbing and sewers Connecting to sewers ,100.00 140.00 829.00 746.00 154.00 Small shelter and comfort station without two wings: Building $2,900.00 Plumbing 625.00 Electric 105.00 Sewer and water 410.00 Total cost $4,100.00 Total cost $7,969.00 FLOOR, -ScAi-c- ^ «• I ftowr PLATE No. 192. FLOOR PLAN OF EVANSTON SHELTER HOUSE CONSTRUCTION NOTES 395 PLATE No. 193 SHELTER HOUSE FOR THE BOARD OF PARK COMMISSIONERS, LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY At a cost of $5,695 each, the Board of Park Commissioners of Louisville constructed in 1924 two shelter houses of similar design and construction. Each house is built of brick laid on a foundation of concrete with all exterior walls of rough texture faced brick of mingled shades of brown. The doors and other outside half timber work are of rough cypress stained a warm brown, with frames and sashes of ivory tint. The roof is of red shingle tile and all gutters and outside metal of copper. This reduces the upkeep to a minimum. The toilets have tile floors and walls with cement plaster ceilings sand finished. All plumbing fixtures are of the best, and special attention has been given to the provision of adequate light and ventilation. The rooms for the grounds keeper and for imple- ments are plastered, with cement floors. The floor of the pavilion is cement with borders of red mastic marked off to form tiles. 396 PARKS PLATE No. 194. A STANDARD TYPE OF COMBINED SHELTER AND COMFORT BUILDING Used on recreation areas under control of Bureau of Recreation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The cost of this type of structure ranges between $8,000 and $10,000. j"°""uii°"'i"^'"""°° re.o/*T C.LLVATIOA ILLVATION I I • • 1 | GL: 1 t un I LJU r PLATE No. 195 PLAN OF TYPICAL PLAYGROUND SHELTER, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA CONSTRUCTION NOTES 397 Playground field houses similar to that shown in Plate 196 are con- structed by the Extension Department of the Milwaukee Public Schools on the playgrounds conducted by this department. As in the Chicago school playgrounds it has been found desirable to have a structure especially de- signed for playground use, instead of using the regular school buildings. This type of building is equally suitable for park playgrounds. In the design of all these field houses in Milwaukee the following basic principles are involved: (i) Girls' toilet on the girls' side of the playground, boys' toilet on the boys' side of the grounds. These are located, if pos- sible, on opposite sides of the build- ing. (2) Outside entrance to the toilets leading first into a vestibule. (3) Instead of sep- arate closet for play material, spacious cup- boards are built in these vestibules. The reason for this is to bring the play leaders into the vestibule as often as possible, so that frequent supervision of the toilets is possible. (4) Assem- bly room (warming room during the skating season) across the front of the building, with entrances into the vestibules. During the summer season these entrances leading from the assembly room are kept locked. During the winter, when the warming room is in constant use, the outside entrances to the vestibules are locked. (5.) The field houses are entirely of brick with tile roof, giving a substantial sanitary and attractive structure. In the toilet rooms, tile and marble are used exclusively. The initial cost of these build- ings is high, but because of the negligible upkeep costs it is believed that they are cheaper in the long run. Recreation Buildings. This designation is intended to cover such park buildings as are designed primarily for general recreational use. They usually provide gymnasium, showers and dressing room facilities, and frequently include an auditorium with stage, game rooms and clubrooms for use of community groups. Before preparing or approving plans for a recreation building, a careful study should be made of the needs in various features in order to determine what facilities should be provided. Louis E. PLATE No. 196 PLAYGROUND FIELD HOUSE, AUER AVENUE PLAYGROUND, MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN 398 PARKS Jallade, building consultant of the P. R. A. A., has suggested that the following five ideas be kept in mind in planning recreation buildings: (i) Supervision. This is important because of expense of maintaining a large staff. Different parts of building should be units which can be used sepa- rately if desired. Visibility is important from point of view of control, especially in gymnasiums, swimming pools, etc. If several points must be supervised, operation costs are high. (2) Circulation. The line of circulation of each person using building should be direct so other persons using build- ing will not be disturbed. For example, people using the auditorium should not be obliged to pass through a game room, or people using the swimming pool should not be obliged to pass from locker room into shower and back again into locker room before entering pool. (3) Flexibility. No one room should be dedicated to any exclusive use. For example, if the building contains a swimming pool and a gymnasium, it should be possible for men to use one and women the other at the same time. Rooms set aside for infrequent use by any special group are nearly as expensive to maintain as if constantly used. (4) Upkeep. This is most important. The building should_be so constructed and materials selected that the item of yearly repairs_is nearly nil. Otherwise the expense is great, as, for example, where plaster is used around shower rooms, or where one room, although not used, FIJL5T FLOOIL PLAN M%MINT PLAN- PLATE No. 197 BASEMENT AND FIRST FLOOR PLANS OF THE AUER AVENUE PLAYGROUND FIELD HOUSE Auer Avenue Playground, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (For illustration of this structure, see Plate 196.) CONSTRUCTION NOTES 399 must be heated in order to heat another. Unnecessarily wide corridors are also expensive, not only because of original cost, but because they require added janitor service, heat, light, painting and insurance. (5) Operating budget. Before the building is constructed, an operating budget should be drawn up covering heating, lighting, water, insurance, supplies, janitor service, repairs and similar items. If fees are to be charged for the use of facilities, an income budget will also be prepared. A Few Examples of Recreation Buildings. The following plates show examples of a number of recreation build- ings throughout the country. They include not only community houses and recreation buildings but golf clubhouses with social features, recreation pavilions and similar structures. PLATE No. 198. SOUTH SIDE CLUBHOUSE, SACRAMENTO, CALIFORNIA This attractive building, which was erected in 1925 at a cost of $9,1 10, is an interesting example of the multiple use of a small and inexpensive structure. Three groups can use this building at the same time without interfering with each other. Among the features provided are assembly hall, 28 xj6 feet, with stage and fireplace, two super- visors' rooms, girls' clubroom, kitchen, dressing rooms which can be made into a clubroom, tool room, showers, toilets and living quarters for the attendant. Perhaps there is no other recreation building erected at a cost of less than $10,000 which provides such a variety of effectively arranged facilities. The cost of constructing such a building would be greater in a part of the country having severe winters, since it would be necessary to provide a heating plant and more expensive construction. 400 PARKS ^-^^ J ;.p MM3 "fljy^ >v ^ RR PLATE No. 199 KENDRICK RECREATION CENTER BUILDING, BUREAU OF RECREATION, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA As will be seen from the plans, this modern and excellently designed building provides facilities for a variety of community groups and activities. It is to be noted that the facilities for men and boys in the basement and first floor are completely isolated from the similar facilities for women and girls. This building was erected in 1927 at a total cost of $179,268, distributed as follows: General construction, $152,400; plumbing, $6,935; heating, $10,285; electrical, $9,648. PLATE No. 200 GROUP OF PARK BUILDINGS, CALUMET PARK, SOUTH PARK COMMISSIONERS, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS This is a picture of one of the most complete and best equipped recreation buildings in America. The cost of the building unequipped was $380,000. The outside walls of the buildings are of rough concrete with tile center, and the roof is of tile. Marble trimmings are used throughout. The floors are of maple except in the shower and locker rooms, lounge and lobby, where terazzo tile has been used. Among the facilities provided are separate gymnasiums, lockers and showers for men and women, library, lounge room, lecture room, clubrooms and large assembly hall with stage. In the enormous basement are kitchen and banquet room, shops and workrooms for various types of crafts. For example there are rooms equipped with sewing machines and quilting frames for the use of women's classes. A feature of the building which can be seen in the illustration is the roof vents in the top of the gymnasiums and assembly hall. These vents help the dust to escape and also clear the air when the rooms are used by large groups. CONSTRUCTION NOTES 401 PLATE No. 201 FIRST FLOOR PLAN KENDRICK RECREATION CENTER BUILDING, BUREAU OF RECREATION, PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA ,^JH| si %n !«-r' ^>LrH SCCOi-JD fXCOQ. PI-AM W. raEELAND KCNDBJCK BKBEATTOW CCWTCtt TI'PCAL OCCECATkJW OU1LPIMG . PCMIMA PLATE No. 202 1UP H JOHHSON PLATE No. 203. BASEMENT PLAN 402 PARKS Many golf clubhouses provide social features which make it possible for them to serve as recreation centers. Minneapolis in its Columbia Park golf clubhouse has a splendid social center. (See Plates 205 and 206 for plans of building.) Plates showing a number of other golf clubhouses will be found in Chapter IV, pages 156—162. Cost Report, Columbia Park Golf Clubhouse, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Erected 1924-25. Contract work: General work $51,114.54 Plumbing work 5,045.80 Hot air heat 4,100.00 Steam heat 800.00 Electric work 1,842.64 Basement: Excavation . . . .- 2,408.90 Architects and supervision 3,421.23 Insurance, builders' risk, fire 600.00 Electrical service, installation 372.24 Electrical fixtures, special 913-75 Excess service, Gas Company 18.75 Flooring 78.89 Furniture and furnishings 4,766.68 Equipment for refectory 453-69 Shelving 49-°5 Tee house 397-4§ Tool house 63.66 Miscellaneous clubhouse 1,185.24 Total $77,632.57 PLATE No. 204. COLUMBIA PARK GOLF CLUBHOUSE, MINNEAPOLIS PARK SYSTEM, MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA An excellent building serving both as a golf clubhouse and a recreation center. The social rooms and card rooms are in great demand. CONSTRUCTION NOTES dm J Of.ic, KOU Amu* ?jCfrfTfi ' PH V< , "?l{ Vy,« Ucase of ordinances of municipal corporations before taking effect. Whoever violates any such by-laws, rules or regulations shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be fined in any sum not ex- ceeding one hundred dollars for the first offense and not exceeding five hundred dollars for a second or further offense. All fines collected for any such violation shall be paid into the treasury of such park board. Section 2976-10^. Such employees as the board of park commissioners may designate for that purpose shall have and may exercise all the powers of police officers within and adjacent to the lands under the jurisdiction and control of such board. Provided, how- ever, that before exercising such powers, such employees shall take oath, and give bond to the State of Ohio in such sum as the board shall prescribe, for the proper performance of their duties in such respect. Section 2976-101. Upon or before the first day of September in any year the board of park commissioners, by resolution, may submit to the electors of the dis- trict the question of levying taxes for the use of the district. Such resolution shall declare the necessity of levying such taxes, shall specify the purpose for which such taxes shall be used, the annual rate proposed, and the number of consecutive years such rate shall be levied; and such resolution shall be forthwith certified to the board of deputy state supervisors and inspectors of elections in each county in which any part of such district is located, and the question of the levy of taxes as provided in such resolution shall be submitted to the electors of the district at the next ensuing general elec- tion. The ballot shall set forth the purpose for which said taxes shall be levied, the annual rate of levy, and the number of years of such levy. If a majority of the electors voting upon the question of such levy shall vote in favor thereof, such taxes shall be levied and shall be in addition to the taxes authorized by Section 2976-10 of the general code, and all other taxes author- ized by law; provided that the rate submitted to the electors at any one time shall not exceed one-tenth of one mill annually upon each dollar of valuation. When a tax levy shall have been authorized as herein pro- vided, the board of park commissioners may issue bonds in anticipation of the collection of such levy, provided that such bonds shall be issued only for the purpose of acquiring and improving lands; and such levy, when collected, shall be applied in payment of the bonds so issued and the interest thereon; provided further that the amount of bonds so issued and outstanding at any time shall not exceed one per cent of the total tax valu- ation in such district. Such bonds shall bear interest at a rate not to exceed six per cent per annum, shall be signed by a majority of the members of such park board and shall be sold in the manner specified by law for the sale of municipal bonds, except that before advertising such bonds for sale at public sale, it shall be necessary only to offer said bonds for sale to the industrial commission of Ohio as provided by law. GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS 443 LEGISLATION FOR COUNTY PARK SYSTEMS The law making possible the Westchester County, New York, system of parks follows: Westchester County Park Law, Chapter 292, Laws of 1922. An Act to provide for the location, creation, acquisition and improvement of parks, parkways and boulevards in and by the County of Westchester, authorizing the borrowing of money and issuing of bonds therefor; providing for the management and maintenance thereof; creating a commission therefor, and denning the powers and duties of such commission. Became a law March 27, 1922, with the approval of the governor. Passed, three-fifths being present. The people of the State of New York represented in Senate and Assembly do enact as follows: Section I. Appointment and terms of commissioners. The board of supervisors of the county of Westchester shall within thirty days after this Act becomes a law appoint nine citizens and residents of said county, who when so appointed shall constitute a board of com- missioners under the name and style of Westchester County Park Commission. Three of such commissioners shall hold office for a term to expire June i, 1923; three for a term to expire June I, 1924; and three for a term to expire June i, 1925. In case any of the persons so appointed shall not undertake the office of said com- mission, or in case of a vacancy occasioned by the expiration of term of office or otherwise, such vacancy shall be filled by a majority vote of the said board of supervisors and the persons so appointed shall hold office for the term of three years from the date of the expiration of the term of office of the commissioner whose office he is appointed in place thereof, except that when a person is appointed to a vacancy occurring before the term of office in which the vacancy occurs shall have been completed such person so appointed shall hold his office for the remainder of the said term not completed by his predecessor and until another shall be appointed in his place. No member of said commission shall receive any compensation for his services as commissioner, but each commissioner shall be entitled to receive his actual disbursements and expenses in performing the duties of his office. 2. Each commissioner shall before entering upon the duties of his office take and subscribe the oath pre- scribed by the constitution of the state, which oath shall be filed in the office of the county clerk of West- Chester County. The clerk of the board of supervisors of Westchester County shall call a meeting of said park commissioners to be held at the courthouse, in the City of White Plains, New York, within ten days after their appointment for the purpose of organization. Such park commissioners shall thereupon proceed to organize and at such meeting, or at any subsequent meeting, select a president, vice-president, secretary and treasurer, who shall, except the secretary, be members of the commission. Such commission may adopt a seal and a majority of such commissioners shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. The com- mission may employ such counsel as may be necessary and may also employ experts and other assistants and incur such other expenses as may be found necessary within the amounts appropriated by the board of supervisors of said county. The commission shall keep a record of its proceedings which, together with its approved maps, adopted plans, documents and acts, shall be a public record and be open to public inspection at such times and under such reasonable regulations as the commission shall determine. The said commis- sion shall maintain a suitable office where its maps, plans, papers and records shall be kept and for the purposes of this Act. Such commission is empowered to employ and at pleasure discharge such officers and employees as it may deem necessary and may deter- mine their duties and fix their compensation to be paid as other county salaries are paid, provided, however, that the total of such salaries shall be within the amount appropriated by the board of supervisors for that pur- pose. It shall be a misdemeanor for any member of said park commission or any clerk, architect, engineer, superintendent or other assistant appointed by said park commission, or for any officer of said county to be in any way interested, directly or indirectly, in furnishing any of the materials, supplies or labor for the erection or construction of any building or improve- ment contemplated by the provisions of this Act, or in any contract which said park commission is empowered by this Act to make. Such employees shall include one or more persons who may be employed for the purpose of enforcing law, order and the observance of the ordi- nances established by said commission for the govern- ment and use of the public reservation under its care. Each person as and when so employed, and during the term of such employment,' shall be designated as a Westchester County park patrolman and shall be a peace officer as defined by Section 154 of the code of criminal procedure, and shall have, within the limits of the cities, towns and villages containing territory included within such reservation all the powers of a constable, marshal, police constable, or policeman of a city, town or village in the execution of criminal process; and criminal process issued by any court or magistrate of a county, town, city or village containing territory included within such reservation may be directed to, and executed by any such patrolman, notwithstanding the provisions of any local or special Act, ordinance, or regulation. 444 PARKS 3. Such commission is hereby authorized to control and manage any and all parks, which are now owned or have been acquired or may be hereafter acquired whether in fee or in trust by the county of Westchester and may consider, investigate and recommend for selec- tion and location such additional real estate in the county of Westchester as may in its opinion be proper and desirable to be reserved, set apart, or acquired for one or more parks, parkways or boulevards, including the approaches thereto, streets connecting therewith and the relocation of existing streets. Such commission may for the purposes of this Act by its members, officers, agents or employees enter upon any real estate or interest therein for the purpose of making such surveys, examinations and investigations as it may deem neces- sary in the performance of its duties. Such commission may, if possible, make option agreements at a reason- able consideration for the acquiring by purchase of the real estate recommended or to be recommended for park purposes, but such option agreements shall not be exercised unless or until the board of supervisors has approved the taking of such real estate and made an appropriation therefor. Such commission shall from time to time report such consideration and investiga- tions in detail with any optional agreements it may have made, including the estimated cost of such pro- posed parks, parkways or boulevards to the board of supervisors, together with any preliminary map or description showing the real estate to be selected and located for park purposes, together with any other data relating thereto. Thereafter the board of supervisors at any regular, special or monthly meeting may by resolution authorize the acquiring of any part or all of such property for one or more of the purposes of this Act. Said board of supervisors shall thereupon estimate the cost of same and make immediately available the necessary appropriation therefor and from time to time authorize the issuing of certificates of indebtedness for the same to be payable out of the proceeds of bonds to be issued as hereinafter provided. In case it is found that the actual cost will exceed such estimated cost the board of supervisors of said county may make such additional estimates of cost as it deems necessary and proper and shall appropriate and make immediately available any such additional estimates of cost in the same manner as the original estimate of cost. The term "park" or "parks" as used in this Act, unless specifi- cally limited, shall be deemed to include all public parks, parkways, beaches, open spaces and boulevards; and also entrances and approaches thereto and streets, roads, docks and bridges between, to, in, through or connecting such park or parks or parts thereof and such other rights and appurtenances as the park commission shall utilize for the purposes of this Act, whether the same be now or hereafter owned or acquired in fee or otherwise by the county of Westchester. 4. The park commission after the approval by the board of supervisors, and before acquiring by con- demnation any of the real estate, rights or interests therein for the purposes set forth in this Act shall cause to be prepared and shall approve a map or maps of such lands so to be acquired or taken as approved by the board of supervisors with a certificate, showing such approval endorsed thereon and signed by the president and secretary of the commission or by a majority of the commissioners and shall then cause such map or maps to be filed in the office of the county clerk of the county of Westchester. Any map or maps so approved and filed may be amended by a subsequent map or maps approved and filed as was the original and thereafter all proceedings shall be had in reference to the last amended map. Said map or maps or amended map or maps shall show the real estate to be taken or acquired and shall also distinguish between the parcel or parcels the fee of which is to be acquired, and the parcel or parcels wherein a lesser estate or an easement in per- petuity or for temporary use are to be acquired. The certificate of approval of the said map or maps by the said park commission shall be a sufficient determination of the estate to be acquired therein. The acquiring, improving and embellishment of parks under the juris- diction of the park commission or lands acquired as in this Act provided, together with the maintenance thereof and all incidental proceedings in connection therewith for the purpose of carrying out the provisions of this Act are hereby declared to be for a county purpose. 5. The park commission may agree with the owner or persons interested in any real estate or easement laid down or shown on said map, or maps so approved, either for the acquiring of the fee thereof, a lesser estate or an easement therein as specified on said map or maps as to the compensation to be paid to such owner or owners or persons interested, for the taking or using and occupying such real estate or interest therein and the compensation so agreed upon shall be paid out of the moneys made available as in this Act provided. The title to said lands shall be taken in the name of the county of Westchester. The term "real estate" as used in this Act shall be construed to signify and embrace all uplands, lands under water, the water of any lake, pond or stream of water or mill rights or privileges and any and all easements and incorporeal heredita- ments and every estate, interest and right, legal and equitable in lands or water, including terms for years and liens thereon by way of judgment, mortgage or otherwise and also all claims for damage for such property. It shall also be construed to include all real property or interest therein heretofore or hereafter acquired or used for railroad, railway, highway or other public or municipal purposes, provided that persons or corporations owning such property or claiming interest therein which is used as a public utility shall be allowed the perpetual use for such purpose, or of such other real GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS 445 estate to be acquired for the purposes of this Act as will afford practical route or location for such railroad, highway or other public utility purpose and commen- surate with and adapted to its needs and provided also that such persons or corporations shall not directly or indirectly be subject to expense, loss or damage by reason of change in such route or location, but such expense, loss or damage shall be borne in like manner as the expenses incurred in carrying out the provisions of this Act. In case an existing public highway under the jurisdiction and control of any municipality within the county is required for an approach or means of access to lands heretofore taken or hereafter to be acquired by the county of Westchester acting by and through its park commission, said municipality having the jurisdiction and control of said existing highway may dedicate it to the county of Westchester for the purpose of its park commission, as and for an approach or access, and the county of Westchester is authorized to accept the same as a part of its park system upon such terms and conditions as may be agreed to by the said municipality and the county of Westchester through its park commission. 6. If the said park commission shall be unable to agree with the owner or owners of or other persons having an interest in real estate shown on said map or maps so filed with the county clerk as aforesaid, or when by reason of legal incapacity, absence or inability of said park commission or its representatives to meet with or consider the question of the compensation to be paid to such owner or owners or other persons and no agree- ment can be made for the purchase of said real estate so deemed necessary for the purposes of this Act, the same shall be acquired by condemnation proceedings instituted by the park commission in the name of the county of Westchester in the manner provided by law for the condemnation of real property for public pur- poses, except as in this Act otherwise provided. In case commissioners to ascertain the compensation to be made to the owners of property to be taken in proceedings for the condemnation of real estate shall be appointed, the county of Westchester shall on the filing of the oaths of said commissioners in the office of the county clerk of the county of Westchester be and become seized of all those parcels of real estate described in the petition and which are on the map or maps shown as parcels that the fee or an easement therein is to be acquired in the proceeding in which said commissioners were appointed and the said park commission on behalf of the said county may immediately or at any time or times thereafter take possession of the same, or of any part or parts thereof and the said park commission, or any person acting under its authority may enter upon and occupy in perpetuity all the parcels of real estate described in such petition and shown on said map or maps wherein the fee is sought to be acquired and may enter upon, through or under such parcels so shown on said map or maps in which a lesser estate or an ease- ment is to be acquired for the purposes as in this Act provided. In any such proceeding any municipal cor- poration may and it hereby is authorized by its govern- ing body to consent to the taking of such property for a nominal consideration. The order confirming the report of such commissioners shall provide for interest on the awards from the date of the filing of the oaths of the commissioners and shall state the amount of costs and allowances, if any, to be paid. A copy of such report shall be filed with the park commission which shall within four months thereafter, or if appealed from, when within four months after the filing with the said commission of a copy of any final order or judgment entered on such appeal, authorize the approval of claims therefor, which claims shall be filed with the comptroller for payment by the county treasurer after audit by him out of moneys made available as in this Act provided. The commission at the time of authorizing the approval of such claims shall fix a date for payment, provide for interest on such claims to such date and give written notice to the party or parties to whom the award is payable, or to their attorney or attorneys, that the award with interest will be paid at a place certain on a given date and thereafter no interest shall be due or payable on account of such award. A complete state- ment as to the proceeding, parcel number, date of the order and such other information as may be necessary shall be set forth on each of such claims filed as afore- said. All such drafts drawn as aforesaid shall be turned over by the comptroller to the park commission for delivery to the claimants upon receipt of the proper instruments therefor. Claims for awards to unknown owners, absentees, those under legal disability and those uncertain as to whom to be paid shall be verified by the president of the board of commissioners and the warrant for same shall be turned over to the county treasurer to be deposited by him, subject to the further order of the Supreme Court of Westchester County. In case of neglect or default in the payment of the same within the time aforesaid, the respective person or per- sons or bodies incorporate in whose favor the same shall be reported, his, her, or their executors, adminis- trators or successors at any time or times after applica- tion first made by him, her or them to the treasurer of the county of Westchester for payment thereof may sue for and recover the same with lawful interest as afore- said and the costs of suit in any proper form of action against the county of Westchester in any court having cognizance thereof and in such action it shall be suffi- cient to declare generally for so much money due to the plaintiff by virtue of this act for real estate taken or acquired for the purposes herein mentioned. The order confirming the report of said commissioners with proof of the right and title of the plaintiff and plaintiffs to the sum or sums demanded shall be conclusive evidence in such suit or action. 446 PARKS 7. In all condemnation proceedings instituted pur- suant to the provisions of this Act, each commissioner of appraisal, upon the confirmation of the report or other determination of the proceedings, shall be entitled to receive in full compensation for his services as such commissioner of appraisal, and in bar of all other claims for compensation and expenses, an allowance as may be fixed and awarded by the court as herein provided, not exceeding twenty-five dollars per day, upon which he attends a meeting of said commissioners of appraisal and is actually and necessarily employed in the per- formance of the duties imposed upon said commissioners of appraisal at the offices provided for such commis- sioners of appraisal, or at the meeting of the com- missioners of appraisal to view the premises, provided that such compensation shall not be paid until it shall have been awarded and fixed by order of the court upon five days' notice to the park commission and to the attorney representing such park commission, and upon proof by affidavit showing the nature and extent of the services rendered, the dates of rendering services and the number of hours and parts of an hour necessarily occupied upon each date. A copy of such proof shall be served with the notice of taxation. 8. In all condemnation proceedings instituted pur- suant to the provisions of this Act when an owner in whose favor an award shall have been made in a final order or in a report of commissioners of appraisal which has been confirmed by the court in under legal disability or absent from the county of Westchester and when the name of the owner shall not be set forth or mentioned in said final order or in the report of the commissioners of appraisal or when the owner although named in said report or final order cannot upon diligent inquiry be found, or where there are adverse or conflicting claims to the money or any part of it to be paid as compensa- tion for the property taken, the county of Westchester shall pay so much of such award into court as the court may direct to be secured, disposed of, invested and paid out as the court may direct and the court may determine who is entitled to the same and direct to whom the same shall be paid and may in its discretion order a reference to ascertain the facts on which such determi- nation and direction are made; and such payment shall be valid and effectual in all respects as if made to the owner; and in default of such payment into court, the county of Westchester shall be and remain liable for such award with lawful interest thereon from the day upon which title to the real property for which said award is made vested in the county of Westchester. When an award shall be paid to a person not entitled thereto, the person to whom it ought to have been paid may sue for and recover the same with lawful interest and costs of suit as so much money had and received to his order by the person to whom the same shall have been so paid. Payments of an award to a person named in the report or a final order as the owner thereof if not under legal disability shall in the absence of notice in writing to the comptroller of the county of \Vestchester of adverse claims thereto protect said county from any liability to any other person or persons. In case of the pledge, sale, transfer or assignment of an award by the person entitled to receive the same by virtue of the report of the commissioners of appraisal or by a final order of the court, or any other order of the court the instrument evidencing such pledge, sale, transfer or assignment acknowledged or proved as instruments are required to be acknowledged or proved for the record- ing of transfers of real property shall be filed in the office of the comptroller of the county of Westchester who shall endorse on the said instrument its number and the day, hour, month and year of its receipt and file a copy with the park commission. If an assignment of an award be contained in an instrument recorded in an office in which instruments affecting real property are by law required to be recorded, a certified copy thereof may be filed in the office of said comptroller in the place of the original and a copy filed with the park commission. Every such instrument not so filed shall be void as against any subsequent pledgee, or assignee in good faith and for a valuable consideration from the same pledger or assignor, his heirs, administrators or assigns of the same award or any portion thereof, but assignment of which is first duly filed in the office of said comptroller. Payment to the assignee or pledgee shown to be entitled to the award by said record in the office of the comptroller shall protect the county of Westchester from any liability to any other person or persons. 9. In addition to any appeal or appeals which may be authorized by law to be taken from any judgment or order entered or which may be entered in any con- demnation proceeding instituted herein pursuant to the provisions of this Act the county of Westchester through the park commission or any party or person affected by said proceedings and aggrieved by the order fixing the compensation of said commissioners of appraisal may appeal therefrom to the appellate division of the supreme court. Such appeal shall be taken and heard in the manner provided by the civil practice act and the rules and practices of the said court in relation to appeals from orders in special proceedings and such appeal shall be heard and determined by such appellate division upon the merits both as to matters of law and fact. But the taking of such appeal shall not operate to stay the proceedings under this Act with respect to the order entered on the motion to confirm the said report or reports of said commissioners of appraisal. 10. The park commission shall have the power from moneys or property on hand as in this Act provided, or moneys appropriated for that purpose by the board of supervisors to make available for use as a public park or parks all such real estate, easements and rights which are or may come under its jurisdiction as in this Act pro- GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS 447 vided and to develop, improve and embellish such park or parks and erect, construct or build thereon struc- tures and other improvements and appurtenances as to it shall seem proper for any one or more of the follow- ing purposes, all of which are hereby declared to be for a public and county purpose, namely: public health, public welfare, education, instruction, interest, pleasure, recreation, athletics or amusement. n. The park commission shall have the right on behalf of the county of Westchester to take in fee or otherwise by gift or devise lands or rights and interest therein for the purpose of this Act, or to receive by gift, contribution or bequest, money or other property to be used in acquiring or improving such park or parks, all of which gifts, devises or bequests shall be to and in the name of the county of Westchester, which is hereby authorized by and through the park commis- sion to accept the same for any one or more of the purposes as in this Act provided, or to reject the same. All such moneys so given or bequeathed shall, unless otherwise provided by the terms of such gift or bequest, be deposited with the county treasurer and be subject to the order of the commission. 12. The park commission on behalf of the county of Westchester may and it hereby is authorized to apply to the proper authorities of the State of New York for a grant or grants of land under water, adjacent to any uplands owned by the county of Westchester and under the direction and control of the park commission and the said land board, or other state officials authorized to make and execute grants of land under water for and on behalf of the State of New York shall and they hereby are authorized and directed to release to the county of Westchester any and all rights of the state therein, such grants to be subject to such conditions and restrictions as to it or them shall seem proper, but for a nominal consideration. 13. \Vhenever the county of Westchester shall be- come vested with the title of real estate pursuant to and for the purposes and provisions of this Act, it shall be lawful for the said park commission to let from year to year any buildings and the grounds attached thereto, which may be within the bounds of the real estate so taken and until the same shall be required for the lay- ing out, regulation and improvement of the real estate so taken and the said park commission may sell any building, improvement and other materials within the boundary line of the lands so taken and belonging to the county, which in its judgment shall not be required for the purposes of said park or parks and the proceeds of such leases and sales shall be deposited with the treasurer of the county to the credit of the said county. Said park commission shall also have the right to con- struct, reconstruct, complete, alter or repair any build- ings or structures, or demolish or remove the same to carry out the purposes of this Act. To carry out the public purposes as in this Act provided, the park com- mission notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, shall have the exclusive right and authority to let, license or grant to any person or party for such period of time not exceeding three years such building or buildings, structure, or struc- tures, rights, privileges or concessions in, to and upon any park or parks under its jurisdiction and under such rules, regulations and restrictions as to said commission shall seem just and proper. Unless the sum to be paid for such right, privilege or concession is paid in cash, the same shall not be granted except and until such person or party shall give such reasonable security in such amount as to the commission shall seem proper and reasonable. All income from licenses or leases received by the park commission shall be deposited with the county treasurer of Westchester county, to the credit of the county. 14. The park commission shall have the sole and exclusive control and management of all the streets and highways and bridges within the limits of any park under its jurisdiction, with the right and power to alter or discontinue any or all of such streets, highways and bridges and all streets, highways, parkways, or boule- vards taken over as in this Act provided shall be built, maintained and kept in order and repaired by any under the direction of the park commission. No rail- road, trolley road, bus line, telephone or telegraph line, or other public utility shall have the right to pass over, through, or under any property controlled by the park commission as in this act provided, except by a written consent granted by a majority of the members of such park commission, by resolution duly adopted and then only under such regulations and restrictions as to the park commission shall seem proper, but the commission shall have the right to grant to the county of West- chester, or any governmental agency thereof or to any municipal corporation therein, or any governmental agency thereof as the term "municipal corporation" is denned in the general municipal law, a license or an easement for any public purpose upon such terms and conditions and under such regulations and restrictions as the commission shall deem just and proper, and in addition thereto may grant licenses or easements to individuals, copartnerships and corporations, includ- ing municipal corporations, to construct sewers, lay water and gas mains and electrical conduits within and across such property. 15. The park commission shall make no contract for the performance of any work or for the supplying of any material, or both, unless there is money on hand appli- cable to such contract or money for that purpose has been appropriated by the board of supervisors, nor shall any such contract involving the expenditure of more than one thousand dollars be awarded unless bids or proposals therefor have been received, or the commis- sion shall by a two-thirds vote determine that it is impracticable to receive bids or proposals therefor. 448 PARKS The commission shall have the right on the letting of any contract to reject any or all the bids. All con- tracts or purchases involving a sum of less than one thousand dollars shall be let or made in such manner as to the commission shall seem for the best interests of the county. 16. The park commission shall have the right and it hereby is authorized and empowered to bring or main- tain in the name of the county of Westchester any action or proceeding necessary to carry out the pur- poses of this Act, also any action to recover damages for the breach of any agreement growing out of the management, improvement or government of the park or parks or for damages for injuries to any of the prop- erty appertaining thereto and it shall have the power and right to seize and impound cattle and other animals roaming in, on, or through such park or parks. 17. The park commission shall, notwithstanding the provisions of any general or special law to the contrary, have the exclusive power to adopt and enforce rules, regulations or ordinances governing the use of said park or parks as denned herein and traffic in and through the same and to provide that the violations of any one or more of such rules, regulations or ordinances shall constitute the crime of a misdemeanor and that on conviction a person so offending may be punished by a fine of not exceeding one hundred dollars, or by im- prisonment not exceeding thirty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment, or it may enforce the observ- ance of any one or more of such rules, regulations or ordinances by prescribing a penalty not exceeding fifty dollars in any one case to be recovered in a civil action in any court having jurisdiction thereof, which action shall be brought in the name of the county of West- Chester. Such rules, regulations or ordinances, or any amendment or addition thereto shall not be effective until the same shall have been published in at least three newspapers printed and published in the county of Westchester once each week for three weeks. In any action or proceeding, such rules, regulations or ordi- nances, or any amendment or addition thereto shall be deemed sufficiently proved by presenting a copy thereof duly certified by the secretary or acting secretary of the commission to the effect that the same is a true copy as then in force by reason of being duly adopted by the commission and that there is on file in the office of said commission due proof of the publication thereof as in this section provided. Nothing in this Act shall be construed to abridge the right in any city or other municipality to perform its lawful functions of govern- ment within its boundaries or to pursue and apprehend as it lawfully may any person or persons who commit any breach of any statute, ordinance or regulation. Any court of special sessions having jurisdiction within any subdivision of the county of Westchester containing territory included within said park or parks shall have jurisdiction to hear and determine all charges involving the violation of any such rules, regulations or ordi- nances, or any of the provisions thereof, provided, how- ever, that where such violation is committed on the boundary of two or more of said jurisdictions within said county, or within five hundred yards thereof, or is committed, partly in one such jurisdiction and partly in another within said county, or the Acts or effects thereof constituting or requisite to the consummation of the offense, occur in two or more such jurisdictions, the jurisdiction shall be in either of said jurisdictions comprising and being, respectively, jurisdictions of any such court of special sessions, or in that of any court held in and for the county of Westchester in which court persons accused of having committed a mis- demeanor may be lawfully prosecuted by indictment and provided, also, that where any violations of said rules, regulations, or ordinances shall constitute a viola- tion of any statute or of any ordinance, rule or regula- tion of any city, town or village, the offender may be prosecuted under either the provisions of such statute, ordinance, rule or regulation, or under the rules, regu- lations or ordinances adopted by said commission as aforesaid, but a conviction or acquittal under one shall bar a prosecution for the same act or omission under any of the other of said statutes, ordinances, rules and regulations; and provided, also, that the jurisdiction above given to said courts to hear and determine all violations of any such rule, regulation or ordinance adopted by said commission shall be subject to the right of removal, as provided by the code of criminal procedure to a court having authority to inquire by the intervention of a grand jury into offenses committed within said county. 1 8. The board of supervisors at any regular, special or monthly meeting upon the request or requisition of the park commission either at trje time of estimating the cost of acquiring the property or at any one or more subsequent time or times may estimate or make additional estimates of the cost of the improvements to be made to any one or more of the parks under the jurisdiction of the park commission and make available the necessary appropriation therefor and from time to time authorize the issuance of certificates of indebted- ness for the same, to be payable out of the proceeds of bonds to be issued as hereinafter provided. All claims lawfully incurred by the commission under and pur- suant to the terms and provisions of this Act shall be first approved by the park commission and paid as are other county claims. The commission shall annually in the month of April, file with the board of supervisors a written report of its proceedings and a statement of all its receipts and disbursements. 19. The board of supervisors of the county of West- chester are hereby authorized and empowered to issue from time to time bonds of said county in the same manner as other county bonds are issued, to take up the certificates of indebtedness issued or authorized to GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS 449 be issued as provided in this Act, provided, however, that such board may provide for the payment of any such bonds within fifty years from their respective dates of issue. All bonds and certificates of indebted- ness authorized to be issued under this Act shall con- tain a recital that they are issued pursuant to this Act, which recital shall be conclusive evidence of their validity and the regularity of their issue. The board of supervisors of the county of Westchester may and they hereby are authorized and empowered to renew, extend, or issue new certificates of indebtedness to redeem any certificates of indebtedness issued under and pursuant to the terms of this Act. 20. It shall be the duty of the board of supervisors of said county to cause to be raised annually in each fiscal year from the time this Act takes effect by tax upon the taxable property in said county in the same manner as other taxes are levied and collected, a suffi- cient sum to pay the interest upon said certificates of indebtedness and bonds when and as the same shall become due and payable and also to raise by tax upon the taxable property of said county the moneys neces- sary to pay the principal of said bonds as the same shall become due. It shall also be the duty of said board of supervisors in like manner to cause to be raised annually in each fiscal year a sum sufficient to pay all charges and expenses legally chargeable against the county of Westchester, for the care, maintenance and operation of said parks in the manner and for the purposes for which the same are created as specified in this Act. 21. All acts and parts of acts in conflict herewith are hereby repealed. If any portion of this Act shall be declared unconstitutional, the remainder shall stand, and the portion declared unconstitutional shall be excluded. 22. This Act shall take effect immediately. SCHOOL BOARD LEGISLATION IN REGARD TO RECREATION In a few communities the Board of Education is exceedingly active in promoting recreation facilities and in cooperating with the park board. Wisconsin has a law for cities of the first, second and third classes which authorizes the school trustees to cooperate with the board in charge of public property such as the library and park boards and by agreement with such boards to provide equipment and supervision for educational and recreational activities in or on such other public properties. The Bureau of Recreation of the Chicago Board of Education operates its playgrounds and community centers under the following law (see Chapter 24, paragraph 639) : Section I. Be it enacted by the people of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly: That the board of education in any city having a population exceeding one hundred thousand inhabitants shall take control and management of all public playgrounds now owned or hereafter acquired by any such city, which are adjacent to or connected with any public school in such city and shall equip, maintain and operate the same for the moral, intellectual and physical welfare of the children and persons using them; the title to all lands occupied as such playgrounds shall vest in and be held by such city in trust for the use of schools: pro- vided, however, that nothing herein contained shall prevent any such city from owning and operating parks, bathing beaches, municipal piers and athletic fields as is now or may hereafter be provided by law. The city can upon demand and under the direction of the city levy an annual tax not exceeding three tenths of a mill on each dollar of the excess value of all taxable property. STATE ENABLING ACTS Much of the legislation relating to parks and recreation is in the form of state enabling acts whereby the several states authorize the various political divisions within their borders (cities of different classes, counties, townships, school districts) to provide, within the limits of the act, or acts, parks and other recreation facilities and to operate the same. In fact, throughout the whole of the United States, except in home rule cities, all 450 PARKS local legislation on parks and recreation is based upon authority granted by the states in the form of enabling acts of general application. Many of the acts, however, while of general application, are limited to cities of a certain class or to cities above a certain population, or within certain mini- mum and maximum population limits. Some of the state laws authorizing counties to establish park and recreation systems are applicable only in counties above a given population. In some sections of the United States direct legislation by the state for a local political division is practiced. The Alabama state law, under which the Birmingham Park and Recreation System is organized and con- ducted (pages 435-440), is an example of a state enabling act providing for the creation of a park and recreation system in cities above a certain population. The Ohio state law (pages 440-443) is an example of a state enabling act applicable to cities having metropolitan districts. The West- chester County park law (New York) is an example of direct legislation applicable to Westchester County alone. (See pages 443-449.) During the past decade (1915-26) twenty-one states have passed enabling acts or so-called "home rule bills" authorizing cities, villages, counties, townships, school districts, to establish and operate systems of recreation and playgrounds. The acts in twelve of these states have referen- dum features. The following is the full text of one of these enabling acts as enacted by the state legislature of Florida in 1925. It is more or less typical of all of them. A bill to be entitled an Act empowering cities, towns may now or hereafter be authorized or provided by and counties in the State of Florida to provide, main- law for the acquisition of lands or buildings for public tain and conduct supervised recreation systems and to purposes by such municipality or county, acquire or acquire, establish, conduct and maintain playgrounds, lease lands or buildings, or both, within or beyond the recreation centers and other recreational facilities and corporate limits of such municipality or county, for activities and to vote bonds and an annual tax therefor; playgrounds, recreation centers and other recreational defining the powers of such municipalities and counties, purposes, and when the governing body of the munic- their governing bodies, school boards and park boards ipality or county so dedicates, sets apart, acquires or in connection with all such matters, and providing for leases lands or buildings for such purposes, it may, on its the creation of playground and recreation boards or own initiative, provide for their conduct, equipment commissions the election and the terms of the members and maintenance according to provisions of this Act, thereof. Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State by making an appropriation from the general municipal of Florida: or county funds. Section i. This Act shall apply to all cities, towns Section 3. The governing body of any such munic- and counties of the State of Florida. The term "such ipality or county may establish a system of supervised municipality or county" as used in this Act refers to recreation and it may, by resolution or ordinance, vest and means any city, town or county of the State of the power to provide, maintain and conduct play- Florida, grounds, recreation centers and other recreational activ- Section 2. The governing body of any such munic- ities and facilities in the school board, park board, or ipality or county may dedicate and set apart for use as other existing body or in a playground and recreation playgrounds, recreation centers and other recreation board as the governing body may determine. Any purposes, any lands or buildings, or both, owned or board so designated shall have the power to maintain leased by such municipality or county and not dedicated and equip playgrounds, recreation centers and the or devoted to another or inconsistent public use; and buildings thereon, and it may, for the purpose of carry- such municipality or county, may, in such manner as ing out the provisions of this Act, employ play leaders, GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS playground directors, supervisors, recreation superin- tendents or such other officers or employees as they deem proper. Section 4. If the governing body of any such munic- ipality or county shall determine that the power to provide, establish, conduct and maintain a recreation system as aforesaid shall be exercised by a playground and recreation board, such governing body shall, by resolution or ordinance, establish in such municipality or county a playground and recreation board which shall possess all the powers and be subject to all the responsibilities of local authorities under this Act. Such board, when established, shall consist of five persons serving without pay, to be appointed by the mayor or presiding officer of such municipality or county. The term of office shall be for five years, or until their suc- cessors are appointed and qualified, except that the members of such board first appointed shall be ap- pointed for such terms that the term of one member shall expire annually thereafter. Immediately after their appointment, they shall meet and organize by electing one of their members president and such other officers as may be necessary; vacancies in such boards occurring otherwise than by expiration of term shall be filled by the mayor or presiding officer of the governing body only for the unexpired term. Section 5. Any two or more municipalities or coun- ties may jointly provide, establish, maintain and con- duct a recreation system and acquire property for and establish and maintain playgrounds, recreation centers and other recreational facilities and activities. Any school board may join with any municipality in con- ducting and maintaining a recreation system. Section 6. A playground and recreation board or other authority in which is vested the power to provide, establish, maintain and conduct such supervised recrea- tion system may accept any grant or devise of real estate or any gift or bequest of money or other personal property or any donation to be applied, principal or income, for either temporary or permanent use for play- grounds or recreation purposes, but if the acceptance thereof for such purposes will subject such municipality or county to additional expense for improvement, main- tenance or removal, the acceptance of any grant or devise of real estate shall be subject to the approval of the governing body of such municipality or county. Money received for such purpose, unless otherwise pro- vided by the terms of the gift or bequest shall be depos- ited with the treasurer of such municipality or county to the account of the playground and recreation board or commission or other body having charge of such work, and the same may be withdrawn and paid out by such body in the same manner as money appro- priated for recreation purposes. Section 7. The governing body of such municipality or county may, pursuant to law, provide that the bonds of such municipality or county may be issued in the manner provided by law for the issuance of bonds for other purposes, for the purpose of acquiring lands or buildings for playgrounds, recreation centers and other recreational purposes and for the equipment thereof. Section 8. Whenever a petition signed by at least five per cent of the qualified and registered voters in such municipality or county requesting the governing body of such municipality or county to provide, estab- lish, maintain and conduct a supervised recreation system and to levy an annual tax for the conduct and maintenance thereof of not less than one-half of one mill nor more than one mill on each dollar of assessed valuation of all taxable property within the corporate limits or boundaries of such municipality or county, it shall be the duty of the governing body of such munic- ipality or county to cause the question of the establish- ment, maintenance and conduct of such supervised recreation system to be submitted to the qualified voters who are freeholders to be voted upon at the next general or special election of such municipality or county; pro- vided, however, that such question shall not be voted upon at the next general or special election unless such petition shall have been filed at least thirty days prior to the date of such election. Section 9. Upon the adoption of such proposition by a majority of those voting on it at an election, the governing body of such municipality or county shall, by appropriate resolution or ordinance, provide for the establishment, maintenance and conduct of such super- vised recreation system as they may deem advisable and practicable to provide and maintain out of the tax money thus voted. And the said governing body may designate, by appropriate resolution or ordinance, the board or commission to be vested with the powers, duties and obligations necessary for the establishment, maintenance and conduct of such recreation system as provided for in this Act. Section 10. The governing body of such municipality or county adopting the provisions of this Act at an elec- tion and until revoked at an election by a majority of the qualified voters who are freeholders, shall thereafter annually levy and collect a tax of not less than the minimum nor more than the maximum amount set out in the said petition for such election, which tax shall be designated as playground and recreation tax and shall be levied and collected in like manner as the general tax for such municipality or county. Section II. The cost and expense of the establish- ment, maintenance and conduct of a supervised recrea- tion system of playgrounds, recreation centers and other recreational facilities and activities shall be paid out of taxes or money received for this purpose, and the play- ground and recreation board or commission, or other authority in which is vested the power to provide, establish, conduct and maintain a supervised recreation 452 PARKS system and facilities as aforesaid shall have exclusive playground and recreation commissions, boards or sys- control of all moneys collected or donated to the credit terns which are now created or which may hereafter be of the playground and recreation fund. created by special acts of the Legislature. Section 12. All laws and parts of laws in conflict Section 13. This Act shall take effect upon its becom- herewith are hereby repealed, except as they apply to ing a law. SECTION IV COMMENTS ON CONSTITUTION AND VARIOUS POWERS, DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF GENERAL PARK GOVERNING AUTHORITIES Constitution of the Park Commission or Board. 1. Number of members. There is no commission about which facts have been secured numbering fewer than three members. Five, seven or nine form workable groups, although some cities are functioning efficiently with even larger numbers. The Minneapolis Park Commission has fifteen mem- bers; the Fairmount Park Commission, Philadelphia, fifteen; the Spokane Commission, eleven; the Audubon Park Commission and City Park Com- mission of New Orleans, twenty-four and twenty-one members respectively. In all cities of the United States of fifty thousand inhabitants or more having commissions of this type, the preferred number of commissioners is three or five, the majority having five members. 2. Methods of selecting members. The following are the methods in use for selecting members of park commissions or boards — appointment, election by popular vote, constitution of commission by ex officio members, life membership and service by commissioners elected for other offices. (a) Appointment by Some Superior Authority. Appointment by the mayor is the most common method of selecting the members. This is usually done with the advice and approval of the city council, although in some instances the mayor has sole authority. Appointment by the judge of some court is practiced in a few instances. The commissioners of South Park, Chicago, are appointed by the judges of the Circuit Court of Cook County; ten of the fourteen commissioners in Wilmington, Delaware, by the resident judge of the State Court; five of the fifteen members of the Fairmount Park Commission, Philadelphia, are appointed by the judges in the District Court and five by the judges of the Common Pleas Court. In Essex and Union Counties, New Jersey, the commissioners are appointed by the justice of the Supreme Court presiding in the County Court; in Hudson County the judge of the Court of Common Pleas makes the appointment. Appointment by the governor of a state is the practice in a limited number of cities. The commissioners of West Park District and Lincoln Park District, Chicago, five of the twenty-two commissioners of the Metro- GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS 453 politan Park Commission of Providence Plantations, Rhode Island, the members of the commission controlling the Metropolitan Park System of Boston are appointed in this way. Appointment of county commissioners (variously called Board of Supervisors, County Court) is the usual method of selecting the members of county park commissioners. The commissioners in Westchester County and Erie County, New York, and Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, are selected in this way. Appointment by other members of the commission is the unique method followed in a few instances. In Bridgeport and Hartford, Connect- icut, vacancies are filled by appointments by the remaining members, but the appointments must be confirmed by the common council and the board of aldermen respectively. In Colorado Springs, Colorado, the com- mission is a self-perpetuating body, as is also the case with the City Park Commission in New Orleans. In Birmingham, Alabama, nominations are made by the city council, but these may be approved or rejected by the remaining park commissioners. In the case of vacancy in the Nashville Park Commission, the remaining members make the appointment subject to the confirmation of the common council. There are only a few examples of direct appointment of commissioners by city councils. In Providence, Rhode Island, for example, this method is used in the appointment of the park commission of three members. (b) Election by Popular Vote. In Illinois and Iowa there are many examples of the election of park commissioners by direct vote of the people. The five commissioners in each of the sixteen small park districts of Chicago are chosen in this way, one being elected every year in each district. In Louisville, Kentucky, six of the seven members are elected; in Minneapolis twelve of the fifteen members. Huntington, West Virginia, Rockford, Illinois, and Tacoma, Washington, are other examples of commissions following this plan of election. (c) Ex Officio Members. It is quite common to find in municipal park commissions one or more ex officio members. Five of the fifteen members of the Fairmount Park Commission are ex officio. In Minneapolis, the mayor, the chairman of the Council Committee on Roads and Bridges, and the chairman of the Council Committee on Public Grounds and Buildings serve in this capacity. In New Haven, the mayor and two aldermen, one Republican and one Democrat, are ex officio members. In public recreation commissions this use of ex officio membership is still more marked. In Providence, Rhode Island, the ex officio members on 454 PARKS the Board of Recreation Commissioners are the mayor, the entire Park Commission and the president of the School Committee. In Houston, Texas, the president of the Park Board, the president of the School Board, the president of the Library Board, City Health officer and director of the Department of the Public Welfare are all ex officio members of the recreation commission. (d) Life Membership. In New Haven, Connecticut, three of the nine members of the Board of Park Commissioners are life members. Membership in Colorado Springs Park Commission is practically for life if the members desire to serve as long as they live. (e) Service as Park Commissioners by Commissions Elected for Other Offices. The general law in Illinois providing for the creation of forest preserve districts provides that when the boundaries of the district are coterminous with an established political division the governing authority of that divi- sion may serve as the governing authority of the district. In accordance with this law the Board of Supervisors of Cook County, who are elected by popular vote, serve as the Cook County Forest Preserve Commis- sioners. In Wayne County, Michigan, the Board of Park Trustees are the same as the Board of County Road Commissioners, who are appointed by the County Board of Supervisors. General Comments on Formation of Park Commissions. That plan of selecting park commissioners which most definitely removes them from the influences of recurring municipal and county elec- tions and political control is believed to be most desirable to adopt in principle. On the whole the appointment by the mayor has worked satis- factorily in municipalities. Appointment by the judges of courts in theory, at least, appears to be a method which has worked admirably. Election by popular vote is perhaps more nearly in harmony with the theory and practice of popular government in America than any other plan, and in practice it has met with a considerable degree of success. Outstanding men and women of a community are usually willing to serve as candidates for park commissions because of the nature of the service, whereas they might be hesitant to enter the ordinary political contest. Selection of members to fill vacancies by the remaining members with- out reference to any superior authority is so contrary to all theory and practice of popular government in the United States that it is not likely to be widely adopted. The plan is more acceptable when the appointees have GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS 455 the approval of the mayor or the municipal council. The purpose of including ex officio members in park commissions is to tie up the department more closely with the superior governing authority of the given divisions (city or council) or to facilitate cooperation between the park commission and other public agencies that by reason of properties or functions are important factors in the community recreation program. While it is desirable and fundamental to have a high degree of cooperation between the park com- mission and other public agencies contributing to the service, it is not absolutely necessary, in order to secure such cooperation, to have repre- sentatives of these agencies on the park commission. As a general rule the members of these cooperating boards are non-salaried and have their spare time fully occupied with the duties of their own boards and cannot give the close attention to another public department which is needed. In actual practice, it has been found that non-ex officio members have to do most of the detail work. The plan of having a governing authority of a political division act as the governing authority of a park district is unde- sirable for the reason that the interest of the members is divided by many diverse duties and the entire machinery of park government is often subjected to the undesirable political practices which sometimes exist. /Important as the method of selecting members of park commissioners is, the efficiency of such commissions in the long run depends more upon the method of fixing the tenure of office, the powers granted the commis- sioners and the methods of financing — subjects dealt with later in this chapter and subsequent ones. 3. Qualifications of members of park commissions. Legal qualifications in general require that a member shall be a citizen of the United States and resident of the municipality, district or county as the case may be, and that he take an oath for the faithful performance of duty and give bond in some given amount-^Sriew examples Of Slich ISgaHfequixeiitaRtS -feliojaE:^: 7* There shall be a board of park commissioners com- upon him as a member of said board, which bond will be posed of five members, who shall have been bona fide approved by the mayor and filed with the recorder."- residents and citizens of the city or town controlled by An Act of the General Assembly of the State of Tennes- said acts, at least five years prior to their appointment see creating the Board of Park Commissioners of the . . . Each member appointed or selected to serve upon City of Nashville, Chapter 117, Acts of 1901, amended said board, before proceeding upon the duties of his 1903, 1905 and 1909, excerpts from Section 2. office, shall qualify by making oath or affirmation before "No person shall be eligible for the office of park the recorder of such city as follows: 'I do solemnly trustee unless he shall have been for three years prior swear that I will support the Constitution of the United to the date of his appointment a bona fide resident and States and the constitution of the State of Tennessee citizen of Seattle. Each trustee appointed or selected and will faithfully and impartially perform and dis- to serve upon said board before proceeding upon the charge the duties of this office,' and in addition thereto, duties of his office, shall qualify by making oath or shall execute a bond payable to the mayor and the city affirmation before the city clerk." — Charter of the Cityy council in the sum of ten thousand dollars conditioned of Seattle, Article XIII, excerpts from Section 2. that he will faithfully perform all duties incumbent 456 PARKS 4. Tenure of office. In fixing the tenure of office of members of park commission, it is highly desirable to arrange the tenure in such a way that a majority of the commission at least shall be old members. This ensures a continuous line of experience in handling plans and policies which, in park planning, development and operation, must extend over a period of years. The most acceptable plan of fixing the tenure of office is to have one retire each year. Thus at the time of the appointment of a commission of five members one would be appointed for one year, one for two years, one for three years, one for four years and one for five years, and thereafter one would be appointed each year for a term of five years. The same plan may be used for commission of three, seven, nine or any other number, although other combinations of years of tenure might be fixed. In Oakland, Cali- fornia, the tenure of office of the park commissioners (three in number) is for six years, one being appointed every two years. In San Francisco the park commission of five members classified themselves so that one went out of office at the end of one year, one at the end of two years, one at the end of three years and two at the end of four years. In Hartford, Connecticut, in a board of ten appointive members, one is appointed each year, but that member who serves the full period of ten years is not eligible for reappointment. The plan followed in some cities of appointing all the members for the same tenure with the possibility of an entirely new membership at the end of the tenure of office of the old commissioners is not wise in park legislation for the reason that under such a plan there is no reasonable assurance of stability in policies or executive organization and the affairs of the depart- ment may be thrown into the more or less complete control of whatever political faction happens to be uppermost in the community. To secure overlapping tenure of office in elective commissions an arrangement is desirable whereby one or more of the commissioners shall be elected every two years as a minimum, so that the elections may coincide with some local, state or national election, thus avoiding the trouble and expense of conducting separate elections. In the small park districts of Chicago in the sixteen commissions of five members each, one in each com- mission is elected each year. In Minneapolis, out of a commission of fifteen members, twelve serving six years each are elected four at a time every two years. In Louisville, Kentucky, the six elective members in a board of seven serve four years, three being elected every two years. In some of the cities of Iowa having commissions of three members the tenure of office is six years, one being elected every two years. In cities administering parks under a plan other than a board or a commission the tenure of office is fixed either by the length of time for which GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS 457 the governing authority is elected, or, if appointed, by the length of time of the tenure of the appointing authority, or it is indefinite. Thus in com- mission governed cities the tenure of office of the commissioner having control of parks is usually for two or four years. Instances are known where a commissioner who has made a very favorable impression on the electorate by reason of the efficiency of his service has been returned period after period. In city manager governed cities the tenure of office of the city manager is usually indefinite and all appointments made by him would likewise be indefinite. In a city like Detroit where a commissioner of parks and a commissioner of recreation are appointed, the appointments are indef- inite, depending upon the will of appointing authority, and of course may be ended with every change of the appointing authority. Under none of these plans is there any assurance of stability, and this fact, as has been pointed out, constitutes one of the weaknesses of these types of organization for the administering of parks. 5. Technical training as a membership requirement. In San Francisco the law requires that one of the members of the Park Commission must be an artist. In Boston one of the members "shall be a landscape engineer or an architect of not less than five years experience, familiar with the theory and practice of designing, laying out and maintaining parks." Legal provisions of this kind are exceedingly rare and it is doubtful whether it is wise to make such a provision obligatory. The functions of a modern park department are so varied that it would be next to impossible to begin to include in the membership of boards technically trained persons for all the major functions. Moreover, a board is designed primarily to represent the lay point of view of a community and not the professional point of view. 6. Salaried or non-salaried commissioners. The majority of the laws creating park commissions in the United States specifically state that mem- bers shall serve without compensation. This is a wise provision in that it sets up a standard of public service which inevitably appeals to all com- munity minded citizens, throws open a field of public service to the citizens who have the leisure to serve their community, and renders this particular field of public service less attractive to individuals with whom personal gain is a chief consideration. Another reason for adhering to the principle of non-salaried service is that members of commissions of this type are not so likely to engage in detailed executive activities. As members are not usually technically trained in park service, better results can be obtained if park commissioners confine themselves to making general plans outlining policies and having general supervision of the work, leaving the executive details to their employed executives. The few outstanding examples of salaried service on park commissions of this country involve executive 458 PARKS service by a certain member of the board, usually the chairman. This is true of Boston, Massachusetts, and Louisville, Kentucky. There are a few instances of park board members receiving the actual expenses incurred in the performance of their duties or a small annual allowance. For example, in Iowa the state law (Iowa Laws, Chapter 293, Section 5791) provides that "each of the commissioners shall receive such salary as shall be fixed by the city council, not to exceed in the aggregate annually, ten dollars for each thousand population or fraction thereof according to the last federal or state census, said compensation to be paid out of the park fund." 7. Political representation on park commissions. In a few instances the law specifically states that the board shall be so constituted that dominant political parties shall be represented. The obvious intention in such instances is to guard against too great political control of the affairs of the department. It is doubtful whether a provision of this kind will secure the desired end. An example of such a provision is as follows: "The members of said board (Board of Park Commissioners), with the exception of the mayor, shall be appointed in such a manner that no political party having representatives in the common council shall have more than one-half of said members . . ." (excerpt from the Charter of the City of Stamford, Connecticut, Section 147)- 8. Sex representation. In some park legislation it is specifically pro- vided that one or more women shall serve on the commission. Because of the intimate relation of park service to the welfare of children and young people and the contribution which women have to make to a movement of this kind, it is highly desirable to have the women of the community represented on a commission. POWERS GIVEN BY LAW TO PARK GOVERNING AUTHORITIES In Relation to the Creation of the Executive Organization. Practically all park laws (state enabling acts, charter provisions and ordinances) give specific directions for the organization of the governing authority and the creation of an executive organization. i . Selection of officers. In municipalities and counties where parks are governed by board or commission, the laws frequently specify that annually or within a given time after the selection of the members of the board they shall meet and proceed to organize by the election of officers — usually a president, vice-president and a secretary, who may or may not be a member of the^bgajxL A fewkws specify that a treasurer shall be elected., ~bT such legal provisions follow: "The said board of park commissioners shall annu- of the board, and another as vice-president; and the said ally, in May, choose one of their number to be president board shall elect a secretary, who, in the discretion of V GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS the board, may be one of their own number." — Charter the penal sum of one thousand dollars, conditioned for of the City of Hartford, Section 2. the faithful discharge of his office." — Iowa Laws, Chap- "The commissioners shall, within ten days after their ter 293, Section 5789. election, qualify by taking the oath of office and organ- "As soon as they are appointed and have qualified, ize as a board by the election of one of their number as they shall meet and appoint one of their number chairman and one as secretary, but each commissioner, president, another secretary of the board and a third before he enters upon the duties of his office, shall give treasurer of the board." — Rock Island, Illinois, Revised a bond with sureties to be approved by the council, in Ordinances, Chapter 37, part of Section 2. In some instances the president of the board is designated by the appointing authority, as in Kansas City, or elected as president where the commissioners are elected by popular vote, as in the Cook County Forest Preserve District (Board of County Supervisors). The general park laws of Iowa specify that the city treasurer shall be treasurer of the board of park commissioners (Iowa Laws, Chapter 293, Section 5790). In the majority of cities under park board or commission the fiscal officer of the city handles the fund. In a few instances the city clerk is required to act as secretary of the park board. 2. Committee organization. General state enabling acts and city charters or ordinances providing for the creation of park government by a commis- sion do not as a rule specify committee organization. The organization of standing and special committees is deemed an inherent right of such com- missions and is made the subject of rules and regulations or by-laws. Standing committee organization is often carried to an unnecessary degree by park commissions with the result that the chief executive officer is needlessly harassed by the interference of committees in executive details. Except in very large park systems there is no particularly good reason why all questions of plans and policies cannot be handled by the commission as a committee of the whole, especially where the commission membership does not exceed seven or nine. Special committees appointed from time to time to make investigation and reports on specific problems may be neces- sary and valuable in a commission of any size. 3. Adoption of rules for conduct of the affairs of governing authorities. Practically all legal measures setting up park board or commission form of governing gives specific legal authority to the commission to adopt such rules and regulations as are deemed necessary for the proper transaction of their business. The by-laws adopted by some commissions go into great detail as to the organization of the board and department, the duties of various officials and employees and the methods of procedure in the trans- action of affairs of the department. In dependent park districts possessing corporate authority, by-laws are usually enacted in the form of ordinances. 4. Executive organization. The right to set up an executive organiza- tion for administering the details of the work of the department is exercised 460 PARKS by every type of park governing authority and is a power which as a rule is specifically stated in all legislation providing for park departments. (For a detailed discussion of executive organization, see Chapter VIII, page 507, on "Executive Organization of the Park Department.") < \ In Relation to the Legislative Functions of Park Authorities. It is universally recognized that certain rules and regulations are neces.- sary for the governing of the people in the use of park areas and facilities. Independent park district authorities possessing corporate authority have the power to formulate necessary rules and regulations for the governing of their properties and to enact them in the form of ordinances which have all the force and effect of ordinances enacted by the municipality. Park boards or commissions are usually empowered to adopt such rules and regulations, but almost universally these must be enacted into the form of resolutions or ordinances by the general governing authority of the munic- ipality or county before they have the force and effect of laws. Under all other forms of park government the city council is the authority to adopt rules and regulations for the governing of the use of park property. The power to adopt rules and regulations for the governing of properties involves also the power to enforce such rules and regulations, hence the importance of the police powers granted park authorities. Some laws clothe general administrative park authorities with police powers; others authorize the governing authority to have selected employees of the department sworn in as peace officers, such employees exercising police powers in addition to their regular duties. Still other laws make it possible for the governing authority to authorize a special police or guard force, while some specify that policing of parks shall be a function of constables (villages), sheriffs (counties) or the municipal police (cities). In the larger cities the growing tendency to use the regular municipal police for park policing has not, in most instances, proven satisfactory. Almost universally park executives prefer a special police force under their own control. (For a detailed discus- sion of park police, see Chapter XIV, pages 747-791, on "Park Policing.") In Regard to Financial Phases of Park Control. I. Accountability for funds. Park legislation almost universally requires park governing authorities not possessing corporate powers to keep accurate record of income and expenditure and render annually, sometimes monthly and annually, to the governing authorities of the municipalities and counties a detailed report of all financial transactions. The Boston Metropolitan District authorities and the Metropolitan Park District of Providence Plantations in Rhode Island are required to render financial reports to state authorities, or officers of the park and recreation department. GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS 461 following are examples oi funds: legal provisions respecting accountability for "Said board shall keep and make full detailed records of all sums appropriated for its department by the board of appropriationment and taxation, and of its proceedings, acts and expenditures, and monthly render to the court of common council a detailed statement of its acts and expenditures of public funds during the preceding month, and shall annually render to the said court of common council and to the board of appor- tionment and taxation a detailed statement and report of its proceedings, contracts and expenditures of public funds during the preceding fiscal year, the condition of its department and property in its charge, together with an estimate, in detail and under appropriate heads, of its required necessary expenditures from public funds for the ensuing fiscal year." — Charter of the City of Meriden, Connecticut, portion of Section 91. "They shall make an annual report to the general assembly (of the state) of their proceedings, together with a full statement of their receipts and disburse- ments."— Rhode Island Public Laws, Chapter 1466, April 23, 1907. An Act defining the powers and duties of the Metropolitan Park Commission of Providence Plantations. 2. Purchase of supplies, material, equipment. Many park departments have legal authority to purchase their supplies, materials and equipment directly from commercial or industrial firms subject to certain limitations as to competitive bidding, but with the growing tendency to centralize like functions in municipal governments into a single department or bureau. A very large number of park departments are required by law to makejtheir_ purchases through a centralized municipal purchasing department. frovisions flJgardiflg liiftnations on expenditures, see page 462.) The following is an example of legal provision relating to cen- tralized purchasing departments: i. "It shall be his (city purchasing agent) duty to purchase, subject to the supervision of the city council or commissioners all materials and supplies of any character whatsoever to be used by the City of San Antonio. All purchases shall be made on competitive, sealed bids, the contracts to be awarded to the lowest bidder, and in all cases where such supplies are not purchased from the lowest bidder, the contract for the purchase thereof shall not be let until the city council or commissioners approve such purchase from such bidder. All competitive bids shall be opened in the presence of the city council or commissioners and there- after shall be filed in the office of the auditor subject to the inspection of anyone desiring to see them. In all cases where bids are not satisfactory it shall be the duty of the purchasing agent to reject said bids and re- advertise for new bids; provided, however, in case of emergency, purchases, not in excess of one hundred dollars, may be made without advertising for bids, but in each case the written consent of the mayor must be obtained. The purchasing agent shall advertise in some newspaper published daily in the City of San Antonio for such a period as may be fixed by the city council or commissioners, but which shall not be less than five days. The City of San Antonio shall not be obliged to pay for any materials or supplies not purchased in accordance with the provisions of this section. The purchasing agent shall prescribe requisition blanks for the different departments and requisitions shall be made out and signed in quadruplicate, one copy of which shall remain with the office making such requisition, one to be filed with the city clerk, for the use of the city council or commissioners, and one to be given to the merchant furnishing the supplies, and another to be delivered to the auditor. The purchasing agent shall also prescribe forms showing that the officer or employee making the requisition has received all supplies so requisitioned, or if he has not received them, the reason therefore, and said report shall be made in quadruplicate and dis- tributed as above provided for requisitions." — Article III, excerpt from Section 127, charter of the City of San Antonio, Texas. In the making of contracts for supplies, material, equipment and labor most park authorities are subject either to specific regulations in the law or charter provisions creating them or to general regulations applicable to 462 PARKS &\S" Y all departments of the municipal or county government. } Examples of legal provisions relating to contracts follow: i. "And no member of said board shall be concerned 2. "In the letting of contracts the board of park in any contract with said board or any of its depart- commissioners shall be governed by the same laws as ments (board of park commissioners) either as a con- govern the letting of contracts by the director of public tractor, sub-contractor, bondsman, or otherwise." — service."- — Ohio Municipal Code, Sixth Edition, Section Excerpt from Charter of the City of Stamford, Con- 4063, page 541. iccticut, Section 148. _^-"7~~ 3. Limitations of expenditures by park authorities. As a rule these limita- tions are of two kinds. First, a general limitation whereby the authorities are expressly forbidden to make contracts of any nature whatever unless there is money on hand to meet the obligation, or they must stay within limits of the appropriation allowed by the municipal or county governing body as the case may be, or within the limits of the income from a special tax in instances where general park expenditures are financed by special taxes. Second, a limitation on purchase or contract without submitting the purchase or contract proposal to competitive bidding. It is common practice throughout the United States to place a definite limit upon the amount of money a park administrative authority can spend directly. In some instances this is as low as fifty dollars, ranging from this minimum through sums of varying sizes to one thousand dollars, which is usually the maximum. Because it is not always practicable to submit purchase or con- tract proposals to competitive bidding some laws provide for a means of setting this limitation aside in special instances. Thus in one park system governed by a park commission the commission may by a two-thirds vote set the limitation aside. Other authorities, not having a specific right to set the limitation aside, do so in practice by splitting contracts for supplies, tools, nursery stock, machinery and similar supplies, a practice that can have no possible legal defense, although practical necessity may make it highly desirable at times. A detailed discussion of park financing, methods of securing funds for the purchase of property and maintenance of park departments, will be found in Chapter VII. In Regard to General Reports. In addition to requiring a fiscal report, most park legislation requires that a detailed annual report of all the acts and doings of the authorities in charge of parks and recreation be made to the governing authorities of the municipalities, counties or states, as the case may be, under which the park and recreation authorities are operating. In general the publication of the reports is optional, although in a few instances the laws require publication for general distribution. For the education and information of the people, to expedite the answering of outside inquiries, and for general exchange GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS 463 among park governing authorities, it is highly desirable that a summary at least of the reports of all park authorities be published annually. In Regard to the Acquisition and Administration of Properties. None of the powers delegated to park boards is more important than those having to do with the acquisition of property and the extent of terri- torial jurisdiction, with the attendant problems of planning for future development and of relationships and responsibilities with which other local groups are concerned. 1. Acquisition of properties. In all municipalities (villages, towns, cities and counties) where parks are administered by a plan other than a park board, the acquisition of properties is a power exercised directly by the governing body of the municipalities and counties and delegated to the municipalities and counties by the states. Under the park board type of governing parks, the board or commission usually is empowered to acquire properties in various ways on its own initiative, but even under this plan of park government the acquisition of properties is often subject to the supervision and control of the city council or the county board of super- visors or county commissioners. (For detailed consideration of various ways of acquiring properties, see Chapter VII on "Park Financing," Section on "Acquisition and Permanent Improvement of Properties," pages 471-491.) 2. Extent of territorial jurisdiction of park governing authorities. Every municipal park governing authority should have the power to acquire, develop and operate properties and facilities both within and without the incorporated limits of the municipality. There are a number of reasons for this extra territorial jurisdiction. (a} The development of rapid transit lines and especially the wide- spread ownership of private motor conveyances have increased greatly the mobility of the population of every municipality. The effective radius of this mobility for week-end excursions is between fifty and one hundred miles from any given center of population, and for longer vacation periods, such as camping one or more weeks, the effective radius may be several hundred miles. For daily vacation trips the effective radius may be as far as fifty miles at least. (b) The modern city environment lacks several elements vitally neces- sary to the very life of the people — elements that can be provided only through a more or less naturalistic environment. It is therefore important in park planning to provide, in addition to open spaces of a number of types within the city, both small and large outlying spaces where environmental conditions will be as completely opposite as possible to urban conditions. (c) Because of the difficulty of changing fundamentally old built-up 464 PARKS sections of urban communities, the hope for constructive achievement in city building lies in unbuilt-up sections within the incorporated limits of cities and especially in suburban sections outside of city boundaries. Park planning which is so essential a part of city planning is badly handicapped unless the park authority has the power to go outside city limits. General powers of municipality include the right to acquire and develop property outside incorporated limits for such necessities as water supply and sewage disposal. In order to leave no doubt about the legality of this power as applied to park areas most park legislation now specifically includes the right. Extraordinary Methods of Handling Extra Territorial Park Problems. When the metropolitan areas of cities outside the city limits contain several or many different political divisions or extend into two or more states, the problem of acquiring, developing and operating a system of outlying parks and recreation areas may become too large a burden, both financially and opera tively, for the local municipal park governing authority. Various methods have been adopted to handle this problem in the vicinity of large urban centers of population. Among these are the following: (a) Boston and environs. Within a radius of fifteen miles of Boston are thirty-eight cities and towns (townships) forming the so-called Metropolitan District of Boston and in this case including the city of Boston. Obviously it was financially and administratively impracticable for the city of Boston alone to undertake the planning, development and operation of a com- prehensive system of outlying parks and other recreation areas, centers that would inevitably be used by the people living in the region outside of the city limits and by many people coming from other parts of the state and from other states. Under the sovereignity of the state, through appropriate legislation, a Metropolitan District was created under a special Metropolitan Park Commission (now consolidated with the Metropolitan Water and Sanitary Commissions), clothed with extraordinary powers to deal with regional recreational problems. (b) New York City and environs. In the Metropolitan District of New York City there has been no official unified, comprehensive, regional park and recreation planning and administration as in the region of Boston. The Regional Plan Committee, a private organization, has been working on such a plan for several years, but in actual practice the regional park and recreation problems are being handled by various existing political divisions such as the city (within its limits), outlying counties, and the state. In that part of the Metropolitan District of New York City lying in the state of New Jersey the counties of Union, Essex and Hudson have established park ^xViA/^K GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS 465 systems and Bergen County has taken steps to do so. To the west and northwest of the city the states of New Jersey and of New York combined in establishing the very large Palisades Interstate Park (45,000 acres approxi- mately). To the north of the city, Westchester County is developing a very comprehensive park and recreation system and the States of New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut to the extreme northeast are establishing a tri-state park. On Long Island the Long Island State Park Commission is establishing a comprehensive system of large metropolitan-state parks. Thus an extraordinary regional park and recreation problem is being worked out in a more or less uncorrelated manner on the basis of existing political divisions. In New York City itself there is no unity of administration, there being five separate park and recreation administrative organizations. (c) Cleveland and environs. The acquiring, developing and operating of a system of outlying park and recreation areas in the metropolitan region of Cleveland is being worked out on a district basis under the authority of a general legislative act providing for the establishment of metropolitan park districts under metropolitan park boards or commissions. (d) Buffalo and environs. Under the authority of a legislative act the County Board of Supervisors of Erie County has established a county park commission which is actively engaged in acquiring, developing and operating a system of outlying parks. The state, through the Niagara State Park Commission and the Allegany State Park Commission, is making a vital contribution to the regional park and recreation needs of this region. (e) Chicago and environs. The metropolitan region of Chicago pre- sents an unusual multiplicity of park and recreation governing authorities. Within the city itself there are nineteen independent park and recreation districts for the most part possessing the corporate powers of municipality; one general bureau in the municipal department of public works having charge of certain parks, playgrounds and bathing beaches over the city as a whole, and one Bureau of Recreation under the Board of Education. Out- side the city limits there are eleven independent park districts possessing corporate authority; and operating both inside and outside the city limits, although chiefly outside the city, but confined within the limits of the county, is the Cook County Forest Preserve District (31,600 acres - 1926) under the Cook County Forest Preserve Commissioners, who are the same as the County Board of Supervisors. Part of the metropolitan area of Chicago is within the state of Indiana. In this section, in addition to the park systems of the local municipalities, the state of Indiana has provided, with some aid from private funds from citizens of Chicago, a large state park known as the Dunes State Park. A major weakness in the handling of the Chicago metropolitan park situation is lack of unity, and in the case of the 466 Cook County Forest Preserve District, the fact that its boundaries are coterminous with the county. The Boston and Cleveland district plan, which ignores existing political divisions, is the more flexible and far better adapted to planning and administration in metropolitan areas than is a county unit. It is perhaps impossible to lay down a general principle regarding con- ditions under which a city is justified in setting up a special district authority to handle outlying park problems. It would appear, however, that in any urba,n community of five hundred thousand inhabitants and less the munic- ipal park authority equipped with adequate legal powers should be capable of handling efficiently park problems both within the city and in outlying districts. The problem in an urban community of any size, however, becomes exceedingly involved when the metropolitan region is within two or more _states or when there are a number of satellite municipalities within the region. COMMENTS ON DIVISION OF FuNCTioNS^r-JrrRTSCTcTioN WITHIN INCORPORATED LIMITS OF MUNICIPALITIES There has grown up, in a large number of municipalities in the United States and in a few counties, a division of function in the general field of parks and recreation represented by the existence of a park department and a recreation department in the same city, and also, in the cities, a division based on arbitrary or historical lines. A further division of authority in a few cities has arisen out of the conditions of gifts of property or money for park and recreation purposes held in trust. (a) Division in administration of parks and recreation. In a number of cities the park department is administering the city's recreation through the department itself or through a special bureau or division of recreation, and in still other cities, fewer in number, there has been created a park and recreation department combining the functions of both. The separate park commission and the separate recreation commission or board still exist, however, in the majority of cities, and very successful results are being secured under this plan. In the great majority of cities very close cooperation exists between these two departments, the park interests being represented in many instances on the recreation commission and the recreation com- mission using the facilities provided by the park department. (b) Territorial division within the limits of a municipality. Chicago and New York City are outstanding examples of a multiplicity of park and recreation authorities within the incorporated limits based on territorial divisions. Reference has already been made to the number and type of the different park and recreation authorities in Chicago, page 465. The present territorial jurisdictional division of parks and recreation in Chicago no doubt had its origin in the rivalry between or among geographical sec- GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS 467 tions of the city. The first bill that was passed by the state legislature providing for the first independent park district (now included in the South Park District) was defeated when submitted to a vote of the people of the "towns" of South Chicago, Hyde Park and Lake (1868). The bill that resulted in the establishment of the West Park District was originally drafted to provide a system of parks and boulevards throughout the entire city. Because representatives from the south and north sides of the city had arranged at the same session of the legislature for the passage of bills to establish systems in those sections of the city, the proponents of the city wide bill limited the bill to include only the west side. Thus in 1869 the process of the division of the area of Chicago began. In 1895 a general enabling act was passed under which many additional independent park districts were established. The net result of all this legislation is that within the limits of the city of Chicago there are three large independent and sixteen small independent park districts (1926), and yet some sections of the city are without park and recreation service except that which may be provided by the city wide Bureau of Parks, Playgrounds and Bathing Beaches of the municipal Department of Public Works and the Recreation Bureau of the public schools. Much noteworthy achievement along park and recreation lines in Chicago is recognized under the present system of administration. Never- theless such a plan of operation is liable to involve unequal distribution of financial resources and of recreation areas in relation to the distribution of population, inequalities in efficiency of administrative service and diffi- culties in projecting and putting into execution comprehensive city wide park and recreation plans. Another example of a city whose park administration is of historical and political origin is New York City, whose division of park districts corre- sponds to the old borough divisions. Each of the five systems of the city is under a single appointed commissioner whose tenure of office is subject to political changes in the head of the municipal government. These five commissioners constitute a general park board or commission, but the board has no administrative functions. The argument has sometimes been advanced that in very large cities the administrative problems of a highly developed centralized park system may become too complex and burdensome to be handled from a central office under a centralized authority. In view of the fact that other large public services, notably the public schools, are handled effectively on a city wide basis under a central authority, it would appear that this argu- ment has little to commend it. By proper division of the whole area of any city into functional districts there appears no good reason why a cen- 468 PARKS tralized authority could not handle any volume of administrative functions effectively and at the same time have the added advantage of constantly having under consideration the whole needs and problems of the city from a planning as well as an administrative point of view. (c) Jurisdictional division arising from terms of trust donations of prop- erty or property and money. Occasionally the donors of park properties and trust funds, in order to be reasonably sure of the proper 'handling of the property or property and funds, stipulate in the terms of -the gift that there shall be a special commission or a board of trustees created to develop and care for the property and to supervise the expenditure of the funds. Bacon- field Park in Macon, Georgia, and Long Park in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, are examples, and for many years Keney Park in Hartford, Connecticut, was of this type. Tower Hill Park in St. Louis is another example. Unless trust funds for the development and maintenance of such park properties are large enough to provide forever for the needs of the property, there seems no good reason for setting such properties apart from other properties in local park systems, for inevitably in the case of insufficient trust funds their maintenance becomes a responsibility of the local authorities. Except under very exceptional circumstances, it is usually a better plan for these donations to come under the general administration of the local park authorities. Not infrequently institutions of an educational-recreational character are to be found in park systems under the management and control of boards of trustees separate and apart from the general administrative authorities of the park systems. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Natural History, the Aquarium in Manhattan, the Botanical Gardens and the Zoological Gardens in the Bronx, all in New York City; the Brooklyn Academy of Science in Brooklyn; the Arnold Arboretum in Boston; the New Zoological Garden in Detroit; the Museum of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences and the Academy of Fine Arts in Buffalo, New York, and the Art Museum in Minneapolis are examples. Most institutions of this character arose out of private initiative, later receiving public support and gaining the right to be located in public parks while the original form of their government was continued. As a general rule the governing authority of the park system in which they happen to be located is represented on the board of trustees or board of directors. This separate private-public management of institutions of this character seem to have been eminently successful. GENERAL ADMINISTRATIVE CONTROL OF PARKS 469 In the Matter of Cooperation With Outside Agencies. Because of the questions which have sometimes arisen regarding the legal right of park and recreation authorities to expend public funds and to organize and direct activities on properties not legally owned or controlled by them, there has been inserted in most modern legislation dealing with organized recreation, clauses giving the governing authority the specific right to conduct activities at public expense on properties belonging to other public agencies and private individuals and corporations. There is usually a proviso in the case of public agencies that such a right must be exercised with the consent of the governing authority of the cooperating agencies and that the powers of the cooperating agency over its own properties are in no wise lessened by their use by park, recreation or other governing authority. In relation to the use of private property the proviso usually reads, "by and with the consent of the owners/' The following are examples of sue! -is ions: 1. "Any two or more municipalities may jointly pro- vide, establish, maintain and conduct a recreation •system and acquire property for and establish and maintain playgrounds and recreation centers. Any school board or park board may join with any munic- ipality in conducting and maintaining a recreation system." — Section 5 of an Illinois Act providing for the acquisition, equipment, conduct and maintenance of public playgrounds in and by cities, towns and villages having a population of less than one hundred and fifty thousand approved June 24, 1921. 2. "And may cooperate, by agreement, with other commissioners or boards having the custody and management in such cities of public parks, libraries, museums and public buildings and grounds of whatever sort, to provide the equipment, supervision, instruction and oversight necessary to carry on much public edu- cational and recreational activities in and upon such other buildings and grounds." — Wisconsin Statutes, 1923, 43, 50, Use of School Buildings and Grounds for Civic Purposes, part of Section I. 3 . " The public recreation board shall have power and authority to equip, operate, supervise and maintain playgrounds, athletic fields, swimming centers, indoor recreation centers, municipal camps or other recreation facilities on or in any public grounds or buildings, either within or without the city, which the city council may from time to time, acquire, authorize, offer, designate or set apart for such use; it shall have power, with the consent of the school board, to organize and conduct play and recreational activities on grounds and in build- ings under the control of the school board, provided, that nothing in this section shall be construed to abridge the power of the school board to refuse the use of any of its grounds or buildings; it shall have power to equip, operate, supervise and maintain playgrounds, athletic fields, swimming centers and other recreation facilities on or in properties under the control of the park board; it shall have the power to take charge of and use any grounds, places, buildings, or facilities, which may be offered, either temporarily or permanently, by individ- uals or corporations, or other person whomsoever, for playgrounds or recreational purposes." — Excerpt from Chapter XIX, Section 4, charter of City of Fort Worth, Texas. 4. "The county park laws of Michigan specifically empower the county boards of supervisors to con- tribute toward the improvement and maintenance of any park area owned or held in trust by any township, village or city within their respective counties or adjoin- ing counties or for any public park owned or held in trust by two or more adjacent or adjoining counties. Park areas in this instance also include boulevards, and highways or streets laid out as boulevards." — Michigan Laws, Act 90, 1913, amended to 1925, Section 3. 5. "The jurisdiction and powers of said commission shall extend to and may be exercised in the cities of Providence, Pawtucket and Central Falls, the towns of East Providence, Cranston, Warwick, Johnston, North Providence, Lincoln, Harrington, and the voting dis- tricts numbers 3, 4, and 5 in the town of Cumberland; which cities, towns and voting districts shall constitute the Metropolitan Park District of Providence Planta- tions."— Rhode Island, Public Laws, Chapter 410, Section 3. "Any city or town within said metropolitan park district is hereby authorized and empowered to transfer the care and control of any open space owned or con- trolled by it to said metropolitan park commissioners, 470 PARKS upon such terms and conditions and for such period as may be mutually agreed upon; or to enter into an agree- ment in writing with said commissioners for the joint care, control, or preservation of open spaces within or adjacent to such city or town; and the metropolitan park commissioners may in like manner transfer the care, control, and preservation of any open space con- trolled by them to any city or town within the said metropolitan park district, with the consent of such city or town and upon such terms and for such period as may be mutually agreed upon." — Rhode Island, Pub- lic Laws, Chapter 1466, April 23, 1907, Section 6. Comments on Modern Legislation as Affecting Scope of Activities. The laws which have been quoted show something of the powers which are entrusted to park authorities in a number of cities. Nothing reflects more truly the tremendous expansion of the functions of modern park departments than a comparison of the statement of the scope of activities in some of the older and newer legislations. This expansion has been espe- cially marked in two fields of activities — organized recreation and forestry. A few references to modern laws stating the scope of the activities of the modern park department follow: 1. Fort Worth, Texas. Chapter VIII, Section 4, Charter of Fort Worth (see pages 438, 439). Fort Worth also has a separate recreation department with broad powers (Chapter XIX, Section 4). These two sections taken together constitute a most comprehensive statement of a scope of modern park and recreation department. 2. Birmingham, Alabama. General Acts of Alabama, 1923, part of Sections 2 and 6 (see pages 435, 436). This is an excellent statement of the scope of activities of a department in which the functions of a park depart- ment and a recreation department are unified in one body. 3. Detroit, Michigan. Charter of the City of Detroit, Chapter IX, Section 5 (Park and Boulevard Departments) ; Chapter XVIII, Section 5: (Recreation Department). (Pages 431-433.) BIBLIOGRAPHY "Organization of a Park Commission," Bulletin No. 7, February, 1911, American Association of Park Superintendents. A symposium by various park execu- tives concerning the park board or commission type of governing parks. Contains also a brief discussion of the government of parks in commission governed cities. "Park Governments of Chicago." An inquiry into their organization and methods of administration. Report prepared by the Chicago Bureau of Public Efficiency. Published by the Bureau, 1911. "Park Department Organization," F. L. Olmsted, Jr. Landscape Architecture, July 1914, Vol. 4, pages 150-166. "Organization of a Park System," Olmsted Brothers- (in their report on a proposed park system for Dayton,. Ohio, 1911, pages 6-12). CHAPTER VII PARK FINANCING Park financing falls into two distinct divisions: (i) the acquisition and permanent improvement of properties; (2) operation and maintenance. I. THE ACQUISITION AND PERMANENT IMPROVEMENT OF PROPERTIES The acquisition and permanent improvement of properties may be financed in one or more of the following ways: 1. Use of current funds of the park and recreation department or by direct appropriation of a municipal or county government. 2. Proceeds from the sale of bonds secured by general taxation. 3. Proceeds from the sale of bonds secured by special assessments. 4. A combination of the proceeds from the sale of bonds secured by general taxation. 5. Installment payments out of the net proceeds obtained from the operation of the particular project itself. 6. Proceeds from gifts, donations, devises and bequests. 7. Acquisition of properties through use of the principle of excess con- demnation or excess purchase. I. Acquisition and Improvement of Properties from Current Revenues. The "pay-as-you-go" policy has been practiced by some park depart- ments through the country and in many park systems. Both the acquisition and improvement of properties have been financed out of current revenues. On the whole, however, this is an undesirable method of acquisition and improvement of properties for the following reasons: (a) Because of the tendency to hold the general municipal tax rate down to the lowest possible minimum practically every park department throughout the entire country has insufficient funds for efficient operation and maintenance and cannot afford to expend any of the meager income for capital outlays either for the acquisition of properties or for improve- ment. The most that departments can do, as a general rule, is to pay for minor improvements out of current revenues. (b) Where properties are acquired either by direct payment of the complete cost or by a system of deferred payments extending through a period of years it usually results in these properties lying idle and unim- proved for years and the people who pay for them get no benefit. (c) If a considerable percentage of current revenues is expended for 472 PARKS permanent improvements each year the operation and maintenance of the remainder of the system is liable to be ineffective and people do not receive a maximum service for money already expended for properties and improve- ments. There have been some notable examples of acquisition of properties by direct appropriation of the municipal government, but as a general rule th.ese governments are in exactly the same position with respect to current revenues as are park departments. EXCERPTS FROM PARK LAWS RELATIVE TO THE USE OF CURRENT REVENUES FOR ACQUISITION OF PROPERTIES AND PERMANENT IMPROVEMENTS Birmingham, Alabama. The state law, under which the park and recreation commission operates, provides for the purchase of properties on time or partly for cash and partly by deferred payment by the city government upon recommendation of the park and recreation com- mission, payments to be made out of current revenues. Oakland, California. "The council shall, for the pur- chase, development, equipment and maintenance of parks, squares and public pleasure grounds, annually appro- priate to the board of park directors such amounts as in the judgment of the council be necessary or proper, and the funds so appropriated shall be credited to the park fund, and the board of park directors shall have exclusive management and disbursement of the same." — Charter of the city of Oakland, Article XII, Sec- tion 69. Sacramento, California. "In order to maintain the public parks of the city and to provide for the develop- ment of the same and for other expense to be incurred by the Park Department, the city manager shall include in his budget an amount estimated by him to be suffi- cient for said purposes, and the city council shall pro- vide for the same in the levy, making such changes as it may deem proper. All money raised or acquired for park purposes shall be kept in the park fund and shall be devoted exclusively to said uses." — Charter of the City of Sacramento, Article XVI, Section 140. San Francisco, California. "The supervisors shall provide all necessary money for the maintenance, pres- ervation and improvement of said parks, squares, avenues and grounds, and to that end shall annually levy a tax on all property in the city and county not exempt from taxation, which shall not be less than seven cents nor more than ten cents on each one hun- dred dollars assessed valuation of said property. — As amended November 2, 1920. Approved by the Legis- lature, January 21, 1921. Statutes, 1921, page 1776." — Charter of the city and county of San Francisco, Article XIV, Section 11. Provisions in other cities. The council of the city of Lincoln, Illinois, has the power by ordinance to provide annually by taxation a special fund not to exceed eight- een cents on each hundred dollars valuation of taxable property, for the purchase of land for parks and boule- vards. In Muncie, Indiana, the ordinance creating the park board provides for a special levy, as a part of the general tax levy, of not less than five cents on each hundred dollars worth of taxable property for the main- tenance and improvement of the public parks. The Iowa State Laws (Chapter 293) provides that, in addi- tion to a special tax for general park purposes not to exceed two and one-half mills on each dollar of assessed valuation of property within the city subject to taxa- tion, there may be a special tax levied in cities having a population of over twenty-five hundred, after being voted upon by the qualified electors, of not to exceed five mills, for the sole purpose of purchasing and paying for real estate and permanently improving the same for park purposes. 2. Proceeds from the Sale of Bonds Secured by General Taxation. Practically every municipal and county corporation has authority to issue bonds for municipal or county purposes and under this general author- ity, subject to certain limitations as to the amount of bonded indebtedness, may issue bonds for the acquisition and permanent improvement of park and recreation areas. Park departments derive their powers to issue bonds either directly from the state or else secure them through the corporate powers of the municipality or the county as the case may be. In addition to certain limitations upon the amount of bonded indebtedness which a municipal or county corporation may issue, the issue of bonds is further PARK FINANCING 473 safeguarded by the requirement that proposals for bond issues must be submitted to a direct vote of the people. The same principle applies to those bonds issued for park purposes. The use of this authority to issue bonds for the acquisition and improvement of park properties is almost universally practiced throughout the United States, especially by the larger cities and by counties having park systems, but the practice is not uncommon among smaller municipal corporations. Because the life use of a park or other recreation area is likely to be for several generations, it appears only just that the entire burden of acquisi- tion should not be borne by the generation acquiring the area. It is some- times asserted that future generations will have burdens enough to provide for their own needs, partly because of the things left undone by preceding generations and partly because as civilization develops each generation will have increasing needs that will have to be met, and that, therefore, it is unfair to project indebtedness onto future generations. There is much truth in this assertion where long term bonds have been used for improve- ments only, the term of life of which may not outlast the generation making the improvement; but in the acquisition of real properties such as park and recreation areas, the usefulness of which will likely continue for many genera- tions, no such criticism can justly be made. However, because of this idea and because of the possible abuse of bond issuing powers, some communities have tried to adhere to the policy of "pay-as-you-go" mentioned in the preceding section. Purposes for which bonding power may well be used. Most American communities have sadly neglected to provide themselves with the necessary recreation areas in times past, and the only practicable way of catching up, as well as of preparing for the future, is to mortgage their future to a greater or less degree, in order to meet their present and future needs. Considerable discrimination should be exercised, however, in the use of the bonding power where these bonds are secured by general taxation. It would appear that general bond issues might very well be used for the following purposes in relation to park and recreation areas: (a) Acquisition and improvement of large parks, (b) Acquisition and improvement of outlying parks and reservations, (c) Waterfront prop- erties providing general bathing, boating or other recreation facilities, (d) Site and building of a downtown community center that may be used by all the people of the community, (e) Site and structure for a municipal theatre, art gallery, museum, site and structures for a zoological garden, site and structure of a stadium and similar facilities, (f) Neighborhood play- grounds or neighborhood playfield-parks in rundown sections of cities where property values would hardly make possible the use of the district 474 PARKS assessment plan, and where the improvement in living conditions would represent general benefit as well as great advantage to the people living in the immediate section, (g) Acquisition and improvement of boulevards and parkways. The principle involved here is that bond issues secured by general taxation should be used only where it can be clearly shown that the acquisi- tion and improvement will be of appreciable benefit to the whole community and not chiefly for the benefit of some particular part of the community. Just what is of benefit to an entire community and what is not is often very hard to determine. It may be asserted that any improvement, although chiefly benefiting a part of the community, is a benefit to the entire com- munity, and it is on this theory that general bond issues for the acquisition and improvement of all types of recreation areas are justified. However, there has developed another theory which is coming more and more into practice that there are certain kinds of recreation areas that should be acquired and improved entirely or partially by sections of cities that are chiefly benefited. This will be discussed in detail in a subsequent section. In the issuance of general bonds there should be discrimination as to terms of the bonds. There should be a decided distinction between the terms of bonds for acquisition of properties and the terms of bonds for many of the usual so-called permanent improvements. Long term bonds, say for a maximum of fifty years, may be permissible for the acquisition of most real properties. But such long term bonds should not be considered in connection with landed properties where the legal status is not perma- nently fixed, such as children's playgrounds, neighborhood playfield areas, and many of the so-called boulevards having the legal status of streets. Bonds for improvements should never be issued to extend beyond the life of the improvement, and this expected life should be calculated on a minimum term of years. Instances have been noted where the people were still paying for an improvement long after the improvement was worn out or its use discontinued for some reason or other. The abuse of bond issues has been so great in this connection that some states now have laws limiting improve- ment bonds to specific numbers of years for different types of improvements. It would be wise if all states would adopt similar regulations. Regardless of whether such an obligatory law exists or not, all park authorities should work out and adopt a schedule as to terms of bonds for different types of improvements. Many states also have laws prohibiting the use of the sinking fund type of bond and make the use of the serial bond obligatory. This is a very wise provision for the reason that there has been great abuse in handling sinking fund bonds whereby, through failure to make provision for pay- PARK FINANCING 475 ment and through a system of refunding, there often results, as one writer puts it, more "sink" than "fund." It is desirable that all park departments make use of the serial type of bond for both acquisition and improvement, and, for most improvements, short-term serial bonds should be used. EXAMPLES OF BOND ISSUES IN SOME CITIES WITH POPULATION RANGING FROM City Baltimore, Md. Years Covered 1860 1894 500,000- 1,000,000 Issues $440,000 1,000,000 i ,000,000 Purpose 1904 Boston, Mass. 1893-1925 Note. Outstanding funded debt of Boston for Parks, Playgrounds and Bathhouses, report of the city auditor for financial year 1924-1925: For Playgrounds, $2,653,500; Parks, $6,084,300; Bathhouses and Gymnasiums, $106,600. Note. Loans authorized by special statutes outside of debt limit, report of city auditor for financial year 1924-1925: 1886, Park Construction $2,500,000; 1887, Public Park Lands $400,000; 1888, Public Park Lands #600,000; 1890, Public Parks $200,000; 1891, Public Parks $3,500,000; 1894, Public Parks $1,000,000; 1806, Public Parks $1,000,000; 1898, Public Parks $500,000; 1899, Public Parks $500,000; 1902, Metropolitan Park Assessment $420,400. Note. Loans authorized during fiscal year 1924-1925, report of city auditor: Playgrounds, $330,750; Parks, $183,000. Total 8,844,300 Boston Metropolitan Park District Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland Metropolitan Park District Los Angeles, Cal. St. Louis, Mo. 1893-1923 1874-1924 1915-1922 i issue 10,000 96,000 60,000 Note. These sums were part of a bond issue of ap; The $2,500,000 was for new Parks and Playgrounds anc Loan Appropriations with Accretions Park Bonds Playgrounds Bonds Parks Parks Parks Playgrounds 'roximately $83,000,000 for Public Improvements, the $1,300,000 for Improvements. San Francisco, Cal. 1904 3 issues 25,547,361 10,522,000 90,000 700,000 166,000 1,500,000 2,500,000 1,300,000 1,360,000 EXAMPLES OF BOND ISSUES IN City Cincinnati, Ohio Denver, Col. Indianapolis, Ind. Milwaukee, Wis. Minneapolis, Minn. Portland, Ore. Rochester, N. Y. Seattle, Wash. SOME CITIES WITH POPULATION RANGING FROM 250,000 - 500,000 1913-1921 1919-1921 1906-1912 1920-1924 1914-1924 1912-1925 1907-1919 1888-1918 1916 Previous to 1916 1924 Issues 10 3 5 i Purpose Park Bonds Park Assessment Bonds Park District Bonds Total $2,107,946.97 46,120.00 3,571,200.00 3,058,000.00 4,380,000.00 Land and Improvements Bonds 7,694,565.82 1,727,000.00 Park Bonds 493,000.00 Playground 30,000.00 4,006,777.50 430,000.00 PARKS EXAMPLES OF THE EXTENT TO WHICH SOME CITIES IN THE POPULATION GROUP, 100,000- 250,000 INHABITANTS, HAVE RESORTED TO BOND ISSUES FOR PURCHASE AND IMPROVEMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION AREAS City Albany, N. Y. Bridgeport, Conn. Camden, N. J. Dallas, Texas Dayton, Ohio Grand Rapids, Mich. Lowell, Mass. Nashville, Tenn. New Haven, Conn. Oakland, Calif. Paterson, N. J. Providence, R. I. San Antonio, Texas Spokane, Wash. Syracuse, N. Y. Toledo, Ohio Trenton, N. J. Years Covered 1921-1925 1916-1920 1904-1925 1913-1925 1916-1925 1922 1909-1923 1909-1913 1889-1924 1907 1888-1925 1890-1923 1919-1926 1908-1912 1920-1925 1920-1924 1888-1916 Issues 5 5 H 5 6 i 21 2 IO I 7 i 6 2 5 12 26 Purpose Parks Playgrounds Total $430,000.00 895,000.00 783,500.00 1,625 ooo.oo 165,500.00 190,000.00 251,800.00 65,000.00 2,037,000.00 992,000.00 379,000.00 50,000.00 2,329,758.76 1,300,000.00 975,000.00 675,000.00 1,756,000.00 429,210.00 Omaha, Neb. Under the law Omaha has the right to issue annually bonds amounting to $100,000 for purchase and improvement of parks. In 1925 there was a special issue of $50,000 for land purchase. Kansas City, Kan. From 1908 the city has had authority to issue $150,000 bonds annually, providing the total amount outstanding did not exceed one per cent of total valuation of property. Providence, R. I. In 1925 the total bonds outstanding was $1,574,960.66 of a total that had been issued since 1890 of $2,329,758.76. EXAMPLES OF BOND ISSUES IN SOME CITIES WITH POPULATION RANGING FROM 50,000- 100,000 Issues I City Chattanooga, Tenn. Davenport, Iowa East St. Louis, 111. Note. Years Covered 1912 1925 1910-1926 Purpose Bonds Outstanding 10 District without vote of the people. El Paso, Texas Erie, Penn. Evansville, Ind. Gary, Ind. Lynn, Mass. Mobile, Ala. Oklahoma City, Okla. Passaic, N. J. Pawtucket, R. I. Rockford, 111. Saginaw, Mich. San Diego, Calif. Schenectady, N. Y. Sioux City, Iowa 1919-1924 1914-1915 1922 1913-1925 1889-1925 1924 1909-1917 1925 1910-1912 1909-1911 1908-1909 1911-1923 1920-1926 1920 St. Joseph, Mo. No bond issues have been issued, but city ;has right to levy a special tax for new acquisi- tions. In 1921 a special tax was levied bringing in a revenue of approximately $950,000. About 630 acres were purchased with this or part of it in 1925. 4 2 2 3 ii i Troy, N. Y. Tulsa, Okla. Waterbury, Conn. Wichita, Kan. 1902-1925 1909-1926 1908-1921 1919-1925 10 6 2 II Total $80,000.00 185,000.00 1,287,000.00 Park Commission can issue bonds up to five per cent of the taxable property in the Park 345,000.00 146,000.00 100,000.00 665,000.00 275,300.00 21,000.00 1,150,000.00 40,000.00 92,000.00 200,000.00 57,000.00 980,000.00 375,000.00 250,000.00 645,000.00 465,000.00 400,000.00 801,991.48 Note. State law allows city to issue bonds for park purposes to the amount of $150,000 yearly without popular vote. PARK FINANCING 477 3. Acquisition and Improvement of Properties through Proceeds from the Sale of Bonds Secured by Special Assessments. This is a device whereby the acquisition and improvement (or each of these actions separately) of such properties as large children's playgrounds, neighborhood parks, neighborhood playfield-parks, may be initiated and carried out by the people living within the use-radius of the properties, who pay the whole cost themselves through a system of special assessments on the property within the district benefited. The same principle, with certain modifications, has been applied to the acquisition and improvement of boulevards and parkways. When the district has been determined and the rate of taxation on each parcel of property fixed, bonds or certificates of indebtedness may be sold on the security of the income from the assess- ments. The advantages of this method of financing the acquisition of large children's playgrounds, neighborhood parks, and neighborhood playfield- parks are: (a) It enables the people living in any given neighborhood of a city to, on their own initiative, secure a needed property without having to wait for the slow process of securing a special appropriation from the munic- ipal government or general bond issues, (b) It places the burden upon those who are to receive the most benefit from the improvement, (c) This type of bond does not lessen the general bonding power of the whole community. (d) It enables the people, especially in newer sections of cities, to perform a master stroke in fixing the character and quality of their neighborhoods before that character and quality become fixed in some undesirable manner, as frequently happens when such an improvement is long delayed, as it would likely be under all other methods of general financing, (e) The per- sonal interest that every citizen in the assessment district has in the project creates an interest in its use and care that is a social asset of great value - an interest that might not have been felt so keenly if the project had been financed by the community as a whole. Some of the dangers in this method of financing the acquisition and improvement of recreation areas are: (a) There is a great temptation to spread the assessments over too long a period of time so that people find themselves paying for something which has already been worn out. This is especially true with respect to improvements. This also "enables real estate manipulators to advocate an improvement, knowing that the bene- fits will be received as soon as the improvement is completed, whereas a very small percentage of their assessments will then have been paid and they can dispose of their property, pocket the entire benefits themselves, and usually the investor is so unwary that he does not realize that he will be paying over a period of years for the very attraction which caused him 478 PARKS to pay the realtor a fat sum for the property." In short, investors may be paying double for the privilege of having the improvement, (b) Extreme care must be taken in estimating the cost of an improvement. If the cost has been estimated too low and the rate of assessment fixed the resulting efforts of improvement may represent something that is neither attractive nor very useful and the district will be harmed more than benefited, (c) This plan might possibly be attempted in some neighborhoods where the resulting benefits to property values would in no way compensate for the outlay. In very congested sections of cities this would very likely always be the case, (d) The unlimited use of this method might result in so many projects of this character being carried through that the general revenues of the park department for operation and maintenance would be insufficient to properly care for these additional areas unless an additional maintenance and operation appropriation or tax could be secured. Where the park depart- ment controls the granting of petitions for the creation of assessment districts it can of course more or less harmonize its probable future revenues with the probable demand for increased operation and maintenance costs. In general, levying of special assessments should be encouraged or permitted only in case there is a clear assurance that "special benefits are equal to or greater than the proposed assessments." These benefits are of two classes — tangible and intangible. A tangible benefit may be defined as a "measurable rise in real estate values unmistakably due to the project in question." Occasionally it happens that the people living in some given neighborhood may desire to secure a given piece of property and improve it — an action which in itself would not cause any appreciable increase in property values — but solely because they desire it for aesthetic reasons or to prevent its use for purposes they deem undesirable. This may be defined as an intangible value, although in the latter case it may be a negative- positive value. It is nearly always true, no doubt, that people who are willing to assess themselves for any of the types of active recreation prop- erties previously mentioned may, perhaps, be thinking more of having a safe place for their children to play, and for good opportunities close at home for the recreation of their young people and of themselves than they are about the possible increase to the value of their property. All these are more or less intangible values in contradistinction to increase in mone- tary values of property and are often the underlying motive for the willing- ness of people to assess themselves for properties of this character. Examples of the application of the special assessment method of financing acquisition and improvements of properties. This method has been used very extensively in acquiring and improving neighborhood playfield-park types PARK FINANCING 479 of properties in Minneapolis. The following are examples of the working of the plan:1 Sibley Field, when acquired, was a rank hole in the ground, a dump, situated in the south section of Minneapolis, the closest playground being about a mile from this location. There was one house on the two city blocks (10 acres) in question and the territory was about half settled with very modest and to a great extent, unattractive homes. Vacant lots sold for $400 to $600. The people of the vicinity had petitioned that this piece of property be acquired for park purposes and improved immediately, the whole cost of the acquisition and improvement to be assessed against the benefited district. The total cost of the acquisition was $23,000 and the improvements, as estimated by the superintendent, amounted to $75,000. The total cost was assessed against the benefited property in assessments ranging from $100 down to $14.60 per forty-foot lot. The total area affected was a little less than a mile and a half square. Lots around the park at the present time are worth in the neighborhood of $1,000. The assessments are collected in ten annual installments and, consequently, property facing the park having an annual assessment of $10 with interest on deferred payments, is seeing benefits from $300 to $500. The homes now being erected in that neighborhood are necessarily of a much better character than those which were built previously, and it is evident that the park has had a very beneficial influence on that section of the city. The case of Chicago Avenue Field was a little different, although before the acquisition most of the ten acres involved were considerably below the street level. Its acquisition and improvement were carried on at different times and it is safe to say that the acquisition alone carried with it benefits in excess of the assessments which were levied, not because it changed the appearance of the property, but because it fixed the destiny of the area and consequently made it safe for the people to invest in good- looking homes. This field was located in a good, substantial neighborhood which was very anxious to get the field improved from a utility point of view more than from the fact that the property values would increase. The people of this neighborhood wanted a place in which their children could play and enjoy recreational facilities and they were willing to pay for such use; the anticipated rise in property values was only an incidental factor. The improvement was completed the past year and the assessments levied ranged from $120 to $20 per forty-foot lot over an area of about a square mile or a little less. On one side of the park is a paved street carrying street car tracks, and no more had the park been completed than four apartment 1 Charles E. Doell, secretary of the Board of Park Commissioners, Minneapolis, Minnesota, in Parks and Recreation, Vol. IX, No. i, September-October, 1925. 480 PARKS houses were erected on this street facing the park. The outlook is beautiful, interesting, and the recreational facilities are close at hand. It will be good rental property, much more so than if the park were not there, and this in spite of the fact that the people were not materially interested in the rise of real estate values. The value of homes became firmly established where before they tottered because of uncertain pending improvements. The case of Mt. Curve Triangle was rather unique and unusual. This little tract of land, comprising two and one-quarter acres, is in the heart of what was at one time the finest residence section of Minneapolis. Still a very fine section, it was being threatened by apartment houses, and a move- ment was on foot to erect a very large apartment hotel on this very site. This was deemed very objectionable from the point of view of the people in the district and they appealed to the Board of Park Commissioners to acquire and improve it as a park. Condemnation proceedings were instituted and the property appraised at a little less than $75,000, with the improve- ments estimated at $23,000. The whole investment, including cost of pro- ceedings, was a little over $100,000. The effect of the establishment of this park would necessarily be much restricted to the property immediately around the park, which, in turn, necessitated assessments of a very high nature, going as high as $20 per front foot. It was very difficult for anyone acquainted with the situation to see where any such rise in real estate values would obtain from the establishment of such a park and, consequently, they were very reluctant about recommending the assessments. The people in the district, however, were largely in favor of the establishment of the park. This case is cited as one in which the benefits were not measured by a rise in real estate value but one in which the neighborhood deemed the expense necessary to maintain the high standard of the residence district and were willing to pay dearly to prevent a depreciation in realty values. Whether the assessment was justified or not will never be determined. The special assessment method has been widely used in the acquisition and improvement of boulevards and parkways but usually in a combination method whereby part of the expense is borne by the community as a whole and part by the benefited property in the vicinity of the improvement. Diagrams showing the method of arriving at assessment payments for playground and neighborhood play field-parks, as practiced in Minneapolis, Minnesota.1 These diagrams are intended to show a scientific method of arriving at payment, and are based on certain rules formulated from experi- ence in Minneapolis. The theory on which these rules are founded is that distance from the improvement and frontage and depth of parcel assessed are the only factors to be considered in levying the assessment, which must 1 Second Annual Report, City Planning Commission, Duluth, Minnesota, 1924, pages 41-42. PARK FINANCING 481 not be confiscatory nor exceed the benefit to be derived. Distance from the proposed improvement is divided into zones approximately a block as shown in Plate 238. But as shown in Plate 239, assessments are graded grad- ually from one zone to another, where a zone line occurs in the interior of a block. Condemnation commissioners determine how assessments shall vary from one zone to another. Plate 240 illustrates this: it may be noted that property in the second PLATE 238 TYPICAL ZONING PLAN OF ASSESSMENT FOR NEIGHBORHOOD PLAYGROUND zone is shown as receiving almost as much benefit as that in the first, while in the third and fourth zones benefits decrease rapidly, and in the outer zones an added distance of a few feet makes little differ- ence in benefits. The "assessment unit" is in Minne- apolis a tract having one foot frontage on a street 60 feet or more in width, and comprises an area of 1 25 square feet. Plate 241 illustrates the effect of lot depth on assessment, and it should be noted that the number of assessment units, in a lot 200 feet deep is not twice the number in a lot 100 feet deep. The calculation of assessment units in lots of irregular area is by regarding the frontage. Plate 242 is a mathematical computation of factors frontage and depth, and gives the number of units in a tract, frontage and depth being specified. The actual assessment levied is the product of the unit assessment as determined from Plate 240 and the number of units as deter- mined from Plate 242. To illustrate: here is a certain lot lying in the fifth zone, whose unit assessment is $i. It is 40 x 126 feet; therefore by Plate 242 it contains 40 units and its total assessment is $40. 4. Special Assessments and General Bond Issues Combined. There are certain types of properties in a park system which are of general benefit to a community and also of special benefit to property immediately surrounding them. The most outstanding of these types of properties are boulevards and parkways, and sometimes large parks. While the acquisition and improvement of these properties are often financed from general bond issues entirely, in some cities the double benefit is recognized and a method of financing adopted combining both the district assessment and the general bond issue plans. 482 PARKS J ul E. "V K) zg #76.50 75-50 73%° 7HO 67^ /6 7^.00 ll.to 7f-to 0.10 67.ZO ,J± t -0 N o ce — ST- In several boulevard and parkway projects in Minneapolis, Minnesota, one-third of the total cost of the project was financed by general bond issue; the remainder was divided into thirds, one-third of which was assessed against the city as a whole and two-thirds against the benefited property. In other words the city as a whole paid five-ninths of the total cost and the benefited district paid four-ninths. 5. Installment Payment out of the Net uJ *. Proceeds Obtained from the Operation of the Particular Project. The operation of certain recreation facilities on the basis of an income pro- ducing utility for covering the cost, or partially covering the cost of operation 13 N. , ' \ ( ±t> RV e / s. \ \ r •PIC AL A^a M ME, :^, 1 s r< K ^ElC HB<. RHC 100 \^t VGO aw 0 \ \ ^ | § ^J ^ w \ t N i N w providing for the organization of pleasure driveways and park districts. 3. Portland, Maine, (a) Special tax of one mill on each #100 of assessed valuation. (b~\ Of the above tax 12^ per cent must be allocated to the use of the Recreation Department. 496 PARKS Similarly of the $.08 special tax allowed the city of Wheeling, W. Va., $.04 may be applied to park purposes and $.04 to playgrounds and recreation. 4. Rockford, 111. (a) Board of park commissioners of the park district are directly authorized by law to levy as much as 2% mills on each dollar of assessed valuation, (b) May levy as much as 4 mills if the question of making the greater levy has been submitted to a vote of the people and approved by a majority vote of the qualified electors, (c) May levy a special tax in addition to above to pay the interest and principal on any bonds that may be issued. The park district may contract indebtedness in an amount equal to 3 per cent of the value of the taxable property in the district. If approved by a majority vote of the electors of the district the amount of indebtedness may be increased to 5 per cent of the taxable property. Note. The park district of Rockford is organized under the Act of 1895, providing for the organization of park districts and the transfer of submerged lands to those bordering on navigable bodies of water. 5. San Diego, Calif. San Diego has the distinction of having the highest special tax for any city in this group, providing as it does a minimum tax of $.10 and a maximum of $.16 on each $100 of assessed valuation of property subject to taxation. 6. Wichita, Kan. Special taxes may be levied as follows: % mill for park purposes; % mill for forestry work — parks, streets, alleys, etc.; J4 mill for playground and recreation purposes. Other cities in this group providing for special taxes of various amounts are East St. Louis, Illinois, with the same taxing privilege as Rockford; Fort Wayne, Gary, South Bend and Terre Haute, Indiana — not less than five cents nor more than nine cents; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma, one mill; Lincoln, Nebraska; Racine, Wisconsin, one mill; St. Joseph, Missouri; Sioux City, Iowa, two and one-half mills; Springfield, Illinois; Tacoma, Washington — maximum of one and one-half mills on each $100; Tampa, Florida and Waterbury, Connecticut — one-half of a mill on the grand list of the second taxing district. EXAMPLES OF COUNTY PARK SYSTEM HAVING SPECIAL TAX LEVIES FOR GENERAL PARK PURPOSES Essex County, New Jersey. The Essex County Park County Park Commission receives the income from a Commission derives its chief income for general park special tax of one-tenth of a mill on each dollar of purposes from an annual tax of not less than one-half assessed valuation of property. of a mill nor more than three-fourths of a mill on each Forest Preserve Districts, Illinois. "Provided, that dollar of county ratables. The commission has the the amount of taxes levied for one year shall not exceed power to certify to the County Board of Freeholders the rate of one mill on each dollar of assessed value of a tax less than one-half mill if it desires, but the Board the taxable property therein (within the district), as of Freeholders cannot of their own initiative levy a tax ascertained by the last equalized assessment for state less than one-half mill. and county purposes; provided, that in forest districts Hudson County, New Jersey. The same conditions containing a population of two hundred thousand or exist as in Essex County (see above). more such commissioners may levy a tax of not exceed- Henry County, Indiana. For the maintenance, ing three-tenths of one mill on the dollar of such valua- operation and improvement of the one county park a tion for general, corporate purposes, in addition to the special tax of two and a half cents on each $100 is taxes required for the payment of bonds and interest levied annually. on bonds." — Illinois Revised Statutes, Cahill, 1925, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Chapter $ya., excerpt from Section 14. EXAMPLES OF METROPOLITAN PARK SYSTEMS HAVING SPECIAL TAX LEVIES OR GENERAL TAXING POWERS Cleveland Metropolitan Park System. For the pro- of park commissioners to levy taxes, see Chapter VI, visions relating to the powers of the metropolitan board pages 440-441, Section 2976-10 and Section 2976-101 PARK FINANCING 497 of the law under which the metropolitan park commis- sion operates. Metropolitan Park System of Tacoma, Washington. "Said board of park commissioners are hereby author- ized to levy, or cause to be levied, a general tax on all property located in said park district each year, not to exceed one and one-half mills on the assessed valuation of the property in such park district." Metropolitan Park System of Boston. The law under which is determined the apportionment of taxes among the several cities and towns constituting the metropol- itan park system (Chapter 443, Acts of 1920) provides that Boston shall pay as special assessment 16% per cent of the money required to meet the interest, sink- ing fund and serial or other bond requirements for each year; the city of Cambridge 16% per cent, the remain- ing 66% per cent to be based uPon the respective tax- able valuations of the property of other cities and towns of the district. The proportion in which each city and town shall pay is apportioned according to the average percentage of valuation and population determined for each city by adding together the percentage which the valuation of the same bears to the total valuation of the cities and towns of the district and the percentage which the population of the same bears to the total population of the cities and towns of the district and dividing this sum by two. In addition the amounts to be apportioned each city and town for the maintenance of Nantasket Reservation, the Charles River Basin, one-half the cost of maintenance of boulevards and any deficiency in the amounts previously paid in, shall be based on the respective taxable valuation of the cities and towns. The remaining half of the cost of main- tenance of boulevards is paid by all the cities and towns of the district as a part of the annual state tax. The metropolitan district commission each year deter- mines the proportion in which each of the cities and towns shall annually pay money into the treasury of the commonwealth and transmits its determinations to the state treasurer who estimates the amount required in accordance with the proportions determined by the commission, together with any amounts required by law to be specially assessed upon any particular city or town. The words "taxable valuations" of the prop- erties of cities and towns shall mean taxable valuations of property last established next prior to such appor- tionment by the general court as a basis of apportion- ment for state and county taxes; and the words "popu- lation of the cities and towns " shall mean the population as determined by the latest census, state or national, next prior to such apportionment. Illinois Park District. Under the Illinois park dis- trict law of 1895 the park commissioners have the right "to levy and collect a general tax on the property in the park district for the necessary expenses of said district, for the construction and maintenance of the parks, boulevards and other improvement of lands herein authorized to be purchased or acquired by any means provided for in this Act." — Illinois Revised Statutes, Cahill, 1925, Chapter 105, Section 314. "Provided, the aggregate amount of taxes levied for any one year exclusive of the amount levied for the payment of bonded indebtedness or interest thereon shall not exceed the rate of two and two-thirds mills on each dollar of taxable property in said district on the aggregate valuation as equalized for state and county taxes for the preceding year, unless a petition, signed by not less than two per cent of the legal voters of the district, asking that the authorized tax levy be increased to not more than four mills on each dollar, is presented to the board of commissioners and such increase is approved by the voters of the district at an election held on the question, of which election thirty days notice shall be given by posting some at each polling place in said district." — Illinois Revised Stat- utes, Cahill, 1925, Chapter 105, part of Section 316. j. Special Sources of Income for General Park and Recreation Purposes. The few instances where cities have special sources of revenue have been mentioned under the section treating of special taxes. There are not many examples of such special sources and the probabilities are that this method of securing revenues will never be widely practiced. (Baltimore, street rail- way tax; Kansas City, vehicle tax; Seattle, ten per cent of gross receipts from fines, penalties and licenses.) 4. Revenues for Operation and Maintenance from Gifts, Legacies, and Bequests. As a general rule, gifts, donations and legacies are not made to apply to the operation and maintenance of park and recreation properties. How- ever, there have been some examples and there appears to be no reason why this form of gift should not be encouraged. These gifts, donations, legacies and bequests may take such forms as: 498 PARKS (a) Outright donations of money for operation and maintenance. On a subscription basis this was widely practiced throughout the United States in the early stages of the playground and recreation movement and in many sections of the country is still used as a supplement to meager public appropriations. This method of financing the operation and maintenance of public recreation is always considered a temporary measure to be given up as soon as public appropriations have grown large enough to take care of the need. (b) Trust funds. The notable instance of the Parkman Fund in Boston has already been cited. Providence, Rhode Island, has had a number of interesting bequests. "All the rest and residue of my estate of which I shall die entitled, seized, or possessed to, both real and personal, I give, devise and bequest to said city of Providence, to have and to hold forever in trust as a fund, in such manner and form of investment as the said city may choose, and apply the net proceeds thereof to the support and main- tenance of Roger Williams Park, now owned by said city, as a public park mingling said income with other moneys expended upon said park in such manner as to said city shall seem best." - Extract from will of Anna H. Man. Seventy-ninth annual report of the city auditor, city of Providence, Rhode Island, 1925, page in. This fund in 1925 amounted to $232,875. "Twenty- third. I give and bequest to the city of Providence $100,000 to be invested and held as a fund, the income thereof to be applied toward the purchase, improvement and maintenance of public parks and play- grounds, with the request that no part of the same be expended on speed- ways." — Extract from the will of Samuel H. Tingley. Seventy-ninth annual report of the city auditor, city of Providence, Rhode Island, 1925, page 112. In 1925 the capital of this bequest amounted to $104,646.50. A number of other instances might be quoted. In Lancaster, Penn- sylvania, Long Park, a tract of approximately 80.5 acres was donated to the city and endowed to the extent of $200,000. The income which now amounts to about $10,000 a year is used chiefly for the maintenance of the park. From $30,000 to $32,000 is the annual income which Springfield, Massachusetts, receives from the endowment fund of approximately $700,000 for park purposes established by Everett H. Barney. Johnson Park in Camden, New Jersey, is maintained by the Johnson Park Endow- ment Fund established for the purpose. On December 31, 1925 the fund amounted to $46,414.55. Snyder Park of about 237 acres in Springfield, Ohio, was donated to the city in 1900 and endowed to the extent of $200,000, the income of which is used for the maintenance and improvement of the park. The park is controlled by the board of trustees, appointed by the sinking fund trustees of the city. PARK FINANCING 499 (c) Properties other than money held in trust whose revenues are applied to the operation and maintenance of parks. Several of the instances of requests already cited involve properties of this character. Another interesting example comes from Morgantown, West Virginia, where a public-spirited citizen donated a tract of coal land valued at between one million and two million dollars, the income from which is to be applied to the purchase of parks and playgrounds, their improvement and operation. 5. Revenues Derived from the Operation of Certain Types of Recreation Facilities. These revenues may arise under two forms: (a} Revenues from con- cessions either in the form of a lump sum or a certain percentage of the gross receipts resulting from the operation of the particular facility, the operating of the facility being conducted by a concessionaire, subject to general supervision of the park governing authority. (b) Revenues from the operation of facilities directly by the park governing authority. The practice of charging fees for the use of certain types of recreation facilities arose partly because of the constantly rising tax rate, partly because of inadequate public appropriations for public recreation, and partly because of a growing feeling that it was only just that the patrons of a given facility should pay for the operation and maintenance where the general public had provided the capital outlay. In recent years there is a tendency, as has already been noted, to extend the principle of charges to cover not only the cost of operation maintenance but also the capital outlay costs. Just how far this can be carried successfully remains to be demonstrated. There is another reason, which is largely psychological, for charging fees for the use of a facility. People appear to have a much more direct feeling of responsibility for and an interest in a given facility or activity if they contribute directly something of monetary value than they do if the facility or activity is open to their free use. Some of the public recreation facilities for the use of which fees are charged throughout the country are: (a) Swimming facilities. Almost universally throughout the United States, where the municipality furnishes bathing suits, towels and soap, a fee is charged. In some instances an admission fee is charged whether the visitor uses the swimming facilities or not. (b) Boats and canoes. In the very large majority of park and recrea- tion systems, fees ranging from ten to fifty cents an hour are charged for the use of water crafts. Fees are also charged for launch rides. (c) Skates, sleds, skiis. It is almost universal for a fee to be charged for the temporary rental of winter sports equipment, where such equipment is provided. MUNICIPAL REFERENCE BUREAU OCtrnAU Exnt.'EiOM civr' >n UNIVERSITY OF MINNEAPOLIS 5oo PARKS (d) Tennis. Charges for the use of tennis courts is not so widely practiced as yet, but the custom is growing and will likely become almost as widely practiced as fees for the use of golf courses. (e) Municipal theatres. There are very few municipal theatres in the United States at the present time. In the few communities where they do exist it is customary to charge admission fees as in the case of theatres privately owned. In the few cities where operatic performances have been sponsored by park and recreation authorities, it is customary to charge admis- sion fees. It is not uncommon to charge a small admission fee to moving picture performances in community houses or school buildings. Open-air movies have generally been free, as sufficient revenue may be secured from the advertising to cover the cost of operation and maintenance. (/) Art museums. There is usually a small fee charged for admission to public art museums, although there are usually one or more days of the week when the general public is admitted free. (g) Zoological gardens. It is the custom at some zoological gardens to have certain pay days for admission and certain free days. Most of the zoological gardens are, however, free to the general public. (h) Municipal dances. Custom varies respecting municipal dances. In general a small admission fee is charged. (i) Refreshment stands and restaurants. Charges for refreshments or for food served in restaurants in parks are universal. It has never been con- tended that refreshments and food should be served free to the public. The prices charged are generally current prices of average refreshment stands and restaurants. (/) Baseball. Fees for the use of baseball grounds outside of highly developed athletic fields or stadiums have never been charged. In some cities, however, a registration fee is charged each team entering the munic- ipal baseball league or leagues. Income secured from such fees is applied to the operating expenses of the league or leagues. Occasionally, the winning teams play a series of games to which an admission fee is charged, the income thus derived going to help pay the expenses of conducting the league or federation. Football may be handled much in the same manner. (k) Rental of public halls. It is quite common to charge rentals for the use of public halls for certain kinds of activities, such as boxing exhibitions, concerts and theatrical performances conducted for profit by some indi- vidual or organization; dances conducted for profit by an individual or organization; for industrial exhibits and similar activities. (/) Amusement devices of various kinds. Into a few park systems have been introduced certain devices commonly found in commercial amusement parks, and in a very few instances complete commercial amusement equip- PARK FINANCING ment has been introduced. In general, however, such facilities include merely a merry-go-round or a carrousel, a pony track, miniature railroad, etc. Fees are universally charged for the use of these facilities. (m) Golf. Next to fees for swimming facilities, the practice of charging fees for the use of golf courses is most widely practiced. These fees include green fees, locker fees, rentals of clubs, charges for refreshments and for food, charges for supplies and repairs and for lessons. (n) Rentals of camp sites. In a few cities and counties this is a source of revenue of considerable importance. (o) Operation of bus lines. Bus lines may be operated directly by a park governing authority or by a commercial company on a franchise granted by a park governing authority. (p) Commercial baseball park. One instance is noted (Asheville, North Carolina) where the city owns a commercial baseball park and a franchise in a baseball league. This is reported to be quite profitable. This city also owns and operates a commercial amusement park. EXAMPLES OF THE OPERATION OF VARIOUS TYPES OF RECREATION FACILITIES ON A REVENUE BASIS IN DIFFERENT CITIES Swimming Pools and Beaches Baltimore, Md Dallas, Texas Cliff Park Pool Denver, Col. . . . Elgin, 111 East St. Louis, 111. Fort Worth, Texas Forest Park Pool Lake Worth Bathing Beach Year Operating Cost Income Gain or Loss 1918 $24,264.59 $11,046.84 $13,217.75 Loss 1920 34,035.28 15,495.40 18,441.38 Loss 1921 32,264.09 23,209.73 9,054.36 Loss 1922 24,745.85 18,471.45 6,274.40 Loss 1923 19,139.00 16,126.37 3,012.63 Loss 1924 35,170.93 20,157.65 15,013.28 Loss 1921 16,641.57 21,045.32 4,403.75 Gain 1922 17,586.20 17,837.64 251.44 Gain 1923 16,183.48 19,265.80 3,082.32 Gain 1924 18,617.36 21,698.05 3,080.73 Gain 1925 17,214.22 21,751.07 4,536.85 Gain 1922 6,456.81 7,541.64 1,084.83 Gain 1923 5,744-60 5,903-35 !58.75 Gain 1924 5«3°5-69 7,337-65 2,03 1.96 Gain 1924 2,500.00 2,500.00 1925 3,500.00 4,500.00 1,000.00 Gain 1926 3,500.00 4,500.00 1,000.00 Gain 1922 7,302.32 9,224.94 1,922.62 Gain 1924-1925 6,809.65 7,993-00 1,183.35 Gain 1925-1926 7,580.81 8,998.50 1,417.69 Gain 1922 3,409.31 18,610.00 15,200.69 Gain 1923 6,366.60 17,277.61 10,911.01 Gain 1924 4,102.97 12,552.55 8,449.50 Gain 1925 6,587.94 12,688.50 6,103. 56 Gain Operating cost for four years ending April 15, 1925 99,474.91 Income for four years ending April 15, 1925 128,962.91 Net gain in four years 29,488.00 Fees charged: 25 cents for adults and 15 cents for children. 502 PARKS Ye r Operating Cost Income Gain or Loss Glendale, Calif 1923-1924 2,302.30 2,486.09 183.79 Gain 1924-1925 1,648.27 1,779.11 120.84 Gain Los Angeles, Calif i. 1924-1925 5,501.87 5,679.60 177.73 Gain 4 pools 2. 1924-1925 2,155.26 2,389.86 234.60 Gain 3. 1924-1925 2,554.40 2,934-35 379-95 Gain 4. 1924-1925 281.43 922.77 641. 34 Gain Minneapolis, Minn 1919 20,358.99 17,978.81 2,380.18 Loss 1920 25,288.00 25,083.62 204.38 Loss 1921 30,828.77 31,629.90 801.13 Gain 1922 30,286.37 20,658.83 9,627.54 Loss 1923 25,036.82 21,305.87 3,730-95 Loss. 1924 31,181.97 14,202.57 16,979.40 Loss 1925 Pomona, Calif 1921-1922 2,048.26 3,578.27 1,530.01 Gain 1922-1923 2,196.45 3,400.90 1,204.45 Gain 1923-1924 2,408.07 4,156.40 1,748.33 Gain San Jose, Calif 1917-1918 6,462.78 6,040.95 381.83 Loss 1918-1919 6,106.25 5,99O'i5 n6.ioLoss 1919-1920 8,333.39 9,774.10 1,440.71 Gain 1920-1921 8,704.16 8,585.75 118.37 Loss 1921-1922 8,846.97 9,034.25 187.28 Gain 1922-1923 8,401.33 9,581.65 1,180.32 Gain 1923-1924 9,775-76 8,240.00 1,535.26 Loss San Rafael, Calif 1920 6,349.44 7,242.35 892.91 Gain 1921 6,931.16 7,921.30 790.14 Gain 1922 10,454.36 7,683.05 2,771.31 Loss 1923 8,140.84 7,199.10 941-74 Loss 1924 8,629.43 9,269.60 640. 17 Gain 1925 8,534.09 9,497-47 963.38 Gain Louisville, Ky 1923 . 7,418.58 7,104.05 3H-53 Loss Shelby Park Pool 1924 3,825.46 4,996.70 1,171. 24 Gain 1925 3,996.66 6,009.17 2,012.51 Gain Go// Courses Cleveland, Ohio 1921 3°,395-o° 34,385.45 3,99°-45 Gain 1922 24,864.28 39,885.10 15,020.82 Gain 1923 22,086.41 27,372.40 5,285.99 Gain 1924 30,316.35 33,3I3-OO 2,996.65 Gain 1925 56,117.00 (Budget) Columbus, Ohio ....... 1924 10,951.40 11,739.30 787.90 Gain Denver, Col 1922 6,392.47 8,903.40 2,510.93 Gain 1923 14,483.24 13,972.00 511.241088 1924 20,584.09 17,847.50 2,736.59 Loss To December i, 1925 16,500.00 20,161.00 3,661.00 Loss Fort Worth, Texas 1923-1924 12,629.95 12,994.00 364.05 Gain 1924-1925 9,600.00 11,600.00 2,000.00 Gain Hartford, Conn 1923-1924 4,683.58 11,335.25 6,651. 67 Gain 1922-1923 3,463.67 8,045.45 4,581.78 Gain 1921-1922 1,479.15 1920-1921 254.92 1,051.30 • 796.38 Gain 1919-1920 73-28 920.65 847.37 Gain Los Angeles, Calif 1923-1924 77,669.62 111,615.65 33,946.03 Gain A/r. r A/r. 1924-1925 121,792.39 127,323.89 5,531.50 Gain Minneapolis, Minn. Glenwood 1923 17,509.00 27,178.00 9,668.00 Gain 1924 29,221.00 46,819.00 17,598.00 Gain 1925 35,543-00 . 44,7s1-00 9,208.00 Gain PARK FINANCING 503 Year Operating Cost Income Gain or Loss Columbia 1923 8,545.00 14.364.00 5,819.00 Gain 1924 6,417.23 21,350.00 14,932.77 Gain 1925 19,214.00 27,600.00 8,386.00 Gain Pittsburgh, Pa 1924 15,000.00 14,600.00 400.00 Loss (Average) San Diego, Calif 1922 8,018.16 9,114.90 1,096.73 Gain 1923 5,460.99 8,484.50 3,023.51 Gain 1924 5,159.86 8,074.50 2,914.64 Gain Spokane, Wash 1921 7,391-54 7,959-0° 567.46 Gain 1922 7,228.52 10,896.25 3,667.73 Gain 1923 7,496.22 12,231.50 4,735.28 Gain 1924 13,184.39 I5,837-50 2,653. ii Gain Omaha, Neb.1 . ; 1924 20,350.86 12,473.25 7>877-6i Loss 1925 19,134.52 19,524.60 390.08 Gain Oakland. Calif 1923-1924 19,793.08 18,798.25 994-83 Loss 1924^1925 33,335-64 26,431.30 6,904.34 Loss Louisville, Ky.2 1923 3,830.34 7,069.95 3,239-6i Gain 1924 15,030.71 11,836.10 3,194.61 Loss 1925 13,152.15 12,212.50 939-65 Loss Operation of Dance Halls Cleveland, Ohio3 1914 14,773.64 19,510.72 4,737.08 Gain 1915 12,813.42 18,242.73 5,429.31 Gain 1916 11,031.62 14,839.23 3,807.61 Gain 1917 11,374.92 13,085.87 1,710.95 Gain 1918 11,872.58 15,411.47 3,538.89 Gain 1919 12,628.84 18,419.47 5,794-°3 Gain 1920 17,971.08 15,222.92 2,748.16 Loss 1921 11,724.36 9,911.46 1,812.90 Loss 1922 5,252.70 6,655.50 1,402.80 Gain 1923 5,878.62 8,796.49 2,917.87 Gain 1924 6,125.95 6,180.38 54-43 Gain 1925 6,625.00 Est. 7,000.00 Est. 375-oo Est. Hartford, Conn 1923-1924 9,258.63 17,992.20 8,733.57 Gain 1922-1923 12,045.24 19,389.25 7,344.01 Gain 1921-1922 9,212.83 21,986.95 12,774.12 Gain 1920-1921 14,503.15 18,343.50 3,840.35 Gain 1919-1920 14,235.69 17,598-85 3, 363.16 Gain Refreshment Stands and Restaurants San Francisco, Calif 1921 7,019.92 8,258.40 1,238.48 Gain Beach Chalet 1922 7,723.76 8,276.10 552.34 Gain 1923 6,509.89 9,270.75 2,760.86 Gain 1924 9,242.40 10,458.70 1,216.30 Gain 1925 11,299.94 14,677.82 3,377-88 Gain Hartford, Conn 1923-1924 29,947.18 36,358.84 6.411. 66 Gain Refectories 1922-1923 23,484.67 27,776.52 4,291.85 Gain 1921-1922 27,681.82 34,489.10 6,807.28 Gain 1920-1921 32,610.15 38,640.03 6,029.88 Gain 1919-1920 35,591.20 36,737.58 1,146.38 Gain Minneapolis, Minn 1919 116.729.09 133,444.15 16,715.06 Gain Refectories 1920 152,775.17 181,433.83 28,658.66 Gain 1921 149,694.78 172,756.00 23,061.22 Gain 1922 139,972.03 168,501.01 28,528.98 Gain 1923 159,214.92 174,955.92 15,741.00 Gain 1 It' is probable that construction costs were included in operating costs for 1924. 2 Fees for playing were first charged in 1923. 3 Beginning with 1922 only one dance hall was operated. Previous to that date there were two. PARKS Year 1924 Operating Cost 101,999.76 Income $116,191.84 Gain or Loss $14,192.08 Gain Year Profit or Loss on Operation Cleveland, Ohio ion Operated on concession 7,619.00 Gain Refreshment stands * 7 * J 1914 Operated by city 18,669.32 Gain mymlf 1915 Operated by city 12,623.99 Gain I9l6 Operated by city 23,661.28 Gain 1917 Operated by city 11,113.39 Gain 1918 Operated by city i3,259-47 Gain 1919 Operated by city 5,676.00 Gain I92O Operated by city 4,227.14 Loss 1921 Operated by city 2,757-35 Loss 1922 Operated on concession 33,050.00 1923 Operated on concession 32,875.00 1924 Operated on concession 36,375.00 Year Income from Concessions Denver Col 1921 $18,180.94 No Outlays s 1922 20,892.40 1923 19,089.39 1924 19,578.74 1925 19,819.51 Year Operating Cost Income Gain or Loss Spokane, Wash. 1921 $4,406.82 $4,960.83 $554.01 Gain 1922 3,372.20 4,403-46 1,031.26 Gain 1923 3,149.66 3,976.62 826.96 Gain 1924 3,549-59 4,612.76 1,063.17 Gain Toutists' Camps Fort Worth, Texas 1924-1921; 3,608.18 4,712.50 1,104.32 Gain Denver, Col.1 .7 T s D 1924 28,946.48 14,722.00 14,224.48 Loss 7— T. 1925 25,400.00 14,472.00 10,928.00 Loss Spokane, Wash 1923 3,174.17 4,932.00 1,757.83 Gain 1924 3,338.83 5,228.00 1,889.17 Gain Des Moines, Iowa I92C-I926 4.,O4.I.C7 T.lSo.IC 861.42 Loss Omaha, Neb y 3 7 1923 T, T J 1 J3 J 2,238.26 2,I22.5O 115.76 Loss 7 j 1924 3,950.66 3,900.50 50.16 Loss 1925 4,205.l6 3,896.00 309.16 Loss Boats . Minneapolis, Minn 1919 12,964.05 2I,2I3.IO 8,249.05 Gain s s 1920 15,344.83 26,215.76 10,870.93 Gain 1921 15,63477 25,624.85 9,990.08 Gain 1922 13,469.72 23,6l9.2O 10,149.48 Gain 1923 14,940.08 25,017.90 10,077.82 Gain 1924 15,643.81 19,835.05 4,191.24 Gain IQ2C r Oakland, Calif 3» J I92I-I922 21,379.68 21,74.0.81 361.13 Gain 1922-1923 yjls 9f^r^ l6,I23.42 17,986.41 1,862.99 Gain 1923-1924 T7>335-96 16,040.26 1,295.70 Loss 1924-1925 14,296.66 14,021.71 274.95 Loss East St. Louis, 111. IQ22 822.67 1,227.27 404.60 Gain J7 1924-1925 1,009.97 1,238.50 228.53 Gain 1925-1926 948.57 1,292.50 343.93 Gain Tacoma, Wash IQ24. 7,890.82 19,593.00 11,702.18 Gain 1 Figures for 1925 to December I * 7^T only. PARK FINANCING 505 Miscellaneous Revenue Bearing Facilities or Activities Year San Francisco, Calif. Children's quarters Hartford, Conn. Skating . . . Sheepbakes Picnics Oakland, Calif.1 Summer camps 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1923-1924 1922-1923 1921-1922 1920-1921 1919-1920 1923-1924 1922-1923 1921-1922 1923-1924 1922-1923 1921-1922 1921-1922 1922-1923 1923-1924 1924-1925 Operating Cost 65,362.39 76,505.46 56,003.37 84,675.88 60,863.89 2,548.66 2,017.39 2,993.07 4,052.61 2,939.08 15-33 56.92 6,043.00 10,735.00 iS,SSi-oo 11,788.00 Income 75,372-39 72,088.10 76,241.06 86,676.76 69,979.16 4,035-45 3,358.68 5,824.74 5,738-45 613-85 4,293-30 2,557-50 1,017.05 23-75 97-25 412.40 3,936.00 7,749-oo 16,099.00 12,379.00 Gain or Loss 10,010.00 Gain 4,417.36 Loss 20,237.69 Gain 2,600.88 Gain 9.115.27 Gain 1,486.79 Gain 1.341.28 Gain 2,831.67 Gain 240.69 Gain 381.58 Loss 8.42 Gain 40.33 Gain 2,107.00 Loss 2,986.00 Loss 548.00 Gain 591.00 Gain Concessions versus Direct Municipal Management. It should be adopted, as a general principle, that all facilities and activities for which a fee is admissible should be operated by the municipal authority directly responsible for such service. The concession plan is wrong in principle for the reason that it capitalizes public properties and public good will for the personal profit of an individual or a corporation, and the concessionaire is more likely to be interested in the volume of the profits than in the quality of the service. The prime consideration in the handling of all kinds of facilities for which fees may be charged is to provide the best quality of service at the lowest possible cost. This can be done only when the element of profit for the sake of profit alone is more or less entirely eliminated. In general the only excuse for a public park authority charg- ing fees is to cover the cost of operation and maintenance, although it would be quite proper to include extension of service, depreciation and replace- ment of structures and equipment, and, in some cases, capital outlays for landed properties. In any case there is no real justification for the public authorities to operate public recreation facilities on the profit theory and principle that governs the commercial and industrial world. Retention of Revenues by Park Departments Desirable. A great step forward in the development of the fee system in connec- tion with the operation and maintenance of recreation facilities would be the universal adoption of specific authority for the park and recreation governing authorities to retain the revenues derived therefrom in the park 1 For the first two years the operating cost includes cost of developing the camps. 5o6 PARKS and recreation fund. In a large number of cities the law requires that all such revenues must be deposited to the credit of the general fund of the city. There is no special incentive for an executive to make great effort to develop this phase of operation and maintenance where he not only loses the possible fruits of his labor but, in an unguarded moment, may have it count against him in the annual appropriation. 6. Miscellaneous sources of revenue. There are many different kinds of miscellaneous sources of revenue, none of which are of very great impor- tance so far as volume of revenue is concerned. Some of these sources are: (a) Fines resulting from conviction for violating park ordinances, (b) Rentals from houses on undeveloped properties, (c) Charges for services rendered to outside parties, (d) Sales of obsolete or worn-out equipment. (e) Sales of produce, such as hay or other crops grown on undeveloped large parks or reservations. Dead timber is sometimes sold for fuel. (/) Sales of nursery stock — a practice that is generally frowned upon because of its possible competition with commercial nurseries, (g) Commissions on tele- phones, weighing machines, etc. (h) Interest on bank balances. BIBLIOGRAPHY "Are Charges for Certain Park Service Justified or "Financing Public Parks," Henry P. Chandler. The Should it be Free?" Theodore Wirth. Proceedings of Park International, Vol. I, No. 3, November, 1920, the Seventeenth Annual Convention of the American pages 250-256. Association of Park Superintendents, August, 1915, "Golf as a Public Utility," C. P. Keyser. Parks and pages 26-27. Discussion of paper, pages 27-35. Recreation, Vol. VII, No. 4, March-April, 1925, pages "Concessions and Privileges in Public Parks." Bulle- 305-306. tin No. 12, 1925, publication of the American Associa- "Park Finances," Charles W. Saunders. Parks and tion of Park Superintendents. A summary of methods Recreation, Vol. VII, No. 3, January-February, 1924, of operation in various American cities with comments pages 209—213. by members of the American Association of Park Super- "Park Concessions," E. W. Dean. Parks and Recrea- intendents. tion, Vol. VII, No. 3, Jan.-Feb. 1924, pages 234-238.