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REPORT ON A
PARK SYSTEM

FOR

Hl ek OC Kk

JOHN NOLEN Se LANDSCAPE
CAMBRIDGE, MASS. ° ARCHITECT

DEMOCRAT PRINTING & LITHOGRAPHING CO.
“"The ARKANSAS House’? LITTLE ROCK, ARK.

[Pectace

In submitting Mr. Nolen’s report to the citizens of Little
Rock, we can not refrain from expressing a feeling of pride that
the first step toward the acquirement of a system of parks and
boulevards has been made. We now have a comprehensive plan
prepared by an expert. We believe that the recommendations
embraced in the report are feasible and that many of them should
be carried out now; but it should be remembered that Mr. Nolen
does not advise that all of his plans be put into immediate execu-
tion, for the cost of doing so would more than offset the benefits
derived. The public should acquire as much land for parks and
rights-of-way for boulevards as possible with the money available,
after setting aside a portion of the money to build necessary
roads, drives, walks, etc. The improvement and beautification

of the areas acquired would follow gradually as a matter of course.

We suggest a large improvement district as the vehicle for
carrying through to execution these splendid plans. This district
should embrace the entire city of Little Rock and the surrounding
property affected by the proposed improvements. In order that
the property owners may know to what extent they are taxing
themselves, a limit of expenditure should be provided. From a
study of the requirements in other cities, and after a careful
consideration of the local conditions, we believe that no attempt
should be made at present to raise more than four hundred
thousand ($400,000.00) dollars. And the bonds issued to secure

this amount should not begin to mature for five years, and should

Preface—Continued

then be retired gradually, through a period of twenty years. In
this way the burden will not fall heavily on anyone and the tax

will be cheerfully paid by all patriotic and progressive citizens.

We invite your careful perusal of the contents of this report
and bespeak your assistance and support in this movement to
make our city bigger, healthier and more beautiful. Suggestions
concerning these plans, and new ideas will be welcomed. Please
write or phone one of the undersigned if you have something

to recommend.
Respectfully submitted,

LITTLE ROCK PARKWAYS ASSOCIATION.
W. L. Hemingway,
J. N. Heiskell,
J. Merrick Moore,
S. W. Reyburn,
G. B. Rose,
C. L. Thompson,

Executive Committee.

CITY OF LITTLE ROCK
ARKANSAS

©, GENERAL FEATURES OF A PARK SYSTEM

FOR THE CITY AND ENVIRONS
ees

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y JORN NOLEN LANDSCAPE AReniTECT

PULASKI
HEIGHTS

SAME MAP SHOWING AREAS TO BE IMPROVED. (FOLDED MAP IN BACK
IS AN ENLARGED COPY OF THIS.)

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SUGGESTED TREATMENT FOR STREETS AND AVENUES.

‘F[utroduction

I:

In the reservation of parks it should be clearly understood
that the primal end is neither to beautify, nor to add a luxury,
to the city’s possessions. On the contrary, it is the profoundly
important matter of securing a reasonably high standard for
property development. Without reservations for parks, play-
grounds, etc., and the proper platting of streets, the more influ-
ential and independent citizens will go beyond the city to pleas-
anter regions where streets shall be laid at easy grades, con-
forming to the topography, and where ample reservation of open
spaces will secure for al] time the pleasant prospects appropriate

to a region of homes.

These are features which people in cities which have passed
through the experience of park reservation have learned to appre-
ciate and would not do without. Park reservation serves a
distinctly practical purpose, providing always an element of
permanence to a neighborhood which serves to fix the real estate
values in the region. Owners facing a park know the outlook
is thus secured for all time, and they build and settle with con-
fidence. Business in some instances may encroach, but the
desirability of the region, as far as open spaces are concerned,
can never be seriously impaired, and property with secured advan-

tages passes always at a premium over property unsecured.

By some who have not followed the history of American

park reservation, the question may still be asked of what use

Introduction—Continued

are these parks? Why do we need them at all? Why not secure
the large return from the same land devoted to business? Why
not continue the building of brick and stone over an unbroken
area indefinitely as the city develops?) The answer is that cities
can never be wholesomely and economically built in this way.
Especially in our rapidly growing American cities, it is vitally
necessary to recognize certain Jaws on which wholesome develop-
ment depends; precisely as we recognize Jaws on which the
physical development of the individual depends. Never have
cities entirely failed to appreciate the need for freedom and
elbow room, so to speak; for contact with nature; for relief from

the artificial and mechanical.

A certain ratio should be maintained between the population
of a city and the area reserved for open spaces. As the city
develops, it is a short-sighted policy that fails to maintain this
ratio—a policy which leads eventually to low property valua-
tion, to slum conditions and to ill-favored succeeding generations.
A certain complement of fresh air, of open space, of touch with
nature, proves in the experience of cities vitally essential for
wholesome development. Response to this need results in high
grade development and in sound, unfluctuating values—two of

the chief factors in civic well-being.

Description of Areas

1}.
The areas recommended for acquisition and development
have been classified as follows:
A. City Squares, Civic Center and Capitol Grounds.
School Grounds and Athletic Fields.
Main Avenue System.

Encircling Parks and Parkways.

Se Clee

Reservations.

Brief descriptions of these areas follow and their location
has been indicated on the accompanying plan, entitled, “General
Features of a Park System for Little Rock and Environs,” scale
1,200 feet to the inch.

A. CITY SQUARES, CIVIC CENTER AND CAPITOL
GROUNDS.

1. Two blocks bounded by Fourteenth, Fifteenth, High
and Pulaski Streets.

These blocks, occupied at present with property of low valua-
tion, occur about equidistant from the Capitol Grounds, West
End Park, Mount Holly Cemetery and certain blocks southward
along High Street considered for reservation. They also occur
at the important intersection of Pulaski, High, and Fourteenth

Streets. Such a breathing space in the heart of this section will

8 Report on a Park System

prove one of the most useful and practically remunerative acquisi-

tions in the park system.
2. The Civic Center.

Little Rock at present has no distinct plan for grouping its
public buildings. The advantage not only in having related
departments of public administration closely associated, but in
securing by means of a consolidated group of well-designed
buildings a dignified and appropriate center, toward which the
interest of citizens may repeatedly turn, is important. In the
neighborhood of such a nucleus as at present exists in the City
Hall, the Postoffice and the new Court House, the city should
reserve certain blocks to provide an appropriate setting for
these buildings and suitable sites for sti]] other civic, county,
or State buildings to be erected in the future. Detailed calcula-
tions by those competent to make them would probably show
that the community would best adopt a decisive, carefully thought-
out policy for securing the necessary land in the near future. Such
calculation by those able to estimate the city’s ability to under-
take and carry out the project would probably show that even a
considerable outlay would be largely compensated for at once
by increased valuations in the immediate region of the civic
center, and that future returns from the adoption of so definite
and permanent a policy would justify many times over the
initial expenditure.

We present two schemes, however, one to meet that condition
in which, after careful investigation, there would seem no practical
means for securing more land than merely to define a civic center.
Such a scheme would none the less be an important step toward

civic improvement.

LITTLE ROCK ARKANSAS |
STUDY FOR A CIVIC CENTRE

STReer

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Sreecer

SPRING
Can ree

PLAN FOR CIVIC CENTER.

For Little Rock, Arkansas 9

In this case we recommend the reservation, as a public square,

of the block opposite the present City Hall and fire house, and
west of the old court house and its new annex. With the reser-
vation of adequate building sites on the two other blocks facing the
square, Little Rock could secure a grouping of public buildings

that would definitely fix a civic center.

The second scheme, however, suggests a more adequate
provision for the future. It boldly attempts to break up the
monotonous checker board system of uniform blocks and streets.
It proposes the reservation of two blocks south of the present
City Hall and fire house, the first of these between Markham and
Second Streets, to become the building site for a new City Hall.
Furthermore, it proposes the widening of these blocks by the
deflection eastward and westward respectively of Broadway and
Arch Streets, making virtually new thoroughfares in the civic
center, and reducing the area of all the blocks east, west and
south facing the civic center open space. In these new blocks
there would be adequate building sites for three new municipal,
county, or federal buildings. One of these would probably be
required for city offices, a second might be an auditorium, and a
third could serve no better purpose than a subsidized municipal
theatre, where the production of good plays and opera would be
as distinct an attraction as the city could well offer to prospective
residents. Furthermore, two sites on Markham Street would
provide adequately for a future museum and library, such as the
city in course of time must require. At the opposite end of the
civic center the central block shows a hotel, and at either corner,
apartment houses, the one providing an adequate cafe, the other,

shops facing outside the civic center. The whole group would

10 Report on a Park System

tell distinctly as a unit—the administrative heart of the com-
munity. Properly designed in detail, the buildings would show
to advantage from every point of view. Connection is shown
between the proposed City Hall and the proposed inner parkway
by a broad avenue, thus closely linking the civic center with the
encircling parks. The land between the parkway and the rail-

road tracks is also shown in reservation.

Such a group, if the right means of carrying it out can be
found, would be the most economically justifiable, for it means
the elimination of uncertainty, repetition, reduplication; it means
concerted effort upon a single perfectly definite and appropriate
scheme. It is earnestly hoped that there will be sufficient faith
in the stability of civic purpose in Little Rock to adopt the larger
and much better plan.

3. The Old State House.

To this fine example of characteristic Southern architecture
and to its grounds, a word of genuine tribute is due. It would be
difficult to reproduce in a modern building the qualities of this
old structure; at the same time its historic value is unique. As
the city develops, it is the most important building to preserve—
a significant relic of excellent beginnings in the early decades of
the State. Its grounds, quite in the spirit of the building, are
suggestive of parks in southern Europe, a result partly of easy
attention to their appearance, an effect readily lost by too scrupu-
lous care. Due attention, of course, is not given to neatness, but
this is still possible without disturbing irregular margins of the
walks, moss in the pavements and about the fountain, and informal
branches of trees and shrubs. With the addition of a little care-

For Little Rock, Arkansas I]

eee

ful planting, these grounds may become a lovely and truly appro-

priate setting for the building.

It is recommended also that the river front of the building
be given especial attention. Here lies the possibility of developing
fine outlooks over the water, for constructing possibly a terrace
walk, for planting trees and shrubbery, and for securing in a few
years at comparatively small cost one of the most beautiful and

characteristic gardens in the heart of a Southern city.

4. The Capitol Grounds.

In the new Capitol, Arkansas has a building of great beauty,
for which the present grounds form a very inadequate and unsat-
isfactory setting. The acquisition of all areas not already a part
of the grounds existing between Wolf, Victory, Seventh Streets
and the tracks of the Jron Mountain is practically a necessity
to secure appropriate surroundings. Furthermore, owing to
particular adaptability for park purposes of the land beyond the
railroad, and its location for the most part in a valley between
the city and what must eventually be the most important western
extension, it is recommended that the Capitol grounds be extended
to include whatever land between the railroad and the river may
not actually be required for railroad purposes. The shallow
stream of Rose Creek within a comparatively small area in this
section winds through exceedingly varied scenes, now over a
pebbly bed surrounded by scattered cypress, now through a
meadow with groups of willows, now through a little grove, and
now through a rocky ravine—of small proportions but much
beauty—under a bridge at a point suggestive of a beautiful

permanent structure in keeping with surrounding nature, and

12 Report on a Park System

thence on to its junction with the Arkansas River, westward of
the Rocky Bluffs. Such natural features are precisely the ele-
ments to determine the site of a park, and while it has been
impossible to fix any definite areas on the general plan, whatever
sections may not actually be required by the railroad may with
particular appropriateness form connections between the Capitol

grounds and the River Bluffs.

According to recommendations of this report, the river front
would in any case be reserved, but this section north of the
Capitol between Baring Cross Bridge and the mouth of Rose
Creek, deserves especial consideration, and might appropriately
have definite connection with the Capitol grounds. Here the
bank rises to an imposing elevation above the water, and at one
point is fortified against the current by fine rocky bluffs. Nowhere
nearer the city are the views of the river finer or on a larger scale.
The bank, where soil permits, is overgrown with shrubbery and
vines, and heavily wooded; nearer the water, willows help to
retain the sand of a beach constantly in use by the boys. A com-
bination of circumstances and conditions makes this, of the
entire shore, the most suitable for park purposes. At the top of
the bluffs the proposed inner parkway follows somewhat the lines
of Riverside Avenue. Walks and overlook should be constructed
nearer the edge of the promontory, and there should be bathing
facilities in some form, for which at present a demand so obviously
exists.

Such a reservation may be entirely separate from the Capitol
grounds, or, with the intervening Rose Creek, may be more or
less closely connected. The Capitol, in any case, should have

dignified and adequate surroundings extending northward to the

THE BEAUTY OF THE OLD STATE HOUSE.

THE POSSIBILITIES OF THE NEW CAPITOL.

ear
a wl
D =) a - 7 fi Pa

For Little Rock, Arkansas 13

railroad. Whatever else is reserved will help to secure a beautiful
entrance to the city, and may save from otherwise objectionable
development the low-lying region adjoining the Capitol. Espe-
cially strong is the recommendation for an ample foothold on
the bank of the great river at the finest point in its course near

the city.

B. SCHOOL GROUNDS AND ATHLETIC FIELDS.
1. School Grounds.

The development of the school grounds to serve the purposes
of play and open air gymnasia is one of the most important steps
already taken by Little Rock toward the realization of a complete
park system. The reservation in most cases of an entire city block
for school purposes is an excellent custom. Two suggestions,
however, are important; first, that areas much larger and capable
of more satisfactory development for play purposes can usually
be secured by locating the school building otherwise than in the
center of the block; and second, that the planting of hardy
shrubs and trees about the buildings and along the boundaries
and sometimes as enclosures for sections devoted to various
purposes of play, will be a genuine improvement. The growth
and practicability of such planting depends largely on the selec-
tion of species. Careful plans by a competent landscape architect
had best in all cases be prepared to secure permanent results at

small cost.
2. Athletic Fields.
While the school grounds offer an opportunity for the sand

boxes and apparatus used by little children and small boys and
girls, there should also be provided two further classes of play-

14 Report on a Park System

fields where boys between ten and sixteen and from sixteen
upwards can have opportunity for the rougher and more seriously

organized games.

The extent to which city streets are used, often contrary to
existing law, for ball playing, is evidence of the demand and
need for these playfields. It is the fullest encouragement, not the
repression of these wholesome impulses, which is desirable. The
recommendation is made that three new playfields for the older
boys and men, besides that already established at West End
Park, be reserved; one in the easterly portion of the town beyond
the tracks of the Rock Island Railroad, a block not yet precisely
determined; one beyond the southerly termination of Main Street
on a site well adapted for a playfield, and later described under
D, 10, Park and Playfield; and a third at the junction of Four-
teenth Street and Elm Street. The two latter should probably

be reserved for negroes.

The recommendation is also made that frequent playfields
be reserved to meet the requirements of smaller boys, for the
most part between the ages of ten and sixteen years. These
boys will not congregate naturally at a great distance from home,
and such a playfield should be, under ideal circumstances, within
half a mile of every boy. Where playfields are not otherwise
provided, they should be given a place in the plan for develop-
ment of every park of considerable extent. Localities occur in
most of the sites recommended for park reservation and described

under heading Encircling Parks and Parkways.

For Little Rock, Arkansas 15

C. MAIN AVENUE SYSTEM.

In the development of a city’s traffic system, particular
planning in the way of wider planting strips and perhaps restric-
tions on abutting property should be given certain avenues
designed more expressly for the use of pleasure vehicles. Such
shaded driveways may profitably occur without interfering with

traffic interests of business about every half mile in either direction.

Since the question of shade for a large portion of the year is
vitally related to the comfort of every individual who uses the
pavements, the planting of these avenues, as of all planting strips
in the city, is one of the most practical matters for consideration.
An occasional well-shaded block is an illustration of what can be
done to secure protection from sun and heat. To secure similar
results for the entire length of all streets will prove one of the
most gratefully accepted efforts of whatever commission has this
in charge. Low hanging mulberries, euonymus, or myrtles, in
this climate with comparatively little care, will overarch the
walks, while larger trees more widely spaced will give practically

unbroken shade for vehicles.
Streets recommended as shaded avenues are:

1. Broadway extending from the Civic Center to Arch

Street Grove.

2. Center Street from the Old State House to the Blind
Institute.

3. Commerce Street from Eighth to the encircling parkway.

4. Rector Avenue from the River to Ninth Street, thence
adjoining the park as McAlmont to the Bragg estate.

16

Report on a Park System

16.

High Street from the Capitol to Braddock Park.

Victory Street from the Union Depot to the park at the
junction of Fourteenth and High Streets.

Pulaski from Water Street to encircling boulevard.
Gaines Street from Water Street to Wright Avenue.
Capitol Avenue from the Capitol to Rector Avenue.

Eighth from the parkway at Rice Street to Rector

Avenue.

Eleventh Street from the parkway at Thayer Street to
the City Park.

Fourteenth Street from West End Park to McAlmont
Street.

Seventeenth Street from Griffith Street to McAlmont
Street.

Wright Avenue from Griffith Street to Pulaski Street.

Twenty-first Street from Pulaski Street to McAlmont
Street.

Twenty-sixth Street from Griffith Street to encircling
boulevard.

D. ENCIRCLING PARKS AND PARKWAYS.

While the reservation of open spaces toward the present

business center of Little Rock is practically prohibited on account

of high land valuations, there is still the opportunity of securing

an excellent series of encircling parks, each serving a particular

purpose in its immediate district and in the city as a whole. The

For Little Rock, Arkansas 17

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connection of these areas by means of a continuous parkway
brings the series into a complete system very much more effective

in serving the community than were each reservation isolated.

The following description indicates the adaptability of each

section for park purposes, and its relation to the system as a whole.

1. The River Bank.

To reserve the water front for the public and to protect it
from private occupation is especially important. At present much
of the bank is taken up with untidy and unsanitary shacks of
squatters; still more is taken up with business which derives no
particular advantage from river front location. At practically no
point near the center of the city has the public suitable access
to the shore. Wide reservations will prove feasible eastward and
westward of the city where extraordinary luxuriance of vegeta-
tion offers desirable material in the development of a park.
Nearer the center of the city, on the other hand, public holdings
may of necessity be narrower, may even require filling and ter-
racing into the river, but in any case should provide a continuous
walk, and, if possible, a driveway. In the accompanying sketch
we have shown a drive twenty-four feet wide extending from the
proposed parkway near the old State House, where it passes by
subway under the railroad tracks, thence along the river front,
crossing the old levee and making connection eventually with
Rector Avenue. Subways for carriages or foot passengers should
make connection also from the other streets leading down to the
water. The feature even more important than the drive, how-
ever, is a broad walk, at least ten feet wide, which should make

an appropriate promenade along the city’s river front.

18 Report on a Park System

The construction of such a drive and walk will, it is likely,
involve far less expense if one or both are not entirely above the
highest high water level. Such rises in the river are of short
duration, and to good road construction occasional inundation
could do no injury. With an adequate planting of trees and shrubs
to screen the railroad and unsightly objects, and to enframe the
views from particular points, the river front can be made far
different from what it is, and a source of constant pride’ and
enjoyment to the entire community. Acquisition of the entire
river front is recommended, securing it for recreation and for

such public landings as the purposes of commerce may require.
2. Upper Rose Creek.

In the development of a connected system of reservations,
the upper course of Rose Creek should be included. From the
River Bluffs and the Capitol Grounds a connection should be
made with West End Park, three quarters of a mile distant.
Something more than a mere parkway in the center of this region,
which extends on either side of the railroad and promises to develop
for residential purposes, will be more and more urgently required.
Several blocks and parts of blocks extending roughly between
Thayer Avenue and the junction of Marshall and Fifth Streets
should be reserved, giving ample width on either side of the
stream, providing the connecting link in the parkway and a
development of the region to serve purposes of rest and play and
the special needs of the neighborhood. As yet there are few
houses on the blocks in question and the many fine trees will

prove desirable features in the park.

For Little Rock, Arkansas 19

3. West End Park.

This area of approximately twenty-five acres, ought more
fully than it does to serve immediately the purpose for which it
was reserved. We suggest a plan for development showing pro-
vision for a full sized ball diamond, a grand stand and bleachers
which may be increased to meet a large demand of spectators.
Provision is also made for tennis playing, with a number of courts
adequate to sustain considerable popular interest. A field house
equipped with shower baths and lockers is shown between the
ball field and the more rural section of the park. On pleasant
evenings band concerts should be given from a terrace on the east
of the field house, the people gathering on the surrounding lawn.
To this portion of the park appropriate access should be given
by entrances more or less formally designed, anda system of walks
and paths should make circulation through the region easy and
delightful. A small depression at one side is a natural suggestion
for a pool, one bay of which might be adapted especially for
wading. Adjoining this a small lawn enclosed with shrubbery
should be devoted to the games and play of little children who
might be brought thither by attendants. A small shelter expressly
at their disposal should be provided as well as sand boxes, a
pergola and benches. Jn all this section the care of the trees is
important and the existence of any particular desirable ones
should determine location of walks. Such a park will serve a

daily usefulness in the lives of many neighboring dwellers.

4. Griffith Street.

From West End Park, a continuation of the parkway should
extend toward the southerly portion of the town. Griffith Street

20 Report on a Park System

in this region has particular advantages as a route for a part of
the way. The grades are good, there are few obstructions to wid-
ening, the trees are fine, and the surrounding property of great

interest and beauty.
5. Riffel and Rhoton Estates.

Beyond the logical extension of Twenty-fifth Street the
Parkway, leaving the straight half mile stretch of Griffith Street,
should follow in pleasant curves the topography of the somewhat
irregular section beyond. A rough wagon road, at present a
good bridle path, suggests a possible course and the recommen-
dation is made that a tract roughly of fifty acres through this
somewhat low rolling country be reserved for the particular
purpose of inducing a higher standard for residential development
in this attractive section of the town. The topography of the
region and its many excellent trees, including unusual groups of
old hornbeams, suggest its larger service to the community in

the form of a reservation.
6. Atwood Estate.

Adjoining the Riffel and Rhoton property, but on a higher
level and commanding a considerable outlook, is a broad, slightly
rounded field of twenty to forty acres—according as one considers
the bounds—between Twenty-seventh, Twenty-ninth and Wolf
Streets. This, it appears, has already been selected for an open
space. As a common or green, which the spot strongly suggests,

the reservation unquestionably would be appropriate.

WEST END PARK
LITTLE ROCK ARKANSAS

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7. Braddock’s Park.

From the lower levels westward of Thirty-first, Thirty-second,
and Thirty-third Streets, the parkway should follow a rising
grade into a parallel with Thirty-fourth Street, thence, avoiding
corners and abrupt turns, across High into Thirty-fifth Street,
thus making the connection with Braddock’s Park. This inter-
esting grove, largely of oaks and nut trees, is situated on a high
bluff entirely concealing from its highest points the railroad that
runs at its foot. The outlook is one of the best within the city,
extending unobstructed across the Fourche Basin, marked with
its characteristic cypress tops, to the ridge of Granite Mountain
beyond. Within the park the westward slope falls steeply. Half
way down, a small stream, dammed in its course, forms a pool.
Farther down, the woods become dense and heavy. These are
elements to be considered in the development of a park. Use
might still be made of the pavilions already there, or of more
substantial ones, for purposes of amusement or eating. Many
smaller trees should be taken out giving the larger ones oppor-
tunity for reaching their fullest development. Vistas, outlooks
and open Jawns should be arranged in accordance with the plans
of development. Turf on the dry pebbly hill top would probably
be difficult to grow and expensive to maintain, but there are
other serviceable ground covers, and together with shrubbery
and a convenient system of paths, the spot could be given a new
and delightful character such as only those who are familiar with
such results can foresee. An area of some eighty acres is recom-
mended for acquisition, considerable more than that to which at
present the name Braddock’s Park is applied. The region west-
ward toward Thirty-fourth Street, which is steep and difficult to

22 Report on a Park System

utilize for residential purposes, and a few lots on the south side
of Thirty-fifth Street should be included in the park. The latter
would give the opportunity for adequately widening Thirty-

fifth Street as a parkway.
8. “Swaggerty.”

From High Street, Thirty-fifth Street descends in grade to a
small stream of which “Swaggerty’’ seems to be the popular name.
This stream derives especial interest from its location in the
midst of what should be an important residential section. Between
Nineteenth and Twentieth Streets, it flows southward in a ditch
on the left hand side of High Street. Beyond this it flows through
a succession of varied scenes in one block after another, diverging
more and more widely from High Street. There are good trees,
oaks, sweet gums, willows, nut trees in many picturesque groups;
there are thickets of vines and shrubbery, elder, elderberry, grape,
greenbriar, wistaria, and several viburnums. There are broad
pools, attractive bends, an open pasture and a grove. The han-
dling of such a stream is an important matter both for developers
of adjoining real estate and for the community at large in its
efforts to realize a higher standard of surroundings. Two courses
are open, either the covering of the stream at large expense, using
jt as a sewer and in the course of time filling over it to make
building lots, or, on the other hand, leaving the stream open, pre-
serving its trees and shrubbery, keeping its attractive banks and
curves, crossing it with appropriate bridges, reserving land of
sufficient width on either side, saving the expense of putting
the stream underground and of filling, giving up many possible
building lots, but very greatly adding to the valuation of prop-

For Little Rock, Aransas 23

erty adjoining. The latter course seems altogether preferable,
especially as the stream occurs in the heart of a region where a
serious need for open space is sure to arise. The reservation
shown on the plan, indicating a mean width of three-hundred
feet, will provide a succession of resting places and playgrounds
which will greatly add to the attractiveness of the region to pros-

pective home seekers.
9. Arch Street Grove.

The parkway from Thirty-fifth Street should make a good
connection with Arch Street Pike possibly at its junction with
Thirty-third Street. Thence on a slightly rising grade following
Arch Street it should form one of the bounds to a grove of much
value for park purposes at the logical extension of Broadway.
Here are about thirty acres of good trees, oak, ash, hickory, on
an even southerly slope at the termination of a main north and
south axis of the city. Such a grove at this point should be
regarded as a fortunate occurrence and secured at once for the

park system.
10. Park and Playfield.

Beyond the logical easterly termination of Twenty-seventh
Street the parkway should continue at easy grades following
possibly, other considerations permitting, the natural brow of
the hill, avoiding always sharp turns, and making connection
with Rock at Twenty-fifth Street or Commerce at Twenty-fourth
Street. This will have the advantage of providing a suitable
termination for practically all the important north and scuth
streets from Spring to Commerce in a broad, tree planted, encir-
cling driveway.

24 Report on a Park System

Furthermore, beyond the parkway to the south and beyond
the termination of Louisiana, Main, Scott and Cumberland, there
lie two adjoining regions particularly suited for park purposes,
the one, an irregular tract full of trees and dense thickets of
Juxuriant shrubbery, with a stream winding through it, and the
other an open field of twenty-five acres, level enough for the
purposes of play, and having at its northern end a rounded hill
providing good outlooks over the fields and to the wooded slopes
beyond the Fourche.

In this region an ample playfield for boys and men, as well
as sections devoted to small boys and children, will greatly repay
its reservation. The adjoining section about the stream being

unusually attractive should likewise be reserved.
1]. Bragg’s Creek.

From the junction of Commerce and Twenty-fourth Streets,
if this should prove, after closer detailed study, the precise loca-
tion for the parkway, a connection should be made with Twenty-
sixth Street crossing Bragg’s Creek and following Twenty-sixth
Street eastward past the Confederate and Federal Cemeteries
and probably at a future time, continuing beyond Chicago, Rock
Island & Pacific Railway into the suburban country eastward.
For the present, however, the most important branch of the
parkway would make connection with McAlmont Street passing
to the north of the cemetery. Returning, however, to the crossing
of Bragg’s Creek and Twenty-sixth Street, we find another inter-
esting stream draining the easterly section of the city, its three
tributaries flowing from Fifteenth and East Streets, from the
City Park, and from the region of the High School Playfield.

AS WE HAVE USED IT.

OENTER ST

STREET

Secriow AA AT A SCALE OF SO reer TO 1 INCH,

PROPOSED TREATMENT FOR THE RIVER BANK.

For Little Rock, Arkansas 25

The main body of the stream flows through Oakland Cemetery,
thence south under the tracks of the Chicago, Rock Island &
Pacific Railway, to the Fourche Bayou beyond. The High School
Playfield and several adjoining blocks, through which the western
source of Bragg’s Creek flows, are important for consideration.
Here, in what must eventually be the heart of the city, is the
opportunity for still securing four or five blocks as open space
and playfield. It is an opportunity likely soon to be Jost without
prompt action. Following the westerly branch of Bragg’s stream,
which through these blocks is provided with a variously walled
and covered channel, we come just beyond at the junction of
Nineteenth and Rock Streets to a broader open channel, over-
arched with trees and banked with considerable Juxuriance of
shrubbery. At this point begins what, for park purposes, is one
of the most naturally suitable places in the city. The great trees,
the winding stream, the number of pleasing and varied scenes,
the rolling contour of the ground, very suggestive in spots of typical
English scenery, make the place particularly desirable for park
reservation. The city has already a small holding south of Vance
Street but the entire region ought to be secured forming a park
continuous with the athletic field and its adjoining blocks. The
opportunity for acquiring so beautiful a piece of pasture as that
north of Twenty-first would be extraordinary in any city.

12. City Park.

Beyond the junction of Commerce and Twenty-fourth Streets
and before the parkway connects with Twenty-sixth Street, an
important branch should make direct connection with McAlmont

Street and Rector Avenue, bringing the City Park thus more

26 Report on a Park System

closely in relation to the system. In the development of the
City Park it is suggested that a larger use be made of shrubbery
and that care be taken to allow this to attain its full natural
development with as little pruning as possible. It is also sug-
gested that an appropriate name be chosen commemorating either
a citizen or suggestive of the higher poetical aspects of the spot.
In Paris they give such names as Elysian Fields to their Public
parks and whoever speaks the name has his thought tinged with
the ennobling suggestion of the classic playfield. The custom of
New York in giving so colorless a name as Central Park to its

most beautiful possession is hardly one to be followed.
14. The Cemeteries.

In many of the Southern cities the Cemeteries possess great
beauty. Solemn and sacred aspects are tempered with the delight
of luxuriant vegetation. I]t becomes a pleasure to visit the spots,
to note a rare shrub flowering here, a fitting monument erected

there, on every side the evidence of sensitive care and devotion
in realizing a scene of great beauty. Good plans, careful super-
vision, systematic attention to the planting and cultivation of
trees and shrubs, will make the cemeteries of Little Rock objects
of great pride. The National and Confederate Cemeteries already
are examples of neat and careful gardening and of good taste in
the construction of masonry walls. Still finer results can be
obtained by the larger use of shrubbery. To the masonry walls
attention should be called, especially as this is a standard for
the good workmanship in all similar construction in the park
system.

For Little Rock, Arkansas 27

14. Lower Bragg’s Creek.

Passing the cemeteries and thence under Twenty-sixth
Street, Bragg’s Creek flows through a meadow already considered
for residential subdivision. This area still requires drainage and
the stream with its thickets of elder and hawthorn and its fine
cypress trees should be kept open, the central feature of a neigh-
borhood park.

15. East Side Bank.

As the parkway turns at the southeast corner of the ceme-
teries, it rises to a higher level than the railroad, some forty to
sixty feet below.

For an extent of nearly a mile the steep intervening bank is
one of considerable interest, not only for its outlook over the
eastern country, but for the great luxuriance of the vines which
in many cases overwhelm trees of large proportions. It is hard
to see how this region of so abrupt a grade could be better utilized
than for purposes of a park. All its healthy and larger trees
should be preserved, every vine and shrub should be carefully
considered, and a detailed plan for development should be
prepared.

E. RESERVATIONS.

]. Hill Crest and the Grounds of the Waterworks.

In the neighborhood of Pulaski Heights the views become
imposing in all directions. The grounds of the waterworks,
which will probably always be open to the public, are well located,
giving fine views along the river in either direction and across the

28 Report on a Park System

Capitol grounds and the city to distant plains beyond. The
adjoining region called Hill Crest possesses much ground so
irregular as to be far more suitable for park uses than subdivision.
The steep ravines, the high promontories, the particularly fine
outlooks, should all be included in an extensive reservation in
this region. On the map, however, it has been impossible to indi-
cate such a reservation otherwise than with an outline purely
suggestive, since the selection of such areas must always depend
on actual topographical conditions and upon the best subdivision
into blocks and house lots of the surrounding areas. To secure
the largest results it is necessary to consider the region as a whole—
to reserve the areas most suitable for parks and to subdivide
compactly where the grades are most suitable for subdivision

into house lots.

It is important to note in this connection the many fine
outlooks on the ridge road extending westward beyond Forest
Park. Here are views comparable to the finest in the environs
of almost any American city. Both southeastward and north-
westward broad expanses of country extend to distant horizons.
In Little Rock’s outlying park system of the future these should
form prominent features.

2. Coleman’s Creek and Rock Creek Parkways.

With the extension of the city, successive ring parkways will
be required to made adequate connection between suburbs with-
out going to the center of the city as often as is still necessary in
the case of cities poorly planned. For these parkways no better
location can be found than the stream courses. Coleman’s Creek

and Rock Creek, respectively four and five miles from the center

ee
tw

YOTHER SC 1 FROM A PROPOSED PARKWAY.

A PRETTY ALLEY TREATMENT.

For Little Rock, Arkansas 29

of the town, are well located, and the pleasant varying scenes
along their courses—pastures, meadows, deep woods and sunny

groves—should be secured while still easily within reach.
4. The Fourche Basin and Granite Mountain.

The Fourche Basin and the rocky slopes beyond are Little
Rock’s most important regions for a forest reservation. The
Fourche lowlands, full of impressive trees and luxuriant under-
growth, have many aspects suggestive of unwritten romance.
Though part of this region is subject to periodic inundation, the
absence of low vegetation, the traces of slime on the tree trunks,
its solitude and impressive silence convey a sense of unwhole-
someness and dread, perhaps a unique aspect for a reservation.
On higher levels green pastures surrounded by unbroken forest
suggest pleasant picnic grounds. Still higher, on the rocky slopes
of Granite Mountain, the views become more and more extensive
over the city and surrounding country. All of this land is the
sort which well may serve the community of Little Rock as does
Fontainbleau and St. Germain serve the community of Paris, as
does Epping Forest the community of London, or the Middlesex
Fells, Boston.

In the possible event of deflecting the Fourche through a
partly artificial channel into the Arkansas west of the city, the
region might become less subject to inundation. This, however,
has little effect upon the desirability of the site for the purposes
of a public reservation. The submerged section is under water
only a few days in the year, and while this makes it less suitable
perhaps for picnic parties its unique character is only the more
interesting to people walking or riding through to higher regions

30 Report on a Park System

beyond. Furthermore the enormous cypresses and the under-
growth of hawthorn and alders together with the slow moving
current of the stream are important elements out of which much
can be realized. The construction of a few drives and walks
through the region, ready access to various points of destination,
to outlooks, summits and picnic grounds and a wise policy in the
administration of the timber to serve the twofold object of the
preserving the finest scenes and securing the largest financial
return are steps toward the best development of the Fourche and

Granite Mountain region.

4. The Eastern Bayou.

To these lovely oases great tribute is due, for no scenery is
more characteristic of the South. Surrounded often by tall
cypresses, they are gems of natural beauty readily adaptable for
park purposes. The city should carefully protect them from
injury as the suburban country grows, and should secure at the
proper time each of these so-called lakes together with suitable

shore margins and the connecting creeks.

In conclusion, may ] express my appreciation of the hearty
co-operation that ] have received from the city and county
officials, from the Parkways Association, and from the citizens

of Little Rock generally.
Respectfully submitted,

JOHN NOLEN,

Landscape Architect.
Cambridge, Mass.,

December 4, 1913.

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