DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.16633#0368
348
History of Garden Art
artistic arrangement was superseded by purely scientific division and classification. There
were scarcely any flowers in the parks in these early days, only stiff carpet-beds in the
squares, on the promenades or on the ramparts of fortifications.
In due course civic authorities were faced with far wider demands. The democratic
feeling of the masses grew until it exercised a powerful and irresistible influence in all
domains of art, and it now turned the treatment of public gardens into new directions.
Once more America pressed to the front in the development of People's Parks. The enor-
mous growth of the population in many of her towns was felt to be a menace. If the people
were to be saved from asphyxiation there must needs be more open parks.
Chicago made a successful experiment by converting a sea of houses into a place
that has earned the honourable title of "Urbs in Horto." It was said, no doubt with
truth, that before the change was made there were fewer green trees in the whole town
than there were rooms in one of the gigantic business houses. Chicago's plan, which
succeeded, was to separate the blocks of houses at fixed intervals by interposing People's
Parks, larger or smaller as circumstances would allow, and varying from two and a half
acres to sixty-three. In a comparatively short time about twenty-four playing-grounds were
made, at a cost of 42,000,000 dollars, and one or other could be reached from every
house in the town in a few minutes. The features which are found in all these parks, even
the smallest, are a football ground with walks round it, gymnasium, a playground for
children with a shallow pond in the middle—and finally a swimming-pool with baths
attached. The larger parks have facilities for rowing. There are club-rooms, after the
pattern of private clubs, with a large central hall and private rooms for meetings. Round
the inner park Chicago has set a belt of outer park that takes in more and more ground
as time goes on (Fig. 620). The Grand Park in the south is one of the finest. In addition
to all this, Chicago planned a Lagoon-garden, a thing never heard of before. The Grand
Park had been made on a mound artificially constructed from the town rubbish-heaps.
For the Lagoon-garden the refuse was to be used in a systematic manner, so as to foim
tongues of land in the lake, 100 to 300 metres in breadth, each strip to be laid out as a
garden, with the quiet waters of the lagoon between, providing a shore for bathing.
What Chicago, that great centre of trade, did, other towns accomplished in their
several ways. Boston made park-like streets radiating into the interior of the city frcm a
great belt of park outside. Washington, St. Louis, and Philadelphia all laid out mag-
nificent streets inside the towns. The administrative bodies of the giant cities of Amenca
consider it one of their chief duties to provide parks and garden grounds, and there are
Park Societies whose aim is to support the municipal authorities in their work.
In the Old World, Paris made not very long ago a circle of parks where the belt of
fortifications used to be. This was effected by means of a grant that extended to milliards
of francs, and even America was amazed. At Vienna plans were considered for laying out
a belt of meadow- and wood-land, with the same objects in view. In Geimany societies were
formed to extend parks. The efforts of the towns to develop gardens and parks seem
to extend to private property in Germany. The Schreber gardens, as certain small
plots are called, have acquired an importance which may increase. About the middle of
the last century a certain physician of Leipzig, Dr. Schreber, made over to the town a
considerable sum of money on condition that land was bought and leased out to the
citizens in small garden plots, about two hundred square metres in area. Private societies,
History of Garden Art
artistic arrangement was superseded by purely scientific division and classification. There
were scarcely any flowers in the parks in these early days, only stiff carpet-beds in the
squares, on the promenades or on the ramparts of fortifications.
In due course civic authorities were faced with far wider demands. The democratic
feeling of the masses grew until it exercised a powerful and irresistible influence in all
domains of art, and it now turned the treatment of public gardens into new directions.
Once more America pressed to the front in the development of People's Parks. The enor-
mous growth of the population in many of her towns was felt to be a menace. If the people
were to be saved from asphyxiation there must needs be more open parks.
Chicago made a successful experiment by converting a sea of houses into a place
that has earned the honourable title of "Urbs in Horto." It was said, no doubt with
truth, that before the change was made there were fewer green trees in the whole town
than there were rooms in one of the gigantic business houses. Chicago's plan, which
succeeded, was to separate the blocks of houses at fixed intervals by interposing People's
Parks, larger or smaller as circumstances would allow, and varying from two and a half
acres to sixty-three. In a comparatively short time about twenty-four playing-grounds were
made, at a cost of 42,000,000 dollars, and one or other could be reached from every
house in the town in a few minutes. The features which are found in all these parks, even
the smallest, are a football ground with walks round it, gymnasium, a playground for
children with a shallow pond in the middle—and finally a swimming-pool with baths
attached. The larger parks have facilities for rowing. There are club-rooms, after the
pattern of private clubs, with a large central hall and private rooms for meetings. Round
the inner park Chicago has set a belt of outer park that takes in more and more ground
as time goes on (Fig. 620). The Grand Park in the south is one of the finest. In addition
to all this, Chicago planned a Lagoon-garden, a thing never heard of before. The Grand
Park had been made on a mound artificially constructed from the town rubbish-heaps.
For the Lagoon-garden the refuse was to be used in a systematic manner, so as to foim
tongues of land in the lake, 100 to 300 metres in breadth, each strip to be laid out as a
garden, with the quiet waters of the lagoon between, providing a shore for bathing.
What Chicago, that great centre of trade, did, other towns accomplished in their
several ways. Boston made park-like streets radiating into the interior of the city frcm a
great belt of park outside. Washington, St. Louis, and Philadelphia all laid out mag-
nificent streets inside the towns. The administrative bodies of the giant cities of Amenca
consider it one of their chief duties to provide parks and garden grounds, and there are
Park Societies whose aim is to support the municipal authorities in their work.
In the Old World, Paris made not very long ago a circle of parks where the belt of
fortifications used to be. This was effected by means of a grant that extended to milliards
of francs, and even America was amazed. At Vienna plans were considered for laying out
a belt of meadow- and wood-land, with the same objects in view. In Geimany societies were
formed to extend parks. The efforts of the towns to develop gardens and parks seem
to extend to private property in Germany. The Schreber gardens, as certain small
plots are called, have acquired an importance which may increase. About the middle of
the last century a certain physician of Leipzig, Dr. Schreber, made over to the town a
considerable sum of money on condition that land was bought and leased out to the
citizens in small garden plots, about two hundred square metres in area. Private societies,