Bowood Park

“ Established when the population of the district it was designed to serve was almost exclusively Bohemian, this small park was given its distinctively Bohemian name, and the district chosen was Bohemian. It became at once a popular recreation center for the neighborhood, as the facilities provided in the playground and field house were admirably suited to the needs of the people. Representative men and women who have kept in touch with the later immigrants of their nationality speak with greatest enthusiasm of the value of the park to the Bohemian community. ”

“ Children leaped forward, and old people unconsciously assumed a lightsome vigour.
The Park rose in terraces from the railway station to a street of small villas almost on the ridge of the hill. From its gilded gates to its smallest geranium-slips it was brand-new, and most of it was red. The keeper's house, the bandstand, the kiosks, the balustrades, the shelters—all these assailed the eye with a uniform redness of brick and tile which nullified the pallid greens of the turf and the frail trees. ”

“ Very near Bodmin, however, though not on our direct road, there is a place of wonderful beauty, Lanhydrock. This park is rich in splendid trees, carpeted with fern, irregular and wild and lovely beyond the common lot of parks. As we sweep round a curve the gatehouse comes in view, with its arch and octagonal towers and pinnacles; behind it is the stately house, the mullioned windows and the battlements; and [156] between house and gateway, enclosed within a parapeted wall, lies the formal garden, the rows of tapering cypresses, and urns of flowers, and blossoming yuccas. ”

“ SELLWOOD PARK. If the needed land can be obtained of the new railroad company now owning all the open tract north of Sellwood, a local park large enough to contain ten to fifteen acres of the level ground in addition to the bluff and some of the river front, ought by all means to be secured, even if nothing is done to improve it for many years. The population in this part of the city is now small, but some pleasure ground of this sort is certain to be needed, and will be very desirable as a terminus to the proposed river bluff parkway. ”

“ It is impossible to lose the feeling that the right place for cattle—even for Alderneys—is the meadow. Cows in a park are a poor makeshift; parks are for deer. To my eyes Goodwood House has a chilling exterior; the road to the hill-top is steep and lengthy; and when one has climbed it and crossed the summit wood, it is to come upon the last thing that one wishes to find in the heart of the country, among rolling Downs, sacred to hawks and solitude—a Grand Stand and the railings of a race-course! ”

“ Hackwood Park, 75, the seat of Lord Bolton. The park is very extensive, with a surface boldly irregular, partaking of the beautiful character of the neighbouring chalk downs. The scenery is picturesque, the views being diversified by large groves of the finest forest trees, particularly oak, ash, and beech, interspersed with thorns, beautifully luxuriant and large. The house, which is situated towards the eastern boundary of the park, is encompassed by about 100 acres of pleasure grounds, disposed into lawn, terrace, shrubbery, and a noble wood. ”

“ Afar off we could observe, through yawning gaps in the ancient and stately trees, which were pierced by the ruddy beams of sunlight, the tall towers and fair proportions of Goodwood House, the magnificent mansion of the Duke of Richmond. Twenty to twenty-five thousand people were gathered in the noble old Park whose vistas stretched off into dells, copses, and woodland nooks, for thousands of acres. ”

“ If there is one spot in England, where human creatures pass or live, which one would expect to find, in spite of their foul existence, still clean—it is Bolton Park. But to my final and utter amazement, I had not taken two steps by the waterside at the loveliest bend of the river below the stepping-stones, before I found myself again among broken crockery, cinders, cockle-shells, and tinkers’ refuse;—a large old gridiron forming the principal point of effect and interest among the pebbles. The filth must be regularly carried past the Abbey, and across the Park, to the place. ”

“ The park is beautiful and well kept and is crowned with an enormous terrace, facing East, from where we have another view totally different but fully as gorgeous as the one we had from the Hospital Building. That is the beauty of the Bosphorus: its aspect changes from any spot that you stand on, its every hill, its every house, its every nook and every corner has a different outlook, each one more beautiful than the other. It completely does away with the monotony that any panorama, no matter how beautiful, generally has. ”

“ I'll go to a theatre or--or--.' He considered various alternatives, deciding finally upon Richmond Park. He loved long walks at night when his mind was restless thus; the air in Richmond Park was peculiarly fresh and scented after dark. He knew the little gate that was never closed. He would dine lightly, and go for a ten-mile stretch among the oaks, surprise the deer asleep, listen to the hum of distant London, and watch the fairy battle between the lurid reflection of its million lights and the little stars.... ”

“ In the matter of parks the city has made a most promising start. There are now in the city twenty-eight parks, counting large and small and not including any street parkways. Of this number Bever Park, Ellis Park, Daniels Park, May's Island Park, Riverside Park, and Whittam Park are considerable tracts, while George Greene Square, opposite the union station, with its beautiful display of flowers and rich green lawn, is one of the show spots of the city. ”

“ Not far from the moat, in the centre of a fine park, is a majestic oak call "King William’s Oak," under which it is said the monarch slept the night before the battle of the Boyne. The park in which it stands rises high above the river, and this is perhaps the most beautiful of all Boyne scenery. The river runs through a deep narrow valley, the steep side, of which are covered with mighty forest trees, that stretch their arms far o’er the river below. Seldom does the sun ever greet the deep water here, flowing along without a ripple and looking as back as ink. ”

“ The part of the city west of the river is already provided with two parks of considerable size, while the vastly larger section of the city east of the river has only one park that is more than a square—Columbia Park—and this, being flat and uninteresting and remote from any densely populated area is likely to be little more than an exaggerated square of interest almost solely to the immediate neighborhood. ”

“ The most expensive large parks, Central Park and Prospect Park, were located without taking advantage of the magnificent natural landscapes of the rivers and bays which distinguish New York and Brooklyn. There are many similar cases. Formerly people built with the backs of their houses upon the rivers and lakes, thus not only excluding the public from continuous access to them but ruining their beauty. Where land along the banks of rivers or along the shores of a lake can, in a city, be fairly well spared from commercial uses, public squares, parks and parkways should be located upon them. ”

“ A connected system of parks and parkways is manifestly far more complete and useful than a series of isolated parks. Delaware Park, in Buffalo, is an example of a park with handsome boulevards forming approaches from the city and connecting it with Humboldt Park in one direction, Gates Circle in another, and Delaware Avenue and The Front in another. ”

“ It is to be regretted that the necessity for general plans in parks is not appreciated by most people as is the necessity for a general plan for city hall or court house. Yet a park is apt to include more naturally incongruous purposes and objects than a city hall. ”

“ Out in the blowy wet weather again, by avenues and by-ways, they raced through the Park, climbing up to look over at the wind-driven water of the old reservoir, clambering down a great wet bowlder on the other side—the girl as agile and sure of foot as a boy. Then they pushed toward Eighth Avenue, missed the entrance and wandered about in a labyrinth of bridle-paths and footways, suddenly found themselves back at the big bowlder again, scrambled up it warm and flushed with the exertion, and dropped down for a moment to breathe and to get their bearings. ”

“ Winding down this ravine there could be a charmingly secluded rustic path in the shade of the existing fir trees, which would not only greatly enhance the value of this park to the citizens generally and to those living within easy walking distance of it in the thickly built-up portion of the city north of it, but would afford to residents on the ridge a more delightful and decidedly more convenient means of walking down and up the hill than exists or is likely to be made in the vicinity. ”

“ It may seem to your citizens a decidedly foolish proposition to secure large areas of land for a park In the Columbia Slough district, and some explanation of the purposes to be accomplished is therefore called for. If the city acquires the hills and river frontages as suggested it will have an exceedingly valuable series of public pleasure grounds, but in none of these grounds is it possible to provide that entirely different type of landscape which is made up of great stretches of meadow land bordered and diversified by groves of trees. ”

“ City Park should be extended on the west to form a good connection with the Poorhouse Farm, a portion of which may be eventually annexed to the park, or through which it may be found desirable to extend from the park a pleasure drive for the purpose of reaching some of the high hill tops, where, in addition to the views over the city which will be commanded from many points, the beautiful rural views to the westward could be enjoyed. ”

“ To properly provide for the future in the matter of a meadow park, it is necessary to secure many hundred, if not several thousand acres and it does not appear that there is any better or more economical place to make this provision in the neighborhood of the city than along Columbia Sloughs. ”

“ This park should include the bluff and at least a narrow strip of land along the top of the bluff, but might desirably be extended eastward to East Sixth street. This land contains some fairly expensive dwellings, which may prevent more than a narrow taking along the top of the bluff. This little park would be valuable because of the views of the river which it commands, and it would have an especial value as headquarters for boat livery and boat club houses, and for a terminus for a ferry which would afford access to Ross Island and to the proposed Upper Riverside Square. ”

“ This park is an illustration of how valuable for purposes of recreation additional large areas of hillside land southwest of the city would become in the course of time, as the population grows. Already the capacity of City Park is taxed to its utmost upon holidays and pleasant Sundays in summer. ”

“ Future generations, however, will be likely to appreciate the wild beauty and the grandeur of the tall fir trees in this forest park or reservation, as it would perhaps better be called, its deep, shady ravines and bold view-commanding spurs far more than do the majority of the citizens of today, many of whom are familiar with similar original woods. But such primeval woods will become as rare about Portland as they now are about Boston. ”

“ The natural southern boundary of the table-land occupied by the parade ground is a rapid slope that occurs about in the line of Sixty-Sixth street; in this slope it is proposed to sink one of the transverse roads; and on a level plane below it, stretching to the south, a playground about ten acres in extent is located, as indicated on the plan. We have thought it very desirable to have a cricket ground of this size near the southern boundary of the park, and not far from the Sixth and Eighth [21] avenue railroads, which offer the most rapid means of access from the lower part of the city. ”

“ No other form of park has ever proved so attractive and so useful to the masses of the people as the meadow park, particularly when there can be associated with it long reaches of still water as a landscape attraction and for boating purposes. There is a surprisingly large number of people who will go upon a shallow park lake who will not go, or who do not fully enjoy going upon such a river as the Willamette, where they fear being interfered with by steamers or carried away by the current if they drop an oar, and where they do not feel at home. ”

“ Park Street had a freedom, a gayety, a careless bonhomie far removed from the austerity of Broadwood House. Her life had been enlarged. The hours were long, the work was hard, but her heart was in it, and the novel charm of her surroundings was a perpetual delight.
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A month of Park Street brought more knowledge of the world than a lustrum of Broadwood House. Madame Lemaire’s establishment was a famous one, in fact the resort of fashion; to the perceptive Mary the people with whom she had now to rub shoulders had real educational value. ”

“ That some actually are so and yet command the admiration of people of taste is an indication of their essential qualities and fundamental differences from parks proper. Few cities have anywhere near as many ornamental squares as they should. It ls particularly desirable that a city should have several of its principal public buildings facing upon a large public square, as the new custom house in New York faces upon the Bowling Green, not occupying it as the postoffice and municipal buildings occupy the City Hall Park. ”

“ Aside from the luxuriance of the woodland vegetation there is the added charm of seclusion to a degree rarely found in a public park. The steepness of the sides of the ravine and the narrowness of its bottom make it available for a comparatively small number of visitors at a time. One narrow walk or trail, perhaps dividing and reuniting at difficult places, is all that should ever be attempted as a way along or near the brook. A drive there would be ruinous to its natural beauty. ”