SENATE COMMITTEE ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. PARK IMPROVEMENT PAPERS, NO. 3. THE NEED OF ADDITIONAL PLAYGROUNDS, PARKS, AND RESERVATIONS. MARCH 27, 1901.-Printed for the use of the committee. I. STATEMENT OF THE COLUMBIA HEIGHTS CITIZENS' ASSOCIATION. WASHINGTON, March 26, 1901. GENTLEMEN: Next in importance to the playgrounds around the public schoolhouses are the parks and reservations, the breathing places and resting places for the people of the city. Indeed, there is much reason to think that the parks hold the first place, since the little children are to get the benefits of the parks before they are old enough to attend the schools. The founders of Washington made its parking a controlling feature in their plans, and public opinion, gathering force with the lapse of time, has set the seal of universal approval upon it. But as the city has spread out beyond its original boundaries it is much to be regretted that a similar foresight should not have been shown in respect to park spaces and reservations in the new portions of the city. This was recognized by Congress in framing the highway extension act. Section 2 of that act provided that in making maps for such extension the Commissioners were authorized "to lay out at the intersection of the principal avenues and the streets thereof circles or other reservations corresponding in number and dimensions with those now existing at such intersections in the city proper." Familiar as most Washingtonians are with the ground plan of the city, it is probable that only a limited few appreciate the bountiful provisions for its parks and reservations. The annual report of the superintendent of public buildings and grounds for the year 1894 enables me to say that these parks are 301 in number, varying in size from a few hundred square feet to 82 acres, and the total area covered by them is 405 acres. These are south of Florida avenue; upon the heights north of Florida avenue is a plateau large enough to comfortably house 200,000 2 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. population, laid out in streets and building lots without a single park or reservation. All the fine oak trees which nature has so lavishly supplied to that section are to be cleared away to make room for streets and buildings. This condition was during the year 1899 brought to the attention of the District Commissioners by a committee from the Columbia Heights Citizens' Association, who fortunately found those gentlemen appreciative and kindly disposed. To their active support, seconded by the board of trade, is due the incorporation of a provision in the amended bill for the highway extension act for two small parks, one at the corner of Fourteenth street and Columbia road, and the other at the corner of Whitney avenue and Sheridan street. Here was a distinct and notable recognition of the needs of this section, and it gave solid ground for hope that both these parks might be realized. But the final repeal of all the sections of the highway act relating to the territory of which this subdivision forms a part has, of course, carried along with it all hope for the enactment of these provisions relating to new parks. The instructions of Congress to the Commissioners contained in the highway act just quoted, although not necessary to fortify the positions herein taken, are a significant expression of the principle that the inhabitants of Washington north of Florida avenue are justly entitled to equal park areas with those living south of that avenue. In order to ascertain by comparison what would be the equal proportion to be allotted to the heights north of that avenue let us take a map of Washington and select a mile square in any thickly settled portion of the city, not including any of the large parks, like the Executive, Capitol, Monument Grounds, the Mall, etc. I have taken the square mile bounded north by T street, south by H street, east by Seventh street, and west by Eighteenth street NW. Computing the area of park spaces in this tract I find it aggregates 17 acres and 24,284 square feet. This tract includes only two parks of any considerable size, to wit, Mount Vernon Square and Franklin Square, and these are by no means to be classed among the large parks. Again, taking another mile square to the eastward of the Capitol, running from F street north to G street south and from Second to Fifteenth streets, the park spaces in this tract aggregate 14 acres and 28,491 square feet. That these are not specially favored localities will appear when I state from the record that the percentage of area of reservations to the whole area of the city, exclusive of the large parks already mentioned, is officially declared to be 1.68 per cent; or, expressed in common language, these reservations, excluding the large parks, if equally distributed over the whole surface of the city, would furnish each square mile 10 acres of parking. Including now the large reservations and distributing them, together with the small ones heretofore mentioned, equally over the whole 6,111 acres comprised in the city limits, and each square mile would receive 42.41 acres of park area. PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 3 In this calculation all the new parks-Rock Creek, Potomac, and the Zoological-are excluded. From such data alone can the merit of the claims of the people of Columbia Heights be determined. While it would be unreasonable to expect of our city fathers that they should rival the great Washington in their forecast of the future of the capital city, it surely is not too much to ask that they should note the realization of his ideals as time and labor develop them; that they should mark, for example, how, in spite of scant appropriations by Congress, the little parks, the children of his brain, have one after another in successive years stepped forth from heaps of rubbish to reenforce the claims of Washington to be accounted one of the most beautiful cities in the world. When we consider and note the trend of population and improvements toward the north and west, it is impossible to doubt that children are now living who will see the center of population shifted to the north of U and west of Fourteenth street. Long before that time this park question for the heights around Washington will have assumed an importance of which we little dream at this time. That the territory in question, extending over a radius of a half mile from the junction of Fourteenth street and Columbia road, is soon to become densely populated is unquestionable. The ideas of the first settlers in these suburbs that they were to be occupied by cottages set in spacious lawns is vanishing under the shadows of six-story apartment houses. In only a few years the 40 and 50 foot streets will be diminished in apparent breadth by the encroachment of tall buildings, and then this lack of provision for parks will be more apparent and seem more deplorable. The repeal of the highway act has destroyed all hope of getting small parks laid off at the intersection of streets and avenues, and now nothing remains but an effort to secure a fair equivalent in larger parks. Adequate provision for the needs of that section would require one or more parks of the size of Franklin Square, which is over 4 acres. The square at the northwest corner of Columbia road and Fourteenth street seems to be central, and peculiarly favored for the purpose. The oak grove at that point is a remnant of the primeval forest. While it is not the only one, it is one of the largest groups of forest trees remaining on that plateau, and it represents the growth. of centuries. A park of a little less than 4 acres could be made here by extending School street due south to Columbia road (a very desirable thing in itself) and condemning all east of that line in square between Kenesaw avenue and Columbia road. Alternative sites might be found in the square bounded by Eleventh, Thirteenth, Dartmouth, and Whitney, or the square bounded by Eleventh, Thirteenth, Whitney, and Lydecker. Neither of the two latter sites would be as large as would be desirable nor as central as 4 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. the first named. They have, however, the advantage of being unincumbered by any considerable buildings. CHARLES S. BUNDY, GILBERT M. HUSTED, Committee on Parks of the Columbia Heights Citizens' Association. Hons. JAMES MCMILLAN, JACOB H. GALLINGER, and THOMAS S. MARTIN, Subcommittee on Parks. II. STATEMENT OF THE WASHINGTON CIVIC CENTER. MARCH 23, 1901. SIR: The committee on parks and playgrounds of the Civic Center respectfully invites your attention to the desirability of having more open squares for breathing places within the city limits. This is especially desirable during the heated term in this climate, so that the babies and little children may secure the benefits of the pure open air on shaded lawns. The section, for example, north of M street and between North Capitol and Twelfth streets is being rapidly built up with homes for wage-earners, and will soon be densely populated, without any provision for small parks, a fact which will be painfully apparent in the course of time, and this is doubtless true of other sections. There are now many vacant squares available at a reasonable cost, and the fact that many of our wage-earners can not afford to take their little ones to the larger and more remote parks justifies this suggestion. We are also of the opinion that similar provisions should be made for grounds and facilities for athletic exercises of the older children, since, when all the vacant lots are built up, the opportunities for healthful outdoor exercise will be very limited, and it is hoped that these suggestions may receive attention in connection with the general plan now under consideration. In conclusion, we invite attention to the lamentable insufficiency of sanitary conveniences in our parks and their total absence in our principal thoroughfares, a lack of which in a city so freely visited by strangers as the national capital compels unnecessary suffering or recourse to saloons, restaurants, and other public places. Respectfully submitted. Hon. JAMES MCMILLAN, GEORGE M. KOBER, Chairman. ELIZABETH A. HYDE. Chairman Senate Committee on the District of Columbia. 5 PARK SYSTEM OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. III. STATEMENT OF THE ASSOCIATED CHARITIES AND THE CITIZENS' RELIEF ASSOCIATION. WASHINGTON, D. C., August 19, 1901. GENTLEMEN: The Associated Charities and the Citizens' Relief Association, in the name of the churches, schools, societies, philanthropic organizations, and charitable individuals whom they represent, respectfully ask your commission, in formulating plans for the systematic beautification of our city, to give especial consideration to its poorer neighborhoods. Public officials and influential people living in the finer residential portions of Washington will naturally attract your attention to those parts of the city with which they are most familiar. We trust you will therefore permit us to emphasize other features of the situation also, and to voice the needs of less resourceful neighborhoods which are liable to be overlooked. If our national capital is to be an ideal city, as the entire country must desire, it should not be behind Berlin, Paris, London, and other capital cities in the conscious effort to eliminate "slum" conditions and to improve the surroundings of its poorer as well as of its wealthier inhabitants. That municipal beautification involves considerations of civic ethics and of social service has been suggested since the earliest days of European cathedrals, market squares, and city halls. It has now come to be definitely expressed as a working principle that nothing so ennobles and beautifies a modern city as the promotion of healthful conditions, of artistic surroundings, of educational activities, and of means for recreation among the large number of citizens who are least able to obtain these communal advantages for themselves. Therefore we respectfully ask you to consider especially the eight following topics. If any or all of these are either already included in your plans or entirely beyond the scope of your inquiry, we trust you will understand that all are submitted merely as suggestions; that we would not willingly complicate or embarrass your important work in any way, but seek only to offer you such cooperation as may be entirely acceptable. (1) Small parks: There are small vacant areas in the southwest, southeast, and northeast sections of Washington which could be secured with comparative ease. Some already belong to the General and District governments, and are merely used for the storage of stone, sewer pipes, etc. Their use for recreation and neighborhood beautification is made especially desirable by the fact that most of the houses in the denser portions of these sections, and especially in the southwest, are small themselves, and stand in diminutive yards or have no yard space whatever. Georgetown, too, has a very poor section in which a park is needed, and attention should also be given to that |