Excerpts from Annual Report of the Park Board, Portland, Oregon, 1903

Introduction

1–Importance of Municipal Parks

Leading writers and other authorities on modern municipal development agree that no city can be considered properly equipped without an adequate park system.

All agree that parks not only add to the beauty of a city and to the pleasure of living in it, but are exceedingly important factors in developing the healthfulness, morality, intelligence, and business prosperity of its residents. Indeed it is not too much to say that a liberal provision of parks in a city is one of the surest manifestations of the intelligence, degree of civilization and progressiveness of its citizens.

2–Duty of Citizens Towards Parks.

It is constantly becoming more generally and more clearly realized that every inhabitant of a city owns to it, in return for benefits and advantages derived from it, certain duties not specifically compulsory according to law. Among such duties is that of aiding i every possible way to make the city more beautiful and more agreeable to live in and work in, and more attractive to strangers.

While there are many things, both small and great, which may contribute to the beauty of a great city, unquestionably one of the greatest is a comprehensive system of parks and parkways.

3–Parks and Park Purposes Should Be Defined in Advance-Park Units.

As in the case of almost every complex work composed of varied units, economy, efficiency, symmetry and completeness are likely to be secured only when the system as a whole is planned comprehensively and the purposes to be accomplished defined clearly in advance. Otherwise, valuable opportunities may be overlooked, disproportionate efforts may be expended in the accomplishment of particular objects of relatively minor importance while others more vital may be ignored or slighted. Limited means may be be expended on the less important purposes leaving more essential features unprovided for.

In order to determine upon a comprehensive system of parks it is first necessary to define and classify the various units of which the system is to be composed, even though it may not be practicable to carry out these ideas in all cases. The units of a park system generally recognized are city squares, play grounds, small or neighborhood parks, large or suburban parks, scenic reservations, boulevards and parkways. . . . (13-14)

4–The Parks of a City Should Be Parts of a System.

If a city is to have parks, a careful study of the problem will convince any student of municipal development that the parks should be acquired in accordance with a general system. . . . (17-18)

5–Park Systems Should Be Comprehensive.

A park system should comprise all the various units which go to form a complete system. . . . (18)

6–Park Systems Should Be Well Balanced.

The various social and topographical sections of a city should be suitably supplied with the various units of a system according to their needs and natural opportunities. It not infrequently happens that the sections of a city in which the population is most dense and most in need of squares, play grounds and local parks, are almost wholly devoid of these advantages because no well-balanced system has been devised and carried out while land was sufficiently cheap and comparatively unoccupied so that now the expense is prohibitory.

7–Parks Should Have Individuality.

Unless a special and intelligent effort is made to secure individuality in the improvement of each of the public squares, parks and boulevards of a city, they are liable to repeat each other too much. . . . (18)

8–Parks Should Be Connected and Approached by Boulevards and Parkways.

A connected system of parks and parkways is manifestly far more complete and useful than a series of isolated parks. . . . (19)

9–Parks and Parkways Should Be Located and Improved to Take Advantage of Beautiful Natural Scenery and to Secure Sanitary Conditions.

Only recently has it begun to be realized what enormous advantages are gained by locating parks and parkways so as to take advantage of beautiful natural scenery. . . .

In addition to taking advantage of beautiful natural scenery, parks and parkways may often be located so as to secure very important sanitary advantages through the improvement of ill-drained areas, particularly for low-lying lands on lake shores or along rivers subject to floods. Marked economy in municipal development may also be effected by laying out parkways and parks, while land is cheap, so as to embrace streams that carry at times more water than can be taken care of by drain pipes of ordinary size. Thus brooks or little river which would otherwise become nuisances that would some day have to be put in large underground conduits at enormous expense, may be made the occasion for delightful local pleasure grounds or attractive parkways. Such improvements add greatly to the value of adjoining properties, which would otherwise have been depreciated by the erection on the low lands of the cheapest class of dwellings or by ugly factories, stables and other commercial establishments. . . . (19-20)

10–Park Systems Should Be in Proportion to Opportunities.

A city having many or extensive opportunities for parks and parkways should promptly avail itself of them even at serious financial sacrifice. Such a city may wisely mortgage its future wealth. . . . (20)

11–Parks and Parkways Should Be Acquired Betimes.

It is particularly urgent that a city having beautiful local scenery adapted for parks and parkways should secure the land betimes lest these natural advantages be destroyed or irreparably injured by the owners. . . . (20)

12–The Land for Park Systems Should Be Paid for by Long-term Loans.

There is a very commendable disinclination on the part of the legislatures to pass laws authorizing long term municipal loans and in favor of keeping a comparatively low limit on the total amount which cities are allowed to borrow. But the case of loans for purchase of land, especially land for a park system is very decidedly different from that of loans for most other municipal improvements. . . . (21)

13–Park Systems Should Be Improved by Means of Loans, Special Assessments and Annual Taxation.

The experience of larger cities has been that by far the most satisfactory and profitable results have been obtained by improving their parks as rapidly as such difficult and complex work can wisely be effected, usually in from three to five years after the acquisition of the land. . . . (22)

14–Park Systems Should Be Improved Both Occasionally and Continuously.

Like many public institutions, railroads and industrial plants, the improvements of parks is done from time to time by occasional relatively large expenditures such as would be paid for by borrowed money or by especially large appropriations for specified purposes and also more or less continuously out of ordinary annual appropriations. . . . (22-23)

15–Park Systems Should Be Improved According to a Well Studied and Comprehensive General Plan.

Park systems, like other large, complex and costly creations of human intelligence, should be carefully designed by trained designers. . . .

The designing of a park should begin with the selection of the site, in doing which many important considerations of a technical nature should receive far more attention than they generally get from those usually entrusted with this duty.

The determination of the boundaries of a park is often every intimately related to radical questions of design. The boundaries adopted for a park are often the boundaries used by the previous private owners and in the West almost all such boundaries are the straight lines of the original government land surveys or of subdivisions based upon them and which are generally purely arbitrary rectangular boundaries bearing no harmonious relations with the topography except in the few cases where the land is flat. Such arbitrary rectangular boundaries are often hideous misfits with respect to the local topography, particularly if, as is is often the case the site had been selected for a perk because of its strongly marked topography. . . . (23-24)

16–Park Systems Should Be Governed by Qualified Officials.

The proper determination and improvement of a complete park system for a city is one of the most difficult and responsible duties that ever comes to a city government. . . . (27)

17–Park Systems Should Be Improved and Maintained by Specially Trained Men. (29)

18–Park Systems Should Be Managed Independently of City Governments. (30)

The reason for this is, of course, that the majority of the members of the city government is composed of practical politicians or of men who have about the same education, the same impulses and ideas and about the same taste. . . .

Parks, like public libraries and art museums, must meet the public needs in the main, else they will lose their power for educating the people to better things, but they should be managed by wise and public-spirited men who have high ideals and who will strive to gradually and considerately improve the public taste. . . . (31)

TOPOGRAPHICAL CONDITIONS AFFECTING THE PARK PROBLEM OF PORTLAND

Some of the conditions which control the problem of providing a complete system of parks and parkways for the City of Portland are as follows:

The city lies on both sides of the Willamette River, which is spanned at present by four bridges. The smaller but older portion of the city is west of the river and occupies gently rolling ground, which rises with moderate rapidity to the base of high, rugged and very irregular hills. This base of the hills forms almost a straight line and runs nearly northwest from the mouth of Marquam Gulch Canyon to the mouth of Balch Creek Canyon, and continues in the same general direction for some miles further down the river. Up the river for some distance beyond Marquam Gulch, there is a narrow margin of moderately flat land between the hills and the river; which, however, is not large enough to provide for any considerable increase of population. Down the river from Balch Creek much of the space between the base of the hills and the river is occupied by Guild Lake and other lakes and sloughs and almost all of it is subject to being flooded by the river, so that there is little opportunity for the city to expand in this direction. The greatest width available west of the river for ordinary city development is a trifle over one and one-quarter miles, the average width about one mile and the length about two and one-half miles. East of the river there is practically unlimited opportunity for the expansion of the city, the only limit being the Columbia Sloughs, which are about tow and one-half miles from the Willamette River at the Portland Flouring Mill, and about six miles on the line of the Sandy Road. East of the river, the land from Sellwood to the Columbia Sloughs is a plain, slightly rolling, and intersected by gulches, but on the whole rising gently from the bluffs at the river to a low ridge parallel with the Columbia Sloughs and about half way between them and the Willamette River. This ridge is about two hundred feet high near the bluffs overlooking the Portland Flouring Mill, rises gradually to a height of about two hundred and fifty feet at Sandy Road, and continues some miles to the eastward. Directly east of the heart of the city, the land rises similarly, but more rapidly and is more rolling. Mount Tabor marks the eastern limit of this section of the city. Southward of Mount Tabor the land, while rising similarly, is gentler. . . . (32-33)

PRINCIPLE LANDSCAPE FEATURES

. . . .The most notable landscape feature that is conveniently accessible to the greater part of the population especially by existing electric car lines, are the series of great hills, with intervening canyons, south and southwest of the western section of the city: Mount Tabor, east of the eastern section of the city, and Rocky Butte, northeast of the eastern section of the city. There remains one other great landscape feature, the sloughs of the Columbia, and beyond them the river itself. . . . (34)

A COMPREHENSIVE SYSTEM OF PARKS AND PARKWAYS FOR PORTLAND

A comprehensive system of parks and parkways for Portland may be briefly outlined as follows:

West of the Willamette River and south of Riverview cemetery there would be a large forest reservation, from which an informal picturesque parkway would pass east of Riverview cemetery leaving the west bank of the river at Fulton. It would keep along the hillside to a connection with the City Squares, would continue on the hillside to City Park, would keep on the hillsides to Macleay Park and would proceed thence along the hillsides to another large forest reservation on the hills northwest of Mountain View Park Addition. Attached to or in widenings of this parkway there would be areas which could be developed as neighborhood parks and play grounds. This hillside parkway and the two forest reservations would preserve some of the characteristic hill landscape west of the city, and afford find views of the snowy peaks.

East of the river, if railroad ownership of needed lands does not prevent, there would be a river bluff parkway from Sellwood, where it would be connected by a bridge with the parkway east of the river at Fulton, along the top of the bluffs to the south end of Grand avenue.

There would be another river bluff parkway east of the river from a point north of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company’s machine shops (if the company will sell the portion of the bluff they own) to a bluff park west of Portland University.

These two river bluff parkways would preserve beautiful views of the river.

There would be a great meadow reservation among the Columbia Sloughs east of the electric railway to Vancouver to preserve the beautiful bottom land scenery.

There would be Mount Tabor Park to preserve hill scenery east of the river.

A mainly formal boulevard would connect the upper river parkway with Mount Tabor Park.

Another boulevard from the center of Ladd’s Addition to Mount Tabor Park would afford a direct pleasure approach to the latter.

Another boulevard mainly formal, would connect Mount Tabor Park with Columbia Slough Park.

Ross Island Park would preserve a liberal amount of river scenery.

Swan Island would be a desirable additional reservation of river scenery. . . . (35-36)

A MORE DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SUGGESTED PARK SYSTEMS

For convenience we shall assume that the word “parkway” means an informal pleasure drive (with walks), including strips of varying width of land preserving existing woods, or to be planted picturesquely, while the word “boulevard” will mean a pleasure drive with walks and planting strips of uniform width, to be improved in a formal manner and usually not so wide as a parkway. . . . (36)

[Outlines park squares and various parks, including: Macleay Park, Forest Park, South Hillside Parkway, Northwestern River Parkway, Lower River Bluff Parkway, Upper River Bluff Parkway (Sellwood Parkway), Sellwood Park, Mount Tabor Park, Columbia Sloughs Park, Ross Island Park, Swan Island Park, Rocky Butte Reservation, Southeastern Boulevard, Mount Tabor Boulevard, Northeastern Boulevard, Northern Boulevard, Guild Lake, North Fulton Park, The Plaza Blocks, Governor’s Park, Terwilliger Park, Station Square, Additional Park Block, Lewis and Clark Square, Little Reservoir Park, River Squares, Hawthorne Park, Irvington Square, Multnomah Park, Upper River Playground, Windemuth Park, Albina Park, Squares and Playgrounds, City Park, Columbia Park]

COLUMBIA SLOUGHS PARK

The remaining great landscape feature of the city is that of the Columbia Sloughs which border the eastern part of the city on the north. This region is low and distant from the city and seems to be at present comparatively valueless for any other than farming purposes. It is therefore to be hoped that a much larger park of the meadow type than can elsewhere be afforded will gradually be acquired here by the city. It is important that the first purchases should be made along Slough road (now called Columbia Boulevard) from the Vancouver electric railway eastward and also north along the railway to and including Switzler’s Lake, and if the upland margin of the sloughs can be secured as far east as the present eastern boundary of the city, it will prevent occupation of this land by numerous small residences which would otherwise be likely to occur in time. With this frontage secured, it might be safe to leave the acquisition of land further north for another generation. 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 acquired the hills an river frontages as suggested it will have an exceedingly valuable series of public pleasure grounds, but in one 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. 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. To most expert boatmen the park lake would be a foolish little thing, but the great majority of visitors to parks are not experts and can only thoroughly enjoy a stretch of water which appears to be very easy and safe to navigate. The broad meadows in such a park, with their open groves and scattering trees, afford opportunity for many thousands of people to enjoy themselves and each other in such a way that they can do little harm to the ground and interfere but little with each other; whereas, in the steep hillside woodlands such great crowds of people would soon destroy the greater part of the undergrowth and ground covering and make the ground bare and ugly. 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. All the comparatively level areas within the city boundary have either been subdivided and are more or less occupied by houses, or they have already attained a speculative value which would make it impracticable for the city to acquire more than one or two quarter sections at the most, and such an area would be entirely inadequate to the future needs of the city in this direction. The same amount of many spent at the Columbia Sloughs would provide a far larger area of meadows adapted to field sports, and would have the further great advantage of providing for boating lakes and waterways, which are much needed in such a park as a local landscape attraction to supplement the beauties of the meadows and groves. It seems almost impossible for any driving park association to survive many years, yet the citizens who enjoy owning and driving fast horses are an influential class, and their pleasure, it would seem, without unduly sacrificing the best interests of the majority of the visitors to the park. Assuming that gambling can be prevented, a race track would be a decided attraction to many visitors in addition to those who use it for driving. In addition to an oval track where horses can be properly trained for racing, there might be a straight speedway of any desired length. In no other part of the city could a wide, long, level speedway be provided at less expense and with less inconvenience by the interruption of crosswise traffic than at this place. It is possible that golf may not retain its popularity for so many years as to need to be permanently provided for, yet as this large park would provide the only thoroughly adequate and suitable opportunity for golf links so that considerable numbers of people could play at once, it seems another good reason for securing it. . . . (46-47)

SWAN ISLAND PARK

Swan Island is less desirable as a pleasure ground than Ross Island, because further from the center of population and more often and more completely flooded, but it is equally valuable as a beauty spot in the landscape from considerable portions of the city. If this island can be purchased at a moderate expense, it should be secured. It would undoubtedly prove a very valuable asset to the city hereafter. It is to be hoped that it may become profitable eventually to run a line of pleasure steamers at a very low rate of fare up and down the river, and these steamers would make it very easy for a great many people to reach these islands in summer time even without ferries or bridges maintained by the city. . . . (48)

NORTHEASTERN BOULEVARD

Another desirable boulevard, in case the suggestion of a great park at Columbia Sloughs is carried out, would be from Mount Tabor to Sandy road at the point where it rises steeply over the low bluff which bounds the city topographically on the northeast about half way between the Willamette River and Columbia Sloughs. It should then follow the top of this bluff, becoming for a mile or two an informal parkway – that is, on curving lines to fit the top of the bluff, and broad enough as to landtaking to include the slope so that the views may be permanently kept open wherever desired. After leaving the bluff this boulevard may be continued northward on a straight line to Columbia Sloughs Park. The number of land subdivisions and houses, and consequently increased values in lands between Mount Tabor and Sandy road, may make it difficult to get a suitable boulevard through this section of the city, but from Sandy road to the Columbia Sloughs, there are no such difficulties to be encountered. As much of Sandy road passes through a quarter of the city which, not being provided with an electric railway, has not been fully subdivided and is not densely populated, it might be practicable, as it would certainly be desirable, within a few years, to widen this road sufficiently to provide two driveways, one of which could be devoted permanently to pleasure driving. Such a boulevard would form a valuable feature by itself, but would be worth much more in connection with the proposed boulevard from Mount Tabor to Columbia Sloughs (50-51).

NORTHERN BOULEVARD

One other boulevard is needed to complete the system, namely, from Willamette boulevard to Columbia Sloughs Park. There are several different routes, the choice between which would depend largely upon what land owners are willing to do. The one which would apparently be the easiest of accomplishment would leave Willamette boulevard at the west end of Portland boulevard, which should be widened from 100 feet (its present width) to 200 feet as far as the east side of Goodmorning Addition. The proposed boulevard would be continued thence to Columbia Sloughs, crossing Columbia boulevard at the point where it is crossed by the Vancouver electric railway. A desirable variation on this route would be to have the proposed boulevard leave Willamette boulevard at the point near the bluff where the old county road intersects Willamette boulevard, and running across Day’s Addition and Park Addition, proceed on curved lines to the southeast corner of Goodmorning Addition. From this point to Columbia Sloughs the route of the previously suggested boulevard would be followed. . . . (51)

GUILD LAKE

In the main this lake presents an attractive natural landscape feature, well adapted to be converted into a park. It is, however, a fair question whether this area may not eventually be dyked and drained and filled and used for manufacturing and other commercial purposes. Such apparently waste lands have come to be used in this manner in other cities, and considering that there are plenty of other opportunities for parks, and that especially in the case of steep hillsides, it will be a positive gain to the wealth of the city to take them out of the market, whereas in this case there is at least a question as to the ultimate financial benefit of so doing, it seems inadvisable to press the matter at present. In case it should be determined that is would be essential for commercial occupation to fill the area to a height that would be safe from floods, and that this amount cannot be done with any chance of profit, it may become reasonable to take this area for a park. If suitable drains or ditches at a sufficient height above the floods could be provided, by which the storm water from the country southwest of the lake could be carried independently to the river and the lake and its margins thus protected from storm water other than the rain which would fall upon them, and assuming that the railroad is, or can easily be make to be a sufficient protective levee, it would be an easy matter to fit this area for park purposes. The lake could be held at a uniform height and where the shores are ugly, as on the side towards the sawmill, and along some portions of the railroad, some filling could be done with material dredged from shallow parts of the lake, and these banks could be planted. The neck could be connected with the mainland by a bridge, and would be a most enjoyable pleasure ground. Here and elsewhere there are areas which could be readily adapted for use as play grounds. In this respect alone, aside from the natural beauties which the lake and its borders would have the cost of fitting this area for public use would, no doubt, be amply justified at some future time, when the population should have become more dense in its vicinity. . . . (52-53)

ALBINA PARK

This growing section of the city is remote from any existing or proposed park of any considerable size and should be provided with a local park of considerable size. If located in the subdivision between Albina and Irvington, where there was formerly a race course, it would serve for both these centers of population. . . (58)