Prairie Farmer, Vol. 56: No. 5, February 2, 1884. / A Weekly Journal for the Farm, Orchard and Fireside

ESTABLISHED IN 1841. ENTIRE SERIES: Vol. 56—No. 5.
PRICE, $2.00 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE.
CHICAGO, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1884.
DREXEL BOULEVARD, CHICAGO—DESIGNED BY H. W. S. CLEVELAND.
BY H. W. S. CLEVELAND.
Few persons think of a park as anything but a place of recreation, a pleasure ground, and an ornamental appendage of a city.
As a consequence, if it is proposed to create a park in any city, every suggestion that is offered in regard to its location is based upon the fact of its superior natural advantages; its picturesque character; its command of fine views, or the features of attractive interest it combines.
Without denying the value of any of these elements, I wish to call attention to other objects which are rarely thought of, and yet are deserving of careful consideration in determining the location.
Almost every city comprises within its limits some portion of territory which is not adapted for business purposes, and is not attractive to that class of inhabitants who can afford to choose the location of their residences. Such localities are at first left vacant, but as population increases they are occupied first by squatters, then by those who can afford nothing better, and finally become the site of tenement houses, or dens of resort for the worst class of human beings, male and female, that the city contains.
The original cause of the avoidance of the place may have been that it was low and subject to malarial influences, or of such topographical character that it could only be adapted to residence purposes at very great cost.
In either of these cases it is obvious that the first cost of the land will be far less than that of a tract combining all the features which render it most attractive as a site for residences. Let us now consider some of the effects of improving such sites: