Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-03-18
TIE MUCH ABUSED COMO PARK
Looming Up in Manner to Commend
the Purchase.
THE WAY TO BEAUTIFY THE CITY
BY DOtting it With Small Open Squares
for Air and Comfort
Parks!

IRE, and what memories of delicious sun
shine drifting down through outrageous
trees and foliage, rest, contentment,
health, and by nature and natures God it
awakens in the minds of residents of our
great commercial cities-the professional
man, harassed and overworked merchant
and manufacturer, and more especially the
army of working people, men and women,
and the children born unto them, shut up
IN narrow, ill-yentilated, unattractive
walls for eight, ten, twelve, fourteen or
more hours in the day.
Parks!
The subject has been so thoroughly dis
cussed, and is so generally acknowledged
to be needful appendage of all large and
fourishing cities, for their sanitary and
sesthetic benefits, that any repetition in a
newspaper article would be waste of
space and time.
But parks in St. Paul!
Here is a live theme and ono that as
icing made of most commanding i'm
portance by the rapid growth of the city.
The natural beauty of st. PauI's situation,
the plateaus and ranges of beautiful curry
<ather of waters, changing its general
course from north to south, to west to east,
as it rolls by, and the varied features which
God Almighty has bestowed upon the stu
alton, does not now need to be enlarged
upon. The red man who occupied these
great plains and forests prior to the ad-
vent of the white mana child of nature
unadorned-was attracted to the spot upon
which st. Paul is now located by the gran
deur and beauty of its position, and long
after driven back by the tide of advancing
civilization, his eyes would turn
to the favored spot with affec-
ton and longing. Since the
coming of the white man the site
where formerly stood the Indians tepee
has been converted by the gradual pro-
cesses of growth into the city of st. Paul,
with its miles upon miles of streets, lined
by stately commercial and manufacturing
structures, handsome residences, churches,
school buildings, public buildings, etc.
Poets have sun g and volumes have been
written in portrayal of the grandeur and
beautiful natural scenery, of its location,
Is the Mecca to which thousands upon
thousands of residents of other less
favored localities annually turn their
steps for pleasure and recreation.
But with the rapid growth of the city,
" of the natural beauties, for which st.
IN! has been famed, have been, and are
--clii.sed to the Juggernaut car of business
demands, while our citizens, immersed in
the cares of their rapidly increasing in
dustries, and, naturally DESTROYS of keeping
pace with their surroundings, have seen
the destruction going on without ap-
parently realizing its import
to the future of the
city, or their own duty in the matter, by
timely interposition and the aid of art, to
preserve to coming generations some of
the attractions which belonged to ST. Paul
oftheir day.
PARKS IN ST. PAUL!
Let Us briefly go over them and see what
has been done in the past. A glance at
the records shows that as far back in the
history of st. Paul as 1849-before Mime
sofa had been allowed to assume the func-
tions of statehood-the year in fact which
witnessed the arrival in St. Paul, of the
first governor of the territory, the Hon.
Alex. Ramsey, the organization of the ter
ritorial government, the creation of Ram
sey county, (then including all the territory
to the north and northwest the first ses-
sion of the territorial legislature, and the
incorporation of the town of st. Paul
the first dedication of ground for park
purposes was made. The public spirited
and far seeing gentlemen who made the
dedication were Hon. H. NJ. Rice and John
R. Irvine, the latter deceased,
and it was made with the plating of Rice
& Irvine's addition to St. Paul, embracing
the territory between the Mississippi river
on the south and a continuation of Oak
street on the north, and st. Peter street on
the east and Elm street on the west, and
included two squares of ground, are now
known as Rice park and the other as r.
vine park. The first named lies between
Market and Washington streets, east and
west, and Fourth and Fifth streets north
and south, opposite the city hall, in the
Third ward. The other, Irvine park. as
plated is located half mile southwest,
upon the first plateau of high land back
from the river, and in the center of dou-
BILE block of ground bounded by Washing
ton and Exchange, and Sherman and
Chestnut streets, Franklin street from the
east and Walnut street from the north,
striking the park on either side at the side,
and connecting with a driveway around
the outside, to which the residences face.
Less than a month later, July "a, the
plat of Whitney Il Smiths addition, Cor
nelius S. Whitney and Robert Smith, pro-
prietors, was filed, in which the plat of
ground now known as Smith park, just
north of Noyes Bros. q Cutters wholesale
drug house, First ward, and bounded by
Fifth and Sixth streets on the north and
south, and Wacouta and Sibley streets on
the east and west, was dedicated to the
town of st. Paul, to be forever held and
used for public park purposes, title in the
same to revert to the original owners or
their heirs, whenever the legatee
should apply it to any other purpose.
With the above dedications the com
l,.Ts ~