St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-03-24
CHAMBER OF COMMERCE..
Sanitation, Parks and the Rental of the New
Building Discussed.

its working and found it to be defective, and
that it did not accomplish what it was in
tended to. DR.. Day, Mr.. Cochran, Mr. Hodg-
son and others expressed their views, which
did not vary much from the views heretofore
expressed at different times by the members
OF the chamber. The report was finally re-
committed to the committee, the board of
health and the city attorney, with DR.. Day,
who was added to the committee.
THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE BUILDING.
Mr.. H. S. Fairchild, who was requested by the
building committee of the chambe to go over
the new chamber of commerce building and
estimate the rentals of each room, reported that
the liked charges against the same would be
as follows: Taxes, 1900; insurance, $500:
interest on first mortgage, $4,000; interest
on second mortgage, $3.50; janitor, 5000;
elevator boy, $3.50; engineer, S720; firemen,
S240; fuel, water, repairs, etc., 50, 500. To-
tai, s1S,S7 Mr. Fairchild then gave the
rental of the building, floor by floor, which
foots up slS,59O. The report was filed for
information.
THAT MORGUE.
The matter of locating the morgue on
Cedar street just below Beach was brought
up. and the location was generally con-
demned as wholly unsuitable and improper.
1t was finally referred to the committee on
streets, roads and parks.
THE COMO BOULEVARD.
Mr.. McClung, from the committee on
streets, roads and parks, presented the fol-
lowing reportin relation to the improvement
OF Como avenue and the extension of the
same to the state fair grounds:
Whether the avanua shOj11d ha 000 foot
wide or less is matter of considerable i'm
portance, not only as to cost but also as to
its beauty and aesthetic effect. The cost this
side of Como will be large, and the avenue
should not exceed 100 feet in width. Be-
yond Como the land is not so valuable, and
the distance being only half mile to the
fair ground, the cost of making the avenue
200 feet wide would be very
little. How should this cost be
met? The city has adopted the pol
icy of paying one-half the cost of small parks
where the citizens are willing to pay the
other half. AS these wide avenues are more
in the nature of parkways than streets, and
in other cities in this country and Europe
are becoming more fashionable and popular
than parks-being called ''parkways" as well
as boulevards-the same policy applied to
them would result in encouraging their es-
tablishment on liberal basis and multiply
ing them in all parts of the city; and your
committee are of the opinion that the city
will get more out Of the small amount al
lowed it for parks during the next two years
by using the money in paying half the cost
of the extra grounds required for opening up
parkways and drives Of this character and
widening our streets than in any other way
THE GRANDEsT AVENUE IN PARIS
designed to put the center of the
city in communication with its $500
acre park, the Bots de Boulonge
is 800 feet wide, and was paid for and opened
on basis similar to this. Half the expense
was borne by the state, under the conditions
that an iron railing of uniform design was
to be constructed along the whole length of
the road; that strip of eleven yards (thirty-
three feet in breadth be left for garden be-
tween this railing and the houses on each
side, and further, that no kind of trade or
manufacture should be carried on in the
houses adjoining. The model city laid out
by A. T. Stewart secured $50 feet extra in
the grand avenues running through it by
providing a condition in every deed that no
house should be built within seventy-ive
feet of the street. Como avenue, from Rice
street to the lake, might easily be made 1875
feet wide like the South Park avenue in Chicago
by the condemning and payment for
of ten feet on each side and requiring the
owners of lots TO reserve twelve and one-half
feet on each side. The change of grade and
the extra grading need not be done for some
years to come, but the ground should be Sc
cured at once. Beyond Como it will not be
a fio,r1t ,alra g.. i
with 80 or 10 feet reserved between houses
and the street. Your committee have seen
the owners of a large majority of the land
required, including Mr.. Pratt and Mr.. Chute
of Minneapolis, Mr.. Langford of st. Paul aud
the owners of st. Anthony park, all of whom
will meet the city on equitable terms and
make such reservation as will give the two
cities and the state fair grounds
CONTINUOUS PARKWAY
three hundred and fifty feet wide, with rows
of trees, grass plats and drives equal to the
grandest boulevard in Paris, which is the
grandest in the world. A word or two as to
this style OF parkway seems appropriate in
this connection. The example of Paris,
which has 100 miles Of these parkways aud
maintains a nursery of forty-tve acres TO
raise trees for planting; then twelve acres
for roses and shrubs aud twenty-five acres
for other flowers, has excited the emulation
of other cities in Europe and America, and
even London is paying less attention to
parks aud more 10 the boulevard and park
way system.
Robinson, an English author who has
written book to stimulate the London taste
in this direction, SAYS: parks and gardens
are excellent in their way, but they effect
only partial good ii vast areas of densely-
packed streets are uureeved by green open
spots, where wholesome air may obtain q
vantage ground in its ceaseless work of re-
moving impurities. The slight good that Is
effected by fine parks here and there, in or
toward the outskirts OF city is as nothing
compared with what may be carried out by so
planning aud planting streets aud roads that
the air in which the people work and sleep
may day and night be comparatively pure
aud free, and the eve refreshed with green
st almost every point"
THIS NEW STYLE OF BROAD THoRoUGHFARE,
planted with trees and designed with
special reference to recreation and
health, has only within the last
few years been introduced into American
cities. Chicago has about thirty-three miles
OF parkway from 200 10 $50 feet vide, be-
sides drives around the parks. Drexel or
South Park boulevard is l26 feet wide, with
a grass plat and flowers planted in the cen
ter. with row Of trees and two other rows
Of trees and grass plats on each side. The
South Park system embraces about fourteen
miles of interior drives and thirty-five miles
of walks. Cincinnati has a parkway twelve
miles long and 100 feet wide. Buffalo has
an inland suburban park of 800 acres, with
parkways 200 feet wide Indicating from il in
opposite directions. San Francisco has pro-
vided for parkway stretching three miles
along the shore. from 200 to 400 feet wide.
All these cities postponed these improve
ments so long that they can never equal the
scale Of grandeur aud magnificeuce attain
able bv s.. Paul aud Minneapolis, If these
cities viii only improve the opportunity now
offered Of meeting and elaspiug hands in the
interurhan distric; over a oroAd-gauged sys-
IT,