St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1888-04-03
For the Most Magnificent Park
System in the Entire
Country
II the Twin Cities Will Join
Hands in Pushing It
to Perfection.
Earnest Conviction That a
Continuous Street Sys-
tenn Is Necessary.
Prof. CIeveland's Interesting
Appeal for Greater Es-
thetie Development.

Fl. w. S. Cleveland, the landscape
gardener, and designer of the park syS-
tens of Minneapolis and st. Paul, de-
livered a lecture last evening at Dyer's
hall, by invitation of the Minneapolis
Society of Fine Arts. His subject was
announced as 1.-THE Esthetic Improve
ment of Minneapolis" but his remarks
were equally applicable to st. Paul, and
in fact were based upon the suppositl0n
which in his own mind amounted to
earnest conviction, that the two cities
must of necessity become one. continu-
Gus system of streets and avenues. He
said he was aware that such consum-
nation appeared so distant, especially
to the young, that they cannot realize
the fact that it can be reached, except
at q period too remote to be of interest
to any now upon the stage of active life.
In order to aid them to attain such con-
viction as had been the natural out
growth of experience in his own mind,
he gave an interesting resume of his
"reminiscences of
THE GROWTH OF CITIES
which he had himself witnessed both in
the East and West. His memory car
rieS him back to the time-SiXty years
ago-when cows were pastured on Bos-
ton common, and subsequently when
the question of substituting an iron
fence for the wooden rails which ell
closed it was subject of controversy
and was denounced by its opponents as
needless piece of extravaganza. He
referred to the building of the Astor
house in New York, and the opinion
openly expressed by the wise ones of
that day that old John Jacob must be in
his dotage to suppose that such hotel
could be supported $50 far up town."
The fashionable residence quarter was
then in the neighborhood of Bowling
Green.
Mr.. Cleveland's first visit to the West
was in 1885. He came from Philadel-
phia by rail to Harrisburg, which was
then the farthest western point reached
by railroad. From there to Pittsburg
the journey was by canal, and thence by
steamboat to st. Louis. 1t was not till
his second visit to Illinois in 1887 that
he first heard of a fright smart town up
in the north part of the state Oh Lake
Michigan, called Chicago" The sites
of the present cities of st. Paul and
Minneapolis, each containing now a
larger population than Boston had at
that time, could not have been reached
in safety bya white man without an
armed escort.
''All the region west OF the Mississippi
and north of the mouth of the Missouri
was dreamland. / used to read the ac-
counts of the expeditions of Lewis and
Clark and Maj. Long to the Rocky
mountains, and wonder if should ever
be able to visit the wild scenes they de-
scribed. Nothing more abSurdly Wis
ionary could have been presented to my
mind than what | am now able to state
as simple matter of fact, that while
still in full possession of my mental and
physical powers have been called upon
professionally to prepare design for
the grounds of costly villa residence
in the suburbs of thriving city 500
miles west of the Yellowstone park and
halfway between here and the Pacific
coast. Now here l am, a living witness
of all this wonderful groWtf-an old
man it is trlle-but still working as in
dustriously and with as hearty an inter-
est as have ever done in my life, and
with all these memories. erowding upon
me am told by an intelligent man that
l must have powerful imagination if /
can conceive the fact that the interyen-
ing space
BETWEEN THESE TWO CITIES
can ever become continuous system of
streets and thoroughfares. Indeed, it
requires no effort of imagination, but
simply the application of the rules of
cause and effect, which L have been OBJ
serving for sixty years, till the deduc-
ton of one from the other is as natural
and involuntary as the act of breath
ing"
Assuming this as a matter beyond
question, the lecturer proceeded to urge
the necessity OF early attention to pro-
vision for wants and necessities which
will certainly arise and can by no posi-
bility be satisfied if we fail to secure
what is now easily available. 1t is diff
ficult to condense his statement of these
necessities and the means by which
they should be provided for without
diminishing the force of the ar
gument. The importance of estab-
fishing broad avenues or bouleyards
between the two cities. not only for the
purpose of comforting a character of
dignity and beauty which could not
otherwise be attained, but as affording
the only reliable safeguard against the
spread of great conflagarationS, was
urged as matter of immediate impor-
lance, in order that all suburban addi-
lions NAV be forced to conform to them.
If we wait till the land has been laid
out In lots and recorded, it will be
TOO LATE TO CREATE THE BoUIEvARDs.
The lecture was illustrated by skele-
ton map showing the relative positions
of the present cities, the lines of rail
roads and the principal connecting ave
nueS and also the course of the river
and position of the lakes. By means of
this Mr.. Cleveland showed that the
direct course between the eenters of
business of the two was inter
sected by railroads and must of
necessity be largely occupied by ele-
vators, manufactures, stock yards, ETC.,
which must be located near a railroad.
This, therefore, was no place for large
park; but at Minnehaha, on both sides
of the Mississippi, an area could be Sc
cured aside from the lines of business
traffic, equidiStant from the business
eenterS. and easily accessible from the
best residence portions of each city, and
comprising such natural features OF
grandeur, pieturesqueness and beauty
as no other city could rival.
Mr.. Cleveland then went on to urge
as the all-impOrtant subject for inn
mediate action the securing of sufficient
area on both sides of the river for
great park, common to both cities, and
also the preservation of the river banks
above in their natural grandeur. The
only way this can be done is by laying
out a fine avenue along the top OF
the bank, and keeping the whole
space between the avenue and the river,
as public ornamental ground, to be pre-
served in its natural wildness devel-
oped and interpreted by the hand of art.
If this is done the avenue for its whole
extent will in time be occupied by mag
nifcent public and private buildings,
and the whole adjacent region will be-
come a faVorite residence quarter of