The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1902-08-10
BUILD BALL PARK:
AT FOREST | 0 |:| [ s HILL
This to Be One Of Unique Fea-
lures There Next Year.
A NATURAL AMPHITHEAT !. }
Shore of Lake will be Utilized for Seats
while Operas will be Sung from
Floating Platform - Drove OF
Deer and Flocks of Sheep.


Squire Donati has been discussing with
Manager ". F. Thomas. Of the Virginia
Passenger and Power Comply parks, the
feasibility of building first-class ball
field at Forest Hill and starting up re-
vlvaI Of the sport next summer on big
scale. Plans have been discussed, and 1t
is pretty nearly settled that when the
next season opens up 1t Will open with
hlare Of trumpets and the christening
OF permanent home for baseball in
Richmond.
The ball park will be only one Of many
UNIQUE features at Forest Hill next year,
for the Virginia Passenger and Power
Company has decided to spend lot OF
money on the beautiful property that
mas lain almost abandoned for years.
The entire park. will be fenced IN ana
will be made even more beautiful than
its natural advantages now make It.
drove of deer will be put In the park and
two focks Of sheep-one of English South
downs and one Of Merino-will be kept
on the hillstdes and in the open stretches.
With a view to laying the foundation
Of zoo, a cage Of monkeys and pair
Of ring-tailed chimpanzees have already
beeE ordered
WOMAN SWlMM Eli.
The great swimming pool has already
been refitted and this week Madam
F'lossie Anderson. the champion woman
swimmer Of the world, will give two per-
formances every day-one at In the az
ternoon and the other at night She VIII
also lecture free Of cost to the ladies'
taking lessons in swimming Madam
F'lossie will give exhibition OF every
STYLE OF swimming, and each exhibition
1t A Scyhf
pool will be brilliantly Illuminated.
An examination Of the park by the com
paay's engineers developed the fact that
the lake provided on its shores a perfect
natural amphitheatre. One Of the most
novel attractions ever put in a park will
BE the result of this discovery. The
shelving hillside by the lake will be cut
into many terraces, and seats will be put
on them. Just at the foot of this slope
Of seats floating platform will be built
for an orchestra. and just be-
yond it and further out in the
water a ship will be built, on which maui
teal operas, such as Pinafore, the Pr
lates of Penzance and Billee TaSior. will
be played.
As intended the effect will be odd and
beautiful in the extreme. In Pinafore the
cho1uses will be sung from ships boats
and the craft of the bumboat women, OF
whom little Buttercup" was one. They
will advance and board H NJ. S. Pima
fore with all the formality of the English
navy at the time the opera was written.
Mr. Thomas believes that with the nat
uraI background of wooded banks and
the sky overhead. with searchlights to
follow the choruses, the effect VIII be
hard to beat
NATURAL SCENIC RAILWAY.
A representative of the. Thompson
Scenic Railway Company was asked 70
inspect the place. and the result was that
another new idea in park amusements
was promulgated. Instead Of having
scenic railway with painted canvas and
imitation locks and lakes. the company
will build a railway around the par1.
skirting the cascades. crossing a part or
the lake. and running through the most
secluded and beautiful hooks and corners
of Forest Hill. 1t will be driven at
high rate Of speed. and the trackage will
be much greater than any similar railway
in this part of the country
N the old stone mansion at the en-
trance to the park, cafe will be run
by a competent manager, especial at
tention being taken of breakfast orders
for swimming parties on hot summer
DAYS. Telephone arrangements will be
made so that regular patrons may order
before they start for the park.
The dancing pavilion ha salready been
refurnished, and dancing is held there
every Tuesday, Thursday and Friday
night.
Manager Thomas, after making West
ampton Park a success, tackled the
Forest Hill task so successfully that al
ready the receipts from traffic on the
road have increased 100 per cent His
task was no easy one, for it is a wall
understood fact that reviving a park that
has been abandoned is a harder feat to
perform than to start new one.
TRAVEL IDEA
The company has given him full charge
of all of the suburban resorts, and he
is doing famously well with them, the
summer travel this year being heavier
than it has ever been in Richmond. and
the figures of the money taken in by
the company since the consolidation are
showing up excellenhy.
The swimming pool is one of the biggest
in the South and the water is so clear
tat the bottom can be seen at any point
in 1t. the supply coming from the cold
and crystal springs of the park. An auto
matte ram is now being constructed SO
that the spring water can be sent to any
mart of the park and supply an electric
fountain.
FOR the little children miniature steam
railway will be built through the park.
Yesterday the merrs-go-round was put In
service. Gradually the park will assume
the general plan designed for 1t. and
Forest Hill will be revived thoroughly.
The property owners on the Manchester
s;d.a Of the river are meeting all this work
1,.;+b much favor. and it is believed that
,-a1,es will materially increase.
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