Omaha daily bee., 1909-11-21
REAL ESTATE GOSSIP
R, @. Peters Advocates More Atten.
ton to Beautifying City.
MORE PARKS AND BOULEvARDs
Thinks IL IL Better 90 Devise n plan
to Buy More Land while Il f.
Cheap and May he Eas-
lily Acquired.

some Of the plans used there. He said:
Kansas City has taken time well by the
forelock and bought ground and laid out
It's low lands en- boulevards and parks
when the ground was OF but little value,
and az the city has grown IT has been Of
great value to It and this has been con-
ductive to its growth. Where these parks
and boulevards are laid out It enhances
the value OF not only the surrounding
property, but Of the entire city. as Is
shown by the boulevards we have laid out
here. 1t is conclusively shown by the
large extent Of the fine residence prop
erty there which is very much greater
than ours, and l think il is largely owing
to the extent Of the boulevards which they
have laid out.
1T is also shown conclusively that mac
adam properly prepared is the proper
pavement to use for residence sections.
1t is more a natural form Of pavement
and more conductive 20 the beauty Of a
suburb. Brick and asphalt are ]pavements
suitable for a business section, but they
are noisy and one does not seek a suburb
because Of It's noise.
Buy While Land IL Cheap.
THE thing for Omaha to do, while the
ground Is yet cheap, is to buy up the low
lands which are natural courses of creeks
and boulevard them. This would enhance
the value OF the surrounding property
and not only that, it would enhance the
value Of the entire city.
one thing l would ~criticise Omaha for is
the straight lines upon which 1t is laid out.
Nature does not form her lines of beauty
in straight lines, but in curves. Ar artist
would be a failure were he TO have
straight lines with no curves in his paint
ing. Straight lines may be mathematical
and precise, but they do not add to the
beauty Of a city in its residence section,
nor to its ultimate wealth, for It is the
beauty Of a location which attracts people
and makes the wealth Of a city. The
beauty OF a stream or a brook is in it's
curves and sinuOus lines. Our woods would
not be nearly so beautiful if laid out in
mathematical lines. We should follow
nature in the planning of our residence Sec
tons and our boulevards and drives.
There is too much commercialism in lay
ing out grounds with mathematical preci-
sion and in too small tracts. It may bring
a few more dollars at the outset, but in
the long run a section which is laid out
Tor beauty will be the one that will bring.
the greatest price. We should not mar
row our streets too much and we should
not make the lots too small in order to
get SO much more money for them. We
nave immense broad prairies here and are
not restricted to our ground. We have
plenty Of room for all the city that we
want to build.
With reference to parks and boulevarJIs.
we have not enough ground laid out for
this purpose when we come to consider
other cities. Take Swope park in Kansas
city. 1 think 1t has about L5OO acres;
keeney park in Hartford has 1000 acres
and there is a park in Los Angeles that
mas 5000 acres. Hartford is not so large
as Omaha' but 1t has many more acres In
parks and much better kept However we
cannot criticise our Park board. nor the
lack OF the extent OF our parks too much.
for I think we nave done exceedingly well
IN Omaha with the appropriations granted
Hanscom park and some of our other
parks show up admirably for the money
spent but It is time now to induce larger
appropriations If possible. while the ground
Is cheap ana the city is growing, for larger
parks and larger boulevards. This will
make a more beautiful as well as larger
city and a moro desirable place In which
10 live, A good many Of you probably
have seen Belle Isle In Detroit and know
what a beautiful park It Is. II IL a ma
(aral park. They hired a landscape gard
oner TO lay It out He did not follow Ma
lures ways, but straight lines. and when
the Park commissioners found out how II
was going to despoil a great many OF the
magnificent trees they paid him off and
let MIN go and laid out the park TO suit
themselves, following natures pattern. ana
You can see how much more beautiful Il
Is with the trees which they retained.
Plant Hardy Trees.
1T Is quite necessary also TO get narks
and grounds at an early date so as 70 set
out trees 1t takes decades here to grow
a Tree and what is more beautiful in any
= city than trees? We should not plant so
many soft maple. but more elms. oaks
sycamores and trees Of that class They
are not only more stable. but lend a
beauty that is not attained by soft mamie
ana are not so easily broken.
i would also advocate the plantipg ~
flowers and shrubs and hardy plants more
freely than are planted here. We are not
a city OF flowers. One can readily see
this when visiting any eastern city such as
hartford or Boston. In Toledo wbera
they have some OF their finest residences
IL was at one time low ground and moth
ms but a mud hole. They have a beauti-
tul residence section which has been made
largely by flowers and shrubs planted
along the curb line. maintaining a uni
FORM parking line, and II is as beautiful
a section as one will find today.
Omaha should be a city OF beauty. We
nave hills and valleys, and by ormin
some uniform plan and adopting a method
or parking streets and different small
waste tracts with flowers, we can make
II a beautiful place and attract people, not
only tourists, but people who are looking
Tor permanent homes.
Uniform Streets the Best,
1 would have a uniform width OF streets
III the residence sections, varying per-
maps in sections where traffic demands IL
we should also have uniform sidewalks
Nuroins and a uniform distance between
the house and the street. Referriny agat,
TO Toledo, some OF the most beautiful
residences have lots with a depth OF 900
Feet or more, the house being set back a.
least twenty-five to fifty feet. In a goo6
residence section the lot should be 100 or
800 feet There should be a strict la,
regarding the distance a residence shouId
be built from the street.
We can well seek more variety Of styt.
IN the architecture OF our homes. one can
notice The hfFTnwan.a A.