The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-03-09

" to the clLy.
 public school lot nesr Five Points,
 2.3 acres.
 Caldwell park, Highland avenue
 and Twenty-sixth street, 2.S acres.
 Rhodes park, Highland avenue
 and Twenty-eighth street, 2.S acres.
 Lakevfew park, Highland )ave-
 nUe and Thirty-secOnd street, 40
 acres.
 Halls park, Highland avenue and
 Thirtieth street, 5.2 acres.
 Capitol, now Woodrow Wilson
 park, 5.6 acres.
 East park, sixth avenue and
 Twenty-fourth street, 3.7 acres.
 West park, now Ingram park,
 Sixth avenue and Seventeenth
 street, 3.7 acres.
 Behren's park, now Jordan park,
 Avenue H and Twelfth street, b.2
 acres.
 Green Springs and Idlewild park,
 106.S acres.
 Mineral Wells park, North Bir-
 mingham, 56.2 ncres.
 North Birmingham park, Thirty
 seventh avenue and Twenty-fOurth
 street, 137 acres.
 Woodward park, West End. 9.31
 acres.
 Ensley park, A acres.
 With the exception of five of these the acreage is small, merely comprising a city block or small plot of land set aside bv land development companies as breath ing spaces for the people when the city grows to large proportions and becomes as many large cities in the east and north have already become
 Red Mountain, the largest, has 200 acres, which compares favorably with the area of the larger parks in majority of the ait; of nr nOnIilati0n while Avondale, with 37 acres, is larger than the principal parks in many of the cities.
 PARKS IN OTHER CITIES
 For the purpose of comparison the following data taken from encyclope- dias is given, total park area, unless otherwise stated.
 Cities of from 100000 to 300,000 pop ulation:
 Bridgeport, Conn, 230 acres; Dallas, Tex, 127 acres Des Moines, Ia., 970 acres; Grand Rapids, Mich, 113 acres; oils, Ind 1900 acres, largest park $50 acres; Kansas City, Mo-, 1929 acres; Louisville, Ky, three of 71s, 341 and ITO acres respectively, and several smaller parks; Memphis. Tenn, 1000 acres; New Bedford, Mass, 225 acres; New Haven. Conn.,, 12 parks aggregat- ing 300 acres; Providence. R. l., 55o acres, the largest of which has l03 acres; Reading, Pa., 200 acres; Rich mond, Va, 95S acres, the largest hay ing 300 acres; Rochester, N. Y.. IA parks aggregating 666 acres; St. Paul, Minn, 10S2 acres; San Antonio, Tex, 22 parks, none of large area; Spring field, Mass, 500 acres; Toledo, O., S4S acres; Worcester. Mass. 400 acres. r
 Cities having populations from 3Oo,- 900 to 500. .0o0i Buffalo. N. Y, 1920 acres; Cincinnati, O., one of $40 acres, one of 21as acres and several smaller ones; Detroit, Mich, TOY acres, the largest having Al acres; Los Angeles, Cal, 400O acres; Minneapolis, Minn., 2465 acres; Newark, N. J., 65S acres; San Francisco, Cal, 32 parks, with total area of 1914 acres.
 Cities with 5O0.00o population and over: Baltimore, 1450 acres, largest 671 acres; Boston, 1870 acres, includ- ing the metropolitan district, having q radius of 25 miles and embracing 2s towns and cities; Chicago. 2111 acres. one with 1lS1 and one with 575 acres, Cleveland, 1926 acres; St. Louis 2125 acres in IS parks, the larg- est of which has 200 acres; New York city, embracing Manhattan. Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens, and Richmond boroughs, 207SS acres, Central park, the most noted park in the United States. having only S53 acres; Phila- delphia, 361S acres, including one with $500 acres, the largest city park in the United States.
 RED MOUNTAIN COMPARISON
 Further comparison shows that Red Mountain park, Birmingham largest, is one fourth as large as Central park, New York; has only 10 acres less thdu Eden park, Cincinnati, best developed one, and exceeds in area the largest park of number of the cities in Bir- mingham's class Birmingham's park area exceeds that of nine of the cities with populations ranging from 1O0,0oO to 30O,000, is almost as large as that of three others, is almost half as large IS that of Baltimore or Cleveland and one- fourth as large as that of St. Louis or Chicago.
 In the great majority of the cities named hundreds of thousands of dol lars are expended annually in making improvements to the parks. such as building driveways, setting out trees. sodding, building rest houses and band stands, and otherwise beautify- ing them, and in their upkeep or main tenance.
 A start in a small way has been made towards improving Avondale park; a few driveways have been built, houses to protect and keep the zoo animals have been built, but the ex- penditures there do not approach tho expenditures of many cities of even smaller population than Birmingham in the improvement and maintenance of their parks.