Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-05-13
Maryland's Park Plans.

Publication in The Star of articles
and maps describing the projected park
development of Rock Greek Valley north
into Maryland from the District line
gives tangible evidence of the progress
made by the Maryland-National Cap
ital Park and Planning Commission IN
planning for the Capitals metropolitan
area of the future. And it Is comforting
to know that the Maryland Legislature
has gone on record as approving and
supporting the park commission In its
work. The detailed drawings of Rock
Greek beyond the District line, embel-
Iished with golf courses, lily ponds, Ia
Roons, canoe courses and even parking
spaces for automobiles, conveniently
arranged for picnic parties, do not rep
resent the pipe dreams Of some over
enthusiastic idealists. They are very
practical outlines of work to be done,
and done within a reasonably short
time
Plans for utilizing Rock Greek as a
basis for park development are remi-
niscent of the situation in Washington
q little over thirty years ago, when
like sketches were appearing, not In
maps, perhaps, but in word pictures
of what it was hoped would and could
be done some day to make the tangled
wilderness of Rock Greek Park and the
watery marshec of Potomac Park avail
able for future generations of bicycltsts,
horseback riders, mixers and those who
would ride in their horse drawn car
riages. A bicycle path was a conspicu-
Gus feature of the early maps Of Poto-
mac Park, and while even these first
maps included a golf course, there must
have been many of that day who Won
dered where one would even find
enough old gentlemen able to reach
it and patronize it. Golf in that day
was an old mans game. A Rip Van
Wrinkle, fallen asleep toward the end
Of the last century after reading Board
Of Trade reports on what should be
done in Rock Greek and Potomac Parks,
would wake up today and rub his eyes
o long time before convincing himself
that he was not still reading, but ac-
tually seeing And the Rip Van Wrinkle
who dozes over the plans of the Mary
land Park Commission for treating
Rock Greek will have q surprise in store
for him q few short years hence.
In utilizing the winding course of
Rock Greek for park development, the
planners are not only extending the
Capitals Rock Creek Park into Mary
land, but they have chosen the modern
and reasonable motif for their scheme.
In the recent past q water course was
regarded by the great thinkers as some
thing to be turned into sewer pipes and
filled by enthusiastic dumping. A harm
less little stream trickling down a hill
was savagely and extensively boxed in
concrete and brick, while red dirt was
brought from nearby excavations and
hastily dumped to destroy all traces of
its previous existence. A more enlight-
ened school of city planners these days
will search high and low for q water
course and will take every means with
in its power to save it by parking It
and putting it beyond the reach of
dump trucks. The low land is insult
able for building, unless it is filled. But
why I'LL it? Leave it as a park, as the
Maryland planners intend to do with
Rock Greek. and it will remain as a
comfort and source Of pride and hap
piness for countless years to come.