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REPORT OF

Charles Mulford Robinson

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Aaanrtattnu

PRESS OF

Fort Wayne Printing Compani
fcrt wayne. ind

OFFICERS AND EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

3^ort Mayttr (Etwir ilmprotirmpnt Assoriattntt

Charles H. Worden. president

Dr. L. Park Drayer. vice-President

Robert B. Hanna, secretary

William H. Scheiman. treasurer
Rabbi H. F. Ettelson Samuel M. Foster

William E. Mobsman Louis D. Redding

Louis Fox

227772

rST as an artist is al)le to ('i-eate
a plan of a chureli or palace
that is perfectly adapted to
its i)iu-poses ; just as, in sueh
cases, it is liis task to work
with a conscientious regard
for all the demands imposed
hy necessity— so artistic city
planning is to be understood
as that wliicli does not work
according to systems, but
according to the specific (-on-
ditions of the case in hand.
Not art alone, but the appropriate development of all the
possible advantages, with due regard to the specific- pi-ohleui,
is the aim. The artistically creative city planner should
seek out all peculiarities of the site, and emphasize them
according to their individuality."

"Qerman City Planning," by Cornelius Gurlilt.

CONTENTS

Page
Introduction ------ *.*

The Problem - - - - - -11

The Business Streets ----- 15

The Official Quarter ----- 3(5

Approaches to the New Station - - - 40

An Industrial District - - - - - 48

Public ^iarket ------ 55

Residence Streets - - - - - - 58

Improvement of the Parks - - - - <38

River Drive and Parkway System - - - 0(1

Conclusion - - - - - - 121

ALL FOR C3IME A^D

OI\E FOR ALL
SLOGAN

CIVIC REVIVAL

JUNE 2 TO 6 09
WHiT ISUIVIC REVIViL

ilntro&iutiun.

To the Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association,
Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Gentlemen :

Considered abstractly, the civic improvement problem
which is presented by Fort Wayne is exceedingly interesting.
This is for three special reasons :

It has the interest, first, of being representative of a group
of problems, for Fort Wayne is typical of a large number of
industrial cities that require readjustment. The population of
these cities is hard working and, in the aggregate, large. To
add to the beauty of one such city, to the opportunities it of-
fers for healthful exercise out-of-doors ; to make it in every
way a better place to live in without unreasonable municipal ex-
penditure, could not fail to be helpfully suggestive to other
similar cities and hence to perform a great social and econo-
mic service — social, because one would thus be brightening
many lives ; economic, because the result would be to increase
the efficiency of labor and to bring in and hold a high class
of labor. The probability of this double service is the second
reason why the proffered problem appeals. Third, it is inter-
esting because the conditions surrounding its presentation
were so unusual, the "Civic Revival" having been, in itself
and in its effects, a remarkable movement.

Without reference, therefore, to the local topographical
conditions, the problem demands one's best study. Because
those conditions lia])])en to prove exceptionally favorable, the
problem in concrete consideration becomes the more absorb-
ing.

As a result of mv slnd\', I have the honor to submit the
following" conclusions, recommendations, and suggestions:

HE PROBLEM

Fort Wiiyiic has had no
niushi'oom growth. It is coiri-
paratively an ohl city, as cities
U'o in the Middle West, and
yet its popuhition now is only
abont 6-"),000. It is an ini-
poi-tant raili-oad center, and
the traffic facilities thns oifer-
cd, its pr*)xiniity to lai-geniai--
kets, and its location in a ri(^h
trilnitary farming- conn try
liave united to canse a con-
sistently continnons groAvth,
and to determine lieyond (piestion the city's character, present
and fnture, as a mannfactnriiig and trading eommnnity.

The gradualness of the increase in population must have
presented, one might think, ideal opportunities for municipal
improvement. On the contrary, the very lack of spectacular
hooms to shock the civic consciousness into a realization of
tendencies and destiny, has invited, heretofore, a degree of
lethargy and procrastination. The streets are well paved,
good sidewalks have recently been laid, the pavements are
reasonably clean ; but there has been little evidence of civic
imagination. The community has now realized suddenly that
a future, long permitted to look out for itself, has at last ar-
rived ; that narrow streets are getting unduly congested, that
high buildings have gone up on sites that it might have been
civic wisdom to keep open ; that the beautiful rivers have be-
come dumping grounds ; that in the building up of vacant lots,
the children have lost their play space. It has paused, taking
account of these conditions, to learn what it can yet do to
correct the omissions of the past and to prepare for the as-
sured future. Thus is the problem concerned largely, but not
alone, with the present needs of Fort Wayne. It is, How can
the present city better adjust itself to the requirements of that

Purl U'ayiic Cii'ic hiiprirc'ciiicnt AssDciatioii

business and ])o])nlati()n wliicli, in a now immiiKMit fuUire. lie
before it ?

Topogra])hioally, tlic cit\- is situated on a i)lain. 'i"he
main lines of the Pennsylvania and W'abasli railroads, euttinji^
a broad swath through the city, practically bisect it. The St.
Mary's River flows north along" its western edge, until, about
opposite the center of the city, it turns northeastward and then
cast, to meet the St. Joseph, which comes out of the north.
The two form the IMaumee, and flow eastward along what
presently becomes tlie northern bomidary of the city. So the
city has rivers on two sides.

Railroads, Business Sireels (shaded) and Rivers of Fori Wayne— The City's Determining Lines.

Fort IVayiic Civic Jmprovcmoit .Issociatioii 13

The meandering's of these streams have influenced the
street system less than might have been expected. Perhaps
this is because the g-eneral north and east direction of their
flcnv is so nearly in harmony with a compass-laid parallelogram
of streets. For example, the angle of divergence between
such streets as Jefiferson, that parallel the general course of the
eastward flowing rivers, and those which, in greater number,
parallel Lewis, is very slight.

The business of the city has long been done on Calhoun
Street, between the Nickel Plate road, which skirts the river,
and the Pennsylvania and Wabash railroads — a distance of
three-quarters of a mile. Necessarily business is now extend-
ing laterally from Calhoun Street. As yet such extension is
principally on Main and Berry Streets, between which, on the
east side of Calhoun Street, is the Court House, occupying a
whole block and of itself creating a centc*. The space between
the railroads is the oldest section of the city, and Calhoun
Street, the main business artery, has a width of only sixty
feet, from property line to property line.

It remains to be stated that agreement has now been
reached with the Pennsylvania and Wabash railroads for the
abolition of the grade crossing at Calhoun Street by an eleva-
tion of the tracks, and that, as a part of this work, a new
passenger station is anticipated ; that there have been accjuired
some tracts of land for parks, well distributed along the outer
fringe of the built-up section of the city; and that the only
public building now under consideration, unless market sheds
be so counted, is a Convention Hall.

It is obvious that a report now prepared on the possibil-
ities and duties of such a city as has been described must be
largely general in character. The report will point out the
municipality's opportunities and needs as definitely as possible,
but it will be the part of wisdom to reserve the detailed plan-
ning until the plans can be immediately carried out. In sub-
mitting my suggestions it has seemed well to group them under
the following heads :

14 Port JWiyiic Civic Inipro^'ciitcnf dissociation

1. The Business Streets.

2. The Official Quarter.

3. Approaches to the New Station.

4. An Industrial District.

5. Public Market.

6. Residence Streets.

7. Improvement of the Parks.

8. River Drive and Parkway System.

Fort JJ'ayiw Civic Tniproi'cmcnt Associafioi

The Business Streets.

The first and most obvious need of Fort Wayne's busi-
ness district, in providing for the future, is the difficult one
of finding a way to increase the street capacity. Fort Wayne
is so compactly built that it is out of the question to attempt
any general widening of streets. Therefore, to clear the walks
as far as possible of obstructions ; to accelerate traffic in the
roadways, and to develop the convenience of parallel streets, is
nearly all we can hope to do. These things, however, count
for a good deal. Let us consider what they involve.

First, the sidewalks should be smooth and easy to walk
on. There is a great persistence in Fort Wayne of the old-
fashioned cellar traps that project above the walk, inviting
tripping and shunned by everyone who can possibly go around
them. Cellar traps should be required to present an even sur-
face with the walk. Second, the essential street furnishings

i6 Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

must be reduced to a niiniiuum. In this respect necessity has
made Fort Wayne, in its business portions, better than most
cities. Hut there is still room for improvement, for the ideal
would rid the streets of all teleg"ra])h and telejjhone poles — some
portions of the business streets are already freed from them,
in earnest of what all may be ; and such poles as must persist,
as trolley poles, would be made to perform the greatest possi-
ble service. They may carry the street lights — as in Denver,
and the street name signs ; the letter boxes, as they do ; and the
fire boxes, as they now do not. There should be no excuse for
other posts. As to putting the street lights on the trolley
poles, an interesting agreement on this subject was drawn up
a few weeks ago, in the neighboring city of Indianapolis, be-
tween the City, the Light and Heat Company, and the Traction
and Terminal Company. Under this agreement the Traction
Company was required to replace its light-weight poles, in a
certain specified district, with heavier i)oles, the Light Com-
pany furnishing the brackets and lamps in round glass globes,
and the city paying for the current.

Third, the walk should be cleared al)solutely of advertise-
ments, this including barber ];)oles. In many cities the streets
have been thus freed by the voluntary action of the merchants,
acting through the Board of Trade or other organization of
their own. But a city ordinance will cover the point. Finally,
sidewalk-encroaching show cases for the display of goods
should be prohibited. It is better for a merchant to have the
sidewalk full of people than to have a portion of it so clut-
tered with the signs, counters, bicycle racks or show cases of
his rivals that when practicable pedestrians take another street.
Yet every merchant who countenances sidewalk obstruction
chooses a walk of things instead of a walk of people. A
twelve-foot walk — that is the width, for instance, on Calhoun
Street — will accommodate a great many pedestrians, if it is
really twelve, and not nine or ten. I found it reduced in this
way to ten feet very often on Calhoun Street.

Scene on Berry Street, just west of Calhoun.

The slreet should be cleared absolutely of advertisements. A twelve-foot v^-alk will accommodate
a great many persons if it be really twelve, and not reduced by advertisements, etc., to ten.

i8 Furt JVayne Civic Iiii[>rovc)iieiif Assuciatiuii

As a rule, few articles, except photographs in wall cases
and food stuffs on stands, arc exposed, either for display or sale,
outside of stores. The latter are just the articles which the
dirt and dust of the street so injure that in some cities their
exposure on the walks is i)r()hihited on sanitary grounds. With
the walks cleared, to serve fully the ])rimary purpose for which
they exist, they will accommodate a good many more persons
than they now do.

The acceleration of traffic in the roadways can he accom-
plished through several measures. Good pavement kept in re-
pair is the first need. Then the car tracks should have grooved
rails, laid exactly flush with the pavement so as to offer no
impediment, instead of the present T-rails. This is one of the
changes that will not he accomplished right away; hut if there
he requirement that any new, or replacing, rails laid in the
business section shall conform to this character, the change
will be soon brought about without hardship. Then the whole
width of the road will be available. An increased radius in
the curb-curve at street corners — it may be made nine to twelve
feet — will facilitate the turning of traffic from one street into
another — a change that will not only count for much in the
movement of traffic, but that will confer large aesthetic im-
provement. A long curve fits harmoniously into the street
lines, and it does not get battered as does a short curve.

With the admirable alley system of Fort \\'ayne, there
may reasonably be requirement, further, that no loading or
unloading shall take place in the business streets, at least
within certain hours ; and within those hours heavy teaming
may be asked to take the side, or parallel, streets. ]\Iost of the
larger cities have now adopted traffic regulations, and these
mav be asked to take the side, or parallel, streets. Most of the
population is so balanced by narrower thoroughfares, that the
street congestion will soon be not dissimilar to that in great
cities. It is to be recognized in this connection that the bulk of
vehicular traffic in Fort Wayne moves in a north and south
direction ; and that owing to the barriers imposed by the river

Fort JFoyiic Civic Iiiiprovcineiif Association

Fori Wayne's crowded business streets.

20 Purl Wayne Ch'ic fin f^roi'ciiiciit Association

on one side and 1)\- the raiIroad^ on the other — and the latter
barrier will not be removed by a long snbway under elevated
tracks — all the general business of the growing city is bound to
be transacted in the short intervening space. Into this little area,
not only does all the surrounding cit\- ])our its business, but all
the steam railroads and tlie interurl)an trolleys deposit their
loads. The result, during l)usiness liours. is sure to be crowded
streets, and every heavily loaded truck that by slow movement
liolds up traffic there will take tribute of l)usiness in a consid-
eral)le lu>s of precious time. It need hardl_\- be added that to
re(|uire heavv teaiuing to use side streets in busy hours imix)ses
an oliligation to have on those streets smooth pavements that
are in good rei)air.

\\"\{h the elevation of the Pennsylvania and Wabash
tracks, it is proposed b_\- the railroads to erect a tine Union
vStation on the north side of the tracks at Calhoun Street. And
Calhoun Street, with its thirty-six foot road and crowded
walks, is already carrying about all the traffic it can bear. To
get the street widened, without expense, even from the tracks
to the bend at Lewis street, would seem almost too good t^ be
true, and yet it may be possible. On the east side of the sticet.
between those points, the structures are old and low. so in-
adequate to the demand which is sure in a few years to arise
for accommodations here, that every one of them is certain to
be replaced. A great deal of the new construction will come
ioon. 'i'o this condition is to be added the fact that the lots
are, as throughout I'ort Wayne, very deep.

Now in riiiladelphia a similar situation arose years ago
witli reference to Chestmit. Walnut and .\rch Streets. The
traffic that poured upon them became too great for their width,
and it was seen that they luust be widened. Yet to have done
this all at once, in any of the three cases, would not only have
paralyzed business on one of the i)rincipal streets of the city.

Fort H'dyiic Ck'ic Iiiiprovcutciit Association 21

but, as here, would have been too expensive a proposition for the
city to consider. Accordingly there was passed an ordinance —
in 1884 for Chestnut Street, and in 1894 for Walnut Street, the
dates being- important as showing that it has now had oppor-
tunity to stand the test of time and of many actions — authoriz-
ing the Department of Surveys, which in Fort Wayne would
doubtless be the City Engineer's Office "to revise the City
Plan" so as to widen the street in question to a certain specified
width — as, for example, seventy-two feet for Arch Street.
The second section of these ordinances reads : "After the con-
firmation and establishment of said lines, it shall not be lawful
for any owner or builder to erect any new building, or to re-
build or alter the front, or add to the height of any building
now erected, without making it recede so as to conform to the
line established." With such an ordinance applying to this
portion of Calhoun Street, especially if its provisions were
strengthened by an ordinance requiring that building height
should bear a certain relation to the width of the street faced,
how long would it be, with the vigorous rebuilding which is
certain to be soon undertaken there, before Calhoun Street,
from the tracks to Lewis, was widened the designated number
of feet ?

I have investigated, for its bearing on the Fort Wayne
situation, the result attending the operation of the Philadelphia
enactment. For illustration we may take Chestnut Street be-
tween Eighth and Sixteenth, as its frontage is the most val-
uable business property afifected. In this distance approxi-
mately one hundred and fifty structures have been changed and
in the process set back in accordance with the ordinance. In
actions brought for damages, the city has contended that where
a building lot still has more than one hundred feet in depth
after the widening takes place, and where it has frontage not
only on the widened street but on a rear street or alley, there
is no damage occasioned; that is to say, a property 20x110 or

22 Fort JVayiic Civic J})iprovcuicnl dissociation

more feet on a sixty foot street, with a rear entrance, is, in the
opinion of the real estate exi)erts called by the city of Pliihulel-
phia to testify in these actions, of the same, if not of greater
value than a property of five feet more depth on a street cor-
respondingly narrower.*

This Philadelphia method seems therefore to suggest a
reasonable way for promptly widening that portion of Cal-
houn Street, in Fort Wayne, wliicli is between the railroad and
Lewis Street, at little or no expense. In Fort Wayne there
might be advantage in putting all the widening on to the east
side of the street, since that side, being now the least well de-
veloped, is likely to be soonest rebuilt, and since to w^iden im
that side would open to view, as an architectural accent, the
tower of Cathedral Hall and would be to make available for
furthering- the work the space left open before the Hall and
the Cathedral. This would carry the widening in reality to
Jefiferson Street. If, by apportioning to the west side such con-
struction costs as may be incurred, since otherwise it would
have the benefit of the widening without payment, there can
be framed an ordinance that will be equally fair to both sides,
my preference would therefore be to see Calhoun Street, from
the railroad to Jefiferson, widened on its east side by at least
ten feet.

*Francis Fisher Kane, a prominent attorney of Philadelphia,
describes the case of the new Wanamaker store as one of the most
interesting and significant which came up. This property, he writes,
"has 250 feet on Chestnut Street and Market Street, and 489 feet on
Thirteenth Street and Juniper Street, and is the only Chestnut Street
property covering an entire block and having four fronts. Mr. Wan-
amaker's witnesses claimed that the loss of the strip of ground,
5x2,^)0 feet, occasioned a damage amounting to $93,950, which they
worked out at the rate of $75.00 a square foot. The city's witnesses
testified that no property in the city bore out their theory more
clearly than this, and that the market value of such a property with
four fronts, 484 feet deep on a 60 foot wide street, was equal in value
to a property 489 feet deep on a street 50 feet wide. Notwithstand-
ing witnesses who testified to the contrary, Mr. Gibbons, of the city
solicitor's office, won the case, and the jury took the city's view and
made no award." It should be added, however, that not all the cases
have been equally successful, some owners being allowed nominal
damages.

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

F/a. 1

Calhoun Street, as it now is, between the railroad and Lewis Street. With a vehicle on either
curb, through traffic has no space except on the street car tracks.

y///////// '■ / .

-10-

F7G.2

With this part of Calhoun Street broadened to give a fifty-foot road — accomplished by adding ten

feel to the street's width and taking two feet from each sidewalk — '' would be possible

for a wagon to pass between a truck Q' fhe curb and a street car. The small

change would thus give two additional lines of traffic, so facilitating

greatly all traffic movement.

At all events, Calhoun Street could be widened five feet on
a side for that distance very quickly under the Philadelphia
ordinance, and this would be a result well worth getting for
nothing. A delay, however, will mean that new buildings, not
to be changed for a long time, will be constructed on the pres-
ent line. It should be added that the widening of this portion
of Calhoun Street is particularly necessary because from the
tracks to Lewis street its present width is only sixty feet, as

24 i'ort Wayne Civic fiiiprovcniciit Association

compared with sixty-six further north ; and because in that
section the cross streets do not directly connect. As a result, all
cross travel here imposes an extra traffic burden.

North of Jefferson Street, the big buildings having been
already constructed, any widening is a serious problem.
Probably the only feasible method to obtain reasonably prompt
results would be to use arcades — as was so beautifully done, for
instance, on the Rnc dc Rivoli in Paris. In this case, the
street level of the buildings would be set back twenty feet, the
upper stories remaining as they now are but supported for
their front twenty feet on arches. Under these arcades,
sheltered from sun and storm, would be the sidewalks, and
the widened road would reach to the present building line. It
would make a beautiful and convenient shopping street, permit-
ting a nuich better circulation of traffic than now. Owing to
the great depth of the lots, the slight store space could be
well relinquished to gain the widened street, cs])ecially if upper
stories were not disturbed.

So perhaps, after all, realizing the present and growing
congestion of Fort Wayne's business district, we can hope to
supplement facilitation of traffic by actually widening Calhoun,
the busiest of the streets. For the delays and inconveniences
are not of today only. They arise from a structural defect, in
having made business streets too narrow for the business of a
city. And that structural defect, so long as it ])ersists, must
throttle and handicap the city, l)ec<^)ming from year to year a
greater impediment.

Before leaving Ihe business section, there are suggestions
to be made regarding its ap])earance. A city, it may be noted,
is very largely judged by its business (|uarter. Many a visitor's
sightseeing does not get beyond the s])ace between the station
and hotel, lie does not see the ])arks, or tine avemies, or the
interior of public buildings, but he forms his judgment from
the business streets. Moreover, this is the one section of the
city that is used in common by all the citizens. Parks so well
distributed as b'ort Wayne's, inevitabh- have a neighborhood

Port U\i\'nr Ciric I iiipr<>:'cmcnl . Issuriiilloii

clientele. But into the business streets all the city comes all the
year around ; and in them is represented very much of the city's
wealth. There is, then, no impropriety in demanding that they
have at least the beauty of dignity.

The very first step which will <loubtless occur, most i^ro])-
erly, to every resident of h'ort Wayne, as it certainly will to
every visitor, is the cleaning" of the alleys. 'J^his will mean
some paving, and some paving repairs. The alleys of h'ort
Wayne are so conspicuous there can be no pretense of civic
beauty if they do not contribute at least cleanliness to the gen-
eral efTect. It is the general experience of cities that to pave
alleys in congested quarters with asphalt, which is easy to clean
and to keep clean, is the course most satisfactory and eco-
nomical.

Ifi .Uley inlerseclion half a block from Calhoun Street. This is fairly typical.

26 I'ort Jl'ayiic Ck'ic fiii/^ro-rciiicii/ . Issnciatio)!

The proposed cleariiii;" of the street walks of unnecessary
appurtenances, and the ini])r(jvcments suggested to facilitate
traffic, will have incidentally a considerable effect in improving
the aspect of the streets. T spoke of ]nitting street lam])s on the
trolley poles. Ornamental lighting of business streets has now
become an accepted form of normal municipal imi)rovement.
The method of arch lighting in use for short distances in the
business section of Fort Wayne is the best of its kind I have
seen. It does not give the heavy, tunnel effect of the arches
used in Columbus, for example. Rut avoiding tliat fault, it slips
into another. On a street which there has hcen serious attempt
to free from overhead wires, there is created a seeming cob-
web of such wires. From the point of view of municipal aes-
thetics, there is no question that an ornamental standard is far
preferable to any arch system. Objection has been made that
a good standard would occupy useful sidewalk space. If the
trolley poles were jacketed for the purpose, this objection
would lose its force, and in any case the requirement would
be a small fraction of that made by such a pole as the one pho-
tographed — which is on Calhoun Street, in the ver}- heart of
the business district, across from the Court House. As long
as there is room for such a pole, nothing should be said about a
lack of room for beautiful light standards.

The signs on this pole bring up another very conspicuous
aesthetic short-coming of Fort Wayne's business streets. This
is the multiplicity of projecting signs. Projecting signs de-
stroy absolutely any architectural dignity. What inducement
has owner or architect to make a handsome facade if these
signs are to render im])racticable any sight of it ? Sometimes
the owners of a good office building prohibit any other signs
than window lettering ; but what use is that, if the tenants of the
structures on either side can thrust out wooden fences to hide
the good buildings? The signs destroy the street's vista, ruin
its proi)ortions. They get in each other's way, one blanketing
another, so that it becomes most difficult to enforce a merely re-
strictive ordinance. They distract the eye as a clamor of

Port Wayne Civic Improvement Association 27

// has been objected that Calhoun Street sidewalks are too narrow for ornamental light
poles, but they are deemed wide enough for this.

28 Fort Jl'iiync C'/r'/V fiiiprorciiicnl . Issociafioii

wrangling shouts distresses the ear, and lead only to confusion.
It is idle to talk about cit\- beauty, about ornamental street
lighting, about a united civic spirit, while the main streets are
given over to such puerile discordance. hVjrt Wayne will do
easily a big thing that will count for much in her municipal
improvement if there be enacted an ordinance prohibiting ab-
solutely the daytime projecting sign.

As to the projecting illuminated sign, it has more numer-
ous friends, because of its brightening of the way. I could
wish the same amount of light might be more artistically dis-
posed — in outlining cornices or stories for example ; but as
there is no natural vista of the street at night that can be
broken, no beauty of architectural ornament to be hidden by
signs that the darkness itself w'ould not conceal, gay night
signs can be suffered with a measure of equanimity. I'ut be-
cause at day time they are more hideous even than the lettered
signs of daylight, if left projecting across the walk, there should
be requirement that they be constructed to fold back, wdien not
in use, against the building. This is a perfectly practicable and
simple requirement, which has been made with entire success
in numerous cities.

May I quote from "Modern Civic Art" these lines, now
commonly accepted as expressing a correct ideal : "The street
at least civic art can claim as its own province, bidding" adver-
tisement stand back to the building line. No hindrance should
be offered to a clear path for travel by walk or road, no an-
nouncement should break the vista of the street, nor thrust
itself before the wayfarer by hanging over the walk or stand-
ing upon it at door or curb. The street should be a clear pas-
sage- — that is its object in the making ; and there is as true a
need that every inch of it be open to the sky as that the vista
of the way be unbroken. This means that civic art, turning its
attention to the furnishings of the street, would frown uix)n all
projecting signs; that it would prohibit all bulletin boards,
signs, and transparencies on the sidewalk or at the curb; that
it would have no banners hung" across the street, nor woidd suf-

Fort IVaync Civic Improvement Association

Projecting Signs—Calhoun and Main Sireels.

^^S

30 Fort IVayiie Civic Iiiif^roz^ciiiciit .Issociation

fer any i)nblic utility or ornament of the way to be placarded.
It would sweep the street itself clean of advertisements from
building front to building front."

The smoke evil at Fort Wayne is very serious. Some
people, knowing that smoke represents business, point to it
with pride, or at least indulgently, and say that it means wealth.
But the thing it really means is waste. Mechanical smoke
suppression has not yet been satisfactorily perfected. The
fireman is in the main resi)onsible. If it were generally under-
stood that every ba»iner of black smoke advertises, as it does,
the carelessness and inefificiency of firemen, there would come
improvement. An ordinance imposing a fine on employer and
employe for the emission of black smoke for upwards of five
consecutive minutes at a time would help, if properly enforced.

Under the heading, "An Industrial District," I shall speak
of another phase of the'matter, perhaps giving better promise
of results ; and I approve a suggestion that in the heart of
the city there be marked out a zone within which the emission
of any black smoke shall be unlawful.

A shelter for waiting trolley passengers is a need at
"Transfer Corner." Eventually, the interurban trolleys will
need, and the municipality will properly insist that they have,
an adequate terminal station. There is no more reason why
they should be sufifered to use the public streets for station pur-
poses than that steam railroads should lie excused from pro-
viding station accommodations. Indeed, there is less reason,
since steam trains would stop on a private right of way, while
the trolleys, loading and unloading in the street, block traffic
on a public highway. So the station need will be eventually
met in Fort Wayne, as it has been in Indianapolis. But in the
meantime a shelter at "Transfer Corner" would be a genuine
public convenience. There is room for it on the broad walk
north of the Court House on Main Street, a walk forty feet
wide — and a light, artistic little structure could well be placed
at the northwest corner. I append photographs of one in use
at Washington, and of one on the public square in Cleveland.
It is as well that tlicre be no seals provided, as these might in-

Forf JJ^aync Civic luiproTcmcut .Issocialiou 31

Sidewalk shelter for wailing trolley passengers in IVashington.

A trolley waiting station on the Public Square in Cleveland.

32 I'ort U'dyiic Civic Iinprorc'iiicnf dissociation

vite louiii^iiii^-. The thinj;' needed is shelter from the sun and
storm. The city should select the desij^^n, and should compel
the companies to ])ay for the structure — as they would probably
be quite willing" to do if i^iven the place to put it. There
should be a distinct understanding, however, that the arrange-
ment is temporary only.

The matter of ornamentally lighting the business streets —
a work which, through the co-operation of the merchants, has
been successfully taken up in many cities — has been referred to.
lUit whether or not this be promptly done, the w^ide walks
around the Court House should have ornamental lighting. It
would seem hardly necessary to argue that point. There is
now being installed in Lincoln Park, Chicago, a simply de-
signed and beautiful standard, which, it seems to me, requires
little modification to meet the need of this location. The
standard is of concrete, cast in metal forms ; but the cement is
so mixed with granite and washed in acid that when complete it
has the color of granite. The cost is considerably less than
that of an iron standard, and on the wide stone walk, with the
background of the stone building, it will better harmonize with
its setting than w^ould iron. I suggest that it be investigated.

A Public Comfort Station is a need in the business por-
tions of cities that is receiving increased recognition in the
Cnited States, as it has long been recognized in Europe. The
underground toilet best satisfies American sentiment. One
might be arranged in connection with the suggested trolley
waiting station, a stairway at one end leading dow'n to the
men's di\ision, and a stairway at the other leading to the
w^omen's. This location would be exceedingly convenient.
Another excellent site, perhaps a better one if location at the
waiting station would duplicate facilities already offered in the
Court House, would be under some of the market space on
Barr Street, north of the City Hall. This would be con-
venient for the market men. and it would be close to crowded
business streets, while yet retired. I a]:)pen(l a photograph of
all that shows above ground of a comfort station at Toronto,
located on a site verv similar to this.

fort Wayne Ch'ic I )iipvo\'ciiu'nl . Issocin/ion 33

lUit. when all is said, the aspect of the business quarter of
a city is more dclcnnined ])y the character of its commercial
huildini^s. and by the i)ro])ortion of their heit^'ht to the width
of the streets on which they front, than by any other thing". It
has been well remarked that these proportions are one of the
fundamental ])rinciples in the art of beautiful cit\' building. To
that art they bear, it has been noted, the same relation as do
the voids and solids in the elevation of a structure, or as do the

Entrance to a Public Comfort Station at Toronto.

lights and shadows of a pictitre. Incidentally, as w'as pointed
out by the experts who made study of Grand Rapids, these
proportions "constitute the basic principle of all sanitation, as
the open spaces (of the street) provide the necessary sunlight,
air and breathing spaces for the population surrounding them."
With the very narrow business streets of Fort Wayne,
there is the gravest danger that buildings will be erected of a
height destructive to the comeliness of the street, to its pro]ier

34 /vT/ U'liync Ci7'ic hnprovciiiciif . Issociatinn

sanitation, and to its traflic capacity. For, on the latter point,
it is to be recalled that all tall buildings pour their population
into the street, and draw it out of the street, at a])proximately
one time. It would take few high buildings to congest Cal-
houn Street ; and buildings exceeding six stories in height will
very quickly convert it into the appearance of a canyon. It is
imperative, for the good looks of Fort Wayne, and for comfort
and healthfulness in its business district, that there be imposed
a restriction as to l)uilding height to the extent of proportion-
ing it to street width. In Europe there is common recjuire-
men that the height of buildings shall not exceed one and one-
half times the width of the street on which they face. Boston,
Chicago, and St. Louis are among the American cities that
have not been afraid to establish a maximum height limit.

While a proportioning of building height to street width
will put in your hands a strong weapon for securing the widen-
ing of Calhoun Street from the railroad to Lewis, there is this
also. to be considered: A limitation of building height is of
general benefit to property. Preventing the concentration of
the city's business into the short space occupied by a few very
high buildings, it extends the business section over adjacent
streets. The larger area absorlied by business displaces near-
business tenants. These locate a little further out, and so the
movement extends until everywhere there is increased demand
for property. In short, there is the effect of dropping a stone
into a pool, the surface being afifected to the furthest limits. No
holder of property outside the two or three most high-priced
squares of Fort Wayne but would directly benefit financially,
as well as in other ways, by a restriction of building heights.

( )ne word more must be said. It seems to me exceedingly
likely that a secondary business district is going to develoj) on
South Calhoun Street. There is a very large poi)ulation on the
south side, and one that is steadily growing. The elevation
of the Pennsylvania and Wabash tracks will do away with most
of the danger of the crossing; but the long suljway will still
])resent a barrier, which pedestrians will n(it be keen to cross.

Fort ]]''ayuc Ck'ic IniprovcmciU .Issociation 35

This business, which of course will be distinctly secondary
to that north of the tracks, will probably center at the corner
of Calhoun Street and Highland Avenue, as there the cars con-
verge. It will not be so much an extension of the main busi-
ness district as a subsidiary development. This probability has
bearing on the City-Plan in that it invites inclusion of the small
designated area south of the tracks in the comments and sug-
gestions which have been made above for the district north of
them.

36 Port JJ'aynr Ci:'ic fiiif^rorciiioit Associatinn

The Official Quarter.

Foit WayiK' has ali-eady
ail official ([uartcr ; foi- the
tlirec j)u])li(' ))uil(liii^s,
ivspecfcively rcpi-eseii tative
of coiinty, nation and city,
arc rangvd ak)ng' a .sinjj'le
sti'cet in a space of two
Ijlocks. Bnt the arrange-
nient is absolutely ineffec-
tive. The Court House has
the l)est site ; but the most
favoi-able view one can get
of it is through alleys, since
they alone center on its
dome. Without grounds
around it, sui-rounded by
narrow streets, where tall
buildings will soon seem to
place it in a little walled
courtyard, one cannot even
now get far enough away
to see it as a whole. The
two other buildings, oc-
cupying commonphice com-
mercial sites, ai'e hidden
from one another by inter-
vening structures. In the
aggregate there is i-epre-
sented a very hirge public
expenditui-c. One could almost throw a stone from structure
to stnictiwe ; yet there is no cunuilative effect.

To the problem of creating out of these adjacent l)ut dis-
tinct units a single civic composition that sliould make a Civic
("enter, 1 have devoted a great deal of thought. The practical

Fort JJ'ayue Civic hiiprovcmcnt Association 37

difficulties, due to important improvements and high property
vahies. are ahnost prohibitive. Yet values on Berry Street, be-
tween the Court House and City Hall, are not going- to diminish
or stand still. They seem as certain as any in the city to ad-
vance, and unless a plan embracing this property can be car-
ried out at once, it is not likely ever to be executed. Neither
can there be reasonably anticipated the building of a new Court
House and a new Postoffice on new sites. The one hope of a
Civic Center for many years lies in dealing with the present
situation.

The condition is a striking illustration of the value to a
community of getting a City Plan as early as possible. Fore-
seeing a big. costly Court House on its present site, there
might have been created, before the Foster and Elektron build-
ings were erected, a broad, beautiful Mall, leading directly
eastward to terminate in the l)luff at the bend of the ]\Iaumee
river, at IMonroe Street. An alley, on the axis of the dome,
now traverses the distance, and it would have been necessary
onl\- to widen this. From Barr Street to Clay there are only gar-
dens even now. It is a fair question whether for those two
blocks the Mall would not be more benefit than damage to the
property through which it would pass. The property between
Clay and Alonroe is shallow and not now expensive. The
costly part of the scheme today is only the block and a half be-
tween the Court House and Barr street. Of this the first half
block Avas once public property and should simply have been
kept as the Court Housfe vSquare. The block from Clinton to
Barr would have offered, on either side the ]\Iall, the appro-
priate sites for Post Office, City Hall, and Convention Building,
so greatly reducing the net cost. There would have been con-
ferred on the neighborhood, and on the city at large a great
benefit. Increased assessment values would long ere this have
paid for the improvement. And think what we should have !
An opportunity to see the Court House ; and a Court of Honor,
the Court House at its west end, harmonious public buildings
flanking either side to Barr Street. Between them, for ve-
hicle traffic would have remained on !Main and Berry Streets,

38 Fort JVayiie Civic Improvement Association

a broad grass ribbon with, on each side of it, a promenade, ex-
tending from the Court House Square to the river blufif, where
is opened an entrancing view. Here a flagstafif would have
stood, in honor of Wayne's stand, and at Old Fort Park,
which curving ends would have brought into the Mall scheme,
his statue might well have been placed.

Coming into Fort Wayne by the Nickel Plate train, or
standing at the little park at the eastern terminus of the Mall,
how fine a view of the Court Flouse would have been pre-
sented, how beautiful a civic picture ; what an impression would
have been gained of the city ! Or, turning to look north and
east, we would have had the meeting of the three rivers and
the view down the lovely Maumee.

Doubtless the plan will seem impossible now, for today
it would take a great deal of money. But the thought of how
effectuall}^ a comparatively small measure of construction has
l)locked so fine a possibility should give heart to do promptly
whatever still can be done.

We have to accept the three present public buildings, as
fixed points, so far as their location is concerned. A Conven-
tion Flail, however, is contemplated and there naturally would
be advantages in a central location. Either of two sites may
be, in my judgment, properly selected for it, according as it is
proposed to make it contribute to one scheme or the other.

For the development of a Civic Center, it might be put
on the north side of Berry Street, between the Elektron build-
ing and Barr Street. There is nothing which is very expen-
sive on this site, and its advantages for the purpose are many.
In its convenience, indeed, the site is all that could be desired ;
and the public building here would tie together the Post Office
and City Hall. Between the latter two there is already, in the
Post Office yard and the Majestic's open-air theatre, a good
deal of open ground. If it should be possible to throw it all
open — a fire, for instance, might easily clear most of the rest
of the ground — we should have three public buildings gath-
ered around three sides of a s.quare, and a very presentable little

Fort JVayiir Civic linfTovciiiciit . Issocialioii 39

Civic Center ready made. Meanwhile, location here would fur-
ther emphasize the Q-roui)ing- of the public buildings. It re-
serves a bit of land that will never be less valuable, insuring a
safe investment ; and if a Mall ever were opened to the Court
House, in order that the latter might be revealed, a Conven-
tion Hall on this site would profit directly from the scheme
and would, in turn, enhance it. As to the possibility of open-
ing the Mall, there is no other side from which such an ap-
proach to the Court House can be made. The existing alley
is fourteen feet wide, and even the Elektron building stops
nine feet short of it. As there is nothing else of prohibitive
value on the plat, an approach thirty-two feet wide is blocked
today only by the Foster building.

To put the Convention Hall on this site, would be, then,
to secure an exceedingly convenient location ; to feel entire
safety regarding the investment value of the property ; to add
somewhat to the official quality which the neighborhood already
possesses ; and to be ready for a fine civic effect should either,
or both, of two possibilities eventuate in the municipal devel-
opment of the surrounding land. It is the one chance for fur-
ther developing and accentuating the present official quarter.

Fort JJ'ayiic Cii'ic liiipro-c'cmriif Association 39

Civic Center ready made. Meanwhile, location here would fur-
ther emphasize the grouping" of the public buildings. It re-
serves a bit of land that will never be less valuable, insuring" a
safe investment ; and if a Mall ever were opened to the Court
House, in order that the latter might be revealed, a Conven-
tion Hall on this site would profit directly from the scheme
and would, in turn, enhance it. As to the possibility of open-
ing the Alall, there is no other side from which such an ap-
proach to the Court House can be made. The existing alley
is fourteen feet wide, and even the Elektron building stops
nine feet short of it. As there is nothing else of prohibitive
value on the plat, an approach thirty-two feet wide is blocked
today only by the Foster Ijuilding.

40 Port JJ'ayiic Ck'ic Iinproi'cmcut .'Issnciatioii

Approaches to the New Station,

T said there was an alternative site for the Convention
1 lall. This other site would hrini;- it into the Station I 'Ian.

Very clearly the building of a new and costly station,
which is to be much lart^er than the old, and not improbabl)-
a Union Station, develops a civic opportunity which amounts
almost to an obligation. If the railroads have a faith in Fort
Wayne that leads them to do so much, the municipality should
show a like confidence and arrange to the new station an ade-
quate approach.

Two practical considerations, as distinguished from the
sentimental one, urge promptness in such action. First, the
improvement is likely to result in the rapid rebuilding of the
neighborhood, with the consequence that conditions will be-
come fixed, and values largely raised. When the station has
been opened to business, it will be too late to change street
lines unless heavy expense can be incurred. Second, it is ob-
vious that a large new station, which will soon be the point of
arrival and departure for many more trains and many more
passengers than the little station of today, is going to create
a great increase in the traffic of the streets leading to it, and
for such increase there is now no provision. Finally, the ap-
pearance of a city when one comes out of the station makes the
first, and therefore the most lasting, impression upon strangers.
The station is the door of the city, and the space before it is
the city's vestibule. This is much better understood abrc^ul
than it is with us; but the great plaza in front of the beautiful
new station in Washington, the magnificent station ai)proaches
])lanned in Chicago and San Francisco, under the iiurnham
plans, in lUitTalo, Cleveland and Los Angeles, under the i)lans
made b)' other authorities, and the beautiful station plaza
which for years has made Frovidence, R. L, famous, are suf-
ficient indication that the good sense of Aiuericans is leading
them to a like conclusion. We are beginning to appreciate that

Fort JJ'iiyitc Civic fiiifTO'c'ciiioif Associafion 41

the station exit and entrance is a focal point, that here the
convergence and distribution of traffic demands larger space,
and that the improvement of no other one point in town pays
better, from the artistic standpoint, than does this.

I think it may be taken for granted that the new station
will be located, not on the present site, but west of Calhoun
Street on the north side of the tracks. The Pennsylvania rail-
road has acquired a long frontage here. The present station
site would be extremely cramped for an improvement, per-
mits no long platforms — a thousand feet is not unusual in new
stations on main lines — and it could be utilized for an exten-
sion of the present freight house, or for a railroad office
building. On the assumption that the new station will be
placed west of Calhoun, and probably extending well beyond
Harrison, I make the following suggestions :

1. That the company be granted the permission, which
I fancy will be asked, to construct the new building on the two
blocks from Calhoun to Webster ; but that, instead of closing
Harrison Street between liaker and the railroad, they be re-
quired so to bridge it, that it ma\- still be used for subway pas-
sage to the south side of the tracks. This will impose no un-
reasonable obligation on the company, for the main part of the
station will in any case be at the track level. But it will give to
the city an additional subway where it is much needed, and will
make an additional direct connection between the station and
the southern part of town.

2. That a plaza be formed in front of the station. This
the city can now do at little cost, for this is still a section of
narrow brick sidewalks and inexpensive detached dwellings.
While a square would be the most natural form for the plaza,
this particular shape is by no means necessary. Some irregu-
larity — should property owners be unreasonable — need not be
feared, so long as there be given ample room for cabs, car-
riages, automobiles, omnibuses, mail and baggage wagons.

3. That Harrison Street be widened, from sixty feet to
eightv feet, for the three blocks to Lewis, where it makes its

42 Purl W'axnc C'vi'ic I iiiproi'ciiwii/ . Issocinlidii

slii>lit turn and wlicrc now its widlli hccnnK's sixty-six feet.
This can hardly he done too soon, for ah"ead\- the Stults apart-
ments, mider construction in this section of the street as the
Iveport is written, are hcinc;- huiU Ihrsh wilh t!ie walk. With
that e.xce])tion, however, the houses now stand hack from the
street line, leavin,^' clear as yet the s])ace required. Idiere
is no douht that wilh the location of the station, the character
of this part of the street will chan.i^e, that much rehuilding will
take place, and that a widcnin,n- of the street will confer on the
pro])ertv a henefit close imleed to the loss that would he occa-
sioned h\- niovint;' the ficntaL^e hack ten feet on a side.

To he sure the street is paved, h'or the present this pave-
ment need not l)e disturhed. Railroads do not move as fast as
do their train-., and it is likely to he a numher of years he fore
the track elevation and new station are completed. Mean-
while, and initil the traffic actually demands wider space, the
addition to the street's width mav he thrown into parkiui^'.
That there w'll eventually be need of a wide street here, i)ar-
alleling' Calhoun, no one who believes in h^M't Wayne can doubt.
We have seen that the conditions which lead to cong'estion on
Calhoun Street are fundamental and ])ermanent : and that the
street has nearly reached now its maximum c:u,xicity. As that
point is approached, diversion of traffic is necessary. This
luust ultimately throw on Harrison street an addititMial burden,
beyond that imposed by the station travel. If city-i)lanning- is
worth anythini;', it must look forward to that time and so en-
able you to ])repare for it.

Doui^las Avenue, which is a block south of Lewis Street,
marks the crest of a slight rise. Next to a bad pavement
nothing is more abhorrent to service traffic than is a grade. If
we are to fit Harrison Street for business, and exi)ect to divert
to it the excess traffic that would otherwise crowd upon Cal-
houn Street, we shall do well, when the time comes for relay-
ing" and wddening the Harrison Street pavement, to cut down
the grade. The fact that this has been done only on Calhoun
Street has certainl)- been no slight factor in the business de-

Port Wayne Cli'ic liiif^rorciiiciif .IssDciafion 43

velo[)nient of that street. The rise is not so eonsiderable that
the cost will intiict damages on property which is being re-
built, in response to the transformation of a residence street
into a business one.

There will be, however, further advantage in cutting the
street down. With a beautiful station fronting on a plaza,
and closing the southern vista at this part of Harrison Street,
and with the broadened street — the one wide, stately, modern
street in Fort Wayne — leading into this, we shall have, look-
ing south from Lewis, a very fine effect, if the grade be so lev-
eled that no intervening crest breaks the view. And coming
from the station and looking across the plaza and down the
broad, handsomely proportioned approach, there will be otTered
a very stunning first impression of the city, if a leveling of the
way shall make it possible to see as far as Lewis Street.

At that point the street makes slight bend to the left and
even though the street were widened to a further point, the
vista would be closed. This is a point, then, to emphasize and
dignify; a point to be given as distinct and interesting an accent
as, at the other end of the short, handsome way. the station
will aft'ord. Therefore, I suggest, (4), that here be placed the
statue or monument to Anthony Wayne, for which the lew
in the taxes is gradually creating a substantial fund. What
more dignified and splendid setting could be found for it, what
location more appropriate, than that which, at a three blocks'
distance, will crown the imposing street that leads away from
the station? The traveler's first view of Fort Wayne, as he
sets foot upon the city, would include as the focal point of the
picture, as the terminus of his perspective, the monument to
the soldier for whom the city is named.

5. And fronting also upon the statue might be the Con-
vention Hall. For this the northwest corner of Harrison and
Lewis Streets seem to me admirably adapted. The property
is inexpensive ; it gives frontage on two streets ; it is centrally
located; it is within short walking distance not only of all
hotels but of the railroad station, from which, indeed, it could

I'Dii Udyitc Cl'i'ic finf^rorcincjil .Issociiilimi

l)c seen, and willi which it wonld Iiavc sucli ni)l)le connection
as could not fail to impress. This is the alternative site I had
in mind in s]K'akin<; of the ( )fficial Quarter. On one of these
two sites, it seems to me, the liall should certainl\- he ])laced.

But even these suggestions do not reveal the whole of my
station-api^-oach plan. ]w>t north of Lewis Street, an alley

leads east t'l-oin Hai-rison
to Calhoun, and one of the
slender t\\ in si)ii-es of the
CatlK^divil looms liii(dy at
its end. Suppose the space
between Lewis and this
alley, now containing no-
thing of large value, were
ac(piired and transfoi-uied
into a l)eautiful formal gar-
den, the street and some-
what widened alley forming
a double i-oadway on either
side of this middle garden.
Thei-e would b:' opened a
n()l)le view of the Cathedral.
There Avoidd be opened
from Calhoun street a view
of the Wayne statue and of
the ( 'ouveutiou Hall. There
would be aeijuired at a
strategic, and yet comiiara-
tiv(dy iuexpensixc, point,
the oidy o])en si)ace in the
business district of Fort
AVayne. Thei-e W(»u]d be
otferfMl to the Coincntion
Hall a lo\'(dy on t 1 ook .
There would be established
between the imposing sta-

Present view of the Cathedral from the Alley {XoW appVOach aud CalholMl

north of Lewis Street.

^^^^^^^^M^l

1- '■ '

1 liLHZ^M

■'m m

M^~^

m^mm^-m

Port Ji'ayiic C'/r/r hiiprorciiiciif . Issociafioii

street an iuterestiiig' and Avortliy coiiiiectioii.* There would
be created big vahics for the property, which is now
of litth^ value, on the south side of Lewis street and
on the north side of the alley, ])ecause it would front on
this park, and the increased assessable value of this property —
permanent and growing' — would soon pay the cost of the im-
provement. In a little while you could say you had got this
centrally located park for nothing. It is my belief that all these
gains make abundantly worth while the acquirement of that

Calhoun Street property opposite the Cathedral and the extraordinary opportunity it presents.

little half block of poorly developed property. You certainly,
then, in the complete carrying out of this scheme, would have
a notable improvement; and people would begin to talk of
Fort Wayne as a handsome and beautiful city.

*It is worth while, perhaps, to note that tlie form of this little
central PLACE satisfies ideal requirements for such construction.
Though it is so accessible, the streets would lead to it in such in-
conspicuous fashion that the breaks would nowhere be obvious, the
eye being carried over tliem along the border walls. That is to say.
the conditions offer that sense of enclosure which is one secret of
the artistic success of picturesque squares in old Eurouean cities.

46 Fort U'ayjic Civic I luf'rovciiiciit Association

If so much is to be done for the approaches to the new rail-
road station, to the end that arrival and departure there shall
be made convenient and that travelers who enter Fort Wayne
by it shall be well impressed, every efifort should be exerted
to make the station truly a union one. Only so will the pro-
posed improvements confer the largest possible benefit. By
"union," I mean that it shall be used by trains of every road
entering" the xity. So far as trackage is concerned, this is
entirely feasible.

In closing this discussion of ])lans for suitable station ap-
proaches, it is perhaps necessary to emphasize once more the
point that there is no proposal that the whole improvement
be made at once. It will be enough for the present to acquire
the necessary land. Any delay as to this may make the whole
plan impracticable. The city has already lost one great chance,
that should teach a lesson, in its failure to provide in time for
a Civic Center. A combination of circumstances happily of-
fers now such another opportunity in connection with station
development — a chance to create the best station approach, as
far as I know, of any city of its size in the United States. It
can be foreseen, too, that the property involved is destined to
change rapidly in value and character. The city must act at
once, or assume the grave responsibility of denying to the fu-
ture Fort Wayne the opportunity for any large and fine civic
effect here. It is possible that to secure the plan the property
owners on Harrison Street would donate the small frontage re-
quired for the street's ultimate widening. Certainly they could
aft'ord to do so. In such case a comparatively small bond issue
would buy the lots needed for the station plaza and the half
block for the park. The development and improvement of the
purchased property, when the time came for that, could be
properly assessed on the frontage.

With reference to tlie track elevation, as the city is to pay
twenty-five per cent, of the cost of the overhead crossing at the
street it has very properly required that tiie company submit

Fort Wayne Civic rinprovemcnt Association 47

to it the plans and estimates for the work. This gives to the
municipality the opportunity to insist that the bridges, con-
spicuous as these will prove in the street view, shall be of pleas-
ing design, ornament and color. On this point there should be
unmovable insistence.

48 I'ort Jl'aync Ci''i^i(^ fiiif'ni-T'cnu'iif .-Issociafioii

An Industrial District.

Fort Wayne is an industrial cit}-. The primary reason
men live liere is because there is work to be done, and the
bulk of the workers are not tradesmen or clerks, but operatives.

The city's industrial character must influence all our plan-
ning". \\'e have considered thus far onl}- the show places and
the places where the citizens trade. The j^laces where they
work, wdiere they live, and where they shall play are of vital
importance in the l)uilding of the better l-Y^rt Wayne. And
these three places, however intermingled, must be correlated
in a city plan. Each must be located with a view to maximum
of efficiency, and of non-interference with the others. Inter-
ference is easy. Lor example, the use of high-class residence
property for the creation of a picture-park is extravagant to
the point of waste, or the location of a factory in the midst
of a quiet residence district is an uneconomic intrusion. If
the factory is so distressing to the senses of hearing, or smell
and sight, as to be a "nuisance," the courts will intervene to
prevent the intrusion. If it fall short of such extreme un-
pleasantness as a neighbor, it may still depreciate the value
of surrounding proj^erty, and municipal waste results. In
scientific Germany, cities and towns are now laid out in distinct
sections, for trade, for manufacturing, and for different classes
of dwellings. Without going so far as that, we yet may con-
sider in what sections a community will most properly encour-
age manufacturing or residence.

The Packard Company, located on I-'airtield Avenue, has
made its grounds lovely with planting". \'er}" striking, too,
are the remarkable neatness and attractiveness of the grounds
of the Wabash roundhouse, lower down, on the same street.
This is good work, sociologically as well as aesthetically, and
is everywhere to be encouraged. But even an assurance of
such develo])n"ient will not justify, in a scientific city plan, the
placing of a factory in a high class residence district. A dog

Fort U'a\nc Ck'ic hiiproi'ciiicnt . Issociaficii

is out of place at a cat show, even tlnnii^h he does wear a rih-
hon around his neck.

One particular reason for (Hshke of a factory in a resi-
dence district is the smoke emitted from it. If the factories
of a citv are so k:)cated that under usual wind conditions their
smoke is blown across the residence and trading portions of the
town, there is done on a great scale the injury that one factory,
when erroneously placed, does on a small scale. In Fort

A bit of the Packard Grounds.

\\'a\-ne the prevailing wind is southwest. The location of fac-
tories southwest of the city, or even in the rolling mill district,
is therefore, from this point of view, unfortunate.

But the residences must not interfere with the factories
any more than the factories should interfere with the resi-
dences. If no equally good site for manufacturing can be
found, or created, that high-class residence section which is now
established on West Jefiferson, Washington, \\'a\ne and Berry

Port Wayne Civic fiiiprorcinciit .Isscciatioii

Streets will have to move, leavinj^- its place for the homes of
operatives. Generally speaking, it is easier to move dwell-
ings than factories. The action is more or less automatic, and
may be witnessed today in operation in scores of cities. Fac-
tories make a neighborhood un])leasant ; those residents who
can afford to do so move away, and the character of the neigh-
borhood is quickl}' transformed. This is a very serious mat-
ter, however, for the many whose ])r()pert}' is affected. If the
future is going to see smoke-belching factories congregated in
numbers in the rolling mill district, the health, comfort and

The well kept turf of the Wabash Roundhouse offers an example lo many a fronl yard.

ha])])iness of all the citizens of Fort Wayne will be strongly
aft'ected. and the whole character of the city's development
will be changed.

In a cit}- such as lujrt Wayne, where the topogra])hy is
practically level and where no natural power is generated, rail-
road facilities more than any other one thing determine the
availability of a manufacturing site. The excellence of these
in the rolling mill district is the strongest invitation to indus-
trial development there, h^or the present, no serious harm has
been done, Dut in locating the future factories of the city, a

Fort ]]'a\nc Civic f iiiproz'cmciit .Issocialioii 51

matter under eonsideralile eontrol, a very serious condition
confronts the community. If there be desire that a distinctively
manufacturing- section be not developed southwest of an exist-
ing business and a high-class residence district, equal or better
railroad facilities must be elsewhere provided. This, in an
American city, is a matter for private or associated effort
rather than for municipal action.

In my judgment there exists an extraordinary opportunity
for developing such a section where it will do no harm. 1
refer to the triangular area east of Walton Avenue, between
the Pennsylvania and Wabash railroads. This is east of the
city, with no settlement northeast of it which the smoke could
injure. It is bounded on north and south by the principal
railroads that now enter Fort Wayne, and the Nickel Plate
lies only a half mile away, across a practically level country cut
by no intervening river. If, as is desirable, the Nickel Plate
makes use of the new l^nion Station for passenger service, it
will build across that half mil^-. In any case, so short a space
of easy road construction would offer no obstacle to the com-
pany. The Lake Shore would enter the section on the Nickel
Plate tracks. An interurban road now passes through it.
As to distance from the center of the city, the tract lies at the
same air-distance from the Court House as does the rolling
mill ; in directness and ease of communication, however, it is
better off. Further, as a civic advantage, the teaming does not
traverse a high-class residence district ; and, as a labor advant-
age, the section is adjacent to a large, firmly established, and
as yet only partly developed laborers' cottage district, lying
just west and southwest of it and having already convenient
street car service. The region itself is almost virgin terri-
tory, a great deal of it being open and farm-like.

As this proposed industrial area is situated beyond the
present city limits, no immediate obligation can be assumed by

52 Fort JJ'ciyiic Cii'ic Improri'iiiciil . Issaciiilioit

ihc inunici]);ility in its development. New Haven Avenue,
however, which makes in its western end a very convenient
and valuable diaL;()nal. should, after enterinj^' the city, he ex-
tended to at least Lillic Street. This is only a block, but it
would save nearly two blocks' travel, and it would have the
advantage of carrying; the teaming beyond — that is. west of —
Walton Avenue, which, as the only unbroken north and south
street on the east side of tiie city, has great driving im])()rtance.
The block tlu-ough whicli tlic extension would pass is now va-
cant property. The few streets which have been laid out in the
proposed section are fairly well placed — New Haven Avenue.
Chestnut Street and Wayne Terrace are almost ideally situated
for arterial service. ]^>ut the streets are inadecjuatel}' narrow —
Chestnut, for instance, is forty feet from lot line to lot
line, and carries the interurban track. If, for wdiat it would
mean to Fort Wayne, there is to be a serious attempt to de-
velo]) this tract as the industrial region, the city should take
it promptly into the corporate limits, to the end that super-
visory control over street widths and .street location may be
exercised. A'ery likel}' this would prove in fact a needless pre-
caution, for the civic spirit and the enterprise that would un-
dertake so great a scheme would jirobably ])lan well. Hut
there should be assurance that it will. There would he the
advantages of favorable toi)ogra])hical conditions, of a nearly
virgin field, of the i^resence and interest of great railroad cor-
porations. The land would he laid out not in the usual house
lots, but in manufacturing ])lats ; and to serve these at the
mininuun ex])enditure of time and effort the streets and >iding>
would be planned. In these respects, the trad could acluall\-
be made second to none in the United States in its convenience.

There is thus the possibility of develo])ing a great manu-
facturing section, making it contribute to the wealth and
numl)ers and prestige of the city without exacting the toll

Fort U'axuc Ck'ic Inipyo-i'oucuf . Issociafioii 53

which its location to the west would exact. Left, as the mat-
ter must he, to private enterprise, there is recjuirement of cour-
age ; but the conditions are such as to make courage worth
while. It may be said on this ])oint that ever\' item in the cost
of receiving' or shi]^ping freight which it is possible to elimin-
ate, and good planning of this section could eliminate many,
correspondingly extends the distance to which the products of
Fort Wayne can be shipped with profit, and increases the profit
on sales in the radius already reached. There should of course
be no delay in developing this industrial section, if the largest
success is to be secured with economy.

I have said that the development of this section will prob-
ably have to be left to private enterprise, the city exercising no
more than a supervisory control through its authority to accept
or reject streets, allow sidings, and so on. The sympathetic
interest of the railroads may properly be anticipated ; but their
active co-operation, especially as between themselves — which
would be necessary to complete success — is not as easily
gained. To that end it may be found advisable to form a
freight terminal company, in which the railroads, or their
ofificials, shall be stockholders jointly with the realty and indus-
trial interests, and shall have with the latter a share in the
management.

As to making street i)lans for the district, there is no ad-
vantage in attempting to include these in the present Report.
It is enough here to urge the advantages, civic and economic, of
developing for Fort Wayne a distinct manufacturing section,
and of locating it on the opposite side of the city from the
point where it now seems likely to develop. One further sug-
gestion may, however, be ofifered. Assuming this section's in-
dustrial development, the Wabash, and even the Lake Shore
road, might well construct a semi-lxdt line that, running south
(-)f the citv, windd connect the \'ards and sidings lierc with the

54 Port Wayne Ch'ic Improvement Association

main lines west of the St. Mary's river. The advantage to the
raih'oads would be the substitution of a short haul for freight
traffic instead of the present roundabout three-sided loop
through the city. The advantages to the municipality woidd be
the freeing of the tracks that cut through the center of the city
from numerous freight trains, with the danger, noise, delay and
smoke that every such train involves. The location and grade
of the line would have, however, to be carefully worked out.

This possibility of a new manufacturing section, developed
on modern lines, is in my judgment one of the most important
possibilities now before the city ; one of great economic promise
to capital and labor, and of immense significance in the city's
improvement.

Fort JJ'ayiie Civic Improvement Association 55

Public Market.

By virtue of a public-spirited citizen's deed of gift, Fort
Wayne has for some years had a public market, extending
more or less informally south from the City Hall. With the
growth of population, the original narrow strip dedicated to
market purposes has proved inadequate, and now the wagons
overflow into streets all around the public building. There
is presented the necessity of enlarging the market space, of
giving to it a greater dignity that shall be in keeping with its
present surroundings, or of finding a new place for the market.

To enlarge the present site would involve exceedingly
heavy expense, and the act would be of doubtful civic wisdom,
for the best market, if it be large, is difficult to keep clean, is
unpleasant to traverse, blocks traffic, and is not the most de-
sirable neighbor to high-class property — business, official, and
residential. Yet here is a small property distinctly dedicated to
market purposes, of little other real use, and undoubtedly very
convenient to many people.

I recommend that by ordinance the use of this market
be restricted to genuinely retail garden produce business, and
that an architect be retained to make plans for an artistically
designed covered walk, with stands on either side, that shall
be an ornament to the neighborhood, in keeping with the city's
official quarter, and worthy of the municipal proprietorship.
With little white pillars and a red tiled roof, for example, it
could be made very attractive ; and by the free use of concrete
exceedingly easy to keep clean. Such a walk would make a
not unpleasant promenade, after market hours, on stormy, or
hot sunny days, from the City Hall to Washington Street.

As to the cost, the city has the land, with no need
at present to use it for , other purposes; the one-story
shelter would require little capital to build, and the rental
of the stalls should pay the interest, and a profit besides.
As to size, I think that in cities the retail public market has

56 Fort Wayne Ck'ic Juiproi'cinoil . Issociafioii

seen its best days. 'I'his has l)ecn tlic experience of more than
one munici]:)ahty — the use of the teleplione, the relatively low
prices offered in larg-e private markets, the Inisier lives of
women, tlie distance which wage earners are now likely to live
from the market, liaw all, no doubt, proved contributing" fac-
tors to this result. I dn not l)elieve that it would be wise to as-
sume heavy munici])al expense for the ])rovision of a large re-
tail ])ublic market.

The bulkier and wholesale public market business, how-
ever, continues as a trade necessity. If it can be located within
a reasonably convenient distance of the business section, and
yet not directly in its path, there is very great advantag'e.
For the accommodation of this I suggest the gradual prepara-
tion of the land, which is already city property, on the north
side of the St. Mary's river, across the Van Ruren Street
bridge. A pumping station occupies a few square feet, and all
the rest of the large area is now vacant.'

There may be immediate objection that the tract is too far
away and that it would be an admirable park site for the north
side. With reference to the latter point, the section north and
east of it is less than half a mile from T.awton Park, which has
been already developed as a park, which can be very much
better developed than it now is, and which, being of larger
size, is far preferable as a park. 1"he section southwest and
northwest of the tract is within a half mile of Swinney Park,
regarding which the same comments apply. The subway be-
neath the Lake Shore tracks would be as useful an approach
to the market as it could be to the park. The city cannot turn
all its property into parks, and when we come to discuss the
general ])ark ])ossibilities we shall see why other pieces of
property are preferable to this for additional park purposes.

As to market availability, other cities have found a con-
siderable advantage in locating such a market on a railroad line,
as this site is. In distance, it is only three-quarters of a mile
from the Court House, which, for the suggested wholesale
business, is close enougli to the center of the city, excellent

Fort Wayne Ck't'c Fiiif^roT'CDiciif .Issocialion 57

streets connecting it. Bounded by railroad and river on two
sides, its location is such as not to injure the neighborhood.
It is most accessible to leading coiuitry highways north and
west, and is as readily reached by all other country roads as
is the present site ; and as there naturally would be included in
it a provision for enough retail business to satisfy the local de-
mand, it is worth while to note that the proposed location is in
the sort of a home section that would be most likely to value
a public retail market. In short, this site would locate the
market where there never can be a neighborhood objection to
it, on a site sufficiently convenient to the merchants, who would
be its principal patrons, on a site of good size, and on one
publicly owned, and for which other equally good public use
cannot readily be found.

The preparation of this site, if undertaken all at once,
would be costly, liut a beginning will not cost nnicli, and after
that the work can go on gradually, liefore this Luul can be
put to use for anv purpose — i. e., before the city's considerable
investment here can be made to give returns in any way — a
dyke will have to be built. Common business sense suggests
that this be done. When the dike has been constructed, the
city can throw the ground open for dumping, and in a wonder-
fully short time the site will be found ready for the market.
With its development for that purpose, and the growth of
population in its neighborhood, there is no question that a local
retail business in garden produce would be done there. /\nd
to such extent as it is done there the present market will be
relieved.

58 Forf JVayiic Civic Improvement Association

RESIDENCE Streets.

Fort Wayne's residence streets are better than its busi-
ness thoroughfares. This does not only mean that they are
pleasanter to see, as should be expected, but tliat they arc bet-
ter adapted to their purpose. The poor rule of ])l:itting- nearly all
streets to a unif(jrni width, regardless of the traffic they are
likely to carry, has persisted with them as it has elsewhere ;
but it does less harm in the residence section than in the busi-
ness. This is because for residence purposes the streets are
almost always wide enough from lot line to lot line, while by
means of parking— that is, putting grass between walk and
curb — the roadways can be narrowed as much as desired.

Generally speaking, the city's residence streets are well
paved and their pavements are kept fairly clean. The recent
activity in sidewalk building has given them good walks,
though a mistake has been made in constructing" walks that in
many cases are too wide. On West Jefferson Street, for
instance, a six-foot walk — which is the walk of usual width
for a residence street — would have been sufficient. Some

An interesting photograph of a street in Toronto, in which on one side the walk is given a strip

of parking and on the other is next the curb. Though in the picture the perspective is

misleading, the distance from lot line to curb is the same in either case.

IVhich side of the street is handsomest ?

Fort Wayne Civic hnprovcuicnt Association 59

A sample of tree-lopping on a street in Fort Wayne

6o fori Jl'iiyiir Civic hiipro^'einciif Association

money could tluis have been saved and a better looking street
would have been secured. It is a rare residence street that
needs a paved sidewalk of more than six feet width, (jn
Jackson, and a few other streets, the walk has been laid next to
the curb, and such space as was left for street lawn has been
thrown into lot lawn. This is a mistake in jnds^ment that one
rarely hnds nowadays. The aesthetic loss must be obvious to
anybody who compares such a street with one havint;" a rib-
bon of greensward along each curb. lUit objection to the ])lan
is not based on a])pearance alone. The walk's location next to
the curb leaves pedestrians with no i)rotecting barrier from
mud and dust; and the addition which is seeminglv made to
private i)ro])erty is subtracted from public propertv. With the
exception, however, of these faults, the parking strips on the
residence streets of Fort Wayne are excellent. I have not often
been able to dismiss them with so little comment.

Idle trees are, and ought in even larger measure to be, the
glory of a city's residence streets, lint in I'^ort Wayne they
show the want of responsible and consistent care. For the best
street etTect they should be evenly and generouslv
s]iaced, they should on any clearly defined street
unit be of a single variety; they should have that
l)rotection from linemen, advertisers, disease and pests
which only niunicii)al control and expert knowledge
can insure. One of the most important actions Fort Wayne
can take, to make the city better to live in and to look at, is to
secure a comix-tent forester. He may act under the Board of
lAiblic W^orks, under the Park Commission, or in a separate
bureau ; but in any case his position ought to be absolutely
divorced from politics. Ordinances, it may be added, will not
save the trees, unless there is an official fearlessly and wisely
to enforce the ordinances.

The residence streets are marred by multitudes of poles.
( )f course to considerable extent this must be exjiected. but
in Fort Wayne there is not much need of it. The cit\'s alkw
system is so complete and excellent that llie wires can well

Fort U'iiyiic Cii'ic Tiuf^roi'cincut .Issocidtioii C)\

be carried throui;li tlicni. Tf this liad no other advantage, it
would at least save the street trees. Many trees of slow but
beautiful natural growth have been ruined by topping, in order
that they may not interfere with wires. But in the life of the city
the wires strung over the streets on poles present a temporary
condition, and it is foll\- to destroy the relatively permanent
Ijcauty of trees that the convenience of the moment may be
satisfied. Further, the side parking, in its prevalence and very
excellence, gives opportunity, even where there is no alley, for
burying" wires at relatively little cost, since it becomes unneces-
sary to rip up pavements. The southern section of Fairfield
Avenue in particular is a noble street, so handsomely paved and
curbed, and so enriched with beautiful lawns representing heavy
private expenditure, that it is absurd to allow it to be marred
by great poles burdened with countless wires. Incongruous,
too, on this street is the cheap and flimsy method of suspending
the street lights. They should have good standards.

Private lawns contribute particularly to the beauty of
Fort Wayne streets because of the general absence of front
fences and a considerable absence of line fences, in front of the
dwelling line. This is one of the charms of the city and is
to be encouraged and made even more universally the rule.
Omission or removal of fences is a simple thing for the house-
holders, saving rather than costing money, and in the act lies,
in American cities, one of the secrets of beautiful street and
city making. The humblest homes, even though lawns be un-
planted save with grass, gain a certain simple dignity that is
pleasing", if they be set back from the walk and left unenclosed
l)y fences. Back of the front building line, there may be all the
privacy one wants : and with Fort Wayne's deep lots quite as
much garden as most city dwellers have inclination and time
to care for.

It is a pity that with deep lots the houses are so often put
close to the street. On some of the older thoroughfares they
are almost at the walk line. Apart from the greater comfort
and attractiveness for those who live in the dwelling, if it be

I' art Wayne Civic Improvement Association

located well l)ack from the street, there is the greater beauty
imparted to the thoroughfare by the increased width such ac-
tion seems to contribute to the street ; and the appearance of
greater size and consequent value given to the property itself.
For when the house is close u])on the street the passer is prone
to assume that shallowness of lot is the explanation.

This setting- of houses forward when lots are deep is not,
however, an unusual phenomenon. And it has had always the
same meaning, which is one of sinister import to the city where
it is fotmd. It means a tendency to use for additional housing

Simple homes dignified by a selling of unenclosed fronl lawns. A sireet in Fori Wayne.

the back of the lot with alley frontage. Tenement and slum
conditions have their worst development under such circum-
stances, as the investigations lately made in Washington and
St. Louis conclusively prove. The beauty of the one city and
national interest in its development, and the unusual civic
pride and spirit of the other, were no i)roof against the creation
of breeding spots of disease and crime in the houses on the
backs of lots. Removed from the cleansing glare of pub-
licity, they become difficult to watch and control.

Foi't JVay>ic Civic Improvement Assoeiation 63

So long- as alleys are used for legitimate alley purposes —
that is, for what may be briefly summarized as the backdoor
service of street-fronting houses and buildings — they are a
valuable feature of the city plan. When dwellings are con-
structed to face on them, they become a serious menace. The
President's Homes Commission, reporting on Washington's
alley conditions to President Roosevelt, said : "By far the best
way to do with alley houses is to do away with the alleys by
converting them into minor streets." The commission calls at-
tention not only to the difificulty of supervision, but to the dan-
ger of having "scattered through the heart of the city" and
"really in very close contact with the best residences of the
city," the sort of population that is most likely to be found in
alley dwellings. As to the means of converting alleys into
minor streets, the legal and economic aspects of the question
and the examples of England and Germany in handling a like
problem, I shall do best to refer you to the long report of the
Homes Commission — to be obtained free on application — with
its full discussion. The danger may not seem to you serious
yet in Fort Wayne ; but it threatens and is sure to develop if
not checked.

Turning from the general to the particular, I shall re-
serve most of my suggestions for special residence streets to
that portion of the Report which will deal with the parks and
their connections. The jog in Lewis Street, where Hanna
crosses it, is unsightly and even dangerous ; but can be quite
easily corrected if action be taken promptly. The jog in Fair-
field Avenue at Brackenridge crossing is very unfortunate, a
long handsome street seeming to terminate as one goes north,
in the hideous brick wall of a two-story building. If one gets
around the corner of that building the avenue stretches at-
tractively on again. Such instances as these should give back-
bone to city officials in refusing to accept, in the new additions,
streets that do not properly connect with existing thorough-
fares. The beauty and convenience of the community as a
whole should be recognized as paramount to the profit of in-

64 r'ort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

dividual landholders. The more progressive cities are now, in
the better appreciation of city-planning, quite commonly tak-
ing such a stand. But this only applies, I should hasten to add,
to streets, as that term is usually understood. It does not apply
to those semi-public "Places" that, in their very informality
and picturesqucness, may lend charming distinction to a resi-
dential section.

At the intersection of East Creighton and South Hanna
Streets, the location of the Lutheran church is very fine. The

1
1

^^^VC3H^^^^^^^^0^H

:, -.,

-^.,

A church [in Massachusetts' that has tittle garden space, but has made that little beautiful
with planting.

view through Creighton Avenue of its slender spire is one of
the best things in Fort Wayne. It conveys a suggestion that
has wide application and should be heeded. But generally
speaking, the churches of Fort Wayne have not that attractive
landscape setting which usually can be given to even the sim-
plest church on the commonplace lot, and which ought to be
given if our religion means anything.

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association 65

The school yards, too, should be better developed. They
are scattered throughout the residence district and, as the
most numerous and most widely distributed bits of public
property, should set an example of adaptation to purpose, of
neatness, and of so much beauty as is compatible with their
use for play. In area, most of the Fort Wayne school yards are
too small ; and it should be reflected that if they are not large
enough to g'ive play space to the children, they are hardly worth
their cost. Economy would suggest, in such case, their elimin-
ation altogether — a backward step in popular education which
no city, however poor in purse or spirit, now considers — or
making them adequate. Just as authorities have determined
the minimum amount of cubic air per pupil which a school
room should provide, so it is agreed that at least thirty square
feet per pupil should be given in the school grounds. The
compactness with which Fort Wayne is built, comprising as it
does a general playground argument, makes particularly neces-
sary the adequacy of the school yards.

In the more outlying districts, the school yard should be
large enough for school gardens. A great deal is being done in
this direction, often under conditions less favorable than at
Fort Wayne ; and a great deal of helpful material has been
printed on the subject, including publications by the United
States Department of Agriculture. In fact the Association of
City and Town Superintendents of Indiana issued some years
ago a pamphlet on the subject which is full of suggestion.

Not only should the school yards as a class be larger, but,
I have said, they should be pleasanter to look upon. The fine
High School, for instance, is a striking example. What citizen
would put up a house of such value, or even a good looking
factory, and not improve the grounds? There should at the
very least be shrubs on the Lewis Street corners, and on either
side of the Lewis Street entrance. I append photographs giv-
ing an idea of the setting of a high school in Cambridge, Mass.,
and this is a fair example.

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

In Chicago, $150,000 is being expended tiiis year simply
in the adornment of schoolyards. Flowers and shrubs are
placed around the borders and against the building, where they
trespass on no play space. But it may be added that the work,
which has been in progress there for years, is exceedingly
popular with the children themselves, a rivalry in beauty of
grounds growing up among the schools that have been thus
improved. That there is set an example and stimulus to the

High School Grounds, Cambridge, Mass.

neighborhood, that the school becomes an inviting center and
that the child unconsciously learns to appreciate beauty, are
facts that need no telling. It is a curious circumstance that
among the smaller public buildings of Fort Wayne the fire-
houses are set in more attractively-kept lots than are the schools
— though the latter are supposed to stand for and to raise the
comnuuiity's ideals of culture.

Fort ]]'aync Civic Improvement Association

Very beautiful is the residential tract developed east of
Hoagland Avenue, between Pontiac and Killea Streets. Here
a lovely grove was not ruthlessly cut down, that bare lots
might be created, and characterless streets put through to be
])lanted laboriously with stripling trees. But with only a little
thinning the grove was left to make for city homes an ideal
setting and to offer in its beauty and success an example to
owners of other such tracts. To an inspiring but almost dan-

High School Grounds, Cambridge, .Mass.

gerous extent the development of the City Beautiful and
Pleasant lies with the owners of such residential tracts, as
from time to time these come into the market. That they
should do as was done in this case, and as seems now to be
promised in the new Lakeside district, cannot be too strongly
urged. In fact, the charming curving way, with its varying
play of light and shadow — now so little known in Fort Wayne
— cries out for development.

68 Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

IMPROVEMENT OF THE PARKS.

Discussion of P'ort Wayne's parks, playgrounds and park
approaches, may properly be divided into two sections. In the
first we will consider the improvement of what Fort Wayne al-
ready has in this line ; in the second, the additions that are
needed in order to develop out of the present isolated units a
system.

It is well to recognize at once the two-fold function and
character of this kind of city property. Most persons will say
that a park is designed to be beautiful. So it is, but its purpose
is also actively to serve. Passive beauty alone must not be the
end sought in the system as a whole, and in an industrial city
particularly — much more, for example, than in a capital city —
there is need that the park system furnish recreative facilities.
So the "improvement" of existing park lands ought not to deal
simply with their landscape development.

Moreover, in presenting many suggestions as to the latter,
I would have it understood that these are not to take the place
of a carefully worked out landscape design. That is a neces-
sity for every park, however little or however large. The
smallest and least expensive park in Fort Wayne occupies land
worth a considerable sum of money. No intelligent citizen
would consider the construction of a house having the money
value of one of the parks without first securing from an archi-
tect a plan to build to. Yet it were better to do that than to at-
tempt to make a park without a competently ]irepared design.
For the house might have to satisfy only himself, while the
park should satisfy the best taste of the whole community ; and
if a door, or window, or partition in the house proved unsatis-
factory, it could be more quickly changed than can a great
tree, or a lake, or forest or meadow land. Finally, in a score or
so of years the house might be replaced ; the park is built for
centuries. To create a landscape is as technical a process as to

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

build a house ; and if one does not attempt the latter in happy-
go-lucky fashion, even for himself, one certainly should not
thus attempt the former for his own and following generations.
The suggestions I shall make have as their purpose, then, the
showing that present conditions are not by any means ideal,
that it isn't unnecessary and isn't too late, to secure careful
study and expert design, which may guide for many years to
come.

Sheep and shepherd on a park meadow.

Beginning with Swinney Park, and approaching it by
Washington Boulevard, the entrance is disappointing and un-
worthy. You are driving out a beautiful residence street
which is to terminate, you are told, in the principal park.
Suddenly the fine street is blocked by some trees and bushes,
which grow directly across it and only partially hide the view
of a stretch of low waste land beyond the practically invisible
river. As you search for the park, you see a road that leads

70 Fort Wayne Civic luiprovcment Association

off somewhere to the left, and surmise that thither may He the
way. But the fact is, you are ahxady in Swinney Park. You
ought to know this and dehght in it. A dreadful suggestion
has been made that an electric sign be thrown across the end
of the street at this point, with the words "Swinney Park"—
why not, rather, "This Is It," with a pointing hand? — so that
one may know it. P>ut tlie right thing to do is to create there a
beautiful park-landscape, picture, that will not require a label.

That waste land across the river, flooded every spring,
has almost no other value than as a background to such a pic-
ture. The city should get it, should make of it a park meadow
— browsing sheep would add life and interest to it in the sum-
mer and would keep the grass cut for nothing a year — and with
wildllower border the meadow and river could meet. Then
there would not be need to block Washington Boulevard with
an ineffectual screen of shrubs. There would be at once a sense
of openness and spaciousness, a real park scene, at the street's
end. And two tall trees — spruces, perhaps — standing on either
side of the boulevard terminus, would frame the picture and
mark the entrance. Then the road that curves away to the
left would not seem, as now, an insignificant by-path ; but
would take its rightful place as obviously a park drive.

Further within the park, the lake, which ought to be a
landscape feature of great beauty, fails now to please. What I
shall say of this lake applies as well to that in Reservoir Park.
Did you ever see their like in nature — or anywhere outside a
barnyard? A pool with canal-bank shores is not the proper
landscape ideal — not even with an island in it. I have seen
children make a sort of mud-pie island in the middle of a
water-filled excavation in the seashore sand, and then stick a
few twigs on the island, with an effect quite like that at Res-
ervoir Park. Now, the Park Commissioners are not the ones
to blame. They are serving the citizens with self-sacrificing
interest, and undoubtedly in their study of the parks have al-
ready made to themselves the criticisms here submitted. But
they are not landscape architects ; their lives have been given

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement dissociation yi

to other subjects; their duties are properly administrative.
The people have no right to hold them responsible for land-
scape failings if they are not given the money with which to
retain expert advice and with which to make the purchases
needed to round out park properties. A shore line, of which
the irregularity shall be emphasized by the planting; where the
neatness of water lapped greensward shall alternate with the
charming forgetfulness of wading iris, and with the shadows
of willows and overhanging shrubs — such a shore line, broken

A natural looking shoreline in one of the parks of Boston. This has all been planted.

by bays that are pictures in themselves, and with an island that
speaks of romance and seclusion, these are not things that suc-
cessful business men can create offhand with the aid of day
labor. Trustees of a library are not expected to write, even
though granted stenographers, the poems which the public go
to the library to find.

One of the purposes of a park is "to provide relief and re-
pose to city-wearied senses." Yet at the south end of Swinney

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

Park, the trains that arc constantly thundering past are uncon-
cealed. And not only that, but they are on an embankment
which has the effect of placing them on a stage, and so of
making them an even more dominant feature than they other-
wise would be. This is destructive to "relief and repose."
Neither railroad nor park is to be given up, but the railroad
can be hidden by planting. At Edgewater Park in Cleveland,
precisely a like condition was presented, and I append a photo-
graph to show how it was met. There is no necessity that the
railroad should be seen from Swinney Park.

How the railroad is effectually screened at Edgewater Park in Cleveland.

At the north end, where, in the shadow of big trees, the
murmuring river in its sweep around three sides resistlessly
calls one to the shore, the view presented is of a near oppo-
site bank cluttered with rubbish and outhouses. If one goes
across the river to investigate conditions, he finds that the
most unsightly of the properties front on Main Street, and are
lots of such shallowness that better development could hardly
be expected, while the money value of the narrow, steeply
sloping strip of land must be relatively slight. To acquire and

Fort Wayne Ck'ic hnpvoveinent Association

make beautiful that river bank would, therefore, confer benefit
in more than one direction. It would substitute beauty for
wretchedness in a park outlook, it would redeem a section of
Main Street for which there is no other hope, and it would
bring the park into touch with Alain Street.

In general, it may be said that the opposite bank of a park
bordered stream as narrow as the St. Mary's river is scenic-
ally just as important as the near bank. It is the frame to the
picture — indeed it. more than the park in which one stands, is
the picture, the open stream putting it in clear view and making

An island in Wade Park, Cleveland, that is a tangle of wild rose and other bloom.

it the thing one looks at. Setting out to create a beautiful gal-
lery, one would not think that the lovely rug under one's feet
would excuse bare or hideously daubed walls. The hanging of
the walls with beautiful pictures is certainly no less import-
ant than the rug. So in a park, not the place on which one
stands so much as the thing one looks at, counts. Yet at
Swiimey Park there seems to have been little thought of the
outlook. For the park's sake, to preserve to it the beauty which

I'oji H'ayiw t'ivic Iiiiprovcniciil .Issocialioti

is its riglit, the park boundaries should lie over the crest of
the further shore, not where Main Street alone is border, but as
far as the river circles. For the most part, such addition
would now cost very little.

A mean little iron-girder foot-bridge leads from the grove
to the opposite tableland. From a section of West Main
Street from which one could almost throw a stone into Swin-
nev Park, one must now, if he would enter the park by vehicle,
drive a full mile. 1^) a ra])i(ll\' (k'vcl()])ing section of the city.

The frame of a Iandscape_picture, Swinnetj Park, Fori Wayne.

this is not the degree of accessibility which the park invest-
ment warrants. If one will walk, he can enter the park at
closer distance by the iron foot-bridge — and in so doing fancy
that he is crossing a moat to enter a dungeon. But such is not
the impression which a park entrance ought to convey. That
a new bridge, and one which is wide enough for driving, is
needed here, is manifest. A suggestion that it might be of
concrete, I cannot endorse with enthusiasm. Concrete bridges
are essentially architectural compositions and any formalism

Port Wayne Civic Improvement Association 75

here, where one terminus would be a quiet residence street
and the other a shadowy wood, could be only a false note.
The required length is not great, and a rustic-seeming wooden
bridge is practicable and probably would blend better with the
environment.

With good city planning a few years ago, the streets at
the end of the foot-bridge, in the bend of the river south of
West Main Street, would have been given high-class residen-
tial development. Even now the conditions will no doubt be
greatly improved with the building of an attractive and ade-
quate entrance here to the park, with the acquirement for park
purposes — as proposed in discussing the Washington Boule-
vard approach — of the low land at the apex of the triangle,
and with the development of Bluff Street. For, with the little
tract thus park-bordered on three sides, protected absolutely
from encroachment of any unwelcome kind, it will become
a natural extension to the high-class residence section to the
east of the river. That section is already finding itself cramped
and needing such place for overflow. This tract, too, is in
convenient touch with a business street on which is a direct
car line to the center of the city. With the suggested changes
the tract should furnish home sites that will be greatly
esteemed.

As to Swinney Park, we should note what a bridge ade-
quate for driving will mean to the park, if placed here. It will
mean that persons entering the park by Garden Street or
Washington Boulevard and circling through the grove will
not need to leave it as they entered, simply retracing their
steps. There will be created a loop drive. Having taken the
present park circuit, they can cross the bridge, turn south
again, via Mechanic Street, to the suggested low meadow,
skirt its northern edge by a short link to be constructed, and
so join Blufif Street which, bordering the river and almost a
parkway already, joins West Main at the west end of the
bridge. As a drive is now being developed on the river's east
bank, from Washington Boulevard to Berry Street — one of

76 Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

the best things ever done in Fort Wayne — and is almost sure
to be carried as far as Main, both banks will here be protected
and a complete park-loop drive thus established.

With all these changes, Swinney Park would be quite re-
made from a landscape point of view. Rut its function is not
simply to be looked at, nor to give pleasure only to those who
drive. It has, or ought to have, an active recreative function.
There are two admirable playground sites. One is at the
south end of the park, near the Garden Street entrance. This
is bright and sunny ; the tract is an independent composition,
so that no apparatus placed here would be an intrusion on the
shaded picture in the river bend, and the location is very close
to the homes— the latter point an important one in providing
for little children. Here, too, there are admirable sites for
tennis courts. The grove also presents a playground possi-
bility ; but m}' suggestion would be the encouragement there
of a quieter and less artificial kind of play. For example, the
outdoor gymnastic apparatus, the popular chute, or slide, for
little children ; even, in my judgment, the sand boxes, should
be relegated to the south end site. But what a place is this for
luncheon under the trees, for games of Prisoners' Base, or
Hide-and-go-seek among one's friends, for listening to stories
of fairies or robbers, for confidences, for reading, for solitary
walk ! I-'or these delights the grove presents a unique and
unusual attraction.

I suggest, then, that the equipped and directed playground
be located at the southeast end of the park ; and that in the
grove there be constructed a rustic refectory, which will har-
moniously blend with the surroundings. The building might
be so constructed that the piazza, or a section of it, would on
occasion constitute a bandstand, and speaker's stand, the tall
trees in the surrounding grove being columns of a natural audi-
torium and their interlacing branches its vaulted roof. The
refectory would serve as shelter in sudden storm ; the lights,
suspended from its exterior walls, would make possible the
removal of the hideous pole which now serves as standard;

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association yy

/S Fort JVaync Civic Improvement Association

the toilet facilities of the building would eliminate other of
the park's objectionable features, and the plain wholesome
food, the hot tea and coffee, the cool temperance drinks, would
simplify picnics, and thus increase their number. The rental
of the concession should pay at least maintenance and interest
charges on the building. This being so, all the convenience
and comfort the building brings would cost park and public
nothing.

My conception of the use of this part of the grounds is
that many a family picnic would gather here ; that thither
would come, from tlie formal playground, children tired of ex-
ercise, to eat their lunch, play in the shade and listen to stories ;
that children from the West Main Street section — to whom
this portion of the park would be much nearer than would the
playground proper — would find here opportunity for play in
the old-fashioned sense, with no great walk to the parallel bars
and giant stride if they sought for exercise. This would be the
place for other moods than those to which sunshine, bright
flowers, and moving apparatus appeal. For young and old, to
come here would mean, not getting tired, but getting rested ;
and even in their play the children here would scatter rather
than crowd, while the older folk would assemble in small
groups. As we study the parks of Fort Wayne we shall note
their unusually excellent distribution, such that none is obliged
to serve the whole community, catering to far gathered thou-
sands, but each can pre-eminently draw from and serve its
own neighborhood — as this plan suggests that Swinney Park
should do.

I have spoken of Swinney Park at greater length than I
shall discuss the other reservations. It is larger than any other,
has been the most developed, and is the most popular, and so it
has served well to illustrate in its shortcomings and possi-
bilities of a greater usefulness, the universal need of expert
planning. Some of the things said of Swinney Park apply also
elsewhere; but L shall make a few specific suggestions,

Lawton Park, which is next in size and completeness of

Fort IVayiie Civic Iin[>rovcuicnt Association 79

development to Swinney, is, I consider, more radically wrong.
The adopted plan of development is the most expensive that
can be given to a park. No city but a very large and rich one
could afford to transform forty acres into a garden and ade-
quately keep it up with bedding plants. Yet that is the goal
which Fort Wayne, with its meagre park allowance and great
park needs, has set itself. Necessarily there is failure.

The railroad, which a hedge of poplars, planted six or eight
feet apart on the west side of North Clinton Street, would
easily hide, is in full sight ; the three driveways are laid as
straight as engineering could make them, with no grace of
curving line, no suggestion of loitering, no invitation to note
the border — only the unworded but positive injunction, "Watch
the road, and get out of the park as quickly as possible ;" the
small iron bridge that crosses Spy Run is almost as bad as is
])ossible ; the rockery, which is designed to be an accent at
the end of the bridge, is hidden by untrimmed trees ; and even
Spy Run is neglected, to appear according to season as an
unfortunate ditch or as a roistering intruder. Nor, finally, is
the adopted style of development, even though perfection were
attainable, that which would best serve the neighborhood.

Lawton Park ought to be replanned, on an entirely differ-
ent scheme. A loyal and public-spirited citizen, having the
means and inclination to benefit his fellows, could hardly do
for Fort Wayne a better or more popular thing than to make
possible the sort of development Lawton Park ought to have.
It is trite to say that in so doing he would build himself a mon-
ument to which the years would add only worth and beauty.

The first thing to be done would be to extend the area
of the park to the river, from Spy Run Avenue to North Clin-
ton Street. In the seeming this would bring the park very
near to the center of the city, for entrance could then be ar-
ranged at almost the ends of the bridges on Clinton and Spy
Run Avenues, doing away with the necessity of traversing
those unattractive and narrow streets in order to reach the
park. North of the river, those streets have a width of only

8o Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

fifty feet — too little for the normal traffic of such thorough-
fares, and totally inadequate to bear pleasure driving besides.
The extension of the park to the corner of Clinton and Fourth
Streets, adding a block only three hundred by one hundred
and fifty feet, is indeed so prime a necessity, even if there be
no change in the park's style of development, that the city
ought to do this whether or not there be dream or possibility
of better things. The acquirement and addition to Lawton
Park of that little block is to be counted, in fact, one of the
most obvious of Fort Wayne's civic improvement needs.

But with the addition of the low, flooded, marshy lands
that now lie between the park and river — lands to which only a
long lapse of time or large expense can give commercial value
— there would open an alluring possibility of many isled
lagoons, of a beautiful and unusual, and withal most central,
people's park, lovely at every hour, but a veritable dream of
beauty on a moonlight night. What other Indiana city would
offer to its people such a pleasure ground, and with what rea-
son Fort Wayne could then make claim to the title of City
Beautiful !

The lagoons of course involve a dam in the river just be-
low. This would be of the adjustable type— such, for example,
as the beartrap, the needle, etc. — which, lying on the river bed
at high water, can be lifted when it is desired to raise the
water's level. There is no serious difficulty as to that. And
with the park extended to the river, there would virtually be
added to its area not only the river area, in itself a large and
useful addition, but the tract of land which the city already
owns on the east side of Clinton Street, across from the ball
grounds, for very little expense would extend the latter hold-
ing to the river. Thus would Lawton Park be brought within
almost a quarter of a mile of the Court House, and made useful
and beautiful.

Regarding the land which the city now owns east of
Clinton Street, its greatest civic usefulness would lie in its de-
velopment as an athletic field. Two other uses have been pro-

Fort JVayjie Civic Improvement Association 8i

posed : As a market site, for which purpose I understand that
it was bought, and as a children's playground. For the latter
use it seems to me unfitted by location. Most of the children
would have to be sent a considerable distance to reach it, and
the journey would lie through streets from which children are
best kept out. Those approaching it from the south would
have to cross the railroad, while children coming from the
north — to whom Lawton Park would be much more accessible
— would have to skirt a railroad and cross the river. At Des
Moines, a plat very similarly situated — but much more at-
tractive with its big trees, and fully equipped by the city with
apparatus and with an unusually good rest house — has now
been abandoned because, owing to such location, the children
would not, or could not, go to it. For the market purposes
the tract's location is better adapted. But no railroad touches
it ; to place the market here will be to draw into the now con-
gested business streets that sort of teaming which most im-
pedes traffic and most litters highways ; it will be to add seri-
ously to the congestion on fifty foot North Clinton Street, and
on a bridge that is too narrow now for sidewalks, and thus to
impose a greater barrier to the general use of Lawton Park.
It will mean, too, the abandonment, for the sake of a market,
of the idea of that larger, more beautiful, and more useful
park which would include the river.

But the development of municipal athletic grounds on this
tract is unaffected by these several objections to other uses and
has much to recommend it — especially, as I have already sug-
gested, the circumstance that this use would practically annex
it to Lawton Park, should the latter be extended to the river.
In an industrial city, provision for healthful outdoor exercise
for employees is a real necessity, advisable for economic and
social reasons as well as for those affecting health. With the
increased specialization of labor, which is more and more lim-
iting employees to piece work, in which throughout the long
day a single group of muscles is exercised by the worker, there
is great need of a chance for mechanics, clerks, and workers of
all sorts to play baseball and other games, and to use the sim-

82 I'ort Ji^ayuc Civic Improvement Association

pier g-yninastic apparatus, that may bring all muscles into play.
'i1iey should not only be able to do this freely, but to do it
without sense of obligation to any philanthropic association or
sect. In the aggregate these men, many of whom own their
homes, pay directly or indirectly a considerable sum in taxes.
These go for all kinds of purposes, some of which little affect
them, and they can properly demand that from the park ap-
propriations a share be set aside to provide expressly for their
needs. This demand employers might well endorse, for there
results from such provision, with its social and moral as well
as muscular benefits, an unmistakable increase in the efficiency
of labor.

Indeed, there should be consideration of the growing and
significant frequency with which manufacturers, in seeking lo-
cation for their plants, now add to the subjects of their in-
quiries a question as to the municipality's provision of parks
and recreative facilities. In more than one case a city has
gained a great establishment because it made better showing in
this respect than did its neighbors. If such a recreative field
is to be developed by Fort Wayne, as it certainly ought to be.
there manifestly could be no more conveniently and harmlessly
central a site for it than on this ground, which the city already
owns, east of Clinton Street.

With reference to Lakeside Park there is little to say,
since it still awaits development. The most serious immediate
problem is the location of the street car line, in its proposed
extension to Walton Avenue. My judgment is that
the line should be extended directly out Columbia
Avenue. In doing this, a ])retty concrete bridge, with
sidewalk provision, should re])lace the present structure.
The plan of thus extending the tracks reduces to a
minimum the cutting of the park ; it involves one curve in-
stead of two — an advantage which is not to the company alone
— and it leaves free, for parkway development, the portion of
Lake Avenue which extends from Crescent Avenue to the
projected boulevard, one hundred and twenty feet broad, that

Port ll'ayiic Civic Iinprovciiiciil .■Issocicifioii 8:^

the owners propose to dedicate from Lake Avenue to the Driv-
ing' Park. If the Lake Avenue hnk be kept free from car
tracks there can be developed a fine parkHke drive — a mile
long — from the Columbia Street bridge via Edgewater, Cres-
cent and Lake Avenues, and the new boulevard, to the Driving
Park.

That drive, which now requires the doing of so little for
complete realization, is an end worth striving for. The Edge-
water Avenue section of it constitutes, or should be prompt-
ly developed to constitute, a parkway approach to Lakeside
Park. As such it will practically be an extension of the park,
carrying it to the Columbia Street bridge. To this end the
dyke bank should be sodded, as now has been done much of
the way; the corners of the avenue rounded into sweeping
curves ; and on top of the dyke the walk or promenade made
readily accessible and given here and there a seat. The whole
effect, both on and below the dyke, is Holland-like and very
beautiful, and is one of the most charming features of Fort
Wayne. As it is proposed to deed to the Park Board land
lying on Lake Avenue, between the present park limits and
the projected boulevard, the whole course, from Columbia
Street bridge to the wide boulevard, will lie through park
lands. Concrete plans for Lakeside Park will of course include
bathing facilities.

My opinion has been asked regarding the park availability
in this connection of the Driving Park tract. With the de-
velopment of Lakeside, and the extension and replanting of
Lawton — which seems to me a great deal more important than
the acquisition of new and independent areas — this section of
the city would have such admirable park provision that there
would be no real need of an expenditure for additional parks.
Of course a gift of the tract might, on the other hand, be
gratefully accepted, as providing for a future when streets and
homes are likely to fill the field now north of it. The vacant
ground inside the track might be put to use as golf links, but
that development could perhaps be arranged while the park

^4 For/ IVayne Civic Improvement Association

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association 85

Port Wayne Civic I>iif^ro:'ciiiciit Association

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association 87

is still in private ownership. As the property is comparatively
"close in," and can be reached by a five-cent fare, the attempt
would be worth making.

Around on the south side of the city is the newly acquired
Weiser Park. This also is undeveloped. It is a beautiful grove
of twenty-two acres, well located in respect to the homes, and
admirably adapted for development as a neighborhood park.
Here the family, as distinguished from the individual, from
the crowd, or from the class, should be deemed the iniit to be
served. The park needs extension to the line of the street
north. To stop short of the street, as now, means leaving on
the intervening strip a row of houses which, facing the street,
present only their back yards and back doors to the park.
That is not the right sort of a park boundary. If this extension
be not made, people will be telling in a short time how cheap-
ly it could have been obtained at the beginning, which is now,
and will marvel at the short-sightedness that failed to act.
Development of the park for neighborhood service involves,
among other things, the provision of opportunities for making
fires and simple outdoor cooking. The safest, least expensive,
and most dehghtful way to provide for this is by means of lit-
tle stone or concrete ovens. It will also involve, in time, the
establishment here of a small supervised playground.

The matter of children's playgrounds is an exceedingly,
even an unusually, urgent one in Fort Wayne. There are two
reasons for that fact. First, the remarkable compactness with
which the city has been built. One rarely finds a city which,
with population as small as Fort Wayne's, contains so few
vacant lots in its inner sections. Indeed, very few cities with
a hundred thousand population are built as closely. This
means that the bulk of the children of Fort Wayne have little
opportunity for play except in the streets — and almost no op-
portunity for group-play, with all the social and educational
benefit that confers. The second reason that playgrounds are
an unusually urgent need in Fort Wayne is the circumstance
that most other cities of equal size already have well organized

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

playground systems. In this respect Fort Wayne has been
lagging.

I recommend that an effort be made to secure the estab-
Hshment ultimately of an equipped and supervised playground
in each of the larger parks. And if in any case there must
be choice between supervision and equipment, I would advise
you that the former is the more important.

Considerations that make the parks of Fort Wayne favor-

Where picnickers boil their coffee. Stove in a park "I Des Moines.

able locations for playgrounds are, first, their admirable dis-
tribution and their comparative nearness to the homes. Not
one of them is remote. Swinney on the west and Lakeside on
the northeast are on the one mile circle that takes the Court
House as center. To the north, Lawton is a quarter mile nearer
still; to the south, Weiser, though two miles from the Court
House, has, like the others, many houses directly at its bound-
ary. In the belt of residences that surrounds the business por-

Fort Wayne Civic Improvcinciit Association 89

tion of the city — a belt that averages a mile and a half in width
— the eastern section alone is not provided with park and play
space. Earnest effort should be made to secure a site there.
The second consideration is that, owing to the compactness
with which the city is built, it would be very difficult to obtain
other adequate play space except at heavy expense. Not only
are the large parks just where playgrounds are needed, but
it would be difficult to find other places for playgrounds.
Third, the parks are already publicly owned and the money
saved through not having to purchase sites can go into equip-
ment and supervision. Nor is the saving only in purchase of
land. A playground, frequented by many children for long
hours, must have toilet facilities, which must be sanitary, and
it should have a shelter. These are the most expensive items
in playground equipment. But in the development of the parks
these will be taken care of. Finally, the spaciousness of the
parks provide, also, for expansion when this is needed.

I have recommended, and shall yet recommend, a large
expenditure for the parks of Fort Wayne, that they may be
brought up to the standard of usefulness they ought to have,
and which such a city as Fort Wayne needs and deserves from
its parks. If, with these expenditures, the commission is un-
able also to develop playgrounds, I suggest that private phil-
anthropy can find in the economical provision of playgrounds
an object that will not want for friends. As has been done in
many cities, the Playground Association can probably obtain
from the Park Board permission to create and maintain a
children's playground at a designated place in each large park.
Eventually, when the success of the experiment, its popularity,
and the need for such provision have been proved — and the
proof never fails — the city may take over the cost of main-
tenance. The growing municipal custom is to put the control
of playgrounds in charge of the Board of Education, on the
theory that the playgrounds are supplementary to the school
system, rounding out the training of the child, developing its
lungs, heart and muscles as the school develops his brain, and

oo Port IJ^ayiie Civic })>iprovcment Association

joining with the school in the development of character and of
social consciousness.

Far to the west of the city, in the rolling mill district,
there is a fine grove of some twelve acres, known as Rockhill
Park, though at this writing not formally received by the city
as a park. It would constitute a good one in a good place ; but
if the city is going to make a jnirchase in this region, a better
tract to buy, in my judgment, is that bounded on the west by
the Lake Shore railroad, on the south by the Pennsylvania, and
on the east by the St. Mary's river. The railroad boundaries
are objections, and the geographical relation of the tract to
the rolling mill is unfortunate ; but neither of these drawbacks
is as serious as the bare statement suggests. The railroads are
on a considerable embankment that can be pierced by a subway,
to obviate grade crossing for entrance. This embankment will
make a clearly defined and, when screened by planting, not
necessarily unattractive boundary, and one which will effectu-
ally shut out any industrial developments that may take place in
the neighborhood. From the north the tract is directly ap-
proached by several pleasant streets.

The positive advantages are conclusive. The purchase of
the tract for park purposes will preserve the beauty of the river
bank opposite the west side of Swinney Park, just as we have
already contemplated its preservation on the north. It will sub-
stitute for two parks close together, and the more important
one with an unprotected boundary, one good sized, adequately-
defined pleasure ground that will serve exactly the same popu-
lation as would the two, and serve them better. For in parks
as in business, consolidation often means, as it certainly in this
case would mean, economy of operation, improvement of pro-
duct, and a larger public usefulness. Moreover, the tract itself is
well adapted for park development. The contour is irregular,
the greater portion of it is timbered with fine old trees, while
at the extreme northwest corner — at the very spot to be chosen
for the purpose — there is a cleared plain, where a well-worn
baseball diamond indicates the ideal purpose for which it is
foreordained.

Port ll^'ayiic Civic Iiiipruvcinciit dissociation 91

Backwater from the river overflows the tract's lower por-
tion at flood seasons, bnt the higher portions are probably not
often affected and a hig-li ledge extends along the tract's south
end quite to the river bank. A foot-bridge should be thrown
from here over to the present Swinney Park. This will great-
ly increase the accessibility of Swinney Park to the west side,
as well as making one pleasure ground of the whole. My
thought is that the driving should be confined to the limits of
the present park, while across the bridge one would be free
from the dust and danger of vehicles and at liberty to follow
footpaths among flowers and ferns, seeking and finding there
a naturalness and romance which Swinney now can never
offer.

Of the remaining parks of Fort Wayne, nearly all are
small. The largest is Reservoir. This is in a choice residence
district and is dominated by the high and very steep embank-
ment of the reservoir, which occupies perhaps a third of the
total area. On the west half there is a lake to which may be
applied the comments respecting the lake in Swinney Park. In
fact, the greater conspicuousness of this and the considerable
dependence of the park upon this feature for its landscape
beauty, should add emphasis to former criticism and sugges-
tion. It would be proper also, in the case of Reservoir Park
lake, to enhance its evening beauty with the witchery of lights.
The park is really, with its near border of streets, only a city
square, where a touch of the formal and artificial will not vio-
late good taste. Incandescent lamps on ornamental little
standards, with wires in conduits, may be placed near enough
the water to be reflected in its surface. The park needs as a
whole very careful expert planning. It has admirable possi-
bilities — in fact, it is capable of being made one of the most in-
teresting parks of its kind in the United States, for one does
not often find in a single city square a good sized lake, contain-
ing an island, and then a high hill with an unlimited supply
of water at the top of it.

For the present, pending the preparation of a careful gen-
eral plan, it is enough perhaps to advocate the beautifying of

Fori Wayne Civic Improvement Association

the margin of the lake, the removal of the thronging poplars,
the more artistic lighting of the whole park — this need not ])e
an expensive nndertaking— and the correction of the walk sys-
tem south of the reservoir, hy taking u]) the present walk which
parallels the street and placing it where the well worn diagonal
l)ath "ivcs unmistakable hint that a walk is needed.

investment value to the money

Hayden and McCidloeb
Parks are little ornamental
squares, properly developed
wdth multitudes of flowers.
There would be saving- of
expense, however, and no
loss of beauty, if perennials
aud flowering shrubs were
used to some extent instead
of quite so many annuals.
As the latter require re-
placing every season thej'
result, l)y their deinands
on labor and stock, in the
costliest kind of parks.
Parks of this character are
necessarily s h o av y , but
there should be effort to
give a relatively permanent
expended on them.

These "city squares," as such ornamental open spaces arc
usually called, are a delightful kind of park, but they are also
the most expensive kind. For more important that the cost
of maintenance is the circumstance that through their existence
many valuable building lots are taken from the tax lists. The
added value of abutting property seldom restores the whole of
this loss. But if, in the improvement of a closely built industrial
city, we must forego the ideal of many such open spaces, we
should the more eagerly seek the opportunity to create these

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association 93

where, at no sacrifice of precious building land, they may yet
perform a similar ornamental service, and perhaps a larger
social service.

In Fort Wayne there exists a remarkable opportunity for
doing this. I refer to the possible creation of pleasant little
outlook points overlooking the river on the dead ends of those
streets that cross East Wayne — as Francis, Harmer, etc., all the
way to Coombs. All these terminate in the bluff, which gives
to them a commanding view up and down the Maumee, and
across to the dyke, while one of them has itself big trees and
is beautiful now. No land will have to be bought. It is a
question simply of a little less paving, or a little less mud or
dust, and of providing some benches, and now and then a pic-
turesque shelter — the thatched outlook at Robison Park is a
suggestion ; of adapting a now perfectly useless bit of public
property to community service, by transforming a dead end
of street into a neighborhood park, where one may enjoy the
view, get fresh air and watch the sunset. Only a little space
would be occupied, but the eye would travel far. It is a city's
turning to account such opportunities as these that give to it
a distinctive charm and make it loved.

With reference to Harmer Street, there is some chance
that its end will be needed as an approach to a bridge, to be
thrown over to the Lakeside section. That bridge ought to be
concrete and, in such setting, of beautiful design. About 500
feet east of its line is the old crossing where took place that
historic massacre of Harmer's Ford, to which, I am informed,
the city really owes its origin. The Daughters of the American
Revolution are contemplating a suitable marking of the spot.
If a beautiful bridge be constructed, I suggest that the chapter
be invited to place the tablet upon it, where it can easily be
seen, and that in recognition of such marking the structure be
known as the Memorial Bridge — so still more increasing the
interest in this locality.

This is not an easy chapter to sum up, for every park pre-
sents a separate problem. But out of the discussion I would

94 Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

have these facts stand out with emphasis: i. Swinney, Liiw-
ton and Weiser Parks need additions of area to correct their
boundaries. Happily, the needed lands can be obtained at this
time very cheaply. 2. The further development of all the
parks should be in accordance with carefully made plans. 3.
Playgrounds are much needed, but for the present there will
be advantages in developing these in the parks, even if this
has to be done by private initiative. 4. The best ideals of
landscape beauty and social service should obtain in park
development. By no other means is the higher side of the
public life touched so easily, so pleasantly, and in so many
ways.

With reference to the latter point, music may be and
should be made a great feature in the parks. In Rochester
the popular taste has now been so developed that rag time
has been eliminated and 30,000 people gather for a strictly
classical program by the park band. Vocal music also, by the
singing societies and massed choirs, is practicable and pop-
ular. In Hartford, park employees are trained to act as do
attendants in a library, calling the attention of visitors to in-
teresting trees and shrubs and birds. In yet other parks, water
fetes and illuminations are a feature ; in yet others skating and
coasting in winter and kite flying, etc., in summer, offer enter-
tainment, while always there remains, as the peculiar park at-
traction, beauty, calm, and silence, to rest city-tired nerves.

The financial aspect of the question of course demands
attention. Some help may be expected from public-spirited
individuals ; but for the most part the improvements described
in this chapter will have to come, sooner or later, from the com-
munity. In this connection, I would call your attention to three
facts: First, one can hardly conceive a more legitimate pur-
pose for a bond issue than is the purchase of park land. In
land the bond has a security which is steadily increasing in
value ; not wearing out as do the school houses, public build-
ings, water works, sewers, pavements, bridges, and other
things for which municipal bonds are issued. As the bonds ap-

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association 95

proach the end of their life, the land that was purchased with
them will not only be doing a larger public service than at
the beginning, but will be of much greater intrinsic value than
when they were issued. Second, in no municipal expenditure
do taxes seem to the people to give such direct and measurable
returns as in the parks. Third, the effect of adequate park
development on contiguous property is such that through in-
crease in value the city soon receives in taxes more than it
pays for the parks. Consequently, the parks are to be proper-
ly considered as investments. Within a few months, an inves-
tigation of this matter has been made in Madison, Wis. Mem-
bers of the Common Council there questioned the advisability
of some appropriations desired for the parks, and a committee
was appointed to investigate the claim that a city's parks are
really a municipal investment. No study was made of the work
the parks do, of the effect they have on the public health, of
the vistors or new residents they draw to the city. The study
dealt with tax figures only, and there were some local condi-
tions that made it probable that the showing would not be as
favorable as it might be in many cities. The painstaking study
with its quantities of figures has been published in a pamphlet.
The conclusion, however, may be briefly summarized as fol-
lows : Twelve and one-half per cent, is a low average of the
proportion of increase in assessed values which, in the judg-
ment of the committee, has been directly caused by the estab-
lishment of parks, drives, playgrounds, and open spaces in
Madison. At the current tax rate, this increase is now bring-
ing annually into the city treasury almost exactly twice the
annual cost of the parks — this cost including, in the calculation,
not only maintenance appropriations but interest on the invest-
ment.

96 I'ort Wayne Civic I mproi'cuioit Association

River Drive and Parkway System.

It was interesting and not a little significant to observe
in the course of my investigations that the improvement of Fort
Wayne was popularly interpreted to mean the j^lanning of a
river drive. But this Report will have failed in its purpose if,
in the many pages it has covered before reaching that subject,
it has not shown that comprehensive improvement of the city
must mean a great many other things as well. There should
not be inference, however, that the other things are more im-
portant than the drive — some of them are not as important.
For in parking the river banks, and putting drive and walk
along their edge, Fort Wayne will be turning to account its
greatest natural asset, and developing its own proper individ-
uality — in which, so far as this is gracious, rests the charm of
every town.

If I may quote once more from one of my own books,
"Modern Civic Art" describes, as a rule so common as to be
almost generally accepted, the principle that the stream hanks
of a community should be reserved for park development, if
their legitimate commercial use permits. Such acquirement
"is nearly sure to be picturesque, potentially if not in fact,
and has certainly the relief of variety ; it is quite likely
to be distinctive ; and it is frequently, until thus taken
charge of, a menace to the health of the community, for
it is probably made a dumping ground, if not an open
sewer, for the neighborhood. On this account, also, while
possessing perhaps the district's greatest chance of beauty,
it is a source of ugliness until redeemed. But the ridges
of its rising banks are likely to furnish a convenient nat-
ural boundary to frame a landscape picture to be here cre-
ated, while the trans-water view, which is always charm-
ing, adds the width of the stream to the apparent park
area without removing an equal tract from the slender
tax lists of the town or from the habitable area of the
crowded city. The reservation affords, too, public access

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association 97

98 Port Wayne Civic Improvement Association

to a sure current of fresh air, and possibly to a place for
water sports. In short, no inland space cciually contracted
is likely to serve well so many ends."

This presents the general argument. Strong as it is, con-
ditions in Fort Wayne add weight to it in the local application.
For a drive and walk along the river — that is, the parking of
the strip of river bank — would connect the three principal
parks, Swinney, Lawton and Lakeside. Precisely as is the
result in a grouping of public buildings, each of these public
reservations would itself gain from a connection with the
others. Secondly, the parking- of a strip of river bank would,
if carried far enough, bring park acreage and park entrance
close to a long stretch of the city, and some of it would be near
the business section. It would throw half way around the city
— from its southwest corner, just above Broadway bridge, to its
northeast corner, at Walton Avenue bridge, a band of green, in
realization of that parkway ideal which is such a feature of
modern European city planning. Only there the old dry moats
of city walls are utilized, while here the course would be beside
beautiful living streams. Even Washington — where, in
plans to beautify the capital, the nation is now undertaking
river front redemption — has not such a chance as yours.

If the plan is practicable, financially and commercially, it
is certainly desirable. Let us see just what would be re-
quired.

Suppose we begin with the little pumping station, just
south of the Broadway bridge over the St. Mary's river.
There is here a small bit of public property, sodded, and com-
manding a lovely view upstream. There is nothing between
the pump house and the bridge except grass and trees — one tree
in particular is a noble one — with the stream on one side and the
street on the other. There is no reason why the city holdings
should not at slight cost be extended to the bridge, with the
result that the trees would not be cut down or have advertise-
ments nailed to them. The drive would take the street, and
so much of the park is easy.

Fort IVayiie Civic Improvement Association 99

At the bridge a street car track comes on to Broadway
and the highway's adaptabiHty as a good park drive departs.
But it happens, too, that the street gradually swings away from
the river, and therefore would be denied parkway honors in
any case. Between the thoroughfare and the river there are
buildings, which some day Fort Wayne will try to get cleared
off; but for the present Broadway might be used for the two
short blocks to Hartnett Street. Hartnett leads to the river
bank, and in a moment one is back to the trees and wild growth,
with the St. Mary's dancing — as never saint-named river ought
to dance — below in the sunshine. From here there is a long
stretch, of a mile or slightly more, to Swinney Park, with no
streets near the river. There is ample room here for a park-
way drive. It would pass back of the greenhouses, and under
trees and through patches of woodland nearly all the way to
the crossing of the Wabash railroad. At times the strip would
be narrow; again, as in the fine grove just above the railroad,
it would widen out. The driveway itself should not be more
than twenty feet — a boulevard would ruin the effect desired —
and at the strip's narrowest points there would need to be on
its east side only land enough to make possible a good screen
of growing things. On its west side, the strip would include
all the land to the river's edge, and between road and river a
romantic footpath should wind in and out among the trees.
The grove south of the railroad, with its thin sprinkling of
heavy timber, possesses park availability for a section of the
city which now has no park near it, but does have many peo-
ple.

The railroad, one might expect, would impose an obstacle ;
but it is on an embankment so high that the drive can pass un-
der it by a subway with no difihculty whatever. A dyke will
be necessary probably to keep out flood waters, and there
will be other places where it may be needed ; but Fort Wayne
would show poor spirit, if, with such a chance for a drive, it
hesitated at the cost of an occasional dyke — which need not be
built until the city is ready to build it. Below Taylor Street

lOO

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

Fort JVayiic Civic Improvement Association loi

private property owners have already attempted to save the
bank with a concrete retaining wall. It would not cost much to
make this look as strong as it probably is, its present appear-
ance doubtless belying its strength.

From here to the Pennsylvania tracks, the way is clear
along the top of the dyke. The drive at this point need l)e no
more than a drive, and as such it is likely — with its connections
and lack of railroad grade crossings — so to open up and give
value to the considerable building tract, that the owners should
find it good policy to give the right of way. Happily, the Penn-
sylvania road also is on an embankment, similar to that of the
Wabash, at the point of crossing; and in like fashion the park-
drive can go beneath the tracks. The elevation here is not
quite as great ; but the clearance to the top of the rail seems
to be about ten and one-half feet, just east of the railroad
pumping station. Thus there would be required a dip of only
three feet. Emerging from the short subway, one would be in
Swinney Park.

As we have seen, the drive from this point to West Berry
street has been already made, and as this is written its exten-
sion to West INIain is probable. Indeed, this can be so easily
accomplished that its execvition may reasonably be assumed.
With its construction there will come, of course, the redemp-
tion of that little triangle, of which the glaring billboards make
— or seem to make — the terminus of Alain Street. The street
leads up to them. Before them the city has cleared a space by
providing a flat triangle, and therein has even put a bench that
one may sit and study them. Behind them, there is the beauty
of leaf and flower and sparkling river — but all that they hide.
The site is strategic, for the beauty that can be given to this
spot will shed its influence far down a traveled thoroughfare.

It is remarkable how far and with what ease the imag-
inary park drive can be built. From the pumping station at
the city line to West Main Street, by the course suggested, is
well above two miles, and a two-mile park drive on the edge
of a city and penetrating into its built-up sections is a very

I02 Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association 103

I04 r^ort Wayne Civic Iiiiprovcincnt Association

Fort Wayne Civic hnprovcmoit Association 105

extraordinary and enviable possession. One would have to
seek many cities to find the opportunity's like. But even this is
not all, though for a space beyond West Main Street the course
is not as easy. If, however, for a short distance here there are
real obstacles to overcome, there should be recollection that
the value of this part of the drive far transcends any import-
ance it can have of itself alone — considerable though that would
be. Its great value is as a connecting link, tying together the
river drives, and making one beautiful and extensive system of
the whole. Its cost is properly to be spread over that of the
whole drive — so absurdl}- inexpensive apart from this. The first
difficulty is with regard to the Nickel Plate crossing, the width
of the trackage here making a subway extremely undesirable,
even were there no other objections. I propose that the drive,
crossing West Main Street, shall begin to descend, reaching
below the first bridge a point that would give to it a twelve-foot
clearance beneath the bottom chord of the bridge. As it
descends it is to swing into the riverbed, where it will proceed
by concrete arches on properly supported steel cross-girders,
with brick pavement, until the second bridge has been passed.
Then it will turn up the bank again. At the low level, it would
be beneath high water. On the water side, I would therefore
have a solid concrete coping, three and one-half feet high.
This will not shut out the view, and yet it will be high enough
to preserve the drive from overflow except under such unusual
conditions of high water as may be expected to occur not
more than once in a dozen years, and then for only a day or
two. To dispose of the water on such an occasion, rare though
it would be, there ma\- be left in the coping, if desired, a hole
with a removable plug.

As the idea of this drive involves serious questions in en-
gineering, I called into consultation Mr. Charles Carroll
Brown, of Indianapolis, a consulting engineer of national repu-
tation, to advise me with reference to the effect of such con-
struction in raising the water level, etc. Mr. Brown personally
visited the place, and in a written statement expresses the

io6 Fort IVayne Civic Improvement Association

opinion that, even if the drive is built on a soHd fill, the back-
water of the river under flood conditions will be raised by it
only a fraction of an inch.* It may be added that the Thir-
tieth Street bridge, over Fall Creek, in Indianapolis, has been
so constructed as to permit the carrying out of an exactly sim-
ilar scheme there, when a contemplated boulevard shall be
constructed. It may also be remarked that at Fort Wayne the
.\ickel I'late railroad, far from opposing such a plan, is likely
to welcome its execution because of the further protection thus
given to the bridge abutments. Finally, we should note how
pleasant a way of going this will offer — its openness, as dis-
tinguished from a subway; and the delightful variety lent to
the drive by descending for a brief space below the bank, after
long continuance on its top ; getting close to the water, after
seeing it from above ; and an entire forgetfulness of the rail-
road, in the interest and novelty of the new view that will be
opened.

Beyond the railroad's second bridge, where the drive
turns up on the bank again, the way is comparatively clear for
a short distance. The drive would enter a roomy backyard,
would cut off the end of a twelve-foot public alley, and so. fol-
lowing the river bank for six hundred feet, reach the alley
that leads from Van Buren Street to the river, just north of
Superior Street. This would be widened into a park drive, the
distance being about fifty yards, and all the present improve-
ments being of very cheap character. There is nothing here
that should cause a progressive city to hesitate for a moment,
considering the result that will be attained.

At Van Buren Street the way is once more open, the city
already owning the beautiful large tract enclosed in the bend

*He figures the maximum discharge of water at the bridge at
l.'),000 cubic feet per second. Computing the area of the cross sec-
tion at 3,6.50 square feet, he finds the proposed drive, if made solid,
reducing this nearly twenty per cent. The high water velocity,
which he had figured at a little more than four feet a second, is
thereby raised to slightly over four and three-quarters feet a second,
but he finds that to produce this velocity, the back water is in-
creased only part of an inch.

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association 107

of the river east of this point. My sugg-estion is that the ih-ivc
cut across the southern end, practically following the arc of
Michaels Avenue. Up to this point, it will have proceeded
so far along the river bank that the variation of brief retire-
ment from the bank will be a pleasant change; thereby, too,
the route will be shortened, and the expense of construction re-
duced. But the main advantage is that the broad meadow
will then be left free for use as a children's playground. For
this purpose it is admirably adapted. Its location close to
homes where play space is limited is ideal, while yet it is so
isolated that the shouts of play can never disturb the neigh-
borhood. In any city, it would be hard to find a space more
perfectly adapted for playground purposes, from every point
of view, than is this.

From Ross Street I would have the drive, for the present,
make use of existing Ross and Superior Streets. Happily the
house on the northeast corner of Ross and Superior is so well
set back that a graceful turn can be substituted for the present
acute angle of street intersection, by cutting off the corner
with a curve. As this would considerably increase the attrac-
tiveness of the location of the house, apparently putting it at
the entrance to a park drive, such action should be welcomed
rather than opposed.

As the lots become shallow, beyond Fulton Street, the
houses naturally become smaller and less expensive. For the
most part, beyond Fulton Street, they are one-story frame
houses that, even so, have seen their best days. The ultimate
and logical development will be the city's acquirement and
parking of all this space, amounting to two and one-half blocks,
between Superior Street and the river. Then at Ewing Street
the drive would swing in close to the river. But with all that
Fort Wayne has now to do, my judgment is that this part of
the work can well wait. No such enhancement of values can
be anticipated for these lots as to involve much loss in so do-
ing, and the use of only three blocks of Superior Street as a
link in the river drive will not seriously detract from the drive's

loS fori Wayne Civic Iniprovcnicnt Association

attraction. But at Webster Street, the river being now a con-
siderable distance from the street, the drive ought to turn n(jrth
on the highway to regain the bank. The lot on the east side of
Webster Street is very narrow at that end, so that but little
private property will have to be crossed to reach Wells wStreet.
and that little is the back of the lot, with nothing more formid-
able than an old lumber shed to present an obstacle. Beyond
Wells vStreet, between Wood Avenue and the river, there is
a little frame dwelling, a coal yard, and a lime, cement and
stone yard — the first industrial occupation of the river Ijank
yet encountered. This will have to be cleared out, and the
drive carried right across to Harrison Street. Thence we
have the aid of Eureka Avenue. The narrow strip between
the avenue and the river should be acquired and cleared, as
should the balance of the tract, to Calhoun Street. The rapid
encroachment on the stream bed which is here taking place,
through filling" in, is an interesting and instructive example of
the unsightly and menacing operations that may be looked for
if such property remains in private hands. Not only would
this dangerous work be thus efifectually stopped, but the drive
would by this means be brought around to Calhoun Street,
whence it can easily be swung along the river through the
vacant land of the one remaining block before Clinton Street
is reached. So would be completed the drive on the right bank
of the St. Mary's.

For at Clinton Street the river should be crossed. The
concrete bridge is here, and though this falls far short of what
it ought to be, it is the only attempt as yet to give Fort Wayne
a beautiful bridge. It needs light standards and sidewalks,
and its width from parapet to parapet is only about thirty-six
feet — or no more than the road itself ought to be. For here
the road carries not only the park traffic but the street traffic
of an important thoroughfare. However, the sidewalks can
probably be swung out on wrought iron brackets with no bad
effect, and the bridge — given better approaches — made very
presentable and serviceable. But quite apart from the fortun-

Fort Wayne Civic hnprovcmciit .Issociatioii 109

ate chance of the presence of a concrete bridge at CHnton
Street, this is the natural point for crossing. Here the pro-
posed river drive reaches, in the athletic field and suggested
extension of Lawton Park, one of the main parks, of which the
greater portion is on the further side. The drive should not
enter the athletic field, and beyond that field the plant of the
Fuel and Lighting Company practically blocks further progress
on the south side. Thus there is not only the pleasant means
of crossing here, but it is desirable to cross here, and there is
no other way of continuing the drive.

With Lawton Park's extension and improvement, as al-
ready discussed, the drive, having crossed the bridge, sweeps
into broad park lands. It issues from the park into Spy Run
Avenue, whence a boulevarded street should carry it to the
edge of the St. Joseph river. Here the land is all open, and the
continuation of a drive along the bank, in southern extension
of that part of Spy Run Avenue which skirts the bank, is not
only easy and desirable, in removing pleasure driving from
crowded Spy Run, but will open up the property, tying to-
gether the several cross streets which now have connection by
Spy Run only, and in its construction removing the danger of
overflow. The relief it would give to Spy Run Avenue is
much to be desired, the street being only fifty feet wide from
property line to property line, and having a car track. It is
already dangerous. This drive would take one to the State
Street bridge, and so across the river.

On the east side St. Joseph Boulevard now extends nearly
the whole way along the river bank. Eventually it should be
carried beside the river the entire distance to the bridge, and
far up stream above the bridge. This will come with Port
Wayne's larger population and demand for long country
drives. But for the present it will be no hardship for one to
continue along State Street to the State Institution, and then
turn south on the boulevard. This connects now with
Egdewater Avenue — of which the development was outlined
in the previous chapter — and so is completed the long river

no Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

drive to Walton Avenue. Easily secured though it is, the
parkway as proposed is one that the finest city in the world
might envy. It will cost so little and it will yield much.

Before turning from the rivers, to consider Fort Wayne's
further possibilities, a word should be said regarding the
greater use of the streams. With popular recognition that the
rivers ought not to be utilized as open sewers, and that to les-
sen their channels by using the banks as dumps is to invite
flood damage, they tend — their waterpower being valueless — to
become only objects to be looked at. This is good as far as it
goes, for doubtless the persistent and quiet influence year by
year of a beautiful municipal possession is a potent force for
good in the community ; but it does not exhaust the rivers' pos-
sibilities. There is still a potential social usefulness which, if
availed of, would not only cause them to give active pleasure
but through such service would greatly increase their benefi-
cent civic influence.

For social use of the rivers by boating, three things are
necessary: i. The water must be comparatively pure — which
means that the city's sewage must not enter it. On the popu-
lous south and east sides the sewage is now intercepted and car-
ried below the point where boating would begin ; but even this
is not enough. Under the laws of the State, the State Board of
Health may at any time declare that the pollution of the Mau-
mee is a nuisance and menace, and must be stopped. The
sewage of the growing north side is discharged into the river
within the city limits, creating conditions that must soon rob
the Edgewater Avenue dyke of its charm. It is at once nec-
essary to plan for some other disposal of that sewage, and it
will be the part of wisdom not to adopt the makeshift of an in-
tercepting sewer — on whichever side — that will simply carry it
further down stream. True civic economy suggests a com-
prehensive study of the whole situation and the adoption of a
modern disposal plan, which will obviate expenditures for a
system which the State Board of Health may at any time order
undone. 2. The rivers must have in summer a sufficient depth

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association iii

of water ; and, 3, the Ijeauty of both banks — not of one alone —
must be preserved. The latter requirement is essential, indeed,
to the scenic attractiveness of the proposed drive. Fortunate-
ly, the conditions in this respect are such — assuming the recom-
mended extension of Swinney Park to be secured — that there
need be little anxiety on this score, if the drive is constructed.
Perhaps the most serious danger to be apprehended, if, the
city controlling the land opposite Swinney Park, building-
operations have not to be dreaded, is that bill boards will be
placed on those banks which are not controlled. The adver-
tiser is not usually a respecter of natural beauty, and the board
to which I have already referred — at the east end of West
Main Street bridge — or the board which one passes on the
lovely bank of the old canal en route to Robison Park,
should give warning to the municipality of the importance of
safeguarding any investment it may make on one bank by
securing control of the opposite bank. I note that under State
law (Section 149, Chapter 129, Laws of 1905) the park com-
missioners have power "to prevent the deposit or maintenance
of unsightly or obnoxious material in or along" rivers and
streams, and to "provide for the protection of the banks there-
of." This would seem to bestow the needed authority. In the
case of the St. Mary's west bank, from Bluffton Road to
Swinney Park, where as yet the land is all undeveloped, a strip
should be reserved for a balancing park drive.

The maintenance of a sufficient water level in the rivers
during the dry season might seem a difficult problem, owing to
the torrential character of the streams. But folding dams will
accomplish this readily. The lower of them — if there be more
than one — should be at some favorable point between the
Columbia and Walton Avenue bridges. As I said in discuss-
ing Lawton Park, several varieties of such dams are made, all
of which will lie prostrate in the river bed, allowing the flood
waters to pass unobstructed over them ; while, when the water
is low, they can be lifted — in whole or in part, as the case may
need — to raise the water level. With this done the rivers will

112

Furt li'dyiic Ci'i'ic Improvement Association

Fort IVayne Ck'ic Improvement Association 113

be available for canoes, if not for larger boats ; Swinney and
Lawton Parks will be still more closely knit together in social
usefulness — indeed, a motor boat line may be established be-
tween them ; and there will be added a j^owerful new factor
to the pleasure and healthfulness of life in Fort Wayne.
Think what it will mean to you who live in Fort Wayne, to be
able to use the rivers, and to have them sweet and beautiful!

Feaving- now the rivers and turning southward, W^alb^n
Avenue, to which the river drive has brought us, is the only
through cross-town thoroughfare east of Clinton Street. This
is an unfortunate condition, not easily to be corrected,
and it is going to throw so heavy a trafific upon
Walton Avenue that the avenue will not be well adapted
to serve as a park connection. But as a matter of fact, the
distance from the north bank of the Maumee to Weiser Park
is so great, and Weiser will be so slightly developed for driv-
ing, that there will not be much strictly park travel between
the two. Such as there is, however, would naturally take this
one direct way; and the street, which has some elements of
unusual interest— in crossing the river and passing the grounds
of Concordia College — and which is still all undeveloped,
should be treated with its destiny in view. That is to say, to
exceptional degree Walton Avenue ought to be developed with
thought of its community value, rather than as a local thor-
oughfare. Such consideration involves special regard for its
paving, for its tree-planting and parking, and for the prompt
abolition on this street of the railroad grade crossings. Its
distance from the center of the city gives no just indication of
the degree of usefulness it will have.

I have said that Weiser Park is not likely to be a driving-
attraction. Most of the pleasure driving will turn west from
Walton to the residence section. If it uses Pontiac Street it
will pass the beautiful quarter just east of Hoagland Avenue,
and so on to Fairfield.

There is need of a connection that shall be direct an 1
beautiful between Fairfield, in this portion the town's show

114 ^ort JVayne Civic Improvement Association

Fort JJ^ayiic Civic Iiiif'roirniciif Association 115

ii6 Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

residential street, and the system of drives and parks that be-
gins at the St. Mary's river, only half a mile away. In Nutt-
man Avenue the opportunity for this is offered with extraor-
dinary ease. West from Fairfield, the avenue skirts a bit of
beautiful woodland ; at Beaver Avenue it makes a jog, contin-
uing west from there on a line some forty feet south of the
line the other portion of the avenue has followed. For its
whole extent Nuttman Avenue ])asses through territory that is
still practically virgin. By extending the northern section
west on its own line, and the more southern section east on its
line, we shall create a parkway enclosing between its divided
roadways a broad parking strip covered with beautiful trees.
If the width of this parkway were 120 feet, the space might
well be divided as follows : Two feet from the property line a
six-foot walk, then eight feet of greensward ; a twenty-
four foot road, and a middle park strip forty feet wide ; beyond
this the divisions balancing those already named. This would
make a beautiful and worthy connection between the river
drive and Fairfield Avenue, and there is no reason to doubt
that there would result a demand for the property abutting on
it that would at once give to the property a value easily paying
for the improvement through its larger tax returns.

With the proposal of this parkway there is completed the
circuit of the city — and a very noble and beautiful circuit it is.
and attainable now at strangely little expense, considering how
close it lies around the built-up portion of the city. It is an
opportunity well calculated to inspire the citizens to accomplish-
ment, as I believe that it is doing.

It is to be hoped that while the community will construct
the links needed to secure this river drive, private beneficence
may come forward to bestow, on a city which would thus be
jiroving itself so worthy of assistance, the great country drive
and park that lies at its door waiting utilization. This would
stretch along the St. Mary's river, continuing southward the
city drive — widening here and there to enclose wooded picnic
groves, canoeists' goals, bird rendezvous, and lovers' shelters —

Fort ll'ayiic Cii'ic hiiprovcmcnt Association

117

up one side and down tlie other, from the pumping station above
Broadway bridge to Stellhorn's bridge, under noble oaks the
whole way. It \vould be a unique and beautiful attraction, of
ever growing" interest and value. It offers, at no prohibitive
expense, an opportunity to some philanthropist — or philanthro-
pists, for the drive on each side might be given by a different
citizen — a chance to erect to himself a monument that would
increase in beauty and popular appreciation with the lapse of
time ; to do a really great thing for his city, that would make
his name forever loved and remembered there; and, if it
chances that he has made his money in F"ort Wayne, to do for
the community as it has done for him and his.

In the shadows of Birdland Drive. A park on the river bank '" Des Moines.
Note the beauty of the name as well as of the scene.

The provision of parks and drives through jirivate benefi-
cence, is an increasingly popular expression of civic spirit, but
not often are the conditions for it so favorable as in this par-
ticular case. But let me add a word of suggestion, if any one
contemplates this gift. The donor should make it during his

ii8

Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

Ri-fei-fivcos

HI. Polk ;lCo

<f,At/.'/f/tiiii llXJ\>t/rJth.

polkas ""
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CI TY OF
INDIANA.

Existing Buws &- Drives

Proposed River Drives

6- Park Additions

PrOP05EdBoII1EVARD ^NNECnONS

Port ]\'aync Civic Improvoncul Associaliun 119

life, that he may have the joy of developing it, and the pleasure
and reward of watching the happiness its use will bring to all
classes of citizens. To wait until he dies before making the
gift available, would be greatly to rob himself.

Fifteen or twenty years hence the drive may even be ex-
tended further — but that will be another generation's chance.
It is enough today to dream of such a round-trip six-mile drive.
To simplify the making of the gift, the Park Commission
should secure the authority, unless it already has it, to con-
demn property outside the city limits for park purposes. This
would be a reasonable request on the commission's part and it
may well do all it can to make easy such a gift.

In the other direction, down the Maumee, there is now
a beautiful drive, which well illustrates what that up the St.
Mary's may be.

Port Jl'ayiic Civic ImprovcmciU Associatiu)i 119

life, that he may have the joy of developing it, and the pleasure
and reward of watching the hai~)piness its use will bring to all
classes of citizens. To wait until he dies before making the
gift available, would be greatly to rob himself.

In the other direction, down the Maumee, there is now
a beautiful drive, which well illustrates what that up the St.
Mary's may be.

T20 Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

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Fort ]Vaync Civic Improvement /Issociation 121

Conclusion.

There is temptation to add a few words in snmniary, for
there has been unfolded a long program of diverse undertak-
ings. It is no small matter to recast a city — readjusting it to
its higher destiny, and shaping it for a greater trade and in-
dustry and larger population than had been foreseen. But the
very need of so doing is inspiring and calculated to give cour-
age ; and today, in the competition of cities for a wholesomer
civic life, and the better community spirit that goes with better
living, the city that dares is the city that wins.

In Boston, an all-embracing movement has been started
with the purpose of making Boston by 191 5 just what Boston
ought to be. It is called the 191 5 movement, and a program
of achievement has been mapped out for each of the preceding
years, so that each one shall surely see the goal appreciably
nearer. The leaders of finance, of business, of labor, and of the
professions are shoulder to shoulder in the effort. That is a
good thing to do, and yet I would caution you against setting
your gaze too far ahead. There must be insistence on the op-
portunity of the present, on the achievement of this month and
year — of Nineteen Hundred and Now, as Edward Everett
Hale expressed it. Fort Wayne cannot do at once all the things
herein suggested ; the Report does look years ahead. But
there should be realization that each month's delay means
greater difficulty in accomplishment ; all that can be done should
be done quickly. Speaking generally, the most urgent work is
the acquisition of needed lands. Development, as already in
the matter of your parks, can follow more slowly.

Financially, Fort Wayne is exceptionally well able to act
quickly and with energy, in order that she may make real the
new dreams of a better future. I have been looking over the
financial statements of a selected list of cities, having popu-
lations of between 50,000 and 65,000. Included in the list — the
figures being those of 1906 — are such typical and far scattered

Fort f Fay lie Civic Improvement /Issociation 121

Conclusion.

There is temptation to add a few words in summary, for
there has been unfolded a long program of diverse undertak-
ings. It is no small matter to recast a city — readjusting it to
its higher destiny, and shaping it for a greater trade and in-
dustry and larger population than had been foreseen. But the
very need of so doing is inspiring and calculated to give cour-
age ; and today, in the competition of cities for a wholesomer
civic life, and the better community spirit that goes with better
living, the city that dares is the city that wins.

In Boston, an all-embracing movement has been started
with the purpose of making Boston by 191 5 just what Boston
ought to be. It is called the 19 15 movement, and a program
of achievement has been mapped out for each of the preceding
years, so that each one shall surely see the goal appreciably
nearer. The leaders of finance, of business, of labor, and of the
professions are shoulder to shoulder in the effort. That is a
good thing to do, and yet I would caution you against setting
your gaze too far ahead. There must be insistence on the op-
portunity of the present, on the achievement of this month and
year — of Nineteen Hundred and Now, as Edward Everett
Hale expressed it. Fort Wayne cannot do at once all the things
herein suggested ; the Report does look years ahead. But
there should be realization that each month's delay means
greater difficulty in accomplishment ; all that can be done should
be done quickly. Speaking generally, the most urgent work is
the acquisition of needed lands. Development, as already in
the matter of your parks, can follow more slowly.

122 Fort Wayne Civic Improvement Association

municipalities as Schenectady, N. Y. ; San Antonio, Texas ;
Evansville, Ind. ; Waterbury, Conn. ; Salt Lake City ; Harris-
burg, Pa. ; Tacoma, Wash., and Holyoke, Mass. In this
prepared list of prosperous and progressive municipali-
ties, there are named only two cities that have funded debts
of less than two million dollars — the smallest debt re-
ported is $1,825,000 — and there are several in which
the debt exceeds four millions. Fort Wayne, with a
larger population than any of them, has a funded debt of only
$589,900, and against that has $91,000 in the sinking fund!
Putting the matter another way, and turning to the Census
Report for 1906, in which every city is given, I find that the
city with population nearest at that time to Fort Wayne's, was
Holyoke, Mass., it having about a hundred and fifty fewer
people ; that the per capita debt obligation, less sinking fund
assets, amounted then in Fort Wayne to $16.68 — it is less than
half of that now — and in Holyoke to $51.30 ; that of the eighty-
seven cities of the United States with a larger population than
Fort Wayne, only four had as small a per capita debt as her's,
and that of the first twenty with a smaller population only
two did not have a larger per capita debt. As compared with
rivals, Fort Wayne is thus in a position to do a great deal.
The per capita debt of Kansas City, Kas., at that time was
$39.32, "which," says a statement issued by the business men's
club of that city, is "less than most cities of the same class."
The total debt was then over one and a half millions, and is
now about $2,175,000, as compared with the half million in
Fort Wayne ; but the bulletin of that energetic organization
prints with approval, after the debt statement, these words;
"Every time we improve our city we help to increase its popu-
lation. I believe that as a business proposition a judicious out-
lay of three or four million dollars for improvements in this
city would be a splendid investment." That is the spirit that
brings things to pass. Kansas City, Kas., is a type of a large
class of cities that are in competition with you, and that, with-
out half so favorable an opportunity financially as has Fort
Wayne, are daring and doing more.

Fort Wayne Civic Improvcmoif Association 123

I have spoken of the money aspect of the question of im-
proving Fort Wayne, because it was sure to be broui^ht up.
But the more important consideration is not financial at all.
It is the question whether the people who live in Fort Wayne
have the wish, the grit, the love for their city and faith in it,
to make of it what it can be made so easily — the workshop, con-
venient and wholesome, facilitating and drawing business ; the
home, affording opportunities for healthful exercise and pleas-
ure, and bringing beauty into the common life — whether, in
short, the community really means what it says, and puts heart
in its slogan.

Fort Wayne With Might and Main.

In the recently submitted Report of the Metropolitan Im-
provements Commission for Boston, there is this true state-
ment: "The mental attitude of the citizens of any community
towards its growth and future prosperity is an element of no
mean importance in the shaping of its destiny. Confidence
and civic courage have frequently ha^l the power to achieve
that which doubt and hesitation would have rendered an im-
possibility." Respectfully submitted,

CHARLES MULFORD ROBINSON.
Sept. 28, 1909.

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