ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPA1GN PRODUCTION NOTE University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign library Brittle Books Project, 2014.COPYRIGHT NOTIFICATION In Public Domain. Published prior to 1923. This digital copy was made from the printed version held by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It was made in compliance with copyright law. Prepared for the Brittle Books Project, Main Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign by Northern Micrographics Brookhaven Bindery La Crosse, Wisconsin 2014 ' M': r-, ;, ;^f . ws,ut U City Plan for Raleigh /* ,~ ■ .N BEING A REPORT TO THE CIVIC DEPARTMENT ' OF THE WOMAN'S CLUB OF RALEIGH, N. C. '"> BY 1 CHARLES MULFORD ROBINSON LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT ROCHESTER, NEW YORK PUBLISHED BY THE WOMAN'S CLUB OF RALEIGH 1913I 3 ^A-- FOREWORD Ever since its organization nine years ago, tFe Woman's Club of Raleigh has planned and dreamed of making Raleigh more beautiful, more healthful, more worthy in every sense, to be the Capital of this great State. In accordance with this desire there originated some five years ago with one of our devoted members, Miss Daisy Den- son, the idea of sending for a landscape architect who should come and live among us, study our city and its needs, and care- vO fully prepare a blue-print, of the city as it is, with suggestions for its future growth and development. Miss Denson was i? made Chairman of what was known as The City Plan Commit- tee, and many were the dreams and speculations as to how the ^ Woman's Club could accomplish a purpose so far-reaching and P so to be desired. Later on it was our good fortune to welcome ^ to Raleigh as a resident and to our Club as a member Mrs. ^ R. W. Winston. Detecting at once her gifts as a leader, the Club promptly made her Chairman of the Department of Civics of the Club, and with all her gifts and talents, she at once plunged into the effort to raise the sufficient sum for a City Plan. Under her efficient and inspiring leadership, backed by the energy of the Club, in one short winter the amount was obtained and the following May the services of Mr. Charles M. Robinson, of Rochester, New York, were secured to come to' Raleigh and draw up a formal Plan. This is the history of the little volume which we now send forward on its mission to the city that we love. That it may be of inestimable service, we do earnestly hope; that it may justly criticise us where and as we need it; that it may warn us where we are over-confident, stimulate us where we are lax or careless, and that it may inspire us anew with higher and nobler ideals for the Raleigh of to-day and the Raleigh of to- morrow, this is the wish of THE WOMAN'S CLUB OF RALEIGH. April 28, 1913. 250351To Mrs. Robert W. Winston to whose untiring energy and enthusiasm is due the accomplishment of our long cherished scheme by The Woman's Club of Raleigh, North CarolinaTABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE Foreword____________ .. _______________________________________________ 9 Introductory _. ________________ _________________________________________ 17 PART I.—THE IMPROVEMENT OF THE CITY THAT IS I—Business District___________________________________________________ 21 Poles and Wires, Disposal of Waste, Projecting Signs, Fayetteville Street, Street Lights, Building Height, Wall Signs and Dilapida- tion, The Public Market, Public Comfort Stations, Conclusion. II.—Residence Streets__________________________________________________ 41 The Street System, Paving, Sidewalks, Parking, Building Line, Street Trees, Street Lights, Dust Laying. III.—Open Spaces__________________________________________________ 56 Squares, Cemeteries, School Grounds, Parks and Playgrounds. IV—Miscellaneous___________ _ _ _______________ ______________ _ _ _ 76 PART II.—PREPARATION FOR THE CITY THAT WILL BE V.—Planning for the Future_______ ________________________________ 85 Financial Preparedness, Street Changes, Park Additions, New Playgrounds, Park Connections, Suburbs, Various Suggestions and Conclusion.LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE City Auditorium_____________________________________________ Frontispiece Bird's Eye View of a Residential Section______________________________________________________________16 Poles and Wires on Fayetteville Street_________________________________21, 22 Street Trees which have Reached the Limit of Height the Wires Allow 23 Street Trees After Mutilation has Commenced________________________________________________24 Decorations Along the Main Approach to North Carolina's CapitoL . 26 A Comely Waste Receptacle_______________________________________________27 Projecting Signs ______________________________________________________________________________30 Fayetteville Street from the State Capitol Grounds____________________________________________33 The Seattle Light________________________________ _______________________________34 East Front of Capitol ___________ ____________________________________ _ _ 36 Disfiguring Wall Signs __________________________________________ _______37 The Residence Belt of Raleigh _________________________________ __________________41 Street Parking Planted with Shrubs______________________________________________________________________________46 A Curve of Long Radius in the Street Curb__________________________________________________________47 Wasteful Sidewalk Grading_______________________________________________48 Connection Between a High Sidewalk and Lower Roadway____________________49 An Elevated Walk at a Street Crossing______________________________________________________________________50 Typical Backyard Pole Line__________________________ ______________________________52 Concrete Light Standards__________________________________________________________________________________________54 Views in Capitol Square_____________________ ________________:___________57, 59 The Confederate Monument from Hillsboro Street__________________________________________61 Moore Square's Central Feature_______________________________________________________________________62 Swimming Pool in Pullen Park_________________ _________________________________67 Yard of the Centennial School__________________________________________________________________________________71 Wading Pool on a City Playground___________ ______________________________________72 Simple Gymnastic Apparatus in a Schoolyard Corner _■_______________73, 74 Sand Box in a City Square___________ _ _ ___________________________________________________________75 Water Tower from the Street_______________________________________________________________77 Water Tower from Capitol Park _ _ _ _ _______________________________________________78 An Attractive Water Tower __________________________________________________________79 Handsome Railroad Bridge Over a Street- ___________________________________________________80 Part of the East Line of Glen wood Avenue_________________________________89 The Edge of the Woods________________________________________________________________________________________________91 Site of Suggested Park Playground________________________________________________________________________________94 Site of Suggested Athletic Field_______________________ ______________________________95Bird's Eye View of a Residential Section.A City Plan for Raleigh INTRODUCTORY The Woman's Club, Raleigh, N. C. Ladies:—At the invitation of your City Plan Committee, I have recently visited Raleigh, and I have the honor to submit the following report: The request of your City Plan Committee was, in sub- stance, that I should report on what the city needs to enable it to realize the ideal of a better Raleigh. To greater or less ex- tent, sometimes perhaps almost unconsciously, that ideal is, we have to realize, in the heart of every loyal resident. It is not often interpreted in words, and if it were, different individuals would emphasize different aspects of it, but I judge that the following may fairly be considered as comprising its dominant characteristics: A Raleigh that is lovelier to the eye, healthier, that from the standpoint of city building is more progressive and obviously "wide-awake," that is at once better for busi- ness and better for life—for the well-rounded life in which pleasure supplements labor, in which civic pride grows strong, in which childhood matures into strong, loving, loyal manhood and womanhood. In short, the ideal which your Committee had in mind, as I conceive it, is one which would carry forward the work so well commenced in the past, and leave to the next generation a Raleigh that in the civic sense as well as the com- mercial has not stood still. This purpose, worthy of Raleigh's best traditions, is a high and worthy civic ambition. I feel honored to have been chosen as the instrument to translate the abstract ideal into terms of a working program—a program that shall be concrete and practical. In taking up the study of Raleigh, one is struck by two anti- thetical conditions: One is the extraordinary progress which the city is making at the present time, through both private and public initiative: The amount and character of the build-18 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH ing that is going on; the generous subscriptions for semi-public purposes—as churches and the Y. M. C. A. and for public art; the exceptional excellence of the new auditorium and city hall; the far-sighted broadening of portions of Hillsboro Street and of Glenwood Avenue. On the other hand, one is impressed by the restrictive character of the city's charter and ordinances, a^id by the evident backwardness in some important features .of city administration. In some part this lack of accomplish- ment is due to legal restrictions. Raleigh is attempting to transact its city business under a set of laws unfitted for a community as large as the present city. The machinery, inade- quate to the strain, clogs progress in many directions; and we find much left undone, not from the lack of consciousness that there is need of doing it nor for want of the wish to do it; but because effective means for the purpose are not at hand. I should say, then, that a first and most important pre-requisite to the better city is charter revision. This, however, is not a subject in which women often feel much interest, and it is slow and difficult to bring about. I shall refer to it further only as it comes up in discussing those desirable physical changes for which, I believe, new laws can do more than can agitation. My report is divided into two parts: (1) The Improvement of the City That Is; (2) The Preparation for the City That Will Be. Necessarily, these two divisions overlap. In improv- ing the present city, we are preparing for the larger city that is to be; conversely, preparation for the future involves improve- ment of the present conditions. I shall try, however, to reduce the overlapping by eliminating from the first division any im- provement which would not be justified were Raleigh never to include another square foot of territory nor a single additional resident. Obviously, this will greatly cut down the list of items belonging in the first division.PART I IMPROVEMENT OF THE CITY THAT ISCHAPTER I THE BUSINESS DISTRICT VCU <>" Beginning with Raleigh's business district, if we are to coiv- sider the present alone our task is only to put the district"ki better order. Certainly a .first step in this direction must be the elimination of poles and wires. Poles and Wires It is a very great pity, of course, that the wires of the busi- ness district were not put underground before the recent pave- ments were laid. The delay will mean an added cost which is Poles and Wires on Fayetteville Street. pure waste. But perhaps this waste will be worth while, con- sidering the limited extent of the paved district, if the lesson be thus conclusively taught that it is just as reasonable and22 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH necessary to require that wires be placed in conduits before a street is permanently paved, as it is to require that sewers and water mains and the connections to them shall be constructed in advance. All underground work should be attended to be- fop&--the street surface is sealed. ^The wires and poles are not a disfigurement only. They are Poles and Wires on Fayetteville Street— Another View. a serious menace in case of fire—a fact too well-known to need argument. This is true even when they are in alleys; but in Raleigh, where no alley system supplements the business streets, there is nothing that can be done with the wires except bury them. In residence districts, they lead to the beheading and mutilation of trees, and are thus doubly disfiguring.A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 23 As I have said on other occasions, there are two ways of handling this matter. One way is for the city to construct a conduit, and require the public service companies to place their wires in it, charging them a rental sufficient to take care of the interest and sinking fund on the investment. In Baltimore, for example, a very elaborate conduit system is municipally owned. Its construction was begun some fourteen years ago; and as much as five years ago, at rentals which were perfectly satisfactory to the companies, it was bringing in a revenue to Street Trees Which Have Reached the Limit of Height the Wires Allow. the city of approximately a hundred thousand dollars a year. As the annual operating expenses at that time were only $8,500, the income not only paid the interest on the investment, but left a profit of about $30,000 a year. I cite this success in Balti- more because it is a Southern city. In my own State, of New ^ ork, the city of Auburn, which is hardly any bigger than Raleigh, is one of those that has had for many years a muni- cipal conduit. In 1908 the city was renting 88,000 duct feet at five cents per foot and was deriving a revenue from it equal to24 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH about, twice the interest on the cost of construction. The othei way to get rid of the wires is to secure, as a result of negotia- tion with the companies, the agreement of the latter to bury a certain minimum number of feet of wires each year in their own conduits, the location of these being subject to the city's approval. As there is economy in operation with wires under- ground, cities that have opened such negotiations in a reason- Street Trees After Mutilation has Commenced. able spirit, have almost invariably found the companies quick to co-operate. Already the Bell Telephone Company in Ral- eigh has put many of its wires underground, on its own initia- tive, and the Western Union Telegraph Company, which is one of the worst offenders, is controlled by the same corporation. Thus the situation is not at all discouraging. Under either arrangement,—that is, with the municipal con-A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 25 duit or with the agreement,—it is usual to make the start in the central, or business district, where there will be the maxi- mum of relief at the minimum of cost, and then gradually to work outward, choosing as far as possible each year the streets that are to be permanently paved. In a surprisingly short time by this process not the business district only but the main ave- nues and highways are freed from the curse of poles and wires. Since poles and wires cannot be abolished at once, it may be well to call attention to one of the city ordinances. Doubtless most residents of Raleigh will be surprised to learn that the city laws contain the following provision: "Section 47. All telegraph, telephone, electric light or electric railway posts which shall be erected on any street within the city limits shall be smoothly dressed and kept painted. Any person, company or corporation neglecting or failing to comply with the provisions of this section, shall be fined five dollars for every day of such neglect." One would never suspect the existence of such a statute from looking at the city streets. It is a pity that the penalty was not attached to "every such pole for every day" it remains rough and unpainted; but even as it is, the enforcement should prove a useful lever in securing advantageous agreements.* Disposal of Waste There is another bit of municipal house-keeping which Ral- eigh should require on its business streets, even if the city were never to be any larger than it is to-day. This is the use of an improved rubbish receptacle. The can now in use is a pretty serviceable sort for ashes, but it is a very poor sort for papers and ordinary rubbish, which ought always to be separated from the ashes and with which alone the cans were filled during my stay, in hot weather. Since it may not be thought fair to lessees or property owners to provide different kinds of cans, I suggest the following as a reasonable requirement: The city having established a definite hour when rubbish, etc., will be collected, it shall be declared a misdemeanor to have privately *Foot Note.—It is interestingly significant that among the colored postal cards showing views of Raleigh, the card illustrating Fayetteville Street, shows it with wires and poles removed.Decorations Along the Main Approach to North Carolina's Capitol.A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 27 owned cans 011 the sidewalk more than thirty minutes before or after such collection. Meanwhile the city, in order to take care of the constantly accumulating refuse of the busy street, shall provide at sufficient intervals beside the curb a refuse box such as that in use in Decatur, Illinois, Denver, and other places. This method will abbreviate the time of the offensive rubbish display while maintaining the present custom of requiring the A Comely Waste Receptacle. citizen to carry it to the curb. An altogether more satisfactory, though slightly more costly, arrangement is for the city to bring out the cans when it is ready to empty them and then to return them to their place. In the many cities where this is done, it is customary to send a squad of two or four men—very cheap labor it is—just ahead of the collecting wagon, to bring out the cans for it, and one or two men behind the wagon to re- turn the cans. Then they are on the street for only a few mo- ments ; and the principal shopping street resembles the back28 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH alley, which for the time being it is, for the shortest possible period. For the squares, where it is desirable that the rubbish recep- tacle be less conspicuous than on the street, the best thing of which I know is the one in use in Washington. In one town this basket bears, with entire success, the single word, "Please." While the collection of rubbish and its removal are those parts of the operation leading to its ultimate disposal that are most in evidence on city streets, the question of what to do with the rubbish after it has been collected is a pressing one. To go to the expense of collecting it, simply to make one huge dump of it, objectionable alike to eye and nose, depressing property values and endangering health, can be hardly de- scribed as municipal economy or common sense. I am reminded of a Northern city to which I was called where, in preparation for my arrival, a clean-up day had been conducted. I was shown a "spotless town"; but after the clearly anticipated praise had been given to it, I asked where the rubbish had been put. "Oh,77 was the reply, "we just dumped it into the river." Later I saw the river which bisects the town—a stream rushing and tumbling between wooded banks that had been despoiled; and I shocked the people by telling them that I wished they had left their rubbish in the streets! Raleigh has not done as badly as that, but its use of the col- lected waste is clearly not economical, to say the least. Ef- ficient, which is to say also economical, disposition of the prob- lem requires three distinct operations. The first is the separa- tion of the city's waste into three classes: ashes, garbage, and the rubbish or miscellaneous refuse. This, as I have said, should be done by the householders. The second is the city's collection of this waste, keeping the three separated classes dis- tinct in order to facilitate its final disposal. The third is the disposal. The ashes are useful mainly for filling. Yet some- times as much as one-third of them are found to be combustible and worth in New York $2.00 a ton. In an average ton of city garbage, there is grease and tankage having a commercial value of about $4.00. With the amount of garbage somewhatA CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 29 limited, its utilization on a real city farm, or its sale to farmers, is perhaps the most lucrative use of it; while a crematory is the simplest. Certainly, to dump the garbage is the worst of all possible dispositions. As to the general rubbish, fire offers the readiest disposition of it and a crematory that would quickly dispose of the city's waste, without creating a nuisance, en- dangering health, or depreciating values would be one of the best investments which the city could possibly make. At the same time, it should be remarked that there is enough value in the refuse to pay for picking it over. If this were done, there should be sufficient profit to pay the cost of running a crema- tory for the unsalable portion, and to cover interest on capital and depreciation. An analysis of a thousand ordinary cart loads has shown nine tons of tin cans, thirty tons of paper, sixteen tons of rags, nine thousand six hundred bottles, forty-seven barrels of broken glass, three thousand empty barrels, nine tons of old iron, and one thousand seven hundred pounds of rubber and miscellaneous metals. In a recent issue of the "Waste Trade Journal," I note the following quotations: Tin cans, $40 a ton; paper, $2.50 a ton; rags, $25.00 a ton; old iron, $9.00 a ton; rubber, $180.00 a ton. Adding to this the value of the glass and of the old barrels, it appears that there is no economic reason for simply dumping rubbish and allowing it to be a municipal-made nuisance, menacing the health of the citizens and destroying values. ^ In short, one of the most urgent needs of Raleigh—though it touches quite indirectly on the special field of my study—is a more scientific disposition of the city's waste, one which shall be in the long run less costly to the community, not only be- cause affecting neither health nor large property values ad- versely, but also because yielding a substantial income. And it does touch my particular field at two points: Such a change of method would make possible the transformation of a very sorry tract of land on the southern border of the city into an estate that will be at least unobjectionable, and it betters the financial condition of the city.30 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH Projecting Signs Returning now to the city's business streets, when we have freed them of the overhead wires, of the innumerable poles, and of the all-day rubbish cans, we shall have done a good deal to improve them; to give to the city a busier, more prosperous Projecting Signs. and modern aspect, and to make it an example and model for other cities of the State—as it is fitting that the capital city should be. Yet a few things still remain to be done. Of these, the correction of the projecting sign abuse is ur- gent. There are two general objections to such signs. One is that they are dangerous to human life, either through fallingA CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 31 (owing to high wind, faulty construction, or other cause), or from the obstruction which they offer to fighting fires. The other objection is that they are unsightly. They shut off street views, they are usually ugly in themselves—especially by day—and they disfigure the architectural aspect of the build- ings from which they protrude as excrescences. The usual argument in behalf of them is that, if they are illuminated signs, they add to the night brilliancy of the street, helping out the street lighting. It should be remembered, however, that the sign is in position twenty-four hours a day, while it is lighted only from three to six hours, and often not at all on Sunday. For most of the time, therefore, even the electric sign is nothing but an unsightly advertisement sticking out over the public sidewalk. The more progressive cities of the country are now dealing with this problem in one of three ways, and a study of these ways is earnestly commended in Raleigh before the evil be- comes more serious. After a large number of merchants have invested considerable sums in securing the signs, it will be much more difficult than now to obtain a wise regulation of them. It will be found that in a few cases, signs of this charac- ter are forbidden altogether. For example, they lately became such a nuisance on State and Madison Streets in Chicago that they were ordered removed, and it is said that the only opposi- tion to such action was that of the lighting companies. The merchants had been forced into the use of them by competition, and the thing was going from bad to worse, becoming more and more of a tax upon them with less and less result each year. It will be found that more often a city ordinance limits the dis- tance which the signs may project over the walk—in St. Louis, for example, the limit is placed at eighteen inches—and the height of the sign above the walk, and its size. When a limit- ing ordinance came up for discussion in Denver, the merchants argued in behalf of it on the ground that the owner of a sign would thus be protected from the blanketing of it by his neigh- bor, and that it placed bounds to a costly form of competition. There will be found a third regulation, which is much to be commended. This requires that electric signs be placed on32 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH hinges, and that when not lighted they shall be folded flat against the building. In summary, I note this question, which came fro ma city of the Middle West in the heat of a successful campaign against projecting signs: '' Shall the city grant the right to make the streets ugly and unsafe for the sake of a doubtful advantage to indi- vidual merchants, the profits from such action being di- rected chiefly into the pockets of the electrical and adver- tising interests, and the signs chiefly advertising a class of business that does not conduce to general prosperity!" Fayetteville Street 1 In Raleigh, such a question has particular importance, be- cause the streets which it especially concerns is the main ap- proach to the beautiful Capitol of the State. That street, it must be realized, is much more than an ordinary business street, and calls for development with a restraint and dignity becom- ing its State importance. Raleigh must show that it takes it- self seriously, and appreciate the honorableness of its role, if it would have other cities respect it and recognize the priority of its claim. Newbern Avenue, Halifax, and Hillsboro Streets have a distinction and charm of their own, which is natural to them and of a character typical of the city. In Fayetteville Street alone, of the four main approaches to the Capitol, is there a tendency to descend to the ordinary level of a very com- monplace city street. But that happens to be the most import- ant approach of the four, the one which every visitor sees and uses; and which to large extent determines the impression the city leaves upon him. If we can make that street also stand out, for its dignity and its up-to-dateness as a business thor- oughfare, we shall do much to enhance the attractiveness of Raleigh. The street is already of suitable breadth, is well paved, and is lined with exceptionally good buildings, suggestive of a city much larger than Raleigh really is. Thus are the big and costly elements of success already secured. To get the wires under- ground, to eliminate the rubbish cans, and to at least restrain the projecting signs, do not seem very difficult to further ac-A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 33 complishments, and yet it is clear that they would have a trans- forming effect. Doubtless, then, we should notice that some of the sidewalks, especially at the street 's north end, on its west Fayetteville Street from the State Capitol Grounds. side, need relaying to correct a very bad. condition;* that the curb is in places awkward, dilapidated and even dangerous, and that the marquise at the Yarborough House and the one in front of the new Boylan-Pearce Company building do not ex- tend to the curb, as a good marquise—if there be one—ought to do. Theoretically, the purpose of such a construction is to offer a covered passage from the entrance of the building to the *Foot Note.—The photograph which illustrated ,the projecting signs also shows these walks.34 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH carriage door, so that it is rather ridiculous to have it stop half way, as do these. Moreover, extending only to the middle of the sidewalk, they drip more or less water on the heads of un- wary pedestrians. It is true that they are not as bad in this respect as are awnings, but most awnings are pulled up when it rains. Street Lights We shall notice, too, the need of better street lights. The retiring President of your Chamber of Commerce called atten- tion to that need, in his annual address, wisely applying the suggestion to Martin Street from the station to Fayetteville Street, as well as to the latter thor- oughfare. The cluster light is prob- ably the one best adapted to local conditions; and the type of it which has been put up in front of the Caro- lina Power and Light Company's of- fice and in front of the Raleigh Apartment House is fairly satisfac- tory. A richer effect, however, is given by a Seattle cluster-light. Aside from the decorative lighting value of a row of cluster lights, the strong standards can well support the guard wires for the trolley; and until the other poles, with their maze of wires, are removed, the new light standards would tend, with their pro- nounced and iterated prominence, to distract attention in some measure from the wire evil. If, however, the poles are removed, as they ought to be, the street lights now in use, in- conspicuous as to standard and excellent as to brilliancy, would do very well. Should there be only a limited amount of energy to go into this matter, I would much rather see it put into the removal of poles and wires than into better light standards. The Seattle Light.A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 35 Needless to say, the strung bulbs must go into any case. They would not do credit to a country circus on a one-night stand. Building Height Of importance, if Raleigh covets the aspect of a well-built city, is an ordinance limiting the height to which buildings may be constructed. Of course there is no genuine necessity for very high buildings in Raleigh, and yet they are beginning to arise. They have advertising value; and if they tend to empty the other, older, buildings; to give the city a mushroom aspect, which is not in keeping with its history and character; to limit greatly the extent of the business district-, and to bestow an inflated value on real estate in two or three blocks, while de- pressing it elsewhere—those are considerations for the com- munity to act upon, for they will hardly deter the average builder. And the community ought to act upon them, by the adoption, of a restrictive ordinance. The high buildings injure personally many property-holders, while, as of more import- ance to this study, they adversely affect the community as a whole. A limitation of building height is not a visionary or unjust proposal. Cities as progressive as Baltimore, Winnipeg, Bos- ton, St. Louis, Seattle, Cleveland, Montreal, Portland, and various others, have imposed a limit. Imagine how much bet- ter the business district of Raleigh would look if it were uni- formly built up with structure of the height of, let us say, the Boylan-Peace Company, than if a sprinkling of three or four sky-scrapers, by arresting other building development, pro- longed indefinitely the existence of the old and worn-out little structures of village days. I suggest that a building height limit be placed of eight or, at most, ten stories—or, say, one hundred feet, spires and towers being excepted. Raleigh again, as the capital of the State, has a special rea- son for imposing a building limit, for only by so doing can it keep the lovely old Capitol in scale. So important is this con- sideration, that I cannot too strongly urge the enactment of a special ordinance limiting the height to which buildings front- ing on Capitol Park may be erected. That limit should not be36 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH higher than that of the new State building on the corner of Fayetteville and Morgan Streets. Precedent for such action is to be found, if precedent is wanted, in the special ordinance by which Boston has limited the building height on certain streets in the vicinity of her State Capitol to seventy feet, in order that the structure may not be dwarfed; on the streets East Front of Capitol—Vance Monument in Foreground. that abut on Copley Square, that the Public Library and Trin- ity Church may not be spoiled; and in the special ordinance by which Indianapolis maintains the dignity of the Monument. The time to secure such an ordinance with the minimum of dif- ficulty is now, before plans are made for erecting a high build- ing fronting Capitol Square. The site is so favorable on the south side for a high office building, and on the other sides for an apartment house, that there is great danger in delay.A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 37 Wall Signs and Dilapidation There is one other matter to speak of, in connection with buildings in the business district. This is the covering of their walls with painted signs. But perhaps a photograph will say all that need be said. Surely it is vain to dream of a city that is beautiful while the community permits such action. Disfiguring Wall Signs That Have not Even the Merit of Advertising Raleigh Made Goods. The condition of the property at the corner of Wilmington and Morgan Streets, on the south side of Capitol Square, and then around the corner 011 Wilmington, is also distressing; but38 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH it may be expected that self-interest and sheer business sense will soon compel here the better utilization of the considerable investment which the land represents. The law gives to the community little right to dictate with reference to private property, unless the public health be endangered. But the case of the sign-covered building is different because such displays cannot be expected to cure themselves. There is need that some external force awaken civic pride and prick the latent social conscience. The Woman's Club, assisted by the Chamber of Commerce, can well do that. The Public Market The old market house has long been a subject of discussion, and the time is not far distant when it will be impossible longer to delay definite action, the structure having been con- demned as unsafe. What that action should be, must depend on the confidence which is felt in Raleigh's future and on the consequent courage of the citizens. In this division of the Report, we are considering only what would need to be done if Raleigh were not to grow. That surely gives us the minimum program, for no one believes that the city will stand still. It is my opinion that to-day, and without thought of the future, the property is too valuable to be kept for a public market and that the site is inappropriate for such purpose. Because of the street litter it creates, the congestion which results from it, and the odors emanating from it, a general principle of city build- ing is that a public market should not be located in the heart of the best retail and banking section. If there be only one pub- lic market, it must, of course, have a central and accessible location, but this should be to one side, and on property which high class business is not likely to want. As to the financial investment in the present plat, I was told that $100,000 was not an unfair estimate of it, and since the people voted in favor of $40,000 for remodeling, we are confronted by a total invest- ment of $140,000 for a market—an exceedingly large sum for such purpose in a city the size of Raleigh. By selling the pres- ent site and purchasing a cheaper tract, and putting up a skeleton shed—clean, sweet and attractive, the breeze blowingA CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 39 through it, and the concrete floors, and the iron or concrete posts topped by a low tiled roof with long eaves, at once mak- ing a plant pleasant to look upon and inviting the best of sani- tation—there would be a large saving of money. And there would be the greater saving, from the city planning point of view, of putting expensive land to its most appropriate, and therefore most economical, use. In looking about for new sites, it became clear that there would be no difficulty now in finding one. As an example and suggestion, the land on the south side of Davie Street, from the city lot to McDowell, would be excellent—as, indeed, would any part of that block. It is central, close to the street cars, yet inexpensive, and where a market would benefit rather than injure the nearby property. If the present site and the sug- gested site were the same price, instead of the latter being only a fraction of the former, I still would consider the Davie Street site the better for a market. Public Comfort Stations A final need of the business section to-day, and one about which there has locally been discussion, is a provision of pub- lic comfort stations. One of the costs of becoming a " conven- tion city" and an excursionist city is the necessity of providing these. It does not appear, however, that they need be in Raleigh a great expense. Clean and comfortable quarters for both men and women should be found at the railroad station. If this be strongly and properly put up to the railroad com- panies, who profit by the excursion business, they will probably be willing to make the provision. The other two structures which the travelers most visit are the Auditorium and the Capitol. There should be sufficient and suitable toilets in both of these. Finally, an underground public comfort station, par- tially concealed by planting or surmounted by a band-stand, might well be placed in Moore Square. An arrow and neatly painted sign on the corners of Fayetteville Street and Martin and Hargett might indicate its proximity. Until the city feels like undertaking the expense of the structure on Moore Square, two plans which are made use of in some other cities might well40 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH be adopted in Raleigh. In Augusta, Me., in Cleveland, Ohio, in Pasadena, and some other places, merchants have especially fitted up such stations, with white enameled walls and an at- tendant, in connection with their stores. The store offering such convenience indicates the fact on a corner of the show window by a small green circle enclosing a red cross on which is the letter "M" or "W," according to the sex for which ac- commodation is provided. The merchants say it pays. The other plan, which I have found in a number of Iowa towns, is for the Woman's Club to fit up and maintain, in a convenient location, a Rest Room, with toilet adjuncts. This is a conveni- ence to its own members as well as to strangers. I see no objection to making a low charge for admission to the latter. There can be no doubt that the provision of such facilities would add greatly to the pleasure and comfort of day-visitors, especially the women, and that their attendance on excursions to Raleigh would consequently be increased. Putting gallantry aside, women are good shoppers. Conclusion In going over the suggestions here made for the Business District, it will be seen that nothing has been recommended which ought not to be done to-day and which is not perfectly practical. No great expense is involved, no great courage, no faith in the perfectly assured future of Raleigh—simply the wish to bring the Business District of a self-respecting, pros- perous city up to what it ought to be. But it is clear also that these changes would be paying large returns in the added safety and comfort of the citizens, in the better aspect of the streets, in the city's attraction to visitors, in the general im- pression it would make. It is clear that these improvements are really necessary for the larger and better city which is to be. In preparing for that city the coming of it will be hast- ened.// CHAPTER II RESIDENCE STREETS Surrounding the small Business District in a broad belt of green, squared almost regularly by white threads of roads, lies the Residence District of Raleigh. Here are the homes. Look- ing east or west, north or south, from the top of the tall Masonic Temple building, one has glimpses of long, straight streets, tree lined; of detached houses half hidden in trees, and of gently rolling, lovely country, encompassing the houses on the far circumference of the town but imposing no barrier to The Residence Belt of Raleigh. their outward march. It is a pleasant sight, promising happy, comfortable, uncrowded living conditions. It makes one appre- ciate the social significance of the title, "City of Oaks." Here and there, are larger green areas, which are the reservations connected with State institutions of a public or semi-public character, important from the city planning standpoint in that they interrupt the street system and compensate for so doing by the air spaces thus saved. Clearly, the obligations and problems of the Residence Districts of Raleigh are not at all like those of the business section.42 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH Street System If we are to consider only the Raleigh of to-day, there is no need to think of changes in the street system of this section. The regular checker-board of that system is by no means ideal; but in a city of 20,000 population, the handicaps imposed by it are insufficient to justify the large expense of changes. We may even accept the system as a fairly good one—for the Raleigh of to-day. It is incumbent, however, upon those who would improve the present city to facilitate travel on these rectangular streets. This is because one of the chief objections to the sort of system exemplified in Raleigh is that it compels a round-about route, traversing two sides of a triangle, to reach any point which is not on the direct line of the street from which one starts. But where distances are not great, this can be partially atoned for by making the way of going so easy that progress will be at once comfortable and rapid. This is to be accomplished by good roads and good sidewalks. It must be realized, in this connection, that the significance of a needless expenditure of time or energy in getting from the center of a city to the circumference of its residential belt is social and economic. The time, money and energy required to traverse the radius of that belt, determine the length of the radius of the available residence area; and the longer this ra- dius, the lower the rents and the healthier the natural living conditions. In considering the present Residence District of Raleigh, we have first, to consider its paving. On taking up this matter, a moment's reflection will show that from a traffic standpoint, there are three kinds of streets in the residence districts: The street of prime traffic value, which leads far beyond the city limits—perhaps even to other towns—and which thus adds country-travel to its normal city traffic; the street of secondary traffic value—long Hargett Street, for instance, as compared with prime traffic value streets such as Newbern Avenue and Hillsboro; and the minor streets, which have, for one reason or VA CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 43 another, very little traffic value. It is clear that no one kind of pavement is suitable for all these streets, any more than one kind of furniture is suitable for dining-room, bed-room, and drawing-room. Paving The streets which the most traffic uses should have the strongest pavement, and should have first attention. I should say that Hillsboro, Glenwood, probably Halifax, Person, Oak- wood, Newbern and Fayetteville would be properly included in that list. We may take asphalt as typifying the pavement for this kind of street, though it is not by any means the only kind available. Creosoted wood block, brick and bitulithic, for in- stance, can be used to advantage. To streets of secondary traffic value, it is neither necessary nor desirable to give such expensive paving. A bituminous macadam, i. e., a pavement consisting of concrete base and bituminous surface—will wear as long, cost less, and give en- tire satisfaction. For the minor streets, the permanent im- provement of which can hardly be soon undertaken on an extensive scale, the mixture of sand and clay if well ground and rolled, or a crushed granite suitably bound, especially if treated with oil or calcium chloride to prevent dust, will give a satisfactory roadway. These are sketchy suggestions, as there is no need of going into the technical details, with which your city engineer is familiar. My thought here is to call public attention to the fact that in determining the sort of pavement to be given to a street, and even before that—in determining which streets shall be paved—it is essential that there be the community viewpoint, that the street should not be considered by itself alone but in its relation to the other streets of the city and with regard to the part it ought to play in facilitating the traffic movement of the town. Conversely, there must be popular ap- preciation that not all streets can be, or ought to be, prime traffic streets; that it is most desirable that traffic be discour- aged from using some streets, so that they may remain quiet residence streets.44 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH There is municipal economy in selecting the main traffic highways and fitting them in the best possible way for the per- formance of their function, for then a much cheaper develop- ment can be given to the greater number of the non-traffic streets. And, again, with a common sense recognition of the obvious difference in the traffic values of streets, there should be secured a change in the method of paying for street im- provements. When the city at large must pay half the cost of all street paving, there is set a very definite limit to the amount of paving which can be done in any year. If, however, we rec- ognize that strictly minor residence streets are not of com- munity-traffic value, we are at liberty to exempt such streets from this provision. The city at large then has to pay half the paving cost of only the important streets, and progress upon them can be rapid; while the minor street no longer has to wait until the city can afford to help it out. Its residents can go ahead with its inexpensive improvement as soon as they are ready to pay for it. The section on "Parking" will suggest that often half the cost of the street's expensive improvement would be more than the whole cost of a modest and appropriate development. And the significance of the change of policy lies in these facts: (1) At the last annual meeting of your Cham- ber of Commerce, the retiring President described "many" of your streets, in his address, as "a disgrace to civilization"-—a somewhat stronger phrase than I myself would have ventured. (2) That nobody prefers to live on that class of street. (3) That in very numerous instances the residents of a street would be quite willing to pay the moderate cost of its appropriate im- provement if they could do so legally and with fairness to themselves in comparison with the rest of the community. It is the policy of the present law which condemns them to live on a street of which they are ashamed. As to curbs, etc., on most residence streets a combination curb and gutter which is at once efficient, economical, and at- tractive in appearance, can be made from cement. With such construction the nuisance of grass and weeds is done away wTith.A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 45 Sidewalks It is clear that in the residence section of cities, the distinc- tion in the volume of pedestrian traffic is much less marked between different kinds of streets than is the distinction in the volume of vehicle traffic. The street, for example, which leads to another town and which therefore carries half as many ve- hicles again as its neighbor, may not carry any more pedes- trians. The street, again, on which are the houses of the well- to-do, where social entertainments and privately owned vehicles give considerable pavement traffic, may have no more, and may have less, pedestrian travel than does a minor street on which small houses placed close together harbor a larger population. The result of these various influences is leading to the adoption of a nearly uniform width of paved sidewalk in the strictly residence streets of modernly built cities. So, too, the uniform- ity in the character of the demand upon the sidewalks, as dis- tinguished from the volume of the demand, coupled with the moderateness of the cost of the cement or granolithic walks which most perfectly satisfy those demands has led to the adop- tion of a nearly uniform style as well as width of walk. To this wise custom, Raleigh has already officially subscribed. Parking But if we extend the term "sidewalk" to mean all the space between curb and property line, which happily is nearly always more in residence districts than simply the width of walk, standardization breaks down. And in Raleigh it ought to break down more than it has. With a standard street width, that is to say, as in Raleigh, and varying demands upon the roadway, the same discretion which should be exercised in choosing pavements to suit the street should determine the width of street that is to be paved. It is customary in Raleigh on sixty-six-foot streets to have a distance between curbs of forty-two feet. But that means a roadway wide enough for five of the biggest wagons or automo- biles to move abreast—a provision grotesquely exaggerated for46 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH a minor street. But the worst of it is, such unnecessary width is costly. It takes a great deal of money to pave a forty-two foot roadway; a great deal per year to keep it clean and dust- less ; a great deal to keep it in repair. While if some of that useless road space were put into a grass plat between the curb and paved walk, we should have a street much pleasanter to live on, much pleasanter to look at, and much less costly. We Street Parking Planted with Shrubs. should have a street on which the trees would have better chance of nourishment, in which the dust of traffic would be further from the homes and further from pedestrians, in which the grass plat between curb and walk would be easier to take care of than when narrow, and on which the grass margins might be adorned with flowers and shrubs. The forty-two foot roadway in Raleigh's minor streets is wider, I believe, than the roadway oil Cheapside in London. It is wider than Fifth Avenue's, New York, north of Forty-eighth Street, and wider than the famous and entirely sufficient Sheri- dan Drive, Chicago, with its enormous motor travel. TheseA CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 47 comparisons are interesting because showing to what needless extent the citizens are, or are to be, taxed on many Raleigh streets in order to provide for a volume of traffic that can hard- ly be expected on any of them in a hundred years, and that on many streets will never appear. In this connection, also, two points are to be kept in mind: (1) Other and large expen- ditures are genuinely needed; (2) to narrow the roadway, while maintaining the width of the street between the opposite prop- erty lines, does not mean that the roadway cannot fee wid.ened again, quickly and at very slight cost, should occasion for so doing arise. In going about Raleigh, one of the best proportioned streets I saw, considered aesthetically, economically, and in adaptation to service to be performed, was Bloodworth, south from Polk. Here the roadway had been reduced to thirty-four feet, by moving the curbs out four feet on each side. I asked the rea- A Curve of Long Radius in the Street Curb. son, and was told that the action had been taken to save the trees. It is a pity that this has not been done more often in Raleigh, and I suggest that as the improvement of any par- ticular street is taken up, the widening of the distance between curb and property frontage be considered. Very often, on all strictly minor streets indeed, the roadway may be made nar- rower than on Bloodworth Street. In Germany; which teaches us so much in city planning, the Saxon law reads, "In the case of streets of detached or semi-detached buildings, where there is no proper through traffic, the part of the road used for vehicles: Wasteful Sidewalk Grading.A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 49 need not exceed a width of twenty-six feet"; and of the best built American cities, with a population of a quarter mil- lion, has adopted this as its standard for all residence streets that do not carry car tracks. John W. Alvord, in his report on '' The Street Paving Problem of Chicago,'' made to the Chicago Commercial Club, says: "In the ideally paved city," residence streets which carry a traffic ranging "from nothing to five tons per day," would have "not more than eighteen to twenty-four feet between curbs." The chief engineer of the To.pographical Connection Between a High Sidewalk and Lower Roadway. Survey Commission in Baltimore has recently brought in a recommendation of twenty-eight-foot roadways for residence streets that are not main traffic highways, and in my own re- cent book, "The Width and Arrangement of Streets," the sub- ject is fully discussed from many points of view. Clearly, it is of great significance in the platting of new sub-divisions. I have urged the matter here with some care, not only for the improvement it would mean to the city, but also because of the financial saving it would mean. I found the city engineer in that sympathy with the idea which is now to be expected among persons who have studied the subject, but he seemed to fear that the public might look with doubt upon it.50 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH It may be added that an incidental but considerable ffisthetic advantage of the wider distance between curb and property line is the graceful curve which can then be given to the road- way at street corners—a curve as much better for use as it is for looks. There is another matter with reference to sidewalks which must be emphasized. This is the foolishness of the idea that sidewalks should be always at street grade. In going out Polk Street during my visit, I found the sidewalks of one block being cut down to grade because the people were declining to lay new walks until this had been'done. The work was costing the city thirty cents a square yard, and it had cost the people taaBitrai An Elevated Walk at a Street Crossing. a row of magnolias, and all this cost was sheer foolish waste. It stands to reason that where it is necessary to make a cut for a street, the cross section of the cut, and hence the cost, will be less if the roadway only be lowered. By leaving the sidewalk or walks at a higher level, the accessibility and at- tractiveness of the abutting property is increased and damages are lessened. There is, in fact, no argument whatever for put- ting the sidewalk down to the street grade when the space between walk and curb will permit a terrace. It is done through inertia, demanded by untraveled and unimaginative folk who, because most of the streets of their town are about at grade, have never reflected that different conditions might call for different treatment.A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 51 Building Line At the property line, the public way is left and criticism and suggestion must have respect for private rights. It may be noted, however, that front fences are disappearing, to the con- siderable enhancement of the beauty of Raleigh streets. In the cases where the wish strongly persists to separate the pri- vate property from the public, I wish that hedges might be more often substituted, since the privet does so well. Any town can have little wooden fences, but in the hedges—if there must be barrier—the beauty of Raleigh streets would be safe- guarded. And in one respect, not now availed of, the commun- ity is able to impose a restriction since it makes for the indi- vidual's good not less than for that of all. This is the estab- lishment of a front building line. Such action is necessary if the platting of narrow residence streets be permitted, lest the cost of a possible widening at some future day become exces- sive. But the action is always an advantage because it pro- tects the view, and air and light, of every house; it insures the orderly framing of the street and the preservation of its per- spective. Street Trees With regard to the street trees, I have referred elsewhere to the injury which the overhead wires are doing to them. This can be guarded against in large measure, pending the construction of conduits, by neighborhood co-operation. Since it must take a long time before minor residence streets are relieved by conduits, and since on any one of them the in- jury or destruction of the trees—possibly the little street's single and crowning glory—comes home so personally to the residents, many communities that are "wide-awake" secure backyard pole lines, instead of street pole lines. This requires, not only neighborhood—or street—co-operation, but a measure of civic spirit. One neighbor out of every three or four or five has to permit a pole in his backyard—where, however, it does not do the least harm. In return, he has a better street to live on, for his street trees are not spoiled. In this, as in allsnriH ,SI « w A Typical Backyard Pole Line in a New Subdivision.A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 53 cases where poles are permitted, the city ordinance which em- powers the municipality to require that different companies shall combine in the use of a single pole, should be enforced. In all parts of the city the street trees need care and gen- erally thining. The best effect requires a good choice of tree, their even spacing, and a uniform variety on any particular street or clearly defined unit of street. With these require- ments is that of constant care. It is idle to look for a sufficient satisfaction of these needs while the trees are left to the mercy of individual citizens. It is necessary to provide municipal control and supervision, and that can best be had by placing the responsibility upon an official, who shall be tree warden and have sufficient funds to do his work. There is hardly any new municipal expense which for the same amount of money would give equal pleasure and benefit to all classes of the community. Since under Section 15, Chapter II., of the Ordi- nances, the Street Commissioner is given general supervision of the trees, a tree warden might be an official in his department. In such case authority for "the planting and protection" of the trees would be taken from the Board of Aldermen, where, with divided authority, it now is. Street Lights I have spoken of better street lights in the Business District. They can be improved also among the homes. But the stand- ard which is suitable for the street is not suitable, either in style or in the excessiveness of its light, for residence streets. A good deal of experimenting has lately resulted in getting an admirable form of light fixture which is not expensive. This is a concrete standard carrying an ornamental metal cap in which is placed a single globe. The latter contains a strong incandescant lamp. A handsomer standard is, of course, the fluted bronze column—to be seen in parts of Wash- ington, Pasadena, etc.,—but it is much more expensive and therefore better adapted to show places, to the handsome boulevards and very costly residence streets of rich cities. It would be appropriate in the Capitol Square at Ealeigh. The concrete standard gives a most pleasing effect; it is sub-54 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH stantial and lasting; it brings the light down below the tree branches, just where it is wanted; and it restores to long streets that beauty of perspective, in the iterated small light units, which was unfortunately lost for a time when the arc light Concrete Light Standards. supplanted gas. The usual custom, in the cities where these lights are appearing, is for residents on given streets to petition- the lighting company for them, agreeing to meet out of their own pockets the additional cost involved. This is not large divided among the residents of the street. Sprinkling Although recent years have seen encouraging progress in the composition of dust preventive materials, we cannot antici-A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 55 pate a time in the near future when no sprinkling of water will be needed. In fact, with rising ideals of municipal efficiency and better appreciation of the menace which dust has for health, we may expect an increasing rather than decreasing demand that city streets be freed of the dust evil. To restrict sprinkling to the small sanitary district, and then to pay for it from the general tax fund, are not only two very unwise pro- cedures in municipal administration, but they are inconsistent. The better method is to arrange for sprinkling in any section which will locally pay the cost of sprinkling, i. e., to handle the matter by local assessment. It will be found that if the supply of water holds out, as it must, the amount of sprinkling will greatly increase, without addition to the general tax disburse- ment and without the opposition of neighborhoods. For it will be squarely put up to them, to decide whether or not they want sprinkling enough to pay for it. Generally speaking, it will be found that if the people of a city be given an opportunity by which they see direct returns, they will pay generously for the improvement of residence sec- tions. For there are the homes, there are all that they love most dearly, there are their hearts. Civic pride and civic spirit have many ingredients, but the strongest is the love of home. It is the universality of that love, the personal interest, the readiness to make expenditures which will add to the comfort and pleasure of life for those we love—including ourselves— that render easily possible the improvements that now are needed in the residence districts of Raleigh.CHAPTER III OPEN SPACES Very closely associated with the Residence District are the squares or small parks. These were features of the original town plan; and whatever may be said fcf the shortcomings of that plan, judged by modern scientific standards, it must be ad- mitted that if the later builders of Raleigh had done as well, platting additional public reservations with each three block extension of the city, Raleigh would ILTVe been amply provided with space for play-grounds, and small parks, and with possi-. bilities for local civic centers. It would have had opportunities for a more extraordinary municipal beauty than can be hoped for to-day. But the foresight and high ideals of those who at the start planned on such generous scale for the capital of North Caro- lina proved short lived. Of the four squares which originally supplemented the Capitol Square, one was given over for the Executive Mansion and another for the State School for the Blind, while the later city builders, though growing rich from rising values as the town increased and extended, and needing now no exercise of faith to forecast its future, failed not only to follow the early example, but to make any further reservations. So the problem of the Square becomes unfortunately only that of the two original reservations which were left unbuilt upon and of the Capitol Square. But perhaps the later platters of the Raleigh streets are not wholly to be blamed. They saw good building lots reserved for parks—from the real estate standpoint, the most costly sort of park provision—and then that precious land so little appre- ciated that even since half only of it has been left to the public, it has remained practically undeveloped, little better than waste places, affording shade for loiterers but adding no beauty to the city and performing the scantiest of social service. From such examples, they may well have doubted the worth whileness of the sacrifice.A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 57 Capitol Square, Moore Square, and Nash Square present each their own peculiar problems. All are State property; but for the improvement and maintenance of the first named alone View in Capitol Square. does the State assume responsibility. Upon that one, however, which has the State at large to call upon for interest, the local community has lavished all its aesthetic aspirations and artistic58 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH tenderness—if that term can be used to describe the bestowal of gifts. The simple and dignified old Capitol structure, lifting its head above beautiful and closely planted trees, gazes upon a surrounding lawn thickly shaded but far from solitary. There are business hours during which Fayetteville Street itself is hardly more crowded than is this park, by day and night, with silent frock-coated statesmen who have struck a pose. And still there are rumors of more. My suggestions for Capitol Square are: (1) That there be an intelligent thinning of the trees. This is imperatively needed for the good of the trees. Near the southeast corner of the Capitol, as an instance, there is as sad an example as one could find anywhere of a blighted young tree life. The pre- sumption is that the tree was deliberately planted, and the State, which should set an example, is esteemed responsible for this and the other like tragedies in the park. (2)1 suggest that the Confederate Monument be moved to a location which is bet- ter adapted to it. On its present site, Hillsboro Street alone centers on it. But Hillsboro also centers on the Capitol. The shaft of the monument, by screening the Capitol, spoils a view of the building that should be fine; while the Capitol, on the other hand, dwarfs the shaft, and obliterates and confuses the outline, ruining the effect of the monument. In addition to the loss thus involved in its present location, the base sticks into the street, absorbing part of the sidewalk in a dangerous and clumsy way. If the monument were moved to another square, in which it would be the dominant feature, it would speak its message with far greater emphasis than on its present site. The site which I would choose for it is the square now occu- pied by the State School for the Blind. The institution is be- coming so crowded on that cramped ground that its removal to larger grounds, and the restoration of the square to the city for park purposes, seems a reasonable hope. When this is done, the transfer of the monument to a position on the park terrace that would face McDowell Street would give opportunity for a very interesting landscape treatment, emphatically distinguish- ing this square from the others. The monument, on its part, would gain several times the distinction it now has. Though.itA CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 59 is not beautiful or artistic, it is no worse than many creations of its period, and the sentiment to which it gives expression is one which no community can afford to belittle. View in Capitol Square—Vance Monument in Foreground. Returning to the Capitol Square, I believe, (3) that its best interests would be served by a well organized opposition to any sculptural additions. This is not quite the same as saying that60 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH no new statues should be added, for it is conceivable that there might be the coincidence of an occasion and a product so meri- torious as properly to break down opposition. But there is need of going very slowly. The Square is full enough now, and a State which expects to live, to continue to make history and to raise great men and great women, should reserve a few seats in Valhalla for the future. (4) There has been in the past an evi- dent need, which persists and grows, of an appreciation that portrait statuary is not the only, or necessarily the best, kind of commemorative sculpture. Replete as the Square now is, an addition which took the form of a couple of handsome pylons at the Fayetteville Street entrance, or of an exedra such as the Hunt Memorial in Central Park, New York, could be received with much more favor than could another statue. And there would be great gain if North Carolina should follow the exam- ple of several other States in the appointment of a State Art Commission. Even if the Commission were not very strong on art, it would have value, for its existence would fix artistic responsibility and thus provide a body upon which the artistic taste and knowledge of city and State, and if need be of the country, could bring effective pressure should occasion arise. Finally, I have spoken elsewhere of the urgent need of an ordinance which shall restrict the height of buildings facing upon the Capitol Square. A suggestion that the ordinance might go further than this, requiring a columnar motif—i. e., the use of the orders on the facades of the new buildings that may face the Square—holds out a very interesting possibility of a harmonious setting for a Capitol, which would greatly distinguish it. But it is a pity this was not done before the new State Building was planned. With reference to the other reservations contained in the original town plat, I have spoken of that which has since been dedicated to the School for the Blind. With its irregular con- tour and its noble elms and maples, this has extraordinary possibilities for attractive development. Nash Square's improvement does not await clearance of the site, but no larger expenditures should be undertaken there until the future location of the railroad station is determined.A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 61 If an enlarged station is to be built on the site of the present structure, the development of the Square should be in harmony with that fact. Its main path should lead to the entrance of the station, a statue of Sir Walter Raleigh might well be the feature of the Square, just as the statue of Christopher Colum- bus greets the arriving traveler in the station square at Genoa, and the whole scheme should be of formal character, with many flowers, instead of being sylvan and quiet. This is not simply a matter of artistic appropriateness. It is a qiiestion of adapting the Square to the use to which it will be put. People who frequent an open space in front of a railroad station do The Confederate Monument from HiLlsboro Street. not go there for quiet. Conversely, the impression which a city should seek to give of itself to arriving travelers, is not, whatever its other aesthetic aspirations, one of grove-like re- pose. The slight improvements already made in Nash Square are good as far as they go; but it is clear that they cannot, and should not, go much further until there is knowledge of the kind of development which will be appropriate for the Square. Should the station be moved west in order to eliminate the Y, as the railroads are likely to desire, the Square's development can be independent of it. Moore Square, while needing considerable done to it, pre- sents a simple problem. Here we have a conventional city62 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH square, the usual diagonal paths supplemented—disadvantage- ously from an aesthetic standpoint—by walks which, intersect- ing in the center, parallel the four boundary streets. The walks of the Square are neither paved nor curbed, their one Moore Square's Central Feature. distinctive feature being the single row of trees which extends lengthwise down the center of each path cutting it into two di- visions. This arrangement might be interesting if it were well made, but the whole Square has that ragged, uncared for as- pect which is fatal to good results when formalism is at-A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 63 tempted. There is a considerable variety of trees, but they fail of the interest they should have because specimens are so crowded. On two sides a boundary hedge of privet has been started. This should be either carried all the way around or omitted entirely. If it is carried around, it must be kept trimmed very low—hardly over thirty inches high. At the center of the Square, the point to which all paths converge, a circle has been paved, and out of the center of this hot and inappropriate form of decoration, rises a light standard. This is not the beautiful creation which might be expected from the prominence given to it. The photograph shows its crudity too well to require further description. Now, a square of this kind—from the real estate standpoint, the most expensive kind of park provision, as I have said— must yield large returns to justify the investment it represents. It is no excuse to say that in this instance the city did not make an investment. If a man was offered the income, for him- self and his heirs, of the most valuable corner on Fayetteville Street—being forbidden, however, to sell it—and that corner happened at the time to be a vacant lot, would he not be a fool not to improve it to the utmost, so as to derive a good income from it? That is the situation of the city with regard to Moore Square. Moore Square should be made beautiful—for the pleasure wiiich its beauty would give, for the contribution which it would thus make to the city's attractiveness, and for the enhancement to the value of abutting property which its improvement would mean. And it should be rendered useful. I have spoken of the desirability of putting an underground toilet in the Square, and surmounting it with a band-stand. The structure might be placed at a side of the Square, so that the music would be thrown from the street into the park, and that side could then be developed as a music court. In the cen- ter of the Square nothing could be better than a fountain, the splash of its waters a very pleasant and refreshing sound amid the shade of the trees through the long summer, and its basin a ceaseless source of pleasure to the children. Well trimmed turf, proper care of trees and paths, beds of gay flowers located and planted in accordance with a carefully made design, and64 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH artistic lighting would change Moore Square into a possession of beauty and of use and quadruple the return on the invest- ment it represents. The latter purely commercial aspect of the matter, however, is, of course, the last which should be consid- ered. Although, as a city, Raleigh has little reason for pride in its handling of the park problem, the three squares which re- main of the five in the original town plat do not .exhaust its open space opportunities. There are still the cemeteries, the grounds around the schools, and the need—which we must hope a higher public spirit and keener social conscience will satisfy—of additional open spaces. It is rare good fortune that near the center of the city the provision of open spaces is good. In the residence belt, where land is less expensive and the benefit is immediate and obvious, it should be less difficult to secure reserved areas. In Northern cities, where one would think the use of open spaces must be considerably less than in the South, experienced real estate operators have testified that from a business standpoint it is worth while to set apart, as a gift to the community, areas for parks and play-grounds in new sub-divisions. Cemeteries As to the cemeteries, I found them very generally needing care. It is not unusual, when a city is negligent of its parks for the living, to find its gardens for the dead very lovely. But in Raleigh sentiment seems to have demanded nothing better for the one than for the other. Grass and weeds want cutting, trees need trimming, roads and walks repairs. In Oakwood this would mean, owing to the picturesque irregularity of its site and consequent grades, some curbs and gutters. These will look most neatly if constructed of concrete. Provision should be made to insure perpetual care of any lot on the pay- ment of a given sum, and all the public walks and roads should illustrate, in the attention given to them, the public ideal of that care which the final sleeping place of the dead deserves.A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 65 School Grounds School grounds in Raleigh are generally small. Only in two or three cases are they large enough to be used as play-grounds worthy of the name. The opportunities offered by those ex- ceptions will be referred to later. For the rest, it is enough to say here that school-yards which are too small for play are not too small to receive the touch of beauty and that there is much to commend to a Woman's Club the pleasant task of providing that touch. The work is not likely to be done through public channels, for a Board of Education seldom feels at liberty to make appropriation to that end. And yet the distinction be- tween tinting an interior wall, carving the stone lintel of the portal, sodding the lawn, or paying for the vine or shrub that will beautify is not marked. But the work is well worth some- body's doing. In addition to the worth whileness of any work which makes urban life sweeter and lovelier, we have in this case the value of causing the public property to set the example in improvement which it ought to set in bringing beauty into the daily lives of little children at their most im- pressionable age, and of making the school attractive rather than forbidding. Finally, wise teachers will find that the plant- ing around the school-house can be made of good use in botany and other nature studies. It will be very well, even, to inter- est the children in its maintenance and care. I know of cities where prizes for the best school-yards, or for the school-yards which showed most improvement during the year, created a very healthy and enjoyable emulation between the pupils; of one school-yard in particular where a truculent boy, whom all other measures had failed to subdue, was won and transformed into a model by the permission to dig in the garden on his good days; and of a town, about the size of Raleigh, where the Woman's Club sent to distant Chicago for a landscape archi- tect to prepare its plans—since carried out—for the planting of the city's school-yards. In my Report, I have thus far indi- cated few things for the Woman's Club itself to do, but it may quite properly take the school-yards in its care.66 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH Parks and Playgrounds Turning from the Squares—which hardly count in the social and physical ministry of a city's park system—from the ceme- teries, which do not count at all, and from the smaller school- yards, which as yet appear to have no purpose, to ask ourselves how Raleigh, as a thriving and modern municipality, is situ- ated in regard to large parks and real play-grounds, is to feel a thrill of expectation. For Raleigh is situated in a beautiful rolling country, with pleasantly diversified scenery of wood and clearing, and in the park enthusiasm of recent years the United States has taken the world's lead in the extent, effici- ency and beauty of municipal parks. But "Wide-Awake Ral- eigh" needs some stirring here. There is, to be sure, a park, derived in the best possible way—as the gift of a citizen. But it has only seventy-four acres, and is the only one, and I" ob- served no privately owned quarter-acre garden that was not kept up better. And there is no Park Commission and there are no real play-grounds. Pullen Park and the Squares are in charge of the Park Com- mittee of the Council, and the funds for maintenance and im- provement are taken out of the general tax levy. It is no dis- paragement to the personnel of the committee to say that this system does not give satisfactory results. It never does; and in recognition of the fact, there is hardly a progressive city in the United States which now retains it. On the other hand, the almost universal park commission provides that continuity of service which is essential to good results in park management; it makes possible the placing of the responsibility for park development upon men who have no other public duties to per- form, and who possess a special love for the sort of problems which arise in park control. The commission is generally small in number, and is usually unpaid. Thus the change of control involves no additional expense, while relieving council mem- bers of considerable work. The usual method is for the com- mission to be appointed by the mayor, the appointments being at large and without reference to political affiliations. I con- sider this one of the most important administrative changes toSwimming Pool in Pullen Park.68 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH be made in Raleigh. My suggestion would be a commission of three or five, appointed in the first instance for different terms, so that one only shall retire each year, and thereafter for three- year terms. Reappointments are usually customary, except when the retiring incumbent desires to be relieved. But change in the method of park control is not the only change to be desired, A change in the method of providing park funds is desirable. Choice may be made of two distinct methods which are giving satisfaction in many places. Under one of these the park fund is derived from a special levy in the tax roll—four mills on the dollar is most often named as the maximum, and is perhaps the levy most in use. This method has very great advantages: (1) In providing automatically, and without additional burden, an increasing fund as the com- munity increases in population, and the parks become more numerous and more used. (2) In enabling the park commission, by fore-knowledge of its income, to plan in advance a program, of development, so that this becomes scientific and consistent. Hence, no half finished improvement is arrested through a sud- den cutting down of income, and no development is undertaken which cannot subsequently be properly maintained. (3) In re- lieving the parks from the blasting effects of sudden fits of economy, due to exigencies of politics or to personalities. (4) In relieving the park commission of the fear of a charge of ex- travagance in the work they are doing for the public. (5) In removing the parks from politics, not only because of the com- mission's constitution but because no appropriations have to be asked for. This method, for which I suppose Raleigh would have to secure State legislation, is in very wide use. The other method is that by which the extraordinary park system of Kansas City has been created, by which Denver has taken such wonderful strides in recent years, and which is now serving effectively in many smaller places. Under this legislation, "park districts" are created, each district deter- mining its own park and play-ground policy and tax. In prac- tice, it has been found that the rivalry between districts, to- gether with the interest in local projects, has led to very rapid park and play-ground development. In addition to these meth- ods, I would commend for study the Illinois "Act to ProvideA CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 69 for the Organization of Park Districts," etc., adopted in 1911, in which the two have been combined. With the desirability of these administrative changes pointed out, we may now ask ourselves what the Raleigh of to-day needs in the way of park and play-ground development, to put it abreast of good modern practice in the cities of its class. A seventy-four acre park, having such natural advantages as Pullen Park, is a very important asset in a city the size of Ral- eigh. Like Moore Square, it represents an investment which may be, and ought to be, made to pay large returns to the citi- zens. That it pays them as well as it does, speaks volumes for their park-hunger and for their long-suffering patience. For the truth is, Pullen Park in its present condition is pretty poor apology for a park. For this the administrators are not blame- less, though when one learns of the pittance with which they have to work, one marvels at their courage in attempting to maintain it. With the inspiration of ampler funds, it may be in them to rise to their opportunities. This Report is no place for a park plan. In fact, I was told that once one had been made but nobody seemed to know where it was. It is enough to say that the park is full of poison ivy and poison oak, that its general aspect is seedy and unkempt, that the few features which have been put in are not kept up— excepting, perhaps, the beautiful Egyptian lotus pond, which maintains itself. One of the proffered excuses is poor soil, but within sight are the handsome grounds of the State Insane Asylum, to show sane people -bow their park ought to look. The open-air swimming pool is worthy of note, for it indicates that park administrators have been progressive and not with- out their ideals; but even this has now suffered so from neglect that in contemplating rehabilitation one need not hesitate to consider a radical change of its plan. As a swimming pool, however, it is so good that I should like to see more made of it—to see swimming matches and aquatic sports a feature of the park summer in Raleigh. The boys' dressing rooms require reconstruction in any case. Instead of replacing them, a new and larger stand for specta- tors might be erected, and beneath the tiers of seats a lot of new dressing rooms could be built with great saving of space.70 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH The roofs of the other dressing rooms might form a promenade, with space for at least one line of benches, and at the further end there might be another stand. This arrangement might make it possible to have one side of the pool unenclosed, if thought best; and with the new constructions painted white, the promenade protected by a balustrade, from which at inter- vals would rise wThite masts with fluttering pennants, we should have in the swimming pool a feature attractive to the eye rather than quite the reverse. But more important than speculation or suggestion as to how the park could be improved, is emphasis upon the need of pro- viding the funds with which to improve it. A comparatively small bond issue would suffice to put it in first-class condition; and thereafter annual appropriations for maintenance only would not have to be large. If it is reasonable to issue bonds for a school-house, which steadily wears out; or for pavements in the business district, which will be far gone when the bonds by which they were paid for approach maturity, is it not proper to issue bonds for the development and improvement of the parks—for giving to them features of interest, of service and of beauty—which will be appreciated by more and more people as time goes on, and which, therefore, will grow in "worth as the amortization of the bonds proceeds? As to annual main- tenance, whether we reckon by the average appropriation per capita or per acre for this purpose in the other cities of the United States, we get almost precisely the same result—that Raleigh now appropriates only little over a third the amount she ought to give to the maintenance of her parks.* We may pass now to play-grounds, for in considering the Raleigh of to-day—not of to-morrow—we have not now to con- cern ourselves as to other possible parks. Where conditions permit, the school-yard makes the most economical and satisfactory play-ground. There are several reasons for this. The land is already owned by the city, and at the time when it would be in use as a play-ground it is stand- ing idle. The children who are near enough to use it as a play- ground are familiar with its location and are accustomed to go- *Foot Note.—Average for the United States is $91.42 per acre and .368 per capita.A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 71 ing to it. In the school building, toilet facilities, shelter from storm, and a room for indoor work on rainy days, or for daily class work, is at hand without expense for construction. On the other hand, a city's play-ground activities have usually to be started by private enterprise, the demonstration giving con- vincing local proof of the worth of the work before the com- munity demands its support by municipal appropriation. Fi- Yard of the Centennial School. nally, I have said that the school-yards—closely connected as they are with the lives of the children-—may well be made the special interest of the Woman's Club. I would include, there- fore, as a demand upon its interest, such play-grounds as may be developed in the school-yards. Unfortunately, there are few school-yards in Raleigh large enough to support play-ground activities. One will think at once of the exception offered by the yard of the Centennial School, and this indeed is all that could be desired of it—in lo-\ Wading Pool on a City Playground. A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 73 cation, size and natural charm of aspect, the large trees offer- ing welcome shade. A beginning has been made by including facilities for basketball; but there remains a need for appa- ratus adapted to smaller children and that permits individual as distinguished from organized play. There should be a sand- box for the little folks, teeters and swings; and a wading pool is an endless source of pleasure. But more important than any apparatus is that so-called in- Simple Gymnastic Apparatus in a Schoolyard Corner—No. 1. struction or supervision, which in reality is nearer in influence to an older brother and sister, directing and organizing the play of the boys, leading and inspiring the girls, mothering the smallest children, and creating and exemplifying high ideals and making them concrete. The Wiley School, West and Mor- gan Streets, has a fairly good yard behind it, now divided by a board fence down its center. If this were taken out, the play leader provided, and simple apparatus installed, we should have a useful little play-ground, so located as to be of much service. In one or both of the Squares, Moore and Nash, there74 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH might be a sand-box, for the entertainment of small children, while mothers enjoy the shade of the big trees—but this latter is by no means an urgent need, as little children are likely to find pleasure enough on the lawns and paths. The Garfield and Crosby Schools have between them one of the best yards in the city. It is a large bare space, shaded by fine oaks, offering an ideal opportunity for the development of a play-ground for colored children. These three play-grounds would fall short of providing Baleigh with an adequate play- ground system; but doubtless they are as much as the Woman's Club could undertake to conduct, and they would make an ad- Simple Gymnastic Apparatus in a Schoolyard Corner—No. 2. mirable start, serving the sections where play-grounds would be of special service and giving popular demonstration of the value of the work. Children living beyond the effective radius of one or other of these grounds would at present be out of the congested center, in regions where play-space is not now hard to find. Of course, mere space is not a substitute for a well directed play-ground, but it does lessen the urgency of the play-ground's provision. As Raleigh grows larger and spreads further, more grounds will have to be provided, but that is a question for our Second Part.Sand Box in a City Square.CHAPTER IV MISCELLANEOUS In fact, there is not much more to be said with regard to the Raleigh of to-day. In considering business streets, residence streets, and the open spaces that include squares and play- grounds, we have scrutinized the whole city, weighing, not in a spirit of criticism but in the spirit of hope and civic ambition, the opportunities for making it the sort of city which those who love it best would like to see it—progressive, convenient and beautiful. The few matters that do not fall within the scope of such a survey, hardly belong to a discussion of the city's physical improvement—or belong to it indirectly. Such items would include the water supply, an abbattoir, a new jail, an improved water tower and better railroad crossings. Colonel Olds of your Chamber of Commerce, followed by experts, has put plainly before the people the necessity of a storage reservoir, of at least one additional main from the pumping station, and of many more street mains. The need of an abattoir has been also convincingly pointed out, and the Secretary of the State Board of Health has urged upon the people sanitary measures that would reduce the death rate. The little town of Hartsville, in South Carolina, gives an exam- ple of the efficiency and comparative ease with which, a town may be rid of mosquitoes, while the sting of the statement that the death rate of Ealeigh is higher than that of any other Southern city of Raleigh's size, and is one of the highest in the country, should be a spur leading to the rapid extension of sewers, and the requirement of connection with them. But these are sanitary matters that I should hardly have to speak of. The present jail is poorly located. There is no necessity in these days for having the jail next to the court-house and of giving to it a site not only relatively expensive in itself but expensive in its adverse effect on what should be good business property. The present court-house is very likely out of date,A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 77 but its location is admirable, if the jail be moved away. In this connection, there may be noted a movement which has been undertaken to secure a monument to President Johnson in the open square to the rear of the post-office. With the post-office about to be enlarged, a new court-house desired on the already owned plat adjoining the post-office, and with the jail, which is at the rear of the court-house, removed to a different site, it should not be difficult to work out an arrangement, in the plac- ing of the buildings, monument, walks, and planting which would make a very attractive and creditable civic center at small additional expense. And this will be the more significant and important since City Hall and Auditorium are just across the street. As to the water tower, in its central location, it is a con- spicuous landmark, affecting very meanly the architectural expression of the city just where that expression should be, and could be, finest. The tower cannot be made beautiful, as it should be, without radical reconstruction; but it can at least Water Tower from the Street.78 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH be rendered less objectionable. The lower portion is so hidden by trees and buildings that it enters but little into the town view, and if well clothed with the vine which already has a start, its lack of grace will be still less noticeable. First of all, then, encourage the vine, that it may grow higher and encom- pass the base. As to the tank on top, that is now a horrible feature. But 1 attach a photograph showing how inexpensive- ly it might be improved—the balcony given visible support, the tank lightened in aspect, and provided a top that visibly finishes it. Water Tower from Capitol Park. With regard to the railroads, Raleigh is exceptionally for- tunate in their location. In few cities of Raleigh's size do they so little handicap the community's symmetrical and natural development. Jh no sense do they engirdle the city, strangling its expansion; and while they do bisect it, there are compara- tively few grade crossings. This is a vast initial advantage. There needs now to be appreciation of the conspicuousness of an overhead crossing, and its consequent importance, in the street view; and of the potential value, for better or worse, ofA CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 79 the railroad view when the street passes over the railroad. As to the first, in these days of concrete, a strong, simple over- crossing can be made without much cost, and the cheap, tem- porary-looking wooden trestle across a city street should be considered inexcusable. When the railroad crosses beneath the street, the street surface view is of most importance. That the street should be carried across at full width, that there should be no change of pavement or of sidewalk, and that the is An Attractive Water Tower. protecting railing of balustrade should be of good design, goes without saying. As to the railroad line itself, this would be made much more attractive,. both from the city standpoint and from that of railroad passengers, if the enbankments and cuts in Raleigh were planted with honeysuckle. The plant will grow easily and quickly, will hold the banks, and will cover them with a beautiful mat. Finally, as the last word of this chapter, let it be emphasized80 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH that there should be no fear of ideals or idealism. As I said at the beginning, every loyal citizen of Raleigh has an ideal of what his city may be made. There is nothing to be ashamed of in having such dreams. Every industry in the town stands for some one's ideal; every home represents a hope for the realiza- tion of which sacrifices are willingly made; every garden, how- ever small, is the visible striving for an ideal; in every busi- ness, club or school the members are held together by a com- mon purpose and a common aim. Out of the sum of all these Handsome Railroad Bridge Over a Street. confessed ideals is to rise the better Raleigh. We should do ourselves scant justice if we admitted only the small ideal of home and work and garden, and denied our possession of the broader community vision, in which are welded all the others. Given the universality and courage of the ideals of the Ral- eigh that ought to be—and that will be, if the people so deter- mine—there are to be taken those concrete steps toward its realization which have here been indicated. Pasadena, Califor- nia, one of the most beautiful residence cities in America, lies on a site not unlike Raleigh's—with its gently rolling land studded with live oaks. Recently some of its richest citizens, loyal to a vision, have set about the creation of a beautiful sub- urb which they call Oak Knoll. And there, in loyalty to their vision, these practical and successful business men have placedA CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 81 a value of a thousand dollars, and sometimes of more than that, upon an oak tree. The incident has seemed to me significant and suggestive, for Raleigh has much of that spirit now. It calls itself the "City of Oaks," an oak tree is on its seal. It needs, in loyalty and truth to its own ideals, to black those ideals with such practical undertakings as I have tried here to suggest. Then the Raleigh of to-day will be a better Raleigh, not merely to visit, but in which to live and work and have in- vestments.PART II PREPARATION FOR THE CITY THAT WILL BECHAPTER V PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE We have been considering how we could make the Raleigh of to-day a better city, without thought of its to-morrow. If we succeed, the morrow will take much care of itself, for we shall have set it a standard. Yet with the enlarging city there must come new and larger problems, and the citizens of to-day would fall far short of their opportunities and obligations and of the traditions of the city, if they did not look ahead. As one of the few successful fiat cities of the country—the State, some one hundred and twenty years ago, having bought a square mile, which is now the very heart of the city, and planned it to be the capital—it would be strange indeed if now, when Raleigh is covering a tract four times as large as that originally purchased, when its continued growth is assured and its prosperity is secure, its people were content to put aside all planning for the future, permitting expansion to take care of itself, short-sighted private interests to ignore the pub- lic welfare, and improvements which will be needed for the larger city to await a time when their cost will be enormously increased, and their accomplishment perhaps made impossible. Financial Preparedness There is so much to do for the present city, that there is need to go cautiously in making recommendations for the future. Yet the city's financial condition is excellent and methods that are perfectly proper and that would work no hardship can much improve it. Thus can means be provided for further progress. The present bonded debt, I am told, is the lowest of any city in the State; and all the outstanding bonds will be taken care of as they fall due by the growing sinking funds. While this is not necessarily a pride-worthy condition—any more than if a man should boast of having money in the bank, which he had86 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH saved by making no expenditures on his house, the roof mean- while leaking—yet it is calculated to give courage in undertak- ing what is now realized to be necessary. The city, that is to say, is in position to issue an amount of bonds that would serve to put its parks, most of the more important streets, and its sanitation in first-class condition, with something left for the amenities. And it is able to do this without extravagance. To fail to do it, is not to postpone the expenditures and leave them to posterity. Posterity would pay for them if bonds were is- sued to-day. It is simply to go without, in unnecessary self- denial, in order that posterity may borrow more money to make the improvements it surely will have to make, and which then will cost more than now. But not only is the city able to borrow to advantage in order to do what immediately needs to be done; but it is able to do this on a basis of assessment which is only about 50 per cent of true value. It is much better, healthier and fairer to raise assessments to at least 75 per cent or 80 per cent of true values In doing this the tax rate correspondingly falls. Most persons, in contemplating moving to a place, look at the definite tax rate rather than at the indefinite basis of assessment, and thus the city's condition looks better in the eyes of the world. Further- more, the debt limit is thus raised, and the city can either bor- row on better terms or borrow more. In short, while it is true that Raleigh should undertake considerable expenditures, it is in an exceptionally good condition to do this. In fact, when we consider that some of the improvements will soon pay for themselves, by the values they create, it does not appear that Raleigh need face its future with the slightest dread. As to what special improvements should be now undertaken, in preparation for the larger Raleigh of the future, I would suggest the following: Street Changes Hillsboro Street, as has been already proposed, should be widened west from the new bridge over the railroads, to the turn, where it now broadens out. This widening can be made to-day on the south side at comparatively little expense; andA CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 87 no one can doubt that it will soon be urgently necessary. As the strength of a chain is only that of its weakest link, so the capacity of a through street is only that of its narrowest por- tion. Without reference to the crowds which use Hillsboro Street in going to and from the State Fair, the street is the one westward and northwestward artery; it leads not only to the Fair Grounds, but to the A. and M. College, and is the route to Oberlin and to the Park. It carries a double car track and the section of the city which it serves is that in which Raleigh is most rapidly growing. No new street can be constructed which would be equally direct. I consider seventy-five feet the minimum width which the narrowest portion of Hillsboro Street should have. While no other street can be platted which will serve all the purposes of Hillsboro Street with an economy that would halve its traffic, an extension of West Morgan Street to Pullen Park is to be recommended as an important preparation for the fu- ture. This can be accomplished, in part, by a viaduct, at an expense entirely justifiable. The viaduct would carry the street over the railroad tracks and the beautiful wooded ravine to the wooded knoll just beyond the Raleigh and Southport track. Either the park might be extended to include this knoll and the ravine, which would make lovely additions to it, or the knoll, given this direct approach, and bounded on one side by the park, might be developed into a beautiful residence* section. In the latter case, the values created would soon pay in tax receipts much more than the viaduct would cost. Either action would bring Pullen Park nearer to the city, and would make the way to it not only direct and short, but more attractive. Mqrgan Street, in doing this, would relieve congested Hills- boro of practically all its park travel. Eventually, as minor street changes in this section, we may anticipate the extension of Snow Avenue to Hillsboro, and of West Hargett to Snow. But a single entraijce to the city's principal park is not enough. It should be possible to drive in by one way and out by another, and both routes should be pleasant and not too much used by general traffic. That via Hillsboro Street and88 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH Park Avenue is so indirect and crowded that it ought to be deemed not worth considering in such connection. For these reasons, and for others which will appear, the road which now leads across the fields, from Pullen Park to the Boylan Heights sub-division and which thence enters town by way of West Cabarrus Street, should be developed into a parkway. This can be done by acquiring—if possible, by gift—a strip of 150 or 200 feet, and planting the broad margin on either side of the necessary driveway. With this change and the extension of Morgan Street, the transformed park would become accessible by a very attractive loop, or circuit drive. As to Boylan Heights itself, this is an unusually well platted sub-division, but it aptly illustrates the need of city planning. Complete in itself, it needs tying up with its surroundings. The connection with Pullen Park would supply one of these wants. A new and adequate bridge over the railroad at Boy- lan Street, replacing the present death-trap, would supply an- other. A connection with extended Snow Avenue should be made, and to the south there should be a drive from Boylan Heights into the State Asylum grounds. The latter, connecting with the parkway from Pullen Park, would add the circuit of those beautiful grounds to the attractions of the park loop- drive. The westward extension of North Street across Cameron Park, would offer some further slight relief to Hillsboro Street and would make the beginning of a cross town artery—though it is so blocked at Salisbury Street by railroads that its value in that respect must remain limited. Yet if carried through to meet Hillsboro Street at its point of junction with the road which leads to Oberlin, it would have value in providing a short cut between sections of the town now connected in very round-about fashion. A thoroughfare which is of prime importance is Glenwood Avenue. Here signs of distress are already evident from the crowding of a traffic that must steadily increase. In the widen- ing of the northern portion of this street to a hundred feet, there has been a far-sighted planning for the future that is greatly to the credit of Raleigh. Widening in the southern,A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 89 or Saunders Street,portion requires more courage,but it is more urgently needed. Owing to the local topography and the loca- tion of the railroads, practically the whole of the traffic on this street originates or terminates at Hillsboro Street. The por- tion which will turn into it, or turn off from it, at side streets, is practically negligible. Therefore the lower portion must bear all the traffic of the upper portion, plus the local traffic to the Norfolk and Southern freight depot and to the intermediate residences. Thus whatever width is needed for the northern Part of the East Line of Glenwood Avenue. section is even more needed for the southern. Happily, all the dwellings are set back from the street, so that on the Avest side at least—on the east side the little freight office inter- poses a moderate obstacle—the widening can be made to-day by acquiring vacant property, in front yards, without the ex- pense of destroying or remodelling buildings. Of course with delay there is danger of this condition changing. North from Tucker Street to the widened portion, it is interesting to note that the property lines are not now at the east sidewalk line, so that the street might be very inexpensively widened simply by moving its sidewalk. This should be done, and Glenwood90 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH made a broad street all the way from Hillsboro. In its sixty-six feet from Hillsboro to Peace, the most crowded portion, it now has less than the capacity of an average Raleigh street, since it is cut up by car tracks. Thus the street now falls far short of proper adjustment to its true function as a main traffic thor- oughfare. In contemplating such street changes as these, it is necessary to have the long look ahead. Their justification is in the twin facts that Raleigh, continuing to grow, will have a larger and more insistent street traffic, and that the longer street changes have to wait the more they will cost. That those here referred to are all on the west side of the city is due to the facts that the city is now growing most rapidly in that direction and that it is the side which is poorest in through street provision. Here- tofore, the west side's new streets have been local streets. It would be quite possible to point out other changes in the street plan that would make at once for the convenience of the city and its good looks, but which would cost much and not be so genuinely necessary. For instance, a street cutting diagonally across the block, from the corner of West Hargett and McDowell to the corner of West Morgan and South Salis- bury Streets, would, in connection with the diagonal path across Nash Square, provide a short cut from the Union Station to the Capitol—reducing the distance about one-half—would open an attractive vista from the station, and would tie to- gether the two most important foci of the city—all this for the building of one block of street through property not yet valu- ably improved! Similarly, we can fancy an extension of this diagonal the one block from the northeast corner of Capitol Square to the southwest corner of the square given up to the Governor's Mansion, and the street here developed as a State, or triumphal, way, lined with groups of sculpture and gay with banners and the splash of fountains. But any such changes as these should be made by the State rather than by the city. The time is not distant when the States will take pride in adorning their capital cities, as does the Government in to-day making Washington beautiful. Meanwhile Raleigh, as a municipality, has quite enough to keep it busy in the more practical improvements outlined.A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 91 Park Additions In discussing the development of Pullen Park, suggestion was made that the park needs of a city increase with its growth in area and population. To look forward to a larger Raleigh, therefore, is to anticipate the time when Pullen Park will need to be supplemented by other park tracts. The city boasts of the large reservations that are connected with public institu- tions—something over 2,500 acres being thus reserved about the city—but these areas cannot perform the active social The Edge of the Woods. service of parks. They have their value, of course; but they have also their drawbacks, in taking much building land out of the market, so that as population increases and natural lines of expansion are broken, a greater congestion must result. As private grounds diminish, the need for public parks increases. Thus it cannot be properly claimed that the extensive grounds of the public institutions in and close to Raleigh are going to lessen the city's requirement of a normal relation of park land to population and city area. It is clear that any additional park or parks should be'lo-92 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH cated, if possible, on the other side of the city from Pullen Park. In Taylor's woods, to the northeast of the city, I found an ideal park tract. It is high, it is easily reached by way of the so-called Cemetery Eoad and the Louisburg Road, to say nothing of a possibility of securing a right-of-way through the St. Augustine School grounds. It looks like virgin forest, with its great old pines, its big white oaks, the tropical luxuriance of the tangled honeysuckle and the festoons of wild Virginia creeper. And yet, if this be the impression on the wood's edge, one finds within a ground singularly clear, and between the trees long allees that might well be the envy of Fontainbleau. It is a great place for birds. In the afternoon I spent there, we saw the brown thrush, the oriole, the mocking-bird, the scar- let tanager, and many of the more familiar friends. There are some interesting old slave quarters on the edge of the wood, and within, where a picturesque dam has formed a pond which the waterlilies have now taken as their own, there is a real log- cabin. The tract, I judge at least half as large again a3 Pullen Park, is of good size, and I was told that it could be bought for a sum very moderate indeed as park tracts go. And it is not too remote from the outwardly marching homes. From the rock quarry, opposite the Federal Cemetery, to the gully east of Haywood Street, there is the opportunity for an- other park, small but very picturesque, and so located as to be of much usefulness to the negro population which is near it. With these additions to its park area, which there is probably no special hurry about acquiring, a greater Raleigh will have only to provide new play and athletic grounds to meet squarely its recreational opportunities. It is fortunate in having avail- able for park use tracts which are so well located, so admirably adapted for that purpose, and of such little relative value for building or for agriculture. New Play-grounds As to new play-grounds and athletic fields, the latter should be in proximity to the manufacturing section, that employees may have opportunity for wholesome exercise in the open air. And the best play-ground should also be near the homes of theA CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 93 workers, where private grounds are likely to be of very limited extent. Manufacturing establishments always gather most along the railroad, and it seems reasonable to expect that the industrial section which is developing beside the railroads north of North Street will not only continue but increase in importance. Happily, adjacent to this site there are tracts well-nigh ideal for the purpose in mind. These are the fields between Dawson on the east, and Belmont and West Streets on the west, on both sides of Peace Street. The tract to the north of Peace Street is almost a ready-made park play-ground. Its area is much greater than suggested in the picture, and what lovelier spot for family picnic lunches, and the rest which Nature gives, could one hope to find adjacent to the factories? The tract to the south of Peace Street, in convenient proximity to the ground where the wives and mothers and children may be waiting, is almost equally a ready-made athletic field. Both tracts are rather out of the way for factory sites, and both are low for healthful housing without larger expense than private owners are likely to be willing to take. Peace Street, which is the direct route to them, passes under the railroads both to the east and the west of the tracts, so that children can reach the grounds without danger. Neither tract can be expensive nor have anything like the value to the community for any other purpose which it would have for the purposes named, re- habilitating the industrial population and increasing the effici- ency of labor, to say nothing of the humanitarian and social aspects of such use. Another exceptional play-ground site in this vicinity is to be found in the block between Johnson and Tucker Streets, on the west side of Glenwood Avenue. But to my mind it is a distinctly secondary choice as compared to the valley sites I have named—not only on account of the greater proximity of the latter to the factories, present and prospective, or on ac- count of the great efficiency of the two large plats; but because it is good building land and because it is on a street that has a car line and that will have an increasing automobile traffic to the Country Club and to the new Amusement Park. Such lo- cation obviously lessens its desirability as a play-ground site for little children.94 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH Park Connections With present and future park and play-ground locations in our mind, we may next take up that connection of them which would transform isolated park units into a Park System for the greater Raleigh. Commencing with Pullen Park, we find that a beginning will have been made in the proposed new park ap- proaches. Extended Morgan Street, that is to say, will form an ideally direct and picturesque connection, without grade crossing, between the center of the city at Capitol Square or Site of Suggested Play-grounds. the main business street on the one hand, and the Park System on the other. Connections with the other portions of a city encircling drive will be furnished naturally by the straight radial streets. Furthermore, the suggested drive from Pullen Park to Boylan Heights, and thence to the State Hospital grounds, gives a good start 011 a circuit drive around the city which will be both interesting and beautiful. Eastward from the Hospital grounds, any of the present routes leads through streets too dismal and depressing to be considered for merely pleasure and scenic purposes; but it would be quite possible,A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 95 delightful and economical, to continue the drive east of Ram- katte road either on the dyke north of Rocky Branch or along the hillside which is to the south of the Branch. In the first case, we should come out on Fayetteville Street at the water- works, and in the second, near the colored cemetery. Beyond Fayetteville Street, the drive might be continued, climbing the low hill and crossing the railroad just south of Lee Street where, it appears, a grade crossing could be avoided by an overhead bridge. In planning this, it is of course assumed that the present nuisance of the public dump will have- been abol- ished, as proposed in the first portion of this Report. From the point thus gained, the course is not as clear for a Site of Suggested Athletic Field. time. One street at present is much like another. Blount might be taken, so as to pass Shaw University, Bloodworth being objectionable for park connection use on account of its car track. For this reason, Lenoir will make a better link east- ward from Blount than would Cabarrus. Moreover, it passes the pleasant Crosby School grounds, and can easily be widened to proper proportions. Either street leads directly to the possi- ble park east from Haywood. Lenoir would skirt the park and bring us to the Federal Cemetery. Thence the course north is clear enough, and if the park drive right-of-way through the96 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH grounds of the St. Augustine School were secured, we should have a direct route to Taylor's Woods Park. But for many years the park to be developed there would form a side trip as respects the circuit drive—and the better because the charm of that park, lying so largely in its restful quiet and naturalness, should not be lightly endangered by carrying to it or through it a circuit drive that will present strong attraction to motorists. It must be realized that while Raleigh has comparatively few automobiles to-day, that condi- tion will not long continue. Coming westward, then, through city streets, Peace Street may be taken as the link between the east and west sides of the city. This will bring us under the railroads, and between the interesting recreation fields for the factory district. To be sure, Peace Street west from Salisbury is now as depressing as possible; but we have to hope that if improved and made a park drive, there will be corresponding improvement in the abutting property. In any case, the dis- tance is very short. Peace Street would be followed to its intersection of St. Mary's. Here we should turn north to the grounds of the Methodist Orphanage, and then west and southwest through the beautiful oak woods to the Fair Grounds and those of the A. and M. Col- lege This link would be an exceedingly lovely portion of the drive and it may be well to point out the desirability of preserv- ing to the public by this means some of the characteristic scen- ery of the Raleigh section. It would not be necessary, for this purpose, to reserve a very large tract. If a drive of twenty feet width, which would permit the comfortable passing of two of the largest automobiles, were carried through a reserved strip two hundred or two hundred and fifty, feet in width, be- yond which the land were platted in pieces of two or three acres each, so that country homes might set back among the trees, the charm of this bit of country would not be lost, and yet it would have economical and profitable development. In fact, it could probably be marketed better in this way than in any other. It will be observed that the circuit drive which has been out- lined,—for the grounds of the A. and M. College adjoin PullenA CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 97 Park and bring us back to our starting point—touches all the important pleasure grounds and large institutions except the Catholic Orphanage, which at present seems pretty far away. At some later day, if it were thought desirable, the drive might be extended to the Orphanage. As it is, however, it avails itself of some two thousand acres of public ground, making them interesting additions to the open space and scenic attrac- tions of the larger Raleigh. Suburbs In the course around the city we have touched, or come close to, suburban developments. We have passed through Glen- wood, which the city has now absorbed; we have had a distant glimpse of the Pilot Cotton Mills settlement, which is barely over the city line; we have seen Brooklyn and been near Ober- lin. In some of these cases, we have found on a small detached area a city-like congestion, in a huddling of little houses that have neither water nor sewers. The example of Glenwood is evidence that the destiny of these suburban communities is to become urban as the expanding Raleigh includes them. There is danger lest in their present neglected condition they become festering sores, sources of contagion and objects of large ex- pense when at last the city must take them under its charge. I do not know how they can be controlled by the municipality pending inclusion in its boundaries ; but I suppose the State Board of Health can exert authority, and the social and hu- manitarian interest of public-spirited citizens could probably do more. Though for the most part these little communities lie beyond the direct scope of this Report, it is impossible not to point out that they may be a threat as well as a promise; and that Raleigh, in facing the future, must face the problems not less than the opportunities that lie beyond its present boun- daries.98 A CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH Various Suggestions and Conclusions In planning in Raleigh for the larger city of the coming years, the general feeling should be one of confidence and ex- hilaration. It is possible that the city's character will slightly change—not at once, but by imperceptible degrees; and that with its larger wealth, enhanced attractiveness and charm of domesticity, the tourist travel will greatly grow, even in rela- tive importance. It might be well to keep in mind this possi- bility, for most of the things which would make life pleasanter for the tourists would make life pleasanter for residents as well, and thus the effort would not be wasted if the tourists did not come. To illustrate, in the choice of trees for street plant- ing, it might be well to make rather more than usual use of the magnolia and other varieties that are pleasantly green in winter. I have also enjoyed developing in my thought a bare sugges- tion which was made for the old market house, when a new and more appropriately located market shall have been established. In the pictures which I see, the old building is torn down; the architecture around the square thus gained is under control, to the end that it be harmonious and in scale; then the center of the square is paved in patterns, and adorned with little formal trees, and in the center, on an impressive base—beneath which there might be comfort stations—is a statue of Sir "Walter Ral- eigh. This is exactly what a European town would do. The effect would be very pleasing, and the increased value of the abutting property and the gain to the city in distinctiveness and attraction might make it financially worth while—once it were done. But I admit that it would not be easy. There has been, again, suggestion that I recommend the use of sculpture at the intersections of broad streets. But sculp- ture to be effectively located in such a place must be large in scale; and to justify such location on the public way, must be excellent in: execution and important in its subject. I think Raleigh is not ready for street sculpture—not at least until the streets are paved and sewered, wires are buried, waterA CITY PLAN FOR RALEIGH 99 mains extended, waste unobjectionally disposed of, and the lighting apparatus improved. In fact, in planning for the future, the safer course for the city, as I believe, is to raise the present to a high but practical ideal, and to think of the larger Raleigh as precisely what those words imply: The Raleigh of to-day, the Raleigh known and loved and full of charm, only grown more populous, more extensive, more finished. I do not recommend a striving after gods that may prove false, in the sacrifice of plain essentials in order that here the city may suggest a glimpse of Paris, there a corner of Vienna, and yonder a fragment of New York. I would rather see it a better RALEIGH everywhere—and that, as I conceive it, is the true municipal art. Still this is to be admitted, as a final thought. Self-dubbed "Wide-Awake Raleigh" faces a new day. If she is full of hopes and plans that stretch far beyond mere duties, we need not reprimand her. Her day is to be long. Respectfully submitted, CHARLES MULFORD ROBINSON. August 31, 1912.UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 3 01 12110707442This book is a preservation facsimile produced for the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. It is made in compliance with copyright law and produced on acid-free archival 60# book weight paper which meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (permanence of paper). Preservation facsimile printing and binding by Northern Micrographics Brookhaven Bindery La Crosse, Wisconsin 2014