With the exception of occasional ornamental spaces, and a few parks
so small that they have only neighborhood importance, the parks
of the Pittsburgh district may be said to consist of four public
reservations. These are Schenley and Highland, in the East End;
Riverview in Allegheny; and, in the older portion of Allegheny, the
reservation,--once a great hollow square,--like a New England common;
now in part relinquished to the railroads. Neither in total acreage,
nor in distribution, nor in manner of development, are these parks what
Pittsburgh ought to have.
Perhaps, of its kind, the old park in Allegheny is the most satisfying.
Located close to the homes of a very large population from whom the
country is far removed, it offers long, level stretches of greensward
where good trees cast grateful shadows, with walks that one may use
even when on business, with numberless benches that are never empty
on summer days and evenings, a little lake at one place and now and
again a fountain where the splash of cool water gives ceaseless
entertainment. It is a pity that this park was deprived of nearly half
its former area, that the railroad might have a convenient path.
Highland and Schenley, over in Pittsburgh's East End, are elaborately
and expensively "improved." You get into Highland through a monumental
entrance; costly beds of annuals confront you; from the reservoir
heights there is a superb view; in a lower corner there is a Zoo, which
is remarkably well set; and there are some charming retreats. It is
a pretty good park of its kind,--a very costly, luxurious kind; and
though it is located in an expensive residential neighborhood five
miles from the city hall, a good many people get to it on holidays. It
does some social work although far from the amount desired. Schenley
does very little. The Phipps Conservatories, happily located near
the entrance, are much visited when "a show" is on; somewhere in the
inner recesses of the park there is a driving circuit, of which the
crude old grand stand looms on the landscape like a combination of
lumber yard and weatherbeaten country barn, and somewhere else there
are golf links, maintained by a private club, where you may play if
properly introduced! On the Fourth of July, fire works bring a crowd
to the park. But it is significant that while there are costly bridges
and many drives, there are no paths or walks. The cars touch only one
projecting corner, and there are no park carriages. He who has not
his own horses, or his own motor car, need not enter the East End's
Schenley Park. For it is, typically, the East End's park, adapted
fairly well to its neighborhood, but not at all serving the democratic
needs of Greater Pittsburgh.
Here is a great industrial city. The scores of thousands of people whom
the parks should serve are many of them foreigners, and the mass of
them are workers over a single piece. Practically all of them work amid
smoke and grime. The beauty of nature may be a new thought to these
people. They should be helped to appreciate it, but they must be given
first what they do understand and enjoy,--entertainment, vivacity,
and brilliancy. If Schenley Park is little visited; a trolley park
far away, where swings and boats, slides and ponies, keep something
going all the time, is crowded day by day; and when, in the moonlight,
shadows lie on the hills of Schenley, and the stars look down on
deserted though free acres, other parks that are garish with a blaze of
electric lights are thronged with people who have gladly paid a fee for
admittance. There they find something to see and to do.
Industrial Pittsburgh ought to take pride in developing the special
kind of park facilities that its population needs, and in setting
an example to other cities. A comprehensive system of children's
playgrounds would do something toward this; the proposed mall or
parkway approach to the East End, where some thousands of the
relatively poor would find, almost at their doors, a mile long open
space with its ceaseless urban entertainment, would do something more;
a system of small open spaces or outdoor social centers, where a man
could smoke his pipe and chat with his neighbors, his wife at his side
and his children at hand, would make further contribution; and the
riverside park proposed for the business district, still further. But
there should be two or three well-distributed and readily accessible
large parks that would be real municipal pleasure grounds. Here
should be ample athletic fields, a swimming pool, and a large field
house; a band playing at frequent intervals; swings and boats; cheap
conveyances that would make the whole space available; illuminations
and song festivals; and refectory accommodations, with tables placed
attractively out of doors, and wholesome food and drink at low
prices. Tired workers, going to this free public park, should find
entertainment. Little by little, and incidentally, they might learn
there the more tranquil pleasure of contemplating nature.
There are various places in Pittsburgh where such parks could be
established. One, that seems to be singularly adaptable is Brunot's
Island. There is Maple Park on the South Side. For a neighborhood park,
which by mere convenience of location and inherent interest should
invite the Pittsburgh workman out of doors, the steep bank that rises
across the Monongahela offers a site very distinctive and appropriate.
Day and night the interest of its outlook would not cease. It would
require little development. Inclined roads already scale the cliff,
and midway stations would make any terrace available. And whatever
landscape improvements were made would be visible and enjoyable from
the business streets themselves. In Allegheny such a park site is
already owned on Monument Hill.
[Illustration: PANTHER HOLLOW.