The site of the penitentiary may some day become another available park
site, for a penitentiary in the heart of a city is undesirable. Another
wonderful park site, so wonderful that it is difficult to perceive
why it has been so long neglected since track elevation has made it
available, is the tip of the "Point." To-day it is a dumping ground.
Aside from the historical and natural charm of this location, should
be noted the breadth of outlook it offers, its free currents of air,
its proximity to a large working population and the possibility of its
attractive connection with a yet larger area by means of the suggested
embankments which would practically form a riverside promenade and
parkway to it.
With the acquisition of more parks it would be possible to arrange an
interesting connecting system of boulevards and parkways. It is not
enough simply to designate an existing street a boulevard. Calling it
so does not make it so. And when Pittsburgh awakes to her greatness,
and appreciates the surpassing beauty that might be hers, there is
no reason to doubt that among other things she will commission the
planning of an excellent system of drives.
There are naturally beautiful runs, now despoiled with mean dwellings
and made little better than open sewers, that might be transformed
into parkways; and there are hills and stretches of fair country that
could be had now for a song for an outlying park system. It is true
that all this will demand money, but there are no improvements that by
long term bonds can be so justly made a mortgage on the distant future
as those for parks. School houses, fire houses, public buildings,
deteriorate with the lapse of time, but parks and boulevards become
yearly of greater value.