much better, a sluggish fresh-water stream, flowing between low banks covered with a luxuriant vegetation. The drinking fountain and ornamental gateway that is being erected at Westland entrance, under the will of the late Ellen C. Johnson, is nearly completed. RIVERWAY. A new wearing floor has been laid on the Audubon-road bridge, and the approach to Longwood bridge has been widened and surfaced. e OLMSTED PARK. A floating island of barrels and timber, covered with loam one foot in depth, has been placed in Jamaica Pond for a nesting place for the water fowl. Ten tennis courts have been laid out at Pine Bank, near Perkins street. Loam bought . • e o • 129 cubic yards. ARBORWAY. A new wearing floor has been laid on the bridge over Stony Brook. FRANKLIN PARK. Boundary wall built . e o . 419 linear feet. Walks graded and surfaced o . 1,100 square yards, Drain pipe laid, 10-inch . e o 125 linear feet. Drain pipe laid, 2-inch e te . 3,060 linear feet. Bubble fountain erected . te lo 1. The duck-house has been moved and enlarged; the temporary office and tool-house has been moved, and the interior has been rearranged; and a temporary paint-shop has been built. Scarboro’ Hill and Juniper Hill are being cleared of boulders. ARNOLD ARBORETUM. Drain pipe laid, 8-inch so o to 450 linear feet. WEST ROXBURY PARKWAY. Material from the widening of Walter street has been spread in the grove between Centre and Walter streets. FRANKLIN FIELD. The drainage ditch along Talbot avenue has been filled, and the grading and loaming of that side of the field has been completed. STRAND WAY. Two wharves and about thirty old buildings have been removed from the land recently taken near Mercer street. The grading and loaming of Columbia road across this land has been nearly completed, and the Telford foundation has been laid on 1,000 linear feet of the driveway. At the head of Old Harbor street there is an area of about 70 acres of flats and marsh inside of the harbor line that can be filled. This is an excellent location for a large athletic field. Curbstone set . e e e . 1,065 linear feet. Telford foundation laid . so . 4,220 square yards. Drain pipe laid: 18-inch . o te o e e 15 linear feet. 15-inch . © e e e . 550 linear feet. 10-inch . to © o o & 290 linear feet. Water pipe laid, 4-inch e e e 90 linear feet. Catch-basins built . e e e 10. Loam bought . do e e . 8,327 cubic yards. Filling bought . e o o . 7,696 cubic yards. CHESTNUT HILL PARK. Additional land taken e e . 69,541 square feet. Tile drain laid, 2-inch & to . 1,900 linear feet. Tennis courts laid out e e e 3. OAK SQUARE. The old school-house has been moved and the ground graded. Loam bought . e e e . 207 cubic yards. COLUMBUS AVENUE PLAYGROUND. The Civic League has built a fence along Columbus avenue and extended observation seats 150 feet. NORTH BRIGHTON PLAYGROUND. Filling bought . e o e . 290 cubic yards. Loam bought . & e o e 149 cubic yards. ROGERS PARK. The Faneuil Valley brook conduit, above and below the park, has been built, and should be extended across the park. It will cost about $3,000. Filling bought . © o & . 1,818 cubic yards. Loam bought . e o o . 533 cubic yards. FELLOWS-STREET PLAYGROUND. The boundary fence has been lowered, and twelve swings and five tilting ladders have been erected. ROSLINDALE PLAYGROUND. The ground has been cleared of stones and trees, and 307 linear feet of tile drain has been laid to take away the leakage through the dike. BILLINGS FIELD. Drinking fountains erected o © 1. CHRISTOPHER GIBSON PLAYGROUND. Twelve swings and five tilting ladders have been erected. FIRST-STREET PLAYGROUND. A locker building and sanitary, which will contain shower baths and 282 lockers, to be used in connection with the gymnasium, also sanitary accommodations for men and women, is being erected, and will be completed about May 1. REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE OF THE MASSACHU_ SETTS EMERGENCY AND HYGIENE ASSOCIATION IN CHARGE OF THE WOMEN'S AND CHILDREN'S DIVISION AT CHARLESBANK. BoSTON, January 5, 1903. To the Honorable Board of Park Commissioners : GENTLEMEN, - The gymnastic and educational work at Charlesbank continues with unabated zeal, though we have no new features of special interest to report to you for this, the twelfth year of our superintendence of the place. During the summer season, from May 15 to October 1, the number in the gymnasium on a hot day at noon varied from two or three to two hundred or more on a fine Saturday afternoon. On the playground there were slightly fewer than last year, owing probably to the number of cool, misty, damp days. At times, however, several hundred appeared there and in the sand-boxes, one hundred and twenty-five often playing together in a single game at one time. There were the usual class lessons for beginners and for advanced work, as well as the free or voluntary gymnastic work, one class in the middle of the summer meeting at 6.30 P.M. The “Little Beginners’” class met on Saturday mornings, with an enrolment of sixty-two and an average attendance of twenty-four, but the “Big Beginners” had a hundred and eighteen names on their roll. The devices of plays in the sand-boxes and of games, gymnastic and otherwise, were endless. The kindergarten occupations and the dolls’ dressmaking classes were unusually successful. The hurdy-gurdy, provided once a week by a friend, in the summer, was as much enjoyed by the mothers as by the dancers. Books, magazines and games have been given by many friends, though more are always wanted, which occupy and amuse the children in hot summer days as well as in winter, after the class work is over. Spray baths were used by large numbers of the children who wore bloomers. One thousand seven hundred and eleven baths were taken from June 1 to September 9, exclusive of those taken by the women after class work, of which no record is kept. Owing to the illness of Miss Cutler for many weeks, her place was filled by Miss Agnes Otis Brigham, whose assistants were Miss Mannship, Miss Haskell and Miss Phelps. In the autumn, Miss Cutler resumed her position and is in sole charge of the winter work, when all the movable apparatus is placed in the large upper hall. From October 1 to May 15 there are two evening classes for grown-up girls, and two morning classes for women and four classes for children (three in the afternoons when school is over and one on Saturday mornings), who, after their regular gymnastic exercise, are allowed the delights of “scrapping ”; that is, of pasting printed anecdotes, verses and pictures in scrap books, each child having her own hero or heroine, McKinley, Lincoln, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Queen Victoria being favorite subjects for enterprise. This side development of Charlesbank under the guidance of Miss Cutler, which yet is not allowed to interfere with its legitimate work, is bringing large influences for good into the lives of the children. Miss Crowley is the pianist for the winter classes, her salary being borne by the association and the piano being lent by a friend. The committee is very grateful for the wise attention given by Mr. Pettigrew and his assistants to the interests of Charlesbank and for their readiness to confer with your committee in all helpful ways. Respectfully submitted, KATE GANNETT WELLs, For the Committee. |