The Journal
The Planning and Planting of Our
Parks and Boulevard System
The
Spring 2001 JOURNAL of the Jackson County Historical Society features The Planning and Planting of Our Parks and
Boulevard System by Dona R. Boley.
The creation of Kansas City’s parks and boulevard system required the
combined efforts of a vocal newspaper editor, prominent businessman advocate,
talented attorney, brilliant landscape architect, and a powerful political
boss. Boley’s article discusses
the extended labor (financial, legal and public obstacles) and birth of
Kansas City’s famous park and boulevard system. Dona
R. Boley is a founding member and current president of the Kessler Society, a
parks and boulevard advocacy organization. She is also a board member of the
Historic Kansas City Foundation. Dona currently resides in the Hyde Park
neighborhood in Kansas City, Missouri, in a house that once belonged to George
Fuller who was active in the establishment of the Commercial Club, parks
board member from 1905 to 1909, and parks board president from 1916 to 1918. With
parks systems in place, one of the current challenges for municipalities is
to teach the burgeoning public to care for the natural environment that
surrounds them. Here are some World Wide Web links that help to complement
and expand what Boley has offered in the print version of the JOURNAL. To order this Journal edition,
subscribe or join JCHS click
here. The
Kessler Society is a Kansas City Missouri Parks and Boulevards citizen
support organization named after the creator of Kansas City's Boulevard and
Parkway system, landscape architect George E. Kessler.
George E. Kessler, landscape architect, collaborated
with August Robert Meyer, to recommend the establishment of a park and
boulevard system in Kansas City.
Kessler also designed boulevard and park systems in Dallas,
Denver, and Cincinnati. Take a look at
how the archivists of Kansas City Parks, Recreation and Boulevards are
preserving, organizing and making available to the public historical
documents and photographs. Their
collection of materials traces the development of the parks system in Kansas
City. This is great information
for other municipalities to take note of … and for Kansas Citians to be
proud. Kansas City
Parks & Recreation Other Websites
The Kansas City
Public Library’s 150 Facts About Kansas
City (scroll to number 7. specifically) Jackson County Parks (click on “Parks and
Recreation”) Western
Historical Manuscripts’ Publication on Ward Parkway Choose Environmental Excellence T.R.U.E. Blue Clean
Water Celebration |
