^ 
 
 Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924075437537 
 
CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 
 
 3 1924 075 437 537 
 
In compliance with current 
 
 copyright law, Cornell University 
 
 Library produced this 
 
 replacement volume on paper 
 
 that meets the ANSI Standard 
 
 Z3 9.48- 19 84 to replace the 
 
 irreparably deteriorated original. 
 
 1995 
 
Charles Mulford Robinson, A. M. 
 
 Specialist in Municipal Aesthetics 
 Town and City Planning 
 
 Reference*: DetroU.Denver.CofamdoSprings.CblumbuvO.. 
 Sl Joeepb. Met. Fort Wayne. Lot Angela. Oakland. Santa Bar- 
 ben. San loee. Heooluhi.Walertown. N > .. Dubuque. Waterloo. 
 CedV Kerala, la., Rate? wood. N. I„ lame*o»Ti. N. Y_ etc 
 
 The Mercantile-Press Club, 
 Binghamton, N. Y. 
 
 Gentlemen :- 
 
 65 So Washington Street 
 
 Rochester, N. Y 
 
 August 30 , 
 1911. 
 
 In accordance with your request, as formally communicated 
 by your Secretary, I have made a study of Binghamton, with a view 
 to suggesting physical changes which will both better the present 
 city and prepare it for the growth that lies ahead. 
 
 Herewith I have the honor to submit the result of this study 
 Throughout it, I have endeavored not to lose sight of the size 
 and resources of the city, and in all the suggestions I have made 
 an effort to be practical. If there be felt the lack of any one 
 grandiose improvement scheme, there may be satisfaction in the 
 thought that everything which is proposed can, in no very distant 
 future , be done in Binghamton. 
 
 There will be found 6ome severe criticisms, as duty required 
 of me, but the constructive portion of the task has been a labor 
 of love, owing to the natural attractiveness of the city. The 
 fact, also, that so strong an organization of energetic business 
 men made the request for such a study was additional inspiration. 
 
 In closing, let me acknowledge with appreciation the cour- 
 tesies and assistance extended to me by yourselves and many other 
 Binghamtonians , the ready co-operation of the city officials with 
 whom I came in contact - especially of the City Engineer; the un- 
 tiring helpfulness of your Secretary, Mr. Clarence L. Meachara; 
 and the kindly treatment of the press. 
 
 With every best wish for the intelligent progress of Bing- 
 hamton, and with every confidence that the wishes will be realized, 
 I am, 
 
 Very truly yours, 
 
B&TTFR BlNGHAMTON 
 
 to 
 
 ThlMergantill-Press Club 
 
 OF BlNGHAMTON • N-Y- 
 
 SEPTBMBLR, 1911 
 
 Charles Mulford Robinsoh 
 
A L- ' * ~ ^ 7 
 
 MERCANTrLE-PRESS CLUB 
 
 BINGHAMTON, N. Y. 
 
 OFFICERS 1911 
 
 B. F. Welden . . . President 
 W. J. Moon .... . Vice President 
 
 C. W. Yeomans . . Secretary and Treasurer 
 C. L. Meacham . . Executive Secretary 
 
 PUBLICATION COMMITTEE OF "BETTER BINGHAMTON" 
 
 Geo. C. Salmon, Chairman 
 Frank H. Beach C. L. Meacham 
 
 BOARD OF GOVERNORS 1911 
 
 C. W. Bennett Frank H. Beach 
 
 E. N T . Abbott Harold L. Hart 
 Willis Sharpe Kilmer Robt. H. Rose 
 
 F. J. Bayless J. B. Hadsell, Jr. 
 Dana B. Hinman Frank E. Harris 
 Hiram Goldsmith Alonzo Roberson 
 
 CopyriglU 1911 by Mercantile-Press Club 
 Binghamton, X. Y. 
 
 This book was designed and printed by The J. B. Savage Company. Cleveland. O. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 I. THE SURVEY. Page 
 
 1. THE BEGINNINGS OF BINGHAMTON 13 
 
 2. THE CITY'S SITE 17 
 
 3. THE CITY'S PROGRESS, PROMISE AND PRESENT 21 
 
 II. THE PROBLEM 29 
 
 III. NEEDS AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 
 
 1. ELEMENTARY NEEDS. 
 
 (Paving, Sidewalks, Curbs, Care of Trees, Schoolyard Planting, 
 Narrower Roadways on Minor Streets, Improvement of 
 Grand Boulevard, Court Street Improvements, Public 
 Market, Betterment of Railroad Entrance) 33 
 
 2. THE STREET PLAN. 
 
 (Advantages and Disadvantages of Binghamton Plan, Chenango 
 Street, Carroll Street, Ferry Street, Isbell Street, A New 
 Bridge, Industrial Districts, LeRoy Street, Highland Avenue, 
 Grand Boulevard, Street Jogs, Supervising Subdivisions, 
 Street Grades) 50 
 
 3. PARKS, PLAYGROUNDS AND PLEASURE DRIVES. 
 
 (Court House Square, Schubert Street Triangle, Howard Park, 
 Athletic Fields, North Bank of Susquehanna, The Point, South 
 Side Park, Banks of the Chenango, Rivers and Bridges, 
 Playgrounds, Ross and Ely Parks, DeRussey Street and 
 Park Avenue) 67 
 
 IV. WAYS AND MEANS— Conclusion 97 
 
c 
 o 
 
 12 
 
1. The Beginnings of Binghamton 
 
 ^HERE was no Binghamton until there had been 
 Bingham, the pioneer landowner. But before his day 
 the Indians had followed, by canoe and trail, the two 
 beautiful rivers of which the junction point is the 
 heart of modern Binghamton. Even then the valleys 
 of the Susquehanna and Chenango were highways, 
 and a small Tuscarora village was at The Point. 
 
 After the revolutionary war, the Oneidas and Tus- 
 caroras (in 1785) released to the State of New York 
 the site of the present city; and the next year the State issued a 
 patent to William Bingham, James Wilson and Robert L. Hooper, 
 containing upwards of 30,000 acres lying on both sides of the Sus- 
 quehanna, from Union to Kirkwood. Four years later, the owners 
 divided their property, the eastern portion going to Bingham. 
 
 William Bingham had been a successful merchant in Philadel- 
 phia and was now a great landed proprietor. He engaged Joshua 
 Whitney as his agent, or factor. It was in 1800, when he was twenty- 
 seven years old, that Whitney took charge of the patent. 
 
 A settlement had already begun on the west bank of the 
 Chenango, at the foot of Mt. Prospect. But Whitney, says 
 William F. Seward, "accomplished what kings and conquerors have 
 sometimes failed to do — he changed the seat of government, he 
 persuaded a free and sovereign citizenship to move from 'up the 
 river' to Chenango Point. So easy was it to found a city! Or in 
 other words he induced the first settlers (and perhaps some of them 
 were squatters!) to move their homes, their altars and their fires 
 from outside to inside the boundaries of the Bingham Patent." 
 
 As Mr. Seward tells the story, Whitney "had learned the exact 
 location of a bridge to be built across the Chenango and dropped 
 into Keeler's tavern to tell the news. 'Boys,' he said, 'you had 
 better stop building here, the village will be built down where the 
 bridge is built,' and the 'boys' then and there agreed to have a 
 'chopping bee' the next day and make a clearing for the coming of 
 the bridge. The next morning Joshua Whitney, Selah Squires and 
 four other men took their axes and floated down stream in a canoe, 
 landing at an elm tree on the east side of the river." 
 
The site of the town was surveyed at the junction of the two 
 rivers, on the line of the great Western road, then being opened. 
 Court and Water Streets were the first to be opened; the bridge 
 was built where Joshua Whitney had said it would be; and three- 
 quarter acre lots, as first laid out, were sold at $20, and corner lots 
 at something more. In 1802 the first Court House was estab- 
 lished, on Court Street, about opposite the present structure; this 
 event determining the triumph of the settlement at Chenango 
 Point over that up the river. 
 
 But even "Chenang Pint," as the settlement, which was first 
 known as Twin Elms, was now called, was not a very important 
 or impressive community. It was really little more than a clearing 
 — a settlement in the forest — with less than 200 inhabitants in 
 1810, and with their "faith and hope the main asset" of the town. 
 That is a thing to note. For that early faith and hope resulted in 
 a town plan. In 1808 Roswell Marshall had made the survey of 
 the village, platting carefully laid out streets on paper. The only 
 real streets were Water and Court, between the Court House and 
 the Chenango River, and south of Court Street. But he called it 
 the Village of Binghamton and the town as we know it to-day had 
 commenced. 
 
 After that, progress followed the normal course. Indian trails 
 were widened into rough wagon roads. The stage coach came, 
 attaining, before its decline, to the glory of four horses. Then 
 came the canal and at last the railroads. The town kept growing 
 and growing; but we do not hear of any comprehensive planning 
 for it after a general survey which was made in 1835 by William 
 Wentz. Through all the years, here a street and there a street have 
 been added, as occasion has arisen; but there has been no attempt 
 to remodel the village and adapt it to the larger future that was 
 becoming assured — no pause to take stock and consider what 
 changes Binghamton needed to adjust it to new conditions such as 
 its founders had never dreamed of, and to fit it for new victories, 
 and for a higher, larger service to its residents and even to the world 
 than had been in the vision of the pioneers. That privilege has 
 been reserved to crown the faith and hope of the present genera- 
 tion, a hundred years later. In looking into the future, citizens of 
 to-day may be likened to a second race of far seeing pioneers. 
 
?% 
 
 n;- 
 
 e?i 
 
 !« 
 
 IT* 
 
 a 
 
 fT 
 
 ee 
 
 a 
 
 
 
 «5J 
 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 ^ 
 
THE BEGINNINGS OF BINGHAMTON 
 
 Photo Reproduction of Map of the Village of Binfihamton, made by F. S. Tower, in 1836 
 
2. The City's Site 
 
 INGHAMTON began at the confluence of the 
 Susquehanna and Chenango rivers, and the neck of 
 land between these rivers is still the heart of the 
 city — its business center. Across the Susquehanna, 
 up and down the river, and up the valley of the 
 Chenango have spread the residences. Rolling hills 
 from five to eight hundred feet high are behind them. 
 Thus is Binghamton a valley city, hill encircled. 
 The Chenango, flowing from the north, fairly 
 bisects the major portion of the town, for the hills come so close to 
 the south side of the Susquehanna that as yet few streets have been 
 laid out on that side. To the north of the Susquehanna the hills 
 stand back from the river, leaving a valley a mile and a quarter in 
 breadth for a distance of four miles west of the Chenango. East 
 of the Chenango, the valley narrows quickly, so that at a distance 
 of two miles there is space only for the river, the railroads and the 
 two highways. On one of the hills that close the valley at this end 
 
BETTER BINGHAM TON 
 
 is the State Hospital. To the north, the valley of the Chenango 
 is broad and low, save for a short distance close to town, where 
 Mt. Prospect comes almost to the river's edge on its west bank. 
 
 The term valley as applied to the site of Binghamton is used 
 relatively, with reference to the encircling hills. The floor is not 
 level, nor of uniform slope. West of the Chenango, where is the 
 most extensive residence section, the contours are quite irregular, 
 terraces and depressions alternating in such fashion as to afford 
 considerable local variety of topography. The railroads have not 
 followed the twistings of the rivers but, taking bee lines through 
 the valley, have left most of the city riverbanks free from tracks — 
 a condition as fortunate as it is rare. Between the railroad lines and 
 the rivers, the bulk of the city has been built up. 
 
 Important railroad crossings always set barriers to community 
 development. The location of the railroads in Binghamton, com- 
 paratively out of the way though they are, has divided the city 
 into several clearly defined districts. The established character of 
 these and their definitely marked bounds are fundamental facts 
 that must greatly influence all thought of the city's progress. 
 
 There is, for example, the business district. This is a quadrangle 
 about three-quarters of a mile by half a mile, the longer distance 
 being east and west. Three sides are bounded by the rivers and the 
 fourth by the railroads. That business does not now occupy the 
 whole of this district is of little moment. The important fact is that 
 the limits of the business district seem definitely set — as definitely 
 as they are in Pittsburgh, where great congestion has resulted. The 
 condition, however, is not usual in cities, and is extremely interest- 
 ing — with both advantages and disadvantages. It is to be added 
 that the business area is well above flood danger, and is compara- 
 tively level. 
 
 South of the Susquehanna, where there is sufficient population 
 to make a fair sized village, there are no railroads. We have a 
 
THE CITY'S SITE 
 
 community shut off from the greater portion of the town by the 
 broad river, but on land that rises quickly and picturesquely from 
 the river, and with nothing to fear from railroads or manufacturing. 
 Again an unusual condition! 
 
 North of the Susquehanna, and west of the Chenango, the rail- 
 roads, paralleling the former about a mile from its bank, have 
 divided the city into two districts that are clearly defined. That 
 between the roads and the Susquehanna is an attractive residence 
 section of the better sort; that to the north of them is a narrow 
 strip against the foothills, mainly given over to small homes, con- 
 taining a large foreign element and housing many of the factory 
 employees of Binghamton. 
 
 The area east of the Chenango and north of the main lines of 
 the railroads is cut by the branch roads that come down from the 
 north so that its characteristics are not as well established. 
 
 The two rivers that play so important a part in the physical 
 characterization of Binghamton are subject to seasonal fluctua- 
 tions of fifteen feet or more. Consequently very little building has 
 been attempted where the banks are low. At Wall Street, Water 
 Street, Conklin Avenue, South Street and Emerson Place, where 
 they are high, thoroughfares have been laid out so close to the 
 margin as to discourage building on the shallow lots. Now and 
 then a shack is found; but for the most part the strip contains no 
 buildings. Front Street, which parallels the Chenango on the 
 West, however, lies for most of its length far enough back from the 
 river to leave long gardens behind the houses even at flood season. 
 Consequently it has had a high class development, and its character 
 is so fixed that even when turns of the river bring the stream near 
 the street, unsightly developments have not been suffered. It will 
 be perceived that for the most part the river banks are not only free 
 from railroad tracks but from structures of any sort. 
 
BETTER BINGHAM TON 
 
 As to the hills, they terminate the vista of almost every street 
 and form the background of every view, and so are of greater con- 
 spicuousness than are the rivers. They are only partly cultivated. 
 The light patches of fields of grain alternate with the dark shadows 
 of woodlands in a summer mosaic of wonderful beauty. Their 
 contours are exquisitely moulded, in sweeping curves. They engirdle 
 the city with a natural loveliness of the softest, gentlest, most 
 unwearying kind. Of no city is the hackneyed phrase more accurate 
 than of Binghamton, that it nestles in the hills. 
 
3. City's Progress, Promise and Present 
 
 "^HERE has been nothing spectacular about the 
 growth of Binghamton. Its quiet beginning has 
 been described. Since then the progress, con- 
 sidered decade by decade, has been fairly steady, 
 uneventful in any dramatic sense, as if the benedic- 
 tion of the hills had rested upon the city. It has 
 grown like a healthy, happy child, prospering as 
 it grew, and taking little thought of a serious 
 to-morrow. 
 
 The readiest measure of growth is offered by population figures. 
 It is interesting, putting these in diagrammatic form, to observe the 
 resulting curve and from that to prognosticate the future, even 
 should only the progress of the past continue. Many conditions 
 conspire to-day to promise more rapid growth in the near future 
 than the city has ever known; but it is clear that if all promises 
 failed, the time is not distant when Binghamton will be a compara- 
 tively large city, absorbing for building purposes all the available 
 land within the present limits and reaching up into the hills. It is 
 perfectly clear that with the limitations which nature has imposed 
 to the indefinite expansion of the city's area, the time is none too 
 early for a consideration of future needs. If any land is to be saved 
 from building, it must be determined now; if any streets are to be 
 changed, there is no time to lose in reaching the decisions. If there 
 are ultimately to be good transit facilities to outlying sections, we 
 must plan for them at once. It may not be necessary actually to 
 acquire all needed lands now, or actually to widen old or open new 
 streets this year, but it is important that we know what we want to 
 do. There seems to be no reason to doubt that within a compara- 
 tively short space of time, 100,000 people will be living within 
 what are substantially the present limits of Binghamton, and we 
 must make ready for them. 
 
 Not less important than consideration of the fact that there is 
 assurance of continued growth, is the thought of the character of 
 that growth. Again, the history of the city's progress is the safest 
 precedent. Binghamton has always been a manufacturing city. 
 
_o. 
 
 BETTER BINGHAMTON 
 
 <±± 
 
 u 
 
 It gained its first importance by the use of the waterpower for mills. 
 Since then, the Eastern half of the nation has been rapidly changing 
 from an agricultural to a manufacturing country. Binghamton is 
 located in the heart of the manufacturing section; its waterpower 
 is not yet developed to the full, it is near the coal fields and it is 
 close to the largest markets and to the greatest export city of the 
 
 Population 
 
 Diagram showing growth of Population 1810 to 1910 — Binghamton 
 
 1930 
 
 Continent. The manufactories in what may be called the Bingham- 
 ton district — this including Lestershire and Endicott — are now 
 having the most rapid general growth they have ever had. The city 
 has had its great labor contest, and has rallied from it; it has been 
 through the period when small concerns coalesce or are absorbed 
 by larger. The district is doing now the greatest productive business 
 in its history. 
 
m 
 
 _. l .Vd. 
 
 A-~>\\ CITY'S PROGRESS, PROMISE AND PRESENT 
 H& V -^ ^ 
 
 mt: 
 
 5^xS 
 
 
 ''^'""SMSI 
 
 x* ' ■ •-: 
 
 w:;,:::^^r:2:. „ 
 
 Proof that no time is to be lost in preparing for Binghamton's growing population is to be found 
 in the rapidity with which the city is already filling its site 
 
Is there any reason to think that Binghamton will not continue, 
 and become even more markedly, a manufacturing city? The 
 manufacturing cities, it is significant to reflect, are those which 
 show the largest percentage of growth. 
 
 Two other reflections are significant: Commerce, as the hand- 
 maid of industry, increases with growth of manufacturing. Thus 
 the larger manufacturing city will have also increased commercial 
 importance. Second, the railroads which serve the Binghamton 
 district are increasing their freight handling facilities and are plan- 
 ning to do this on a yet greater scale. Their officers have made up 
 their minds as to the future of Binghamton. They may be con- 
 sidered expert judges, and the expenditures they authorize are 
 witness of their confidence. 
 
 It would seem, then, that in planning for the future of Bing- 
 hamton, we must plan for not only a larger population but for a 
 larger industrial activity. We have recognized the reality behind 
 the slogan, "A bigger and busier Binghamton." Can we, with 
 these changes, so plan that it shall also be better? 
 
 The answer to this question must depend upon social, and even 
 upon economic, conditions. What is the character of the present 
 population; what changes, if any, may be expected to accompany 
 the increase in numbers; how are the people housed, and what 
 about the problem of housing larger numbers; what sort of demands 
 do the leading industries of Binghamton make upon the workers; 
 who are the workers, and what recreational facilities do they need 
 and have? 
 
 It appears that the foreign element is not conspicuously large 
 in Binghamton. It has been increasing, however. An Italian 
 colony has gathered south of the railroad freight yards; but the 
 most prominent foreign community is made up of Slavs. They 
 are congregated on the West side, north of the railroads, having 
 largely to themselves the area between the railroads and the 
 Mt. Prospect range of hills. The section swarms with children, 
 so that the colony seems to be growing through a relatively high 
 birthrate as well as through immigration. 
 
 The Slavs have good qualities. They are industrious and loyal 
 to their faith; but in their own land they have been largely peasants, 
 
used to the open air and to simple sanitation, and have had little 
 experience with the rigorous standards which urban life requires. 
 Thus the community must enforce its standards and simplify com- 
 pliance with them. No segregated colony assimilates rapidly the 
 methods and ideals of a strange people; and while a trip through 
 the Slavic quarter of Binghamton impresses one very well, it is 
 wise to remind ourselves that the experience of other cities, with 
 large Slavic colonies, has been that for the good of the whole com- 
 munity there is need of a constant and friendly interplay between 
 the up-building forces of the community and these Americans — 
 Binghamtonians — in the making. 
 
 In Binghamton, the cigar industry, with its large employment 
 of women, is very prominent. According to the census of 1900, the 
 number of women and children employed in Binghamton factories 
 was 5.4 per cent, of the total population, against 3.9 in Elmira, and 
 1.58 in the United States as a whole. Or putting the matter another 
 way, 40 per cent, of the 5,636 Binghamton wage earners were 
 reported by that census to be women, and about two-thirds of 
 them to be working in the cigar factories. To the ranks of these 
 women workers, the Slavs especially contribute. This is a fact of 
 large civic significance. The probability is that in anticipating a 
 larger population, Binghamton has no reason at present to expect 
 any marked difference, or at all events any conspicuous elevation, in 
 its average character. 
 
 With regard to the housing of the people, the census of 1900 
 reported 5.6 persons per dwelling. This compared with 4.9 in Elmira 
 and 5.3 in Auburn, and is fairly good. As I am informed that there 
 is now no shortage of houses the probability is that substantially 
 the same ratio still holds. The people of Binghamton flatter them- 
 selves that there is no tenement problem locally, and there ought 
 not to be any; but the most cursory examination shows its begin- 
 nings. Whether with hills and rivers setting a limit to building 
 space, there can be a doubling of the- present population without 
 the creation of a serious housing problem is a question which calls 
 for earnest consideration. To forestall a serious problem of this 
 nature is one of the most important duties of a city plan study. 
 
Finally, the recreational opportunity offered by an industrial 
 city to its wage earners is a matter of great social, and therefore of 
 great civic, significance. I turn to the census statistics again, and 
 find on this point statistics as late as 1908. It appears that that 
 year Pawtucket, R. I., a manufacturing city about the same size as 
 Binghamton, and like Binghamton employing many women, 
 expended 47 cents per capita for recreational facilities; that in the 
 same year Passaic, N. J., a manufacturing town that is smaller than 
 Binghamton, and where therefore the need was perhaps less urgent, 
 was spending 63 cents per capita; but that Binghamton's per capita 
 expenditure for recreative purposes was only four cents. Even 
 Syracuse was spending seven times as much for every man and 
 woman of its larger population. Apparently a more adequate pro- 
 vision of recreational opportunities is another of the needs to be 
 considered in planning for a Better Binghamton; and even for a 
 Binghamton that shall hold its own. To an increasing degree the 
 better class of labor chooses its abode, and chooses the city where 
 it secures the most for a given wage. Undoubtedly also opportu- 
 nities for wholesome recreation increase the efficiency of labor and its 
 contentment. When the officers of the National Cash Register Co. 
 a few years ago were seeking a city in which to locate anew their 
 plant, one of the first questions asked was regarding the park 
 acreage, its accessibility and the opportunities for recreation. 
 
 To beautify the city is a commendable wish; but clearly the 
 city plan must go beyond mere external appearances. It deals 
 with very practical problems, in seeking better to fit the city for 
 its present work and for its larger and busier future. Its questions 
 are those that interest every business man. 
 
II. The Problem 
 
The Problem 
 
 OWEVER pleasant it might be to say to ourselves 
 
 that the destiny of Binghamton is to be a lovely 
 
 residential city, built up with the homes of those 
 
 who recognize and appreciate the beautiful in nature, 
 
 and that the city planning task is just to fit it for 
 
 the worthy playing of so gentle a role, the preceding 
 
 Survey has revealed in fact and history little basis 
 
 for such belief. And yet I suppose that no lover of 
 
 towns, standing upon one of the many hills that 
 
 command the city, could look upon Binghamton 
 
 in its exquisite setting without yearning to sweep aside all prosaic 
 
 and grosser claims and plan only for ever growing, ever alluring 
 
 beauty. 
 
 It is clear at least, in the far view over the city, that such a 
 thought may well exert an influence on the plan. The people who 
 live in cities are not working every moment. There are day dreams 
 even there. Pictures are painted and songs are sung. Love is made 
 and lisping children are taught to pray, by the very men and women 
 whose business it is to wrap cigars or make parts of shoes. Though 
 we may not abandon ourselves, in planning for Binghamton, to 
 the highest ideal of civic beauty unalloyed , we do not need to give 
 up entirely the thought of a city beautiful as well as practical. 
 Perhaps it will be the more practical if it is beautiful. It might 
 even be, reverting to the idea of sheer beauty, that Binghamton 
 would serve well itself in doing so good a service to the world as to 
 build up on its lovely hills and rivers a city of beauty. 
 
 Yet the manifest destiny of the city as at present constituted 
 is to be, first of all, bigger and busier — not the typical grimy 
 industrial town, there is reason to hope, but that higher type which 
 is at once good to live in and good to do business in. The statement 
 outlines well our problem. We have to plan for a larger population, 
 for a larger business; and to make these plans with due regard to 
 the comforts of life, to physical well being, aesthetics, and to the 
 demands of the higher nature. 
 
 The Survey of Binghamton has indicated that the city is divided 
 into particularly well defined districts. It will not be practicable 
 
BETTER BINGHAMTON 
 
 g$ 
 
 to take these up one by one, for many of the problems apply impar- 
 tially to various districts — the river banks for instance. But it 
 will be necessary to keep in mind the distinct character of these 
 districts, for in passing from one of them to another a common 
 problem is likely to take on new aspects. 
 
 It has seemed wise, therefore, to group, under the following 
 headings, the discussion of Binghamton's needs and the recom- 
 mendations designed to meet these needs and fit the city for its 
 future: 
 
 1. Elementary Needs. 
 
 2. The Street Plan. 
 
 3. Parks, Playgrounds and Pleasure Drives. 
 
III. Needs and Recommendations 
 
1. Elementary Needs 
 
 'HE term elementary is not very satisfactory in this 
 connection, for it lacks explicitness. It is here used 
 to indicate those primary requirements for which 
 a city that had no ambitions for the future and 
 no thought beyond to-day might well provide, merely 
 for present comfort. These things hardly belong to 
 city planning, for city planning presupposes their 
 provision, as matters of course. If, however, in com- 
 prehensive study of a city's needs, it is found that 
 they have not been looked after in adequate measure, 
 there is imposed an obligation to refer at least to them. 
 
 The sobriquet "Parlor City," which for many years has been 
 claimed by Binghamton, seems to promise not only a well furnished 
 and well kept city, but one which in these respects is in advance of 
 others of its size. To find it in the fact relatively deficient as regards 
 furnishings is, therefore, the greater shock. 
 
 Let us examine first the business section. A city is largely 
 judged by that. Even if this were not true, or were thought not to 
 be important, the business section is the one part of the town to 
 which all the residents themselves resort and in which all have a 
 common interest. The condition of the South Side playground 
 might not greatly interest the resident of Robinson Street; for the 
 Highland Avenue grade crossing the resident of upper Chenango 
 Street may not feel deep concern; but the aspect of the business 
 district and conditions there do matter to everybody in Binghamton 
 — quite apart from the impression which the district may make 
 upon strangers. What, then, do we find as regards elementary 
 needs in this most conspicuous part — indeed, in the very center — 
 of the Parlor City? 
 
 We find the streets generally narrow and not all of them paved; 
 overhung by innumerable wires; given a disordered appearance, 
 and still further narrowed in the seeming, by multitudes of pro- 
 jecting signs; no dignified lighting system, no open space where 
 toilers may sit and rest in the noon hour — except in what, in effect 
 and in appearance, is the jail yard! We find "double-deck" bill- 
 
boards, the ugliest type of iron bridges spanning rivers that might 
 be majestic, but that in fact are open sewers, flowing between heaps 
 of ashes and tin cans, not to speak of shacks and signs. This is the 
 parlor of the Parlor City. 
 
 Yet there are many good things in the business section of 
 Binghamton which impress one strongly. The effect in reality is 
 not as bad as one might think, in dwelling only on shortcomings. 
 And for the worst of the shortcomings measures of correction are 
 under way. Work is already advanced to prevent the flow of sewage 
 into the rivers; and then will come improvement of their banks; 
 soon the wires will be underground, and there is a project now for 
 more dignified lighting. Pavements are being extended, and mean- 
 while are kept pretty clean. The Court House square is a pleasant 
 break of green in the heart of the business district, and is something 
 of a civic center. There are some really imposing office buildings, 
 and the commercial lighting at least indicates progressiveness and 
 alertness. 
 
 On the whole Binghamton impresses one in its business district, 
 in spite of the shortcomings, as being much alive and on the mend; 
 as a town which has been touched by a new spirit that in a few 
 years will make it all, or more, than one expected. And these are 
 very good impressions to make. Yet no plan for Binghamton can 
 be worked out without reference to the elementary needs. For one 
 thing, the money which will be required to satisfy them is going to 
 decrease by just so much the amount which would otherwise be 
 available for new constructive work. There must be a considerable 
 bond issue, for instance, to pay the cost of freeing the rivers from 
 sewage ; but riverbank improvements cannot give adequate returns 
 until that is done. Again, while some streets need widening and 
 some should be extended, a primary need is more paving. That 
 will give greatly increased efficiency to the streets you have. 
 
 This matter of paving, which concerns the whole city — the 
 residence districts are more deficient than the business section — 
 is a question which ought to be seriously considered. The wise 
 policy has been adopted of paving the long through streets — or 
 thoroughfares — so that as one goes about the deficiency may not 
 seem as marked as it is. But there is rarely a paved side street, and 
 
J^)- 
 
 _rrf~} 
 
 ELEMENTARY NEEDS 
 
 How principal business streets are 
 given a disordered appearance 
 and made to look narrower 
 by multitudes of pro- 
 jecting signs 
 
this means not only vast discomfort to Binghamtonians, but an 
 increased expense for keeping the paved streets clean. 
 
 A perfectly fair comparison with other cities reveals the follow- 
 ing situation: By the government census of 1907 Binghamton was 
 credited with 331,603 square yards of paved and improved streets, 
 this including macadam area. Of the thirty-one cities of less popu- 
 lation which followed after Binghamton, every one had more pave- 
 ment — not relatively only, but more in actual area. Elmira, for 
 example, had three times as much as Binghamton. But even this 
 is not the whole of the showing. Of fifty-four towns of less popu- 
 lation than Binghamton — this number carrying the statistics to 
 the smallest community the census bulletin gave — there were only 
 five which had a smaller actual area of improved streets than 
 Binghamton. 
 
 It is no excuse to say that there has been some progress since 
 1907. Other towns have not been standing still. At the close of 
 1909, the city engineer's report indicated 19 per cent, of the city's 
 street area as paved. But Geneva reported 45 per cent. At the 
 close of 1910 there had been no increase in the proportion at 
 Binghamton. No doubt the agreement with the street railroad 
 company, by which that corporation has paid a very much smaller 
 proportion of paving costs than is required of the street car com- 
 panies in other cities, is one reason for the backwardness of Bing- 
 hamton in so primary a need as paving. But that excuse is passing, 
 and there is need now only of the popular realization that if there 
 is any serious wish to make Binghamton deserve the name "Parlor 
 City," any real ambition to carry the town forward and make it 
 the worthy leader of the Southern tier, distancing its rivals in those 
 things which go to make up good city building and business 
 efficiency, there is need of a courageous paving program. 
 
 It is interesting in this connection to note, as measuring the 
 city's backwardness in regard to elementary work, that the United 
 States Census Bulletin of 1908 gave the replacement value of 
 Binghamton's public improvements — this phrase including street 
 pavements, gutters, curbing and sidewalks — as only §640,000. In 
 the cities of Mobile and Augusta, Ga., which happen to be the 
 next lowest in population, and of which, as Southern cities, no high 
 
figures would be expected, the like record is, respectively, $1,058,000 
 and $967,293. Cities of less population but of the sort of progress- 
 iveness which Binghamton is now showing — cities like Topeka, 
 Springfield, 111., Wheeling, W. Va.— were credited with having such 
 improvements of a replacement value of much over two millions 
 each. Coming nearer home: In Utica, which is not so very much 
 larger than Binghamton, they totalled $2,037,690; in Schenectady 
 two and a half millions, and even in little Elmira a third as much 
 again as in Binghamton. It is a pity to have to say so much on 
 this unpleasant subject; 
 but it plainly is a duty. 
 
 As for the boast that 
 the city's bonded indebt- 
 edness is the lowest in the 
 State, that is no more 
 just a matter for pride, 
 if it is due to the city's 
 going without the things 
 it ought to have, than for 
 a man to take credit to 
 himself for spending less 
 on his children's clothes 
 than any one else, the 
 children being ill clothed. 
 
 Not only is the city 
 deficient in the amount 
 of street work which has 
 been done; but of the 
 work accomplished, com- 
 paratively little is up-to- 
 date. Owing to the prox- 
 imity of quarries, the 
 stone curb and flag side- 
 walk, for instance, have 
 persisted in the residence ...,.., ., 
 
 f "- 1 "*•■' »--" The old and the new in sidewalk construction 
 
 SeCtlOnS long alter tney mote also the better effect that would here have been 
 
 have been Substituted in secured by terracing the walk 
 
BETTER BINGHAMTON 
 
 the corresponding quarters of other towns by the less expensive, 
 neater, and more uniform cement walks and curbs. The latter 
 are beginning to appear in Bingham ton, and the combination curb 
 and gutter is not entirely unknown. But in the modern city these 
 are things which one expects as a matter of course, not as an 
 exception. On the other hand, all over Binghamton, one finds stone 
 flag walks, broken and uneven, which give a slipshod aspect to the 
 city; and there is little uniformity about walks and curbs. 
 
 In another respect some of Binghamton's street improvements 
 have cost more than they should, through adherence to an old 
 fashioned idea of procedure. When cuts have been necessary to 
 bring streets to grade, the whole cross section has almost uniformly 
 been given the same level, even though the abutting property is 
 thereby put on a terrace so high as to diminish its value. A more 
 sensible plan, in most cases, would be to reduce the cross section 
 cut by allowing sidewalks to be built at a higher level than the 
 
 It Is disgraceful that a street with such high class private development should be unpaved and 
 
 have no uniformity of curbing 
 
roadway. This method reduces cost of construction, and provides 
 a terrace which brings abutting property nearer to the street, while 
 there is no objection to the sidewalk having a somewhat stiff er 
 grade than does the road. There even results a heightening of 
 street picturesqueness. 
 
 It must be said, however, that Binghamton residence streets 
 are made attractive by an exceptionally uniform, and altogether 
 charming, absence of front fences. Trees, too, are many and of 
 good size; but they are in want of attention, often of thinning as 
 well as trimming. So greatly do trees contribute to the city's beauty, 
 and also it may be added, to the comfort of life in Binghamton, that 
 one can hardly conceive of too much care being given to them. 
 
 The species most prevalent on the streets are the American 
 elm and the sugar, or hard, maple. Both are admirable. In fact, 
 there could be nothing better than the first named, under the condi- 
 tions given — valley lands, and houses standing back from the street 
 
 -A. ;.:,;gfe- 
 
 A terraced sidewalk 
 
in ample grounds. As for the hard maple, Professor Craig has ex- 
 pressed the wish that there might be more generous use of the linden, 
 of which Binghamton now has comparatively few. His thought 
 may be seconded, without, however, condemnation of the maple. 
 
 But there are two matters with regard to the street trees of 
 Binghamton to which attention must be earnestly called, in addition 
 r^ ^s*. ^mrngg.**--™^!*** to the need of pruning and 
 
 thinning, which has been 
 already noted. These are 
 
 (1) the use of Carolina and 
 other poplars. This is 
 particularly noticeable on 
 the South Side, though 
 the trees may be found 
 all over the city. Their 
 roots so break into water 
 mains and sewers that 
 their use should be 
 prohibited by ordinance. 
 
 (2) The setting out of 
 what Professor Craig well 
 called "pole-trees" — i. e., 
 young trees with long 
 trunks and bushy tops — 
 which can never become 
 symmetrical. The trees, 
 especially the elms — of 
 which one of the noblest 
 specimens I ever saw is at 
 the water's edge, in the 
 backyard of a Front 
 
 Street residence— are so important a factor in the aesthetic assets of 
 Binghamton that the city must safeguard jealously her wealth in 
 this direction. I shall speak of this matter again, further on. 
 
 Schoolyards, while better than in some cities, are not as good as 
 in many others, which means that these pieces of public property 
 are not making the contribution they might to Binghamton's beauty. 
 
ELEMENTARY NEEDS 
 
 As a rule, the city schoolyards are pretty good as lawns; but just as 
 house lawns are beautified by some judicious planting of shrubs, so 
 should these be improved. Shrubs set close around the building, 
 or to emphasize and make beautiful the entrance, would not interfere 
 with play space and would do much, not merely to enhance the 
 attractiveness of neighborhoods, and by their frequency that of the 
 whole city, but to make school seem to children more inviting, and, 
 unconsciously to them, to influence their taste — as do the surround- 
 ings of us all — and so to affect many households; and finally, by the 
 force of good example, to lead to the better planting of house lawns. 
 If we may assume, as no doubt we may, the appropriateness of 
 making all public property an example of the civic virtue of regard 
 for appearance, we may justly attach a special obligation to school 
 property since it represents the community's deliberate attempt to. 
 educate and cultivate. There are numerous cities, some of them 
 half the size of Binghamton, which have sent hundreds of miles for a 
 competent landscape architect to plan their schoolyards. 
 
 A very important matter is the proportions given to residence 
 streets as respects their division into roadway, sidewalk and parking 
 strip. It is now in Binghamton the not unfamiliar division into 
 fifths — each sidewalk space being one-fifth of the total street 
 width and the roadway three-fifths, the sidewalk space carrying a 
 five-foot paved walk on fifty-foot streets and a six-foot paved walk 
 on sixty-foot streets, the rest of the space being put into parking. 
 Expressed concretely, this gives on a fifty-foot street a thirty-foot 
 roadway, a five-foot parking strip on each side and a five-foot paved 
 walk; on a sixty-foot street a thirty-six foot roadway, a six-foot 
 parking strip and a six-foot paved walk. 
 
 There would be a gain, financially and aesthetically, in making 
 the space from curb line to property line one-half that of the roadway, 
 and there are very few cases indeed in which this change would not 
 be justified from a traffic standpoint — either present or prospective. 
 Such a change would give a twenty-five foot roadway on fifty-foot 
 streets and would increase the grass margin from five feet to seven 
 and a half. The wider margin is easier to care for, is better for the 
 trees, and of better proportion as regards the street. It can even be 
 beautified if desired with shrubs and flowers. In some cities very 
 
beautiful streets are created by this means, through the co-operation 
 of residents in the decorative planting of the margins. Finally, the 
 greater distance of curb from property line would give strong reason 
 for the use of a longer radius in the curve of the curb at street corners. 
 It might be somewhat increased even now with pleasing effect, 
 greatly as the present practice improves over the former custom. 
 Of that custom, many examples may still, unfortunately, be seen 
 in Binghamton. 
 
 As to the roadway, it should be noted that a twenty-five foot 
 road gives room to turn and allows ample space for three large 
 vehicles abreast — all that there is likely to be need for on most 
 fifty-foot residential streets; and that a thirty-foot road (the present 
 space) is not enough wider to give room for another vehicle. In other 
 words, the additional five feet, which under present regulations 
 must eventually be paved and cleaned, is purely waste space as far 
 as its serviceability is concerned. 
 
 At this time, when the city should be embarking on an ambitious 
 paving program, this matter of roadway width is of peculiar import- 
 ance, for if, without loss of efficiency, five feet of paving width can 
 be saved on every longitudinal inch of fifty-foot streets, to say 
 nothing of the proportionate saving made on sixty-foot streets, the 
 result is going to make a deal of difference in the amount of paving 
 the city can do. 
 
 It is assumed in the foregoing recommendations that the streets 
 under discussion do not carry car tracks. Of course, when street 
 car tracks are on a street, it must have additional width of roadway. 
 Streets with single tracks should have roadways not less than thirty 
 feet in width; streets with double tracks, roadways not less than 
 forty feet in width, even if the grass margins have to be narrowed 
 to give the space. 
 
 Residence streets that are more than sixty feet wide should 
 receive, as they now do not, a special treatment, either by center 
 parking or by emphasis of the side parking. Each such street 
 should be considered a separate and most interesting problem. There 
 are very few streets now in Binghamton which are of particular width, 
 and the few there are, being located without any reference to the gen- 
 eral street plan, have a rather pitiful, misplaced and lonesome aspect 
 
A 
 
 ELEMENTARY NEEDS 
 
 to a city planner. There will be opportunity in the next chapter 
 to consider their relation to the street system. Here it is enough 
 to suggest their manner of development. 
 
 Grand Boulevard's hundred feet of breadth gives opportunity — 
 the only opportunity in the whole city on a scale of sufficient length 
 to be effective — for that center strip of parking which, in creating 
 an imposing street, contributes so greatly to the beauty, dignity 
 and prosperous aspect of a city. The street is lined now with elms — 
 unfortunately not quite exclusively, as it should be — and we must 
 anticipate that their growing majesty will call for a generous side 
 planting strip. For that reason, when recognizing the aesthetic and 
 economic waste of the present fifty-foot roadway, I hesitated for a 
 
 time between recommending a 
 widening of the strip between 
 curb and walk or the use of 
 center parking. Finally, the 
 uniqueness of the opportunity 
 in Binghamton for the center 
 parking effect has persuaded me 
 to recommend that Grand Boule- 
 vard be developed as follows: 
 Between curbs and property line, 
 twenty feet; roadways on either 
 side of the center parking, 
 twenty feet; center parking, 
 twenty feet. 
 
 This will make a symmetrical 
 and exceedingly handsome thor- 
 oughfare; it will diminish by 
 ten feet the width of pavement 
 to be constructed and main- 
 tained, while owing to the divided 
 roadways there will be an in- 
 crease rather than decrease in 
 its traffic efficiency — not a very 
 ■too 1 >j pressing matter at present, but 
 
 Proposed Development for GnurfBou.evard. ^ ^ apparent reasQn for ^ 
 
width of roadway now given. As to the degree of traffic efficiency 
 under the proposed arrangement, it may be noted that with the 
 center parking dividing the traffic into eastbound and westbound 
 channels, so that there is no danger of collision, there will 
 be room in each roadway for a line of slow moving and for a 
 line of fast moving vehicles, with now and then an additional vehicle 
 at the curb. This is comparable to the traffic capacity of many of 
 the busiest streets in the world, and is substantially the arrange- 
 ment adopted on some of the most beautiful and most famous 
 European avenues. It is really, in deference to the assumed prefer- 
 ence of the present property owners, a very liberal arrangement 
 as regards traffic provision. The street would look better, and 
 doubtless would serve every need, if the two roadways were narrowed 
 to eighteen feet each, and the center parking thereby widened to 
 twenty-four. 
 
 As to the character of the center parking, my suggestion for 
 it is simply long turf beds with concrete curbs. The saving effected 
 in paving cost and care will come very nearly indeed to paying for 
 them--— in the case of an expensive pavement would fully pay for 
 them — and with the rise and fall of the street the parking will make 
 a perspective of singular beauty. Though to carry out this sugges- 
 tion would thus involve little, and, perhaps, no additional cost, it 
 means the difference between a rich and handsome street, justifying 
 the pretentiousness of its name, and one altogether ordinary, and 
 even unpleasant in its waste of space. 
 
 In Howard and Burton Avenues, Binghamton has not quite 
 three additional blocks of wide street. The breadth, respectively, 
 of one hundred and forty and one hundred and twenty feet, is so 
 exceptional in Binghamton, and these streets, which intersect each 
 other at right angles at their middle point, are so isolated from the 
 rest of the street system as regards any justification for the sudden 
 expansiveness and ornateness of plan, that it is little wonder that 
 they have been popularly dubbed Howard Park, and turned over 
 to the Park Commissioner. Popular instinct in this case is correct. 
 They may be much more properly developed as park than as street, 
 and I shall therefore reserve consideration of their development 
 until the Park chapter. 
 
ELEMENTARY NEEDS 
 
 With reference to the width of Court Street, which varies in the 
 business section, every inch of it is needed for traffic purposes. The 
 problem here is rather to gain space than to use it up in ornament. 
 As I write these words, no definite scheme of ornamental lighting 
 has been adopted; but with the movement to adopt some scheme, 
 and in so doing to free the street of its cluttering poles and wires, 
 this report is of course in heartiest sympathy. Binghamton could 
 not, even with its quite metropolitan sky scrapers, seem more than 
 a country town, as long as the pole and wire evil continued in so 
 aggravated a form in the business district. 
 
 With the going of disfiguring poles and wires, the narrow side- 
 walks of Court Street should be freed from their many cluttering 
 obstructions — showcases, bulletin boards and what not — that now 
 occupy public space for private gain. Where all merchants are 
 treated alike in matters of these kinds, there is no unfair advantage 
 to any one. Court Street, with sidewalk obstructions and projecting 
 signs removed, will receive, both in the seeming and in service, an 
 addition of width which will increase its efficiency and dignity. 
 The sidewalks will accommodate a great many more people; and 
 there is nothing, we should reflect, which could be put on sidewalks 
 which it is so good for merchants to have there, as people. The 
 principal need is only a public opinion that will approve, and demand, 
 enforcement of present ordinances and, if necessary, the enactment 
 of new. 
 
 When the business streets are thus improved, and in the residence 
 sections the growing mileage of paved streets — the growth acceler- 
 ated, we must hope, in the new spirit which Binghamton is to have 
 — has been supplemented by uniformity of curbing (a very great 
 need) and by cement walks, Binghamton will begin to take on that 
 air of prosperity and up-to-dateness which properly belongs to it. 
 
 By that time — or before — there must be municipal collection of 
 garbage and ashes. This would not cost much. Probably, as far 
 as the individual citizen is concerned, it would cost less than the 
 present lack of it. Until this is done, and refuse ceases to be scattered 
 all over the place — as it must continue to be until municipal collec- 
 tion and disposal are provided, since, ordinance or no ordinance, 
 people will dump it or leave it in the most convenient spot until it 
 
is collected for them — there clearly is something more than incon- 
 gruity in talking of "The Parlor City." 
 
 In closing this chapter, there should be included mention of 
 two or three matters which have direct connection with city planning: 
 I refer to a public market and to the railroad entrance. 
 
 I speak of the market, not because I consider it an indispensable 
 adjunct to a well built city, but because it is a usual provision for 
 which there is likely to be a growing demand in Binghamton. My 
 own judgment is that public markets are of decreasing importance 
 — especially as regards retail business. But for wholesale business 
 they are quite desirable; they are frequently conducted with profit 
 to the city, and the demand for one is so legitimate and reasonable, 
 that it seems well to include a consideration of the market's possible 
 site in a study of Binghamton's plan. 
 
 A market ought to be located in a place that will be convenient 
 to the surrounding farming country, to the homes in all parts of the 
 city and to the business section. The latter requirements suggest a 
 central location, but it ought not to be quite in the business district 
 because of the space it needs and the litter it tends to bring into the 
 streets. Neither should it be in the midst of expensive residence 
 property. There are several sites in Binghamton that answer 
 these requirements, but the best one seems to be the old tan yard — 
 now vacant property — on the corner of Susquehanna and State 
 Streets. This is half a block in area, with the possibility of easy 
 extension. It meets with remarkable efficiency all the conditions 
 named. 
 
 There is no place in the city now at which cartmen may wait 
 engagement, and under the ordinance they have to prowl the streets, 
 to the increase of traffic congestion, to say nothing of needless 
 wear and tear and waste of energy. It has occurred to me that 
 the public market on the site proposed would make, after market 
 hours — which close about the time that truckmen's hours begin 
 — an admirable truck stand. Thus the plat might be in convenient 
 use all day. The facilities provided for the market — as covered 
 sheds, water, etc. — would do double service at no extra cost, and any 
 demand for cartage earlier than the market's close could be received 
 by telephone at the Market house. The probability, however, is 
 
ELEMENTARY NEEDS 
 
 that the community would soon adjust itself to the definite arrange- 
 ment of hours. 
 
 As regards the railroad entrance, the Lackawanna has now an 
 attractive little station which, with the long flower bed in front, 
 and the considerable plaza, makes an entrance much better than 
 one often finds. The Erie and the Delaware and Hudson Railroads, 
 on the other hand, use together a station that is quite as bad as one 
 often finds. But the proximity of its site, and the location of the 
 tracks along side the Lackawanna's, are forcible and tantalizing 
 suggestion of the ease with which there might have been created for 
 Binghamton a union station that would have been creditable to the 
 three railroads and to the city. Until a few months, almost weeks, 
 ago, this seemed still a possibility. The Erie has now, however, 
 been building its new freight house on the very site that could have 
 been so well used for a passenger station — where its relation to the 
 Lackawanna's would have been similar to that of the Boston & 
 Albany road in Springfield to the New York, New Haven & Hartford 
 station, a relation so close and convenient that most travelers 
 suppose the two to be a single union station. In such event, the 
 site of the Erie's present passenger station could have been used for 
 freight. It would seem, at least, that this would have been the 
 most obvious rearrangement, the one promising the maximum con- 
 venience to travelers with the minimum cost to the railroads and 
 with the minimum disturbance to those values which a station's 
 location influence. 
 
 Since the new freight house of the Erie has doubtless precluded 
 the opportunity for this simple but effective change, there are to be 
 faced the possibilities of a new and separate passenger station for 
 the travelers by the Erie and the D. & H., which would create 
 new conditions that cannot be now foreseen; or the construction 
 of a union station involving so large an expense, and probably the 
 purchase of so much new property, that unfortunately it seems 
 idle to look for the improvement for many years — when various 
 conditions may have changed. The only pertinent question left 
 for the present study, therefore, is whether anything can be done 
 to better the present municipal conditions at the quite attractive 
 entrance of the Lackawanna. 
 
^ 
 
 BETTER BIXGHAMTON 
 
 A very simple change, that would mean much in the way of con- 
 venience and orderly adaptation to use, would be the construction, at 
 the top of the steps which lead up from the station level to the 
 street, of an oblong, low, concrete waiting platform, and then the 
 swinging of the street car tracks from the center of the street to 
 the side of this platform. Several car lines make the station their 
 terminal point, and the cars line up in the middle of the street, 
 
 «vr7<wj."8ggi^ ■ 
 
 waiting their turn to go. To these cars, across the wet or snowy 
 pavement, passengers, who have already crossed an open space 
 and climbed steps, exposed to the elements, often too burdened 
 with luggage to put up umbrellas, have still to plod. 
 
 It would be a very easy, and common sense, procedure to con- 
 struct this platform, swing the tracks over to it, and cover it, in part 
 at least, with a light but ornamental roof which would protect 
 from wind and sun. This roof might well be extended over the steps 
 and to the station. It is quite possible that the Binghamton Railroad 
 Co. would be willing to pay the cost of track change and platform, 
 
if given permission to make the improvement; and that the Lacka- 
 wanna would consider the cost of the roof's extension over the 
 footway to the station a small expense entirely justified by the 
 added comfort of passengers. Even the old station of the Erie 
 does as well as that for travelers. So it may be that this improve- 
 ment can be made without any municipal expense. 
 
 The removal of the poles and wires is too plain a need at this 
 point to call for exposition. Single ground-glass globes on metal or 
 concrete poles about ten feet high might well stand at either end of 
 the proposed platform, and an ornamental electrolier, with a cluster 
 of lights, at the west end of the grass plat. Binghamton would 
 then present to travelers a very dignified, orderly and attractive 
 entrance, insuring the favorableness of that first impression which 
 is so lasting. 
 
 Part of a shelter for trolley passengers 
 in Brookline, Mass. 
 
2. The Street Plan 
 
 ^HE street plan of Binghamton presents to the city 
 planner a tangle of unusual interest and intricacy. 
 Here is a city which, at maximum points of exten- 
 sion, is five miles long and three miles wide, and which 
 has not a single direct thoroughfare across its width, 
 and only one highway that goes from end to end of 
 its longer diameter. The latter highway is not direct, 
 its general course describing a long curve; it suffers 
 a sharp break at a critical point; and it has not even 
 a continuous name. Further, of the city's seven 
 river bridges, only two — the Court and Washington — make direct 
 connections at both ends. 
 
 The peculiar conditions which are thus noted are, in exaggerated 
 form, typical, for the Binghamton city plan is made up, to unusual 
 extent, of short ends of street. Streets of much promise in direction 
 terminate abruptly, with no direct outlet. There is no strong frame- 
 work of through main highways, knitting all parts of the city 
 together. The plan is a collection of small independent units, 
 corresponding to tracts that have had individual, or, at least, separate 
 ownership, and that have been planned with little consideration for 
 one another. There has been no comprehensive control or conception. 
 The condition has both its drawbacks and advantages. The 
 former are obvious. The advantages include exemption from a 
 deadening monotony of plan, the creation of many attractive street 
 vistas, the provision of convenient short cuts for journeys of little 
 length, and the creation of building plats of irregular shape and size. 
 Binghamton would be a much less interesting and less attractive 
 city than it is if all the streets had been laid out, regardless of natural 
 features of the site, with that regularity which characterizes Phila- 
 delphia, Chicago, and portions of New York, and which has spoiled 
 so many small Western cities. A good city plan does not mean 
 monotony. 
 
For example of the architectural vistas opened by streets that 
 end abruptly, note the exquisitely beautiful view of Christ Church 
 on Washington Street, as one looks down Henry. Such contri- 
 butions to the picturesqueness of the city are recompense for many 
 delays to traffic. In Binghamton the opportunities have not been 
 availed of with the frequency one could wish, or might expect. 
 Other churches have been satisfied with conventional street-side 
 sites; and of the more important public buildings the Court House 
 alone has been placed where it closes the vista of a street. Strangely 
 enough, even that view, which would make a very fine accent at the 
 end of Chenango Street, has been permitted to suffer obliteration 
 by the trees. But the opportunities persist, and as the city is built 
 more closely and attractive houses multiply, we may expect them 
 to be placed on sites that at once lend emphasis to the structure 
 and open from its windows so charming and unusual a view as the 
 vista of a street. 
 
 It is, then, in no spirit of the iconoclast who, careless of condi- 
 tions past and present, would reduce everything to conventional 
 rule and have every street "go through"; in no spirit of the old 
 maid* who would untangle all the snarls and put everything straight 
 and prim, that we should take up the study of so irregular and 
 interesting a street system as Binghamton's. Rather, considering 
 the cost of changing streets, we should do as little as we can, with 
 fairness to needs of existing traffic and to the future needs of the 
 foreseen larger city. We may lay to heart the wise words of Professor 
 Mawson, of England, who, in his great new work on "Civic Art" 
 says; speaking generally of city planning: "Five-sixths of the town 
 is already planned for us, and our skill will be best shown by the 
 manner in which we weave the new and the old into one harmonious 
 composition." 
 
 It appeared in the preliminary study of Binghamton that the 
 historical business center was determined by topographical condi- 
 tions, which also set definite bounds to it. Ample of area for all 
 present needs, as the section is, the fact that it is completely girdled 
 by rivers and railroads — bounds which business always finds it 
 difficult to cross — imposes an obligation to plan for the time when 
 business will fill up the section and when growing congestion will 
 
require such facilitation of traffic as a well articulated street plan 
 alone can give. For the circumscribed business section, therefore, 
 we must be more exacting of street requirements than for any other 
 part of the city. 
 
 The most immediate and pressing need is with reference to 
 Chenango Street. Not only is this a long thoroughfare, reaching from 
 the very Court House Square to the most northern limits of Bing- 
 hamton, and thence to the towns beyond; but, owing to its oblique 
 direction, it offers the shortest possible route from any portion of 
 the business section to the railroad stations. This is a remarkable 
 condition. It means that the already crowded thoroughfare is 
 bound to have poured upon it a steadily growing volume of travel 
 and of the kind of travel which is most inconvenienced by delays. 
 In the extended and growing North Side, every street is tributary 
 to the main stream, Chenango Street; and from the South Side, the 
 East Side and the West, save for that small portion of the latter to 
 which the Ferry Street bridge is nearest, all persons and vehicles 
 going to or from the stations make use of Chenango. And the 
 street seems narrow for its business even now! 
 
 The development of Chenango Street into a business highway 
 of prime importance could be thus foreseen, even were the trans- 
 formation not already in progress. Originally a residence street, 
 with houses set back from the street line, we now find the construc- 
 tion moving forward to the edge of the walk as one building after 
 another is erected on what had been garden space. There could be 
 no surer indication than this of the street's changing character, or 
 any more definite warning that if the street is ever to be widened 
 the work should be done at once, before it becomes necessary to 
 tear down buildings and award heavy damages. Already it is too 
 late to widen it on the west side without great cost. But on the east 
 side of the street, though there are a number of business buildings, 
 only one, curiously enough, is out to the present street line, from 
 the Gas Company office, a half block from Court Street, all the way 
 to the viaduct. The exception is the structure at the corner of 
 Warren Street. Save for that, a four foot widening of the street 
 can now be provided for simply by establishing a building line that 
 distance back from the present street line on the street's east side 
 
and decreeing that henceforth no building shall be so erected, or 
 altered, as to prevent the addition on that side of four feet to the 
 street's width. 
 
 It is probable that some damages would have to be allowed, but 
 they should be slight on unbuilt upon land after deducting the benefit 
 of the widened street, and by simply adopting the line in a theo- 
 retical way, and imposing no restriction until a building permit is 
 requested, it may be that their payment could be spread over a 
 considerable period. Certainly, the chance is a rare one for securing 
 a most necessary addition to street width at little cost. 
 
 The addition may seem small; but when Chenango Street is 
 crowded, four feet will make a considerable difference, and if it is 
 not secured now the chance for it is lost except at enormous cost. 
 The street from Court to Lewis is now sixty-six feet wide. Widened 
 to seventy, there would be space for two twelve-foot sidewalks, and 
 a forty-six foot roadway. That roadway would give room on both 
 sides for a vehicle to stand at the curb and for a slow moving one 
 to pass it, while leaving eighteen feet in the center for the double 
 car track and for the passage of vehicles that move quickly. That 
 is pretty good provision. 
 
 North of the viaduct, the street narrows; being only sixty feet 
 to Pearne and then only fifty to State. Beyond that point it becomes 
 sixty-six again, to the Binghamton line. While opportunity offers, 
 the street should therefore be widened, at least to sixty-six feet, 
 from the viaduct to State Street. The most congested portion 
 will be always south of the railroad station ; but for a main thorough- 
 fare, carrying double car tracks and serving as the one trunk high- 
 way to a large and populous territory, fifty feet, and even sixty feet, 
 is too narrow. 
 
 There is one other way in which relief can be given to the 
 expected over-burdening of Chenango Street, not instead of the 
 widening, but as supplementary to that action. This would be by 
 extending Carroll Street the short distance from Henry to Warren. 
 By doing this, Carroll Street would be made a shorter and more 
 direct station approach than Chenango for a large portion of the 
 South and West Sides. It would consequently catch much of that 
 travel, and would be in line for business development when the 
 
business district, already touching it at Court Street, spreads. The 
 increase of speculative values that would probably follow this small 
 extension — the depth of a single lot — would much more than pay, 
 in the rise of assessment values, the slight cost of making it, and we 
 should gain, at no net outlay, convenience for a large section of 
 Binghamton, relief for Chenango Street, and forehanded provision 
 for the future. It would be, indeed, the part of wisdom to take for 
 Carroll Street, thus extended, the widening action proposed for 
 Chenango, except that on Carroll the street could be widened on 
 both sides now, and plans made for the finest and broadest business 
 street of Binghamton — all, practically, for nothing. 
 
 Proposed street changes in business center 
 
 64 
 
THE STREET PLAN 
 
 Another street change of value would be the eastward extension 
 of Ferry Street. The Ferry Street Bridge, one of only two bridges 
 connecting the big West Side with the center of Binghamton, leads 
 at each end to a cul de sac. At the east end this can be quite easily 
 remedied. The street, if carried through to Chenango opposite 
 Warren, would usefully cut three very long blocks, and would 
 connect directly with extended Carroll Street. Thus it would 
 provide a short cut off, emphasizing still more the business value of 
 Carroll Street and doing much to bring order out of a street arrange- 
 ment that can only become, until rectified, an increasing burden 
 to traffic. If, as appears, this direct connection would cut through 
 a large building that might be considered to make the cost prohibi- 
 tive — a question of some doubt — the line could be so swerved as to 
 avoid the building and yet make a fairly good connection. But at 
 worst the cost would be small for the benefit gained, the total distance 
 being only 750 feet, or less than any one of the blocks it cuts. 
 
 A third street change in the business district should be made 
 in the case of Isbell Street. Here, with business almost at the edge 
 of it now, is a street that is apparently only about twenty feet wide 
 and which, withal, has a kink and a jog in it, though only a block 
 and a half in length. But the frame houses that line it are all set 
 back from the street, and there is only the need of pointing out: 
 (1) That if this street persists in its present form after business has 
 surrounded it, it must be either as a fearful handicap to business or 
 as a moral sewer; (2) that after business has surrounded the street, 
 it may be too late to secure its widening; and (3) that forming a 
 direct connection between the Court House Square and a possible 
 riverside improvement, this street has possibilities more desirable 
 to the city than a moral sewer. To-day it is easy both to widen 
 and straighten Isbell Street. 
 
 Binghamton is fortunate in having a clearly defined business 
 district, its boundaries so well marked that there can be no thought 
 of its moving elsewhere or doing anything but filling up the section, 
 as the growth of the city demands more business space. The good 
 fortune imposes, however, the obligation to make ready for the 
 future. 
 
Of the river boundaries of the business section, I need not here 
 speak. Nor need even the railroad boundary long detain us. From 
 the standpoint of municipal development, the freight transfer yards 
 are so unfortunately placed, and from the railroads' and shippers' 
 standpoint are so cramped, that it was inevitable that measures 
 should be taken to secure their relocation where space was not as 
 valuable. Unfortunately, experience with railroads gives no reason 
 for hoping that the present yards will be available for streets and 
 buildings; but the city should do what it can to hasten the con- 
 struction and increase the usefulness of the contemplated eastern 
 and northern yards. Not only positive measures, meeting reasonable 
 requests half way; but negative ones, such as restrictive ordinances 
 concerning the noise, smoke, and the protection of grade crossings 
 within city limits, will accelerate the improvement. 
 
 Bounded on three sides by rivers, beyond which lies the bulk 
 of the city's population, the location of bridges is a matter that 
 strongly affects the business section. There is demand now for a 
 new bridge which will facilitate intercourse between the South 
 Side and that portion of the West Side which is south of Main Street; 
 also between the latter and that part of the future business area 
 which is south of Court Street. The fact that the Cathedral is on 
 the West Side south of Main has given vigor to this demand, though 
 it must soon have arisen in any case. 
 
 The only single structure that can meet the two fold need is a 
 bridge spanning the Chenango, just above its confluence with the 
 Susquehanna. The ideal traffic location would have been one 
 directly connecting Susquehanna Street with Le Roy. At the time 
 of my first visit to Binghamton the necessary land on the West Side 
 was vacant. Since then there has been commenced the erection of a 
 house so costly as effectually to block the project. 
 
 It may be assumed that the city will ascertain at just what point 
 the bridge can be now most economically constructed and the necessary 
 property most cheaply acquired. After the recent experience, 
 business sense suggests that this action be taken promptly and the 
 approaches condemned, even though actual construction of the bridge 
 be postponed for some time. From appearances, the most advanta- 
 geous place would seem to be a point about midway between LeRoy 
 
— * sS*^ 
 
 THE STREET PLAN I h^ i 
 
 i^ 
 
 Street and Riverside Drive, where the river is a little narrower and 
 the houses less expensive. But the one matter of concern to this 
 discussion is that a bridge across the Chenango, from the city 
 planning point of view, appears more important than one across 
 the Susquehanna. A reason for this is the anticipated business 
 development south of Court Street, as well as north of it, and the 
 circumstance that a bridge which brought into lower Water and 
 Washington Streets a considerable tide of high class travel from the 
 West Side would bring a higher grade of business into those streets 
 and so give to them a better character. In so doing, it would extend 
 the area, now quite circumscribed, that is available for first-class 
 retail stores. 
 
 But the business of a town is not all commercial. In a manu- 
 facturing city, at least, the industrial districts, in which the money 
 is made, are of quite as much civic importance as is the commercial, 
 in which it is spent. 
 
 There ought to be more than one industrial section. In an ideal 
 development of a city there would be a number of such districts 
 limited in area, all having railroad facilities, and all so located as 
 to do the least possible injury to costly residence property, by 
 means of smoke, odor, noise, and heavy trucking. Two such factory 
 districts are now developing within the corporate limits of Bing- 
 hamton, and there are of course a number of factories near the 
 center of the city while other large plants are located beyond its 
 western line. Of the districts I especially refer to, one is between 
 the railroads and Main Street, east of Glenwood Avenue. The other 
 is north of Robinson Street, along the D. & H. and the Lackawanna's 
 Syracuse branch. Both are capable of growth and they are so 
 admirably located, not only as respects the factors already named, 
 but as regards the very important one of proximity to inexpensive 
 home sections, that their growth is to be encouraged. 
 
 From the street planning point of view, the section north of 
 Main Street and east of Glenwood Avenue needs the transformation 
 of Industrial Avenue into something more worthy of its name, and 
 worthy of the importance to Binghamton of the travel that uses it. 
 The street should be extended through to Glenwood at easy grade, 
 should be well drained, and given a good strong pavement — such 
 
as stone block, quiet not being necessary here. There is need also 
 of better — that is to say, in particular, of safer — communication 
 with the inexpensive residence district north of the tracks. As this 
 will naturally house the greater number of the employees, it is most 
 advisable to promote its accessibility. We may observe, however, 
 that the intercourse will be almost wholly by foot and that south 
 of the tracks the limited space is more valuable for factory sites 
 than for streets. I suggest, therefore, that a footbridge over the 
 tracks, as an extension of Rogers Street, would probably best serve 
 the affected sections. This would cost so little, and large shippers 
 so easily gain access to the ears of railroad officials, that it is prob- 
 able that there would be no difficulty in obtaining the consent of 
 the latter corporations to bear their share of the construction costs. 
 
 With regard to the section along the railroads between Robinson 
 and Bevier Streets, it seems to me that this has great possibilities. 
 From a civic standpoint, its location as an industrial site is almost 
 ideal; and as much cheap land can be here reclaimed and made 
 valuable, and as there is ample housing space, I think that every- 
 thing possible should be done — if it is desired to make Binghamton 
 a manufacturing city — to fit that section for industrial purposes. 
 
 West of the tracks is a large area, wet and vacant. By carrying 
 the creek directly into the Chenango near the city line, where it comes 
 within a thousand feet of the river, it should be easy to drain this 
 region and make it available for factory sites. Then State Street, 
 leading pretty directly, for all its twistings, and at even grade, from 
 this section to the business district, should be developed as a heavy 
 traffic street. The tract should be cut into large plats, suitable 
 for manufacturing; while in the unplatted region to the east narrow 
 and inexpensive streets, so close as to make shallow lots — lots of, 
 say, eighty-feet depth, with occasional play areas reserved in the 
 interior of the blocks — should be laid out. Other streets should 
 wind attractively, at easy grade, up the hill sides. In all this work, 
 Binghamton has opportunity for some scientific town planning that 
 should bear rich fruit. By co-operation among the land owners 
 and the exercise of municipal control, conditions should be created 
 here that would make Binghamton so attractive to industry that 
 Endicott's lure would fail. 
 
THE STREET PLAN 
 
 There remains the need for a good factory section near the center 
 of the city. My judgment is that Noyes Island should have that 
 kind of development. I know some persons will be disappointed at 
 the conclusion, but we have to recognize that to live a city must do 
 business, that some of its manufacturing must be close in town, and 
 that Binghamton has no lack of centrally located park sites that are 
 of equal promise aesthetically and more pleasantly accessible. 
 
 i v ■■ 
 
 Vi 
 
 ■*.•■ 
 
 
 dStt&St J v^V 
 
 
 * >r ^ffi* 
 
 A^.-'-'.jr^: 
 
 '■ - 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 * w ^**s 
 
 VkS: ,¥l rf i *i~. 
 
 &< ■■•■■■• -\- 
 
 
 
 
 
 *Z&K#Mi 
 
 
 
 -'■• ■;- ; -;* , . : - -' ; "^-"V-'^S 1 -^"' '- 
 
 ™ 
 
 j^o-l; 
 
 
 
 
 ~ - 
 
 
 
 is 
 
 SfSStSSSS^ "SJ^JSTf 
 
 There is no other area of such extent, centrally located, to which 
 railroad facilities can be given with the same ease. The tract con- 
 tributes nothing now to the beauty of its neighborhood, so that no 
 values would be destroyed in dedicating it to manufacture. Even 
 as regards the one block of Prospect Avenue, and where indeed 
 houses are on only one side of the street, the photograph shows how 
 the wild growth already to be found on portions of the street's 
 other side could be made to conceal the low situated factories and their 
 chimneys. And in any case the latter would not be nearly as immi- 
 nent as are the car barns. The island site, with all its convenience 
 
^^>j BETTER BINGHAM TON jK? ^ 
 
 for industry and central location, is so isolated as not to interfere 
 with commercial development; and while the point has been made 
 that the location here of a park would make a good impression upon 
 travelers seeing it from the trains, this is by no means a conclusive 
 argument. There are many travelers who would be as much 
 impressed by the view of an up-to-date industrial section as by that 
 of a park. 
 
 Leaving now the comparatively restricted business and industrial 
 areas, we have to consider those aspects of the street system which 
 more intimately concern the larger residence sections. The great 
 need here is the creation of through highways. On the West Side, 
 only Front, Clinton and Main are such thoroughfares, and of these 
 Front Street is practically a marginal avenue, having almost no 
 travel which goes all the way through, for it runs at right angles to 
 the main traffic stream. The South Side is fairly well provided for, 
 with Conklin, Vestal, Pennsylvania and Park Avenues and DeRussey 
 Street. So also is the North Side, with State and Chenango Streets, 
 though a good change here would be the extension of Liberty 
 Street to State. If there is to be the suggested industrial develop- 
 ment at the north end, with consequent influx of population, the 
 need for this correction of street plan will be urgently felt. The 
 East Side has Court Street, Robinson Street, and several long 
 north and south streets. 
 
 It appears, then, that the greatest need for the provision of 
 some through thoroughfares is on the large and populous West Side; 
 and it is just where, owing to high property values, any attempt 
 to create them will be most expensive. Only essential and simple 
 changes, therefore, can be undertaken. From Front Street, Main 
 Street slowly turns until its direction is northwest. This leaves 
 the westward spreading city with no direct approach to the business 
 district. The result of the handicap is seen in the stretches of vacant 
 property and in the fact that, while to the northwest the city is 
 built up far beyond the city line (which is itself two miles from the 
 Court House) to the direct west, there is little beyond Laurel Avenue 
 — one mile from the Court House. 
 
 An early and easily accomplished improvement would be the 
 westward extension of LeRoy Street, and subsequently of the streets 
 
on either side of it, to meet Riverside Drive. This would open a 
 large and important territory. Seminary Avenue especially should 
 be extended westward at once. 
 
 Nearly a half mile north of the extended line of LeRoy Street 
 is Highland Avenue, which goes west to the city line. But its 
 important eastern end is a cul de sac at Beethoven Street, and persons 
 bound for the stores and offices in the city now have to go out of 
 their way four blocks to reach a street that will take them directly 
 into the business district. Had Highland Avenue been extended 
 directly eastward very little more than that, it would have inter- 
 cepted Main Street about a half mile nearer the city than its travelers 
 can now reach that thoroughfare. This would have made an immense 
 difference in the development of the section which Highland Avenue 
 taps. As one link of the extension already exists, in Gary Street, 
 and as three other blocks are included in the vacant Bennett tract, 
 through which — even were it transformed into a park — the street 
 could be very delightfully extended to Laurel Avenue, it is not 
 perhaps too much to suggest that the whole extension be made. 
 The cost of the two last blocks of it, from Clarke to Main, would, 
 of course, be large; but over against this cost is to be placed the 
 resulting increase of assessable values in all the large district which 
 Highland Avenue serves. Expressed in figures, the extension would 
 provide a cut off of 2200 feet in lieu of the present roundabout 
 course of 4000 feet. The new High School as well as the business 
 district would be brought that much nearer to the homes to which 
 Highland Avenue would furnish an arterial approach; crowded 
 Main Street would be relieved of some of its traffic, and there would 
 be opened a new and far pleasanter approach to the western part of 
 the city. 
 
 A third important street extension project on the West Side 
 should make its purpose the tying of isolated Grand Boulevard into 
 the street system. Fortunately, it is not difficult to do this. Ending 
 abruptly now at Schiller Street, the Boulevard is prevented by a 
 small jog from direct connection with Haendel Street. As the south- 
 west corner of Grand Boulevard and Schiller Street and the opposite 
 corner of Haendel Street are vacant, nothing serious prevents the 
 elimination of the jog by a graceful curve. Then Haendel can be 
 
easily widened to Beethoven, thus carrying Grand Boulevard's 
 broad sweep forward. Beyond Beethoven is the little triangle 
 which, I understand, the city already owns. The use of this extends 
 the improvement to Mendelssohn Street. Haendel proceeds a short 
 block further, to Laurel Avenue. Then as an extension of it, though 
 with a slight jog (which would come out when the two streets were 
 widened), is Catherine Street. This brings Grand Boulevard to 
 Clarke Street, whence one block of new street would carry it to 
 Main. 
 
 A beauty of this plan is that it provides a short connection of 
 Highland Avenue with Main Street. Should Highland Avenue's 
 direct extension be thought too expensive, this would be of enormous 
 value. Highland Avenue, carried one block through the vacant 
 Bennett tract, strikes Haydn Street, which carries it immediately 
 into the proposed Grand Boulevard extension. Thus the short new 
 street westward from the corner of Main and Cedar Streets would 
 be an outlet for both Highland Avenue and Grand Boulevard, for 
 the former even more directly than for the latter, and incidentally 
 it would be an outlet for all the streets they serve. For its length, 
 it would be one of the most important streets in Binghamton. 
 
 At its west end, Grand Boulevard can be, and should be, pro- 
 longed the short interval to Grand Avenue. 
 
 The frequency of jogs or breaks in the Binghamton street 
 system has been referred to in the preceding pages. Indeed, it 
 has more than once appeared in considering a short prolongation of 
 even two streets, and is a matter that must be touched upon in 
 discussing the street plan. Roughly speaking, all instances of 
 irregular street connection may be divided into two classes: Those 
 which mean a breaking of through lines of travel, such as the instances 
 we have already considered, and those which are only rather 
 picturesque irregularities in strictly minor streets. Of the latter, 
 Frederick Street, on the North Side, is an example. 
 
 It is clear that in the street platting a couple of hard right angles 
 were used where the traffic itself took easy and graceful curves, and 
 that thereby good garden space was sacrificed and an ugly effect 
 substituted for one that might be beautiful. Thus Frederick Street 
 serves as an admirable type of a large class of improvements in 
 
-£- 
 
 THE STREET PLAN 
 
 street arrangement, where the awkwardness of existing jogs, and 
 their danger and delay to traffic, could easily be transformed into 
 positive beauty of alignment with an elimination of all danger and 
 delay. Among small residence streets of no traffic significance, some 
 little irregularity of street connection, such as Frederick Street's, is 
 not a bad thing, if it be managed carefully. It provides house sites 
 with pleasant views down the street; it makes possible an archi- 
 
 ll 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Mite; '1 
 
 
 4; .-fc jPW* it^ 
 
 §f tm 
 
 - ■*--;. : i ^T- , 
 
 lit! 
 
 tfnii ;| 
 
 iJ=iS'-'^ 
 
 
 
 "..•• - ~ -_^^~ -^% 
 
 S*SB,g &r=g 
 
 ■3 ^Wl '.' V - ^_.4- 
 ir£~ lit?" | « ' ->: if '.'it 
 
 
 
 5*|r.S 
 
 ggg 
 
 tectural accent to give charm to the vista of the street; and it tends 
 to promote that quiet which many persons desire in a residence 
 street, by diverting through travel to less broken thoroughfares. 
 
 It is not necessary to attempt to name every irregular street 
 connection of Binghamton which might be thus improved by sub- 
 stituting a curved connection for two right angles. Often there will 
 be need of willingness to give and take on the part of the residents, 
 in that co-operation from which alone true civic progress can result. 
 Each case, too, will need separate planning; but these plans are not 
 difficult to make. Let those who live near any such irregular con- 
 
nection examine the obvious possibilities of their own corner, and 
 then test the readiness of neighbors to promote the improvement. 
 If that be present, the city engineer can make a satisfactory plan. 
 By such measures as this more can be done to improve the aspect of 
 a city, and to correct the kinks of its street system, than would be 
 realized. After all, a city planner can only suggest; it is for the 
 people themselves, in the main, to do. 
 
 There is a final word to be said with reference to the street plan. 
 This is with regard to street car routes. Trolley lines take the 
 streets, and if there be not direct streets there will not be that direct, 
 quick and cheap transportation which is so essential for the upbuild- 
 ing of cities and the prevention of housing congestion. I do not 
 know that I can put the matter in a more practical way, or more 
 authoritatively, than by quoting from the report of the committee 
 of the New York Board of Estimate and Apportionment appointed 
 to solve the subway problem. The report quoted is that which 
 was accepted as the correct solution. It recites the following as 
 fundamental conclusions: 
 
 That future rapid transit lines should follow as closely as possible 
 the development of a logical and well-ordered city plan. 
 
 That the city should provide, as rapidly as the means at its command 
 permit, not only for relief of congested areas, but for the opening of lines 
 through those sections that, though relatively undeveloped, offer prom- 
 ising opportunity for the better distribution of population. 
 
 That the location of particular routes should be determined by the 
 city, for the city's reasons, and not necessarily to conform to plans 
 proposed by operating companies. 
 
 It is for this reason that the extension of LeRoy Street is partic- 
 ularly desirable, and that an eastward extension of Highland Avenue 
 direct to Main is to be urged, even though that avenue be given a 
 pretty convenient connection through the Grand Boulevard exten- 
 sion. Grand Boulevard should be reserved for driving only. In 
 our plans for its development no provision has been made for trolley 
 tracks, and with the cars on Main Street, paralleling the Boulevard's 
 whole course at a distance of only a block, it has no need for car 
 tracks. It should be a show avenue of the city and reserved for 
 light driving. To put tracks on the first three blocks of its extension 
 
THE STREET PLAN 
 
 would be, therefore, to hinder greatly the realization of its particular 
 function in the city plan. On the other hand, Highland Avenue, 
 penetrating a beautiful home section which has no street car facil- 
 ities, does need them, and unless the cars are given a direct means 
 of reaching Main Street, the pressure to put them upon the extended 
 portion of Grand Boulevard may prove resistless. In making street 
 plans, it is necessary to take not the broad new only, but the long 
 view ahead. 
 
 This can never be secured if the matter is left so largely as now 
 to individual tract owners. Plans of proposed subdivisions should 
 be submitted before execution to a competent official authority — - 
 as your present city engineer; and his authority should be rein- 
 forced by some new ordinances. One of these would name a max- 
 imum gradient, forbidding him to recommend the acceptance of 
 any street having a greater grade, or the council to accept it. This 
 is a most urgent need in a city surrounded by hills, which the 
 streets are already beginning to climb. Another ordinance should 
 rescind the present minimum width — which may be absurdly 
 unreasonable under certain conditions — and allow the acceptance 
 of much narrower streets', that are not arterial, provided a building 
 frontage line be established which will insure such space between 
 the structures on either side as will secure light, air, and the proper 
 amenities, and give opportunity for subsequent inexpensive widen- 
 ing should the necessity arise. This is a large subject, second to no 
 other in its importance to the community. For full discussion of 
 it, I must refer to my new book — wholly devoted to this subject — 
 "The Width and Arrangement of Streets."- 
 
 In recognizing that the further growth of Binghamton must 
 mean almost directly the extension of its streets to the encom- 
 passing hills, and in warning against permitting excessive grades, 
 it should be stated perhaps that cuts are also to be avoided. The 
 streets should undoubtedly climb the hills, so opening to occu- 
 pancy delightful viewpoints and most healthful situations; but 
 they should do their climbing by easy grades. As directness is not 
 a matter of importance on streets that are of little traffic or arterial 
 value, they can wind very deliberately on the hillsides, with steeper 
 footpaths offering short cuts to pedestrians. And in all this 
 
winding of the streets, the curve, not the angle, must be made 
 use of. In America we are just beginning to appreciate the delight- 
 fulness of a curving street — especially for residence; and there is 
 not a city where it could be used with a pleasanter effectiveness, or 
 withal more fittingly, than in Binghamton, on the girdle of softly 
 moulded hills. 
 
 The hills offer, also, one other great advantage from the street 
 planning point of view. This is conspicuousness of site for important 
 buildings. Official, educational, charitable and other institutions, 
 if placed on plateaus, or on hill sides, gain for themselves an air of 
 splendor and impart a distinction to a town or city that must be lost 
 to it if they are given commonplace sites. The effectiveness of the 
 State Hospital location in Binghamton is illustrative of this point. 
 
3. Parks, Playgrounds and Pleasure Drives 
 
 ^N studying the improvement possibilities of Bing- 
 hamton, there is reached in a chapter on Parks, 
 Playgrounds and Pleasure Drives that aspect of 
 the subject which appeals to most people. This is 
 always the case, but it must be particularly so where 
 a town has such exquisite setting, so that beauty 
 lies all around one, and to lift the eye is to see the 
 gentle hills in their ever changing lights. Even through 
 the street pattern of the city the two rivers draw 
 broad threads of beauty; the insistent hills close street vistas; 
 ravines, full of romance and mystery, venture to the very city 
 limits, and any slight exertion to reach a higher level is repaid by 
 the spreading out of a panorama of surprising loveliness. It is 
 inevitable that one should think of parks where beauty is so cheap; 
 it seems impossible that any drive, suitably constructed, should not 
 give pleasure. It is inconceivable that a city so located should not 
 have aspirations, forever inspired anew, whatever its own shortcomings. 
 
 Court House Square 
 
 67 
 
But this must be a practical discussion. Let us consider first 
 the parks which the city has, and then take up the question of 
 supplementing them, if there be need of so doing. At the very- 
 heart of the city is the Court House Square — beautiful with its rich 
 turf and great trees, in spite of fundamental weaknesses of design. 
 It is of incalculable value. Imagine the commonplaceness of the 
 business section of Binghamton without that focus, and measuring 
 the value of the plat by the cost of the adjacent land estimate its 
 monetary value, the impossibility of duplicating this possession and 
 the extent of the investment it now represents. Care should be 
 taken to secure an adequate return. 
 
 Assuming all the structures in the park to be permanent fixtures, 
 let there be resolve, first, that there be no additions to their number. 
 Second, that the social service of the park — the service for which its 
 location particularly fits it — be extended, by increasing the number 
 of benches, allowing them to be placed in the front and side yards 
 beside the walks and under the great trees. Some of these benches 
 should be reserved for women and children. Third, the jail — it is 
 
 Park benches assembled under grated windows 
 
 68 
 
^ 
 
 needless to speak now of the place of honor which the citizens have 
 given to it — should be as much concealed as possible. The whole 
 situation at present, park benches assembled under grated windows, 
 is grotesque in the extreme as one looks at those outside, and cor- 
 respondingly pitiful as one thinks of- those within. I suggest that 
 the real jail yard be definitely screened off, by planting a hedge of 
 poplars, with lower growing evergreens to hide the spaces between the 
 trunks, parallel to the jail's east wall. This will set off the space 
 where the park seats now are. Fourth, the necessity of correcting 
 the present arrangement having compelled a beginning of this work, 
 there is reason for carrying it further by "planting out" the exceed- 
 ingly conspicuous public comfort station. Just why this was put 
 underground instead of above, is not clear, for certainly there is 
 not the slightest privacy or concealment about it now. As a surface 
 structure, it might have been made more presentable, and it would 
 not have occupied more space nor have intruded more plainly upon 
 the park. But the cost of semi-underground construction having 
 been borne, the undoubted advantage which that gives, in the 
 
 -~~ : 
 
 - — . _~. 
 
 t. 
 
 i 
 
 .-. ._:.. . :- . .■ ■ • - - ■ '-- ■■■■- ■---■ ->- 
 
 Conspicuous public comfort stations 
 69 
 
possibility of hiding it in a pleasant clump of shrubbery, ought 
 certainly to be availed of. On the street front, where there is not 
 room for informal shrubbery, there is space for a hedge. Fifth, 
 having been obliged thus to detach somewhat the southeast corner 
 of the square, an effect markedly increased by the lower level of 
 those grounds, so that they appear quite separate even without the 
 border plantations, I suggest that the timid walk Avhich now slinks 
 to the back door of the Court House be made firm and strong, 
 straightened, broadened, and carried through to Collier Street. 
 The City Hall's Frenchy facade is directly on its axis; the walk can 
 be made a main approach — it would have no little convenience; and 
 from it will be opened the best view of the City Hall. Of course the 
 jail is uncomfortably near; but it is near everything, and as park 
 
 benches are now located 
 to allow people to sit and 
 look at it, the suggestion 
 that it would be seen with 
 the tail of the eye as one 
 gazed at the City Hall 
 seems hypercritical. The 
 City Hall is the building 
 which officially stands 
 for Binghamton, and the 
 county being so well 
 represented it does not 
 seem too much to attempt 
 in this way to add a little 
 dignity to the city's 
 building. 
 
 Binghamton has little 
 else in the way of small 
 city parks. The triangle 
 at Schubert, Haydn and 
 Mendelssohn Streets is 
 featureless and nearly flat. 
 The young maples plant- 
 Timid walk back of court House ed irregularly around its 
 
PARKS, PLAYGROUNDS, PLEASURE DRIVES 
 
 edge will some day make a pleasant play of shadow on a well clipped 
 lawn. A large mounded bed of bright flowers, in the center of the 
 plat, or eventually a monument to one of the great musicians whom 
 the surrounding streets commemorate, or sculpture that represents 
 the spirit of music itself, will be the proper development to give to 
 it. Meanwhile, with well kept turf and neat curbs, the city can set 
 an example and get a pretty little park space at small cost. 
 
 Howard Park, so-called, is a forty-foot planting strip with a 
 roadway on each side of it. It is thickly crowded with trees, which 
 need thinning out so that order may be given to them, and then 
 some shrubbery should be put in to define the lines still further. 
 Only an orderly, regular and formal effect can be satisfactory here. 
 
 There are a couple of vacant lots to which children are admitted, 
 and far over on the South Side is the Kent Playground, a sloping 
 city square for which the development plans have not yet been fully 
 carried out. Also on the South Side, work has commenced for the 
 reclaiming of a strip of riverbank by filling in the bed of the old 
 canal. This is a good thing to do, though the outlook from the site 
 
 Present outlook from the new South Side Park 
 
 71 
 
^^ 
 
 of the proposed park is not such as to promise much attractiveness 
 for it if the work stops there. 
 
 t- These little spaces, of which only two are now enough developed 
 to permit of any use, are a very slender equipment of small parks 
 and playgrounds for a city of 50,000 people. When it is added that 
 the two large parks of the city are at the city line, so that most 
 visitors must ride to reach them, and it is recalled that of the parks 
 mentioned only one has possibility of active social service — and 
 that for children alone — save as the ministry of beauty serves, it is 
 clear that in this busy manufacturing town, where some day a large 
 population is likely to crowd a limited area, the park need is not 
 wholly, nor most vitally, aesthetic. 
 
 There is need for a conveniently located athletic field, where 
 factory employees can get wholesome exercise in the open air. In 
 this time of monotonous piece-work, deadening to brain and to all 
 but a single set of muscles, this is a more urgent necessity than ever 
 before in the history of the world. There is need of the correspond- 
 ing provision for women employees, only their requirement is not 
 so much for athletic exercise as for fresh air, tranquility, and rest 
 places that are accessible at the noon hour. There is need of play 
 facilities, for the children of the crowded streets as much as for 
 those at the far edge of the South Side. And there is need at last 
 of making available to the people of Binghamton, the comfortable 
 enjoyment of that natural beauty which is the city's best asset. 
 
 If the five small parks described do not provide these things, 
 even when supplemented by the two distant large parks, let us ask 
 ourselves how they can be provided. 
 
 With regard to the athletic fields for operatives in the factories, 
 it should be noted that these are not only desirable from a humani- 
 tarian and social standpoint, but are so worth while economically, 
 in promoting the contentment and increasing the efficiency of labor, 
 that they are frequently established and maintained at the private 
 expense of large employers. From some points of view, this is 
 much less desirable than their community provision; but it is a 
 convincing evidence of their value. Obviously, such recreative 
 fields should be located near the main industrial sections, and yet 
 where shouting will not be a disturbance to home sections. 
 
PARKS, PLAYGROUNDS, PLEASURE DRIVES 
 
 2£s 
 
 It will be recalled that three industrial districts were selected: 
 one in the western part of the city, one in the center, and one at 
 the north end. The two latter— Noyes Island and the district east 
 of Upper State Street — are close together. It would be desirable 
 to find, if possible, a good site for an athletic field that would be 
 accessible to both. An ideal field can be found in precisely such 
 
location. This is just north of the race track, and is a low, level 
 meadow already used for baseball. I append some photographs 
 taken of it from different view points. These indicate the beauty 
 of its outlook and its nearness to the factories and to the homes. 
 In addition to these advantages, it has street car facilities through 
 its proximity to State and Chenango Streets. It is sufficiently 
 isolated and yet it is in such plain sight from State Street that it 
 would be possible to watch the games from there. New and con- 
 venient entrances might be made to the grounds from State Street. 
 Furthermore, the ground is of so little value for other purposes that 
 it is inexpensive. 
 
 With reference to a site near the industrial section at the west 
 end, it appeared to me that there were possibilities in the old brick 
 yard north of the tracks. A good deal of filling would be necessary, 
 but that is not expensive and does not take long. 
 
 With reference to the second need — tranquil rest places that 
 would be of special benefit to the tired women workers — two inter- 
 esting facts may be put side by side. Every part of the city has a 
 river boundary. A broad, majestic, soothing river, flowing for the 
 most part between banks fringed with trees, or that might be so 
 fringed, and carrying — as rivers always do — a current of cool air. 
 
Beside this fact put this other, recalling that in Binghamton the 
 percentage of women operatives is unusually large: "The most 
 glaring excess of deaths from any one class of diseases in Bing- 
 hamton is from diseases of the nervous system." It is clear that 
 quite apart from aesthetic considerations, fact one and fact two 
 may well be put together. Indeed, the opportunity which the city 
 possesses in its rivers is extraordinary. Talk about conserving the 
 waterpower of rivers, how much better is the conservation of human 
 life, of civic health and happiness, and of human energy by making 
 use of the rivers ! 
 
 There are two other curious facts with regard to the possible 
 improvement of the riverbanks which may well be put side by side. 
 The first is that every one with whom I talked in Binghamton, or 
 who ~_senf communications to me, spoke of the riverbanks as the 
 city's ^great aesthetic opportunity. The second fact is that among 
 the^municipal ordinances the only reference that I find to this great 
 asset of the city is that garbage and the bodies of dead animals 
 shall not be thrown upon the banks of the rivers. It would appear 
 that the popular opinion is far in advance of municipal legislation. 
 But that is a condition which never persists for long. 
 
 I find that the city's one ordinance with reference to the river- 
 banks is not well observed, and that at the time of the water carnival 
 the people who watch the boating from the bank opposite the 
 Remlik Club sit, if not in sackcloth, at least in ashes, which is an 
 extraordinary way to sit for a carnival. But the riverbank situation 
 is so well known in Binghamton and so fully appreciated, that the 
 city may well be spared the humiliation of a public recital of 
 present conditions. It will be more tactful at least to let the 
 photographs do the speaking. 
 
^ 
 
 BETTER BINGHAMTON 
 
 M 
 
 Taking the north shore of the Susquehanna first, beginning oppo- 
 site the Remlik Club near the Tompkins Street Bridge, let us proceed 
 down stream. 
 
PARKS, PLAYGROUNDS, PLEASURE DRIVES 
 
 The views near the Exchange Street Bridge are interesting, as 
 comprising the outlook from the new park which the city is con- 
 structing on the south bank. To these I append views from other 
 cities, showing how the like conditions have been treated. 
 
 n 
 
 h 
 
 ■ - 
 
 PBTv 
 
 "■3*? 
 wr 
 
 1 
 
 
 -. »*«s^l v^jft^^SS 
 
 '1 
 
 '.. .' 'is* 
 
 
 '■ l u 
 
 RS 
 
 ' -«« 
 
 
 -,A/45;. ., ■' 
 
 ■ ^ijiliis 
 
 ■'■ ' "" ' .'■."'•"■:: ■■-"'"■ r ?-- ,-"■-' ■"^-?? j *"i .; •'- ill -':."- -_> 
 
 s 
 
 
 Looking north from 
 the riverbank 
 
 Compare values 
 
 created by present 
 
 conditions with 
 
 those a block away, 
 
 as evidenced in high 
 
 buildings 
 
 :^E3%mM& 
 
Little Ogdensburg has only a third of the population of Bing- 
 hamton, and it has proportionately just as much riverfront, the 
 heart of the city being — as in Binghamton — at the junction of two 
 rivers. Yet, when I was called there to make suggestions for the 
 improvement of the city, I found the riverbanks already for the 
 most part beautified. What Ogdensburg so easily did with the 
 sloping banks, Binghamton can do as well; while at the top of the 
 bank, there is, in the existing streets, Emerson Place, South Street, 
 and Wall Street, the chance to make such attractive river border 
 walk and drive as Cambridge has constructed along the Charles. 
 That the improvement of the abutting property would pay for 
 all this is clear at a glance. 
 
PARKS, PLAYGROUNDS, PLEASURE DRIVES 
 
 i$ 
 
 North bank of the Susquehanna, looking east from Washington Street, Blnghamton 
 This is only two blocks from Court Street 
 
 
 
 #§S3 
 
 Photographed 6y J. Horace McFarland Co. 
 
 A city park on the bank of the Susquehanna at Harrisburg. Why not in Binghamton ? 
 
 79 
 
BETTER BINGHAM TON 
 
 m 
 
 
 Sio^-iT..::" «%<>&.■ 
 
 tfi^Bp^jssaBpEs^s* II'. 
 
 The junction of the rivers — a beauty spot of historic interest at almost the geographical center 
 of Blnghamton. Its message to Binghamtonians. 
 
As to the north shore of the Susquehanna, from the Tompkins 
 Street Bridge to the Point, the pictures have told a story which 
 every Binghamtonian can apply with appreciation of its practica- 
 bility. It is amazing how easily and inexpensively the improvement 
 can be made. In fact, there is no question that it will much more 
 than pay for itself in the enhanced value of property. We have to 
 remember, also, that the South Side river bank park, now under 
 construction from the Washington Street Bridge to above Exchange 
 Street, is going to insure a pleasing outlook from a North Side park, 
 while the converse of this — as already suggested — is that the North 
 Side improvement is required, if for no other reason than to secure 
 maximum results from the investment on the South Side. As a man 
 would not put up a fine house and leave his grounds unimproved, so 
 a city should not build a riverbank park and leave ash piles where 
 people who are trying to enjoy the park must look at them. 
 
 One or two other points are to be noted. While it has been 
 suggested that the improvement of the riverbanks in the simple and 
 
 Photographed by J. Horace McFarland Co. 
 
 Another view of the benefit the city of Harrlsburg gains from the river 
 
 SI 
 
inexpensive manner proposed would mean much to women opera- 
 tives, its benefits would not by any means be confined to them. They 
 are spoken of only because no other park improvement would do 
 for them quite as much as would this. Every citizen, however, 
 would enjoy the riverbanks, and I would urge that in the broad 
 space available just east of Washington Street, there be developed 
 a children's playground, north of the promenade and drive. It 
 would be conveniently located, in a section that offers no other play 
 facilities to children, and in its relative isolation it would so concen- 
 trate their activities at an unobjectionable point that the enjoyment 
 by adults of all the rest of the strip of riverbank would be enhanced. 
 
 The Intersection of Water and Washington Streets, Binghamton 
 
 I append a sketch which gives an idea for the improvement of 
 The Point and for the now very awkward intersection of Water 
 and Washington Streets. My thought is that the drive, which will 
 necessarily be close to the edge at South Street and Emerson Place, 
 should here be far enough back to leave space for a footpath to wind 
 pleasantly, amid low clumps of shrubbery, in full view of the rivers; 
 that at the apex of The Point a circular outlook should be built up, 
 with a stone parapet and seats around it; and that the greensward 
 

 I 
 
 X 
 
 39 <3'V92!?W19NIH£\/M 
 
 133V1S t/31VM 
 
on Water Street, enclosed by the loop of the drive, should be left 
 unbroken, unless, at some future time, a pioneer monument or 
 historic tablet is placed there. Then the drive is to be carried 
 across the two streets in pleasant fashion to continue the length of 
 the riverside park east of Washington Street. Beyond Exchange 
 Street, it would connect with South Street, and so proceed on exist- 
 ing thoroughfares — now, however, transformed by the park of which 
 they would be boundary — to the Tompkins Street Bridge. 
 
 For the whole length of this park, as also through the park on 
 the South Side of the river, there should be lights at near intervals 
 along the promenade — a single globe on a concrete pillar. At night 
 these will be reflected in the water, and from the opposite shore 
 will gleam charmingly through the trees and amid the foliage, so 
 stringing through the city a necklace of romance. Prosaically, 
 also, lights are the best policemen. Finally, with the accomplishment 
 of this riverbank improvement, there will appear the new value 
 attaching to broadened and straightened Isbell Street, as the direct 
 connection between the river park and the Court House Square. 
 
 With reference to the South Side of the Susquehanna, the photo- 
 graphs that follow best suggest its possibilities and the work that 
 
 View from Exchange St. Bridge, showing bed of the old canal — the site of the South SidePark 
 
BETTER BINGHAM TON 
 
 m 
 
 .las-s^t . /: _^l"^: 
 
 Beginning of the South Side Park, near the Washington Street Bridge 
 
 
 
 ,=e 
 
 "JL*&-- 
 
 
 M ■ 
 
 r5frS=P*^p5^j>jffi3 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 W±f-~~ 
 
 
 
 
 »■- 
 
 ' 
 
 Bed of old canal which is being filled for the park 
 
 84 
 
 --41 
 
PARKS, PLAYGROUNDS, PLEASURE DRIVES 
 
 Site of South Side Park, looking west from New Street 
 
 Distant view showing trees on the site of the South Side Park 
 
is being done there. It is an admirable undertaking, worthy of 
 the spirit that will remake Binghamton ; and yet, of all the possible 
 riverbank improvements in the city, this is the one which will, at 
 once, benefit the smallest number of people and require the longest 
 to complete. The city having ventured to undertake this, should 
 not hesitate concerning the north bank project. Nor having made 
 so good beginning on the South Side, should it fail to carry a drive 
 at least along the big curve of the riverbank all the way to Tompkins 
 Street, passing just back of the Remlik Club and so looping up the 
 North Side drive. It is all open land — though the maps, we must 
 hope prophetically, show such a drive laid out here. Eventually, 
 it should be carried further up stream. 
 
 As to the banks of the Chenango, my attention was early called 
 to a proposal for a drive on the West Side from Court Street down. 
 It is not a plan that I would advocate. Thanks to the Front Street 
 gardens, the city already has here, at no public cost, a stretch of 
 beautiful riverbank — the only beautiful stretch it has. With much 
 to be done for the city's improvement, it will be wiser to change the 
 ugly into the beautiful than to try to better what is already pretty 
 satisfactory. Moreover, there is some question in my mind whether 
 the drive would be an improvement as seen from the East Side or 
 from Court Street Bridge. Residents, in order to protect their 
 property from trespass, would be likely to put up walls ; and instead" 
 of the long stretches of tree shaded, sloping lawns, with informal 
 waterline, now to be seen, there would be a spic and span retaining 
 wall, a drive and then wall beyond. And even with the land a gift, 
 it would be an expensive bit of work, with not half the popular 
 benefit which the parking of the higher north bank of the Susque- 
 hanna would give. 
 
 The Chenango's East Side, however, is a very different proposi- 
 tion. Northward from the triangle at The Point, which I have 
 proposed should be parked, Water Street runs so close to the river 
 that it is inevitable that shacks, or very small houses, should be the 
 only construction on the shallow lots. Another result, however, of 
 the shallowness of the lots is that the land has slight value, so that 
 the expenditure of a very little money would here go a long way in 
 clearing the bank and improving Water Street. A low wall, with 
 
^- 
 
 sloping tree-fringed banks, the clearance of buildings from the strip 
 along the top, and the construction of a footpath is all that is neces- 
 sary. It would be desirable, of course, to carry the improvement all 
 the way to Court Street; but that would be rather costly, and it is 
 to be supposed that with the redemption of the rivers, and their 
 dedication to public enjoyment, there will be created a public senti- 
 ment which will make impossible such disfigurement of the property 
 in private hands as may be seen in the hideous signs that now form 
 the leading feature of the view from Court Street Bridge. 
 
 Above Court Street, where Wall Street becomes the marginal 
 thoroughfare, and there is no building space between street and river, 
 improvements have been already authorized. But they fall far 
 short of what they should have been — not through the failure of the 
 city engineer to perceive what could be and should be done, but 
 because of the meagreness of the appropriation. There was a chance 
 to do here, at once — in carrying out the plan for a concrete retaining 
 wall, topped by a balustrade, and straightened so as to reach the 
 Ferry Street Bridge at or about its first pier — something permanent 
 and fine; something that would not only have given ample returns 
 immediately in social service, but that would have set a standard 
 for the quality of other riverbank improvement work; that would 
 have been an object lesson, educating to the public and encouraging 
 other owners of property on the river shores to deed it to the city. 
 It is a great pity that, at such a juncture, the course determined 
 upon should have been picayune and villagelike, whether or not it 
 happens to have been justified by a genuine need of economy. 
 
 Yet there is this to be said for the officials and people of Bing- 
 hamton: there has been little inducement to expend money for 
 the improvement of the riverbanks while the rivers have been open 
 sewers. The public dumps, or sewage disposal and garbage reduc- 
 tion plants, are never chosen as sites for public parks, and those 
 are the uses to which Binghamton has heretofore elected to put its 
 majestic rivers and their naturally lovely shores. One must feel a 
 good deal of sympathy with officials who found other and worthier 
 uses for public money than the landscape development of such 
 tracts, and for the public's failure to demand such improvements 
 with an enthusiastic unanimity. But the old days are passing. 
 
Intercepting sewers are already under construction; the municipal 
 collection of garbage and ashes is bound soon to come, and it will 
 be the part of both wisdom and economy to recognize these sure 
 developments of the near future by preparing for adjustment to new 
 conditions. It has been excusable that the riverbanks have not been 
 developed before ; it will not be excusable when the streams are clear. 
 Adjustment to the new conditions will not, however, be com- 
 plete if we stop at simply the improvement of the banks. Even as 
 a landscape picture, there will be need of more artistic bridges to 
 
 Type of Bridges now in use 
 
 join the beautiful banks together. The use of reinforced concrete 
 has made beauty in bridge building almost as easy to secure as 
 ugliness, and has made the cost about the same. 
 
 Of still more utilitarian advantage will be the deepening of 
 channels or the raising of the water level so that the rivers may be 
 more used for boating. It is useless, of course, to go elaborately 
 into that until the streams are freed from sewage; but when this 
 is done, the riverbank parks will be rendered far more useful, as 
 well as made more attractive, by the development of boating on the 
 river. The question, with its technical aspects of water rights, 
 
style of dam and dam location, scarcely belongs to the study of the 
 city plan, beyond the point of indicating how greatly such devel- 
 opment will add to the park facilities of Binghamton, to the attrac- 
 tiveness of the city and to the increase of the legitimacy of its claim 
 as a pleasant place for residence. All this will mean increased 
 population, enlarged and better labor supply and greater prosperity. 
 The park needs of the center of the city will be pretty well cared 
 for by the riverbank improvements. On the outskirts, as country 
 pleasure grounds, there are Ross and Ely Parks, one to the north 
 
 A river bridge in Waterloo, la., a city of just half the population of Binghamton 
 The photograph is taken from a similar concrete bridge one block further up stream 
 
 and the other to the south. There will not be need of a great deal 
 more. Even in the matter of children's playgrounds, we have 
 suggested that the riverbank park east of Washington Street gives 
 space for such provision on a scale that should be sufficient for the 
 center of the city. On the South Side, the Kent Playground has 
 been already set aside; in the Northwest, there should be a ground 
 where the Slovac children would have chance to play. No park 
 is easily accessible to them, and there seems to be an excellent site 
 for a playground on a low knoll just west of Jarvis Street, back 
 
from Clinton, and with a school across the way. Doubtless many 
 another good site can be found, if this is not available. So, too, in 
 the Northeast, if an industrial quarter should be developed as 
 proposed, a children's playground should surely be included in any 
 model subdivision for the housing of employees east of the railroads. 
 
 But of coincident importance with the provision of the play- 
 ground space, and more important than the provision of equip- 
 ment, is competent directorship. There should be no more thought 
 of creating a children's playground and not providing for its super- 
 vision than there would be of building a school and not providing 
 teachers. In fact, the two actions would be very similar. Nor do 
 we even expect churches, for all their solemnity of purpose and 
 sober minded clientele, to be successful without ministers. 
 
 On the fast growing West Side, in the great area bounded on 
 the north by the railroads and on the east and the south by the 
 rivers, there is no real park; and yet here are more homes than in 
 any other section of Binghamton. Happily, a beautiful park site 
 in the center of this area has not yet been built upon, although the 
 homes entirely surround it. This is the oak grove known as the 
 Bennett tract. Relatively, this will be expensive ground to buy 
 for a park — that being the penalty for delay in not having secured 
 it a few years ago. But with reference to its expense there are these 
 things to consider: the city needs to buy very little other park 
 land, and that little is of low value; the tract is the last considerable 
 wooded one in anything like the center of the section; it will give 
 neighborhood park service to a district that is able to pay a good 
 price for what it wants and that can receive such service from no 
 existing park; it is well adapted topographically to the sort of 
 development appropriate to its neighborhood; and, finally, a few 
 years delay will advance its price as much beyond present figures — 
 if not, indeed, putting it entirely beyond reach, through subdivision 
 into eagerly bought up building lots — as the present figures are in 
 advance of those of the past. 
 
 On the East Side, there is Howard "Park," also of strictly neigh- 
 borhood significance. This will serve its function by clipped lawns 
 as already mentioned, and benches under well spaced trees. A jet 
 fountain would be attractive. 
 
With reference to Ely and Ross Parks, it is difficult to know 
 what to write. They are two superbly situated pleasure grounds, 
 of a natural beauty that is, perhaps, surpassed by no other city 
 parks in the United States. One is all in the raw — undeveloped, 
 with the chance to make almost anything of it. The other has had 
 some good roads put through it and then, in so far as it has received 
 intensive development, has been desecrated almost to the point of 
 ruin. Many pages of my note book have been filled with comment; 
 but, after all, discussion of the work in these parks hardly belongs 
 to a city plan study. The need is that a competent landscape 
 architect be retained, to draw up an appropriate scheme of de- 
 velopment for each 
 park, which can be 
 worked out grad- 
 ually. 
 
 There are some 
 fine things, aside 
 from natural scen- 
 ery, even in Ross 
 Park — as the Look- 
 out, the Pinewoods, 
 the road along the 
 rock ledge, etc. 
 The greatest cities 
 of the world might 
 be glad to have 
 such possessions as 
 these in their parks. 
 But the parkwants 
 defense against red 
 lamp posts with 
 white tops, against 
 blood red flower 
 pots, against un- 
 speakably crude 
 
 A road through the woods near the summit of Ely Park Wftlte DUllUings 
 
jumbled together, and against that whole attitude of mind which would 
 utilize a sylvan retreat for minstrel shows, vaudeville and circus- 
 like restaurants — just as Ely Park needs access roads of easy grade, 
 and to be defended from some of the structures that there intrude. 
 Not that a method of development for these parks, more rational 
 and characterized by a finer feeling, would lessen their popular 
 service. Rather, it would heighten that service and simplify it. 
 Could there, for instance, have been found a less good location for 
 the swings in Ross Park than that in which they have been placed; 
 or could the barn at Ely Park have been made a more conspicuous 
 feature of a park landscape? In these two parks, the city already 
 owns land that presents an extraordinary opportunity, and their 
 natural beauty is so great that there is no pressing necessity to 
 spend large sums of money upon them. But there is need that money 
 be spent properly. 
 
 More closely connected with the city plan is the matter of the 
 accessibility of Ely and Ross Parks. Front and Mygatt Streets are 
 to be considered as natural approaches to Ely Park, and if, as I 
 suppose, the landscape architect shall find it possible to plan a drive 
 of easy grade westward from the park, to connect with the ravine 
 near Glenwood Cemetery and so reach the level of the rising streets, 
 Glenwood Avenue may be another approach. Doubtless, too, a 
 drive is possible around the eastern side of the hill — offering wonder- 
 ful views of the city and the river valleys — which would gradually 
 get down to the lower end of Ridge Street and so to Prospect. 
 
 As for approaches to Ross Park, DeRussey Street, with its fine 
 view, its directness, and its fortunate offering of a chance to get 
 into the park above the claptrap development around the end of 
 the park carline, has the making of a fine parkway. There are 
 beautiful house sites at its upper end, the street can be sufficiently 
 widened to have wide grass borders between walk and curb and 
 made a really handsome avenue. Then, driving through the upper 
 portion of the park, one may come out on a country road that runs 
 eastward. This, after a time and some turns, connects with upper 
 Mill Street and so descends into the city again, completing a loop 
 which is a scenic drive indeed. It is a pity that Park Avenue, also, 
 has not been made more of. A simple improvement here, counting 
 
for much, would separate the car tracks from the roadway by a 
 neat concrete curbing; and would clear the creek walls and the 
 fences beyond of signs. Further up, where the cars reach the park, 
 the change from turf to cinders between the rails should not be 
 made. It was a strange place, indeed, to make such a change. 
 
 The instance may be noted not only for itself, but as an 
 illustration of a mental attitude which Binghamton must out- 
 grow. The spirit that fears to spend any money, that saves cents 
 at the sacrifice of dollars of results, that actually boasts of the 
 smallness of the sum spent by bond issues for public improvements, 
 never yet made a city which attracted people as good to live in and 
 to do business in. Binghamton appropriates none too much for the 
 admirable little Public Library, but it gives half as much again to 
 that as it appropriates in a year for all its parks! It enacts an 
 ordinance which prohibits people from throwing garbage, etc., on the 
 riverbanks, and provides no adequate alternative; it accepts streets 
 that run within a few feet of the riverbank and then stop short. 
 Had such streets been carried through, the city might long before 
 this have had pleasant outlook points at least, and the connection 
 of Susquehanna and LeRoy Streets by a convenient bridge, creating 
 a new and needed cross town thoroughfare, would have been a 
 simple and inexpensive matter. 
 
 But the old order is surely changing. The very demand for 
 this Report would be evidence of that, even were there not other 
 proof in the plans for improved lighting, in the order that wires 
 shall be removed from Court Street, in the building of intercept- 
 ing sewers, in the improved curbing that accompanies the Main 
 Street paving work, in the plans for the new High School. There 
 is to be a Better Binghamton; but we must make sure that it is 
 better enough — that the point of view is big, the courage strong. 
 
 One of the most prominent and influential men in Binghamton 
 told me in personal conversation that while he and a few others 
 felt that the city should do as much as I have suggested; and that, 
 although the city's borrowing capacity was so great that bonds 
 might easily be issued for the expense of the work, the town was 
 yet so unimaginative, so timid and backward, that the very proposal 
 would evoke a popular storm. I believe that he and his friends are 
 
not as lonely as he fancies in their public spirit, that there are many 
 of like courage, that the past is a closed chapter even now, that 
 Binghamton has awakened to a higher hope and confidence than it 
 has had since the days of the early pioneers. 
 
 Even in all the foregoing pages, I have not suggested all that 
 might be done in Binghamton. For example, it will be the part of 
 discretion to plan now for the drive that is likely to be ultimately 
 wanted down the north bank of the Susquehanna, westward from 
 Front Street. It ought to extend as far as the proposed sewage 
 disposal plant. It would be expensive to construct to-day, but 
 the time can be foreseen when the city will think it worth its cost, 
 the long dyke not only making a handsome drive, but bringing 
 more building land into market and developing beautiful house 
 sites. There is need to expend for it now little or nothing, except 
 forethought, for it is not unlikely that wise property holders would 
 be willing to dedicate the necessary strip. 
 
 Nor are the plans proposed inflexible. No city plan should be 
 that, for it looks ahead to a time when conditions now unforeseen 
 may have developed. But I have tried to point out the immedi- 
 ately important, and those easy things that will give large results 
 which must encourage. And especially I have tried to indicate 
 the point of view which should be taken — the long look ahead, the 
 faith in the city, as a corporation greater than any within its borders, 
 the courage, and everywhere the sense of fitness and respect for the 
 social conscience. You can't have a Better Binghamton without 
 good Binghamtonians. 
 
IV. Ways and Means 
 
Ways and Means 
 
 N concluding a Report on the improvement possibili- 
 ties of a city, there is no question which can be so 
 pertinently asked as this: How can the recommen- 
 dations be carried out? 
 
 There are some things, of course, that can be 
 done only by doing them — directly, frankly, and at a 
 cost which we must hope that the results will justify. 
 There are other improvements, however, — and their 
 number is really surprising — which can be accom- 
 plished through ordinances which nearly everybody 
 will approve of. That is to say, intelligent enactments on certain 
 matters, which had before been overlooked or too little esteemed, 
 will correct the evils or secure betterments automatically, and at 
 no cost whatever. There is a third group of improvements for the 
 provision of which, at this time, it is perfectly proper to look to 
 private initiative; and finally there remain a few matters that may 
 call for legislative action, as requiring a charter amendment. 
 
 Happily, the very long list of "Elementary Needs" can be largely 
 secured automatically, through ordinances. These include such 
 important matters as uniformity in curbs, gutters and sidewalks on 
 a given street, and the better construction of them; the municipal 
 collection of garbage and ashes; the enforcement of the projecting 
 sign ordinance, or its betterment by a prohibition of any daytime 
 projecting signs — since electric signs can be put on hinges that will 
 fold them back against the buildings during daylight hours — and 
 the removal of sidewalk obstructions from the crowded business 
 streets. If to wisely framed and carefully enforced ordinances to 
 cover these points, we add the gradual reduction of the pole and 
 wire nuisance, and the installation of a better lighting system — 
 both of which are now under way — the appearance of Binghamton 
 will be remarkably improved without terrifying even a niggardly 
 taxpayer or resorting to a bond issue. Would it not be good work 
 for the Mercantile- Press Club to give expression to, and if need be 
 to create, the public demand for these enactments, of which there 
 are innumerable precedents in the ordinances of other cities? 
 
BETTER BINGHAM TON 
 
 A step beyond the ordinances which cover these elementary 
 points, would be one to prohibit the erection of factories in desig- 
 nated residence districts. This enactment is very common in 
 Europe, and is now being adopted by various American cities — 
 progressive Los Angeles is an example. Its merit is that it safe- 
 guards a residence section from an intrusion that is unwelcome to 
 the householders and detrimental to the value of their property. 
 Conversely, in limiting factories to certain districts, it hastens the 
 creation of industrial sections where everything can be done to 
 promote factory efficiency. Again, the present building height 
 limit of 125 feet — the maximum allowed in even the most congested 
 part of Boston, and of course much higher than in the great cities 
 of Europe — were better reduced. Members of the Mercantile-Press 
 Club, secure in their aeroplane height, may feel some diffidence 
 about promoting such a modification, but there are four points 
 which the Binghamtonian on the street may well consider: 
 
 1, Very high buildings induce street congestion. All tall buildings 
 pour their population into the street and draw it from the street at 
 approximately the same hour, and the streets in the business 
 portion of Binghamton are not wide enough to stand many such 
 high buildings as that in which the Mercantile-Press Club is located. 
 
 2, A lower height limit will tend to increase the value of all property 
 outside the area of a couple of blocks around the Court House. 
 This is because business, unable to concentrate in three or four 
 buildings, spreads over a larger section. In so doing it displaces 
 other occupants, and so the rings of pressure widen out to affect 
 favorably all property. 3, Tall buildings tend to reduce streets to 
 sunless chasms, where all the pleasing relation between void and 
 solid — street and building — is destroyed. A street so lined can 
 never be artistically pleasing, while gusts of wind, eddying around 
 the buildings, make it uncomfortable. 4, Binghamton will never 
 be attractive to people because it is like New York. It would be 
 much wiser not to try to ape the metropolis, but to be its own best 
 self, sitting calmly and prosperously amid its hills. 
 
 Considerable achievements of a constructive sort, in the way of 
 city planning, can be accomplished by ordinance. These, if the 
 measures shall commend themselves to thoughtful judgment, include 
 
the establishment of building lines on Isbell Street and on the east 
 side of Chenango Street, by which those thoroughfares can be 
 widened at practically no expense; they include the safeguarding 
 of the grades of future highways, by the naming of a maximum grade 
 which cannot be exceeded by any street that the Council may be 
 asked to accept; the rescinding, or at least amending, of the ordi- 
 nance that now names a minimum width, which on some occasions 
 is undoubtedly an unjust hardship; and an official approval of more 
 flexibleness in the proportioning of the space on the street into side- 
 walk and roadway — these changes being conditional, however, 
 upon constructive legislation that will lodge the control of such 
 matters securely in competent official hands, so as not to leave it 
 with the individual property owner. If, in the newly awakened 
 interest in planning with foresight for the future Binghamton, the 
 people are willing to go far enough, it would be best to secure legis- 
 lative authority for the creation of an official City Plan Commission, 
 to look after these and other matters concerned with the extension 
 of the city's streets and with its internal physical development. 
 Scranton has just secured from the Legislature such a Commission. 
 So has Salem, Mass., to point to a smaller city; and Hartford, Conn., 
 has gained distinction for some years through the successfulness 
 of one. The Commissions are sprinkled widely through the West; 
 Buffalo is demanding one, and Pittsburgh gained one at the same 
 time as did Scranton. 
 
 Similarly, while various ordinances, permissive and prohibitive, 
 can do much to safeguard the street trees and to improve them, the 
 best measure would be the creation of the office of city forester, and 
 the appointment to it, with power and suitable appropriation, of a 
 man of scientific training. It is to be observed that the city charter 
 now gives to the Council (Title III, Sec. 30) all the authority over 
 the street trees that could be required. The only need is that the 
 expert, who has had special training with reference to street trees, 
 be appointed to act for the Council in exercising this authority. There 
 are most encouraging precedents for this action, from the littlest 
 New England town's tree warden to big Chicago's city forester. In 
 expressing, or if need be in fostering, public sentiment in favor of 
 it, the women's clubs might very fittingly take prominent part. 
 
-^r 1 ^- 
 
 For I would have the whole community pull together for the Better 
 Binghamton. Only in that way, indeed, can it be lastingly secured. 
 
 As to the improvements for which at this time the city can 
 properly look to private initiative, in the public spirit and voluntary 
 service of individuals and organizations, I would call upon the 
 women to start the improvement of schoolyards. Many yards 
 ought to be larger — it is folly to put the fine new High School on so 
 small a lot — and nearly all can be made more beautiful without 
 loss of play space. In fact, the children themselves should be 
 enlisted in the movement, securing some of the plants and tending 
 them. Mothers and teachers have most successfully interested 
 children in this matter elsewhere, and with gratifying results in 
 quite unlooked for directions — as in the redemption of home gardens. 
 For example, again, in an instance of which I have knowledge, 
 permission to dig in the school garden changed an incorrigible lad 
 into the model pupil. Every season small prizes can be offered for 
 the best kept schoolyard or for the most improvement. As to the 
 size of schoolyards, that is no more a matter of guess work or of 
 convenience than is the size of the building — in fact, it is less so. 
 When a schoolhouse is built to accommodate a certain number of 
 pupils, there is exact knowledge of the number of children for whom 
 play space must be provided, and authorities have generally agreed 
 that the minimum of such provision should be thirty square feet per 
 child. 
 
 The provision of athletic grounds for the recreation of factory 
 employees, I would put up to the manufacturers, at a time when 
 the city has so many other things to do; and for the equipment of 
 the grounds I should look to the men. Both sides may anticipate 
 such immediate personal gain in the action, that it is not unfair to 
 let them prove, by experiment, the worth of the provision. But 
 there must be no taint of charity in the manufacturer's action. 
 The grounds secured should be deeded to the city for the purpose 
 named, and the use of them open to all employees. 
 
 As to the playgrounds for little children, private philanthropy 
 has already given one to Binghamton, and there are a couple of other 
 lots^ where they are suffered to amuse themselves. But it is found 
 advisable usually to form a playground association which shall 
 
^ 
 
 W AYS AND M EANS 
 
 g# 
 
 make the championship of the children's interests its special purpose. 
 This has most successfully a membership of both men and women. 
 In Binghamton, besides securing the Washington Street and Slovac 
 grounds, as additions to the present possessions, it might well direct 
 its energies to the proper equipment of the playgrounds and, espec- 
 ially, to their administration. The latest pamphlet report issued by 
 one of the strongest of such associations says: "Having a right 
 director is probably 90 per cent, of a playground's effective 
 service to a community, letting ten per cent, represent the equip- 
 ment." To considerable degree, playground care can be gained 
 by voluntary service— in story telling, gymnastic instructions, etc. — 
 and this might be provided from the membership of the association ; 
 but there still will be need of trained and salaried supervisors, whom the 
 association can provide by inviting subscriptions until such time as 
 the municipality, convinced of their value by the given object lesson, 
 is ready and able to sustain them. 
 
 Moreover, for sculptural adornment, or for the historic tablet 
 which was suggested for The Point, it is proper to look to private 
 munificence or to the action of an organization — as to a historical 
 or patriotic society, or to a musical society for the adornment of 
 the triangle on Mendelssohn Street. Thus much may be done in 
 many ways to make Binghamton better — to live in, work in, and 
 look at — without increasing the debt, if only the citizens pull together. 
 
 There are in Binghamton a great many tenements that look like 
 death traps — both from the fire and sanitary point of view. If 
 they are not as bad as they look, they still are much too bad for a 
 city the size of Binghamton, where the tenement ought to be as 
 rare as a mosque. Perhaps most of them were erected before the 
 present building code became operative; or perhaps the code is not 
 strictly enforced or there is not enough supervision. At all events 
 this Report would issue word of warning against the tenements. 
 Dr. Charles W. Eliot, President Emeritus of Harvard, began a 
 recent letter with the words, "Bad housing is the fundamental evil 
 in all cities, for it develops many physical and moral evils." He 
 closed it with the words, "In my observation, enforcement is 
 what is most needed in regard to all legislation for the promotion of 
 
BETTER BINGHAMTON 
 
 m 
 
 sanitation and morality." It might be well to consider that letter 
 as addressed to Binghamtonians. 
 
 With reference to the establishment of the park system — this 
 phrase including the acquisition of playgrounds, the redemption of 
 the riverbanks, the improvement of existing parks, and the trans- 
 
 's^S-^it^^^ 
 
 ^ML 
 
 This tenement, not seeming quite as bad as some others, is selected as a fair illustration 
 
 formation of some streets — there is no reason why even that work 
 should prove a burden. A comfortable and most effective way of 
 financing such improvements is now in operation in a great many 
 cities, and always I believe with popular approval as well as with 
 success from the park standpoint. To cite a concrete instance, I 
 will take Denver, though there is some variation of detail in different 
 cities. 
 
By a charter amendment which became effective June 1, 1904, 
 the Park Department became a distinct department of the Denver 
 municipal government. It was given a minimum levy in the annual 
 tax assessment of 1.3 mills, and the money collected under this levy 
 is annually placed to the credit of the Park Fund, no portion of it, 
 whether used during the fiscal year or not, ever returning to the 
 general fund. Out of this Park Fund the maintenance and improve- 
 ment of the parks is taken care of. Nobody feels a mill tax, or grudges 
 that item — in fact, for the last two or three years Denver's park 
 levy has been two mills, instead of the minimum, and some cities 
 make it as high as four mills, though this of course is optional with 
 the people. An advantage is that the Park Department knows just 
 how much it can count upon; that it can plan its work accordingly, 
 without being subject to a sudden chopping off of appropriation by 
 the Council; that with the growth of population and increasing 
 demand upon the parks, the sum available for maintenance is grad- 
 ually rising, automatically; and that any increase of property value 
 resulting from park work is promptly and justly reflected in increased 
 park funds. 
 
 But further, and this is a very important factor where, as in 
 Binghamton, there is new, creative, park work to be done, the 
 Denver charter divides the city into four park districts. These 
 park districts have the power, if their population so vote, to pur- 
 chase lands for parks and parkways by bond issues, the bonds being 
 issued separately by the separate districts and being district, not 
 general, liens. Not a cent of park money raised by a bond issue in 
 one park district can be used for the purchase of parks in another 
 district. In other words, the people in any particular section decide 
 for themselves just what they want and are willing to pay for in the 
 way of parks. 
 
 Suppose in Binghamton there were four districts, correspond- 
 ing to the natural divisions of the city — the South Side; the section 
 north of the Susquehanna and east of the Chenango, south of the 
 railroads; the section north of the Susquehanna and west of the 
 Chenango, south of railroads; and the section north of the railroads. 
 With comparatively little wealth on the South Side, there is happily 
 need there of comparatively little expenditure. The people would 
 
 103 
 
probably approve of completing the South Side riverbank park, and 
 later on, as the population and means on that side increase, as the 
 interest in park work grows and the section loyalty is more vigorous, 
 it would not be surprising if — with appreciation of the direct effect 
 on local values — they authorized the transformation of DeRussey 
 Street into a parkway and the improvement of Park Avenue. On 
 the North Side, east of the Chenango, where the presence of the 
 business district establishes the largest assessable values in the city, 
 and where there are no other expenditures for parks, we may antici- 
 pate that the purchase of The Point and then the improvement of 
 the riverbanks would be authorized without hesitation. West of 
 the Chenango, the suggested purchase of Bennett "Park" and the 
 development of Grand Boulevard to fit its name are exactly the 
 kinds of projects to appeal to the owners of the high class residence 
 property of that section. In the fourth district, where again resources 
 are more limited, there would be need of creating little at present 
 except playgrounds, which is the sort of improvement that would 
 most benefit and interest the people there. Eventually, perhaps, 
 there would be local approval of reserving Pope's Ravine or High- 
 land Glen as a balance to scenic drives to Ely Park. 
 
 The voluntariness of the action taken by the several districts 
 removes the quality of irksomeness; while the park rivalry between 
 different sections and the localness of the projects is found always 
 to lead to much greater action than when park questions are matters 
 left to the decision of the city as a whole. For instance, it is con- 
 ceivable that if, in Binghamton, the matter of purchasing Bennett 
 "Park" were submitted to the vote of all the people in the city, the 
 lack of personal interest in it on the South Side and the East Side 
 and north of the railroads might defeat it, while, if the matter were 
 left to the West Side south of the railroads, where direct enjoyment 
 and benefit would be gained from the expenditure, it might easily 
 carry. So of each improvement. Again, there should be note of 
 the fitness of purchasing park lands by district bond issue — that 
 is, of letting posterity pay some of the cost of improvements that 
 will grow steadily in value and service as the years pass, and so 
 will be worth to posterity more — whether measured as a capital 
 investment or as an income producing investment, of which the 
 
=dfe= 
 
 WAYS AND MEANS 
 
 m> 
 
 dividends are enjoyment and health — than they can be worth at 
 the time of purchase. 
 
 There is need of adding little more to the Report. I have tried 
 to make it not only comprehensive in its scope, but concrete and 
 definite in its suggestions. No words, perhaps, can more pertinently 
 close it than these, written by the Secretary of the Chamber of 
 Commerce of Petersburg: "The reproach of being unpractical 
 attaches not to those who insist on efforts to remove abuses, but to 
 those who are credulous enough to suppose that abuses and wasteful 
 ways of doing things will remove themselves." The Mercantile- 
 Press Club has shown in the past, and I am confident will now lead 
 in showing, that Binghamtonians are not as credulous as that, nor 
 are content to forego progress. 
 
 Respectfully submitted, 
 
 August 30th, 1911. 
 
 >r ^S^Sfc/'r-v. ... J2^^S£^^^^^yS&:&£iMk^',^SS --^^zZsi&MB&iifjtiffii-i,^'..*-- 
 
 • -i 
 
 n 
 
 Bingham ton from Ely Park 
 105 
 
The beautiful Susquehanna 
 
BINGHAMTON TO-DAY 
 
A 
 
 ADDENDA 
 
 M 
 
 "BETTER BINGHAMTON" is published solely in the inter- 
 ests of Binghamton. 
 
 Its purpose is to acquaint the people of Binghamton with 
 the expert's practical plan for the proper and systematic devel- 
 opment of our city. 
 
 The advantages of pursuing a definite, concrete, farsighted 
 policy in relation to civic improvements are so apparent that 
 any discussion of this question appears unnecessary. It is 
 plainly a common sense, business proposition and, as such, 
 must appeal to every tax payer and resident of our city. 
 
 The Binghamton Plan stands on its own merits. It is not 
 final nor unalterable by any means. Conditions may change. 
 But its underlying principles will remain the same and unques- 
 tionably lay the foundation for a Better Binghamton. To 
 know this plan is to accord it your unqualified support. 
 
 If there is need of further incentive, it will be found in the 
 strong attractions which Binghamton already possesses. These 
 are many and varied. 
 
 We believe it not unwise to detail some of these important 
 features feeling that it will not only serve to quicken local 
 appreciation but also prove of more than ordinary interest to 
 non-residents, into whose hands this book may fall. 
 
 GEO. C. SALMON, Chairman. 
 Frank H. Beach, 
 Clarence L. Meacham, 
 
 Publication Committee. 
 
Population, City and Suburbs 54,904 
 
 Area of City, Square Miles; Land 9.24, Water .76 10 
 
 Parks, Acres 224 . 2 
 
 Railroads 5 
 
 Erie; Delaware & Hudson; Delaware, Lackawanna 
 & Western; Utica Division of D. L. & W. R. R.; 
 Syracuse Division of the D. L. & W. R. R. 
 
 Electric Railway, Miles 42 . 91 
 
 Paved Streets, Miles 13.31 
 
 Good Roads leading out of City, Miles 35.38 
 
 Water Mains, Miles 92 
 
 Public Sewers, Miles 59. 05 
 
 Fire Hydrants 900 
 
 Gas Mains, Miles 65 
 
 Telephones operated in City 6800 
 
 Street Lights 1574 
 
 Schools, Public 17, Private 6 23 
 
 Pupils 8301 
 
 Public Library, Volumes 25,000 
 
 Churches 44 
 
 Hospitals, Public 2, Private 3 5 
 
 *Factories 266 
 
 ♦Capital Invested $14,214,000.00 
 
 ♦Products, Value of $17,114,000.00 
 
 ♦Employes, Salaried Officials 935 
 
 ♦Employes, Wage Earners 6045 
 
 Salaries and Wages $4,145,000.00 
 
 Newspapers, Daily 3, Weekly 1 4 
 
 Department Stores 7 
 
 Banks 5 
 
 Total Capital and Surplus $1,551,757.57 
 
 Trust Companies 1 
 
 Capital and Surplus $300,000.00 
 
 Clearing House Business 1910 $25,040,600.00 
 
 Passenger Trains in and out of the City Daily 71 
 
 Death Rate 1910, Average per M 18.03 
 
 Less deaths and population at Binghamton State 
 Hospital, 16.57. 
 
 fTax Rate, City, State and County, 1910 24.50 
 
 Assessed Valuation $25,171,288.00 
 
 Residences 6500 
 
 *1909 Census Department. Commerce and Labor of United States. 
 
 tContrary to the almost universal custom anions cities, Binghamton pays one-half cost of sidewalks and 
 curbs, one-half cost of pavements, less amount asssssed against Street Railway Company, and the excess 
 cost of letting sewers. 
 
C. W. YEOMANS, Secretary and Treasurer C. L. MEACHAM, Executive Secretary 
 
 PUBLICATION COMMITTEE OF "BETTER BINGHAMTON' 
 
 GEO. C. SALMON, Chairman 
 
 FRANK H. BEACH 
 
 C. L. MEACHAM 
 
 OFFICERS, 1911— MERCANTILE-PRESS CLUB 
 
ROBT. H. ROSE J. B. HADSELL, Jr. FRANK E. HARRIS ALONZO ROBERSON 
 
 BOARD OF GOVERNORS, 1911— MERCANTILE-PRESS CLUB 
 
VIEWS IiN MERCANTILE-PRESS CLUB, BINGHAMTON 
 
HOMES OF BINGHAMTON CLUBS AND FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
HOMES OF BINGHAMTON CLUBS AND FRATERNAL ORGANIZATIONS 
 
BINCHAMTON'S OUTDOOR CLUBS 
 
BINGHAMTON'S PUBLIC BUILDINGS 
 
BINGHAMTON'S PUBLIC BUILDINGS 
 
ONE OF BINGHAMTON'S NATURAL BEAUTY SPOTS— ROSS PARK 
 
■^^SSJCsT*'*"^ " 
 
 ANOTHER PUBLIC PLAYGROUND FOR BINGHAMTONTANS 
 
BUSINESS SECTION OF BINGHAMTON 
 
BUSINESS SECTION OF BINGHAMTON 
 
JC3 
 
 O'HCIL BLOC, 
 
 ~ •'■Sfc.i'f.iV.V 
 
 OFFICE BUILDINGS IN BINGIIAMTON 
 
BINGHAMTON'S DEPARTMENT STORES 
 
OVER 80 
 
 MlLE S MACADAM ROAOS ,N BROOME COUNTV-AU. ^ TO B.SCHAMTON 
 
SEVENTEEN SCHOOLS LIKE THESE CARE FOR THE YOUTHFUL BINGHAMTONIANS 
 
SOME OF BINGIIAMTON'S CHURCHES 
 
SOME OF BINGHAMTON'S CHURCHES 
 
PUBLIC HOSPITALS 
 
ORPHANS' HOMES, HOSPITALS AND SCHOOLS 
 
RESIDENCE STREETS IN BINGHAMTON 
 
RESIDENCE STREETS IN BINGHAMTON 
 
HOMES IN BINGHAMTON 
 
HOMES IN BINGHAMTON 
 
HOMES IN BINGHAMTON 
 
BINGHAMTONS APARTMENT HOUSES 
 
WHOLESALE AND MANUFACTURING BUILDINGS 
 
WHOLESALE AND MANUFACTURING BUILDINGS 
 
RAILWAY FACILITIES AND FACTORIES OF BINGHAMTON 
 

 WAREHOUSES AND FACTORIES OF BINGHAMTON 
 
BINGHAMTON'S MANUFACTURING PLANTS