The French Commissioner and the Future of Seattle’s Parks
A noted French horticulturist visits Seattle, praising the region's natural potential and the 'enchanted' vision for a grand boulevard system around the city's lakes.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Monsieur Maurice L. de Vilmorin, of Paris, a noted French authority on horticulture and forestry, is a guest at the Arlington. He came here to study the forests of the Sound region. Monsieur Vilmorin is a special commissioner on forestry and horticulture sent by France to the World's Fair at Chicago. Yesterday afternoon, under the guidance of Park Superintendent Schwagerl, he made a tour of the Lake Washington region to inspect the natural parks that make up the shores. Monsieur Vilmorin was 'perfectly enchanted,' to use his own words, with the Washington lake region, and saw 'such possibilities as no other city in the world can boast.' He praised the park superintendent’s plans for public parks and a grand boulevard: 'With the growth of your commerce the lower lands must be occupied by wharves and warehouses and factories and railway yards; the adjoining higher lands must become covered with the cottages of the employes... and the still higher points by the better class of residences. Then you must have public parks and playgrounds for the diversion of old and young who toil.'
“Not even Switzerland, where nature has frolicked in her happiest moods on the least pretext, has such magnificent natural parks.”
Vilmorin’s 1893 vision of separating industrial shorelines from elevated residential and park spaces mirrors the core tensions of Seattle’s modern urban planning, specifically the ongoing efforts to balance port commerce with public waterfront access and the preservation of natural greenbelts.
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