City in a park : a history of Philadelphia's Fairmount Park system / James McClelland and Lynn Miller.

"Fairmount Park is the municipal park system of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It consists of more than one hundred parks, squares, and green spaces totaling about 11,000 acres, and is one of the largest landscaped urban park systems in the world. In City in a Park, James McClelland and Lynn Miller provide an affectionate and comprehensive history of this 200-year-old network of parks. Originated in the nineteenth century as a civic effort to provide a clean water supply to Philadelphia, Fairmount Park also furnished public pleasure grounds for boat races and hiking, among other activities. Millions travel to the city to view its eighteenth-century villas, attend boat races on the Schuylkill River, hike the Wissahickon Creek, visit the Philadelphia Zoo, hear concerts in summer, stroll the city's historic squares and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, and enjoy its enormous collection of public art. Green initiatives flower today; Philadelphia lives amidst its parks. Filled with nearly 150 gorgeous full-color photographs, City in a Park chronicles the continuing efforts to create what founder William Penn desired: a 'greene countrie town'"-- Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Philadelphia and Its Parks -- In the Beginning, Clean Water -- A Park Grows from Fairmount -- The 19th Century Park in a Booming Industrial City -- The Post-Civil War Period and the Centennial Exposition -- The Country Houses of Fairmount Park -- Historic Structures in Philadelphia's Parks -- Boating and Playing in the Park -- Rest and Recreation : Eat, Walk, Hike, Run, and Cycle -- The Philadelphia Zoo -- Performing Arts in the Parks -- Penn's Five Public Squares -- The Benjamin Franklin Parkway -- Parks and Transportation, an Evolving History -- Public Art in Philadelphia -- Fairmount Park : the Outdoor Museum -- The Parks' New Governance System -- The Greener City -- The City in a Park.