Union Park Gardens, Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.

I have a backlog of material to blog about, but it's not as though internal reserves haven't been heavily on my mind - as Robert Freestone and I are currently working on our book on this topic, to be published next year. This subdivision is one 'newly unearthed' example of our sphere of interest which I had cause to do some minor (and I admit, ugly) photoshop work to visualise what I was talking about in communication with Delaware's history society, so I thought I may as well dump it here as well - considering I've been very lax in the posts lately (and I have so much Launceston material to upload!).

Bruce Robertson's book on John Nolen tells us that Nolen was hired in 1918 by Wilmington's Chamber of Commerce to produce a plan for a 58-acre housing area in one of the USA's most densely populated cities (p. 143). 'Street trees and sidewalks added to the community's pleasant appearance, while the curvilinear streets economised road construction and allowed a measure of traffic control' (p. 144). 

Of the two internal reserves identified here, neither seems to have pulled through incredibly well. The southerly one (on Geddes Alley - Nolen and Patrick Geddes were in frequent correspondence at this time) appears from google maps to be a series of shelters, or one big shelter perhaps, for car parking. The northern one which was clearly at some point a grassed (or at least open) area has also suffered (or whatever you want to call it) a similar fate, but some greenery remains, including from what I can tell within the western accessway.  

I'd love to visit these one day... the neighbourhood itself looks delightful. Fingers crossed on a response from the historical society...