Nevis Court Reserve, Endeavour Hills Vic.

Endeavour Hills in Melbourne's south-west dates from the early 70s when it was developed by Lewis Land; it was reported in the Melbourne Age in 1974* that it would ultimately have a population of 40 000. As you can see from the google map there remains a lot of open space throughout at various sizes and presumed uses. 

Nevis Court Reserve is, essentially, a playground reserve with pathways going to three corners. All four corners of the reserve are exposed to the surrounding cul-de-sac roads. This visit 21 December 2018, hence the polar bears surveilling the space alongside the magpies. 

 A concreted space for a bench, presumably.

 Someone has been trying out their tags on the playground equipment but no structural damage...

*Christopher Davidson, 'Something Healthy in Development', Melbourne Age 5 June 1974 p. 21

This ad is from the Age 7 September 1974, p. 57

Barmera, South Australia

Above, Charles Reade's Barmera Garden City (draft plan no. 8) from November 1920; below, 'Current Barmera plan' with the dotted line showing area of the Reade plan. Note that the two plans are oriented differently; Reade's plan has north at the bottom. From Christine Garnaut, 'Making Modern (River) Towns: town planning and the expansion of the Upper Murray irrigation area' Journal of the Historical Society of South Australia, 31, 2003 pp. 69-80.  

As Christine Garnaut's excellent 2003 article illustrates, Charles Reade's time as South Australia's first state town planner has a remarkable legacy. It is not immediately obvious in the original plan above, but it is in the second illustration, that Reade included (or at least: there came to exist!) two internal reserves in his plan for Barmera. I am tempted to write that neither are particularly happy places today, but this is perhaps an ignorant assessment. They don't look like much fun on google map. The reserve within Barwell Ave, Sturt St, Bice St and Scott Ave is now a car park - see it here.  The southern reserve is in slightly better shape in a manner of speaking - at least, it has some kind of foliage on it. It's between Tonkin Ave, Fowles St, Farmer St and Manuel Road, and can be viewed here. 

Leicester Anchor Tenants' Estate

Unwin, Town Planning in Practice p. 232. Read about the Anchor Tenants Estate here. I think that the open space at the centre of this plan is here - and now appears to be agricultural allotments.

Unwin, hypothetical grid plan treatment

Raymond Unwin, Town Planning in Practice p. 314

Raymond Unwin hypothetical (?)

This image is captioned 'Groups of buildings designed to maintain square roof lines on a curving road' on p. 346 of Raymond Unwin's Town Planning in Practice (1909). Although it appears in a general discussion of Letchworth Garden City it is not designated as an actual place and I suspect it may be hypothetical. Note the Tennis Court on the lower right and the small park on the top left featuring a sun dial.

Indian Hill Garden Village, Worcester, Massachusetts, U.S.A.

There is one internal reserve in this 1915 plan for a large suburban area, as seen below:

Indian Hill is apparently a verdant and popular place today but either I'm looking at the wrong part of it or this plan was not instituted in this form.

From George B. Ford/Ralph F. Warner, editors for the Committee on Town Planning of the American Institute of Architects City Planning Progress in the United States 1917 Journal of AIA Washington DC 1917 p 191

New Holland, North Carolina

New Holland (see its present day condition here) was a major private drainage 'reclamation' project on the shores of Lake Mattamuskeet, North Carolina. The project, described in 1917 as being laid out as 'a scientifically planned town with modern provisions for social, educational, and recreational life - which schoolhouses, playgrounds, churches, public buildings, parks, community centres, and public and semi-public groups attractively groups' petered out and (according to Wikipedia) was finally discontinued, officially, in 1934.  

As presented in Ford and Warner's 1917 book (the source of the previous and next posts - see attribution below) the plan contains many numbered spaces with either road or laneway access, but no key for what the spaces actually represent. However, there is one labelled space in block 103 on what I assume is the east of the plan, between Haarlem, Carrituck, Kawana and what I assume is Albermarle Road East, labelled 'Private Park'. It has three pedestrian lanes for access.



The original sale of lots was advertised in the Raleigh News and Observer for 11 December 1916 (p. 8) and the town's first religious service was held in December 1921 (according to the Kinston, NC Daily Free Press for 22 December 1921, p. 6). The front page of the Elizabeth City, NC Independent for 13 October 1922 showed photographs of the area's pumping station and its hotel. However, ten years later the Independent proclaimed the 'New Holland Farm' to have been 'Doomed by Nature'; nature could feel slightly miffed by this headline given that the article itself, after severely pummelling 'nature' for its underhand ways, went on to blame the 'business depression' for the ultimate failure of the scheme (4 April 1931, p. 1). What is perhaps more interesting about this particular article is that it reveals one August Heckscher, 'New York financier and philanthropist' to be the initiator of New Holland.

Without wishing to go holus bolus into an examination of August Heckscher... though I so much would like to do that detective work, just on spec... I note that one August Heckscher was New York city parks commissioner in the late 1960s and early 70s (he died aged 83 in 1997); presumably (should one ever presume?!) the son of the man above. 

This site names the author of the plan as Harlan P. Kelsey, 'one of the most renowned landscape architects in America'. I found it in George B. Ford and Ralph F. Warner (eds) for the Committee on Town Planning of the American Institute of Architects City Planning Progress in the United States 1917 Journal of AIA Washington, DC 1917 p. 116