AMERICAN CIVIC ASSOCIATION, The, a voluntary organization formed 10 June 1904 by the consolidation of the American League for Civic Improvement and the Amer ican Park and Outdoor Art Association, its objects being a the cultivation of higher ideals of civic life and beauty in America, the pro motion of city, town and neighborhood im provements, the preservation and development of landscape, and the advancement of outdoor art?' The organization of a national associa tion to act as an agency of inspiration to Amer ican towns and cities for improvement, and to serve as a clearing house of information in all such activities, was a natural development fol lowing the effective improvement activities that had for years been conducted by local effort, notably at Stockbridge and Newton Centre, Mass., and in other localities. The first efforts of such a local movement were generally of a home and neighborhood character. Unattrac tive and dirty backyards were transformed into little bowers of beauty and cleanliness. From these initial steps there had developed, largely through the nation-wide propaganda of the association, the larger movements that apply to communities at large, such as the creation and maintenance of city park areas, boule vards, playgrounds for children and recrea tional areas • for adults. Involved in these gen eral impn,ccm.nt, haic het specialized efforts for the beautifying of water-fronts, for the elimination of unnecessary smoke and unsightly billboards. The culmination of all these activi ties has developed within the past 10 years in a systematic propaganda by the association for the adoption of comprehensive city plans, en listing the advice and counsel of professional landscape architects and opening the way for an orderly and systematic development of cities and towns. During 1916, as an extension of
the idea eir}.1-nr•Pfl ;11 ritv pint-mina, there has been developed a movement in the association for country planning, which proposes to direct a similar eff,rt for the heautificatiw, and im provement of the rural districts. in extension of its general purposes for the preservation and development of landscape the association has been the leader in two great movements for the preservation of scenery, namely, in 'behalf of the Falls of Niagara — to prevent their spoliation by commercial interests — and sec ond, for the extension of the American National Park system. The association originated a pro posal to have created by Congress a National Park Service, which in 1916 appeared likely of realization. The park service as contemplated will be in the Department of the Interior and have jurisdiction over the 14 existing national parks and the 31 national monuments hereto fore in the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture. Since the con solidation effected in Saint Louis, the American Civic Association has held 10 annual conven tions. Its membership consists of life members, sustaining members, annual members, councilor members and affiliated members. The work of the association is conducted from its general offices through committee and department heads as follows: City Planning, National Parks, State and County Parks, Country Planning, the Billboard Nuisance, the Smoke Nuisance, the Noise Nuisance, Schools as Community •Cen tres, and the Press. Active propaganda is car ried on by means of department leaflets, clipping sheets and correspondence. The prin cipal offices of the association are at Washing ton, D. C.