Date range: 1930-2001
Size of collection:24 volumes and 21 boxes
Transferred to the City Archives: March 2000 and May 2002
Terms of Access: Available to registered researchers by appointment

The Parkway and Park Commission was established by city ordinance #17703 (Commission Council Series) on November 4, 1949. Earlier bodies with similar authority had been created in 1909, 1914 (ordinance #1945, CCS), and 1934 (ordinance #14098, CCS).

The Commission had general authority to plant, maintain, protect, and care for trees, shrubs, and other plants in all of the public highways, public squares, and other public places of the city. It also established and maintained a nursery for raising trees and plants, employed gardners and laborers, and directed the work of a professional superintendent. The Commission also had duties and responsibilities relating to interactions with private citizens and local businesses on matters involving trees, shrubs, plants, etc.

The Commission passed out of existence with its meeting of July 9, 1996 following adoption of a new city charter in 1995. The new charter provided for a Department of Parks and Parkways that continues the work of the Commission, but is directly responsible to the Mayor and Chief Administrative Officer.

The 2000 accession includes seven bound volumes containing the official minutes of Commission meetings; various documents relating to Commissioners, their terms of office, and their activities; photographs of Commissioners and Commission activities; and other materials. The records document the functions of the Commission and its members, not of the administration and staff working under the body's direction.

The 2002 accession came to the Archives as part of outgoing Mayor Marc Morial's "Legacy Project." It includes twelve boxes of correspondence/subject files, four boxes of publication collected by the Commission and its staff from various sources, two boxes of motion picture films, and seventeen volumes of manuscript records. Included in this accession were some records from the predecessor agencies to the Park and Parkway Commission, records of the Superintendent and staff of the agency, and records of the later Department of Parks and Parkways. Many of the extant records date from the Superintendency of Florence Schornstein. The records filed under Ms. Schornstein's name include materials relating directly to her work with Parkways but also included are documents concerning her involvement in local and national civic, political, and religious organizations. The Commission minutes included with the correspondence/subject files were retained because they include superintendent's monthly reports and monthly financial statements that are not part of the official minute books.

The Archives also holds other Parkway and Park material as follows (see the City Archives card catalog and the Library's automated catalog for detailed holdings):

coded: 4/11/2001
coded by: we
revised: 6/1/2010