Billed as one of the finest boulevard systems in the United States and included in the National Register of Historic Places, St. Joseph's Parkway ribbons through the city for nearly 27 miles.  Comprised of approximately 1500 acres, the Parkway connects all the major parks and a good number of ball fields, ice arena, golf course, swimming pools and tennis courts.  St. Joseph's Park System includes 48 parks and facilities. The St. Joseph Parkway System was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on January 20, 1995.
     Developed in 1918 by architect George Burnap¹, the Parkway is popular for walking, jogging and biking on it's "green belt" throughout the city. Burnap
     Lovers Lane, a beautiful winding street immortalized in poetry by Eugene Field, is designated a historic landmark by the St. Joseph Landmarks Commission. The site of many fine homes today, Lovers Lane was a remote, country lane, over a century ago, when Eugene Field, in horse and buggy, courted his future wife, Miss Julia Comstock. Some years later, Field, homesick and ill, penned the nostalgic poem, "Lovers Lane, Saint Jo," from his room in London.
     The 2008 Show-Me Tractor Cruise will travel on Northwest and Northeast Parkways, Lovers Lane, Corby Parkway and Maple Leaf Parkway. We're thrilled to travel the Parkway this year as it celebrates it's 90th Anniversary.

Footnote:
     George Burnap worked as a landscape architect for the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds, Washington, D. C., between 1912 and 1917. Before coming to Washington, Burnap was a professor at Cornell University, where he became acquainted with and ultimately had a great influence on his student, Horace Peaslee. When Burnap left Cornell to join the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds and head the design for Meridian Hill Park (Washington, DC), Peaslee accompanied him and received an appointment as Landscape Designer in that office. Burnap's work also included the design of the Rose Garden at the White House in 1913, and Rawlins Park in Washington, DC.

     In 1917, George Burnap left the Office of Public Buildings and Grounds because of a conflict between his public and private practice, and Horace Peaslee succeeded him as Landscape Architect and Architect of Meridian Hill Park.

     Burnap was the author of a well-known book, Parks: Their Design, Equipment and Use, which was the first volume of a series of four books on landscape architecture. Burnap had a reputation as a practical designer, one who recognized the importance of incorporating pedestrian and vehicular traffic patterns, as was requiring that sculpture be suitable to the park as a livable place for park users.

     Tractor Cruise drivers who pay attention to the detail along the Parkway will easily see how Burnap incorporated the landscape into his total design. In the 90 years the Parkway has been in existence in St. Joseph, it's only exits are to streets or other parkways...no single driveway is included in it's nearly 27 mile span.