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Objective : Strengthen the Moses Fountain Sector as a visually pleasing and enjoyable park area.

Recommendations : Recreate original planting intent by: locating gardens where former garden mounds exist, planting islands and other areas with’ appropriate shrubs, removing invasive trees, and planting formal trees at the edges. Locate benches where shown and remove desire paths. Alter historic paths slightly to accommodate desired movements.

Condition : The Tennis Lawn destination is at the center of its landscape surround with the main area defined by a single path and the Madison Avenue frontage. The Tennis playing surface in historic times was turf. Adjacent landscape areas included in the sector are those that can be readily viewed from the Tennis Lawn. It was intended to be a separate, active use landscape with the playing lawn located in the center of the sector. The purpose of the Tennis Lawn was active recreation. This discrete sector was not meant to conflict with the adjacent Lake Sector and Maple Grove Outlook. Currently the Tennis Lawn Sector is visually dominated by a large area of paving for the surfaces of sixteen courts. Included are thirteen tennis courts, two walls with four handball courts and two basketball courts. The upper tennis courts are in poor repair and are undersized. All the courts are edged with chain link fence. Twelve high- intensity lights for night time sports use are located at the edges and center of the lower section of courts. This amount and placement of playing courts intrudes on the adjacent park areas, especially the Maple Grove Outlook. The appearance of the playing courts from the Madison Avenue frontage is cluttered and unattractive.

The West Entrance is a minor, discrete component of this sector. It was clearly designed as a formal entry sequence, with rows of trees and two planted islands. These elements remain in remnant form.

Reinstate entry sequence.

Recommendations : Reorganize courts locating as shown on Exhibit 7 to limit intrusion of surrounding areas. Reconstruct surrounding pedestrian paths. Provide five, full-size tennis courts and two regulation basketball courts. Pave all courts in with grass green top coat. Remove high intensity lighting. Replace chain link fences with less obtrusive alternative. Visually enclose Tennis Lawn with tree and shrub plantings as shown. Buffer from Madison Avenue with tree groves. Replant formal trees along walk at west edge of sector. Reinstate decorative shrub plantings in islands.

A dense Buffer Edge made up primarily of flowering shrubs, with trees in some locations nearly surrounded the park in earlier days. Gaps occurred only at the two ends of the Mall and along Madison Avenue at the Tennis Lawn. Each portion of the buffer edge served the purpose of enclosing views of park users in a somewhat different way. The general intent of the buffer edge was to separate the experience of the park from contact with the surrounding city. The historic form of each area is stated, followed by a recommendation for the treatment of each buffer area in the future. Currently the park buffer is generally open to the surrounding city. Remnant shrubs and evergreen trees serve a buffering function in limited locations.