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GREAT TRANSFORMATION ♦ Chicago Race Patrons Will See a New Washington Park. $ When All Contemplated Improvements Arc Completed Homewood Course Will Bank With the Best. 1 A wonderful transformation is being wrought at Washington Park, the scene of Chicagos next race meeting. New stands, new entrances, new paving, new landscaping are making this plant one that will compare favorably with the best and largest in the country. A proper appreciation of the changes and additions can be had only by those who have attended the course in the past, prior to its temporary abandonment in 1927, and by them only after they have entered the establishment and inspected the improvements. This is where the American Derby is to be run, and where the Illinois Oaks and other stakes of some importance will be decided. The important changes are : New and spacious clubhouse, paddock, entrances and spur-tracks, restaurant, offices and jockeys room, mutuel room, finish line and judges stand, elevation to original stands, paved la%vn, walks and promenades. Nor does this tell all of the story of improvements, for there are some that do not show to a casual inspection. The interiors, which are yet unfinished, are said to be planned on a most elaborate scale, and will consume an appreciable part of the enormous amount of money that is being expended. President Col. Matt J. Winn and general manager C. W. Hay are especially enthusiastic over the plans that are being carried out in the finish of the new clubstand and club-rooms. The exterior design of this is patterned after that of Mount Vernon, home of George Washington. This structure of colonial pattern, does not show in the general picture, being somewhat obscured by the stand itself, but it is a genuine ornament to the grounds as seen from the en- Continued on sixteenth page. GREAT TRANSFORMATION Continued from first page. trance. Situated very conveniently to this is the new eighteen-stall paddock, the openness and accessibility of which should be an added attraction of great popularity. The club house itself is to be most ornately finished and furnished. The colonial idea is not to be carried out in the interior, which is to have the most modern of funishings and appurtenances. For instance, there will be mutuel room windows grilled in bronze, with marble inlaid. The beauty and elegance of it all is calculated to make an especial appeal to women, whose convenience and comfort are to be provided for as at the largest of city banks. An elevator will be in service between this department and the club grandstand above. The erection of this stand has brought about a change in the finish line, which is brought to the point where the mai.i grandstand and the clubstand are separated by the new judges stand, set back some distance from the track. This is not done, however, at any great sacrifice to the view of occupants of the main grandstand. It really is at a neutral point, which can be seen from either stand with equal advantage. The new finish line, of course, affords a longer stretch run. The raising of the stands should give a much finer view to all occupants, nj matter whore they may find themselves seated — or standing, to watch the finish, as the case may be. According to S. J. St. Clair, under whose supervision and that of Tom Young, much of the new work has been done, the stands will be eight and one-half feet higher than formerly. ■BW PAVEMENT. Each improvement has its importance In a practical way, as well as along the line of beauty enhancement, but none will be more appreciated by the rank and file that attend Washington Park races than the paving of all the space in front of the grandstand and all of the walks. This is literally taking Washington Park out of the gravel and mud, for where there formerly was soft gravel to make walking tiresome and fraught with the unpleasant prospect of dirty shoes and trou-ser ends is now red brick, in large blocks, smooth and easy to walk on and a liberal contribution to the picture. In this particular, Washington Park has copied Linncoln Fields much to its own advantage. Not one of these changes will be any more appreciated by the daily patron from Chicago than the single item of improved transportation. The visitor by Illinois Central begins to visualize the improvements as he reaches the park, while experiencing the added speed and comforts of an electrified train which carries him. or her, fn.m convenient points in the city directly to the grandstand entrance, the last part of the trip being made over a spur track which is now being completed. The passenger has a very short distanc; to walk; in fact, he seems to be taken into the park itself, for when he emerges from the train, he finds himself under shds that afford ample protection in bad weather. It is said that the schedule of the special Washington Park trains will call fo~ a running time from Randolph, or Van Burcn Stn-ets to the tracks in from twenty-six to thirty minutes.
