american civic association

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The American Civic Association (ACA) is a United States organization for making better living conditions in America, with an emphasis on improving the physical and structural growth of communities. Its purpose is briefly stated as "the cultivation of higher ideals of civic life and beauty in America, the promotion of city,
town and neighborhood improvement, the preservation and development of landscape and the advancemenrt of outdoor art."[1] The ACA is a municipal reform organization, and one of the few such organizations, national in its scope, that has no set parameters for its goals, but instead operates for the general betterment of municipal administration.[2]

The general offices of the American Civic Association were established in Washington D.C. in January, 1910. Its principal founding officers were J. Horace McFarland of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, President; Clinton Rogers Woodruff of Philadelphia, vice-president; William B. Howland of New York, treasurer; and Richard B. Watrous of Washington, secretary.[1] Under McFarland's hand, and with the influence of powerful industrialist and conservationist Stephen Mather who was an ACA member, the organization was one of the big supporters of the United States' national park policy. The ACA was an early supporter of the push to have the national park system organized and administered under a single dedicated government body.[3]

References ^ a b United States Congress. House Committee on Foreign Affairs, William Sulzer (1912) (Public domain). Preservation of Niagara Falls. United States Government Printing Office.
p. 373. http://books.google.com/books?id=xbQMAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA373&dq=%22American+Civic+Association%22&client=firefox-a. ^ Bennett Munro, William (1920). The government of American cities. The Macmillan company. p. 360. http://books.google.com/books?id=d5YSAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA360&dq=%22American+Civic+Association%22&client=firefox-a#PPA361,M1. ^ A. Gonzalez, George (2001). Corporate power and the environment. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 47. ISBN 0-7425-1085-9. Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Civic_Association" Categories: Organizations established in 1910