Jifornia ional ility k. k. 9 CO 00 oo (D CO cr X bO CL O to > iinrfl,rfi(i{^^llt^li^it5^--- -j »v./an1> ^JTaJar^ '^.'i jfOHlMui^ 1^V> ^^^vAfo..^^^ i'^l^^O'v^i sought >Q8^ Jn cult M.OO. iliii^ii-:^^ ,^' Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1887, by the RECORD AND GUIDE, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. v> — ■':*-. ..f "US/ . * ■■\, I if :f CONTENTS. PAOB The Court of Appeals declares the land "appropriated," ••con- demned," " taksn" 15 The Newport of the Toilers 16 What the highest tribunals in the State say of Pelham Bay Park 20 A contrast between the Central and the new parks — Misapprehensions and misstatements corrected 21 Financial objections answered 22 Parks a profitable investment — Boston's experience ^ 26 Testimony from other cities 27 Further testimony as to the effect of parks on real estate values 28 A shrewd scheme to get the advantage of the city 31 Why the work of appraisement should be vigorously prosecuted 32 Some telling facts from the history of Central Park 33 The Sinking Fund and the city debt 34 The New York of the future 37 The remedy for a great evil 38 The tenement house problem 41 New York's packed population , . . 42 The rapid transit question 43 Access to the new parks 44 The parade ground and popular recreations 47 A permanent industrial exhibition 48 A diversified park system— Area of parks and parkways 49 Van Cortlandt Park, parade ground and rifle range 50 Generous provision for our National Guard 53 Revolutionary reminiscences — The ancient mansion and mill 54 Sylvan scenery — A pirk contrast, New York and Paris 57 Memories of the past 58 Van Cortlandt vestas 59 A voice from Fairmount 60 Rare sylvan beauties 63 An iceberg's gift— The artists' haunt 64 That British fleet— A school of botany 65 An important question •> 68 The right thing in the right place 69 Boundaries of Bronx Park 70 New York's great sea-side resort 73 Pelham Bay Park • 74 -vi CONTENTS. PAGE Objections answered — A rare acquisition 77 Popular recreations 78 A grand site for a zoological garden 79 A retrospect 80 A profitable real estate operation , 83 Pelham Neck and Hunter's Island 84 The battle of the Neck 87 A naval prize— Mistress Anne 88 Park revenues — A site for an observatory 91 The boundaries — Furnished and unfurnished parks 93 Croton Park 95 St. Mary's Park 97 Claremont Park 98 The Parkways 101 The Mosholu Parkway 103 The Bronx and Pelham Parkways— The Crotona Parkway 105 HISTORY OF THE MOVEMEA^T FOR NEW PARKS. Its friends and foes— The contest in the Legislature and before the courts lOT Suitable sites 108 The New York Park Association Ill Preliminary work 113 A worthless resolution — Appointment of the New Parks Commission. 115 The report — Public meetings 116 The anti-parks war — The press for the parks 117 Now is the time US' The Commission endorsed — Support of solid men 131 The contest in the Legislature 133 The friends of the parks— Hon. L, R. Marsh 183 Hon. W. W. Niles— Hon. John E. Develin— Hon. W. Hutchins 124 Hon. O. B. Potter— CoL R. M. Gallaway 137 An im just charge repelled 138 Only natural park lands selected 131 Strong friends of the movement 133 Other friends — The work performed 133 A host of allies 134 Legislative champions and advocates 137 An overwhelming majority — The bill becomes a law 138 Renewal of the contest — Decision of the Court of Appeals 139 The Commissioners of Appraisal 140 A financial stumbling block 143 Hostile attitude of Mayor Grace 144 The second mayoralty war against the parks 145 CONTENTS. vii PAGE A scheme to nullify theact of 1884 146 Mr. Grace's ' ' mass meeting " declared ' ' a dead failure " 149 His purpose exposed— The opposition again defeated 150 Insidious attempt to involve the Real Estate Exchange 151 An adroit, but an unsuccessful scheme 152 The contest in the Board of Aldermen 155 An eloquent protest 156 An attack from a new quarter 159 Final repulse and end of the war 160 Important correspondence 162 Emphatic endorsement by prominent citizens 164 Petition to the Legislature and the Governor in favor of the New Parks, and asking that the Bill be passed and signed 171 ILLUSTRATIONS. Map Showing the Location of the New Parks. PAGB Vah COBTiiANDT Park— Van Cortlandt Mansion — Washington's Headquarters in 1781 and 1783 Frontispiece Parade Ground 14 View of Palisades from Vault Hill 17 Northern end of the Lake 2S Old Mill of the Revolution and Ancient Elms 29^ Thb Bronx Park— On the Heights above the River 3& TheCascade 39 Sylvan Point 45 Delancey 's Ancient Pine 51 The Woodland Mirror 55 The Trout Pool 61 The River Glade 65 Inthe Woods 71 The Lorillard Mansion 75 Si. Mart's Park— Northeast view .. 81 Southeast view 85 Northwest view 89 East view 93 Crotona Park— Entrance to Park— North view 99 Entrance to Park — South view 103 The Grove 109 The Dell 113 Pblham Bay Park— From Pelham Bridge, looking southerly 119 From Prospect Hill, looking westward 125 From Hunter's Island, looking south 129 Prom Bartow's, looking south 135 From Hunter's Island, looking easterly 141 East Chester Bay, south of Pelham Bridge 147 View of Upland 153 Picnic Point 157 INTRODUCTION. The author of the following pages has presented, in a compact form, a comprehensive history of the movement which, initiated in 1881, resulted in the enactment of a law that has added 3,840 acres to the park area of the city. Although the bill creating six new parks and three parkways was passed by the Legislature of 1884, the € fforts by which the opponents of the measure sought to defeat its enactment have been carried on with more or less obstinacy ever since. In fact the experience of the men to whom the city is indebted for the existence of Central Park has been repeated in the present instance. Having failed, after a bitter and protracted struggle, marked by most adroit tactics, to defeat the bill during the session of J 884, in which it passed by a vote of twenty-one to two in the Senate and of seventy-four to twenty-one in the Assembly, its enemies renewed the contest before the Governor. At the end of the thirty days allowed for Executive considera- tion, however, he resolved to give it his approval, and, affixing his signature thereto, it became a law on the 14th of June, 1884. It might reasonably be supposed that the fisrce and prolonged assaults on the New Parks Act would have ceased after the passage of the biU, which was fully discussed before tha Cities' Committees of the Senate and Assembly, in both branches of the Legislature and before the Governor; but the attacks were kept up with unabated virulence and pertinacity even after the decisions of the Supreme Court and the Court of Appaals on the constitutionality of the law, and the reversal flaally by the last tribunal of the decision of the Special and General Terms of the Court of Common Pleas on the Sinking Fund question. Nay, so far was this spirit of rancor- ous opposition carried that one of the most conspicuous in the unrelenting and at times unscrupulous warfare against the parks defiantly said that he would so "tie them up" in litigation that the city would not be able to obtain possession of them for years to come— if ever. It mattered not to the enemies of the parks that the nxovement recei ved the indorsement and in many cases the active support of a large number of public-spirited citizens, extracts from whose letters will be found in another part of this volume ; that it had the approval of a great part of X INTRODUCTION. the city press ; that the bill was not only passed by the Legislature of 188i, but that the Legislatures of 1885 and 1886 rejected the proposition to repeal the law ; that the insidious attempt to place the Real Estate Exchange in opposition to the measure had signally failed — all this had no weight with the opposition ; they had resolved at all hazards to have the act repealed, QVen though it subjected the city to the intolerable burden of vexatious, expensive and endless litigation. And so the war has been kept up to the present moment in defiance of two decisions of the highest tribunals in the State. However, it is now fair to presume, after six years of public, legislative and legal controversy ; after the Court of Appeals has declared that " the STATUte ITSELF CONDEMNS AND APPROPRIATES FOR PUBLIC USE THE PRECISE LANDS SELECTED BY METES AND BOUNDS SO THAT EVERY OWNER AFFECTED HAD MEANS OF KNOWING THAT HIS LAND WAS TAKEN," that We have reached the end of the fight, and that the work of the three citizens com- posing the Commission of Appraisal, whose characters are above reproach and whose ability has not been called in question, will be allowed to prose- cute their work to the end without further embarrassment or inter- ruption. The intimate personal connection of the author with the movement, from its inception to the present moment, enables him to give from the minute data in his possession all the details herein set forth, and for the accuracy and correctness of which he holds himself responsible. It is this thorough knowledge, not only of the facts and circumstances, but of the true pur- poses of the movement and of the motives by which it was inspired, that justifies him in saying that it was conceived in an earnest, sincere, honest and unselfish desire to promote the sanitary welfare of the people, to secure to them opportunities for physical recreation and out-door exercise, and to add to the prosperity and embellishment of our imperial metropolis, des- tined within the next half century to be first among the cities of the world in population and wealth, first in culture, magnificence and power. Not only was this movement begun and carried on in a spirit of generous devotion to the one great purpose, and with unflagging energy all through the varying fortunes of the struggle, but it was also prosecuted at great sacrifice of time and labor, and with a total disregard of all personal interests or selfish considerations. This much the author cannot refrain from saying, injustice to all, who, having no personal interest at stake, took pare in the movement, and aided it by vote, or voice, or pen. But the cause of the new parks is in a special degree indebted for its success to the generous eni sustained encouragement which its promoters and advocates received from the New York Press, which of all its promoters and advocates was throughout among the mcst earnest and steadfast. Those who imagine that the extension of the park area of cur metropolis at the present time is premature, should consider its rapid growth and future destiny. There are to-day within our municipal limits at least seventeen hundred thousand souls. The increase, therefore, since the census of 1881) has been half a million, and, at this rate, our population at the beginning of the twentieth century will be over three millions. This INTRODUCTION. xi rate of increase would give at least six millions in 1917, or nearly two millions more than there are in the British metropolis. Nor should this be a matter for surprise when we consider the progress and growth of the whole country which more than trebles its population every forty years. Thus, while in 1800 the number was 5,308,483; in 1840 it was 17,060,453; in 1810 id was 7,239,881 and in 18:0 23,191,876; in 1830 it was 9,633,822 and in 1860 31,443,321; in 1830 it was 12,866,020 and in 1870 38,558,371 ; in 1840 it was 17,069,453 and in 1880 50,155,783. Within the last forty years, although we have passed through a great civil war, this three- fold increase was almost wholly maintained. To-day our population is estimated at 6j,0C0,000, and if the same rate is kept up there will be in our Republic nearly two hundred millions of souls in the year 1927. New York must grow with the growth, must keep pace with the marvellous development of the whole country. Its public works must be carried on upon a scale commensurate with the progress of a city which is destined to be the world's capital, a city to which a continent contributes of its abundant wealth and resources. That a marked impulse has recently been imparted to its growth is evident from the activity in building opera- tions during the past two or three years. The concentrated strength of tens of thousands of laborers is working through the inexhaustible power of the steam-drill, levelling the hills, piercing the rocks, preparing the way for the potent power of dynamite; both doing their share in the beneficent work of clearing the ground for human habitations. And what may not the prolific future have in store for us ? When new forces and new powers will be discovered in nature and new factors and appliances to develop and utilize them invented by man — for it is not to be presumed that this generation has wrested all her secrets from the one and exhausted all the intellectual activity of the other — then New York may see marvellous scientific revelations in her workshops and her factories; wonders of art in her museums and her homes ; creations of beauty in ecclesiastical architecture that may equal, if they do not surpass, the famed basilicas and cathedrals of the Old World. By that time the steam engine will in all probability be a thing of the past, with all its din and rattle and sulphurous gases, and its place will be taken by the noiseless and safer, but not less rapid, electric motor. What has been already accomplished enlarges the field of future possibilities. In less than two decades the East River has been spanned by the grandest and most graceful structure of its kind in the world, the elevated roads with a carrying capacity of three quarters of a million daily have been constructad ; the gigantic Statue of Liberty holding in her hand the torch of the imprisoned lightning has been upraised over the waters of our glorious harbor ; our charities, our libraries, our museums and our institutions of learning have been multiplied beyond all precedent. For the New York of the future, for the great metropolis as it is to be, the new parks may well be regarded as inadequate, and it would seem to be the part of a wise economy even now to make such provision for the still further enlargement of the area of our public grounds as will save the expenditure of millions hereafter. It is no exaggeration to say that even xii INTRODUCTION. with the supposed generous appropriation of space secured by the provisions of the act of 1884, the present park area will be as insufficient to meet the demands of three millions of inhabitants at the close of the century as the Central Park has proved to supply the present wants of seventeen hundred thousand inhabitants. In this view of the case we can appreciate the extent of the damage that would have been inflicted on the city had the attempt to eliminate Pelham Bay Park, so correctly called the " Newport of the Toilers," been successful. Fortunately, however, two successive Legislatures and the Court of Appeals prevented the perpetration of that design, and this Court has put the seal of inviolability upon the act by declaring, as has bean stated, that " it condemns and appropriates for public use the precise lands selected by metes and bounds. " Whatever apathy or indifference may have heretofore prevailed on this important question it is now reasonable to suppose that the success of the movement to increase the park area of the city, as described in these pages, will render it easy to enlist the public interest and support in behalf of like efforts hereafter. This is a great gain, for it will act as a much needed stimu- lant in the prosecution of the work that still remains to be done in this direction. I- O) O CL tr o O > NEW YORK'S GRAND PARK DOMAIK THE SCENERY DESCRIBED AND ILLUSTRATED. The Sanitary and Financial Question Discussed. THE COURT OF APPEALS DECLARES THE LAND "APPROPRIATED," "CON- DEMNED," "taken." Although the question of the New Parks has now been before the public over six years, there has thus far been no consecutive narrative of the movement by which the great system of pleasure grounds beyond the Har- lem has been secured for the people. The earnest interest manifested in its progress during the long contest, which, in view of the final decision of the highest tribunal of the State, must now be regarded as at an end. justifies the publicaticn at this particular time of a connfcted account of the move, ment from its inception, with a more detailed description of the new parks than has yet appeared in print. It is now evident that whatevor expectations our opponents may have entertained of the success of the anti-parks war, they have been effectually dis- pelled by the many signal defeats which they sustained both in the Legisla- ture and before the courts. The struggle, therefore, is virtually over and the erroneous impressions which, even up to a very recent date, had existed as to the effect of the deciiion of the Court of Appeals and the present status of the parks have at last been removed. That court to which the question of the constitutionality of the law was carried, after a tavorable decision by the General Term of the Supreme Court, declared, as will be seen from the special reference to the subj ct in another part of this volume, that "the statute its-elf condemns and appropriates for the public use the precise lands salccted by metes and bound.-=, so that every owner had means of knowing that his land ivas taken.'" The opponents of tho measure insisted that the movement was pre- mature, but the rapid growth of the city since the first meeting of the promoters and friends of the parks, which was held in the Fifth Avenue Hotel on the 11th of November, 1881, proves that it was not commenced a day too soon. Up to that year there had been, in this important matter of public parks, a strange indifference not only to 16 THE NEW PARKS. the future wants, but even to the present needs of our population. We have been far behind not only the great cities of Europe, but the principal cities of the United States as to park area. Had the wise and generous policy of De Witt Clinton prevailed when, in 1807, he mapped out a plan of parks for the Island of Manhattan, there would be little if any necessity for the creation of small parks, so greatly needed in the densely crowded districts. If New York could be constructed anew, at least one-sixth of its S~y surface might be appropriated for squares and parks with marked advan- tage not only to its health, but to its attractiveness and embellishment. The park area which Governor Cliaton laid out when the population of New York was less than 100,000 gave a proportion of one acre to every 160 inhabitants. The aggregate was about 500 acres in addition to those already established, and the total pirk area, south of 40th street, was nearly 400 acres. Of one park, the largest, which contained over 200 acres, and which extended from 23d to 31th street, and from 3d to 7th avenue, nothing is left but the 6)4 acres of Madison square; while of the 40J acres, shown on Clinton's map below 40th street, only 66 remain. To purchase the balance of 334, which have been lost through the negligence or indifference of the authorities of the city, to remove the buildings and to construct the parks, would now involve an outlay of at least one hun- dred and fifty millions of dollars — probably two hundred millions. De Witt Clinton's parks gave, as stated, an average of one acre to every 160 inhabitants. Before the passage of the act of 1884 the park area of our city was in the proportion of one acre to every 1,363 of the population, while the park acreage of London was in the ratio of 1 to 205; of Paris, 1 to 13; of Vienna, 1 to 100; of Dublin, 1 to 183; of Chicago, 1 to 200; of St. Louis, 1 to 167; of Boston, 1 to 190; and of San Frantfisco, 1 to 211. THE NEWPORT OF NEW YORK'S TOILERS. It is evident, therefore, as intimated, that the movement to increase our park area was not commenced a day too soon, and that a wise policy dictated the selection of a park with an extensive frontage on the Sound, which if not secured at once could not probably be obtained twenty or twenty-five years hence, if at all, for ten times the price which it will now cost the city. This park embraces the most desirable portion of the terri- tory on Pelham Bay, including Pelham Neck and Hunter's Island. It will i be the favorite suburban resort of the mass of our population— the toilers of the great city; it will be their Newport. The majority of our fellow citizens, happily, is not made up of the very rich and the very poor, but of the industrial classes, who are fully able from their accumulated earnings to afford many a day (and hereafter they are to have a half-holiday every week) for healthful recreation and social pleasure in the country. Of the tens of millionsof dollars in the savings banks of New York the greatest portionbelongsto the thrifty and provident workers, and it is for such that Pelham Bay Park, against which the great force of the opposition has been directed, is specially required. It is really one of the most important o o < THE NEW PARKS. 19 of the whole system on account of its water front, and its importance and value justify special reference to the advantages which it pDssesses. As the seaside park, and within easy reach by rail and boat of our east side population, its popularity will increase year by year. It is but ten minutes by rail from the Harlem River and two miles nearer than Glen Island, and will be a specially attractive point for all the trade and benevo- lent societies, for rowing and yachting clubs, for swimming matches, for fishing parties ; and what place so admirably adapted for the many excur- sions which are organized by benevolent societies and individuals every summer, and through which tens of thousands who could never otherwise hope to spend a day in the country are enabled to enjoy that pleasure and breathe the pure air of heaven? The wealthy and generous philanthropists of New York who get up summer excursions for the sick and poor of the metropolis could find no better place for the purpose than Pelham Bay Park. A sail up the Sound would be, in itself, a satisfying pleasure ; but how that pleasure would be intensified, how immeasurably the gain in health of mind and body would be increased by every hour spent in these tranquilizing scenes ! How the tired muscles would relax, the unquiet nerves grow calm, the dimmed eyes brighten and the plodding step become elastic under the potent spell exercised by the combined influences of sea and land and sky possessed by this park in perfection. Space, beauty and variety ! Closed in on three sides by " water walls," roofed by " the brave o'erhanging firmament," how could such a spot fail to bring health to the body and peace to the mind ? And what a sanitarium could be there established ! The ever-moving panorama of the Bound, with its fleets of steamers and sailing vessels, yachts and fishing boats ; the happy throngs of picnic parties, the games of athletic clubs, the merry shouts of romping children, would infuse such an element of joyousness into the surroundings as to make simple rest in itself a recreation. No more desirable or suitable spot could be selected for a sanitarium. But we should not look to the effect of the parks on the health of the people only ; we should not overlook the subtle influence they will exercise on the manners, the morals, the imagina- tion, the creative genius and artistic instincts of the population— an influ- ence not less real because intangible, not less valuable because it cannot be reduced to dollars and cents. Communion with nature not only educates the eye and refines the taste, but it softens the manners and elevates the moral perceptions ; and, thanks to the size of the most important parks of the system, our people can enjoy that communion to thq fullest extent undisturbed by city sights and sounds — " can mingle with the universe and enjoy the charms of solitude to their heart's content." Let us by all means have small parks. We cannot have too many of them ; but we should not confine the denizens of our tenement districts exclusively to the city squares. It is natural that they should long to get into the country, away from the dust and din and stifling heats of their crowded quarters in the city, away out of sight of its scorching pavements and the noisome odor of filthy streets and reeking gutters. Surely the great metropolis can afford to give to its hundreds of thousands of workers so THE NEW PARKS. a park by the Sound, where they can drink in new life and health in its refreshing, invigorating breezes. WHAT THE HIGHEST TRIBUNALS IN THE STATE SAY OF PELHAM BAY PARK. Within three years that part of Westchester County in which Pelham Bay Park is located will be annexed to New York. This territory was included in the original bill of annexation, the present northern line having been continued from the Bronx to the Sound, which is the proper eastern limit of the city; but as objections were raised at the time the bill was introduced in the Legislature it was decided to compromise by making the Bronx the boundary. By embracing this tract in the new park domain prior to the proposed extension of the northern line to the Sound the city has saved hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars on the purchase. It is evident that the Supreme Court does not believe its acqaisitioa is either premature or undesirable. Referring to the objections raised by the opposition, that tribunal, in its decision on the 1st of December, 1884, declaring the act constitutional, said: " At most the appropriation of this land is but a short step into the future, and as it must soon be required for this object, if it is not wholly so at present, the time for obtaining it has already arrived. For the recreation and enjoyment of the present inhabitants of the city it will be advantageous, for those who are soon to follow them it will be indispensable, and to meet the present and prospective ivants of the city prudence requires that the property should noiv be obtained.''^ The Court of Appeals, to which the case was carried, also made this park the subject of special reference, affirming the decision of the Supreme Court. " We must," said the highest tribunal in the State, "assume what we can see is at least possible and perhaps probable that the lands over the border are so near, so convenient of access, so likely to be overtaken and surrounded by the city's growth, so desirable for the health and recreation of the citizens, and so cheaply to be got in comparison with the consequences of delay, as to indicate a primary and predominant city purpose in a matter itself within the ordinary range of municipal action." But it has been urged that the expense of the maintenance of Pelham Bay Park will be a heavy burden on the taxpayers of the city. Why should it be ? If six or seven hundred thousand persons visit Glen Island every summer, and probably over thrice that number go to other resorts in the vicinity of New York, is it not evident that a large revenue would be derived by the city from the letting of privileges, the granting of leases and licenses to those who would cater in a multiplicity of ways to the vast throng of pleasure-seekers who would resort to the great park by the Sound ? Much more than the interest on the bonds, which is 3 per cent., would be derived from this source. There is no better paying investment than that in parks. The parks of London and Paris are among their chief attractions, and all their largest pleasure grounds are miles beyond the limits of those cities. The Pairmount of Philadelphia, which contains about 2,700 acres, is eight miles in length and over two in width. Before the THE NEW PARKS. 21 movement to increase our park area commenced London had 15,000 acres and this has been increased to 22,000, one tract alone, the great Epping Forest, having an extent of 6,030 acres, or nearly one-half the area of Manhattan Island. Of these 23,000 acres, 2,000 only are within the city limits. How is it with Paris? Of its 172,000 acres, less than 500 are within its bomidaries. The opposition by which Pelham Bay Park has been assaUed is but a repetition of the war waged against Central Park. The opponents of the Central contended that the expense would bankrupt the city, that it would become the resort of thieves and vagabonds, and they sent delegation after delegation and petition on petition, remonstrance on remonstrance to the State capital protesting against the passage of the bill ; but, fortunately, they did not succeed. They insisted that it was too far from the centre of population and that the city would not grow up to it in half a century. It is now about thirty years since the land was acquired and to-day it is dwarfed by the city's marvelous growth and in a faw years more it will be divided into sections by the streets which must intersect it to facilitate the traffic and travel east and west. A CONTRAST BETWEEN THE CENTRAL AND THE NEW PARKS. The costly experience of the city in the case of Central Park will not be repeated, for, with the exception of some necessary roads and walks, comparatively little work will be needed in the new pleasure grounds. When Central Park was acquired it was one of the most uninviting sections of the island, and a considerable portion of it had been used as dumping grounds. As far back as 1860, four years after the land was paid for, one of the daily papers said '" it was neither a park, a stone yard, nor a piece of waste land, and that after three years labor and an expenditure of millions of dollars New York is almost as parkless as ever." It was simply a space for a park and th" city had to make one and put it there at a cost of $20,000 an acre, in addition to the six millions six hundred and odd thousands paid for the land. The woods had to be planted, the large tracts of marsh filled in, roads and walks constructed, and the so-called lakes made. In the accomplishment of this necessary work fifteen years were consumed before it was ready for use. All of the new parks created by the act of 1834 are not only required for the future, but for the present, and when they are formally declared open they will be thronged by tens of thousands of our population eager to enjoy that pleasure of unrestricted use denied them in our beautiful, picturesque, showy and artificial Central, which has never been in the true sense of the term the people's playground. Too far from the city ! from a city advanc- ing with gigantic strides to its predestined position, to the first place among the capitals of Christendom. If its progress during the last half century furnishes a fair basis on which to estimate its future growth, then within the lifetime of many who are still in their teens it will have a population of seven or eight millions. MISAPPREHENSIONS AND MISSTATEMENTS CORRECTED. It is to be regretted that the wo-k <>f the C jmmissioners of Appraisal 22 THE NEW" PARKS. should be retarded by the persistent efforts to repeal the law, and that a measure so beneficent in its character should have been attacked with such virulence that in one flagrant instance it was made the cause of a malicious personal persecution. The misapprehension, in many cases doubtless honestly entertained by some of the opponents of the movement as to its true character and the motives of its promoters, has at last, happily given way to a proper appreciation of the project, and of its vast importance to the sanitary welfare of the people, independent of the financial gain to the city. As to the assertion so freely, so unjustly, made that the movement for new parks was a land speculation, and that this charge was especially true of Pelham Bay Park, the writer knows absolutely whereof he speaks when he states that not one of the owners of that park knew that his land was included in the area first indicated, and which embraced all that was finally selected in the location of that magnificent pleasure ground. It is proper also to say right here that the most determined opposition to the selection of this particular park was made by several of the owners of property within its limits, that these property owners got up and forwarded petitions to the Legislature against the pas- sage of the bill, that they employed counsel who appeared before the Legislative Committee and Governor Cleveland and used every effort to defeat its enactment. There never was a movement of the kind in this or any other city so wholly free from speculation of any description. It was conceived in the best and purest of motives, having in view the one great object, the public good. And now a few words in conclusion as to the financial question. On that point it is sufficient at present to say that the city will have this splendid park domain entirely free of cost ; that, as in the case of the Central, more than the amount of the bonds and the 3 per cent, interest thereon will be paid back iato the city treasury from the increased tax income on the enhanced value of the surrounding lands — yes, more than enough to pay for the smaller down-town parks which are to be created under the act just passed. If, in a monarchical country, the opening of " The People's Palace," which took place in London the other day, was made the occasion of a royal pageant, and the dedication of an additional park area of 7,000 acres a few years ago was celebrated by the civic authorities of that city, should we not celebrate with appropriate ceremonies the opening of the people's parks next year by a grand municipal holiday ? FINANCIAL OBJECTIONS ANSWERED. One of the principal objections to the new parks was the great expense, which, it was contended, would seriously embarrass the city, if it did not actually impair its credit. It was urged that the expenditure of millions for this purpose would put a stop to necessary public improvements; that the money required for the parks was needed for increased school accommo- dations ; that a new aqueduct and reservoir should be commenced immedi- ately, that the rapid growth and extension of the city necessitated the construction of miles of additional streets and sewers ; that three or four < o o ri- 3 Q. -a m Q_ O .-4- THE NEW PARKS. 25 millions a year would be required for new docks and armories, not to speak of the pressing necessity for a new municipal building, to save the payment of exorbitant rents for city offices. These arguments were used with considerable effect both in this city and Albany, but the evidence as to the direct financial gain resulting from the creation of parks, not only in New York, but elsewhere, was conclusive. The friends of the movement were fortified by the overwhelming testimony on this point afforded by the history of Central Park. It was shown that, despite the enormous < utlay necessary to put it in condition for public use, and the amount expended in costly embellishments, the city had a balance of S17,CO0,O0O in its favor. And during the fifteen years required for its completion there was no cessation of other public works. So far from retarding necessary improvements, the increased revenue resulting from the rapid and unprecedented rise in the value of real estate in the 12th 19th and 23d Wards furnished a large portion of the means from which the municipal expenses were defrayed. The city purchased the land at the lowest figure and consequently had reaped all the advantage of a rise in values. The first tract taken under the act of 1853 cost about $7,800 an acre, and the second tract, extending from 106th to 110th street, appropriated six years after, $30,030 an acre. Before this extension the appraised value of the northern section was about $4,000 an acre. Its acquisition, six years after, cost the city five times as much, making an aggregate of $803,000, which would have been saved had all the land within the park been acquired under the act of 1S53. Yet this marked increase dwindles into insignificance compared with the prices paid for property fronting on the park. Comptroller Hawes, in 1858, two years after the city acquired title to the land, said that "the increase in the amount of taxes accruing in consequence of the enhancement of value in real estate situated in the upper part of the island over and above the formal value of the land, now withdrawn from taxation on account of the opening of this noble park, will, it is thought, afford more thau suffi- cient means for the payment of the interest on the debt incurred for its purchase and improvement without any increase in the general rate of taxation. " The sanguine predictions of Mr. Hawes were more than realized, the increased taxes not only paid the interest on the bonds, they paid both principal and interest, and, as estimated, seventeen millions of dollars over all expenses. In the speculation which followed the enactment of the law in IC-o, property advanced in one year from 100 to 300 per cent, in some localities, and ene noted instance is recorded of an advance in a single plot of 1,300 per cent, within five yeais. This was the tract bounded by 5th and Madison avenues and 78th and 79th streets, which in 1833 was sold for $3,CC0, and in 1857 for $40,000. Twelve years after Mr. Vanderbilt offered $1,250,000 for this plot, and the offer was refused. It may be said that this was mere speculation and the value was wholly prospective ; but whether speculative or prospective the city had the benefit in the basis which it afforded for increased assessments. Mr. Hawes evidently believed that the city was entitled to its share of th" benefit, and he assessed it accordingly 26 THE KEW PARKS. in proportion to the advance. Had the 129 acres which make up the area of Riverside and Morningside Parks been purchased at the rate paid for those in the Central, those ribbons of land and rocky ledges, less than one- half the area of which is available for park purposes, they would doubtless have reimbursed the city for the outlay. But these strips cost $7,250,000, or at the rate of $60,009 an acre 1 Small chance there for a return on the investment. It was a losing transaction from the start, and they will cost three or four millions more before they are fully " improved." PARKS A PROFITABLE INVESTMENT— BOSTON'S EXPERIENCE. The area of the new parks and parkways beyond the Harlem is 3,800 acres, or a little more than four times that of the Central, Riverside and Morningside combined, and requiring no outlay further than may be nec- essary for a few additional roads, they will cost much less than was paid for the land alone within those parks. Five years hence they will be worth more than double the price to be paid for them and the city will then possess parks worthy of the name, parks fully furnished by Nature with every element of beauty, hills and streams and trees, the product of centuries. As to the ability of the city to bear the additional burden imposed by these parks, even were the returns inadequate to the outlay, a few facts will satisfy the most skeptical. The interest on the Central Park bonds at 7 per cent, amounted to $466,200 a year, which was raised on taxable values of from three to four hundred millions of dollars. The interest on the new park bonds, fixed by the act of 1884 at 3 per cent, will not amount to $300,000 a year, and this will be paid from the tax imposed on an aggregate value of about fifteen hundred millions, which will be mate- rially increased by the influence of the parks themselves in the enhancement of the surrounding property. Will the weight imposed by this burden be more intolerable than that borne by the city thirty years ago, when it was obliged to pay almost double the amount of interest on one-fifth the present- amount of real and personal estate? But there is no "burden" and the word has no placo in this connection except for the purposes of illustration. It has been already stated that the experience of New York and other cities proved that parks, financially considered, are a profitable investment. Believing that like causes produced like results the writer entered, in the early stage of the movement, into correspondence with the Commissioners of Parks in the principal cities throughout the country with a view of securing corroborative evidence on this important point. In every instance the im- mediate effect was a marked appreciation of real estate fronting on and in the immediate vicinity of the parks. Mr. W. Harmon, the Secretary of the South Park Commission of Chicago, wrote that " the immediate effect of their location was to double and quadruple property." The report for- warded from the Boston Commission stated that the Back Bay Park, which was given as an illustration, " is not a tax upon the city at large, but the increased taxes from the surrounding property pays its cost. The increase of values is upon land alone, and does not include the buildings. The valuation of the land in the rest of the city during the same time, 1877 to THE NEW PARKS. 27 1881, tvas reduced $27,621,449." This report possesses peculiar significance, for it proves that the increased value of the property around the park enabled the city authorities to reduca the burden on the rest of the city. Within the comparatively brief period of four years, as stated, a reduction of $27,621,449 was made in the valuations of the land ! " New buildings," said the Commissioners, " have been erected upon this territory, which are due in a large measure to the influence of the park and from which the city derives an income of $55,492." Iq their report to the Mayor, speaking of the financial benefits derived from the increased space appropriated for the recreation of the people, they remark that the information was "interesting and instructive, not only to the owners of estates adjacent to the improvement, but especially to citizens at large who may very natur- ally be under the impression that their property is being additionally taxed for the benefit of a particular section of their city. The reverse is true. The tax rate is already favorably influenced by the purchase of park lands, and in the opinion of the undersign d will so continue to be in an in- creasing ratio in succeeding years." What is true of Boston is no less true of New York. The enhancement of values in one section of the city must be to the advantage of the whole, and this will be found to be also true not only of large parks, but of the small parks, though the financial gain cannot, for evident reasons, ba as large. TESTIMONY FROM OTHER CITIES. From Mr. John Y. Cuyler, the Superincendent and Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn parks, came evidence still more positive, emphatic and con- vincing than that furnished from other cities. "As a result," said that gentleman, "a careful investigation of the change of values and the higher rate of taxation disclosed by examination of the Assessors and Tax ofiice it may be confidently asserted that the establishment of Prospect Park and the smaller parks has been generally beneficial as a financial venture on the part of the municipality, and as a matter of fact they impose no burden on the taxpayer, but have been and are an important factor in conti'ibuting to the city an increased revenue which, were it separated and credited to a sinking fund, would at the present time, and in some instances entirely so, go a long way towards paying off the indebtedness incurred by the issue of bonds for the original purchase of the lands and their improvements.'''' The evidence from Baltimore, Buffalo and other points was as direct and confirmatory. The park authorities in all those cities concurred on the main point that the money spent for and on parks is a paying investment. The park authorities of Brooklyn, as far back as 1S70, speaking of the rapid increase in the population of that city, which showed a higher percentage than New York, insisted on " the immense importance of securing parks and open planted spaces of every description ii advance and wherever it may be practicable as lungs for the p)opulation; and," they added, " that their constant aim should be to increase the valuation of their property by improving their streets and by increased park accommo- dations." 28 THE NEW PARKS. As for New York, they predicted that in the race between tho two cities it was certain to be left behind, ttniess— clear-sighted BrooklynitesI— "it ihall speedily absorb all the southern towns of Westchester," an event which the new park on Pelham Bay, as well as the growth of the city northward and eastward beyond the Harlem renders inevitable. By annex- ation at the earliest day the city will have the benefit resulting from the increased values of property along the extended line fronting the eastern boundary of the Bronx, on both sides of the great parkway and on Pelham Bay Park, the extent of which is about ten miles, making, with the front- age of the new pai'ks west of the Bronx, an aggregate of over twenty miles. As the property around these parks will more than pay for them from the ascending tax rates, justice to the owners demands that they should have all the benefit to be obtained therefrom with as little delay as possible. This is not only due to the parties immediately interested but to the whole city, ;^ for these parks are to be the people's playgrounds, and every trade associa- tion, every benevolent society, every athletic club, every Sunday school, every military organization — and all these are numbered not by hun- dreds but by thousands — have a special interest in their transfer to the Park Department in order that they may be officially thrown open to the public. That transfer once made, and one summer's enjoyment of the parks secured, the people will be able to realize the extent of the loss the city would have sustained had the insidious attempt made in 1885 to repeal the act been successful. But the organized movement of that year, which cul- minated in a last desperate effort at Albany of the enemies of the parks, and which literally bristled with threats and menaces against the friends of the measure, and even attacks upon character, was a signal failure, the Court of Appeals having effectually barred the way and the Legislature refusing to undo its own beneficent work. The history of that movement which is now presented in these pages for the first time reveals some incidents, which are both instructive and suggestive. rURTHER TESTIMONY AS TO THK EFFECT OP PARKS ON REAL ESTATE VALUES. Particular reference was made on a former page to the financial benefits resulting from the creation of parks, and evidence was presented from the officials of Chicago, Brooklyn and other cities in corroboration of our own experience on this point. Such evidence was deemed of the first import- ance, as this was the main ground on. which the opposition justified its fierce, active and at times unscrupulous hostility to the movement. In every instance the facts obtained from reliable sources proved, as stated in another place, that "the money spent for and on parks is a paying investment." The case of Baltimore, to which only a brief allusion was made, is deserving of special mention, as it bears particularly on the objec- tion to the location of pleasure grounds beyond the city limits. " Druid Hill Park," said Mr. D. Rayhice, the secretary of the Baltimore Commission, "purchased in 1860, is not within the city limits, but is separated from it by some three-eighths of a mile, which was formerly < 0) O "0 :x} m THE NEW PARKS. SI without a dwelling for that distance. There are now rows of handsome dwellings lining the roads leading to the park. The cost of the land within the parli limits was SDme what less than $1,000 an acre. The surrounding property is now held at rates vastly higher. Before the park was opened the Commission gave for an undivided interest |5C'0 an acre. They have since had to 2^ciy $i,000 and more than that ivhen they had to condemn land ivithin the park. Rough hill side lots, which would scarcely have found a purchaser, are now held at $3,000 in the expecta- tion that the Commission will have to pay the price to secure the prop- erty which jits into the park. That the increased value is very great is so palpable that m one doubts.'''' But still more convincing evidence than that furnished by the history of Central Park and the experience of Baltimore, Chicago, Brooklyn and other cities has been revealed by an adroit attempt to secure the passage of a certain bill during the recent session of the Legislature. The real object was concealed under pretense of benefiting the city and of making certain indispensable changes in the new parks by the adjustment of boundaries. A bill was drawn up by parties interested in the scheme and introduced in the Senate, on the 20th of April, giving authority to the Department of Parks "to lay out, define, locate and change the exterior boundaries of the said new parks named in the saiJ act (1884) and the several parkways;" and it was provided that " in making the proposed changes the Commissioners aforesaid shall not extend the area or boundaries of parks or parkways, but may diminish the same.''^ In this shrewdly concocted scheme the virus, like the poison of the wasp, lurked in the tail. The bill appeared to be not only reasonable, but essen- tial to the correction of certain alleged defects in the lines of the parks, and the unsuspecting offered no objection; but its animus was detected in time and it was buried in the grave with the blasted hopes of its projectors. A SHREWD SCHEME TO GET THE ADVANTAGE OF THE CITY. And now as to the real object of the bill: In the proposed adjustment of lines it was designed to take out certain tracts which touched the bounda- ries, and through the authority conferred by the bill to place them outside of the parks. Ever since the passage of the act of 1884 the property fronting on or in the immediate vicinity of the parks had steadily increased in value until, in some instances, the advance was over ICO per cent. Aa a matter of strict justice this enhancement, due to the establishment of the parks, should be credited to the city, and any attempt to deprive the city of the benefits accruing therefrom should be vigilantly guarded against. The expense already incurred in the survey of the lands, the employment of real estate experts on the matter of values, the heavy out- lays necessitated by the contests before the courts on questions raised by the opposition, aU these constitute substantial and valid reasons why the city should hold on not only to the parks, but to every acre and every foot of land which the Court of Appeals has decided was taken by the act, and that it should have and enj ly all the fiaancial benefits resulting from its own work. 32 THE KEW PARKS, The property owners, however, saw that by having their land placed by this ingenious device outside of the boundaries they would reap the advan- tage of the improvement and secure a frontage which would largely increase the value of their property. Of course their gain would have been the city's loss for, had they succeeded, the city would have been defrauded through the forms of law of large tracts which had acquired higher value by their appropriation for this special purpose. But the scheme could not have succeeded even if the bill had passed, unless by collusion between the authorities and the property owners, which, under the administration of the present Mayor, would never have been tolerated if brought to his notice. It is certain that had the bill passed the Legislature the promoters and friends c f the parks would have made known to the Governor its real design, and, if necessary, they would finally appeal to that Court which declared that " the statute itself condemns and appropriates for the public use the jirecise lands selected by metes and bounds, so that every owner affected had means of knowing that his land ivas taken." The scheme, if successful, would have caused still further delay anu post- poned, by vexatious and costly litigation, the day when the people could enter into full possession and enjoyment of their own property. But the litigation which has already taken tens of thousands of dollars out of the city treasury, and through which hundreds of thousands of our fellow citi- zens have been deprived of the use of the new parka for more than a year beyond the time necessary to ascertain the value of the various tracts — this litigation was one of the means by which the parks were to be so " tied up," as was defiantly threatened by an active and prominent opponent, that the people could not enjoy them for many years, if ever. WHY THE WORK OF APPRAISEMENT SHOULD BE VIGOROUSLY PROSECUTED. It was an audacious and an empty threat, but the delay that has already occurred through the contests in the .ourts on the constitutionality of the law and in determining the sinking fund question is a reason why every effort should now be mads to have these parks placed, as the law provides, under the Park Department at the earliest moment and thrown open im- mediately thereafter to the people. To the three gentlemen who constitute the Commission of Appraisal the day that sees the termination of their labor will, there is no doubt, be heartily welcome. They may literally be said to give their time and experience as a gratuity to the city, for the compensation allowed by law for their services is a mere bagatelle to men of their means. To the chair- man of the Commission, Hon. Luther R. Marsh, who freely and generously gave his time, his talents, his legal services, to the promotion of the project from the start, who threw on that side the weight and prestige of his per- sonal and professional character, the city is especially indebted. And in saying this no injustice is done to others who effectively aided a measure the merit and value of which will be appreciated more and more as the years roll by. But of all this more hereafter and in its p-rper place. The matter is THE NEW PABK3. 33 referred to at this time especially, as showing the necessity for expedition, in justice to all concerned, to the people that they may have the parks at the earliest day, to the city that it may get all the financial and other advantages flowing from them, and to the Commissioners that no more of their valuable time than is actually required for the completion of their work is consumed. As the vexed questions arising out of the contest for the parks — one side endeavoring to hold them, the other determined to repeal the law — are closed forever, a few details from the city's records as to the revenue obtained from the increased value of the land around the Central Park before and after the acquisition of the various tracts, will prove of special interest just now, when the question of advancing values in prop- erty fronting on and contiguous to the new parks must necessarily attract the attention of the public, of purchasers, and of ofHcials charged with the duty of assessing real estate. SOME TELLING FACTS FROM THE HISTORY OF CENTRAL PARK. In 1850, three years before the Central Park bill became a law, the whole area of the 12th Ward, which a few years after was cut up into the 12th, 19th and 22i Wards, was valued at $8,356,265, and six years after it was assessed on a valuation of $26,429,565, showing more than a threefold increase. At this time 42d street, so far as population was con- cerned, might be regarded as the limit of the city; all beyond, and in fact some distance south of it, consisting of "suburbs." It was in reality out in the country; there were fields and orchards and gardens — in fact the Central Park was as much in the country as Van Cortlandt and Pelham Bay Parks — which are directly accessible by railroads that carry the visitor not merely to the entrance, but right into the grounds. No wonder if, under such circumstances, with a taxable value of less than three hundred millions, some of the big property owners and taxpayers — the Astors, the Goelets, etc. — should have taken alarm and raised a clamor about bankrupting the city; but the wonder is, that, with the experience since acquired, such fears should now be entertained as to the expenditure of an amount not one fourth the whole cost of Central Park and all its improvements. Within the brief space of five years the taxable value cf the three Wards bounding the park advanced from $26,429,565 to $47,107,393, and in 1866 it ran up to $50,070,415. To attribute this extraordinary ri?e in ten years wholly to the increase of population would be absurd. ^That it was partly due to that cause there can be no doubt, but the Central Park bad much more to do with it, and the boom that begun the year the bill became a law continued for twenty years, when the official figures gave a total of nearly $35O,O3O,OJ0. Here was an increase little less than tenfold from 1856 to 1876, far in advance of the growth of the popu- lation, which showed much less than a twofold increase in the same time. When it is understood that within this period we had the two great financial revulsions of 1857 and 1873, the influence of Central Park in the enhancement of values will be f ullv appreciated. And this impetus is 34 . THE NEW" PARKS. rendered still more marked by contrast with the assessed valuation of the rest of the city, vrhich from 1S:6 to 1876 had gone up from $314,452,533 to $639,452,160, very little more than a hundred per cent, advance. In view of these figures, in view of testimony no less convincing and conclusive as to the great and numerous advantages derived from public parks in other cities, can there be a reasonable doubt that similar benefits ■will be reaped by the city and the people from the parks established beyond the Harlem, and which are so admirably linked together by con- necting parkways as to form one beautiful and harmonious system ? In the selection and purchase of property, whether for investment or imme- diate use, the lands adjacent to and in tho vicinity of these open spaces will be preferred to those more distant. Once satisfied that the law cannot be repealed — and it is now evident that any further attempt will not only be futile but certain to entail heavy expense and loss upon the city — the atten- tion of purchasers will be directed to the most desirable pieces within this territory. THE SINKING FUND AND THE CITY DEBT. As to the financial condition of the city, of which the public has heard so much of late, a few facts will dispel the fears excited by alarmists. According to the Comptroller's repDrt for lS3.j the value of all assessible property was $1,420,988,286. Of this amount $1,203,941,065 was in real, $158,014,378 in personal estate, and $59,012,843 in bank stock. Upon this the rate was 2.29, and the total taxes collectable $33,421,550. The gross debt — so called — as if there could be any true debt other than the net sum for which the city is liable— was on the 31st of December, 1S86, $131,601,103. The "gross" debt for the year 1885 was $129,145,764, showing an iocrease of $2,455,339, whereas there was really a reduction of the debt in 1886 instead of an increase. So much for this peculiar method of keeping the city accounts, and now for the true state of the case. Of the " gross" debt for 1SS5, $35,077,139.99 consisted of bonds, bought, paid for and held by the city until the day on which they mature— iu some cases many years away off in the future — when they will be cancelled. The process of reasoning, by which these purchased bonds were included in the debt of the city, was not appreciated by the press or the business pubUc, and the Court of last resort swept away all the specious arguments as worthless and brought the financial wiseacres and empirics down to their bearings. Of the " gross" debt for 1SS6, bonds to the value of $38,- 294,958.10 were held by the sinking fund, evidence of indebtedness which, according to the decision of the Court of Appeals, delivered on the 3!)th of April, 1886, were practically no evidence at all, for, as that tribunal held, " a debt once paid has no existence, and it is impossible that taxation should be resorted to in order to meet a fanciful objection, or one which by re- demption is in the hands of the debtor." Now as the amount of bonds in the sinking fund at the close of 1886 was $33,294,958.10, the actual debt of the city was $93,306,145.47, which shows a reduction of $763,479.53 on the debt statement of 18S5, and not an increase of over two millions. In the meantime the resources of the city, as indicated by th.i receipts of CD T) Oq THE NEW PARKS. 37 the sinking fund, steadily increased. In 1880 they amounted to S-i,951,- 237.04, and in 1S86. to $8,727,435.47, an increase at the rate of $629,366 a year ; so that the total amount from and including 1S80 to and including 18S6, a period of seven years, reached the aggregate of $48,592,241.6), or more than one-half the true debt, and sufficient to pay for the parks five times over. The last tax estimate values the total assessible i-eal estate at $1,203,- 941,065. and as the city, under the constitutional amendment, can issue bonds to the amount of 10 per cent, of this sum, its debt is at present $27,087,961 below the limit; so that this amount is all available for public improvements if required. The future, of course, is provided for from the same sources, and if the sinking fund should grow with the years, in five years more its accumulating revenues ivill reach the handsome total of •$53,077,625. And as the fund increases the ascending scale of real estate values will by 1893, in all probability, have reached the grand aggregate of $1,400,000,030, or probably nearer $1,450 000,000. It is evident from this estimate that there will ba within the time speci- fied— by the year 1892— ample means, not only to pay for the land within the parks, even if the law did not provide for its purchase by the issue of bonds, but sufficient for the construction of the new Croton aqueduct and dam, for new school houses, new docks and other public improvements. All this could be done with the $53,077,625 which will be paid into the sinking fund from the increasing income of the next five years, and with- out the addition of a single dollar to the yearly tax budget. THE NEW YORK OF THE FUTURE. Nor is this an overestimate, if we take into account the marvelous growth of our population, which to all appearances is increasing at the rate of 6 per cent, a year, as in the decades from ISOO to 1810, from 1820 to 1830, from 1840 to 1850, and from 18.50 to 1860. Should the present accel- erated speed continue till 1890, we shall have in that year over 1,903,030 inhabitants i:a New York, and this rate of increase gives us at present a population of at least 1,700,000. By the close of the century there will, if this progress is maintained, be 3,000,030 souls within our city limits. Who can then say that we exceeded the baunds when we insisted at the commencement of the park movement in 1881 in appropriating not only the large tracts within the city limits, but the park by the Sound ? Had we laid out 6,030 acres instead of 3,800, the area would still be inadequate before the end of the present century. Calling the attention of the public nearly six years ago to the necessity of making ample provision in advance by taking the most desirable and suitable sites the writer referred to this marvelous growth of our population, and said that this country must exercise a vast, a controlling influence on the civilization, the policy, the commerce of the world, and the great metropolis, the commercial capital of the nation, must be the financial centre around which the business interests of the whole continent shall revolve; that London will no longer hold the balance of power in the monetary world, and Lombard street and the Bourse will be governed in their movements by the Wall street barometer. 38 THE NEW PARKS. The New York of the future will be not only to the New, but to the Old World as well, what London and Paris are to Europe — the great centre of capital, commerce and enterprise, the arbiter of taste and fashion, the magnet to attract travelers from the ends of the earth. Here the wealth of a continent will fiad profitable fields for investment; here art and genius will discover new forms of expression; here invention will lighten labor, and liberty will dignify toil; here, too, wealth will find its noblest work in erecting homes and asylums for those who have been wounded in the battle of life, and its most graceful use in founding institutions wherein might be stored the products of the brain power of the world, whether in printed volumes or illuminated manuscripts, in speaking canvas or in sculptured marble; such institutions as the Astor and L^nox libraries. Cooper Insti- tute and the Museum of Art. Standing midway in the paths of commerce and trade between Europe and Asia, between the active civilization of the one and the long dormant but awakening civilization of the other, the most vivid imagination might well shrink from foreshadowing the future of our imperial city. Nothing can impede or delay its progress but Ihe apathy or indifference of its citizens; nothing impart to it such an impetus as their active interest in every project designed to extend its boundaries and increase its attractive- ness. Apprehensions of the decline of trade or the loss of this or that branch of business from competition with rival cities may alar oi timid minds, but the true policy is to make our metropolis so inviting that it will bring not only pleasure seekers but profit seekers to enjoy its advantages and participate in its pleasures. The New York for which we are now to provide is a city whose population will, within the present century, surge in great waves up' to the northern and eastern boundary lines and into Westchester county. In the next quarter of a century the new parks will be as inadequate to the demands of the future as the Central Park is to meet the requirements of the present. THE REMEDY FOR A GREAT EVIL. "Reference has been made to the opportunity afforded our wealthy citizens by the great park on the Sound for the exercise of their benevolence in providiiig free summer excursions for the poor and infirm, for helpless age, the children of our orphan asjlums and the inmates of similar institu- tions. There is no enterprise of a charitable or benevolent character more deserving of sympathy and substantial aid than the " Fresh Air Fund," and where can fresh air be found in greater abundance than in the invig- orating breezes that blow over Pelham Bay Park from the purifying waters of the Sound. Were it possible to transplant the hundreds of thousands of toilers from the sweltering, suffocating, poison-laden atmosphere of the long miles of tenement houses to this great reservoir and bathe them in its refreshing air and water during the Saturday half holiday of each week, there would be a decline in the death rata and a marked reduction in the bills of mortality. It is to be hoped that the creation of small parks in the densely-packed sections of the city will not, result in still more densely packing the huge, 03 o H O THE NEW" PARKS. 41 overcrowded, surrounding buildings, where the death rate is so largely in excess of that in other parts of the city. Some twenty years ago the Board of Health suggested that the only absolute remedy for this great evil was the removal " of the overcrowded population to the neighboring county, where cheaper and better dwellings can be procured. This," it was said, *' could not be done until means are provided by which the laboring popu- lation can return to their work expeditiously and at little expense." Of course the dispersion of hundreds of thousands living in tenement houses can only be accomplished in time and by other than compulsory means. One of the most effectual of these is the extension of the business area of the city, its encroachment on the residential portion and the consequent displacement of the occupants and their removal to other parts. Another is the strict enforcement of the law limiting the number of persons to each house and prescribing the dimensions of the apartments. But the most effectual, not only for the sanitary welfare, but for the moral well-being of the people, is a change of locality, pure air and more commodious dwellings. To effect the purpose for which they are designed the creation of small parks should be accompanied by a revolution in the tenement house system. Otherwise the killing economy of spaca, fatal alike to health and morals, may go on increasing, and what was intended as a blessing may prove a curse. However, as the chances are largely in favor of the proposed and desired improvement the so'^ner it is carried into operation the better, and it is to be hoped tha"; as the necessary power is conferred by the law there will be within the next Ave years many small pa; ks located and ready for us3 in the most populous and the most unhealthy districts. But what a pity it is that several years must elapse before the people for whose recreation the small parks law was enacted can have the benefit of them. The structures which now encumber the ground must be removed, the vacant spaces filled in with new earth, the grounds laid out and the trees planted— a work which will involve, in addition to the cost of the buildings, a heavy expense. Nothing of this will be requirei in the case of the new pirks in the northern half of the city, which are even now ready for occupation. THE TENEMENT HOUSE PROBLEM. The costly experience which the city has acquired on this vitally important tenement house question should suggest some practical means of preventing the same evils in the 33d and 24th Wards, the area of which is about equal in extent to the twenty-two wards south of the Harlem River. As New York has now not more than one fifth or one-sixth of the population which w ill hereafter reside w ithin its limits the legislation necessary to secure and preserve the requisite sanitary regulations as to dwelling space for the inillu ns to come cannot be provided too soon. There is a large area yet to be occupied, and on this area millions are to live. Shall they be packed at the rate of 276,480 human beings to the equare mile, as they are to-day in the 10th Ward; or, at the average of 22.5,2yO to the same area, as in the 10th, nth, 13th, 14th and 17th Wards. But the worst of this packing business is not told, the climax is only 43 THE NEW PARKS. reached when we ascertaia from the census of 1833 that thire were in these wards sections or blacks in which the average of population to the square mile was, incredible as it may appear, 539,713. These are the fields from which Death gathers his most prolific harvests; here infants and children " fall like corn before the reaper;" here the slaughter of the innocents goes on from day to day and from year to year unchecked and almost unnoticed. Space, air, salubrious and commodious habitations, parks, the lungs of cities — these are the essentials to health and strength, to mental as well as physical vigor and power. More laws to regulate and secure the essential sanitary conditions, the proper distribution of space in the erection of buildings, should be enacted at the earliest day possible, in order to prevent the perpetuation and extension of the fatal tenement house system over the yet unoccupied territory. New York should be built hereafter along the ground, not into the sky; outward, not upward. In the space thus far occu- pied by thousands of dwellings there is only room, under proper sanitary conditions, for half the numbar. NEW YORK'S PACKED POPULATION. The last census presented a striking contrast between New York and other cities in the proportion of inhabitants to the area occupied. In 1S80 the population of our city was 1,203,299, who lived in 73,684 dwellings, an average of 16}^ to each house. Brooklyn had a population of 566,663 In 62,233 dwellings, an average of about 9; and Philadelphia 847,170 living in 146,412, or an average of 6 to a house. Thus the great city on the Delaware, with a litMe more than two-thirds the population of ths great city on the Hudson, had double the number of dwellings. No wonder if such unhealthy localities as those on the east and parts of the west side of the city, where the huge tenement houses, four, five and six stories high, extending for miles and miles along the avenues and streets and looming up in unsunned lanes and alleys, swell the death-rate of the city far beyond the mortality of other sections. Pure air is as essential to the healthy growth and development of a people as the food they eat. Pack them into boxes, not rooms, and their growth physically, mentally and morally will be stunted. As far back as October, 1881, when earnestly uiging on the New York public the pressing necessity for an increase ot the park area of the city by the selection of suitable sites in the 23d and 21th Wards and the adjacent section of Westchester county, the writer referred to the opportunity which would be presented by rapid transit for the distribution of the denizens of the tenement- house district, and their transfer to the healthier localides beyond the Harlem. ' ' Here," he then said, ' ' land can be had at reasonable prices, and dwellings fii for human beings can be built and rented at moderate rates. Here, along the lines of rapid transit, will eventually be gathered by tens of thousands the workers of the great metropolis, no longer cooped up in wretched, foul and disease-laden tenements — living tombs of the toiUng masses. Here there will be no packing into close, narrow, pest-breeding apartments, but neat, commodious cottages free from that mental and physical contamination which is the curse of over-crowded cities. Rapid transit furnishes the most practical solution of the tenement-house problem. THE NEW PARKS. 43 and it is safe to say that the promise of such a system as will meet all requirements is near its fulfilment." THE KAPID TRANSIT QUESTION. Many of the difficulties which heretofore interfered with the practical solution of this vexed question no longer exist ; they have been removed by the system of rapid transit, which, although not as perfect as could be wished, will eventually furnish all the facilities of transportation necessary to enable a large portion of the working classes to secure homes in healthier localities and yet be placed, in point of time, within convenient reach of their workshops, factories, stores and other places of business. For those who are obliged to remain there will be less crowding, consequently healthier dwellings; and when they can give a day to recreation in the country or desire to spend their half holiday in the large parks, the improved facilities of transit will enable them to do so in a half hour at the utmost. As yet rapid transit is only in its infancy, the present structures to a certain extent experimental and destined in the near future to give way to an improved system. The inventive genius of our people, so prolific in resources, will pr«)ve equal to the demands made upon it, and as the old stage coach gave way to the lightning express, and as the time of the surface car has been reduced one-half by the elevated railroad train, so the speed of the latter will be doubled to meet the public demand. Who will say that in the near future some, as yet undiscovered, force, acting through new mechanical appliances, will not treble the rate oC speed with which one hundred and twenty millions a year are at present carried over our elevated railroads. It is not yet ten years since these roads were opened to travel, and so absolutely indispensable have they become to the public that one week's suspension of the various lines would literally paralyze business. Without them the parks would be much less accessible; with them the great pleasure grounds can be reached in less than an hour from the most distant parts of the city, and when we have through travel and express trains this tim? can be reduced one-half. They will be nearer to the great mass of our population than was Central Park before the elevated railways were constructed and they will be what Central has never been — the play grounds of the people. Moreover, they will be a potent factor in keeping our population within our own borders and in bringing back tens of thousands who have been induced by the superior facilities of transit presented beyond the city limits to seek dwellings in New Jersey, Long Island and elsewhere. To this cause may be ascribed in part the marked increase of population in these localities since the last census. The statistics of travel along all the lines — surface and elevated — may well excite surprise. The extraordinary increase of business on the latter evidently far exceeded the calculations of the companies themselves, and after a few years they were obliged to employ more powerful motors, to run longer trains and to reduce the time between them. If the following table could be taken as a basis of calculation the population of the city 44 THE NEW PARKS. miist have doubled within the last ten years, and wi have, instead of seventeen hundred thousand, two millions of inhabitants: Elevated R. R. Horse Railways Total. 1877 3,011,862 160,9i4,«6 163,936,298 1878 9,291,319 160.932,83-2 170,244.151 1879 46,045,181 142,038,381 188,083,562 3880 60,831,757 150,390,592 2ll,2ii>,349 1881 75,585,778 146.050,808 221,6^6,586 1882 86,361.029 166,510.617 252,871,646 1883 92,124,943 175,994,523 268,107,732 1884 96.702,620 187,413,242 284,115,862 1885 103,354,726 191,165,035 £94 525,764 1886 115,109,591 204,313,288 319,422,839 An inspection of these figures and a comparison of the number of passen- gers carried by the horse cars and the elevated trains show that while there was a falling off in the horse car travel during 1879, 1S80 and 1881, the lost business was recovered in 18S2, '3, '4, '5 and '6, and largely augmented — the travel of 1SS6 over 1878 being more than 23 per cent. This would indicate, if the figures were accepted as a correct basis for estimate, a corresponding increase in the population, and adding thereto the increase of travel by the elevated roads from 1878 to 1886— about 106,003,030— we should have, as stated, nearly two millions of inhabitants at present in New York. But we cannot rely for accurate estimates upon these statistics, for it is a well- established fact that as the facilities and accommodations for transporta- tion are improved an increased business follows, independent of the growth of population. It is in this case, as in every other — improved methods beget an increased demand. ACCESS TO THE NEW PARKS. Particular reference is made to this question of rapid transit as it has a special interest in relation to the new parks. In connection with the progress of the city northward it is a matter of great impartance. Within a year the elevated road on Third avenue beyond the Harlem will have been constructed as far as its terminus on the Bronx, and probably in less than five years the various lines comprising the suburban rapid transit system will be finished. The Harlem River improvement will give a decided impetus to the development and growth of our two most northern wards and to the adjacent portions of Westchester county, outside of the city now, but certain in two or three years to be annexed ; and these wards will have a population of half a million by the time that improvement is completed. While it is in progress new lines of travel will be opened, new routes to the parks constructed, and the annexed district, so called, wiU be traversed by as many means of transit as the other half of New York below the Harlem. To Van Cortlandfc Park there will be, besides the northern road, branches from the Harlem and the Hudson River, while the Bronx Park will be no less liberally supplied with means of access, and the grand outlying park, the indented shores of which extend in many curved and graceful lines a distanca of nine miles, will be no less generously provided with tributary transit roads. There will be no lack of means of transportation when the new park territory is opened throughout its whole length and breadth The necessary facilities will be DO C/) ID o THE NEW PARKS. 47 ready, are in fact ready now and only waiting the moment when the lands shall be declared free to the public. When that announcement is made the paople will be at liberty to wander over the grean fields, up the grassy slopes, through the shady woods, free from the restraints impose! on thj visitors to the Central. There they will not ba confiaed to dusty roads and asphaltum walks, but can enjoy themselves in picnics ia the groves, athletic exercises on the broad meadows, games of croquet, base-ball, tennis, polo or lacrosse, or such other recreation or exercise as they fancy. Already eager thousands throng every Sunday up to the very borders of the parks, gazing with wistful eyes on the tempting scanes, and, when not stopped by the owners, passing through the gates, or over the fences into the appropriated grounds. The elevated roads during the summer season, and even into the fall, carry tens of thousands into the new wards which are already known by the distinctive title of the park district; and these are but the precursors of the greater multitude that will follow when all is accomplished — the bonds issued, the Park Department in control and the people in acknowl- edged possession. Last year and the year previous there were unmistakable indications of the impatient desire of the public to enjoy these great pleasure grounds. In some instances the visitors denied the right of the occupants to exclude them, forced their way in and insisted that as the lands were public parks they had a right to remain. THE PARADE GROUND AND POPULAR RECREATIONS. In Van Cortlandt, Bronx and Pelham Bay Parks there have been regular picnic parties, although in portions of Pelham Park prohibitory notices warn trespassers off the land. In Van Cortlandt Park curlers and skaters have, through the courtesy of the proprietor, free use of the lake in the winter, and the military are to be accorded the privilege next fall of using the hundred and twenty acres which have been set apart for a parade ground, without awaiting the report of the Commissioners, or its confirma- tion by the Supreme Court. And wbat a magnificent parade ground that level sweep of 120 acres will make! What Champs de Mars is framed in scenery so exquisite ? On the west of it, and overlooking Broadway, rises the picturesque range of hills, which form the eastern bank of the Hudson, while on the other side the magnificent Palisades bound the norizon. Away to the south is the valley of the Harlem, spanned by the high arches upholding the tunnel which carries to the great city nearly a hundred mil- lion gallons of pure water daily. To the north are the wooded hilLj of the park, and beyond its Umit, which is coterminous with the city line, are to be seen from these hills glimjises of the Hudson and some of the finest views to be found along the whole course of our American Rhine. A few hundred yards to the east of the inclosed tract is a sylvan lake covering an extent of fifty acres, which can be enlarged to eighty, and which is supplied by the ever-flowing Mosholu and natural springs. Besides the opportunity the parks afford for recreation and healthful exercise, there are many varied features that can be introduced hereafter 48 THE NEW PARKS. •which will be appreciated by visitors— many uses to which they can b© legitimately put and which would materially increase the revenues of the Sinking Fund, and thus directly contributs towards the extinction of the municipal debt. Capital and enterprise combined will be quick to find in such features proiitable investment, and pay liberally for the privileges and grants which they may secure from the city. Every month, therefore, that the people are deprived of these benefits is so much lost to the municipal treasury. A PERMANENT INDUSTRIAL EXHIBITION. One of the most valuable, one of the most important, and doubtless one of the most popular attractions that could be engrafted on the parks, would be a permanent industrial exhibition, for which buildings should be erected in a style and on a scale commensurate with the character of the enter- prise. Such a work, if properly organized, could be made to subserve the industrial interests of the whole country, and be to the useful what galleries of painting and sculpture are to the fine arts. The value of an institution of this character can hardly be overestimated, not merely as an instructor of the people, but as affording an opportunity of presenting on a grand and comprehensive scale the progress of the mechanic arts throughout the world, and especially as demonstrated in the products of American genius. Classified according to the States which have contributed to the development and perfection of this or that inven- tion, the many labor-saving machines, and the multiplied and varied applications of mechanical power, whether used in manufactures or in commerce, in supplying human wants or facilitating travel and transporta- tion— such an exhibition would practically illustrate the progress of material civilization, and present in a historical form the various stages in each particular case from the earliest and crudest efforts to the latest improvement, or the perfected machine. A large portion of the necessary material could be duplicated from the Patent Office at Washington, but the arrangement and classification in chronological order would be a task requiring for its successful accomplishment the highest qualifications and the ripest experience. An exhibition of this character on Hunter's Island, in Pelham Park, would constitute one of the most attractive features in the multiplying attractions of our cosmopolitan city. There is no tract in all th^ new park domain so well adapted for the purpose. The scenery is picturesque in the highest degree, and it possesses what the Sydenham Exhibition lacks, an outlook over one of the most beautiful sheets of water in the world. As to capital, there is an abundance in New York for the promotion of such a W0rk, but the enterprise could justly appeal to the whole country, and if carried out on the plan indicated it would necessarily embrace every sec- tion and include every State. The objection as to distance is without force, for the means of access furnished by the Portchester and Harlem road, which runs through the park, in which it has even now three stations, and by the great fleet of steamboats ready for the task, would meet all demands. THE NEW" PARKS. 49 A DIVERSIFIED PARK SYSTEM. The visitor to the three great parks cannot fail to observe the st. iking contrast presented by their topography. It is doubtful, indeed, if vfithin an equal area anywhere in the United States such wide diversity could b j found. The sites selected differ in a marked degree from one another, and in this difference is to be found the particular charms of each. Our metrop- olis has been especially favored in this respect, probably beyond any other capital in the world. So rapid has been its development and growth that had the movement through which these lands have been secured been delayed for ten or fifteen years this magnifieent park domain would never have been acquired. It is certain that if the precise tracts, located under the authority con- ferred by the act of 1883 and taken by the act of 1834. could be purchased fifteen years hence they could not be obtained for quadruple the price which the city will pay for them when the Commisioners of Appraisal have determined their value. It has been said that they are natural parks; but this, after all, does not convey an adequate idea of their character as public pleasure grounds, though it is of much importance to the city when the question of expense is considered. It is a great matter certainly when it is understood that the Central is a wholly artificial affair ; that it has been literally manufactured at a cost of over twenty thousand dolla'-s an acre, and that any expense beyond that required for the laying out and construction of a few roads and walks will be wholly unnecessary in the case of the newparks. And this is a subject of no small account — in point of fact it is a question of millions, for within the tracts appropriated are lakes and streams and hills and rocks and meadows and glades and woods, the growth of centuries— in a word, all the natural features necessary to constitute a park, and many of which, as in the ca^ of the Central, could only be furnished at an enormous cost. But there is one thing which no amount of money could create — the natural beauties of the sites selected, and which will be found on inspection to justify all that has been said in their praise. AREA OF PARKS AND PARKWAYS. It is now nearly six years since the writer, as stated elsewhere, called public attention in a series of articles to the immediate necessity of securing at least four or five thousand acres of land in the annexed district and the adjacent territory of Westchester County, and the location of which he indicated on an accompanying map. Referring to the two great parks since taken under the act of 1884, he alluded to the difference in the topo- graphy as one of the great advantages to be secured in the location of the sites at the points selected. It was then urged as an essential feature of the system that the " two great suburban parks might be connected by one or more grand boulevards, which should be included in the general plan." At that time it was hoped that when the importance of the subject was fully appreciated and the deficiency of New York in the matter of parks was thoroughly understood, a movement in favor of the addition of at least four thousand acres would mett wi,h popular encouragement and sup- 50 THE NEW PARKS. port. The result of the pirkmovexent proved that the confidence felt in the approval of the public was not uu founded. The area acquired under the act of 1884 was 3,848 39-103 acres, which were distributed as follows : A.cr6S Van Cortlandt Park 1,069 65-100 Bronx Park 653 Pelham Bay Park 1,740 CrotonaPark 135 34-100 St. Mary's Park 23 35-100 Claremont Park 38 05-100 Mosholu Parkway 80 Bronx and Pelham Parkway 9u Crotona ParKway 12 Total 3,848 S9-100 Added to the parks already established, this gives a total of about 5,000 acres. VAN CORTLAXDT PARK, PARADE GROUND AND RIFLE RANGE. Of the area embraced in the new parks and parkways beyond the Harlem, the tract of 1,069 acres included in the Van Cortlandt Park possesses in the picturesque beauty of the surrounding country, as well as in its diversified surface, a rare combination of all that is essential to a great suburban plea- sure ground. Lying midway between the Hudson and the Bronx its great- est width is a mile and three-quarters, while at its narrowest part it is about a mile across, and its extreme length two and a-quarter miles. Of its area, 40 acres are highly improved and cultivated garden spots, 403 are in wood, and 450 in meadow. Of the meadow land, 120 acres are so uniformly level, that they can, at a comparatively moderate cost, be converted into a mag- nificent parade ground. Probably there is not within the city limits a more suitable or a more valuable tract for this purpose. Reference was made to the subject of a parade ground, but as the allu- sion was necessarily brief, the importance of this feature in the park, the extent which it covers, and the fact that it will not be exclusively devoted to the use of the National Guard, justifies more than a passing notice. Our National Guard have for years been dependent on the courtesy of the Brooklyn authorities on the occasion of special parades, and they will have now, for th' THE NEW PARKS. 101 trees of vigorous growth and magnificent foliage. Clambering vines drape the rocks and beautify the rugged pathways, fling a green veil over the gnarled I'oots and branches of decrepid trees evoking beauty from decay. Like all the parks of the new system it is ready-made, fit for use without loss of time or expenditure of money. "We have, it is true, called attention to that important fact in every instance with a persistence that savors of monotony, but there is nothing the people are more interested in knowing. If, as in the case of the Central Park, they had to wait ten or fifteen years before it was ready, it would temper their pleasure considerably in the possession. Fortimately it is not so, and the time gained and the money saved are two important items to be added to the credit of these parks. Claremont is admirably located, and every year it will be more appreciated by the dwellers roundabout, as time makes its value more apparent and its use more imiversal. The boundaries of the park begin at a point formed by the junction of the prolongation westwardly |of the southerly line of Jane street (old name) with the easterly line of Fleetwood avenue; thence easterly along said prolongation and along the southerly line of Jane street and con- tinuing eastwardly said straight line to its junction with the westerly line of (Grant Place) Elliott street; thence along the westerly line of Elliott street southerly to the easterly line of Fleetwood avenue ; thence along the easterly line of Fleetwood avenue to the place of beginning. THE PARKWAYS. In the original design of the new park domain the great parkways were considered not only a most attractive, but an essential part of the whole plan. They were intended not merely as connecting links uniting the great pleasure grounds, but as extensions of the parks, and as affording a grand continuous drive from the Van Cortlandt through the Bronx over to the Sound. The financial gain which would be derived by the city from the extended line of park frontage was also regarded as a matter of special moment in the conception and execution of the plan, as it was believed that the effect on the enhancement of the value of contiguous territory would be no less marked than in the case of the parks themselves. While the parkways, therefore, possessed all the advantages of boulevards their greater width would give them the appearance of continous parks through which broad avenues, bordered with over-arching trees, could be con- structed, with shaded walks for pedestrians and graveled roads for equestrians. It was also perceived that such a feature in the new park system, while it would add to the increased taxable value of the adjacent territory, was susceptible of embellishment in the highest degree, and, in the future of the northern portion of the city beyond *he Harlem, would form one of its chief attractions. The pleasure grounds of Chicago embrace a system of boulevards that is unequalled in the New World. With a width varying from a hundred to two hundred and fifty feet, their aggregate length is over thirty miles. But the magnificent parkway known as the Midway Plaisance, which con- 102 THE NEW PARKS. nects the two divisions of the Great South Park, has a wi 1th of nearly 800 feet and is a mile long. The art of the landscape gardener has contributed liberally to the plan and adornment of this unique and beautiful addition to Chicago's park system, and the result is seen in one of the most valuable and attractive ornaments of the Lake City. The four parkways which form the main approaches to the principal pleasure ground of the Buffalo park system are 4 miles long and 200 feet wide. They are handsomely laid out, with six lines of shade trees, and have, at intervals of about 2,C00 feet, wide circular and square plazas taste- fully laid out in parterres and shaded walks. With very rare exceptions wherever parks have been established, the parkway is now regarded as an indispensible adjunct and, as in the case of Chicago and Buffalo, a generous policy has prevailed in the appropriation of the necessary area of land for their construction. In the chief Euro- pean cities the approaches to the parks, the grand avenues and boulevards, are as much the objects of liberal expenditure and artistic decoration as the parks with which they are connected. And so will it be with the Mosholu and the Bronx and Pelham parkways, which xinite our two great inland and glorious seaside pleasure grounds. THE MOSHOLU PARKWAY. The Mosholu Parkway, which forms the connecting link between Van Cortlandt and Bronx parks, has an area of 80 acres, is 600 feet wide and a mile long. It is located on both sides of and includes Middle Brook Park- way, Brook street, and a small tributary stream which courses nearly through its centre, and which can be so utilized in the general design as to form one of its most attractive features. There is no need to tax the resources of landscape gardening for its ornamentation, or extravagant expenditure in its construction at the commencement or for many years to come. Tree planting in lines bordering the roads, the avenues and the walks that will be laid out with plots and grassy margins, will be all that is necessary till with the lapse of time comes a taste and a desire for more expensive cultivation and higher artistic embellishment. It would require, of course, large appropriations to make the Mosholu and the Bronx and Pelham parkways as magnificent approaches to our three great parks as the Avenue de I'Imperatrice is to that of the Bois de Boulogne; but the time will come, and it is not far off, when our parkways will have statuary and fountains and such other works of art as public or private taste may sug- gest and provide. At comparatively small expense, the natural brook which Mosholu Parkway already possesses can be enlarged, increased in volume by the aid of an artesian well, carried quite through the centre of the tract, and there is a sufficient descent to the grade to allow of the con- struction of dams enclosing lakelets, the overflow of which might be made to form miniature cascades, spanned by rustic bridges. Such ornamental attractions are possible in the plan of this broad parkway, which possesses natural conditions that permit of a wide scope for the invention and fancy of the landscape architect. THE NEW" PARKS. 105 THE BRONX AND PELHAM PARKWAY. The Bronx and Pelham Parkway traverses a tract of country differing materially in its topographical characteristics from that through which the Mo3hoIu has been laid. It passes through a comparatively level section with gently undulating surface throughout almost its entire length of two- and-a-half miles. It begins atj the junction of Fordham and Pelham avenues with Pelham Bay Park and takes, on the southerly line of the avenue, a continuous strip 300 feet up to the point of crossing by the Kings- bridge road. From this point to its junction with the Bronx Park it extends along the avenue in such manner as to allow the avenue to cross it diagonally from end to end between the Kingsbridge and the Boston Post roads, from which point a strip 300 feet wide is taken on the northerly side of the avenue as far as the boundary of the park. Throughout, its uniform width is 4C0 feet, in which is included the Fordham and Pelham avenue, the whole area taken being ninety-five acres, affording ample space not only for two broad drives for all classes of vehicles, but a bridle path, three or more walks and bordering margins of grass or shrubs as taste may determine. If entrusted to competent hands this parkway could be made one of the finest avenues in the world, and when this part of Westchester is embraced within the city limits the tax income which will be collected on the increased and advancing value of the bordering lands will prove a prolific source of revenue to the municipal treasury. A glance at the map accompanying this work shows the extent of terri- tory embraced within the wide sweep of these great avenues, which, with the addition of the parks will afford a continuous drive of ten miles, extend- ing in one unbroken line from the extreme northern boundary of Van Cortlandt clear over to the eastern extremity of the Pelham where its shores are washed by the waters of the Sound. And here along the sea-girt margin of this, the greatest of our parks, will one day be constructed a drive that should be a continuation of the Pelham Parkway and the views from which will far surpass those of the much -vaunted Riverside Park and Drive, that have already cost the city over $6,000,000, and still more to come. THE CROTONA PARKWAY. The Crotona Parkway, which has a width of 200 feet and a length of three-quarters of a mile, unites the Bronx and Crotona parks and will add largely to the value of real estate in this locality. It commences at the junction of the Southern Boulevard with the Bronx Park at Kingsbridge road crossing, thence southerly along the easterly side of the Southern Boulevard, and parallel with aud touching the same, a strip of land 100 feet wide, as an addition to the width of said Boulevard, said strip continuing southerly, and of its full width of 100 feet to a point 100 feet south of the southerly line of Fairmount avenue, from thence westerly widening Fair- mount avenue on its southerly side by a strip 100 feet in width, to a point 100 feet westerly of the northeasterly corner of Tremont Park, and at right angles northerly from said northeast corner of park aforesaid- from thenoe 1P6 THE NEW PARKS. in a straight line parallel with said right angle SCO feet in width, touching the park and the street running easterly of the park. In its course it absorbs the Boulevard, making as stated a width of 200 feet. If the improvement of this particular section of the city is made on a scale commensurate with the character of this fine avenue and the parks of which it is the connecting link, there should, as there doubtless will, be a marked and rapid increase in land values along the line and in the immediate vicinity of the parkways. With the exception of the Mosholu and Pelham parkways it is the broadest avenue in the city, exceeding by 50 feet the widest boulevards south of the Harlem. It is, therefore, capable of a greater degree of improvement than any of these, and property along its front will reach higher values and contribute correspondingly larger taxes to the city. HISTORY OF THE MOYEMENT FOR NEW PARKS. ITS FRIENDS AND TOES. The Contest in the Legislature and Before the Courts. INCEPTION OF THE PROJECT. In June of 1881 the writer of these pages directed his special attention to the question of public parks , in furtherance of a purpose which he had enter- tained for several years of advocating an increase of the park area of the metropolis, and organizing a movement to bring about a result so desirable for its sanitary well-being and the promotion of its material interests. With that object in view he collected from official and other sources a large amount of statistical and general information on the subject, believing that the time was propitious for the initiation of a movement in that direction. The investigations which he made satisfied him that the park area for many years prior to 1881 was wholly inadequate for the requirements of the popu- lation and that an increase in the extent and number of our lireatning places was imperatively demanded by the present as well as by the future needs of our metropolis. The data in his possession proved that New York was not only behind the great capitals of Europe, but that since Central Park was established, more than a quarter of a century ago, we have been left far in the rear by Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Buffalo and other American cities. His investigation also elicited the fact that less than "200 acres had been added to our park area since the passage of the Central Park act in 1853,' and that had New York public grounds proportioned to her population, as compared with these cities, it would have from 7.000 to 8,000 instead of 1,100 acres. As the matter, however, was financial as well as sanitary, particular inquiry was made into the question of expense, and with the most satisfac- tory and conclusive results in favor of the movement. An examination of official statistics proved that by the creation of Central Park the city had gained, in the enhanced value of surrounding property and the increased revenue derivable therefrom, fl7,COO,000 over and above the natural lOS THE NEW PARKS. increase from the growth of population and the ordinary advance in real estate values ; and this despite the enormous outlay necessary to convert the -worst description of waste land into an ornamental park, to defray the extravagance of its embellishment and its costly maintenance for many yeare. Ibis $17,000,000, be it remembered, was in hard cash in excess of all expenses, and, in addition to this immense sum, the city was in posses- sion of 864 acres, worth, as estimated, TWO hundred millions of dollars WHOLLY KREK OP COST. After a careful study of the whole subject the writer was convinced that an enlargement of our park area would be attended by results no less satis- factory and conclusive; in a word, that the city's experience in the case of Central Park would be repeated on a larger scale ; that the extension of our park domain need not cost the city a single dollar, but that on the contrary it would be a source of profit ; that it would add greatly to its embellishment and attractiveness ; promote the health and physical develop- ment of the rising and succeeding generations: improve our sanitary condition, and contribute to the recreation and social enjoyment of the hundreds of thousands of our toiling masses. SUITABLE sites. Having collected and arranged this information in the form of newspaper articles he was fortunate in securing, as a medium of communication with the public, the columns of the New York Herald. In the descriptions of the sites, which were illustrated with a map show^ing the most suitable tracts for parks, he advocated the acquisition of at least four or five thou- sand additional acres beyond the Harlem River and in the adjacent terri- tory of Westchester County. In one of these articles it was stated, in refer- ence to the extension of the northern boundaries of the city, that "within the newly-acquired territory and in that immediately contiguous can be found available locations admirably adapted to the purpose and from which , two sites containing from 1,5C0 to 2,C00 acres each may be obtained at a comparatively moderate cost." It was further stated that " the withdrawal of so much land from the real estate market would alone materially enhance the value of the remaining territory, thus enabling the city to derive a largely augmented income therefrom." The advantages of such parks was dwelt upon at length, and it was urged that in the selection of land for a park on the Sound the site "should be near, or include Hutchinson River, a little to the south of New Rochelle, and that it might be so arranged as to include one or more of the islands on the Sound which are now connected by causeways. These grounds," it was added, "should be rural parks, not artificial constructions requiring the expenditure of millions of dollars without corresponding benefit to the people. Extensive and well-shaded groves, running waters, widened here and there in their course into miniature lakes, broad tracts of meadow land for healthful exercise in athletic sports, camping, parade and rifle grounds ; quiet little dells and nooks for picnic parties ; in a word, great health-giving resorts for the whole people." The sites selected and shown on the map published at the time were the same as those subsequently chosen by the o 5 o 3 S» TJ so zr o o < CD THE NEW PARKS. Ill Commission appointed under the act, with such necessary modifications in boundaries as were deemed advisable. THE NEW YOBK PARK ASSOCIATION. In the course of his iuquiries foi* a map showing the territory between the Huason and the Sound the writer made the acquaintance of Mr. Joseph S. Wood, who took a warm interest in the success of the project and to whom was communicated the intention to organize a movement for the increase of the park area of the city by the acquisition of the most suitable sites north of the Harlem and the adjacent part of Westchester County. Mr. Wood cordially offered his services in the prosecution of the work, and the CO operation of several gentlemen friendly to the movement having been obtained, a call for an informal meeting at the Fifth Avenue Hotel was issued, about two hundred invitations being sent out. The use of a parlor was obtained through the kind efforts of Mr. Charles Crary, and at this meeting the initiatoi-y steps were taken for the formation of "The New York Park Association," which was organized on the 26th of November, 1881, the following officers elected and Executive Committee appointed : Waldo Hutchins, president ; L. R. Marsh, vice-president ; W. W. Niles, treasurer ; John MuUaly, secretary ; Chas. L. Tiffany, John E. Develin, H. B. Claflin, Major-General Shaler, W. E. Conner, Henry L. Hoguet, David Dows, S. R. Pilley, Wm. Cauldwell, Chas. Crary, Gustav Schwab, Lewis G. Morris, Franklin Edson, Geo. W. McLean, Isaac Bell, Leonard Jerome, Augustus Schell. Jordan Li. Mott, Egbert L. Viele, Joseph F. Wood, J. M. Carnochan, M.D. ; John Fitch, H. P. De Graaf, Lewis May, Chas. J. Stephens. At this meeting the writer, officiating as secretary, read a detailed statement, in which the reasons for the movement and " the imperative necessity of providing for the present and future wants of our rapidly increasing population in the important matter of park area," were set forth at length. Facts and figures were presented showing the deficiency of New York as compared with other great centres of population, and an addition to the park area of the city of at least four thousand acres earnestly advocated. Stirring addresses were made at this and other meetings by Messrs. Luther R. Marsh, Waldo Hutchins, W. W. Niles, Joseph S. Wood, Chas. Crary and E. L. Viele. The statement pre- sented by the secretary was on motion adopted "as embodying the views of the meeting," and he was "requested to prepare it, with such additional matter as he might deem advisable for publication in pamphlet form." Ten thousand copies were printed a few weeks thereafter, and the greater part sent through the mails to the press, to prominent citizens and to representative man of all classes, to clergymen, school teachers, officers and managers of benevolent institutions, presidents of banks and insur- ance companies, members of the various Exchanges, State and city officials, judges, athletic clubs, officers of trade and other societies, etc. In this way and through the columns of the daily press, which gave a liberal por- tion of their space to the proceedings of the Park Association and friendly 112 THE ISEW PARKS. approval of its work, much valuable and interesting information on the question was given to the public. PRELIMINABT WORK. Encouraged by the general favor and support and the decided interest, manifested in the progress of the movement, the Association determined that an effort should be made during the legislative session of 1882 to secure, if possible, the passage of two bills, one appropriating the Van. Cortlandt Park and the other appointing a Commission " to select and locate such lands in the Twenty- third and Twenty-fourth Wards, and vicinity thereof, as they might deem advisable, for one or more public parks and a parade ground, and to make a report thereof at the earliest day practicable." The Law Committee, to which the preparation of those bills was intrusted, consisted of Messrs. Marsh, DeveUn, Niles, Wood, Crary, McLean and MuUaly. In the performance of this important work several meetings were held, and the proposal to locate a great park on the Sound was warmly dis- cussed, and aroused a strong and persistent opposition. The fact that it would be outside of the city limits and beyond municipal jurisdiction was urged against any effort in that direction as a waste of time and labor until that part of v» estchester was anaexed to the city. In reply to this argument the friends of the waterside park contended that as this portion of Westchester was destined to become a part of New York in the near future, it was true economy to secure the land at once while it could be had at the minimum value, instead of waiting five or ten years when it could not, in all probability, be purchased at thrice the price. The affirmative of the proposition was sustained by Messrs. Wood, Marsh, Crary, Filley and Mullaly, Messrs. Wood and Crary being partic- ularly strenuous and unyielding on this point. A compromise was finally agreed to, by which, as stated, two bills were prepared, accompanied by a memorial, which impressed upon the Legislature the policy of acquiring at least four thousand acres for public parks, and the urgent necessity of securing at once the tract described in the bill, and which has been appro- priated by the act of 1884 under the title of Van Cortlandt Park. The special attention of the Legislature was directed to the great advantage of "a grand park with a water front on Long Island Sound, one which," in the language of the iremorial, "should be the people's own, a resort for picnics and excui-sions, a place where they could enjoy the pleasures of boating, bathing, fishing, etc." Reference was also made to " the advisa- bility of constructing parkways " and of the utilization " of some of ths avenues and boulevards now existing for such purpose." The bills were placed in the hands of Senator Treanor and Assemblyman Breen, and, after several attempts to obtain a hearing from the Committee on Cities, the association arrived at the inevitablo conclusion that nothing was to be expected from the committees to which the bills were referred, and they decided to postpone the matter to the next meeting of the Legislature. o o I-*- o Tl o THE NEW PARKS. 115 A WORTHLESS RESOLUTION. Before the close of the session, however, Mr. Breen introduced a resolu- tion appointing the Mayor, the Commissioner of Public Works, the Presi- dent of the Board of Aldermen and the President of the Tax Department, a Commission to report on the advisability of a public park in the annexed district and the adjacent portion of Westchester, such report to be made within thirty days. It is needless to state that such a Commission could not, even if it were friendly to the measure, give it that consideration and attention which was essential to a proper understanding and appreciation of the subject, and so, after two or three meetings at the Mayor's office, the affair resulted in a report to the Legislature to the effect that the time allowed was ''inade- quate for the examination of the matter, and to enable them to form any fixed opinion as to where the park or parks should be located. " The meetiHgs, ot which three were held in March, 18S3, afforded the friends of the movement a cliance to give much valuable information to the public, and it is needless to say they fully availed themselves of the opportunity. At these meetings effective speeches were made by Messrs. Marsh, Wiles, Wood, Dr. J. M. Carnochan and Judge Hall, and a new impetus was given to the project, despite the pronounced opposition of its enemies. Although the efforts of the association to secure even the consideration of the Legislature of 1883 had failed, the work was prosecuted with unwa- vering vigor, and in 18S3, through the well-directed efforts of the Hon. Leroy B. Crane, who represented the Twenty-third Assembly District, and whose friendly services in favor of the measure were enlisted by Mr. Marsh, a bill was passed authorizing the Mayor " to nominate, subject to confirmation by the Board of Aldermen, a Commission of seven citizens whose duty it shall be to select and locate such lands in the Twenty-third and Twenty fourth Wards of the city of New York and in the vicinity thereof, as may, in their opinion, be proper and desirable to be preserved and set apart for one or more public parks for said city." APPOINTMENT OF THE NEW PARKS COMMISSION. The bill became a law on the 18th of April, and on the 1st of May the following gentlemen were appointed by Mayor Edson and confirmed by the Board of Aldermen : Augustus Schell, Waldo Hutchins, General Fitz- gerald, C. L.. Tiffany, W. W. Niles, L. R. Marsh and G. W. McLean. As Mr. Schell was on the eve of his departure for Europe, he resigned, and Mr. Thomas J. Crombie was appointed in his place. Having taken the required oath the Commission was duly organized by the unanimous election of Hon. L. R. Marsh as president, in recognition of his unceasing and active interest in the movement from the beginning. C. L. Tiffany was elected vice-president, General Fitzgerald, treasurer, and John Mullaly, secretary. The Commission, being now organized, proceeded immediately with the work for which it had been appoiate;!, and on the 26th of May visited in a body and examined the various trac'sof land which were considered suit- 116 THE NEW PARKS. able for park purposes. Their tour of inspection took in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards and a part of the adjacent territory of Westchester. THE REPORT. On the 1st of June the Commission inspected the tract now known as Van Cortlandt Park, and adjourned on the loth for the summer vacation. During the interval the writer entered into correspondence with the park authorities of Paris, London, Dublin, Berlin, Vienna, Amsterdam and Brussels in Europe; and in the United States, with the Park Commissioners of Chicago, Washington, Boston, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, BufiFalo and San Francisco. Through the com-tesy of these officials he obtained much valuable and interesting information in the form of annual reports and other documents. This information was turned to good account in the preparation of the elaborate report to the Legislature of 1884, describing and illustrating the sites of the new parks and presenting in more extended detail and with much additional matter the facts and statistics embraced in the pamphlet issued in 1883. The contrast, as shown in the report, between New York and Philadelphia as well as other American cities, was decidedly unfavorable to our metropolis, while in comparison with the great European capitals its park area dwindled into absolute insignificance. This document contained 217 octavo pages and was illustrated with thirty engravings of views in the new parks. It also included a reduced copy of the map compiled by the engineer of the Commission, General James C. Lane, who was appointed on the llth of October, 1883, and whose services were so inadequately rewarded with the meagre appro- priation of a thousand dollars; but to General Lane the question of compensation was of slight consideration in compirison with the importanco of the work with which he had been intrusted. His experience in the art of civil engineering and landscape gardening, and the fine taste which he brough: to the practice of hi^ profession, qualified him in an espacial degree for the performance of this task. In speaking of his reputation as an engineer it may not be out of place to add that he has a brilliant record of services in tha principal battles of the late civil war from Bull Run to the surrender at Appomatox. PUBLIC MEETINGS. The Commission, as stated iu the report, announced, through the daily press, that public meetings would be held, at which ample opportunity for a hearing would be given to all who desired to present their views, or to offer suggestions in relation to the proposed extension of the park area of the city, the location of sites, the recommendation of particular tracts of land and such other considerations as they desired to bring before them. Several meetings were held in the City Hall and correspondence was freely invited from parties interested in the subject. These meetings were largely attended, and of the forty or fifty persons by whom they were addressed all were unanimously in favor of the enlargement of the park area of the city, although differing in opinion as to the location of the sites and the THE NEW PARKS. 117 extent of land required. Local interests demandec! parks in particular sections, and while the majority evidently regarded the subject from a metropolitan standpoint, favoring two or more large parks, others advo- cated the distribution of the proposed increase in the foi'm of many and smaller parks and squares. During the progress of this public discussion numerous letters were received containing suggestions and recommendations of particular tracts, and several visits of inspection were made before the sites were finally selected. The whole subject was fully and minutely discussed at the executive meetings of the Commission and the report and map adopted by a unanimous vote. Mr. Marsh, by whom the bill for the appropriation and condemnation of the various tracts of land embraced within the several parks and parkwavs had been carefully prepared and revised, proceeded to Albany on the 23d of January, 1S84, and placed copies of the report and bill in the hands of Hon. G. W. Plunkitt, of the Eleventh Senatorial District, and Hon. Walter Howe, of the Eleventh Assembly District. THE ANTI-PARKS WAR. Up to this point the park movement had met with comparatively little opposition. Much work, it is true, was necessary to carry it on successfully, even in the face of such opposition as had been manifested. But the pros- pect was most encouraging and victory seemingly assured. Certainly none of the friends of the measure were prepared for the bitter disappoint- ment they had to encounter. As Mayor Edson had been and still was a member of the Executive Committee of the New York Park Association, and as he had taken an active interest in the distribution of the pamphlet issued in 18S2, advocating an addition of four or five thousand acres to the park area of the city, his fellow members reasonably expected his continued co-operation and support. Having appoiated the Commission and been invited to accompany them in their tours of inrpection, it was naturally inferred that he would give the weight of his approval and official influence in securing the passage of the bill before the Legislature. In fact, no doubt whatever was entertained on the matter. This confidence, however, was rudely dispelled by his unfriendly attitude after the presentation of the report and bill and by his open and active hostility to its passage. He made it a matter of discussion in the weekly meetings of the heads of departments held in his oflice, which resulted in the adoption of two resolutions on the 15th of March, the first of which objected to the " location, extent and expense of the proposed parks," the second favoring the acquisition of " the whole or any portion of the land designated by the Commission within the limits of the city," provided the necessary power of approval were vested in the " proper authorities of the city and the Sinking Fund Commissioners." THE PRESS FOR THE PARKS. On this point, however, the Mayor found that the press instead of being in accord were in direct conflict witli him and his Cabinet. The Herald called attention to the fact that the Commission had "received the approval 118 THE I^EW PARKS. of the prominent financiers and business men of New York who represent over a thousand millions of dollars in real estate and various other forms of investment, and whose property will bear a large share of the burden — if burden it can be called— which will be not only a great financial gain to the city treasury, but a blessing to the thousands of the city's toilers and workers." * * * * " This bill provides, as in the case of the Central Park, for the appointment of Commissioners by the General Term of the Supreme Court, who are authorized to take the necessary proceedings to secure possession of the land. Under such circumstances, of course, the politicians would have no chance and so they are opposed to this beneficent measure and have employed the Mayor's Cabinet as a convenient tool with which to give it a death blow. But the public, they will find, will have something to say in the matter yet." The Times urged the immediate acquisition of the lands on the ground that every year's delay would add to the cost. "We are forced," it said, " to accept the mature and carefully studied conclusions of the Commis- sion in preference to the off-hand judgment of the Mayor's Cabinet. Every precaution should be taken against jobbery and land speculation at the expense of the city, but this is no more necessary now than it will be in the future. In fact, there will be a great advantage in taking the whole domain proposed before a movement is produced in real estate vahies by a beginning in park improvements and in the extension of rapid transit facilities through the annexed district. Now is plainly the time to acquire title to all the needed lands, and those designated by the Commission are all desirable." The World said that " the approval of the bill relating to parks in the new wards will give general satisfaction. It is wise to provide for ample public grounds before the land is increased in value by improvements." NOW IS THE TIME. The Real Estate Record and Guids was equally pronounced, declar- ing that " it is clearly unwise to wait until the price of land is high before providing ourselves with plenty of park room ; " and in a subsequent article it took still stronger ground, maintaining that "a postponement of the improvement for another year will cost the city a great deal of money, for,' it added, " there is every indication that a rise of values is imminent in all the suburbs of New York. The metropjlis of the United States has really less park room than any of the leading capitals of the world. We have no parade ground for our militia, nor space for the open air sport.- which have become an institution in this country. The boys and girls of our public schools have no playgrounds. The young fellows in our New York College are forced to go to Prospect Park to play lawn tennis. * * * It is clearly unwise to wait until the price of land is high before providing ourselves with plenty of room. It will be a red letter day for the annexed district as well as a matter for congratulation for our people generally when Governor Cleveland signs the admirable park bill passed by the Legislature." The Tribune took " exception to the opinion of the Mayor and the other ~0 CO 00 0) 3 03 Q." CD (!Q CO o THE NEW PARKS. 12t city oflBcials, that the plan of acquiring several thousands of acres of lands for parks in the annexed district is unwise," and added that, " on the whole, the bill was a good one. The Mayor's Cabinet has a right to an adverse opinion beyond doubt; but in discussing this matter the Senate and Assembly Committees on Cities should not be entirely guided by it. They should carefully consider also the fact that the plan has the earnest and intelligent approval of some of the most prominent and public-spirited citizens of New York. " THE COMMISSION ENDORSED. The Mail and Express, which has been the constant and consistent friend of the movement from the beginning, handled the enemies of the parks vnthout gloves. "The oppDsition," said that papar, " to tha splendid and well-considered scheme for new parks in the upper wards comes mainly from a few ' pernickety ' and narrow-minded officials, and from persons whose ' interests ' are not those of the people. Let the Legislature earn the gratitude of the great mass of New Yorkers by passing the bill recom- mended by the able and disinterested Park Commission, whose labors are at an end. And let legislators remember that a single pig squealing under a gate makes more noise than a thousand quiet people." "We presume," said the Eoening Post, " that the protest of that curious body, known as the ' Mayor's Cabinet,' against the bill pi-oviding for public parks in the annexed city districts will have little weight with the Legislature. That bill was drawn up by a Commission appointed by the Mayor under the provisions of an act of the Legislature and was the result of the most compstentand careful investigation of the whole subject. The Commissioners went about their work with commendable public spirit, and their recommendations have met the warm approval of our most eminent and disinterested citizens." It added that the bill was a carefully consid- ered measure and has met " its chief oppoiition from the politicians who dislike it, because they are excluded from all possibility of profiting by its provisions." The Star was no less emphatic on the subject than its contemporaries^ insistiDg that "the localities chosen, after thorough examination, are ample, accessible, beautiful, easy to care for, and for sale at a reasonable cost. * * » * New York of the present needs more breathing room. Shall New York of tho future be stifled as now, by a foolish, niggardly and short-sighted policy? On grounds of future morality, health, decency and sound business judgment, tbe new parks should be secured at the earliest possible moment." SUPPORT OF SOLID MEN. It was evident from the decided stand taken by the press on the work of the Commission that the Mayor and his official aids could not look to that quarter for encouragement or support. T j add to the perplexities of his position he had received a letter from many of the real estate owners, bankers, lawyers and business men , representing over a billion of dollars in real estate — subsequently swelled by additional names to two billions— directing 133 THE IsEW PARKS. his attention to the unanswerable arguments and solid array of facts, pre- sented in the report to the Legislature, pointing out the danger of delay, insisting that the purchase of more park room was more imperative now than ever, and that the sooner it was obtained the better. Prior, however, to the reception of this communication by the Mayor, circular letters had been addrossad by Mr. Marsh and the author to a large number of representative citizens, a copy oi the report accompanying each letter, inviting an expression of opinion on the question of the enlargement of the park area of the metropolis. The response was prompt, emphatic and decided. The writers expressed theii- warm approval of the movement, and urged prompt action on the part of the Legislature. In a hearing before the Mayor and the heads of departments Mr. Marsh made a powerful argument, sustained by a formidable array of facts, but the city government was not to be moved, and so the contest was carried to Albany before the Senate and Assembly Committees on Cities, and into both branches of the Legislature. THE CONTEST IX THE LEGISLATURE. The field of conflict having been changed from New York to the State capitol the whole strength of the friends of the parks was concentrated at this point, and throughout they were effectually aided by the press of the city. Messrs. L. R. Marsh, vV. W. Niles, Waldo Hutchins, C. D. Burrill, the writer of these pages and others, attended the several committee meet- mgs, and during their frequent visits to Albany fortified their friends in the Legislature, who were fighting the battle for the people's parks, with an overwhelming mass of facts and arguments. Conspicuous among the champions of the bill were Senator Plunkitt, by whom it was introducedi Senators Ellsworth, Qibbs, Lowe, Nelson, Daggett, Gilbert, Otis, Cullen, Thomas, Wilson, Kiernan, Newbold and Van Schaick. On the evening of the passage of the bill there was a spirited and prolonged discussion, in which Senator Ellsworth, who had from the beginning given the subjact his earnest attention and taken an active part in promoting the success of the measure, made an eloquent, convincing and ringing speech in every way worthy of the occasion. It was one of the most powerful arguments which this distinguished Senator and learned jurist made during his Senatorial term and was listened to with mark id attention and interest th:'oughout. Senator Ellsworth was ably sustained by Senators Plunkitt, Lowe and Thomas, who were no less earnest in their advocacy of the bill and who guarded it against the peculiar tactics of its enemies with uatiring vigilance. The bill was vehemently opposad by Senator Daly, and, on its passage, his vote and that of Senator Jacobs were recorded ia the negative, the following voting in the affirmative: Charles S. Bake?, Shepard B. Bowen. Henry J. Coggeshall, John J. Cullen, Andrew J. Davidson, Timothy E. Ellsworth, Edward S. Esty, J. Sloat Fassatt, Frederick S. Gibbs, John J. Kiernan, Henry R. Low, Michasl C. Murphy, Henry C. Nelson, Thomas D. Newbold, James R. Otis, George W. Plunkett, James H. Robb, John B. Thacher, Edward B. Thomas, John Van Shaick, Commodore P. Vedder. The service rendered on this occasion, as indeed all through the prog- THE NEW PARK 3. 123 ress cf the struggle in the Senate, by Senator Lowe, the consistent advocate of the parks throughout; the genial and earnest Otis, a host in himself; the untiring Plunkitt, alert and watchful; the calm and convincing Gilbert, and the steadfast and reliable Wilson, Newbold, Daggett, Comstock, Kier- nan and Baker should long be held in grateful remembrance. THE FBIENDS OF THE PARKS— HON. L. R. MARSH. Of the pre-eminent part which Mr. Marsh took in the work done at Albany, as well as in the city, before the Committees of the Legislature and in the duties of the Commission in New York ; in his able arguments before the Supreme Court ; the Mayor's Cabinet ; the committee meetings of the Real Estate Exchange ; at the meetings in the City Hall; in the preparation of cases and legal documents, in which his name did not always appear ; his co-operation with the author in the work of the report to the Legislature ; and, outside of this, the many friends he made and enlisted in the work — in all this and still more that was essential and necessary to success, Mr. Marsh's services were invaluable and indispensable. His high sense of per- sonal and professional honor, his integrity of character, added to the enthusiastic energy, and the cheerful, buoyant, hopeful spirit with which he entered into the movement; the unfailing courtesy with which he conducted his part of the controversy — a characteristic that has won for him the well- deserved title of the Chesterfield of the New York bar— with such elements enlisted in the cause and with the loyal co-operation of those who were faithful throughout, refusing to be swayed by threats, or cajoled by promises— with all these essentials to success, more potent than even official patronage, there was substantial reason for the abiding confidence which the friends of the cause had in its ultimate and complete triumph. As to Mr. Marsh's share in the work, it is indeed doubtful if in the legal ranks of the city there could be found one who would have been willing through six years of steady, unwavering, chivalric devotion to give, with- out compensation, his talents and his life-long professional experience to the promotion and success of this great movement for the benefit of his fellow citizens. It is very certain that no other volunteered, or was discovered. In paying this just tribute to Mr. Marsh's share in the prosecution and completion of the work in which he had S3 freely and generously co-oper- ated through years of contest and controversy, the author desires to add the meed of his own personal admiration and respect. During all this time Mr. Marsh's sole object was the public good, and, the bill once passed, his chief solicitude was to protect the public iiterest and the rights which the people had by legislative enactment acquired to this magnificent park domain, to prevent its being wrested from them and to preserve it inviolate as their property and the inheritance of the generations to come. To this work he brought all the resources of a mind stored with the learning of a profession in which, in his earlier days, he was associated as a partner with Massachusetts' great stateman, the illustrious Webster. And now in his advanced life, which has already passed the allotted term, like Gladstone and De Lesseps, he still bears himself erect under the burden of accumu- 124 THE NEW PARKS. iated years, possessing the physical activity and the undimmed intellect of a robust and vigorous manhood. HOX. W. W. NILES. Nor should the important work performed by that able lawyer, Hon. W. W. Niles, who was one of the earliest, most earnest, active and influ- ential advocates of the new parks, be forgotton, for his practical legisla- tive experience, acquired while a member of the Legislature some years before, and his extensive acquaintance among the leading members of both branches, rendered his personal attendance in the State Capitol at this juncture of special value. In fact, all through the six years' battle waged for the people's parks, Mr. Niles was ever ready, not merely with his individual efforts and influence, but he gave a large share of his time to the work of the Association both in New York and Albany, writing letters to and securing the support of members of the Senate and Assembly, and aiding where his help was most effective. Of all the advocates of the measure there was none whose interest and confidence in its success was more earnest and unflagging, and certainly none who was more efficient in making converts to the cause. HCN. JOHN E. DEVELIN. Among the first to take part in the new parks movement was Hon. John E. Develin, whose experience and thorough knowledge of muni- cipal law has placed him deservedly among the leading members of the legal profession in a city distinguished for its able jurists. To those who are acquainted with this gentleman it is needless to say that from the moment the project was presented for his consideration he gave it his unqualified, cheerful and hearty indorsement and support. From the com- mencement it had the benefit of his valuable advice, personal influence and professional knowledge. Mr. Develin attended all the meetings of the Law Committee of the New York Park Association and materially assisted in the preparation of the first bills introduced in the Legislature, where he rendered important aid, not only in the promotion of the measure, but made an effective argument before the Governor the day on which the bill received his signature. In fact, throughout the whole movement, and notably in the part he took in the Sinking Fund case in the Court of Common Pleas, and in securing the necessary application of the Park Department for the appointment of the Commissioners of Appraisal, his services were most valuable. HON. W. HUTCHINS. In the early stages of the movement, and as President of the New York Park Association, Hon. Waldo Hutchins played an important part, although his official duties as member of Congress made it impossible for him to give '^s much of his time and attention to the success of the measure as he desired. Desoite of this, however, Mr. Hutchins rendered timely assistance at Albany, and spoke at one of the meetings of the Assembly Committee in reply to the arguments of Mayor Edson and the Corporation -D 3 00 ■D BQ Tl THE NEW PARKS. 127 Counsel against the Park bill, On that occasion Mr. Hutchins took strong ground against the effort to amend the bill by the addition of a clause assessing the surrounding lands, which he forcibly denounced as a vicious principle and a great injustice that in many cases would result in the con- fiscation of the property of small owners. The movement had also the benefit of the legal experience of Mr. Albon P. Man, who in an able letter to Hon. Walter Howe exposed the utter weakness and fallacy of the position taken by the opposition on the Sink- ing Fund question, and pointed out with much force the urgent necessity for an increase of the park area of the metropolis. HON. O. B. POTTER. There was another gentleman who, although occupied with his duties as a representative in Congress and with the responsibilities inseparable from the care of large business interests, found time to say and write many a word in favor of the new park domain. Iq two strong and convincing letters Hon. O. B. Potter insisted on the acquisition of the whole park area taken by the act, and dwelt with particular emphasis on the value of Pel- ham Bay Park as a most essential, indeed as an indispensable feature in the system. To this welcome aid he added his personal influence, and in his last letter he took occasion to say that he was in favor of the parks because he was a large taxpayer and more than nine-tenths of his property were below Fiftieth street. " I do not own," said he, " and have not the slightest interest in any land in Westchester County, except my country seat in Sing Sing. I know that the acquisition of these new parks will somewhat increase taxes, but I am clear that they will add more to the value of my property in New York city than the lossby taxation; I shall be much more than repaid by the increased well-being of the city and its population." COL. R. M. GALLA.WAY, To say that Col. R. M. Gallaway was an earnest supporter of the move- ment even before the New York Park Association was organized would be but a feeble recognition of his active and effective co-operation, the valuable assistance which he rendered at important stages of its progress, and the friendly aid enlisted in its service through his efforts. He was not only one of its earliest, most consistent and constant friends, but he was an enthusi- astic advocate of Pelham Bay Park, especially on account of the great advantages presented by its extended frontage on the Sound, which, he believed, '• could not fail to make it one of the most attractive of our public pleasure grounds, particularly," as he said in his letter to the Governor while the bill was awaiting his signature, " for the great body of our work- ing people, whose various trade and benevolent societies, in addition to the athletic clubs, will throng it daily through the summer season. Better," as Mr. Gallaway sententiously remarked, " for the city to buy grass lots now than lots with improvements on thum hereafter. " Throughout the whole contest he was literally a tower of strength to the cause. Particular reference has been made to the connection of Mr. Joseph S. Wood with the project, the prominent part he took as a member of the 128 THE NEW PARKS. association and in its committee work, but his able letters addressed to Mayor Grace during the contest with that offljial are no less deserving of special mention. His three communications were unanswerable ; though it must be admitted that arguments, whether oral or written, had no etfact in that quarter. Yet, if they failed there, they carried conviction to impartial minds, and wherever they were read tended to strengthen the movement. AN UNJUST CHARGE EEPELLED. As the charge of personal interest has bec-n freely and unscrupulously made against the park movement, it should not be dismissed with a simple exoneration of the parties who have been meanly and falsely accused of having been engaged in a scheme to pass off their lands on the city. Now, as there cannot be parks without land, as they cannot be built up in the air, it was necessary that somebody's land should be taken, the only prerequisite being its suitability f jr the purpose. It was purely a question of the selection of the best sites, the chief object being the acquisitioa of such tracts as were natural parks and which would ba ready for immediate occupation and use the moment their value had been determined and they had passed into the actual possession of the city. All uhe clamor about " land speculation " and schemes to foist, by legislative means, large pieces of property upon the city was the purest invention— it was worse, it was downright misrepresentation, an imposition upon the credulity of the public. A large number of landowners, it is true, endeavored to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the park movement to dispose of their prop- erty, and both the Commission and the author were beset and over- whelmed by applications for tho examination of certain so-called " desirable sites" in various localities; but the sole considerations in determining the selection were suitability, location and economy. Upon these conditions, and upon these alone, their judgment was based. And that judgment, while it may not have pleased certain parties, and while it aroused the maliciou? antagonism and personal hostility of a few, has received the approval of all who have fairly and impartially considered the whole question. This much and in this place it is due to truth and justice to say. The active promoters and friends of the movement can, therefore, well afiford to treat with just scorn and contempt the mean insinuations so freely indulged in as to their motives and the important work they have accom- plished for the great city of their homes, and in the signal success of which work they take an honorable and a justifiable pride. It is a fact particularly deserving of notice right here that among the most bitter and uncompromising in their opposition to the new parks were some of those ivhose lands had been taken, many whose lands had not been taken, others who insisted on having parks fronting on or in the immediate vicinity of their property ; and others, again, whose interests elsewhere were likely, they imagined, to be injuriously affected by the improvement of rival 1 ciliti°s. Then there were, besides these, still others who, having foucd that the property on the line of tha parks had been enhanced by its contiguity thereto after the passage of the act, hoped, by 00 CO THE NEW PARKS. 131 resorting to a certain kind of legislative and official legerdermain, to so smuggle their lands outside the parks as to secure the advantage of the advanced value. However conflicting may have been the motives of the various parties in opposition, one conclusion was inevitable— they nearly all furnished irre- futable testimony in support of the argument that parks are a good invest- ment and that they afford a profitable return on the outlay. ONLY NATURAL PARK LANDS SELECTED, The question of economy was, of course, an all important one, and it was, therefore, constantly kept in view in the determination of the various sites. It was desirable that the tracts should be natural parks, requiring the least expenditure possible to adapt them for public use, not like the Central, mere waste ground, the improvement or every acre of which cost thrice the original price of the lani. A still further illustration of the folly and extravagance which had hitherto prevailed in the purchase of land for public grounds was exhibited in the case of the Riversida and Morningside "parks," so called, which, in addition to the original price of seven and a-quarter millions of dollars for 120 acres, will require an expen- diture of three or four millions more to make them even presentable. At the best they can never be more than ribbon parks, and nearly one-half their surface consists of great ledges of JOCk so precipitous in places as to be impassable without danger to life and limb. When they are "improved " the whole 120 acres will have cost as much if not more than the 3,810 acres embraced in the area of the new parks and parkways. The difference between the old and the new pleasure grounds is the difference between an unfurnished and a furnished house, or rather between a vacant and an improved city lot. The lands taken by the act of 1S84 are natural parks, they are furnished and ready for use, and, keeping in view the city's costly experience in the three parks named, they will be worth more than thrice the amount that will be paid for them. As to the future — if in thirty-one years the 86i acres of the Central have advanced from a value of $8,666,000 in 1856 to $2(]O,0O0,O0O in 1887 what will be the value of the six new parks, embracing 3,840 acres, thirty-one years hence ? A SUGGESTIVE COMPARISON. But the contrast does not end here, for it has been a question, not only of money, but of what is of as much if not more consequence — it has been also a question of time. The new parks are now ready for occupancy, as much so as the Central, which was fifteen years in a state of preparation. How is it with the two " ribbon parks ?" They were bought seventeen years ago, and the city has ever since been paying heavy interest on the bonds ! Of what use have they been to the public for purposes of recreation ? Have they been — are they now "things of beauty ?" parks ? playgrounds ? And yet, when a number of public-spirited citizens band together, give their time and their talents freely and generously to the work of providing a grand system of parks deserving of th3 nam3, ani which iccess. In these six years of steaiy, continuous work many thousand letters were written, several pamphlets and circulars prepared and distributed, independent of tha dry monotonous details of a secretary's duties. All this, constituting a vast mass of work, tvas performed without a dollar of expense to the city, or to any one except the worker. To this was added throughout those years of contest and controversy unceasing personal efforts among friends and all who were willing to promote the success of the movement. For the writer it was a labor of love, a self 134 THE ISEW PARKS. imposed task, and his services money could neither purchase nor com- pensate. The information collected from official and other sources were compiled in popular forms and scattered broadcast through the public press and in various publications. In fact, tha literature of the New Parks had grown into the proportions of a small library, and including the legal arguments would fill twenty ordinary-sizsd volumes. In the msaatiine correspondence was kept up with unflagging energy. Wherever a friend could be secured, an enemy converted, or an earnest; worker interested, wy pains were spai'ed either by letter or personal effort, to enlist them in the cause. They were furnished with battsries of argum?nt3, and arsenals of facts. Whenever the influence of a public man who believed in it could be obtained his co-oparation was solicited. Iq this way men representing large interests in real estate, the Astrirs, the Bel- monts, the Tiffianys, the Claflins, etc., appreciating the effe3t of the New Parks in the enhancement of values and profiting by the experience in the case of the Central, gave their approval to the movement and united in an earnest appeal to the Mayor, the Legislature and the Governor in favor of the bill. A HOST OF ALLIES. The signers of the several petitions belonged to all classes — bankers, merchants, tradesmen, laborers, physicians, artists, numbering over seven thousand. The artists, as stated on another page, sent a petition of their own to the Governor, and the physicians followed their example, while the General and Colonels of the First Division of the National Guard united in a special appeal. This last was forwarded the day before the Governor signed the bill, and as it was a matter of special importance the writer himself procured the signatures and placed the valuable document in the General Postofflce at twelve o'clock ac night in order to secure its delivery at the Executive Chamber the following morning, being the last of the thirty days allowed by law for signing bills. As it was a project of particular interest to the lines of railroads which ran near or through the parks, and as the business of the roads would be immensely augmented by the transportation to and from these great pleasure grounds of millions of visitors hereafter, active support was obtained from this quarter, while men of broad minds and benevolent sympathies, regarding it as a beneficent measure in a sanitary point of view and productive of great good, not only fiaancially but physically, mentally and morally, indorsed it warmly, and in many instances volunteered their assistance in the circulation of documents among their friends and acquaintances. Among these friends was the brilliant and popular historian Charles Edward Lester, who manifested a deep interest in the success of the measure throughout, and who on the thirtieth of the momentous days addressed an earnest letter to the Governor, imploring him " in the name of all my fellow citizens now living and of the innumer- able millions yet to be, and the deathless fame which is alone within your grasp, not to let to day's sun set over the grave of the park bill." T) a_ d 00 ■< "D Jl o 3 DO (TQ CO o THE NEW PARKS. 137 To tho vast multitude of letters Mr. Marsh added one from hij own p?n, a last and urgent appeal, in which he said, " We are none of us, my dear Governor, insensible to what our record will be in the future," and addad that it seemed a most felicitous circumstance in the Governor's career that just as it was broadening into national importance the opportunity was ' ■ presented him to do an act so graceful and useful and popular, which will render such great benefit now and in the future to untold multitudes of people, enrich and renown our city, institute an element of culture, taste, wealth, health and repute, to grow ever, hereafter, in the apprecia- tion and praise of the people, and to place us in rank in this respect with the great centres of civilization in the worll." LEGISLATIVE CHAMPIONS AND ADVJCATES. Foremost among the friends of the measure in the Assembly was General Husted, who had made himself thoroughly familiar with the subject and who stood by it from the day on which the bill was introduced to the close on the eventful 6th of May, when it was carried by a vote of seventy-four to twenty-one, after a protracted debate and a futile attempt of its opponents in New York to defeat it by a demand for a second hearing, which required its return to the committee and the delay of a week. His admirable tact and parliamentary experience defeated the peculiar strategy of the oppo- sition at every point, for they had hoped by frequent postponements to defer action till the close of the session, when they confidently expected to kill the bill outright by an adverse vote, or to prevent its being reached before the hour of adjoJirnment. In this they were signally vanquished by the able management and generalship of this sterling friend and champion of the measure. The hearing was granted, and although Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, a pronounced and active antagonist, was chairman of the Committee on Cities, that committee voted unanimously to report the bill before it adjourned. When it was brought before the Assembly the second time it was warmly supported by Major James Haggerty, one of the staunchsst friends of the parks even before he went to the Legislature, and whose opportune presence at one of the committee meetings and personal efforts while the bill was pending materially aided the good work. Then there were also Hon. L. L. Van Allen, of New York; Norton P. Otis, of Yonkers; George Z. Erwin, of St. Lawrence; James Oliver, of New York; Thomas V. Welch, of Niagara; Gen. Curtis, of St. Lawrence; Isaac R. Dayton, of New York; Frederick B. House, of New York; Walter Howe, of New York; James Kent, of Duchess; Do WiDt C. Littlejohn, of Oswego; Hon. H. Olin, of Broome ; Frank Rice, of Ontario ; W. E. Smith, of Clinton. Of these mem- bers Mr. Van Allen w as the steady, consistent supporter of the bill, and his cogent arguments and his thorough knowledge of the whole subject ■was turned to the best account, not only in the debates iu committee and in the Assembly, but in conversation with his fellow members. Mr. Howe, who had taken a &pjcial interest in its success, was one of the most earnest and judicious friends, whiie Messrs. Otis, Littlejohn, Erwin, Oliver, House, Welch and Curtis were always ready when occasion offered, 138 THE NEW PARKS. not only to forward its progress throush the committee, buS to give it prompt consideration when it came before the Assembly. These gentlemen were among its ablest advocates, and the respect in which their views were held among their fellow members, and their conceded personal integrity, secured for the measure the fullest and fairest consideration. When on the 6th of May the till cam3 up in the AssemMy on its final passage, the vote, after a warm debate, stood 74 to 21, as follows : AN OVERWHELMING MAJORITY. Yeas—li. R. Bailey, C. K. Baker, C. F. Barager, H. Becker, L. L. Boyce, N. C. Boynton, C. W. Brown, J. H. Brown, M. E. Butler, J. J. Clarke, G. Clinton, A. B. Craig, N. M. Curtis, I. Dayton, G. A. Dean, J. M. Dibble, J. H. Dimmick, George Erwin, J. W. Felter, P. Garbutt, J. Geddes, James Haggerty, C. S. Hall, H. C. Harpending, G. D. Hasbrouck, E. F. Haskell, S. S. Hawkins, H. Heath, P. Hendricks, D. P. Horton, P. B. House, W. Howe, W. Howland, W. S. Hubbell, I. L. Hunt, J. W. Husted, T. W. Jackson, S. W. Johnson, G. W. Jones, P. J. Kelly, J. Kent, Jr., A. J. Kneeland, F. W. Kruse, Da Witt C. Littlejohn, L. R Locke, S. D. Locke, J. T. McDonald, D. P. Mullaney, E. A. Nash, T. Noxon, J. C. Odell, J. Oliver, W. T. O'Neil, E. B. Oiborne, N. P. Otis, T. J. Owen, S. S. Peirson, C. R. Pratt, O. F. Price, W. B. Willoughby, F. Rice, E. J. Seeber, C. Shoe- maker, W. E. Smith, G. M. Sweet, T. H. Tremper, L. L. Van Allen, J. S. Van Duzer, J. W. Veeder, M. Walrath, Jr., G. E. Whiteman, D. J. Wilcox, J. Zimmerman, and the Speaker, Titus Sheard. Nays— J. Ackroyd, C. A. Binder, P. Burns, M. J. Coffey, E. A. Darragh, J. E. Donnelly, J. A. Driess, P. H. Duflfy, M. C. Earl, T. F. Parrell, J. Forsyth, Jr., G. R. Johnson, D. S. Kittle, G. H. Lindsay, B. S. McCabe, R. Nagle, P. H. Roche, T. Roosevelt, S. D. Rosenthal, F. Sipp. D. M. Van Cott. THE BILL BECOMES A LAW. In due time the bill was engrossed and sent to the Governor, who had thirty days within which to consider its merits and demerits, to hear argu- ments pro and con, and its fate was suspended in the balance during this long and trying ordeal. Arguments and petitions were showered upon him by both sides. He had only to intimate his desire for more light on the subject and it was given to him. Messrs. Marsh, Develin, Burrill and the author called upon him on behalf of the parks, and Mayor Edson, the Corporation Counsel and others against them. He was in doubt on the question of home rule as involved in the controversy, but Mr. Develin, who appeared at an opportune moment, satisfied his scruples on that point, and on the morning of the thirtieth day he received, as stated, a formidable petition, through the author, from the cflicers of the First Diviiion, in addition to the seven or eight thousand names already forwarded, and a great portfolia of letters, all of which proved irresistible, andsD, aftdr a thorough and minute con- sideration of all the questions involved, Mr. Cleveland put his name to the bill late in the evening of June 14th, when it became a law of the State. It was reasonable to suppose that the war against the park movement was at an end when the Governor signed the bill. Not so, however. Its THE NEW PARKS. 139 enemies were resolved to renew the flght, and they next directed their attacks upon the law itself. They dissected its various clauses, and they discovered, to their own satisfaction at least, that it was not only defective in its most essential provisions, but that it was unconstitutional, and so the objections were strung out and stretched till they filled '^age after page of briefs that sadly belied their title. The act directed the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the city of New York, by and through the Department of Public Parks, to apply to the next General Term of thb Supreme Court for the appointment of Com missioners of Estimate, and on the 14th of July Mr. Davelin appeared before the Park Board and secured the adoption of the necessary resolution requesting the CorpDration Counsel " to initiate and carry to conclusion the proceedings necessary and proper to acquire title, pursuant to Chapter 523 of the laws of this State for the year 1884, of certain lands and premises ia the Twenty third and Twenty-fourth Wards of the city of New York and the county of Westchester laid out and devoted by said chapter to and for the purpose of public parks." RENEWAL OF THE CONTEST. The fipplication was accordingly made in due form, and at this point the fijibt ^as c.pened again with renewed vigor. The counsel enlisted on the side ( f the parks were Messrs. John E. Develin, C. D. Burrill, John H. Miller and John L. Wells ; and against, C. H. Roosevelt, J. C. Shaw and L. M. Leavy. Mr. Marsh did not appear, but it is only just to say that he furnished a large part of the most potent arguments. On the Ist of Decem- ber, 1884, the Court announced its decision, which was delivered by Judge Daniels, and it was so direct and conclusive that it lift no reasonable grouid on which to rest an appeal. But legal ingenuity was never at fault in such an emergency, and where there was, even to the sharpest perception, no ground, the well-known professional acuteness succeeded in discovering a territory over which to spread itself, compared with which the parks were a mere speck. No ground ! Why there was a whole cantinent, and with such a broad fulcrum a legal lever was applied that moved the whole case a distance of 150 miles and landed it right into the Court of Appeals. Here Mr. Simon Sterne stood against and Mr. John B. Dillon for the act. The Court, however, saw no reason why the decision of the General Term should be reversed, and it said so in its decision on the 6th of October, 1835, which was one of the tersest, ablest and most admirable pieces of legal com- position that has ever been hauded down by that tribunal. In fact the decisions of both Judge Daniels of the Supreme Court and Judge Finch of the Appeals were masterpieces of legal literature, and the broad treatment of the subject imparts to tham an interest even for laymen, which is very rarely found in such productions. DECISI"'N OF THE COURT OF APPEALS. Reference has already been made at somj length to the decision of Judge Daniels, but as that delivered by Jud^e Pinch should have ended the con- test it is entitl-^d to mjro thm a pisuu? notice. It covered all the 140 THE ISEW PARKS. points in the contr wersy and declared, as stated befors, that " the statute itself condemn^ and appropriates for the public use the precise lands selected, by meies and bounds, so that every owner affected had means of knowing that his land was taken." It furthermore declared that '"while it is not necessary in advance of the taking to pay ty the land- otvner his comjjeyisation, it is necessary that the act which invades his oivnership shall provide for a certain and definite and adequate source and manner of payment." As to the objection that "the purchase of land for public parks outside of the corporate boundaries is not a ' city purpose' and so the creation of a debt for such purpose is forbidden by the constitu- tion," the Court cited several cases in which public works had been carried on outside the limits of the respective cities for whose use and benefit they were not only designed but for which they were absolutely essential and necessary. The case of tha Brooklyn Park was referred to as bearing particularly on that before the Court. In the act of 1884 the Commission, said Judge Finch— " was dirpc^ed to recommend parks within the city and the adjacent dis- trict of Westchester County They were not left to stray at large. Tueir authority kept them near enough to the city to subserve, in the judgment of the Legislature, tho city's use and convenience. They were also directed to act, having in view • the present condition and future growth and wants of the city.' That an ordinary city may be, and often should be, planned and executed with reference as well to future as present needs, cannot be denied. The city may lay out a wide sireet when a narrower one would answer present wants, and extend it beyond habitations and immediate needs. The city may erect a public building, having in view future neces- sities, and exceeding the demands of present use. That is often true economy and wise municipal administration. The adjoining district of Westchester County, in which a portion of the park was located, is a tri- angle shut in between the city and the river on the east and west and an extension to the river of the city's north line. That the current of city population will soon overflow this triangle, and the corporate boundaries embrace it, the Commission judged, and the Legislature determined— thoughtfully, with deliberation, after careful study and investigation upon facts not before us, and with the opportunity and the aid of personal exam- ination. It would require a very clear and very strong case to justity a Com*t in pronouncing such a conclusion to be but a fraudulent cover for some ulterior design foreign to the city's welfare. Such is not the case before us. We must assume what we can see is at least p )ssible and per- haps probable, that the lands over the border are so near, so convenient of access, so likely to be overtaken and surrounded by the city's growth, so desirable for the health and recreation of the citizens, and so cheaply to be got in comparison with the consequence of delay, as to indicate a primary and predominant city purpose in a matter itself within the ordinary range of municipal action. " The decision having minutely reviewed all the arguments presented and carefully considered every point submitted by the appellants, sustained the act and its interpretation by the Supreme Court. It was in fact conclusive on all the vital questions raised; so conclusive that opposition should have ceased on its publication, and opposition doubtless would have ceased but for the interests which were subserved by its continuance anl which were in direct antagonism with those of the city. THE COMMISSION OP APPRAISAL. The Supreme Court in rendering its decision on the constitutionality of THE NEW PARKS. 143 the act announced the appointment of Messrs. Luther R. Marsh, Georgo W. Quintard and J. Seaver Page a^ Commissioners of Estimate and Appraisement. Having qualified by taking the usual oath, the Commis- siun was organized by the election of Mr. Marsh as chairman, and th ) appointment of Gen. J. C. Lane and Mr. R. L. Waters as engineers for the survey of the parks and parkways taken by the act. Reference has already been made to General Lane's qualifications. Of Mr. Waters, it is sufficient to say that he has been engaged on some of the most important survey work for the city, that he has had a long experience in his profession, and that he is deservedly regarded as one of the most skillful and competent civil engineers in the metropolis. Mr. Arthur Berry was appointed clerk to the Commission, and Mr. Franklin Bartlett appeared as the representative of the Corporation Counsel on behalf of the city. The first meeting of the Commission was held on the 3Qth of December, and thus, by the fruitless eif orts to defeat the purposes of the act, many precious months were lost that could have been devoted to the work of appraisement. But the vexatious delay was made still more vexatious and protracted by the new ground of attack which had been discovered, and which, though still more untenable than the first, caused the loss of over a year in the business before the Commission. So long as the constitutionality of the act and the very existence of the Commission itself was in doubt the property-owners naturally hesitated about incurring the expense of employing lawyers to represent them before the Commission and of providing the necessary surveys of their land. But for these causes of delay a year and a-half coul i have been saved, an expense of over a hundred thousand dollars avoided, and large tar incomes derived by the city from the enhanced values of the property surrounding the new parks; for so long as litigation was kept up the public mind was in doubt and uncertainty as to the constitutionality of the act and the issue of the Sinking Fund case. Cinder such circumstances all tha benefits which would otherwise result frDm the unobstructed disposal of the work of the Commission have been lost, and the paople have baen deprived of the use of the parks a year and a-half longer than was necessary. This is what the opposition has accomplished, besides the damage other- wise inflicted on the city's interest by the preposterous theories and legal sophistries of the Sinking Fund controversy. Every petty device that legal ingenuity could suggest was employed to retard the progress of the work at the beginning. The Commission had hardly been organized before an attempt was made through the Supreme Court, after its decision on the constitutionality of the act, to direct and control the manner in which it should perform the duty with which it was intrusted. The opposition insisted that the small parks sh uld be the first appraised, and as the Commission, with a proper sense of self respect and a thorough knowledge of its own powers, refused to submit to such dictation, the matter was carried into Court, and the intermeddlers, after a brief c:^ntest, defeated. A FINANCIAL STUMBLING BLOCK. The year 1885 has been made memorable in the history of the New Parks 144 THE ISEW PARKS. movement by the persistent effort on the part of Mayor Grrace to repeal the act of 1S84. His predecessor, after the passage of the Constitutional Amend- ment limiting the right of New York and other cities to issue bonds in excess of 10 per cent, of the assessed value of taxable real estate, contended that the debt of the city had passed that limit. At that time the actual municipal indebtedness amounted to $93,047,403, and the assessed value of city real estate to ^1,175,057,885, leaving a margia of $35,458,385, to the amount of ^hich bonds might be issued for public improvements. As there were in the Sinking Fund bonds to the value of $34,823,735, which had been purchased by the revenues of that fund, and were, therefore, owned by the city, this amount by a strange perversion of language, or obliquity of reasoning, was construed as a portion of the city debt, so that if the total bonds thus held reached a hundred millions the city would be indebted to that amount, aud thus it followed that the more the city paid the more it owed, as all these bonds were to be regarded as so much of the debt until they had matured. This view of the matter was held by ^fayors Edson and Grace, the Corporation Counsel and by the Special and General Terms of the Court of Common Pleas. Bo long as this new stumbling block lay in the way of the Commissioners of Appraisal their proceedings were seriously embarrassed and delayed, and it was not until this last obstruction was swept away by the deci ion of the Court of Appeals on the 20th of April, 1SS6, that they were left free to perform their work without further interruption or delay. The decision sustained the view presented in a pamphlet issued by Mr. Marsh aud the author, the Court holding that the debt of the city was "$93,090,000, or so much as is equal to its bonds, or stock, not including that held in the Sinking Fund.^^ The argument was made by Messrs. J. E. DeveUn and C. E. Miller for defendants, and Simon Sterne, counsel for the Bank for Savings, by which the action was brought to prevent the issue of bonds to the amount of $3,000, OOJ for dock improvements. Although their names did not appear Mr. Marsh an J Mr. Burrill here rendered important service in aiding the preparation of briefs. HOSTILE ATTITUDE OF EX-MAYOR GRACE. While the legal warfare was being waged on the Sinking Fund question the opposition rallied in force for a flarce and prolonged struggle under Mayor Grace, whose hostility was unmistaueauly foreshadowed iu his annual message to the Board of Aldermen. In that document he stated that the estimated cost of the parks *' as projected will be from $ 15,0O0,0JO to $20,000,0C0." As the Commission that located the sites and that had given the matter special attention placed the amount at about $8,000,000, Mr. Grace's estimate, if not made with the premeditated design to mislead, had that effect on a large number who were ignorant of the facts. He had been informed as to the fi°:ures of the Commission especially, for the writer had furnished the information on the personal request of his secre- tary many days before the message was delivered. THE NEW PARKS. 14> The excessive estimat'i and the assertion by which it was accompanied, that " the recent Constitutional amendment would prevent the carrying out of the plan for the present," dispelled whatever doubts the friends of the parks might have had with regxrd to his attitude. His view of the Sinking Fund question applied to ordinary financial or mercantile transactions would be simply ludici-ous. As stated, according to this theory, the bonds purchased, paid for and owned by the city, were still a city debt and con- tinued a city debt till the day on which they matured. Thus, if a merchant bought up his notes several weeks before they were due he would still be indebted for the various amounts until the specified dates t This financial reductio ad ccbsurdum was kept up to the suspension of much needed public works till it was finally exploded by the decision of the Court of Appeals. In connection with the exaggerated estimates of the cost of the parks it served the purpose, however, of misleading many in regard to the special point of attack, the act of 1881, for the repeal of which, under cover of these misstatements, a movement was organized. When, therefore, the writer was requested to call upjn the Mayor, about seven weeks after his inauguration, he found that the parks were the particular purpose of the conference. THE SECOND MAYORALTY WAR AGAINST THE PARKS. " As you are at the bottom of this trouble about the parks," said he, " I want to see if we can't make some compromise." " With pleasure, Mr. Mayor," was the reply. " The friends of the parks are most willing. But why not assist instead of opposing this great work? Why not do as the Mayor of London has done? Although the Londoners had 15.000 acres when we began this movement he has been helping them to secure 7,000 acres more." The conversation, of which it is not necessary to enter into the details, was somewhat protracted and embraced not only the new parks, but the Sinking Fund question, the financial condition of the city, the Constitutional Amendment and its effect on the power of the city to issue bonds for public improvements, the justice of assessing adjoining propsrty for parks, Mr. Grace's plan of taking and paying for parks, and a comparison of New York with other great cities in the matter of park area. He was very emphatic in the expression of his determination to substitute a bill of his own for the Act of 1884, and strongly denounced the new parks movement. " This whole thing," said he, " is a swindle." "A swindlp?" "Yes, a swindle." " Do you desire, Mr. Mayor, to have it go forth that you called this movement a swindle, sustained as it has been and is by the press and by a large number of our most respected citizens?" " Well, no; I don't mean that exactly," was the reply; " but it is pre- mature; and, besides, the city cannot issue bonds under the Constitutional Amenament." The conversation, as stated, was somewhat protracted, and at its close 146 THE NEW PARKS. the Mayor arinounced his intention to go to Albany and secure the passage of a bill which would embody his plan. The following day, February 27, in pursuance of a previous understand- ing, the author sent a letter ti Mr. G-rac3, reviewing at length the Sinking Fund question, showing the city's actual indebtedness, its paucity in park area compared with other cities, the rapid increase of population and the financial benefits resulting from the creation of parks. " In view of such testimony," said the letter, " it is to be hoped that ycu will be able hereafter to say that you did not retard, but participated in accomplishing this great result. I can not help thinking that an oppoiilion to this measure would be a serious mistake of your administration. * * * * Oae word more in conclusion. I have said that these lands are natural parks, and the moment they are paid for by the city the people can enter into possession. In the case of Central Pari-, which is almost wholly artificial, fifteen years elapsed before it was fit for public use; and its preparation and improve- ment cost four times the amount paid for the land— more than the entire cost of the New Park system. The Riverside and Morningside parks, which you alluded to in our conversation yesterday, could not be of any financial benefit to the city, for they were bought at the highest figure — $6J,0u0 an acre— and their total area of 120 acres cost the city the enormous sum of seven millions and a quarter. And even now they are not parks, but mere ledges of rock, ribbons from 100 to 300 feet wide, which will cost probably several millions more before they are fio for use. That was indeed a gigan- tic swindle, costing nearly as much for the 120 acres of rock as w~uld pay for our 4,000 acres of natural and beautiful park lands." A SCHEME TO NULLIFY THE ACT OF 1884. Despite the facts presented in this letter it soon became evident that the war was to go on. Hostilities were opened with the introduction of a bill in the Senate on the 25th day of February, 1SS5, to amend the act of 1884, so as to eliminate Pelham Bay Park, and materially alter the law in other respects. In fact, the eiiactment of that bill, if cjnstitutional, would have resulted in ihe destrucliou of the New Park system beyond the Harlem. Mr. Grace's bill was accompanied by a memorial to the Legislature setting forth his reasons why the Act of 1SS4 should not stand, chief among which was the distance of the parks, particularly that on the Sound, from the city, the justice of assessing on the adjoining lands a portion of the cost, the obstacles presented by the Constituiional amendment to the issue of bonds, and other points which had already been fully considered and discussed. The errors and misstatements were exposed and corrected in a reply for- warded by Mr. Marsh to the Legislature a few days thereafter. After showing the superficial nature of the objections urged against the act, Mr. Marsh concluded as follows: " The Mayor, by his memorial and bill, proposes a slow acquisition of the lands for new parks; and at the rate of a million of dollars a year. If, therefore, as the Mayor claims, these parks would cost t tventy millions, it would be twenty years before the last installment of lauds would be bought. O 00 CO (fQ THE NEW" PARKS. 149 By that time, according to the unvarying rate of increase for the past sixty years, the population of our city will be about four millions, having now l,6'i0,000. By that time the area within these locations will be filled with bouses and people, and the value of the lands to be taken, probably a hundred millions of dollars. How can the city afford to take these grounds at this rapidly increasing value through all that time? The thing is absurd. If, at that time, we should want large parks we would be pushed up further into Westchester ; and, for her seaside parks, perhaps into Connec- ticut. You cannot afford to take, for park purposes, a pam respactable ia size for such a city, la i'"s populous or business portions, purchase and raze its buildings, and sweep away the inhabitants. An equal area cannot now be obtained anywhere south of the Harlem River under four hundred mil- lions of dollars at the prevailing price?; and, if bought, it would take twenty years and an immense sum to remove the buildings, plant the trees, sow the grass and prepare it for a park. But it would take too much space to answer all the errors and misapprehensions which are crowded into the narrow space of the memorial. Perhaps no other document of equal length is so full of them." MR. grace's "mass meeting" declared " A DEAD FAILURE." To assist operations at Albany a movement was organized by Mr. Grace and his adherents in New York, which culminated in a meeting at Chicker- ing Hall on the 23d of March. This was preceded by the distribution of thousands of circulars in several of the principal thoroughfares and at the Elevated Railway stations. In some of these it was stated that the parks would cose from ten to fifty millions of dollar?— a wide range certainly— and in others that the park on the Sound would alone be ten millions. Agents were sent to the tenemen*^^ houses with petitions and the occupants were induced to sign by the false statement that, as the parks could only be paid for by direct taxation, their rents would be increased until such time as the whole expense was cleared off. So unscrupulous and mendacious were some of the parties engaged in this business of falsification that one of them had the audacity to tell a friend of the author that "Mr, Mullaly him- self is in favor of the petition." With very few exceptions the press of the city gave no countenance to these efforts to overthrow the legislation of 1884. The New York Herald, speaking of the " mass meeting " against the parks, said: " The dead failure of the carefully-nursed meetmg in Chickering Hall last evening, to foment opposition to the new parks, is conclusive that the people want them and are determined to have them, and that Mayor Grace is unreasonable. Zealous efforts were made to fill the hall. The Mayor's influence was actively exerted to get up ' a demonstration ' to which he could ' point with pride.' But the floor was only moderately filled, and the gallery, except on the front row of its seats, was dismally empty. Before the time the resolu- tions were put to vote half even of the scanty audience collected with so much pains perceived the situation and slipped out, and of the remainder so many voted "No" that it was fairly doubtful whether they were not defeated, though the chairman (Mr. James A. Roosevelt) of course declared 150 THE NEW PARKS. them carried. * * * * if Mayor Grace is properly sensitive to public opinion his own meeting is an urgent warning to him to change his course about the new parks." In a previous article the Herald, warning him against his announced opposition, remarked: " Mr. Grace has been Mayor forty -four days, and on not one of them has he omitted to assure the inhabitants in some letter or other that he is ' big with blessings' for the city. * * * if the sacri- fice of the new parks is a specimen of the blessings Mayor Grace's admin- istration has in reserve for the city, his assertion that he means to serve out his term at all hazards is deplorable." HIS PURPOSE EXPOSED. An explanation was given by the same paper, in a later issue, of the motives by which he was inspired in his opposition to the new Harlem River Bridge at One Hundred and Eighty-first street, as well as to the new parks. " It is not a secret," said that paper, " that the underlying motive of Mr. Grace's opposition to the new parks and the Harlem Bridge is polit- ical. He is busily building a political machine within the city govern- ment for his personal advancement, and cannot see a way to make the Bridge act help that purpose, for he believes that his two associates in the power of appointment will combine against him. Neither could he see a way to make the New Park act serve his purpose, for the New Park Com- mission was already filled." The New York World took strong ground on the necessity for an increase of our park area. '"New York's manifest destiny," it declared in a leading editorial, the day after the meeting, " is unmistakeable. We are making preparations for a city of four or five millions. Shall we commit the mistake our ancestors committed, and fail to provide parks for the health, recreation and happiness of the coming generations ? As well might we have heeded the selfish opposition of the tax-grudgers and have refused to provide the future New York with a sufficient supply of water. It is urged that we cannot incur any more debt under the Constitutional restriction. We do not believe that any Court will decide our indebtedness to be any more than our net debt. At all events, let us keep the new parks in view and secure them as speedily as possible." The Times said " that only one side was presented, and there was no real discussion of the mooted questions. ^^ * * it ought to be remem- bered the while just what the question is. It is not proposed to provide costly parks for posterity, to be paid for now, but to secure lands for parks to be paid for in thirty years, and it would have been fortunate if those whose posterity we are had exercised a little foresight in such matters." THE OPPOSITION AGAIN DEFEATED. The Mail and Express declared that " the anti-park meeting at Chicker- ing Hall, last night, was a solemn failure. As a mass meeting it was an utter failure. Free discussion was no part of the programme. Mr. Luther R. Marsh applied beforehand for a hearing and was refused. Subsequent application was made to the Mayor, and he said that he could do nothing, THE NEW" PARKS. 151 although the appeal was put ou the ground that the audience themselves might desire to know something of the other side." The TeZer/ram said that the meeting was "not representative, and that the demonstration was neither large nor enthusiastic." After the decision of the Court of Appeals, the New York World referred to the subject in these emphatic w.irds: "The good sense of the people approves the acquisition of land for parks in the new section of the city at once, while land is cheap and unimproved. In 1884, the Legislature, in response to public sentiment, passed a law providing for the acquisition of land for a number of new parks in the annexed territory. Mayor Grace obstructed the law and sought to overthrow it. He wanted a new law, with Commissioners of his own selection." While Mr. Grace's bill was p3nding an important meeting of the joint Committees on Cities of the Senate and Assembly was held in the Capitol. At this meeting the argument on behalf of the new p irks was made by Messrs. Marsh, Hinsdale and Joseph S. Wood, and a subsequent one was addressed by ex Judge Wells, General Tremaine, C. D. Burrill and J. S. Wood, who illustrated his able and convincing arguments with several val- uable maps, showing the comparative park areas of New York, Paris and London. This closed the discussion, and the result was the defeat of Mr. Grace in the field of his own selection, the Legislature of the State, the committee absolutely refusing to stultify itself by interfering in any manner with the legislation of the previous year. INSIDIOUS ATTEMPT TO INVOLVE THE KEAL ESTATE EXCHANGE. Hostilities, however, were not confined to the State Capitol. The Real Estate Exchange was, by the connivance of some of the members, involved in the strife, much to the chagrin and mortification of the great majority. This was, so to speak, a flank movement, and in a quarter frjm which it was wholly unexpected. On the 30th of February, 1885, a resolution was presented by Dr. John T. Nagle, of the Bureau of Vital Statistics of the Health Department, directing the appointment of a committee of five " to furnish whatever information they may be able to ascertain regarding the number of acres, the location, probable cost of construction, etc., of public parks in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards and the vicinity thereof, which were authorized by an act of the Legislature passed April 19, 1883, and also the methods by which such parks are to be paid for." The committee appointed consisted of John T. Nagle, M. D., chairman, Frank S. Allen, James Stokes, Jules E. Brugiere and James L. Wells. Dr. Nagle, without consultation with any of the members of the com- mittee, prepared a "report," and presenting it at one of the meetings requested some of the members to sign it, which they declined to do. Hav- ing failed in this he thereupon, as chairman, but without the authority or consent of the committee, sent to the daily papers printed copies of his report from which a synopsis and extracts were published. In this docu- ment he asserted that the cost of the land would be from $12,003,000 to $30,000,000, besides "a large additional purchase for Pelham Bay Park." 152 THE NEW PARKS. He al30 stated that the money would have t") be raided by direct taxation, whereas the law provided that the payments were to be made in thirty -year bonds bearing 3 per cent, interest. The Legislative Committee of the Exchange, as soon as it detected the imposition practiced upon it, held a meeting and passed a resolution to the effect " that where a subject has been referred for consideration and report to a special, or sub committee, that no report, either majority or minority, shall be issued by or on behalf of sush committee, or by any member thereof, xinless such report shall have been previously made to and received by this committee ; and any report issued shall state at its head whether it is a unanimous, majority, or minority report." The "report," so called, which caused this trouble in the Exchange and which roused it up to such a pi-oper sense of indignation, was, in fact, a tissue of misstatements from beginning to end— false in its estimate of the cost of the land for the new parks, false in its estimate of expense, false in its premises and false in its deductions ; false in its " facts" and false in its figures. And this " report," which was a gross imposition on the institu- tion and repudiated as a piece of sharp practice, was printed and dis- tributed among viembers of the Exchange, the taxpayers and property owners of the city. The accuracy of its statements may be judged from the assertion that "in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards 177 small parks have already been laid out." Of course a section so liberally provided with "parks"' should be perfectly satisfied. But when it is understood that the aggregate area of 170 of these 177 parks, which were only laid out on paper and not taken, does not exceed thirty acres, the trustworthy character of the statistics presented in the " report" becomes at once apparent. Every triangle, every petty grass plot was dignified therein with the title of "'park." AN ADROIT BUT AN UNSUCCESSFUL SCHEaiE. Accompanying this distorted and misleading presentation of the park question was a letter dated March 12, in which an attempt was made to alarm the public by the reckless and unwarranted assertion that the whole expense of acquiring the new parks would be imposed by direct taxation. Still another document was added in the form of a printed letter, which was to be signed by the person to whom it was sent and forwarded in a printed and stamped envelope, of which this is a fac simile : [Stamp."' HON. WM. R GRACE, Mayor of the City of New York, CITY HALL, New York, The form of the letter which was to be transmitted to the Mayor expressed the desire of the sigjer "to have his name enrolled as being in favor of the bill now pending in the New York State Legislature." "D DO "D THE NEW PARKS. 155 The purpose of this schtme was to impress the public and the Legislature with the idea that the. Real Estate Exchange was not only opposed to ihe parks, but that it was most pronounced and active in its opposition. How- ever, it was exposed in time, and tha effort to falsify the position of the Exchange in relation to the park question very properly and emphatically rebuked by its Legislative Committee. For the service rendered in this side fight on the parks, Messrs. James L. Wells, D. Q. Croly, J. W". Brugiere, James Stokes, Wm. C. Church and Wm. C. Orr are entitled to special mention and grateful recognition. These gentlemen took a firm stand against what Mr. Church justly stig- matized as "an attempt to put the Real Estate Exchange in a false position." "Let me," said Mr, Church, in a letter to a friend, " put you on your guard against the attempt which has been made to represent the Real Estate Exchange as opposed to the parks. The matter has been considered by two several sub-committees of the Committees on Legislation of the Exchange ; one of these presented an unanimous report, and the other a majority report, advising that no action be taken by the Exchange. Both of these reports have been adopted by the Committee on Legislation, which in these matters represented the Exchange. Oae of these reports was adopted to-day. I do not believe there is any serious opposition to the parks, except what is being worked up, skillful use being made of the doubt as to whether we may not have to submit to taxation to pay for them in a lump. I knew nothing about the parks until I came to investi- gate the subject, and have no interest in them, and I write now because my sense of fair dealing has been outraged by an attempt to put the Real Estate Exchange in a false position. Dr. Nagle, in his pamphlet, quoted the summing up our committee gave of the arguments presented before us against the parks. He did not quote our final conclusion, which ivas not to meddle ivith the subject.'^ Mr. Marsh addressed one of the meetings of the committee and with such good effect that in their report they said " they did not feel themselves at liberty to re discuss the matter so far, as it has already been decided by an overiuhebning majority of the Legislature and indorsed by men of the highest standing and experience in the community.''^ Thus ended the side fight in the Real Estate Exchange, a body which from its character and the purposes of its organization would naturally have been the very last institution in the city to array itself against a measure so well calculated and adapted to promote its own special business interests. It was certainly a novel idea to make use of such a body for the purpose of arresting a great public improvement, the success of which, in its enhancement of the value of real estate, must inevitably tend to its advantage and the benefit of its members. THE CONTEST IN THE BOARD OF ALDERMEN. In 1S:86 another onslaught was made on the parks. This time, however, it was in the Board of Aldermen. On the llth of January Alderman Mooney offered a resolution instructing ' ' the Corporation Counsel to draft 156 THE NEW PARKS. an act and, in behalf of the Aldermen, present the same to the Legislature, amendatory of the New Parks act, specifying that no sum greater than three millicns of dollars shall be imposed upon the City Treasury for the purposes of said Act, and providing that the Commissioners of Appraisal shall begin the purchase of land suggested for parks in those localities which lie nearest to Harlem River." This was referred to the Committee on Lands and Places, w'.ich reported a bill in accordance with the resolution — and also eliruinating Pelham Bay Park— on the 3d of March, on which occasion Vice-President Jaehne, now a resident at Sing Sing, was called to the chair and presided over the discussion which followed. It is sufficient to say that, although the bill was introduced into the Leg- islature, the Corporation Counsel refused his sanction to the attempted repeal of the law and authorized the statement that he was " for the parks as they are." Senator Traphagen presented still another bill, which was designed to dispose of the whole question at one fell stroke by repealing the entire act of 1884. As it was not pushed, however, it went the way of all moribund legislation and was consigned to the limbo of defunct bills. To the Legislative Committee which had the Aldermanic bill under con- sideration, Mr. Marsh addressed an argument, in which he presented the unconstitutionality of the proposed repeal with such force, and sustained his position with such a formidable array of authorities, that the commit- tee decided by a vote of nine to two to make an adverse report, which was subsequently done. AN ELOQUENT PROTEST. In his admirable and conclusive summing up Mr. Marsh dwelt with par- ticular emphasis on the trying and triumphant ordeal through which this great measure had passed, and as the jDrincipal attacks of its enemies had been directed against the magnificent playgroimd on the Sound, he said : "To repeal this park would really seem like legislative boy's play — give and take back again. Did not," he asked, " the three former Legisla- tures look thoroughly into the matter, the reasons for and the reasons against this Pelham Bay Park ? Did not their committees, both of the House and the Senate, listen to the most elaborate arguments on both sides ? Did not Governor Cleveland study all briefs and pamphlets sub- mitted to him on the subject and then sign the bill ? Did not these legisla- .tors know their own minds ? Did they not see that the great land owners •and taxpayers, as well as the people of the city, wanted this park with the othe>-s ? Were not these legislators and the Governor competent to form just judgments on this subject ? Shall their solemn action be now reversed ? Is there no stability in or reliance on well-considered legislation ? Is there any use in obtaining an act of the Legislature if the next one, without change or circumstance, is to repeal it ? This is not a question of forfeiture for alleged misconduct or fraud, but of deliberate repudiation of the ^deliberate acts of former Legislatures. " I do not abate one jot or tittle of my concluding remarks on the rehear- 00 T) O THE NEW PARKS. 159 ing of the Parks act before the corresponding Assembly Committee on April 24th, 18S4. They have been the rather strengthened and intensified by experience since. I will repeat them here, with two years of confirma- tion of their head : Gentlemen of the Committee: I feel an absorbing and enduring interest in this enterprise. It is not a sentiment of recent growth. We cannot now know, we cannot now appreciate the greatness of the work and its increasing value and importance as the years go by. When some thirty yearj hence (the purchase bonds then maturing) our city, by the inevitable law which has ruled the past, holding within her limits more than five mil- lions of people; with abodes lining these parks; the territory all below packed with inhabitants; these recreation grounds inviting all classes to their ample hospitality; the fame of them having brought here for resi- dence families of wealth and culture from other parts of the Union, and visitors from all parts of thp world; the treasury of the city demonstrating that all these parks are, in effect, a gift to the city, bringing large endow- ments besides; then will the men of tbat time begin, but as yet only begin, to realize the magnitude and usefulness of this day's work. " I put these facts and prophecies and arguments on record. I perpet- uate them in enduring type,'' said Mr. March in a fine burst of melodious prose — " partly that they may the more conveniently and quickly be read and appreciated by you, and partly that the people may see and ever know some of the reasons why this park should stand as it is. And if, indeed, the action of three Legislatures should now be reversed, and even if such action could stand before the breath of the Constitution, this record will enable the people, as years go and come, to see and know how much better, richer, healthier and more prosperous and attractive our city would have been if this cheap, magnificent and noble pleasure-ground had been saved to them, somewhat — though then with much fuller knowledge, for the records will be complete — as we now see, after the lapse of seventy-seven years, how beneficent would have been the park enterprise of De Witt Clinton had the authorities of that day seen with his eyes and judged with his judgment." AN ATTACK FROM A NEW QUARTER. The last assault upon the new parks was made in the spring of ^1887, at the instance of some eighty residents ajid taxpayers of the town of Pelham, Westchester Co. , in the form of a petition to the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the City of New York, " entreating their assistance in procuring the passage of an act repealing so much of the Park bill of 1884 as provides for the taking of Pelham Bay Park." This demand was made on the ground that the appropriation of so much land— about one-half of the whole area of Pelham — would, if taxes were not paid upon the park by the city of New York, so increase the assessment as to make the burden intolerable. It appeared, however, in the course of the controversy, on a comparison of the names of the eighty taxpayers with the tax and assessment roll of the town of Pelham, that only thirty were on the list, while of the $36,957.03 levied on the town the huge sum of $567.77 was paid by the petitioners ! Yet, on the protest of these a bill was prepared and introduced in the Legislature for the excision of PeLham Bay Park I 160 THE ISIEW PARKS. On the 3d of May, Mr. F. R. Coudert appeared before the Legislative Committee on Cities, and in the course of an able and conclusive argument proved that "although the fee or legal title vfill not pass from the present owners to the city until the report of the Commissioners shall be confirmed, yet the lands have been taken by the city and appropriated and condemned." The committee took the same view of the matter as the learned counsel and refused to interfere in any way with the act. Thus, for the third time, the Legislature refused to undo the work of 1884. FINAL REPULSE AND END OF THE WAR. While the bill was yet under discussion in the State Capitol, an effort was made to secure a report in its favor from the Committee on the Law Department of the Board of Aldermen, of which Hon. D. F. Dowling is chairman. The chairman, however, was resolved that a subject of such importance to the city should not be disposed of without due consideration and that its merits should be fully discussed before his committee. A day was, therefore, appointed, and Mr. Coudert made the argument which covered the essential legal, financial and other points of the subject, and which produced a marked effect on the committee. As there was a decided difference of opinion among its members on the propriety and wisdom of any further effort to interfere with the operation of the act of 1884, in view of the decision of the Courts, the committee took no action in the matter, and thus ended the second attempt in the Board of Aldermen to effect a repeal of the law. An independent, but, as it proved, an ineffectual movement was made by a few property owners, whose lands lay inside and along the lines of the parks, to secure the passage of a bill by which they would be enabled, through the adjustment cf the exterior boundaries and the alteration of the maps, to have their particular tracts placed outside and immediately in front of the parks. As special reference, however, has already been made to this adroit little manoeuvre, it is unnecessary to say more than that it was introduced in the Legislature, and that it shared the fate of every other attack upon the integrity of the law. The PAR'feS AND PARKWAYS, THEREFORE, REMAIN IN THEIR ENTIBETT AND AS DESCRIBED BY METES AND BOUNDS IN THE ACT OP 1884. But, as may well be conceived, this triumph was achieved only through unflagging zeal, through many sacrifices, through determined, sustained effort during six years, in two of which — 1885-6— the war against the parks was carried on, as described, with a total disregard of the merits of the subject, by Mr. Grace, who in one instance, with the particulars of which the writer is thoroughly familiar, debased his high office by using it as a means of gratifying his private revenge. Indeed, the contrast between the character of the warfare waged by ex-Mayor Grace and that of his predecessor was most marked, for it is due to Mr. Edson to say that, while his opposition was strenuous, persistent and occasionally bitter, yet he never so far for- got the dignity of his position as to descend to the low level of personal THE NEW PARKS. 161 hostility, nor thought of inflicting, through his oflacial power, a penalty for a difference of opinion on a great public question. To have won this signal victory for the people's parks against a powerful opposition; to have saved the movement from the pitfalls into which many a noble and benevolent ecterprise has fallen and been lost; to have upheld the cause against a power controlling and wielding the official influence and patronage of the municipal government; to have carefully and constantly guarded that cause and preserved it from the taint and suspicion of sordid, mercenary motives; to have prevented, above all, its perversion to political designs and uses; in a word, to have maintained throughout the long, harassing and oftentimes acrimonious contest the purity of purpose in which this beneficent project was conceived; to have done all this demanded, on the part of its promoters and advocates, unceasing vigi- lance, unrelaxing, determined effort, and a resolution that could not be driven from its purpose either by menaces, so freely and unscrupulously used, or the employment of insidious and questionable methods by the opposition. The project of the New Parks was, as already stated, con- ceived in the purest of raotives — for the welfare of the whole people and especially for the benefit of the toilers of the great city. For them, and the millions to be, the battle was fought; for all the triiunph was achieved. The friends of the movement were not to be swerved from the prosecu- tion of their grand purpose, confident that the success of their efforts would confer a lasting benefit by promoting the welfare, the physical culture and moral well-being of the people, and the prosperity, the embellishment and attractiveness of our great metropolis. They believed that it would accomplish for the New York of 1S87 and succeeding years what New York's most illustrious Mayor and Governor had desired to effect over three-quarters of a century ago, but whose beneficent design was defeated by the culpable apathy of his official successors; and in this belief they persevered and worked till their efforts ivere croumed with a glorious victory. THE FRIENDS OF THE PARKS. IMPORTANT CORKESPONDE^NTCE. LETTERS OF REAL ESTATE OWNERS, CAPITALISTS, BANKERS, LAWYERS, MERCHANTS, Etc.— REPRESENTING AN AG- GREGATE CAPITAL OF TWO THOUSAND MILLIONS OP DOLLARS—TO EX-MAYOR ED30N. The following letter was addressed to Mayor Edson, who had unfortu- nately changed his attitude en the park question some time after his inaug- uration, and although he was even then a member of the Executive Com- mittee of the New York Park Association, he had not only resolved to oppose the bill, but, as stated in the history of the movement, he arrayed the heads of the municipal departments in hostility to the measure. However, if Mayor Edson was not to be convinced by the facts and figures submitted for his consideration, they had their effect in other quartars and materially aided the good work. When Mr. Grace assailed the legislation of 18S4, and announced his inten- tion to substitute a plan of his own for the park system laid out in the act of that year, nearly all the gentlemen whose names are signed to this letter united in a still stronger and more urgent communication protesting against any farther interference with the law and emphatically expressing their " desire that the act passed stand as it is " New York, February 29, 1884. To Hon. Franklin Edson, Mayor of the City of New York: We consider the enlargement of our park area so important a matter that we beg respectfully to call your especial attention tD a few of the salient points in tbe very able report of the Commission appointed by yourself, which report we most f uHy approve and indoi'se. 1st. The Central Park c )st the city $6,666,381 Construction account and maintenance 16,378 84t Interest at 7 per cent, during 25 years 20,755,92 5 Total $13,8ul,150 Taxes collected during this period in the wards in which the park is situated." $110,000,000 Estimating fifty millions of this as an increase from ordinary causes, there remain sixty millions, leaving a balance to the credit of the city of seventeen millions. The city thus has this magnificent domain for nothing, with the enormous increase of tax income from the district in its neighboriiood besides. With the constantly increasing population, and the consequent imperative necessity of providing more parii room, there is no doubt tiiat a few thou- THE 2^EW PARKS. 163 sand acres secured now, north of the Harlem River (a portion in territory not yet annexed, and therefore cheaper), when it can be done for a few millions of dollars, would similarly prove a very wise and profitable pur- chase, and save millions to the city. If in the case of the Central Park the city could pay 7 per cent for twenty- five ypars besides enormous expenditures, and have the land free and clear, without cost, is there any room for doubting that thirty-year bonds, issued now ai3 to 3)^ per cent., would at maturity be more than paid for by the increased tax income from property in the neighborhood? In the case of the Central Park the increase of values was in some instances about 300 per cent, within a year after the purchase, and for one large tract near the park, which, in 1857, was sold for $40,000, the owner refused $1,250,000 in 1S69, twelve years later. 2d, The taxable value of the thiee wards in which Central Park is situ- ated increased from twenty six and one-half to three hundred and twelve millions from 1856 to 1S81, and contributes about one-third of the whole expenses of the city. These facts speak louder than any words, and the silent argument of these figures must be sufficient to convince the most skeptical. We must not make the same mistake that the city authorities made in 1809, when none of the pai k reservations then projected were carried out, entailing a loss to the city of several hundred millions cf dollars. The same opposition that then proved so unfortunate was repeated in the case of the Central Park and delayed the purchase several years, but all experience now demon- strates that there can be no better financial uudertakiag for a large and growing city than the purchase of park sites. 3d. As to the sanitary considerations, they are too well known and too generally admitted to be dwelt upon here — our object being merely to recommend the purchase of the land now as a wisefiuancial enterprise. We would, however, remind you that in the matter of parks our metropolis- one of the first in the world— is sadly behind the age, our entire park terri- tory, even with the Central Park (considered by some so large), being only 1,094 acres, against 172,000 in Paris, 2:i,0i)0 in London, 8,0 JO in v^ienna, 5,00i) in Berlin and 3,O0J each in even Philadelphia and Chicago. The purchase of more park room seems imperative, and the sooner the batter. We are yours, re^psctfuUy, Jno, Harsen Rhoades, Lewis G. Morris, August Belmont, William Astor, Edward F. Winslow, Jacob D. Vei milye, Charles M. Fry, Thomas L. James, Frederick D. Tappen, G. M. Hard, John T. Agnew, Francis Leland, Eugene Dutilh, Robert ^chell, Wi'liam H. Cox, Edward Schell, John A. Stewart, Geo. 8 Coe. Roswell G. Rolston, Thomas Hillbouse, Henry P. Hyde, William H. Macy, Samiivl D. Babcock, George 11. Potts, Columbus C Baldwin, William Dowd, William Henry Smith, John S. Crane, James M. Krown, Charles D. Dickey, Jesse iSeligman, Thomas C. Acton, Charles Lanier, Eugene Kelley & Co., D. O. Mills, Robert Winthrop, Isaac N. Phelps, Sidney Dillon, Samuel Sloan, Wm. B Dinsmore, M. B. Fielding, Edward A. Morrison, Arnold & Constable, H. C. Fahnestock, Arthur Leary, J. C. Johnson, T. P. Earl, Rus5c41 Sage, John Sloan, Julius Wadswortb, Henry Clews, George Bliss, George T. Adee, Hon. Charles Donohue, Parka Godwin, George Jones, William Cutting, Geo. H. Andrews, John A. Lowery, Hon. James M. Varnum, John Jay, William M. Evarts, Lloyd Aspinwall, George Sloan, Wm. A. Caldwell, James F. Dr-forest, Wm. J. Halstead, Robt. A. Livingston, James L. White, T. C. Eastman, W. H. Webb, Ambrose Know, Edward Kemp, Irving Putnam, Stein way & Co., Gustav fcjchwab, John H. Watson, Horace Porter, 164 THE NEW PARKS. John Jacob Astor, Albon P. Man, Chauncey M. Depew, Morris Franklin. Hon. Francis C. Barlow, Hugh Auchincloss, Aaron J. Vanderpool, Geo. Deforest Lord, Elliot Rosevelt, Ex-Mayor Ljmich Ely, George McCuUough Mil- Sackett M. Barclay, Isaac Btll, ler. Edw'd Livingston Lud- Samuel Raynor, Algernon S. Sullivan, low, G. S. Scherraerhorn, Jr. , Francis N. Bangs, David S. Banks, Samuel H. Denton, Peter B. Olney, B. H. Van Auken, H. K. Thnrber, Wheeler H. Peckham, James M. Bailey, Park & Tilford, Fred'k R. Coudert, D. Colden Murray, F. P. Gunther, Hon. Benj A. Willis, T. Bailey Myers, Hunting & Hammond, Hon. O. B. Potter, Hiram Barney, Hawk & Wetherbee, B. F. Watson, Hon. Wm. H. Wickham, Hitchcock & Darling, Sam. L. M. Barlow, Benjamin D. Sillman. Messrs. Vermilye, Rolston, Seligman, Tappen, Hillhouse and Stewart, whose names are among those of the signers of the communication to ex- Mayor Edson, addressed a letter to Mr. Marsh embodying the main points presented in the foregoing, and elaborating its arguments in favor of the New Park System. This letter was forwarded among the mass of corres- pondence laid before the Governor, vhile the fate of the bill was undecided. EMPHATIC INDORSEMENT BY PROMINENT CITIZENS. As allusion has been made to the support and encouragement which the cause of the New Parks received from well-known citizens, who took a strong interest in its suc3ess, the author feels that this history of the move- ment would not be complete without special reference to the correspondence which constituted one of its most interesting as well as one of its most important chapters. On the publication of the report to the Legislature of 1884, Mr. Marsh and the author, acting on behalf of the Commission, sent copies to a large number of well-known citizens, with accompanying letters directing their attention to the array of facts and arguments presented therein, and requesting an expression of their views " on a matter of such vital import- ance to the well-being of our people and the best interests of our imperial city." The replies, which were numerous and voluminous, warmly approved the report, and heartily indorsed the action of the Commission. As the letters alone would fill a good-sized volume, the following extracts will suffice to show the earnest and emphatic manner in which the writers responded and their cordial indorsement of the movement: President Arthur. — I have not yet had time to give the document more than a hasty exammation, but this brief inspection has suffl''ed to impress me with the thoroughness of the work of the Commission and the import- ance of carrying out its suggestions. Trusting that your labors may meet with a ready re-ponse from the Legislature, I am, with kind regard. Hon. O. B. Potter. — I am so satisfied that the additional parks recom- mended will at a very early date become necessary and important to the health, growth and attractiveness of that great metropolis, that I am will- ing my estate shall be subjected to the taxation it will have to bear in order that these parks may now be acquired. I believe this to be the general sentiment of the principal property owners of tha city, and of THE NEW PARKS. 165 men of all classes who feel a deep and intelligent interest in its develop- ment, growth, attractiveness and beauty as the great commercial metropolis of the country. I know there are a few, and among them our present Mayor, who do not think the acquisition of the pirks at present desirable, especially in view of the large indebtedness of the city. Mayor Edson wa§ among the first in favor of the Park Commission, and I certainly received from him the impression, in the early part of the movement, that he was entirely favorable to it, and I am somewhat at a loss to understand -why it meets with his opposition now. At any rate, I am quite clear that those equally interested with himself in the welfare of the city, and who will pay a much larger proportion of tbe cost of these parks than he, do not agfee with him in his present judgment. Hon. W. H. Robertson. — No one familiar with that part of the city would doubt for a moment the wisc^om ojf the Commission, either in respect to the location of those parks or to the amount of territory appropriated for them. They will add much to the health and enjoyment of the citizen, and to the beauty and fame of the city. The result of your labors will have, I trust, the unqualified approval of the Legislature. Your report will well repay perusal. It contains, considering its size, fuller and more valuable information on the subject of parks than any other work I have ever read. Hon. S. S. Cox. — If there were any influence which I could exercise at Albanv to induce proper legislation, so as to give New York its full breathing apparatus in the shape of parks, I should be very happy. Ex Judge Noah Davis. —While I am earnestly in favor of rigid economy in the admini.-tration of our municipal affairs and would guard the expen- diture of public money by the strictest rules, yet I do not hesitate to say that in my judgment the adoption of the system of public parks proposed by the Commission will be in every sense a judicious and economical pro- ceeding. A wise prudence dictates that it should be done without delay. Both the property and the money required for its purchase are as cheap now as they can ever be, and the growing wants of th=(oity in the direction of public parks can never be more advantageously supplied. Stewart Dean, Esq. — Your benign project will be, I am confident, should the wisdom of the Lejjislature put it through, the biggest jump New York city ever took towards fittiug herself for swaying the sceptre of ultimate domain as the world's metropolis. Though having lived in your city, lam here on the lovely marge of Lake Erie, with the freshness of Heaven on the air, and the long stretches of blue under the eye, and health in the gale; and I wish my crowded fellow-beings on the other edge of the State to have something of the same blessings— to accomplish which your efforts seem so earnestly bent. I hope the Legislature will commend itself to the grati- tude of all the future by a fiat which shall speak these pleasure grounds into being. Rev. Morgan Dix, D. D. — That the cicy of New York is very far behind the other great cities of the world in her provision for the health and happi- ness of the people by means of pleasure grounds and parks is, unfortunately, too well known. The views of your Commission on that point are stated in a way which could hardly be more impressive; while their recommenda- tions seem to me to be eminently wise and practical. What they pnpose might, indeed, be regarded as the minimum; nothing less should bethought of; and they are right in urging prompt, or rather immediate, action, iu order to secure inestimable advantages now within our reach, but liable through delay to be lost to our citizens forever. I earne.-lready have, in emphatic approval of the proposed plan. Austin Corbin. — As an individual citizen, interested as al'l should be, in anyihiug aflcciing the common weal, I regard the question of providing an increased number of parks as of paramount iiupjrtxace to a city like New York. It has demonstrated such a marvelous capacity for growth, it needs a generous provision in the way of breathing grounds, to meet the wants ot tuture geueraiions — a necessity which I ihiuk few of our citizens appre- ciate as it deserves. Your views upon this question meet my cordial con- currence, and the only criticism I have to m^ike is that you have not pro- vided half the space that ought to be provided for this purpose. Increased taxation will more than pay the interest upon such acquisitions, but if u should not the city will be tully compensated for the money so expended, in the saving of health and life. Jas. M. Constable, Esq.— The circular of the Commission and also the repurts in relation to tue system of park accommodation for the city has been received, and I have read the same with much interest. I heartily approve of the plan to give the people more breathing room. Hon. John C. Develin.—l am in entire sympathy with the movement for increased park area, and cannot write in too high terms of the labor, intel- ligence and judgment devoted and displayed by the Commissioners to and 168 THE NEW PARKS. in the selection of sites. New Tork is nowhere so deficient as in the paucity of parks Hon. JVm E. Dodge. — It is a great encouragement to all thoughtful men to feel that the authorities are willing to look forward and to provide for the future needs of tliis great city, while land can be procured and plans perfected wisely. D. Willis James, Esq.— 1 take great pleasure in saying that I am most heartily in favor of prompt mea^-ures being taken to secure in the annexed district a liberal amouotof landi for public parks, believing them to be a necessity for all great cities. I believe tha lands should be secured at once, while it can be done at a comparatively modes:; c jst; that aay delay is both expansive and hazardous. No one at all familiar with sanitary science can fail to recogniz3 that parks, open places, breatbiug spots are a necessity in any great city, and alsj that while they are a necessity they are the chief beauty and attraction any city can possess. I sincerely hope New York will be wise enough to secure suitable sites in the annexed district and secure ample space. No one familiar with our city can fail to regret that the wise foresight of De Wict Clinton, in laying out ample open spaces, failed of being carriei out, and as a result, to day New Yoik is suffering, and must go on to suffer iu tha future until suitable measures are taken to remedy, as far as possible, the dire calamity. In many parts of our over- crowdei city — notably the tenement-house districts— the necessit'' now exists for providing open spaces for the health and well-being of our people. A wise statesmanship must provide these, even though the expense be great; but so costly a blunder should warnusnotto repeat it ia theannexed district, soon to be a thickly populated city; but to act at once and secure ample lands for open spaces while it can be done at a comparatively moderate expense. Hon. D. McMahon. — Some years since I attended before Mayor Grace an 1 spDke decidedly against propos-ed new parks, but now frankly admit mys'^lf converted to ycur suggestions. lam aware that the city south of the Harlem is not embraced within the limi's of your powers as fixed by the law creating your Commission, but some provision should be made hereafter for small downtown paiks, constructed in pestilential portions of the city, which last would be for the very poor who cannot afford the time nor money for the fresh air of tha suburbs. If savpral blocks in the 4th, 7th, 14th, llth and lUth Wards were separately taken, the houses on them demolished, open air spaces created, laid ut in green gras?, the sani- tary ondition of the city would thereby be improved. No better donation to their fellow-citizans of the "toilers" cmld be given by our rich men than to buy up in the tenement district several squares of buildings, demolish the vile, polluted, pestilent, reeking structures on them, donate one of them to the public, laying same out in an open space and erect around same improved tenements for the very poor. As a business specu- lation it would pay; as a b-^nevolenc enterprise the donors would stand on the same place as Cooper, Lenox, et id omne genus. W. K Thorn, Esq. — I can only say I entirely approve of the purchases an 1 should favor au inciease of the number of parns above jour sugges- tions, as among the very best investments the city could m^k^. As soon as parks are located, the property surrounding and near them will be selected as residences, and so their value be much enhanced and the taxable prop- erty of the city thereby very much iacreased in value. Rev. Howard Crosby.— I most fully concur with all your views, and can- not but believe that the whole city will indorse your labors, and the Legis- lature give efficiency to your plans. These parks must be secured now, as you ably argue, and they cannot be more wisely located than they have been by you. Your treatment of the pecuniary aspect of the question is forcible and true. H G. Marquand, Esq — I cannot see how any one having interest in the welfare, present and future, of this city, can take any other view or be led THE NEW" PARKS. 169 by any proper motive to oppose the movement to secure them now. I cheerfully approve of your efforts and wish you success. Mesars. H B. Claflin and W. H. Dunn. — If it is any encouragement for you to know tbac v\e beardly approve the work of the Commission, we are glad indeed so to advise you, aiid we siucerely trust that you will be able to bring to a satisfactory conclusion your effort to provide for the future wel- fare of our great and growing city, and if in any wise we can assist you, we shall be glad to have you command us. General Fremont. — Regarding the city as the exponent of the wonderful growth of the country which is its background, and with which as well as the growth of the city itself I have been familiar for years, it is with a positive pleasure that I look upon the wise preparations which you are making to render it worthy and fit for the commanding place which it is to occupy in the future. T. B. Coddington, Esq. — I am in hearty sympathy and accord with the movement. Looking to the present and the future growth of the city, I believe that its sanitary welfare will be best promote 1, and the intelligence, taste and morals of the people fostered by an adequate provision in this direction. D. Connolly. Esq. — The report is highly interesting, and I trust it will impress the Legislature with the importance of taking action on the sub- ject of providing parks in that section as soon as possible. They will be greatly needed, and provision for them cannot be made too soon. New York will gain many millions of dollars, and much sanitary advantage as well, by prompt attention to this important subject. The information furnished in this report is valuable and should be carefully studied. Col. R. M. Gallaway.— In addition to the letters, from which the fore- going extracts are taken, Vice-fresident Gallaway, of the Manhattan Ele- vated Railway, addressed a communication to .the Governor, while he had the bill under consideration. After a reference to the effect of parks in the enhancement of the surrounding property, and his intimate knowledge of the whole territory to a distance of twenty-five miles around New York, acquired while engaged in the work of surveying, Col. Gallaway expressed his belief that no land within such easy reach (through the facilities afforded by the present system of rapid transit) can be found so well suited for public parks, considered in relation to adaptability, accessibility and economy. *' This," said he, " is true of the Van Cortlandt and the Bronx parks, and, in a special degree, of the Pelham Bay Park, which has the additional advan- tage of a front upon the Sound, that cannot fail to make it one of the most attractive of our public pleasure grounds, particularly for the great bod/ of our working people, whose various traJe and benevolent societies, in addition to the athletic clubs, will throng it daily through the summer season. I would say, right here, that this is the time to buy this seaside park while it is outside the limits of the city, and before it becomes a part of New York, for the moment it is annexed the property cannot be had for treble, or even quadruple its present price. Better for the city to buy grass lots now than lots with improvements on them hereafter. Then there would not be money enough to pay for them. The land which now can be bought for eight millions could not be bought ten years hence for fifty. '* To-day there are over a million and a-half of people in New York, and the centre of population is moving so rapidly northward that ere many years it shall have reached the Harlem River. That river, uniting as it does the Hudson and the East Rivers, must, when the present system of improvement shall have been completed, form an important artery of commerce, its shores lined by storehouses, and its docks crowded by vessels 170 THE NEW PARKS. of all kinds. A large part of the commercial business of the city will then be concentrated at this point. It requires no especial foresight to predict the future of this section of the meiropjlis, which, as I have said, will be a great city in itself. During mis generation New York will have 5,(^00,000 of inhabitants, and at its present rate of increase, in half a century it will have 10,0(10,000— more than double the population of London. Looking at its rapid growth and its future prospects I cannot help thinking that the Commission have actually fallen short in their calculation of the park area that will be needed. But if they have not, and if they have taken more than will be required, it is a difficulty that can be easily remedied and with advantage to the city by the sale of a few hundred acres, which can be done at such an advance as will more than pay the cost of the whole, and leave a good profit to the city. " As to t lie question of accessibility. I can speak, as you are aware, from practical experience and an intimate knowledge of the subject. The facili- ties of approach have been so largely increased within a few years as to render all these parks easily accessible to the whole pjputation of the city both by rail and steamboat. A line drawn due east and west strikes the two great parks— one on the Hudson and the other on the Sound— Van Cortlandt and Pelham Bay, both of which are in communication with all sections of the city by rail and the latter by steamboat as well. By i-apid transit the Van Cortlandt Park can be reached in thirty minutes from Forty- second street and in forty-five minutes from the Battery, the extreme southern limit of the city. When the Second Avenue Bridge, which is now in process of construction, is completed, and the connection on both sides is thus effected between the Elevated and the Portchester and the Harlem Railroad, which runs through Pelham Bay Park, it can be reached within twenty minutes from the centre of population. This railroad connection will be complete within a year — certainly before the proceedings for the acquisition of the site of this park can be perfected." Hon. W. W. Niles. — Besides the active personal services rendered by Mr. Niles, who, it should be stated, was present on the eventful night when the bill passed the Senate by a vote of twenty-one to two, that influential mem- ber of the New York Park Association and of the Commission appointed under the act of 1883, addressed a forcible and convincing letter, dated March 29, 1886, to a large number of his friends in the Senate and Assembly. "I notice," said Mr. Niles in this communication, "an elf ort to repeal, or modify the act known as the ' New Parks bill.' None of us have any light for our guidance except the light of the past. I submit, therefore, a few facts in regard to this measure, and they shall be very few and briefly stated, for life, and especially official life, is too active and earnest to be wasted upon rhetoric." After referring somewhat in detail to the history of the park movement Mr. Niles alluded to the coiiflicr, precipitated by ex-Mayor Grace and the signal defeat of his scheme, cum la. ling as follows: " One word only by way of prophecy: the lands selected are almost with- out improvement. Within five years buildings would otherwise have been erected on them and improvements made which would each represent with an acre, or half acre, the cost of ten to fifty acres of the land at present; and the extension of the surface railroads and the Rapid Transit syttem and other pending irrprovements, would in some cases double and quadruple the cose of the land. With this past and with this probable luture, it is submitted whether it is wise for the present Legislature to undo the work so carefully, so patiently, and after such earnest and long con- tinued labor, accomplished, and for the completion of which a large propor- tion of the expense and liability has already been inctured." THE NEW PARKS. 171 PETITION TO THE LEGISLATURE AND THE GOVERNOR IN FAVOR OF THE NEW PARKS, AND ASKING THAT THE BILL BE PASSED AND SIGNED. The following petition was signed by about seven thousand persons, representing every trade and profession. In addition to this petition there were separate petitions signed by nearly one hundred of the first artists of the city, who urged the Governor to approve the bill, on the ground that the lands selected were natural parks, and especially on account of the beautiful and picturesque charac- ter of their scenery. Separate petitions were also signed by a large number of leading physi- cians, setting forth the sanitary benefits which the whole people would derive from the new parks. FREE PARKS FOR THE PEOPLE. To OXTR RiPRKSKNTATIVKS IN THE SENiTB AND ASSBUBLY OF THE StATK OF New York. The People of the City of New York demand more Parks. They Want Free Playgrounds. It is a Necessity. The Parks recommended by the Commission appointed under the act of the Legislature of 1883, have been wisely chosen, and we heartily approve of all of them in respect to "location, extent, mode of payment, and method of acquiring title." There can be no better financial undertaking for a large and growing city than the purchase of park sites. They will co;t the city nothing, but, on the contrary, will be a source of great profit. The experience of other cities proves this. The Central Park has not only repaid all its cost, but paid into the Treasury of the City Seventeen Millions of Dollars, and left the city the owner in fee free from all cost, of its 864 acres, now worth Two Hundred Millions op Dollars. We are convinced that similar results will follow from the parks laid out by the Commission. Tne Cen' ral Park, for the following reasons, has ceased to be, if it ever was, a park for the people: They are not permitted to walk or play upon the grass, but are confined to its dusty roads; The lawns and meadows are for sheep and not for the people; It is kept exclusive, like the baronial estates of European lords; But were it all we could wish, it must soon .^ive way to the necessities of trade and travel between the east and west sides. Ample space is necessary for the proper training of our citizen soldiers and for the athletic sports and exercises of our youth. Such spaces are specially provided for in the great parks of Europe. We have none. The death rate in New York is larger than that of the other great centres of population, and must go on to Increase unl *e8 remedied. 173 THE NEW PARKS. In one ward alone, of half a square mile, there are twelve thousand more inhabitants than in the whole city of Albany. In one ward of one-sixth of a squire mile there are five thousand more per- sons than in Hartford, the capital of Connecticut. In some parts of five or six w ards the populition is packed at the rate of one- thousand to an acre, and there is very little more ground space allowed to the living than is allotted to the dead. Must this go on? New York is behind the world In park area. Even with Central Park, New York has less than a thousand acres (without its reservoirs) of plsasu'e grounds, against One Hundred and Seventy-two Thousand Acres belonging to Paris. Twfuty-two Thousand to London. Eight Thotisand to Vienna. Five Tlwitsand to Berlin Three Thousand to Philadelphia. Three Thousand to Chicago. Over Tico Thousand to St. Louis, and Over Two Thotisand to Boston. Other cities are now increasing their park areas, London having gust added to its fifteen thousand acres seven thousand more, and these are outside of her boundaries; and Soston has within three years increased her area with an additional nineteen hundred acres. All the parks and parkways must be secured now before the growth of pop- ulation and tne advance of property values shall make any of them costly; while money is cheap and before these natural parks are lost to us forever. The woods, the growth of centuries, unless secured now must soon give place to bricks and mortar. These parks are more accessible by road, by rail and by water than the Can. tral Park when it was laid out. We don't want expensive parks laid out by landscape gardeners, but parks made by nature. ■We must have not only inland parks, with meadows and woods, but the grand one laid out on the Sound, with its miles of beach, its pure and cooling waves, where we and our children can bathe and row and fish, and be free to enjoy ourselves in its health-giving air and waters. By the inevitable law of the past it is proved that the population of New York city will in seventeen years be three millions. These parks would not alone benefit the city— destined to be the greatest in the world— and this grand Empire State, but the whole coimtry. GERMAN-AMERICAN mi [M TIIIE GUARiNnE COMPIIIIY. CAPITAL, HALF MILLION DOLLARS. Protects against Erroi and Fraud, Facilitates transfer of Real Estate. Examines and Guarantees Titles, and its Policy Holder are protected by a hmm\ Gusfanlee Fuod Reqoifed bf Law, Under the Supervision of the Superintendent of Insurance of the State of Kew York. o iF IF I c ic s , MuIuqI Life Building, 34 Nassau Street, 203 Montague Street, Brooklyn. 3DI £?,ECTOE,S ANDREW L. SOULARD, President. Vice-Pres. Charles F. Tag. Treas. William Wagner Sec. Adolph Koppel, Counsel, Charles Unangst. John A. Beyer, A. J. V. Wedemeyer, Geo. W. Quintard, Geo. C Clausen, James Fellows Wm, Sciiwarzwaelder. John Straiton, Jacob F. MiLiiER. 23d and 24th Ward Property a Specialty, BY JAIES L, WELLS, Auctioneer S" Broker, 59 LIBERTY STREET, NEW YORK. .1. THOMAS STEARNS. C. A. BERRIAN. J. Thomas Stearns, Auctioneer, Real Estate Broker and Appraiser. Member of the Real Estate Exchange and Auction Room, (Limited.) No. 59 Liberty Street, N. Y. Personal attention given to Auction Sales of Real Estate at the Exchange, or on the premises. Legal Sales carefully conducted. Subdivision of Large Tracts into Villa Sites or City Lots, and disposing of the same at private sale, or at auction, at the Exchange or on the premises. 233 aM 2411 M ProBfirty a SpclaltF. •BRANCH OFFICE. Atheneum Building, Tremont, N. Y. City. Member of Real Estate Exchange and Auction Rooms (Limited). OFFICES OF JOHN R. FOLEY, REAL ESTATE, AND MANAGER OF ESTATi:S, 153 BROADWAY. Branch Office, 278 WEST 125th STREET. WASHINGTON REPRESENTATIVES : HEISKELL & McLERAN, 1008 F. Street, N. W. 'W^asliinieton, O. C. PROPERTY RENTED. RENTS COLLECTED. LOANS NEGOTIATED. INSURANCE PLACED. Telephone, Main Office, "JOHN 788." Branch Office, "177 HARLEM." Specialty made of procuring Builders' Loans — Money loaned on Bond and Mortgage at 4, 5 and () per cent, interest. Full charge of Estates taken. Security in any amount if required. IMPORTANT — TO Manufacturers, Builders and Investors. THE Offers for Sale on easy terms, very choice East River Water Fronts, lying between 132d and 188th Sts., on deep water, for factories, lumber and stone yards, -etc. Horse ears running to foot of E. 138th Street. Branches of New Haven and Harlem Kailroads run through the property, affording manufacturers all rail con- nection (without breaking bulk) to all parts of the Country. Also, choice dw^elling lots and plots for immediate improvement and investment, on, and adjacent to, Southern Boulevard, aud St. Ann's Avenue, near St. Mary's Park, on streets already sewered, curbed, flagged, guttered and paid for, and on direct line of proposed cable road. Apply to WM. REYNOLDS BROWN, R.BA.L, HSXATE BROKER A]KD AVC'riO:9iHE:R, No. 146 Broadway, New York. THE RECORDED GUIDE. ESTABLISHED MARCH 21st, 1868, SXJBJ*T. The Great Real Estate, Building and General Business Paper. PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. Besides its interesting editorial columns, it containir the following STATISTICAL CONTENTS. Sales of the Week. New York Conveyances. Kings County Conveyances. Westchester County Conveyances. New York Mortgages. Kings County Mortgages. Assignments Mortgages, New York. Assignments Mortgages, Kings County. Pro.iected Buildings, New York. Projected Buildings, Kings County. .Mterations of Buildings, New York. '• Building Material Market and Quotations Business Failures. Satisfied Judgments, New York. Satisfied Judgments, Kings County. New Jersey Cons.. Mortgages, etc. Mechanics' Liens, New York, Mechanics' Liens, Kings County. Satisfied Mechanics' Liens, New York. Satisfied Mechanics' Liens' Kings County. All General News about Real Estate. Board of Aldermen. Board of Assessors, etc. Legal Sales, New York and Kings County. Kings County, Lis Pendens. Recorded Leases. Alterations of Buildings, Kings Count.v. New York Judgments. Kings County Judgments. New York Chattel Mortgages. King County Chattel Mortgages. The RECORD A]V» OUIDE is continually referred to by thousands of people to whom its statistical tables are invaluable. Its advertising columns are daily consulted for advertisements of all kinds of material used in the construction and adornment of buildings required by its readers. It is therefore A FIRST CLASS ADVERTISIN& MEDIO! for those who have such materials to put upon the market. Copies of the paper and terms of advertisement can be obtained from the Publisher, 191 Broadway, New York. HENRY C. MAPES. JOHN S. MAPES. H. C. MAPES & CO. AUCTIONEERS, M Estate aiii liisiiraM Mm, REAL ESTATE BOUGHT, SOLD AND EXCHANGED. Farms and Plots sulD-dmded and sold at Auction on the Premises, — OR AT THE — REAL ESTATE EXCHANGE, 59 Liberty Street. Will condnct sales of Household Furniture at residences. 59 Liberty Street, New York City. BRANCH OFiriCK^', 198G Main St., West Farms. Main St.. West Cbester. GEO H. SCOTT. SINCLAIR .MYERS. SCOTT & MYERS, EEAI ESTATE, Auctioneers, Brokers, Agents and Appraisers. Loans on Bond and Mortgage. 140 to 146 BROADWAY, Cor. Liberty Street, New York. Members of the Real Estate Exchange and Auction Room. Pai'ticulcir attention paid to the sale of Property in the 23d and 24th Wards. Large tracts divided and sold in single lots and plots, either at auc- tion or private sale. 36 THE LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Santa Barbara THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE STAMPED BELOW. - Series 9482 IlllSliSiliiiiiiiiiir'''*"'''"^ A 000 559 474 Geo. R. Read, Real Estate, No. 9 PINE STREET, (ASTOR BUILDING) isTE'Vsr "X'oe.ik:. A