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BOSTON
PUBLIC
UBl^RY

Digitized by the Internet Arciiive

in 2010 with funding from

Boston Public Library

http://www.archive.org/details/annualreport1885bostmass

ELEVENTH ANNUAL EEPOET

YEAR 1885.

WITH NOTES ON THE PLAN OF FRANKLIN PARK
AND RELATED MATTERS.

PRINTED FOR THE DEPARTMENT.

1886.

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DEPARTMENT OF PARKS.

REPORT.

To the Sonorahle the City Council of the Oity of Boston : —

Section 15 of the Act of 1875, Chapter 185, entitled " An
Act for the laying out of Public Parks in or near the City of
Boston," requires that the Board of Park Commissioners "shall
annually, in the month of Januarj^, make to the City Council
of Boston a full report of its doings for the preceding year,
including a detailed statement of all their receipts and expendi-
tures."

In accordance therewith the Board has the honor to submit
the following report : —

Financial Statements.
I.

Receipts and Expenditures of the Department for the Year 1885.

BACK BAY.
liAND ACCOUNT.

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1884 $6,639 57

No payments have been made on this account during 1885.

CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE.

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1884 .... $38,195 61
Appropriation for the financial year 1885-86 . . 45,000 00

Amount transferred from appropriation for Covered

Channel, Muddy Eiver, by order approved Dec.

28, 1885 2,300 00

,495 61

EXPENDITUKES FOR CONSTRUCTIOIT.

Excavating, Grading, Loam, and General Work.
Grading, labor, and materials . . $16,596 97
Dredging, labor, and materials . . 12,046 54

Loam, labor, and materials . , 8,452 98

Superintendence and general work . 7,508 75

Engineering expenses .... 427 21

$45,032 45

Filling.
Amount paid for filling done by tbe

Boston & Albany Eailroad Co. . $14,479 50
Superintendence and measuring . 56 00

14,535 50

Sidewalks, Gutters, and Drainage.

Curb-stones $6,093 02

Paving-blocks 2,458 12

Setting cm-b-stones and paving gutters, 1,857 29

Blue-stone edgings and posts . . 1,676 67

Catch-basins and drains . . . 1,122 53

Plantations.
Labor and expenses .... $5,179 18

Trees, plants, and seeds . . . 4,134 31

Plans and Designs.
F. L. Olmsted, Landscape Architect . $1,520 00
Drawing materials .... 58 32

13,807 63

9,313 49

1,578 32

Beacon Entrance Bridge.
Amount paid Smith & Lovett, under contract, for
iron fence 534 17

Betaining Walls, Curb, and Fence.
Expenses of construction, labor, and materials . . 77 GO

$84,878 56

EXPENDITUEES FOB BETTERMENTS.

Betterment Expenses.
Expert evidence in betterment cases .... 100 00

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1885 .... 517 05

$85,495 61

RIVERDALE.

[Muddy Biver Improvement.']

LAND ACCOUNT.

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1884 $113,860 43

Expenditures.

Amount paid for land in 1885 $8,211 55

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1885 .... 105,648 88

$113,860 43

CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE.

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1884 $110 03

EXPENDITTTBES FOE CONSTETJCTION.

Surveys.
Surveyors and assistants $110 03

BUSSEY PAEK AND ARNOLD ARBORETUM.
LAND ACCOUNT.

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1884 $30,598 15

No payments have been made on this account during 1885.

CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE.

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1884 .... $6,333 14

Appropriation for the financial year, 1885-86 . . 10,000 00

Amount transfeired from Income Account . . 1,396 92

$17,130 06

EXPENDITUKES FOK CONSTEUCTION.

Driveways.
Expenses of construction $13,596 12
Fuel, supplies, carting, etc. 601 15
Materials of construction . 521 01
Engineering expenses . . 229 29
Coach-hire .... 19 37

$14,966 94

Surveying.
Appraising land, etc 100 00

$15,066 94

EXPENDITUEES FOE MAINTENANCE.

Park Police.
Pay of men . . . $942 50

Paid Police Department . 60 00
Equipment and supplies . 3 00

$1,005 50

AviQunta carried forward , i $1,005 50 $15,066 94

Amounts brought forward. . . $1,005 50 $15,066 94
Care of Grounds and Buildings.
Wire fence .... $130 55
Signs and notices . . 4 50

Watchman and care of
grounds .... 1,096 26

1,231 31
2,236 81

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1885 426 31

$17,730 06

FRAiqXLIN PAEK.

UAIfl) ACCOUNT.

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1884 ,$350,610 78

Expenditures.

Amount paid for land in 1885 $98,947 52

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1885 .... 250,663 26

$350,610 78

CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE.

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1884 .... $2,895 33

Appropriation for the financial year, 1885-86 . . 5,000 00
Amount transferred from Eeserved Fund, by order

approved June 29, 1885 10,000 00

Amount transferred from Income Account . . 6,534 34

$24,429 67

EXPENDITTJKES FOE CONSTKUCTION.

Clearing and Improving Grounds.
Labor and expenses .... $4,565 00

Terrace JVall.
Labor and expenses .... 3,891 05

Superintendence and gen-
eral work .
Nursery

Engineering expenses
Water fountains .
Coach-hire .

General Work.

,377 86

547 83

235 23

232 15
5 00
3,398 07

Structures.

Sanitaiy buildings and shel-
ter-houses . . . $1,170 52
Propagating-house . . 1,038 41

2,208 93

$14,063 05

Amount carried forward $14,063 05

Amount brought forward . . $14,063 05
Plans and Designs.

Landscape Architect's expenses . . 38 50

$14,101 65

EXPENDITDEES FOK MAINTENAITCB.

Park Police.

Pay of men .... $3,560 36
Paid Police Department for extra
men 207 00

Equipments and supplies . . 46 90

$3,814 26

Care of Grounds and Buildings.
Labor in care of grounds . . $1,761 03
Kepairs and care of buildings . 814 46
Expenses in care of grounds . 144 59

2,720 08

6,534 34

EXPE]S^DITTXBES FOB BETTEEMENTS.

Betterment Expenses.

Advertising, printing and reporting hearing, $2,345 71
Clerical services at Registry of Deeds and
Assessors' oflSce 1,338 27

3,683 98

Balaaice unexpended, Dec. 31, 1885 . . 109 80

CHAELES RIVER EMBANKMENT.
LAND ACCOUNT.

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1884 .
Public Park Loan, issued Nov. 17, 1885

Expenditures.
Amoimt paid for land in 1885
Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1885 .

CONSTKCCTION AND MAINTENANCE.

Balance imexpended, Dec. 31, 1884 .
Temporary loan, by order approved Nov. 20, 1885
Amount transferrer! from Income Account

$175,013 00
16,000 00

$190,775 80
237 20

ANCE.

$125,493 07

50,000 00

1,749 18

$24,429 67

$191,013 00

$177,242 25

EXPENDITUBES FOE CONSTRUCTION.

Sea-wall and Filling.
Amount paid under contract with Par-
ker & Sylvester $100,922 26

Surveyors and Assistants . . . 4,992 25

Labor 351 27

Engineering expenses and incidentals , 253 70

Paid Commonwealth for license . . 100 00

Iron pipe 92 05

Printing and advertising ... 51 18

Coach-hire 8 00

$106,770 71

EXPENDITURES FOR MAINTENANCE.

Care of Grounds and Buildings.

Kepairs and care of buildings 1,647 83

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1885 .... 68,823 71

$177,242 25

MARINE PARK, CITY POINT.
LiAI^D ACCOUNT.

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1884 .... $54,271 33
Public Park Loan, issued Nov. 17, 1885 . . . 13,000 00

$67,271 33

Expenditures.
Amount paid for land in 1885 . ... . . $67,243 90

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1885 .... 27 43

$67,271 33

CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE.

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1884 .... $10,438 38
Appropriation for the financial year 1885-86 . . 15,000 00
Amount transferred from Income Account . . 913 95

$26,352 33

EXPENDITURES FOE CONSTRUCTION.

Filling.
Filling material delivered by carts, $2,356 55
Labor in measuring and levelling, 723 52
Engineering expenses . . . 22 66

},102 73

Structures.
Refectory building and fence . . $985 77
Iron-pier — engineering expenses . 278 37
Temporary pier — printing, adver-
tising, and inspection . . . 250 66

$1,514 80

Amount carried forward . . . $4,617 53

Amount brought forward . . . $4,61*7 53
Plans and Designs.
F. L. Olmsted, Landscape Architect . . $1,250 00

General Work.
Superintendence and general work, $1,149 85

Coach-hire 44 00

1,193 85

$7,061 38

EXPENDITUBES FOK BETTERMENTS.

Betterment Expenses.
Clerical services at Registry of Deeds and
Assessors' office . . . . . . $355 50

Advertising 187 26

Reporting hearing and printing . . . 30 98

583 74

EXPENDITURES FOK MAINTENANCE.

Care of Grounds and Buildings.

Watchman and labor on grounds 913 95

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1885 .... 17,793 26

WOOD ISLAND PARK, EAST BOSTON.

CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE.

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1884 .... $5,59484

Appropriation for the financial year 1885-86 . . 5,000 00
Amount transferred from Reserved Fund, by order

approved Sept. 26, 1885 2,600 00

EXPENDITURES FOK CONSTRUCTION.

Filling.

Amount paid for filling done by the Bos-
ton & Maine Railroad .... $6,170 70

Amount paid for filling, under contract
with John F. Barry .... 3,767 63

Superintendence and measuring filling . 260 35

Engineering expenses .... 51 56

$10,250 24

Grading, Loam, and General Wo7-k.
Amount paid for loam, under contract
with Thomas Wall . ... . . $1,268 00

Grading, labor 797 55

General work 13 50

2,079 05

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1885 .... 865 55

$26,352 33

$13,194 84

DEPARTMENT APPROPRIATION.

Balance iinexiDended, Dec. 31, 1884
Appropriation for the financial year 1885-86
Amount transferred from Income Account .

$1,GS0 27

4,0C0 00

313 30

$5,993 67

GENERAL ACCOUNT.

Expenditures.

Salary of secretary and clerk . . . $3,000 00
Landscape Architect Advisory . . . 512 50

Travelling expenses of Commissioners,
Landscape Architect, and Assistant
Engineer, to New York, Brooklyn,
Philadelphia, and AVashington . . 253 80

Clerical services at office Registr

and Assessors' office
Office expenses .
Printing
Stationery .
Coach-hire .
Surveying expenses
Drawing materials

y of Deeds

220 00

135 99

135 09

21 20

16 00

8 28

5 76

$4,308 12

BETTERMENT ACCOUNT.

Betterment Expenses.

Clerical services at Registry of Deeds and
Assessors' office $453 75

Constables and expenses in serving no-
tices 232 85

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1885

686 60

998 85

$5,993 57

PARK NURSERY.

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1884 ....
Appropriation for the financial year 1885-86
Amount transferred from the Reserved Fund,- by order
approved Nov. 14, 1885

Balance of former appropriation merging at end of
financial year

$175 36
3,000 00

2,000 00

$5,175 36

88 91

$5,086 45

Expenditures.

Labor

Plants

Expenses in care of propagating house and nursery
Assistant Landscape Ga,rJener ....
Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1885

INCOME.

Receipts.

Balance remaining, Dec. 31, 1884 $4,728 58

Keceived from rents and sale of buildings, grass, fruit,
and old materials 15,324 42

Payments.
Transferred to Franklin Park
Transferred to Charles River Embankment .
Paid into Public Park Sinking-Fund
Transferred to Bussey Park ....
Transferred to Marine Park ....
Paid Sinking-Fund Commissioners for redemption of

debt

Transferred to Park Department .
Balance remaining, Dec. 31, 1885 .

152,101 70

637 65

629 04

549 99

1,168 07

$5,086 45

$6,534 34

1,749 18

1,740 75

1,396 92

913 95

583 87

313 30

6,820 69

$20,053 00

II.

Summary of Receipts and Expenditures on account of Back
Bay Construction from July 23, 1877, to Bee. 31, 1885.

BACK BAY CONSTRUCTION.

Receipts.
From aiDpropriations for Back Bay .... $1,081,662 34
From appropriations for Park Department . . 22,808 85

$1,104,531 19

Expenditures.

Filling $453,577 23

Excavating, grading, loam, and general vi^ork . 274,824 40

Retaining walls, curb, and fence .... 107,284 71

Boylston bridge 92,011 43

Beacon Entrance bridge 55,928 79

Railroad bridge 39,995 04

Amount carried forward . , . . . 1,023,621 60

Amount brought forward 1,023,621 60

Plantations 19,731 28

Plans and designs 18,400 25

Office and general expenses . . . . . 14,114 92

Sidewalks, gutters, and drainage .... 13,807 63

Machinery, tools, etc 8,810 91

Surveying 5,472 IG

Agassiz bridge 572 44

$1,104,531 19

III.

Receipts and Disbursements of the Department from the Organi-
zation of the Board, Oet. 8, 1875, to Dec. 31, 1885.

PUBLIC PARK CONSTEUCTION AND MAINTENANCE.

Beceipts.

Public Park Loan $2,409,000 00

Appropriations, less transfers and merged bal-
ances 1,501,662 05

Income appropriated to maintenance . . . 28,608 16

$3,939,330 21

Disbursements.
Back Bay construction . .
Franklin Park land ....

Back Bay land

Charles River Embankment land .
Marine Park land ....
Charles River Embankment construction
Riverdale land ....

Bussey Park construction
Wood Island Park land .
Wood Island Park construction
Franklin Park construction .
Bussey Park land ....
General account ....
Marine Park construction
Franklin Park maintenance .

Park nursery

Riverdale construction .

Charles River Embankment maintenance

Bussey Park maintenance

Marine Park maintenance

Wood Island Park maintenance

Balance unexpended, Dec. 31, 1885

$1:

104,531 19

848,338 74

459,360 43

315,762 80

232,972 57

108,176 29

94,351 12

58,573 69

50,000 00

32,685 12

31,607 22

29,401 85

25,283 89

23,623 00

14,034 60

6,743 02

4,000 00

3,357 47

3,081 85

1,060 25

49 33

492,337 78

,939,330 21

PUBLIC PARK

DEBT AND SINKING FUND.

Becei])ts.

Ex-

Appropriations for interest on debt
Eeceived from betterments . . . .
Appropriations for Sinking Fund .
Income applied to tlie payment of debt .
Interest on banlc deposits and investments .
From Park appropriations for Betterment

penses

Income paid into Sinking Fund

Disbursements.
Public Park Sinking Fund ....
Interest on Public Park debt ....
Debt cancelled by revenue and betterments .

Betterment expenses

Betterments in hands of City Treasurer
Betterments held by Treasurer of Sinking Funds
Income held by Treasurer of Sinking Funds

$311,197 83

290,383 26

244,662 00

04,026 92

79,325 24

9,661 62

2,100 74

$1,031,357 61

$602,912 41

311,197 83

99,000 00

9,661 62

6,466 50

2,092 33

20 92

$1,031,357 61

Debt Statement.

The Public Parh Debt., Bee. 31, 1885, to be paid as it becomes

due.) from the Resources of the Public Parh Sinking Fund.

Back Bay, 4^% Loan, due Oct. 1, 1887 . . . $450,000 00

West Eoxbury Park, 4%Loan, due Jan. 1, 1913 . 233,000 00

Arnold Arboretum, 4% Loan, due Jan. 1, 1913 . 60.000 00

East Boston Park, 4% Loan, due Jan. 1, 1913 . 50,000 00

West Eoxbury Park, 4% Loan, due April 1, 1913 . 300,000 00
Charles Eiver Embankment, 4% Loan, due April

1, 1913 285,000 00

City Point Park, 4% Loan, due April 1, 1913 . 209,000 00
Muddy Eiver Improvement, 4% Loan, due April

1, 1913 119,000 00

West Eoxbury Park, 4% Loan, due Jan. 1, 1914 . 500,000 00
Muddy Eiver Improvement, 4% Loan, due April

1, 1913 75,000 00

Charles Eiver Embankment, 3J% Loan, due Oct.

1, 1915 16,000 00

City Point Park, Zl% Loan, due Oct. 1, 1915 . 13,s00 00

Total Debt $2,310,000 00

Less the means in the Sinking Fund, and in the hands of City

Treasurer, for paying the same, Dec. 31, 1885 .... 611,498 16

Debt, less means for paying . , . . , ... $1,698,50184

Sinking Fund Statement.

Resources of the Public Park Sinking Fund, Dec. 31, 1885, in
hands of Sinking Fund Commissioners ; being Bonds of the
City of Boston and Cash, with the Bates vjhen the Bonds
become due.

"West Koxbury Park, 4% Loan, due Jan. 1, 1913 . $100,000 00

Back Bay, 4i% Loan, due Oct. 1, 1887 . . . 75,000 00

Arnold Arboretum, 4% Loan, due Jan. 1, 1913 . 60,000 00

East Boston Park, 4% Loan, due Jan. 1, 1913 . 50,000 00

Albany Street, 6% Loan, due March 1. 1887 . . 30,000 00
Muddy River Improvement, 4% Loan, due April

1, 1913 19,000 00

Total investments $334,000 00

Cash 268,912 41

Total resources $602,912 41

Back Bat.

Progress on tlie Back Bay Improvement during the yetir has
been fair, considering the small amount appropriated for this
work. It is due, however, to the fact that a balance of nearly
$40,000 remained over from the appropriation of last year,
allowing expenditures of about $85,000 to be made ; otherwise
work would have been suspended in midsummer. As it was
the Board could undertake no new work besides continuing-
the dredging and grading operations within the basin, except-
ing the partial putting in order of a small portion of the roads
near the northerly end, which work consisted of filling in, con-
structing catch-basins and drains, setting curbstones and paving
gutters on the circuit drive from Commonwealth Avenue
Bridge to the Boylston Entrance.

The condition of the various works now under way in the
construction of the Back Bay is as follows : 1,051,000 square
feet, or 82 per cent., of the roadways and drives surrounding
the basins are graded to tlie proper height, but with the excep-
tion of the small portion noted above are otherwise unfinished.

1,043,000 square feet, or 82 per cent., of the channels have been
excavated, and 18,100 lineal feet, or 68 per cent., of the shores
have been completed. An area of 692,000 square feet has been
filled with dredged material to about grade eight, and 357,000
square feet, or 43 per cent., of the marsh meadow have been
graded and sodded.

Planting areas aggregating 435,000 square feet, or 32 per
cent., of the 'whole have been graded and loamed ready for
planting, 315,000 square feet of which have been planted.
The loam and compost needed for the remainder of the planta-
tions is on the ground, ready for distribution, and a portion of
the stone intended for the abutments of the bridge on Agassiz
Road is also on the ground.

The blue-stone edgings and posts for the sidewalks from
Commonwealth Avenue Bridge to the Boylston Entrance are
ready for setting, and will be put in place as soon as the
ground will permit.

The Board urges the importance and public necessity of
immediately putting this public ground in a more finished con-
dition, especially the roads of the Beacon Entrance and those
bordering the northerly part of the Bay, all of which are noAV
impassable. To complete this lower basin, grade the adjoining
roads in gravel, and build the bridge on Agassiz Road will re-
quire an expenditure of about $125,000, which, with $25,000 to
carry on the dredging operations in the upper basin, will make
a necessary appropriation for the next financial year of $150,000
for Back Bay.

This will facilitate the development of the lands beyond and
westerly of the lower basin, besides increasing the value and
making desirable for residence those in the immediate vicinity
on the city side.

A petition for a writ of mandamus to compel the city to
complete the Back Bay Improvement has been filed in the
Supreme Judicial Court by the Trustees of the Boston Water
Power Company, on which an order of notice has been issued
returnable February 1.

After citing the statutes and acts of the city in relation to

this improvement, the petition states that the city assessed
betterments upon adjoining estates ; that the petitioners fur-
nished about 75 per cent, of the land^ taken for the improve-
ment, for which they were paid by the city the nominal price
of ten cents per square foot; that they were the owners of
certain parcels of real estate subject to the betterment assess-
ments, and have paid to the city for betterments and increased
taxes, assessed on account of said improvement, very large
sums of money; that in 1885 the city appropriated but $45,000
for said improvement, and with the present progress it will take
from ten to twelve years to complete the same ; that it will
require about $500,000 to complete the proposed plan, and
that the Mayor and City Council have delayed unreasonably
to make appropriations to complete the work; that the peti-
tioners fear that the debt limit provided by law will be reached
the present year, and that the Mayor and City Council will
thus claim that they have no power or means to complete said
improvement.

It is sufficient to say that the statute requires all sums ex-
pended for park construction to be raised annually by taxa-
tion.

The limit of taxation being reduced by statute, it follows
that appropriations for public jDarks, as well as for other pur-
poses, must be reduced accordingly. To complete the parks
within any reasonable time under this system would, if it were
possible, be too great a burden for the present tax-payers to
bear, and there seems to be no good reason why they should
not be provided for, as in the case of other large public works,
by means of loans, which can now be obtained on such favorable
terms.

It is only justice to the petitioners in this case, as well as to
others who have paid betterments and increased taxes on their
lands, that the work of improvement should be carried forward
to completion as soon as possible.

The Assessors' valuations from 1877 to 1885 of the 15,388,567
square feet of Back Bay lands, which, in the estimation of the
Boa] d, were favorably affected by the locating and laying out

of the proposed improvement, and were assessed a proportional
share of the expense thereof, show an increase in valuation of
$11,935,449, or an average of 77 cents per square foot, while
the entire betterment laid upon these lands averaged about 5^^^
cents per square foot, only one-half of which could be charged
under the law to the estates benefited. This assessment was
^lo P®^" cent, of the valuation of these lands in 1877, while the
increase in valuation in 1885 was 107 per cent., or more than
twenty-seven times the amount of betterment assessed.

The valuation of land in the rest of the city during the
same period was reduced $9,014,425.

The Assessors' valuations of the estates assessed for better-
ment, not including buildings, for the above nine years, are as
follows : —

Annual

Valuation.

Increase.

Total Increase.

In 1877

$11,143,751

1878

12,290,392

$1,146,641

1879

12,855,664

565,272

1,711,913

1880

16,529,900

3,674,236

5,386,149

1881

19,957,400

3,427,500

8,813,649

1882

20,847,500

890,100

9,703,749

1883

22,068,600

1,221,100

10,924,849

1884

22,794,800

726,200

11,651,049

1885

23,079,200

284,400

11,935,445

Showing an increase in 1885 over 1877 of $11,935,449, and yielding

an increas

e of revenue in 1885 at the rate of $12.80 per M. of

$152,773 74

The value of

new buildings erected upon this territory since

1877

was $9,996,900, from which the city derives an income

this

year of

•

127,960 32

Total increased taxes in 1885

$280,734 06

The taxes upon the above increase

of valuations of the lands

assessed for betterment for eight year

s are as follows

—

Increase.

Rate.

Tax.

In 1878 over

1877 $1,146,641

$12 80

$14,677 00

1879

1,711,913

12 50

21,398 91

1880

5,386,149

15 20

81,869 46

1881

8,813,649

13 90

122,509 72

1882

9,703,749

15 10

146,526 60

1883

10,924,849

14 50

158,410 31

1884

' 11,651,049

17 00

198,067 83

1885

, 11,935,449

12 80

152,773 74

Increas

ed taxes on land

$896,233 57

The increased revenues from taxes upon new buildings
erected upon these lands between 1877 and 1885 are as fol-
lows : —

Increase. Bate. Tax.

In 1S78 over 1877 $461,300 $12 80 .$5,004 64

1879 " 896,000 12 50 ' 11,200 00

1880 " 1,866,700 15 20 28,373 84

1881 " 3,092,300 13 90 55,492 97

1882 " 5,549,100 15 10 83,791 41

1883 " 7,053,100 14 50 102,269 95

1884 " 8,837,700 17 00 150,240 GO

1885 " 9,996,900 12 80 127,960 32

Increased taxes on buildings $565,234 03

SUMMABY.

Amoimt of betterments assessed . . . $431,972 00

Abated for over-estimate of land . $375 00

Assumed by city on land given for

streets and in settlements of suits, 110,350 80

110,725 80

$321,246 20

Increase of taxes on increased valuation of tlie lands assessed

for betterment 896,233 57

Increase of taxes on new buildings erected on said lands . . 565,234 03

Total increased taxes and betterments .... $1,782,713 80
ElVEEDALE.

Three parcels of land, containing about two acres, have been
purchased during the year, making twenty acres in all thus far
secured from seventeen owners. These lands ha,ve all been
purchased at or within their assessed value. Tv\^elve of these
lots are of the more valuable properties lying between Brook-
line Avenue and Longwood Avenue, leaving only four lots yet
to be secured in this section.

The last annual report of this Board called especial attention '
to the damage done to the covered channel of Muddy River by
the building of a sewer in close proximity thereto by the Sewer
Department, which caused the conduit to spread to such an
extent as to fall in in several places. The damage has been
repaired during the year, under an appropriation of $20,000 for
this purpose; but the stoppage of the channel caused great

discomfort, and even danger, to the people living along the
stream, from the bad sanitary condition of the water confined
in the river during the summer months. Partial relief was
afforded by a temporary connection with the Brooldine Sewer,
by which means the water could be changed to some extent.
The conduit is now in order, and no further danger is appre-
hended.

BUSSEY PAEK and AeNOLD ilEBOBETUM.

The small appropriation available for this park has permitted
work upon the driveways to be continued only part of the sea-
son. A spur-road, one-quarter of a mile in length, extending
from the driveway near Centre Street to the hilltop near the
centre of the Arboretum, has been subgraded the greater part
of its length, and is now ready for the stone foundation — a
large amount of which was quarried last winter, and only awaita
the necessary appropriation to be placed upon the road.

The Indenture between the City of Boston and Harvard
College of December 30, 1882, provides : " That the city will,
within a reasonable time, make and finish, fit for use, of good,
sound materials, and in a proper and workmanlike manner, the
driveways, of which the sites and dimensions are delineated on
the said plan, and so marked thereon, but at a cost not exceed-
ing seventy-five thousand dollars."

This sum was altogether too low an estimate for the described
work, and will prove entirely insufficient for the purpose. The
Board is, however, of opinion that no better contract for the
city could have been made if there were no limit of cost for
driveways. In fact this limit is practically no limit, for there
is no other provision for the construction of roads in this park
and Arboretum. The city must build them. Nevertheless, it
will be the cheapest of all the parks. The land given by, and
now leased to, Harvard College, is being put in condition by
that institution at a considerable expense, and will be planted
with "all the varieties of trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants"
which can be raised in the open air. This department is in the
care of the roost skilful and learned hands, — Professor C. S.

Sargent, Chairman of the Board of Park Commissioners of the
town of Brookline.

The driveway from South to Centre Street, completed early
in the year, has been largely used by the public both for driv-
ing and walking. The completion of the remaining driveways
will open the whole of these beautiful grounds, and afford one
complete park to the city in the shortest time, and at the least
expense.

The terrace on the highest ground will furnish a noble out-
look over the surrounding country, and will be easily approached
in carriages and on foot.

The Board therefore recommends that the driveways in this
park be completed by liberal appropriations.

The Board would also suggest that public convenience re-
quires that the public road across the park lands, from Orchard
to Morton Street, provided for by the plans of this Depart-
ment, should be laid out at once and built by the Street
Department. It will make a convenient route from the neigh-
borhood of Jamaica Pond and the upper part of Brookline to
the Forest Hills Station and Dorchester, and open a new tract
of land for improvement.

Fbanklin Park.

The following action has been taken by the Board in the
matter of naming the so-called West Roxbury Park, which title
has been considered only a temporary one, suggested by the
location of the lands : —

In Boajjd of Pakk Commissioners, November 10, 1885.
Tlie Chairman read the following from the records of the meeting of the
Board of Aldermen on January 23, 1882 : —

Fbanklin Fund.
Alderman Stebbins submitted the following: —

The Committee appointed to examine the accounts of S. F. McCleary, the
treasurer of the Franklin Fund, have attended to that duty, and report that they
iind said accounts to have been correctly kept and the interest duly collected, and
the securities, which were examined by the Committee, were found in proper

condition. It appears, from this examination, that the condition of the fund at
this date is as follows: —

Amount of fund, February 1, ISSl $259,068 86

Interest, accrued and collected 10,302 40

Total $269,431 26

The above amount is invested as follows: —

Deposits in Massachusetts Hospital Life $26'7,042 98

Balance of seven bonds for loans ', 920 00

In Suffolk Savings-Bank ' . . . 1,46*7 98

Cash . 30

$269,431 26

Ills Honor tlie Mayor having suggested in his inaugural address the applica-
tion of a portion of tliis fund, when due, to the extinction of the debt of the
West Roxbury Park, the Committee desire to report the following facts for the
information of the Board: By the Avill of Dr. Franklin, approved in 1791,
he directed that the sum of money left by him to the Town of Boston (one
thousand pounds), and known as the Franklin Fund, should be loaned at inter-
est, and allowed to accumulate for one hundred years, at which period he esti-
mated it would reach the amount of £131,000, or $582,000. Of this sum, the
trustees at that date (1891) were emjjowered to lay out $100,000 in some impor-
tant public work or works, and the balance of the fund should again be put at
interest, and allowed to accumulate for one hundred years, when the Town of
Boston was to dispose of a portion of the fund, and the State of Massachusetts
to use the remainder. Owing to various causes the fund was not veiy produetive
in its early years, or it would have reached a larger figure than it now exhibits.
It will be observed, however, that its annual growth at this time exceeds $10,000,
and, in all probability, in 1891 or 1892 the fund will reach $400,000. Of this
amount it would seem iDroper to set aside $50,000 as a nucleus for a new accumu-
lation, as directed by the testator. This would leave the sum of $350,000 to be
devoted to the payment of the loan for the purchase of the West Eoxbury Park,
to be called "Franklin Park," in perpetual recognition of the generosity of the
great Bostonian to his native city. The Committee feel that this fund can be
devoted to no more important " public work " than the purchase of this noble
park, which cannot be destroyed or stolen, but will be an ever-enduring monu-
ment to Franklin's memory. With these views the Committee feel that it will
not be deemed inappropriate by the coming generation, if this Board ventures
to put upon its record some expression of its opinion as to the future disposition
of the fxmd by its successors in 1891-92. They therefore offer the following

resolutions.

S. B. STEBBINS,

THOS. N. HART,

Committee.

Eenolved, That, in the opinion of this Board, comprising a majority of the
Trustees of the " Franklin Fund," it is expedient and highly desirable that the

proportion of said fund which will be available in 1891-92 for investment in
"some public work" should be devoted to the extinguishment of the debt
incurred for the purchase of the West Koxbury Park.

liesolved, That, in tlie event of sucli disposition of the said portion of the
Franklin Fund, the park thus purchased should be called " Franklin Park," in
honor of the testator Avho has so generously endowed his native town.

The report was accepted and the resolves passed.

The Chairman then said he brought the question of the name of Boston's
large park before the Board at this time because before the publication of the
new plan its name ought to be authoritatively determined. He also thought we
ought to make known to the City Council our appreciation of the honor done
this Board by the proposed appropriation of the hundred years' earnings of the
Franklin Fund to the benefit of oar iirincipal park.

The great need of the park would be means for its development and improve-
ment. It could remain measurably in its present wild and natural condition for
a few years, but by the time Franklin's hundred years had expired, tlie jpeople
would wish to see it assuming a finished condition. The fund, therefore, would
be more useful in developing and finishing the park than in paying off its funded
debt. That, however, could be arranged when the time approached. It would
be well now, therefore, to adopt and accept the proposition of the City Council,
and give to the park that has, because of its location, been called the West Box-
bury Park, the name of Franklin Park.

The name West Roxbury, or Eoxbury, however i^leasant and familiar, is
merely a local name. The name of Franklin is one of the glories of the nation.

As patriot, diplomatist, statesman, and philosopher, he won the gratitude of
his country, and the admiration of the world.

His colleague, Mr. Adams, wrote: " Franklin's reputation was more universal
than that of Leibnitz or Nevv'ton, Frederick the Great or Voltaire, and his charac-
ter more beloved and esteemed than all of them. ... If a collection could be
made of all the Gazettes of Europe for the latter half of the ISth Century, a
greater number of iDanegyrical paragraphs ui^on ' le grand ' Franklin would ap-
pear, it is believed, than upon any other man that ever lived."

But to us he is connected by closer ties than these general ones. Here was his
birthplace, and we are to appropriate to the daily use of our people the accumu-
lation of his bounty, the results of his providence and foresight; and if for any
reason the Franklin Fund shall be diverted to some other xise, still to this beauti-
ful park, devoted to the refreshment and cheer and delight of all, but more
especially of those whose walk is limited to a crowded city, what name is more
appropriate than that of Franklin ; what name fuller of inspiration and promise
and reward ?

On motion of Mr. Maguire, it was voted: That, for the reasons set forth in
the remarks of the Chairman, the park heretofore called West Boxbury Park
shall be named and known as "Franklin Park."

The Board has been pleased to find that the name has met
public approval.

Under a special appropriation of $10,000 for the purpose, the
Board has cleared the ground of many of its dividing walls and
fences, using the stone in the construction of a terrace over-
looking what is designed to be the principal play-ground of the
park. It was thought best to make this disposition of the stone
at once, in order to avoid the exti'a expense of twice handling.
The grounds in front have been cleared of supernumerary trees
and boulders, and should be properly graded and surfaced for
the purposes of recreation as soon as possible. It is the desire
of the Board also to construct the driveways surrounding this
field at once, in order that it may be a complete thing in itself,
and furnish a short circuit drive entirely within the park.
The terrace should also be finished and planted with shrubs
and vines as designed. The woods have been somewhat cleared
and opened, and most of the fruit trees have been taken away,
thus removing a source of much trouble and lawlessness. Sev-
eral buildings have been removed and the cellars filled, and
large quantities of poisonous ivy have been uj)rooted. The
large mansion-house, on what will be called Refectory Hill,
near Blue Hill Avenue, has been rented and fitted up as a
refectory, where refreshments of all kinds are served. The
house at the corner of Walnut and Williams Streets has also
been fitted up for minor refreshment purposes. In either of
these houses proper attention will be given to the wants of vis-
itors, who are free to occupj^ them as long as may be necessary.
Drinking-^vater has been supplied to the ball-field through an
iron pipe with two fountains. As early as the second week in
March visitors began to frequent the park, and the latter part
of the month found the boys using the ball-field and play-ground
in large numbers. The Sunday attendance through the season,
from March to November, as reported by the park police, ran
from 3,000 to 20,000, with an average attendance of 11,000 for
each Sunday reported, and of 15,000 in fine weather. No com-
putation of the week-day attendance has been attempted, except
in the matter of picnics, of which there were 42 reported from
15 different societies or charities, with an average attendance
of about 200 persons.

The Board recommends that the streets running throug-h tiic
park hinds be discontinued as public ways, and that Wahiut
Street be continued through Sigourney Street to Forest Hills
Street, in order to give an outlet to Walnut Street, outside the
park limits. In connection with this change a triangular piece
of land at the junction of Walxiut and Sigourney Streets will
have to be acquired for park purposes, and the Board recom-
mends that an appropriation by lean of $20,000 be made at
once for this purpose.

The plan for this park, as finally completed b}^ the Landscape
Architect and adopted by the Board, is published in a supple-
mentary report.

Maeine Paek, City Point.
Under a recommendation of this Board, contained in last
year's report, application was made to the Legislature for a
grant of flats, east of Q Street, for park purposes, which
resulted in the following report and legislative action : —

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.

House of Eepbesentatives, June 15, 1885.
The Committee on Harbors and Public Lands, to whom was referred the
petition of tlie Mayor of Boston for a grant of flats owned by the Common-
wealth, and lying between City Point and Castle Island, to be used for the pur-
poses of a public park, having given the petitioners a hearing, and having heard
the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners in relation thereto, and viewed
the premises, report the accompanying bill. It is not intended in this bill to
define the exact limits within which the whole of the contemplated marine park
at South Boston may be located. The plan of the Park Commissioners proposes
the extension of a portion of the park beyond tlie north line of the area described
in the bill. The limits and conditions of such extension involve important ques-
tions in connection with the great work of harbor conservation and improvement
whicli the Commonwealth is now prosecuting in the enclosure and filling of the
South Boston Flats, and the construction of docks and piers between Fort Point
Channel and Castle Island. More time is desired for careful study and consid-
eration by the Harbor and Land Commissioners and the Park Commissioners of
the interests involved, and the respective plans to be adopted, in the further
reclamation of the flats by the Commonwealtli, and in the location and con-
struction of the proposed park by the city. This will not delay the beginning of
their work by the Park Commissioners within the limits defined in the bill.

For the Committee,

SIMEON BUTTERFIELD.

COMMONWEALTH OF MASSACHUSETTS.

In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-five.

[Chap. 360.]

AN ACT

In further addition to ^n Act for the laying out of Public Parks in or near the

City of Boston.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court
assembled and by the authority of the same as follows : —
Section 1. The Board of Park Commissioners of the City of Boston, sub-
ject to the provisions of chapter nineteen of the Public Statutes, excepting so
much of section sixteen of said chapter as requires the payment into the treas-
ury of compensation for the rights and privileges hereby granted in land of the
Commonwealth, may make such excavation and filling, and erect and maintain
such structures, in and over the area of tide-v?ater at or near Dorchester Point,
in South Boston, which lies south of the northerly line of East First Street,
extended easterly to Castle Island, and east of the westerly line of Q Street,
extended southerly into Old Harbor, as the said Board may deem necessary or
desirable for the purposes of a public park, in accordance with the provisions
of chapter one hundred and eighty-five of the acts of the year eighteen hundred
and seventy-five.

Sect. 2. All lands of the Commonwealth, which are occupied or enclosed
under the provisions of this act, shall be appropriated to and used solely for the
purposes of a public park.

Sect. 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage.

[Approved, June 19, 1885.]

A contract was concluded October 23d with Benjamin iToung,
of Chelsea, for the construction of a temporary wooden pier to
extend some twelve hundred feet in a southeasterly direction
from the present shore line, opposite East Fifth Street. The
outer end will be at the inshore end of the proposed iron pier,
and the site of the wooden pier will eventually be filled.
Meanwhile it will prove useful in the construction of the iron
pier, and will serve also for a promenade during the time in
which the iron pier is building. The Refectory building was
open through the season, the keeper being allowed to sell
refreshments ; but it was not patronized to any great extent.
Its position is unsuitable, and another season it will be moved
to a point near the entrance to the pier. By the action of the
Board of Street Commissioners, Q Street has been widened to
ninety feet, and the streets running easterly from Q Street have

been discontinued ; nothing, however, has been done by the
Street Department to construct Q Street to its full width, and
it is now in a very unsightly condition.

The work of grading and reconstructing the street should be
undertaken at the earliest time possible to facilitate the plant-
ing of trees, and accommodate the large number of people who
visit the park. No satisfactory result has been reached in the
negotiations with the general government for the use of part of
Castle Island in connection with this park ; but further efforts
in this direction will be made until some solution of the differ-
ences existing can be found.

Wood Island Pabk:, East Boston.

The small appropriation available for this park has been
utilized in completing the filling of Neptune Road, running
from Bennington Street to the park, and in filling the spaces
provided for trees with loam to the depth of two feet below the
surface, underlaid with six inches of clay.

A license has been obtained from the Railroad Commission-
ers for the construction of a bridge over the Boston, Revere
Beach, and Lynn Railroad, with a headway of fifteen feet ; and
as no approach to this park can be had until the bridge is con-
structed and the parkway finished, the Board recommends that
an appropriation for this purpose, and for a fence and plank-
walk along the Neptune Road, be made at once.

Chables RrvER Embankment.

The construction of the sea-wall of that part of the Embank-
ment which was authorized by the Act of the Legislature of
March 16, 1881, was begun by the contractors, Messrs. Parker
& Sylvester, about April 1st, and continued without interrup-
tion to the close of the season ; the amount of the appropriation
expended to January 1st being $108,176.29.

A further appropriation of $50,000 was made by the last city
government, in view of the fact that the act requires its com-
pletion before March 16th next. The appropriation came too

late, however, to camplete the work during the season. As it
will be necessary to petition the Legislature for an extension
of time in which the Embankment must be built, the Board
recommends that the petition also ask for a change of line at
the westerly end, to provide for further extensions in the future.
In the opinion of the Board, the extension of the Embankment
to and along the rear of the houses on Beacon Street is only a
question of time ; and to prevent encroachments upon the
Charles River Basin it seems important to secure the franchise
for park purposes.

Additional Parks and Parkways.

The system of parks as planned and partially carried out by
the preceding Boards requires sundry additional lands for the
securing of which no provision has yet been made. The most
important of these locations is the proposed Jamaica Park,
approached on one side by the Riverdale Road. It is the con-
necting link between the Back Bay and Riverdale Improve-
ments and the Bussey Park, and will make a pleasure-ground
of great beauty and attraction in the chain of parks. It has
been referred to and recommended by the Board several times
in past years, and this Board can only repeat its recommenda-
tion, " that a loan of $350,000 be authorized, to be issued only
as fast as needed, to purchase the estates now in the market,
and to secure others from time to time as arrangements there-
for can be made."

The Board also advises that an application be made to the
Legislature for the passage of the following draft for an act,
which it is thought would facilitate the matter of securing the
fee of the lands to the city at reasonable prices : —

Draft for an Act permitting the Leasing of Estates taken for the Purposes of a

Public Park.
Whenever the owner of an estate which may hereafter he taken for the pur-
poses of a public park shall, at the time of said taking, occupy said estate as his
home, and shall desire to continue so to do, he may apply to the Board of Park
Commissioners for a lease of said estate or of any part thereof. If said Com-
missioners shall deem that it is desirable to make such lease, they shall be

authorized to make a lease of said estate, or of any part thereof, to such former
owner for such term, not exceeding the life of said former owner, and upon such
mutual restrictions, reservations, covenants, and conditions as may be agreed
upon between said Commissioners and said former owner.

And whenever the City of Boston, by its Board of Park Commissioners, shall
acquire title to lands for park purposes, but before it is necessary to use the
same for said purposes, said Commissioners may in the meantime lease the
same.

Next in importance to this location is the need of securing
the lands for the connecting parkway from Jamaica Park to
Franklin Park, part of which have already been secured in
the taking of lands for Bussey Park. The Board has made
no estimate of the cost of taking the lands needed to extend
this parkway, but would recommend that a loan of $100,000
be appropriated for this purpose, and the Board be authorized
to secure lands to that amount. This will allow the Board to
negotiate with the owners in a satisfactory manner, and it is
hoped that the sum will be found sufficient for the purpose.

A further appropriation by loan of $50,000 will be needed
for the Back Bay Improvement to pay for judgments against
the city, and to secure a small amount of additional land lying
on either side of the Longwood Entrance, which is required to
conform the entrance to the lines of the Riverdale Improve-
ment.

The removal of the sewage from South Bay and Fort Point
Channel renders it no longer necessary to create a large park
in this basin for sanitary reasons alone. The filling up of
these mud-flats would be expensive, and of little value for park
purposes. If it were necessary to do anything in this direction
the maintenance of the present upper basin, by the construc-
tion of a promenade and road about it, regulating thereby the
ebb and flow of the tide, would perhaps offer the best solution.

This proposed location is only one and one-half miles from
Franklin Park and the Marine Park by direct roads, and it
seems to this Board wiser to expend any money available for a
park here in widening and improving the main thoroughfare
between said parks. Columbia Street, in continuation of Dor-
chester and Boston Streets, via Five Corners and Upham's

Corner, is the only direct means of transit from South Boston
to Franklin Park. It is now only a narrow lane in man}^
places, and, not being built upon to any great extent, can be
widened at no very large expense. The Board therefore
recommends that the Street Department be directed to widen
this street to ninety feet.

When this is done and the communication through Jamaica
Park before described is completed, the entire system of parks,
from Charles River to City Point, will be united by spacious
and pleasant avenues.

Land Settlements.

The Board regrets the number of unsettled actions for dam-
ages for lands taken for public parks, and is devoting much
time in endeavoring to arrive at settlements, but will not yield
to unjust claims. The number of cases in which there are
negotiations for settlements has increased, and there is no
reason why the number of unfinished cases should not rapidly
diminish either by settlement or trial.

Settlements have been effected in eight cases. In four of
these the liability of the city was determined by a jury trial,
although in one of them the amount paid was less than the
judgment rendered. Twenty cases are in suit, divided as
follows: four on Back Bay, four on Bussey Park, eleven on
Franklin Park, and one on the Charles River Embankment.
The amount involved in these cases, as heretofore estimated by
the Board, is $350,217.53. Of the 500 acres in Franklin Park,
868 acres have been settled for, leaving 187 acres still outstand-
ing.

Improvement op Parks.

The cost of constructing the public parks must, under the
present law, be raised by taxation, thereby bringing the whole
cost of these permanent improvements upon the present gen-
eration.

The annual appropriations for interest and sinking-funds on
account of loans issued for acquiring lands must also come

from the tax levy. If to these be added sufficient appropria-
tions for the proper development of the six parks already laid
out by the Board, the total annual expenditure must necessarily
be large if any progress is to be made in their construction.

The pay as you go policy, however wise and necessary in or-
dinary affairs, seems unwise and unfair when applied to great
public improvements intended more for the future than for the
present. Long-term loans can now be obtained at a very low
rate of interest, and the cost to the tax-payers would be less
under this system than by the present policy ; while the parks
would be earlier constructed, and the expense spread over a
longer term, thereby relieving the present from what would
otherwise be too large a proportion of the total cost of these
improvements, and also permitting it to share in the benefits
derived therefrom.

There are widely divergent opinions as to the effect of the
different parks upon the value of lands immediately adjacent
thereto ; some insisting that in the end the effect will be similar
to that shown in the instance of the Back Bay lands, referred
to above, and that the consequent increased revenue from the
increased value of lands — from all the parks together — will
more than pay the interest on the bonds that may be issued for
their prompt completion, and provide the sinking-funds to re-
deem the bonds at maturit}^ ; and that therefore the parks will
build themselves and not impose any additional burden upon
the tax-payers ; while others believe the case of the Back Bay
Improvement to be exceptional in this respect, and that none
of the results so wonderful in its case can be claimed for the
other parks.

The latter class claim that most of the parks are solely for
the public use, convenience, and benefit, and should be built by
the public, and that the public cannot and ought not attempt
to escape from the burden ; and that where so many parks are
built at the same time, their effect upon the adjacent lands,
and the revenue therefrom, is so uncertain, that it cannot justly
be taken into account.

Whichever of these views is best founded, all now admit the

general beneficence of parks, — and that the present is entitled
to share with the future in that beneficence, — and that this
equalization of benefits can be acquired only through the
instrumentality of loans.

The certainty and regularity of funds thus provided would
also enable the work to be more economically prosecuted,
thereby diminishing its final cost.

The Board would therefore recommend that an application
be made to the present Legislature for the passage of an act
authorizing the city to issue bonds on a fifty years' loan for the
construction of the public parks. These bonds may be limited
to an amount not exceeding five million dollars, or to the
amount actually expended in the construction of said parks,
and to be provided for either by sinking-funds or by the pay-
ment annually of one-fiftieth of the principal, as provided in
the act of last year authorizing the "Suffolk County Court-
House Loan."

Reports by the Landscape Architect and City Engineer of
the works under their charge, together with a collection of
Statutes and City Orders relating to this department, will be
found in the Appendix.

Respectfully submitted,

BENJAMIN DEAN,
PATRICK MAGUIRE,
JOHN F. ANDREW.

Commissioners.
Boston, January 27, 1886.

APPENDIX.

Boston, January 1, 1886.
To the Park Commissioners : —

Sirs, — I have the honor to submit the following Annual Re-
port : —

Back Bat.

Referring to the report of the City Engineer for details of con-
struction, I beg to say that, during the last year, the design pre-
viously followed for managing the fluctuating waters of Back Bay by
a system of basins and regulating inlets and outlets, various means
for avoiding unseemlmess of aspect, and for providing a public
promenade about the same, has been steadily pursued as far as the
means at your command have allowed. The outlet district, from
Boylston Bridge to Beacon Street, is complete except as to some
revision of the plantations that have been in the hands of a con-
tractor, and contain much material that will be later used elsewhere.
As shown in the accompanying map, the lower basin is complete in
about one-third, and nearly complete in two-thirds, of its area. The
slopes, so far as complete, between the salt grass levels and the
Promenade, and the areas about Westland Entrance have been
planted. So much of the Promenade as borders the two districts
named has been subgraded and partly planted, and supplied with
curb and gutter.

A severe and prolonged easterly storm, coincident with spring
tides, has a second time supplied a test of the working operation of
the scheme with satisfactory results, the entire operations fully meet-
ing the intention of its design, and confirming the calculations on
which it was based. The nuisance heretofore existing, and which
rendered the neighborhood of the basins uninhabitable during the
heat of summer, has been completely removed, the air of the vicinity
during all of last summer being perfectly sweet and wholesome.

The plan of artificial salt meadows has been so far carried out that
its success may be considered as established, salt grass sward having

been formed upon the prepared surface by two methods, transplant-
ing and sowing. The attempt to finish the borders of the zone imme-
diately above the salt grass has not as yet had satisfactory results,
the greater number of plants set in 1884 liaving died. Here and
there clusters of the same plants that have elsewhere failed are, how-
ever, found not only living, but flourishing and spreading, and it is
hoped that the deaths are due to transitory conditions. No doubt is
had that by patient efforts the results contemplated in the design
will in time be secured.

FEANKLiiSr Park.

The Commission, having approved the preliminary plan for Frank-
lin Park, and wishing to begin the work of clearing the ground of
incumbrances, concluded early in the summer to finally adopt so
much of the plan as covered a tei'ritory of above thirty acres at the
north end of the property, adjoining Walnut Street. This division
of the ground is designed to be adapted for use as a play-ground, and
in connection with a ledge that borders it a platform eight hundred
feet long and about eight feet in height is planned. During the
summer a small force has been employed in collecting the stone lying
upon the surface of the ground, drawing it and constructing the plat-
form from it. The work done thus far consists of about six hundred
feet of retaining-wall averaging eight feet in height, built with a front
of dark, weather-stained field stone with a concave battered face.
Chambers of soil have been formed in the rear of this outer wall, to
sustain plants intended to grow, through numerous apertures, over
the face of the wall, and to merge in effect with others to be scat-
tered along the base. A sufficient amount of stone has been lifted
and awaits removal for the completion of the wall, and a part of it is
intended to be planted in the spring, the plants needed being for the
most part now under propagation or in the nursery. If suitably pro-
ceeded with, the design of the work may be essentially realized in
three years.

The Aboeetfm.

The road crossing the Arboretum from Centre to South Street has
been finished, the slopes toward it on both sides formed, the adjoin-
ing ground given in charge to Harvard College, and in large part
planted, the work of the college being of an admirable, liberal,
thorough, and excellent character.

The general plan of the plantations to be made by the college,

which has been under discussion several years, is now determined.
Having a few years since made a study of the principal collections
passing under the same name in Europe, and being familiar with
those of this comitry, I am of the opinion that that which the college
will provide the City of Boston, in following this plan, will, both in
respect to beauty and to instructive utility, be of unrivalled value.

By permission of Professor Sargent the following account of the
plan prepared by him is presented in advance of its intended publi-
cation by the college : —

"An Arboretum is a museum devoted to one branch of natural
history, and intended by the aid of living specimens primarily to
facilitate the study and increase the knowledge of trees and other
plants. It should contain and display, therefore, as many forms of
arborescent life as is compatible with the climate of the region in
which it is situated, its own extent and resources. A public Arbo-
retum, like any other public museum, must be prepared to instruct
the public through the display of representative types selected from
its collections and specially arranged for the definite purj)ose of
object-teaching ; and it must be prepared to facilitate investigations
in the particular department of science it is created to illustrate, by
means of working collections, both living and dead. As it is expected
to perform two distinct, although concurrent, duties, the public Arbo-
retum should contain two distinct collections : —

" 1. The permanent collection for display, consisting of a selection
of species intended to illustrate as j)erfectly as circumstances of cli-
mate will permit, and by fully developed specimens, the most impor-
tant types of arborescent -vegetation.

" 2. A collection for investigation, which need not necessarily be
permanent, and which should be arranged in a manner to permit of
the admission of new species or new forms, and the removal of others
which have served their purpose. To this second collection would
naturally be joined all minor collections, like that of shrubs, and
other plants of less enduring character than trees.

" The educational value of any great Arboretum would, I believe,
be increased by such a division of its collections ; in the present case
it is essential. A complete collection of trees, — that is, of arbor-
escent species and natural or artificial foi-ms or varieties already
known, which could be made to grow in a climate as severe even as
that of Eastern Massachusetts, without i^rovision for future addi-

tions, which are likely to increase rather than diminish in number as
the cultivation of trees becomes more general, but with a proper
representation for each species — would occupy not less than a thou-
sand acres of land, and require an annual outlay for maintenance far
in excess of any income the Arboretum can possibly hope to enjoy
for this purpose. Selection, therefore, is absolutely necessary, and
the establishment of two distinct collections has been decided upon,
— a permanent or exhibition collection, in which certain selected
species or forms will be allowed space for full development, and a
working or experimental collection, which can be crowded into a
comparatively small space, and in which species of doubtful hardiness,
transitory forms of horticulture rather than of botanical or economic
value, new introductions and other trees, which for one reason or
another have been omitted from the permanent collection, will all
sooner or later find their places.

" The selection and proper grouping of the tropical forms, intended
to illustrate in the main collection the hardy arborescent vegetation
of the temperate zones, is difficult ; and this difliculty is immensely
increased by the fact that the permanent arrangement of an Arbore-
tum is really permanent, and cannot, as is the case with collections
in other museums, be changed or modified to meet the demands of
more advanced knowledge or the requirements of changing fashions.
A tentative arrangement is impossible, and the difiiculty of selection,
and especially of grouping, is not diminished by the nature of the
collections in which each individual will continue to require yearly
additional space for a century perhaps. The selection of this type
collection has only been reached after the most careful consideration,
and with many modifications of the plan which at first appeared
practicable. It wiU contain, as now determined upon, representa-
tives of all the genera of trees hardy in Eastern Massachusetts.
Species of doubtful hardiness, and all accidental and other varieties
not permanently fixed by time or long cultivation, will be excluded.
Prominence will be given to the species of Eastern North America,
and especially to those native of New England, because these spe-
cies are better adapted to reach maturity in this climate than those
of any other region ; and because it is believed that the community,
which will naturally have the closest relation with the Arboretum,
will derive the greatest benefit from the examination of a collection
of our native trees growing under favorable conditions and eventu-
ally fully developed. And this will doubtless be found true whether

the collection is studied in its scientific, industcial, or purely orna-
mental aspect.

" The plan contemplates that each hardy tree species of Eastern
America shall be represented by an individual so planted as to
secure for it the maximum growth attainable in this climate, and
also by a group of individuals, varying in number from six to
twenty-five, selected to show variations of character and habit in the
species, and planted with the view of securing its expression in
mass rather than perfect individual development. This plan, it is
hoped, will assume the pei-manence in the Arboretum of the most
important species, which without the groups would depend upon
the life of single individuals for representation ; it will, moreover,
show the habit and behavior of all our principal trees under as
nearly natural conditions as it is possible to secure in any artificial
wood.

" Exotic species and their most valuable and best fixed varieties
will be represented by single specimens, except in the case of a few
exceptional species, where some peculiar value or marked fitness to
support our climatic conditions makes it desirable to supplement the
single specimen, as in the case of indigenous species, by a considera-
ble group of individuals.

" The plan allows for every species, native or exotic, what is be-
lieved to be more than sufiicient space for its possible full growth ;
and no more individuals of any species, and no supplementary species
other than those expected to reach maturity, will be planted. This
plan has, of course, serious disadvantages. The different specimens,
and even the different species groups, will for a long time appear
needlessly remote from each other, and close planting at the begin-
ning would doubtless make the Arboretum more attractive to the
casual visitor. It has, however, its advantage in a very great
economy of labor and material. Trees, too, which one generation
plants in the expectation that the next generation will cut them
down, are rarely cut at the right time. Overcrowding and the com-
plete ruin of specimens is the result. It is hoped in this Arboretum,
however, that by adhering to the plan of only planting in the type
collection the number of individuals intended to reach maturity, it
will be saved from the fate of all the old public collections of trees
in which early overplanting or unsystematic planting has produced
either confusion or the entire ruin of all perfection of individual
growth. The general type collection will be arranged by genera in

the sequence of their botanical relationship, such an arrangement
affording the greatest facility for examination and maintenance. In
a few instances, however, genera will be placed out of the natural
sequence in order to secure for them favorable conditions of soil and
exposure. The sjDecies of the different genera will, as far as prac-
ticable, be arranged geographically, first, those of North America,
then those of Europe, and then those of Asia ; the species of each
continent in their proj^er botanical sequence,

" The advantages and the disadvantages of this general plan, thus
briefly described, cannot unfortunately be finally judged until long-
after all those interested in the early development of the Arboi'etum
have passed away. This generation can neither enjoy its mature
fruits nor feel the full weight of errors in arrangement made now,
and which time is only too certain to bring to light.

" The years which have passed since the conception of the Arbore-
tum have been years of preparation. These are now to be followed
by a period of active construction, and for this the Arboretum
is fairly well equipped in its own resources and in the interest of its
friends and correspondents. The germ of construction and early
growth will, it is to be hoiked, be followed by a long period of real
educational importance and value."

PlANTATIGI^S' ATSTD NuESERIES.

"The provisional or tentative arrangement of the shrub collec-
tions referred to in my last report has been completed. These now
occupy 37 parallel beds, each 10 feet wide and 300 feet long. This
collection now contains about 1,100 species and varieties, arranged
in botanical sequence, with provisions for a considerable further
increase.

" Trees and shrubs to the number of 2,574 have been moved from
the different nurseiies into permanent boundary and other planta-
tions. The plantations and nurseries are all in excellent condition.
During the year, 444/jffj squares of peat have been dug and stocked
for future use, at a cost of 11,022.10; and llOf cords of wood have
been cut, at a cost of $221.50.- The largest part of this wood remained
unsold at the end of the year.

"The result following the pruning of the old trees forming the
permanent natural woods of the Arboretum, described in my last
report, has so far been satisfactory, and this work, on a larger scale
than before, has been carried on uninterruptedly dui'ing the past
summer."

Interchange op Plants and Seeds.

" The interchange of plants and seeds with other botanical and
horticultural establishments has been continued during the year.
There have been 4,459 i^hi^nts (including cuttings and grafts) and
39 packets of seeds distributed, as follows: To all parts of the
United States, 4,216 plants and 8 packets of seeds ; to Great Britain,
43 plants and 13 packets of seeds ; to the continent of Europe, 200
plants and 18 packets of seeds.

" There have been received during the year 6,783 plants (includ-
ing cuttings and grafts) and 40 packets of seeds from 21 donors.
The most considerable contribution of the sort has been a set of cut-
tings and grafts from the Kew Arboretum, numbering 2,200, and
representing several hundred species and varieties of rare trees and
shrubs."

No other works of the Department have as yet been advanced
beyond preliminary grading operations and provisional construc-
tions, in regard to which statements will be found in the Report of
the City Engineer.

NURSEEY.

There are now in the nursery of the Department on Franklin
Park, of

Coniferous trees , 1,150

Deciduous trees .
Evergreen shrubs
Deciduous shrubs
Climbing plants .
Hardy perennials

5,950
o,oou

11,360
1,700

60,000

Respectfully,

FREDERICK LAW OLMSTED,

Landscape Architect.

Office of City Engineeb, City Hall,
Boston, Jan. 18, 1S86.
Hon. Benjamin Dean,

Chairman Board of Parh Commissioners : —
Sir, — I lierewith submit the following report of work done and of
other matters of interest in connection with the work placed under
my direction by your Board : —

BRooXLwe Ave/^ver

City of Boston -Park Department

Improvement of IBack Bay

HeLiOfyjje Pimting Ci> Boston

Back Bat Impeovemekt.

Grading and Loaming. — The work of excavating the marsh to
the established grade has been continued.

In doing this work the sods were removed, the mud excavated,
and the sods relaid, A portion of the proposed marsh-meadow,
which had been filled with dredged materials, was also sodded.
The total area of marsh-meadow graded and sodded is now 357,000
square feet, or 43 per cent, of the whole. The muck excavated from
the marsh, together with a large amount dug from the channel by
the dredging-machine, was used in grading the slopes between the
driveways and the shore of the waterway. These slopes were after-
wards covered with loam and compost, and are ready for planting.

The total area now graded and loamed for planting is 435,000
square feet, or 32 per cent, of the whole area to be treated in this
manner.

The greater part of the area graded in 1884 has been planted dur-
ing the past season, making the total area planted 315,000 square
feet, or 23 per cent, of the whole.

Gravel Filling. — The Boston & Albany R. R. Co. has furnished,
during the year, the gravel required for grading the driveways and
forming the shores of the waterway, the total amount delivered being
8,594 squares, and the j^rice paid $3.50 j)er square.

Excavation of Waterway. — Dredging was resumed on April 15th,
and continued until December 17th, the total quantity of material
dredged during the year being 51,419 cubic yards. This amoimt is
less than that of the previous year, the working season having been
shorter, and the work more difficult to do.

The cost was about 23 cents per cubic yard, including the cost of
all repairs, no allowance being made for the cost and dejDreciation in
value of the plant.

There is charged to dredging the cost of handling considerable
material, which could not be measured, and is therefore not included
in the above amount of work done, and also the cost of towing scows
loaded by hand with sods and other material.

The area of waterway excavated to grade is now 1,043,000 square
feet, or 82 per cent, of the whole, and the length of shore line com-
pleted is 18,100 lineal feet, or 68 per cent, of the whole.

Driveways. — The driveway from Parker Street to Commonwealth
Avenue has been graded, curbstones have been set, gutters paved,
and the catch-basins and drains constructed.

The blue-stone edgings and posts for enclosing the tree spaces on
the northerly side of the drive have been purchased, and are on the
ground, but have not as yet been set.

The total length of curbstone set is 4,138 lineal feet, and the area
of gutters paved, 1,876^ square yards.

Miscella7ieous. — Temporary wire fences have been constructed
around such portion of the planted areas as needed protection.

The various structures are in good condition, with the exception of
the granite curb whieh supports the iron railing around the planted
areas in the Beacon Entrance ; a portion of this has settled out of
shape, and will have to be reset before sidewalks are built.

The structures for controlling the flow of the water in Stony Brook
and the Back Bay Basin have satisfactorily performed the work for
which they were designed.

On February 10th an unusual freshet occurred in Stony Brook,
and on the 25th of November a severe easterly storm caused the tide
to rise to a height greater than it has attained for several years. On
neither of these occasions was there any serious damage done to the
slopes around the basin.

A sewer has been built by the Sewer Department in Marlborough
Street, and connected temporarily with the Stony Brook conduit,
with the understanding that early in next season this sewer, together
with one in Newbury Street which was connected with the conduit
in 1884, and the sewer in Huntington Avenue shall be connected
with the Main Drainage system.

A plan of the improvement of the Back Bay, herewith annexed,
shows the progress made to December 31, 1885.

Covered Channel oe Muddy River.

The conduit which was damaged as described in the last annual
report has been thoroughly repaired, and in December the flow of
Muddy River was again tui-ned through it, and the connection with
the Back Bay Basin closed.

The conduit across Bi'ookline Avenue, which is intended to con-
nect Muddy River with the Back Bay Basin, is uncompleted, the
land needed for that purpose not having been obtained. This work,
together with the retaining-wall required, should be done during the
coming: season.

BussET Park.

Owing to the small amount of the appropriation for this park, less
work has been done during the past year than in previous years. A
small force was employed during the early part of the year at the
quarry on Bussey Street, getting out stone for use on the driveways.
The driveway to the top of the open hill has been partially graded.

Stones for granite gate-posts at the entrances to the driveway
already built have been cut, and the posts at the South Street
entrance have been built.

Wire fences have been placed on the boundaries of the park where
there were no fences previously.

Feanklin Park.

A small force was employed in the early part of the year in remov-
ing fruit and other unsightly trees.

The " Sewall house," on Blue Hill Avenue, having been leased for
a Refectory, a water-pij)e was laid for the introduction of city water,
and a sanitary building for men was built.

The "Williams house," at the corner of Williams and Walnut
Streets, was fitted up for a Refectory and a waiting-room, and a sani-
tary building for men was built near it.

Two drinking-fountains were erected in the field in rear of the car-
station on Blue Hill Avenue, and about 1,400 lineal feet of pipe laid
to connect them with the city pipes.

In August work was begun on the erection of a retaining-wall to
support the " Overlook," near Walnut Street and Glen Road, the
stone for this wall being obtained from the old fence walls in the
vicinity and from the field in front of it.

The boulders were removed from an area of about 20 acres, and
the holes filled with loam.

A small force has been kept constantly employed in the nursery
and propagating house since the completion of the latter.

All the cellars where buildings have been removed have been filled
and the grounds about them cleared up.

Charles River Embai^kmbnt.

Work was commenced upon this improvement by the contractors
about April 1st, and continued at a rapid rate until about the middle
of September, from which time until the closing of work for the

winter its progress was somewhat slow, on account of the want of an
additional appropriation to carry it on.

About 1,800 lineal feet of pile foundation, 1,600 lineal feet of
wall below coping, with the filling behind it, and 800 lineal feet of
coping have been completed, comj)rising work to the value of about
8112,000.

To complete the work will require about 400 lineal feet of pile
foundation, 650 lineal feet of wall, with filling back of it, and 1,450
lineal feet of coping.

As the contractors have considerable material on hand for the
work, it can be rapidly carried to completion as soon as the weather
permits in the spring.

MAEiisrE Park, City Point.

In June the filling deposited during the previous year was levelled
off and rolled.

In August jjlans and specifications were prepared for a temjDorary
wooden pier, to extend in a southeasterly direction from the foot of
Fifth Street, and on October 23d a contract was made with Benjamin
Young for building the pier, for the sum of $10,960. This pier is
to be 30 feet wide and 1,166 feet long ; the foundation for 364 feet
at the shore end is to be of spruce piles, and for the balance of oak
piles, the whole to be thoroughly braced. The fioor is to be of hard
pine, i^laned ; there is to be a railing on both sides and across the
outer end, and seats are to be built along the railing. The elevation
of the floor will be about ten feet above mean high water.

The storm of IsTovember 25th damaged the old bulkheads which
protect the shore, and this damage has been repaired. All of these
structures are in a decayed condition, and will need continual repairs
for their maintenance.

Wood Island Park.

The contract with John F. Barry for filling the parkway was closed
on January 24th, 1885, and under that contract, 6,685-j^g- squares of
filling deposited, at '$3.35 per square.

This did not complete the filling to the full width of the parkway,
the appropriation for' this park having been exhausted. ,

Under an ngreement with the Boston & Maine R. R. Co., filling
was commenced on October 23d by that company. The parkway was

graded to its full width, and the work completed on December 3d.
The total amount of filling deposited under this latter agreement was
1,842 squares, at $3.35 per square.

After the completion of the filling, trenches five feet in width and
two feet three inches in depth were dug on the curb line for the
whole length of both sides of the parkway. These trenches were
filled with two feet of loam underlaid by six inches of clay.

The ground is ready for the planting of trees in the spring.

The total amount of loam delivered was 1,268 cubic yards, at
$1.00 per yard.

The clay was found upon the ground.

Respectfully submitted,

WILLIAM JACKSON,

City Engineer.

STATUTES OF THE COMMONWEALTH AND ORDERS
OF THE CITY OF BOSTON RELATING TO PUBLIC
PARKS.

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

[Chap. 247.]

In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Sixty-six.

JlN" act to AUTHOKIZE the ERECTION^ of a SEA-WALL, AKD
THE FILLING OF CERTAIN FLATS IN CHARLES RIVER, TO
ABATE A NUISANCE.

£e it enacted by the Senate and House of Jtepresentatives i?i General
Court assemUed, and by the authority of the same, as follows : —
Section 1. The city of Boston is hereby authorized and empow-
ered to build a sea-wall in the Charles river on or within the follow-
ing described lines: beginning at the point of intersection of the
northerly side of Revere street, with the harbor commissioners' line
as established in the year eighteen hundred and forty-one, and extend-
ing in a straight line south-westerly for a distance of six hundred
and twenty-two feet to a point forty feet distant westerly and jDcr-
pendicular to the said harbor commissioners' line ; thence on a con-
cave arc of a circle of fourteen hundred feet radius south-westerly for
a distance of eleven hundred and sixty-one feet to a point forty feet
distant northerly and perpendicular to tlie harbor commissioners'
line on the northerly side of the milldam, established in the year
eighteen hundred and forty; and to fill up to a projDer grade the
enclosed flats between the above-described lines and the harbor com-
missioners' lines herein referred to, in order to abate and prevent a
nuisance arising from the discharge and deposit of sewerage matter
upon those flats, now situated outside the reach of the scouring forces
of the current of Charles river. And the city of Boston is hereby
authorized to make any contracts with the riparian owners, and any
other parties, as to the building of the sea-wall, the filling of said
flats, and the future use thereof when filled, subject to the express
condition that the flats filled under the authority hereby granted
shall not be used for building purposes or for any other purpose than
for ornamental grounds and a street.

Sect. 2. The building of the sea-wall and the filling up of said
flats shall be under the general supervision of the board of harbor
commissioners, and subject to all the regulations and conditions i)ro-
vided for in the act entitled An Act to establish a board of harbor
commissioners.

[Approved May 19, 1866.]

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

[Chap. 185.]

In the year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Seventy-Jive.

AN ACT FOE THE LAYING- OUT OF PUBLIC PAEKS IN OE
NEAE THE CITY OF BOSTON.

£e it enacted hy the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Court Assembled, and hy the authority of the same, as follows : —

Section 1. The mayor of the city of Boston, with the approval of
the city council, shall, as soon as may be after this act shall take
effect, appoint three competent commissioners, who shall hold their
offices until the expiration of terms of two, three, and four years,
respectively, from the first day of May, in the year eighteen hundred
and seventy-five. The mayor shall, with like approval, before the
first day of May in each year after the year eighteen hundred and
seventy-six, appoint a commissioner to continue in office for the term
of three years from said day. No person shall be a commissioner
who is at the same time a member of the city council of said city ;
and any commissioner may at any time be removed by a concurrent
vote of two-thirds of the whole of each branch of said council.

Sect. 2. Said commissioners shall constitute a board of park com-
missioners, and any vacancy occurring in said board shall be filled, for
the residue of the term of the commissioner whose place is to be filled,
in the same manner in which such commissioner was originally a^)-
pointed. Said commissioners shall receive such compensation as the
city council shall determine.

Sect. 3. Said board shall have power to locate, within the limits
of the city of Boston, one or more public parks ; and for that pur-
pose, from time to time, to take in fee, by purchase, or otherwise,
any and all such lands as said board may deem desirable therefor ; or

to take bonds for the conveyaTioe thereof to said city, to lay out, im-
prove, govern, and regulate any such park or parks, and the use
thereof ; to make rules for the use and government thereof, and for
breaches of such rules to affix penalties not exceeding twenty dollars
for one offence, to be imposed by any court of comjDetent jurisdic-
tion ; to appoint all necessary engineers, sm*veyors, clerks, and other
officers, including a police force to act in such parks ; to define the
powers and duties of such officers, and fix the amount of their com-
pensation; and generally to do all needful acts for the proper execu-
tion of the powers and duties granted to, or imposed upon, said city,
or said board, by this act ; provided^ however, that no land shall be
taken, or other thing involving an expenditure of money done, until
an appropriation, sufficient to cover the estimated expense thei*eof,
shall have been made by a vote of two-thirds of each branch of the
city council of said city.

Sect. 4. Said board shall, within sixty days after the taking of
any land under this act, file in the registry of deeds for the county
in which the land is situated a description thereof, sufficiently accu-
rate for identifying the same.

Sect. 5. Said board shall estimate and determine all damages
sustained by any persons by the taking of land or other acts of said
board in the execution of the jDOwers vested in them by this act ; but
any party aggrieved by any such determination of said board may
have his damages assessed by a jury of the superior court, in the
same manner as is provided by law with respect to damages sustained
by reason of the laying out of ways in the city of Boston.

Sect. 6. The fee of all lands taken or purchased by said board
under this act shall vest in the city of Boston, and said city shall be
liable to pay all damages assessed or determined, as provided in the
preceding section, and all other costs and expenses incurred by said
board in the execution of the powers vested in them by this act.
Said city shall also be authorized to take and hold, in trust or other-
wise, any devise, grant, gift, or bequest that may be made for the
I^urpose of laying out, improving, or ornamenting any parks in said
city.

Sect. 7. Any real estate in the city of Boston, which in the opin-
ion of said board shall receive any benefit and advantage from the
locating and laying out of a park under the provisions of this act,
beyond the general advantages to all real estate in the city of Boston,
may, after like notice to all parties interested, as is provided by law.

to be given by the street commissioners of the city of Boston in cases
of laying out streets in said city, be assessed by said board for a pro*-
portional share of the expense of such location and laying out ; pro-
vided^ that the entire amount so assessed upon any estate shall not
exceed one-half of the amount which said board shall adjudge to be
the whole benefit received by it.

Sect. 8. No assessment shall be made as provided in the preced-
ing section, except within two years after the passage of the order,
the exception of which causes the benefit for which the assessment
is made.

Sect. 9. All assessments made under this act shall constitute a
lien upon the real estate so assessed, to be enforced and collected by
the city of Boston, in the same manner and with like charges for
costs and interest as is j^rovided by law for the collection of taxes;
and such assessments may be apportioned by said board in like
manner as assessments for benefits caused by the laying out of
ways may now be apportioned by the street commissioners of said
city.

Sect. 10. Any party aggrieved by any assessment made by said
board as aforesaid, may have the amount of the benefit received by
his estate assessed by a jury of the superior court in the same man-
ner as is provided by law with respect to damages sustained by
reason of the laying out of ways in the city of Boston.

Sect. 11. When an assessment is made under this act upon an
estate, the whole or any portion of which is leased, the owner of the
estate shall pay the assessment, and may thereafter collect of the
lessee an additional rent for the portion so leased, equal to ten per
centum per annum on that proportion of the whole sum paid which
the leased portion bears to the whole estate after deducting from
the whole sum so paid any amount he may have received for dam-
ages to the estate above what he has necessarily expended on such
estate by reason of such damages.

Sect. 12. For the purpose of defraying the expenses incurred
under the provisions of this act, the city council of Boston shall have
authority to issue, from time to time, and to an amount not exceed-
ing the amount actually expended for the purchase or taking of lands
for said parks, bonds or certificates of debt, to be denominated, on
the face thereof, the " Public Park Loan," and to bear interest at a
rate not exceeding six per centum per annum, and to be payable at
such periods as said council may determine. For the redemption of

such loan said council shall establish a sinking-fund sufficient, with
the accumulating interest, to provide for its payment at maturity.
All sums received for betterments shall be paid into said sinking-
fund, until such fund shall amount to a sum sufficient, with its accu-
mulation, to pay at maturity the bonds for the security of which the
fund was established.

Sect. 13. No street or way, and no steam or horse railroad, shall
be laid out over any portion of any park located under this act,
except at such places and in such manner as said board shall ap-
prove.

Sect. 14. No military encampment, parade, drill, review, or other
military evolution or exercise, shall be held or performed on any
park laid out as aforesaid, except with the prior consent of said
board ; nor shall any military body, without such consent, enter or
move in military order within the same, except in case of riot, insur-
rection, rebellion, or war.

Sect. 15. Said board shall annually, in the month of January,
make to the city council of Boston a full report of its doings for the
preceding year, including a detailed statement of all their receipts
and expenditures.

Sect. 16. The mayor of any city adjoining the city of Boston
may, with the approval of the city council of such adjoining city,
appoint, and the inhabitants of any town adjoining the city of Boston
may, at any legal meeting called for the purpose, elect park commis-
sioners, who shall have powers similar to those hereinbefore given to
the j^ark commissioners of the city of Boston, to lay out and imjorove
j^arks within such adjoining city or town in conjunction or connec-
tion with any park laid out in Boston ; and any park laid out by the
park commissioners of such adjoining city or town shall be subject
to similar provisions to those hereinbefore made regarding parks in
Boston, and such adjoining city or town shall have similar rights
and be subject to similar duties to those hereinbefore given to and
imposed upon the city of Boston in relation to incurring debts for
the purpose of defraying expenses incurred under this act ; provided,
however^ that the provisions of this section shall not apply to any
such adjoining city that has not accepted the same by a vote of a
majority of the legal voters at the annual meeting for the clioice of
municipal officers.

Sect. 17. This act shall not take full effect unless accepted by
a majority of the legal voters of the city of Boston, present, and

voting thereon, by ballot and using the check-list, at meetings which
shall be held in the several wards of said city on the second Wednes-
day of June in the present year, and upon notice thereof duly given
at least seven days before the time of said meetings ; and the polls
shall be opened not later than nine o'clock in the forenoon and
closed not earlier than six o'clock in the afternoon of said day. In
case of the absence of any ward officer at any ward meeting in said
city, held for the purpose aforesaid, a like officer may be chosen pro
tempore by hand vote, and shall be duly qualified, and shall have all
the powers and be subject to all the duties of the regular officer at
said meeting. Said ballots shall be " Yes," or " No," in answer to
the question, " Shall an act passed by the legislature of the com-
monwealth, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-five, entitled
' An Act for the laying out of public parks in or near the city of
Boston,' be accepted ? " Such meetings shall be called, notified, and
warned by the board of aldermen of said city in the same manner in
which meetings for the election of municijDal officers are called, noti-
fied, and warned.

The ballots given in shall be assorted, counted, and declared in
open ward meeting, and shall be registered in the ward records.
The clerk of each ward shall within forty-eight hours of the close of
the polls make return to the board of aldermen of the number of bal-
lots cast in his ward in favor of the acceptance of this act, and of the
number cast against its acceptance. And it shall be the duty of the
board of aldermen to certify, as soon as may be, to the secretary of
the commonwealth, the whole number of ballots cast in said city in
favor of the acceptance of this act, and the whole number cast against
said acceptance ; and if it shall appear that a majority of the ballots
have been cast in favor of acceptance, the said secretary shall imme-
diately issue and publish his certificate declaring this act to have
been duly accepted.

Sect. 18. So much of this act as authorizes and directs the sub-
mission of the question of its acceptance to the legal voters of the
city of Boston, shall take effect upon its passage.

[Approved May 6, 1875.]

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

[Chap. 144.]

In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty.

AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE THE CONNECTION OF THE ARNOLD
ARBOEETUM WITH THE SYSTEM OF PARKS OF THE CITY
OF BOSTON.

3e it enacted hy the Senate and Souse of Representatives in General
Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : —

Section" 1. In case the board of park commissioners of the city of
Boston deem it desirable to take that tract of land in that part of the
city of Boston known as West Roxbury, held by the president and
fellows of Harvard College, and by them dedicated to the use of the
Arnold Arboretum, so called, together with certain adjoining tracts,
the property of other parties deemed by said commissioners conven-
ient and necessary for use in connection therewith, for the jDurposes
and under the powers and limitations set forth in chapter one hun-
dred and eighty-five of the acts of eiighteen hundred and seventy-
five, and acts in addition thereto and amendment thereof, the city of
Boston is hereby authorized to lease such portion of said Arboretum
and adjoining tracts so taken as the said board of park commission-
ers may deem not necessary for use as parkways and grounds, to the
jDresident and fellows of Harvard College, to be held by them, to
the same uses and purj)oses as the Arboretum is now held under
the trusts created by the wills of Benjamin Bussey and of James
Arnold; and for such a term and upon such mutual restrictions,
reservations, covenants, and conditions as to the use thereof by the
l^ublic, in connection with the uses of the same under said trusts,
and as to the rights, duties, and obligations of the contracting par-
ties, as may be agreed upon between said commissioners and said
president and fellows.

The board of j^ark commissioners on the part of the city of Boston,
and the president on behalf of the president and fellows of Harvard
College, are respectively authorized to execute and deliver said
lease.

Sect. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage.

[Approved March 29, 1880.]

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
[Chap. 92.]

In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-one.

AN ACT m ADDITION TO "AJST ACT FOR THE LAYING OUT OF
PUBLIC PAEKS IN OK NEAR THE CITY OF BOSTON."

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: —

Sectiok 1. The board of park commissioners of the city of Boston
is hereby authorized and empowered to build a sea-wall on the
Boston side of the lower basin of the Charles river, between Craigie's
bridge and West Boston bridge, and to fill uj) the grounds enclosed
by said wall for the purposes of a public park, in accordance with
the provisions of chapter one hundred and eighty-five of the acts of
the year eighteen hundred and seventy-five. The said sea-wall shall
be on or within the following lines : —

Beginning at a point on the southerly side of Craigie's bridge,
distant two hundred feet perpendicular from the westerly line of
Charles street, and running southerly by a line parallel to said
Charles street to a point ojDposite the first angle in said street;
thence turning a similar angle and running southerly by a line
parallel to and two hundred feet perpendicular again from said
Charles street to a point opposite another angle in said street, near
Fruit street ; thence turning a similar angle and running southerly
by a straight line two hundred feet perpendicular from and parallel
to the next adjoining portion of said Charles street to West Boston
bridge.

The lines of the sea-wall aforesaid shall constitute the harbor lines,
beyond which no wharf, pier, or other structure, and no fiUing-in
shall be extended into or over the tide-water of the said basin,
excepting such landing-places as the said park commissioners shall
build with the aj)proval of the board of harbor and land commission-
ers ; and if the construction of said sea-wall and the fiUing-in of the
grounds therein enclosed shall, in the opinion of said harbor and land
commissioners, cause a projection injurious to the flow of the current
and the protection of the harbor, then the said park commissioners
or the city of Boston shall make suitable remedy or provision for
the same, by connecting the line of the said sea-wall with the jDresent
sea-wall, in such manner as the said board of harbor and land com-

missioners shall approve, and may occupy and use any spaces thereby
enclosed for the same purposes for which said sea-wall and filling-in
is authorized.

Sect. 2. This act is made subject to the following conditions and
restrictions, namely : —

" The city of Boston or the said board of park commissioners shall
take, by purchase or otherwise, all the land, dock, and wharf property
lying westerly of said Charles street between said bridges, under the
provisions of said chapter one hundred and eighty-five of the acts of
the year eighteen hundred and seventy-five, which, together with the
grounds above authorized to be enclosed and filled up, shall be used
solely for the jjurposes of a public j^ark, facing and abutting upon
the said Charles river basin. And when the city of Boston or the
said park commissioners shall have taken the said land and v/harf
property, and built the said sea-wall, and fitted up the said grounds
as a park as aforesaid, and so long as the same shall be used solely
as said jDark, the commonwealth will not authorize or permit any
person or corporation to construct any extensions or erections from
or contiguous to the water-line of said park, except with the consent
of said park commissioners or said city of Boston ; provided, also^
that the city of Boston or said park commissioners shall build the
said sea-wall, and fill and fit up the said grounds during the five years
from and after the passage of this act."

Sect. 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage.

[Approved March 16, 1881.]

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

[Chap. 197.]

In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-one.

AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE CHARLES

RIVER PROMENADE.

3e it enacted by the Seriate and Souse of Representatives in General
Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : —

Section 1. The city of Boston is authorized to lay out and con-
struct continuously or in sections, from time to time, and to maintain
for public use, a plank-way or sidewalk of a width not exceeding-
fifteen feet, over the waters of Charles river outside and adjoining

the sea-wall now constructed between Berkeley street extended and
a point near Hereford street extended, and outside and adjoining
any sea-wall that may be constructed to the new park in extension of
said sea-wall already built ; provided, however, that with the assent
of the harbor and land commissioners such plank- way or sidewalk
may be laid out, constructed, and maintained as aforesaid to a width
not exceeding twenty feet.

Sect. 2. The city of Boston is authorized to make all such reason-
able rules and regulations in regard to such sidewalk or promenade,
and the access to the water therefrom, and from the water thereto,
as may be expedient and proper; to ai^point all necessary officers
and agents to enforce such rules and regulations, and to construct
and maintain for the public use, in connection with such sidewalk or
promenade, suitable landing-places.

Sect. 3. Any real estate in the city of Boston, which in the
opinion of the board of street commissioners of said city shall receive
any benefit and advantage from the laying out of such sidewalk or
promenade, or any sections of the same, under the provisions of this
act, beyond the general advantages to all real estate in the city of
Boston, may, after like notice to all parties interested as is provided by
law to be given by said board in cases of laying out streets in said city,
be assessed by said board for a proportional share of the expense of
such laying out ; provided, that the entire amount so assessed upon
any estate shall not exceed one-half of the amount which said board
shall adjudge to be the whole benefit received by it. All general
laws in relation to the assessment of damages and betterments in the
case of the laying out of a street, highway, or other way in the city
of Boston shall be applicable to the laying out of the way herein
authorized.

Sect. 4. In the exercise of the powers granted by this act the
city of Boston shall be subject to the provisions of the four hundred
and thirty-second chapter of the acts of the year eighteen hundred
and sixty-nine, and all general laws applicable thereto.

Sect. 5. When the plank- way or sidewalk herein authorized shall
have been laid out by said city and constructed as herein provided,
the commonwealth will not authorize any person or corporation to
construct any extension or erection from or contiguous to the water-
line of said way or walk.

Sect. 6. This act shall take effect on its acceptance by the city
council of the city of Boston.

[Approved April 11, 1881.]

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

[Chap. 168.]

In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-two.

AN ACT TO AUTHOKIZE THE CITY OF BOSTON TO ISSUE A
PUBLIC PAKK LOAN.

£e it enacted hy the Senate and House of Mepresentatives in General
Court assembled^ and hy the authority of the same, as follows : —

For the purpose of defraying the expenses incurred under the pro-
visions of chapter one hundred and eighty-five of the acts of the year
eighteen hundred and seventy-five, entitled " An Act for the laying
out of public parks in or near the city of Boston," and of any acts in
amendment thereof or addition thereto, the city council of the city
of Boston shall have authority to issue, from time to time, and to an
amount not exceeding the amount actually expended for the pur-
chase or taking of lands or flats for park purposes, bonds or certifi-
cates of debt to be denominated on the face thereof, " Public Park
Loan," to bear interest at a rate not exceeding six per centum per
annum, and to be payable at such periods as said city council may
determine, not exceeding thirty years from their respective dates.
For the redemjation of such loan said city council shall establish a
sinking-fund sufiicient with the accumulating interest to provide for
its payment at maturity. All sums received for betterments from
the laying out of public parks shall be paid into said sinking-fund
until such fund shall amount to a sum sufficient with its accumulation
to pay at maturity the bonds for the security of which the fund was
established.

[Approved April 19, 1882.]

Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

[Chap. 226.]

In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-four.

AN ACT IN EELATION TO BETTERMENTS FOR LOCATING, LAY-
ING OUT, AND CONSTRUCTING STREETS, WAYS. AND PUBLIC
PARKS.
£e it enacted by the /Senate and House of Mepresentatives in General
Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows : —
Section 1. Whenever the authorities empowered to locate, lay
out, or construct streets, ways, or public parks, in a city or town,

shall take, by purchase or otherwise, any land therefor, such authori-
ties may make an agreement in writing with the owner of such land
that the city or town shall assume any betterments assessed upon the
remainder of such owner's lands or any portion thereof, for such
location, laying out, and construction, and such agreement shall be
binding on such city or town ; provided, such owner shall, on such
terms as may be agreed upon with said authorities, release to the
city or town all claims for damages on account of locating, laying
out, and constructing such street, way, or park.

Sect. 2. This act shall take effect upon its passage.

[Approved May 8, 1884.]

commonweaiith of massachusetts.

[Chap. 237.]

In the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-four.

AJSr ACT IN KELATIOJSr TO ASSESSMENTS FOR PUBLIC IMPEOYE-

MENTS.

£e it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General
Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: —

Section 1. All assessments on account of betterments and other
public improvements which are a lien upon real estate shall bear
interest from the thirtieth day after assessment, until paid.

Sect. 2. In case of any suit or other proceeding calling in ques-
tion the validity or amount of such assessment, the assessment shall
continue to be a lien for one year after final judgment in such suit
or proceeding, and may, with all costs and interests, be collected by
virtue of such lien in the same manner as provided for the original
assessment.

Sect. 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage.

[Approved May 15, 1884.]

Commonwealth of Massachttsetts.

[Chap, 299.]

In the Year One Thousand Mght Hundred and Eighty -five.

AN ACT EEQUIRING NOTICE OF ASSESSMENTS OF BETTER-
MENTS TO BE GIVEN TO THE PARTY TO BE CHARGED
THEREBY.

He it enacted by the Senate and House of Mepresentatives in General
Court assembled^ and by the authority of the same, as follows: —

Notice of any assessment of betterments hereafter made under the
provisions of chapter fifty-one of the Public Statutes shall, within
three months from the date thereof, be given by the board of city or
town officers making such assessment to the party to be charged
thereby, or to his agent, tenant, or lessee.

[Approved June 8, 1885.]

\ commonweaxth of massachusetts.

[Chap. 360.]

In the Tear One Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighty-five.

AN ACT IN FURTHER ADDITION TO AN ACT FOR THE LAY-
ING OUT OF PUBLIC PARKS IN OR NEAR THE CITY OF
BOSTON.

JBe it enacted by the Senate and Souse of Mepresentatvves in General
Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows: —

Sbctiok 1. The board of park commissioners of the city of Boston,
subject to the provisions of chapter nineteen of the Public Statutes,
excepting so much of section sixteen of said chapter as requires the
payment into the treasury of comjjensation for the rights and privi-
leges hereby granted in land of the commonwealth, may make such
excavation and filling, and erect and maintain such structures, in and
over the area of tide-water at or near Dorchester Point, in South
Boston, which lies south of the northerly line of East First street,
extended easterly to Castle Island, and east of the westerly line of Q
street, extended southerly into Old Harbor, as the said board may
deem necessary or desirable for the purposes of a public park, in ac-

cordance with the provisions of chapter one hundred and eighty-five
of the acts of the year eighteen hundred and seventy-five.

Sect. 2. All lands of the commonwealth, which are occupied or
enclosed under the provisions of this act, shall be appropriated, to
and used solely for the purposes of a public park.

Sect. 3. This act shall take effect upon its passage.

[Approved June 19, 1885,]

City of Bostoit, In Boaeb of Aldermen, April 5, 1875.

Ordered^ That His Honor the Mayor be requested to j)etition the
General Court, now in session, for the passage of an act authorizing
the city to purchase, or otherwise take, lands within the limits of
the city, for the purpose of laying out public parks, and authorizing
any adjoining city or town, that may desire to do so, to cooperate
with this city by purchasing or otherwise taking lands within the
limits of such city or tOM^n for similar purposes, and also authorizing
the assessment of betterments upon any neighboring lands benefited
by the establishment of such parks ; provided^ however, that all said
parks and the purchase of land for the same in the City of Boston
shall be placed in charge of three commissioners, to be appointed by
the Mayor and confirmed by the City Council, none of said commis-
sioners to be at the same time members of the City Government,
and all to be removable at any time by a two-thirds vote of the City
Council. And provided, further, ihsLt no money shall be expended
either in the purchase or improvement of said parks unless authorized
by a vote of two-thirds of the City Council, said act not to take effect
unless accepted by a majority of the legal voters present and voting
thereon at meetings duly called for that purpose in the several wards
at a special election to be called for that purpose.

Passed in Common Council. Came up for concurrence. Con-
curred.

Approved by the Mayor, April 6, 1875.

City of Boston, In Boabd of Aldekmen, July 10, 1876.
Ordered, That the report of the Commissioners on Public Parks
(City Doc. 42) be recommitted to said commissioners, with instruc-
tions to bond such tracts of land as they may select for Public

Parks, either within the limits ah-eady reported by them or else-
where, and to report the same from time to time to the City Coun-
cil, specifying the number of acres, the names of the owners, and the
estimated expense of the purchase.

Passed. Sent down for concurrence. July 13, came up con-
curred.

Approved by the Mayor, July 17, 1876.

CiTT OF Boston, In Boaed of Aldeemen, July 23, 1817.

Ordered^ That the Treasurer be, and he hereby is, authorized to
borrow, under the direction of the Committee on Finance, the sum
of $450,000, for the purpose of purchasing land for a park and streets
connected therewith ; said money, or so much as may be required, to
be expended by the Park Commissioners in the purchase of not less
than 100 acres of land or flats situate within the area bounded by
Parker street, Huntington avenue extended in the direction of Tre-
mont and Francis streets, Longwood avenue, Brookline avenue, and
the Boston & Albany railroad, with approaches from Beacon street
west of Chester park, Boylston street extended from Chester park
westerly, and Huntington avenue extended, — the land or flats so to
be purchased shall be located with special reference to the improve-
ment of the sewerage of the city.

Said park to be of such shape as not to require other adjoining
lands to make it symmetrical, and to be bounded on all sides by
public avenues to be taken from the land purchased.

The price to be paid for said lot not to exceed 10 cents per super-
ficial foot.

Passed in Common Council: Yeas, 57, nays, 10. Came up for
concurrence. Read and concurred : Yeas, 9, nays, 3.

Approved by the Mayor, July 23, 1877.

City of Boston, In Board op Aldermen, Dec. 24, 1877.

Whereas^ The Park Commissioners were authorized by an order
of the City Council, approved by the Mayor on the 23d day of July,
1877, to purchase not less than one hundred acres of land or flats on
the Back Bay, in the City of Boston, as appears by said order ; and

Whereas^ The tract of land selected by the Park Commissioners
is owned in parcels by a lai-ge number of persons and corporations,

and it is found impracticable to complete examinations of the titles
and pass the deeds, and complete the purchase of all said lands
simultaneously ; it is hereby

Ordered, That the Park Commissioners be and they are hereby
authorized to complete the purchase of any part or parts of the said
tract upon the terms provided in the said order at such times as they
shall deem expedient.

Passed in Common Council. Came up for concurrence. Read
and concurred.

Approved by the Mayor, Dec. 24, 1877.

City of Boston, Isr Boaed of Aldeemen, Feb. 25, 1878.

Ordered, That the Park Commissioners be and they are hereby
authorized to purchase 2^^^^'^ acres of land, comprised in a part of
the Longwood entrance to the Back Bay Park, for a sum not exceed-
ing thirteen thousand dollars ; and that they be also authorized to
purchase, at a cost not exceeding ten cents per square foot, such land
as may be required to continue the Beacon entrance of the Back
Bay Park to Charles River, provided the total cost thereof does not
exceed the sum of three thousand dollars.

Passed in Common Council. Came up for concurrence. Read
and concurred.

Approved by the Mayor, Feb. 26, 1878.

City of Boston, In Boaed of AiiDEKMEN, Nov. 10, 1879.

Ordered, That the Board of Park Commissioners be and they are
hereby authorized, so far as the consent of the City Council may be
necessary thereto, to exercise their power of taking, under the pro-
visions of Chapter 185 of the Acts of 1875, for the purpose of locat-
ing and laying out the proposed public park on the Back Bay, so
called, and acquiring by such taking the several parcels of land in
said park not already purchased, and confirming by such taking the
title of the city to all lands therein heretofore purchased, anything in
the order of the City Council passed July 23, 1877, to the contrary
notwithstanding.

Read twice and passed : Yeas, 9 ; nays, none. Sent down for
concurrence. Nov. 20, came up concurred : Teas, 55 ; nays, none.

Approved by the Mayor, Nov. 21, 1879,

City of Boston, In Boaed of Aldebmen, May 3, 1880.

Ordered, That the Board of Park Commissioners be and they
hereby are authorized to construct a covered channel to carry the
waters of Stony Brook through the Back Bay Park to Charles River,
at a cost not exceeding one hundred and ten thousand dollars
($110,000), to be charged to the special appropriation for that pur-
pose and that amount.

Read twice and passed. Sent down for concurrence. June 3,
came up concurred.

Approved by the Mayor, June 5, 1880.

City of Boston, In Boakd of Aldermen, Nov. 7, 1881.
Ordered, That the City Treasurer be and he is hereby authorized
to borrow, under direction of the Committee on Finance, the sum of
six hundred thousand dollars, the bonds or certificates of debt to be
issued in negotiating this loan to be denominated on the face thereof
" The Public Park Loan," and to bear such rate of interest as the
Committee on Finance shall determine ; and the Park Commission-
ers are hereby authorized to expend said sum for the taking in fee,
by purchase or otherwise, for the purpose of a public park, lands to
the amount of six hundred thousand dollars in assessed valuation,
within the limits of the proposed West Roxbury Park. Passed:
Yeas, 10 ; nays, 2. Sent down for concurrence. Dec. 15, came up
concurred : Yeas, 50 ; nays, 17.

Approved by the Mayor, Dec. 16, 1881.

City of Boston, In Boaed of AiiDEKMEN, Nov. 7, 1881.
Ordered, That the City Treasurer be and he is hereby authorized
to borrow, under the direction of the Committee on Finance, the sum
of fifty thousand dollars, the bonds or certificates of debt to be issued
in negotiating this loan to be denominated on the face thereof " The
Public Park Loan," and to bear such rate of interest as the Commit-
tee on Finance shall detei'mine; and the Park Commissioners are
hereby authorized to expend said sum for the taking in fee, by pur-
chase or otherwise, for the purpose of a public j^ai-k, land which shall
be upland, to the amount of fifty thousand dollars in assessed valua-

tion, for a public park in East Boston, in such available location as
said Commissioners deem expedient. Passed : Yeas, 9 ; nays, 3.
Sent down for concurrence. Dec. 22, came up concurred ; Yeas, 50 ;
nays, 6. "

Approved by the Mayor, Dec. 24, 1881.

City op Bostoit, In Boaed of Albebmest, Nov. 7, 1881.

Ordered^ That the City Treasurer be and he is hereby authorized
to borrow, under the direction of the Committee on Finance, the sum
of one hundred thousand dollars, the bonds or certificates of debt
to be issued in negotiating this loan to be denominated on the face
thereof " The Public Park Loan," and to bear such rate of interest
as the Committee on Finance shall determine ; and the Park Com-
missioners are hereby authorized to expend said sum for the taking
in fee, by purchase or otherwise, for the purpose of a public park,
lands to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars in assessed
valuation, for a marine park at City Point. Passed : Yeas, 9 ; nays, 3.
Sent down for concurrence. Dec. 22, came up concurred: Yeas, 50;
nays, 9.

Approved by the Mayor, Dec. 24, 1881.

CiTT OF Boston, In Board of Aldebmen, Nov. 21, 1881.
Ordered^ That the City Treasurer be and he is hereby authorized
to borrow, under the direction of the Committee on Finance, the sum
of three hundred thousand dollars, the bonds or certificates of debt
to be issued in negotiating this loan to be denominated " The Public
Park Loan," and to bear such rate of interest as the Committee on
Finance shall determine; and the Park Commissioners are hereby
authorized to expend said sum for the taking in fee, by purchase or
otherwise, for the purpose of a public park, lands to the amount of
three hundred thousand dollars in assessed valuation, for the Charles
River Embankment, between Craigie's and West Boston Bridges.
Passed : Yeas, 8 ; nays, 4. Sent down for concurrence. Dec. 22,
came up concurred : Yeas, 53 ; nays, none.

Approved by the Mayor, Dec. 24, 1881.

City of Boston, In Board of Aldermen, Dec. 5, 1881.
Ordered^ That the City Treasurer be and he is hereby authorized
to borrow, under the direction of the Committee on Finance, the sum
of two hundred thousand dollars, the bonds or certificates of debt to
be issued in negotiating this loan to be denominated on the face
thereof " The Public Park Loan," and to bear such rate of interest as
the Committee on Finance shall determine ; and the Park Commis-
sioners are hereby authorized to expend said sum for the taking in
fee, by purchase or otherwise, for the purpose of a public park, lands
to the amount of two hundred thousand dollars in assessed valua-
tion, for the Muddy River Improvement, whenever the town of
Brookline shall cooperate and appropriate a proportionate sum for
said improvement. Passed : Yeas, 9 ; nays, 3. Sent down for con-
currence. Dec. 22, came up concurred : Yeas, 53 ; nays, 1.
Approved by the Mayor, Dec. 24, 1881.

City of Boston, In Boaed of Aldeemen, Dec. 27, 1881.

Ordered^ That the Park Commissioners of Boston be requested to
take, for the purposes of a public park, trie land known as the
Arnold Arboretum, and to purchase or take for the same purposes
land adjoining said arboretum, for an amount not exceeding sixty
thousand dollars, paying therefor not more than twenty-five i:)er cent,
advance on the assessed value of A. D. 1880; and also, said Com-
missioners are authorized to lease any portion of said arboretum
when taken, or of said lands when taken or bought, and to enter
into suitable covenants with the President and Fellows of Harvard
College, in regard to any of such lands taken for a public park, sul>
stantially as set forth by said Commissioners in their report, dated
October 21, 1880, and printed as City Document No. 118 of said
year.

Provided that the estimated cost of all driveways called for under
such arrangement shall not exceed the sum of seventy-five thousand
dollars; also, provided, that, before any covenant is made with
the authorities of Harvard College, a set of rules and regulations,
to govern the use of the grounds by the public, shall be drawn up,
which shall receive the approval of the Mayor, the Park Commis-
sioners, and the Corporation Counsel on the part of the City of
Boston.

Ordered^ That the City Treasurer be and he hereby is authorized
to borrow, under the direction of the Committee on Finance, for the
purchase or taking of lands for a public park in connection with the
Arnold Arboretum, the sum of sixty thousand dollars, the bonds or
certificates of debt to be issued in negotiating said loan to be
denominated on the face thereof "Public Park Loan," and to bear
such rate of interest as the Committee on Finance may determine ;
and the Park Commissioners are hereby authorized to expend said
sum for the purpose aforesaid.

Passed in Common Council : Yeas, 52 ; nays, none. Came up for
concurrence. Read, and passed in concurrence : Yeas, 11 ; nays, 1.

Approved by the Mayor, Dec. 28, 1881.

City of Boston, In Boajrd of Aldermen, June 26, 1882.

Ordered^ That the Board of Park Commissioners be and they
hereby are authorized to construct a covered channel to carry the
waters of Muddy River through Brookline Avenue to Charles River,
the expense thereof to be charged to the special appropriation for
that purpose.

Passed. Sent down for concurrence. June 29, came up concurred.

Approved by the Mayor, June 30, 1882.

City of Boston, In Boaed of Aldeemen, Oct. 2, 1882.

Ordered^ That the order appropriating six hundred thousand
dollars for the purchase of land for the West Roxbury Park, ap-
proved Dec. 16, 1881, and also the order appropriating one hundred
thousand dollars for the jDurchase of land for a Marine Park at City
Point, approved Dec. 24, 1881, be and they are hereby amended by
striking out of each of said orders the words " in assessed valuation."

Read twice and passed : Yeas, 12 ; nays, none. Sent down for
concurrence. November 23, came up concurred : for West Roxbury
Park, Yeas, 50, nays, 6 ; for Marine Park, Yeas, 51, nays, 4.

Approved by the Mayor, Nov. 25, 1882.

City of Boston, In Boaed of Aldeemen, Nov. 27, 1882.
Ordered^ That the Board of Park Commissioners be authorized to
take all lands belonging to the City of Boston lying westerly of

Charles Street, and between Craigie's and West Boston Bridges, for
park purposes, and to expend the three hundred thousand dolhirs
($300,000) appropriated by the order of the City Council, passed
Dec. 24, 1881, for the remaining lands within said limits.

Passed in Common Council : Yeas, 56 ; nays, 1. Came up for
concurrence. Read and concurred : Yeas, 12 ; nays, none.

Approved by the Mayor, Nov. 28, 1882.

City of BosToisr, lis Board of Aldeemen, Dec. 26, 1882.

Ordered, That the Board of Park Commissioners be authorized to
include in the lease of the Arnold Arboretum to the President and
Fellows of Harvard College a covenant that the city will keep the
premises leased free and discharged of and from all taxes and assess-
ments thereon dming the term of the lease.

Passed. Sent down for concurrence. December 28, came uj) con-
curred.

Approved by the Mayor, Dec. 29, 1882.

City of Boston, In Boaed of Aldeemen, April 16, 1883.

Ordered, That, in addition to the amount heretofore authorized,
the Treasurer be authorized to borrow, under the direction of the
Committee on Finance, the sum of one hundred and twenty thousand
dollars (|120,000), for the purposes of a public pai'k at City Point, the
bonds or certificates of debt to be issued in negotiating said loan to
be denominated on the face thereof " The Public Park Loan," and to
bear such rate of interest as the Committee on Finance may deter-
mine ; and the Park Commissioners are hereby authorized to expend
said sum, in addition to the amount heretofore appropriated, for tak-
ing in fee, by purchase or otherwise, lands for the purpose of a public
park at City Point.

Passed in Common Council : Yeas, 49 ; nays, 4. Came up for
concurrence. Read and concurred : Yeas, 11 ; nays, none.

Approved by the Mayor, April 17, 1883.

City of Boston, In Boaed op Aldeemen, June 11, 1883.
Ordered, That the Park Commissioners be authorized to sell at
public auction any buildings or structures of any kind standing upon

,nd8 purchased or taken for park purposes, the proceeds thereof to
le paid into the Public Park Sinking-Fund.

Passed. Sent down for concurren.ce. June 14, 1883, came up
oncurred.

Approved by the Mayor, June 16, 1883.

City of Boston, In Boabd of Aldermen, July 2, 1883.
J Ordered, That the tract of land on Mt. Bellevue, given to and
accepted by the city in 1877 for a public park, be, and the same
hereby is, placed in charge of the Park Commissioners.

Passed in Common Council, June 28, 1883. Came up for concur-
rence. Concurred.

Approved by the Mayor, July 3, 1883.

City of Boston, In Boabd of Aldeemen, July 2, 1883.

Ordered^ That the order appropriating two hundred thousand
dollars for the purchase of lands for the Muddy River Improvement,
approved Dec. 24, 1881, be and it is hereby amended by striking out
the words " in assessed valuation."

Passed : Yeas, 11 ; nays, none. Sent down for concurrence. Nov.
8, 1883, came up concurred : Yeas, 55 ; nays, 5.

Approved by the Mayor, Nov. 10, 1883.

City of Boston, In Board of Aldermen, Dec. 17, 1883.

Ordered, That the Board of Park Commissioners be authorized to
include in theii* purchases of lands for the West Roxbury Park such
estates or portions thereof bounded by Morton, Forest Hills, Walnut,
and Scarborough streets as they may deem desirable for improving
the boundaries of said park.

Passed in Common Council, Dec. 13, 1883. Came up for concur-
rence. Concurred.

Approved by the Mayor, Dec. 18, 1883.

City of Boston, In Board of Aldermen, Dec. 17, 1883.
Ordered, That all moneys received as rent from lands and build-
ings acquired by the city for park purposes through the agency of the

Board of Park Commissioners be appropriated to the expenses incl
dent to the care and maintenance of the public parks so acquired
and the Auditor is hereby authorized to allow payments from sai I
moneys for such exjDenses upon the requisition of said Board, Passe
in Common Council, Dec. 13, 1883: Yeas, 54; nays, none. Cam
up for concurrence. Concurred: Yeas, 12; nays, none.
Approved by the Mayor, Dec. 18, 1883.

City of Boston, In Board of Aldekmen, Dec. 24, 1S83.

Ordered, That the City Treasurer is hereby authorized to borrow,!
under the direction of the Committee on Finance, the sum of five
hundred thousand dollars ($500,000), the certificates of debt to be
issued in negotiating this loan to be denominated on the face thereof
" The Public Park Loan," and bear such rate of interest as the Com-
mittee on Finance shall determine ; and the Park Commissioners are
hereby authorized to expend said sum for the taking in fee, by pur-
chase or otherwise, for the pui-pose of a j)ublic park, estates within
the limits of the proposed West Roxbury Park as defined by the
oi'ders of the City Council. Passed : Yeas, 8 ; nays, 3. Sent down
for concurrence. Jan. 3, 1884, came up concurred : Yeas, 56 ; nays, 9.

Approved by the Mayor, Jan. 4, 1884.

City of Boston, In Boabd of Aldebmen, Oct. 5, 1885.

Ordered, That the Board of Park Commissioners be requested to
use all possible means to make settlements for the lands taken for
the purposes of jDublic parks, and they are hereby authorized to make,
with the approval of the Mayor, such settlements for said lands as
they deem just and proper. Passed. Sent down for concurrence.
Nov. 12, came up concurred.

Approved by the Mayor, Nov. 14, 1885.

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William , Jackson. Ci i y Lnuineer
EL.W Howe. Assistant.

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NOTES ON THE PLAN

RANKLIN PARK

A2n>

RELATED MATTERS.

PKOCEBDmGS.

The taking of land having been completed, instructions were given
for the preparation of a plan in general accordance with the views
which had determined the locality and the limits of the proposed
park. In December, 1884, a series of propositions in regard to the
principal features of the plan were submitted and approved by the
Board. In the spring of 1885 a preliminary drawing of the plan was
submitted, and, to facilitate discussion, the lines of it were fully
staked on the ground and followed out by the Commissioners. After
debate this study, with some immaterial variations, was approved as
the basis of the final plan. Later, a change in the membership and a
re-organization of the Board having occurred, the preliminary plan
was reviewed and found acceptable. Still later the Commissioners,
to be satisfied as to various conditions of park economy, visited and
made a comparative examination of several large parks in use.

January 30, 1886, at a meeting of the Commissioners held at the
office of the Landscape Architect on the park site, the Mayor being
present, the finished general plan was presented and considered.

February 10, the Commissioners voted as follows: —

(1) That the plan prepared by the Landscape Architect, now
before the Board, is adopted as the Plan of Franklin Park.

(2) That the Landscape Architect is requested to prepare a state-
ment for publication explanatory of the plan, and setting forth the
views of the undertaking that he has presented to the Board.

GEORGE F. CLARKE,

Secretary.

CONTENTS.

IlfTBODUCTION.

PAGE

public opinion compaeatively ill-prepaked to sus-
tain" an economical management oe a laege
park work 1

Part First.

the condition of boston in regard to provisions
for ventilation and urban recreation .... 19

Part Second,
the plan of franklin park , 89

I. Of Certain Conditions op the Site ..»,„... 39

II. The Pukpose of the Plan 41

III. A Review of the Plan by Divisions 49

IV. A Review of the General Landscape Design .... 60

Deives and Walks 63

Riding Pad , 64

Enclosukes 64

Entbances 64

Part Third.

the key of a conservative park policy, and the
cost of carrying out the plan under such a

POLICY 69

A Beief Histokt of the Rtjbal Pakk of Buffalo, with eef-

EEENCE to its MANAGEMENT, CoST, AND VALUE .... 78

The Maintenance Cost of Parks 83

Pabt Foukth.

FAOK

OF THE DIFFICULTIES OF PURSUING A SOUND POLICY,
AND THE MEANS BT WHICH THEY ARE TO BE OVER-
COME 89

I, Of the Supkemk Impoetanck that a Labgb Paek may

come to have in the histokt of a city 90

11. The Element of Lastingness as affectikg the Ijipokt-

ANCE OF what IS TO BE DETERMINED IN THE EABLY

Work of a Park 95

ni. The Eajsniwgs of a Park to a City accpvUe largely
through the Less Conspicuous Use of it, and through
the Use of the Less Conspicuous Parts of it . . . 99

IV. The Adaptation of the Park to the Use of Invalids . 103

V. The Value of a Rural Park to the Parts of a City

more distant from it ... 105

VI. The Bearing of the Difficulties that have been re-
viewed UPON the Main End of these Notes .... 106

Part Fifth.

THE park as a department OF EDUCATION 113

INTRODUCTION.

In the course of the series of notes to follow, reasons will be
given for thinking that what shall occur in the history of
Franklin Park during the next few years, whether the under-
taking be much advanced or little, will determine results of
greater lasting consequence to the city than those of any other
of its public works of the present time. Therefore, in connec-
tion with an exposition of the plan for the park, various facts
and considerations are to be presented, bearing upon the policy
of the city in dealing with it.

An addition to the numerous, extensive, and varied public
grounds now available to the people of Boston, of a body of
land in one block of the extent, situation, and topographical
characteristics of that to be reviewed, would have been a pro-
ceeding ■'of great extravagance and folly, unless made with
regard to a purpose for which no provision existed or could be
made upon those grounds.

It may be held also that to justify the undertaking, this dis-
tinctive purpose should have been one through success in
which the city's rate of taxation might be expected to be re-
duced, and this in a manner to benefit all its people of what-
ever condition and in whatever parts of it domiciled.

It is believed that such a purpose may be defined, and that

the land taken for Franklin Park may be shown to be neither
of greater extent than is needed, nor in any essential respect
unsuitable to the pursuit of it. It is believed to be perfectly
practicable, as the business now stands, to secure results more
valuable and less costly than the most sanguine promoters of
the scheme have heretofore been authorized to promise.

It must nevertheless be recognized that there has been
much in the experience of other cities to justify fear that the
work will grow to be a very costly one.

How is this danger to be met ?

What is first of all necessary is that those who are alive to
it should not be content to remain under a mere blind appre-
hension, moving to a distrustful, hesitating attitude, favoring
a desultory, devious and intermittent advance of the work.
They must seek to clearly understand, through a closer study
than is often made of the history of the large park works of
other cities, in what the danger of extravagance consists.

Reasons will be given for believing that such a study will
result in a conviction that it consists mainly in the preva-
lence, during the earlier years of such undertakings, of vague,
immature, conflicting, and muddled ideas of their purpose,
and a consequent tendency to fritter away the advantages
of the ground upon results that pass for collateral, but are
really, for the most part, counteractive of their main design.
These ideas lead to expectations, disappointments, customs,
demands, that become important factors in determining the
character of the park. If a notable number of the people,
though a minority of all, come to suppose that it is not being
prepared to meet expectations they may have happened, even
though inconsiderately, to have formed, it is quite possible that
their influence will compel the work to proceed upon a fluctu-
ating plan to a degree that would be generally recognized to be

scandalously wasteful in any other important class of public

works.

What has been done thus far in the undertaking of Franklin
Park, encourages a belief that the danger is less in Boston than
it has been found to be in other communities. But if any one
doubts that it exists and is to-day the chief difficulty in the
way of a successful prosecution of the enterprise, let him first
consider that the proposition to form a large rural park for the
people of Boston has already been before them at least twenty
years, that it has been annually debated in the City Council
seventeen years, and in the form of a distinct project has been
ten years before an executive department of the government
expressly formed to advance it ; that from year to year it has
been brought up freshly in the Mayors' messages, in reports of
Commissioners and Committees, and in proceedings of public
meetings reported and discussed by the press. A site for it
has been obtained and preliminary work for its improvement
has been two years in progress.

These circumstances borne in mind, let a judgment be formed
of the standing which this park project has at the present
moment in the minds of any considerable number of citizens to
whom it is not in some way a matter of special personal inter-
est, in comparison with the standing had in the minds of a
similar body, of projects of other sorts of public works at
corresponding periods.

Let those projects be taken, for example, by the successive
carrying out of which the present complex system of water-
works for the city has come to be what it is. Of the uses and
consequently of the practical value of water, every one knows
something experimentally. Every one knows that water may
be held in a vessel or reservoir, and that through an outlet at
its bottom it will run from this vessel downward wherever a

way is opened. With this knowledge, the conditions of effi-
ciency of various proposed new works for supplying water
have been easily comprehended, and the value of what has
been aimed to be accomplished has been generally appreciated.

So it has been with all other important public works of the
city. The benefits to be gained by the people, for example,
through various important steps in the improvement of the
sewer system have been matters of clear-headed popular dis-
cussion. Even the questions at issue between the engineers in
this respect have been generally fairly well understood. It
was the same as to the advantages to be gained by the substi-
tution of steam for hand fire-engines, and of horse power for
man power in moving them, and many other modern improve-
ments. The same as to the Public Library and as to the Court
House. By comparison it will be seen that such notions as
prevail of the benefits to be realized through outlays to be
made by the city on the body of land of five hundred acres
bought for a purpose defined as that of " a park," are not only
varied and conflicting between different men, but in each man's
mind are apt to be wanting in practically serviceable clearness
and definiteness.

That this is the case even with many who suppose them-
selves better informed than most, may appear a more reasonable
assumption if the fact can be established that while the busi-
ness of forming a large park and bringing it into suitable use
is one in which the government and people of the city have no
local experieDce, it is also one of which less is to be learned by
casual observation than of most others in which cities com-
monly engage.

Let it be considered, then, that the persons who manifest
the highest sense of the value to themselves individually of a
park, in all Large cities, are not those who in the aggregate

resort most to it, and, as a body, benefit most bj it. They
are those to whom time, because of the weight of affairs resting
upon them, is most valuable, and to whom an alert working
condition of mind and body is worth the most money. In
Paris and London, New York and Chicago, many of this class
may be found for a certain time daily in a park. It is almost
as fixed a habit with them to go there at a certain hour, as at
certain other hours to go to their meals or to repose. It is not
a matter of fashion or social custom, for their manner of using
the park varies : some of them walking, others driving, others
riding ; some pursue their course alone, others seek company,
some keep to the main thoroughfares, others seek the secluded
parts. With some men of much public importance now in
New York, their present habit of using the park, began when
the first section of it was opened to public use, seven-and-
twenty years ago.

It will be obvious that the manner in which such men,
making such use of a park, find it of value is not that in which
a stranger or an occap'onal visitor finds it interesting; and,
looking further, it m iy be recognized that the benefits of a
park to the people of c, city, of all classes and conditions, come
chiefly in a gradual way, through a more or less habitual use
of what it provides, and that such benefits are neither experi-
enced nor are the conditions on which they depend apt to be
dwelt upon by an occasional observer, to whom the interest of
a visit unavoidably lies largely in the comparative novelty to
him of what he sees. Neither do the gains in value of the
park in this more important respect often engage the attention
of the press. Columns will necessarily be given to the intro-
duction of a statue, or a new piece of masonry, or a novelty in
horticulture, for every line to the development of the essential
constituents of the park, or the eradication of obstructive con-

ditions. The eyes of a frequenter of a park rarely rest for a
moment on objects before which strangers generally halt. A
park may affect a man at the first visit exhilaratingly, which,
when he is accustomed to the use of it, will have a reverse,
that is to say, a soothing and tranquillizing effect. Thus, that
only is of much solid and permanent value to a city in a park
which increases in value as it becomes less strikingly interest-
ing, and of that which has value in this way, an occasional
visitor is apt to be in a great degree oblivious. No guide book
calls his attention to it. No friend can bring it home to
him.

As an illustration of the wrong impressions that are natu-
rally propagated in the manner thus suggested, it may be said
that the costliness of certain parks is habitually assumed by
many intelligent men to have been chiefly in outlays for what
is called "decoration." This term is not thus applied to trees,
plants, and turf; to the plain work, however good, of sub-
stantial structures, nor to gracefulness or picturesqueness of
modelling in graded surfaces, but first to objects which are
merely decorative, such as fountains, vases, artificial rock-
work, pagodas, temples, kiosks, obelisks, or other independent
structures ; and, second, to works of decoration superadded to
structures for use, such as crestings, carvings, mosaics, mould-
ings, flutings, panellings, and the like. The fact is that no
large part of the cost of any great park has been for these
purposes. Of upwards of ten millions of dollars paid by cities
upon the certificate of the writer, it is believed that less than
four per cent has been for such decorative work. On the
Buffalo Park, than which none is more satisfactory to the
people, the outlay for decorative work is reckoned not to
have exceeded one half of one per cent. And it may be
added, with respect to another form of this error, having its

origin probably in early impressions from superficial and incom-
prebensive observation, that the value of no rural park to the
people who habitually use it would be seriously impaired if
every scrap of ornament to be found upon it should fall to
decay or be effaced, except as the spaces left unfurnished would
appear shabby and incongruous with the general character of
the place. Beyond question, the value of many large parks
would be increased by the removal of a variety of objects
which, when introduced, were thought to be desirable acqui-
sitions.*

In one of the notes to follow it will be shown that the confu-
sion of the popular mind in the early years of a large park
work which has been described gradually passes off with an
experience of the benefits resulting from an habitual use of the
finished ground. The chief peril from it occurs during the
period of constructive operations, and before any important
results of growth have been attained. For this reason, it is
important that those who may be able to aid in moulding a
sound public opinion should see how the difficulty of working
out of the confusion is increased by a common equivocal use of
certain terms applicable to park work.

There is a space in Boston called Park Square, and in it there
has lately been a sign with the inscription, "Park Square

* Consistently with this view is Hamerton's observation that "very much
of tlie impressiveness of natural scenery depends on the degree in which mass
predominates over details." The chief advantage of the "new" (of the last
century) over the old gardening was found in the fact that while works of the
latter might he striking and impressive as they were to be seen for a moment
from particular points of view, and might have an endless number of interesting
points of detail, these advantages were greatly outweighed by the more sus-
tained, comprehensive, and pervading pleasantness of the simpler, unosten-
tatious, and uneventful work of the "new gardening." This advantage is
easily dissipated on a public park. Where it is to be largely so by the intro-
duction of numerous objects of special admiration, it would be better to adopt
thoroughly the old architectural motive. F. l,. o.

Garden." There is neither a park nor a square nor a garden
in the vicinity, nor has there been. The word park is applied
in a similar loose way to various comparatively small public
spaces which are otherwise more discriminatingly called
Greens, Commons, Squares, Gardens, and Places. In most con-
siderable cities there is now to be found a ground called a park
to which none of these names are applied. It is a ground more
or less well adapted to serve a purpose that cannot be served
on the smaller class of grounds. Such a ground is therefore
a park distinctively, — a park proper. But it thus occurs that
when a large space of ground is taken by a city for the pur-
pose of a park proper, there is a tendency to regard it simply
as a larger provision for the same ends with those which
Commons, Greens, Squares, and Gardens are adapted to
serve, and the real park is looked forward to not a little as it
might be if it were to be in effect an aggregation or a combina-
tion and improved form of various smaller public grounds.

Even though, when ground is taken for a park proper, it may
be understood that a purpose distinct from any or all of the
purposes of these smaller grounds is had in view, this tendency
leads propositions to be urged as to the uses to which it shall
be put, and the way in which it shall be fitted and furnished,
that common sense would otherwise recognize as propositions
to set aside the distinctive purpose of the park.

Such confusion as may naturally occur in the way that has
been thus explained is apt to be aggravated by the additional
circumstance that the word landscape is constantly used, is
used even by eminent writers, confoundingly, with reference to
two essentially distinct arts. One of these arts is inapplicable
to the smaller grounds of a city, but fully applicable to a large
ground ; the other is a decorative art, applicable to all forms
and conditions of ground in which vegetation is possible, avail-

able for the smallest city grounds, and often, as for years past
in Boston, practised upon small grounds with results most
gratifying to the public. With such results, that to be wisely
had in view in the undertaking of a rural park is scarcely
more to be brought in comparison than the results proper to a
Public Library building with those proper to a Court House,
those of a church with those of a theatre.

The object of these notes is to give reasons for the convic-
tions that have been thus expressed, and, in a measure, to meet
in advance the dangers that have been indicated. This object
obliges an exposition of the subject, under various heads, from
many points of view. It is not to be expected, with the pres-
ent slight public interest in the scheme of the park, that such
an exposition will have many readers ; but should it have none,
proper respect for the future interest of the public in the
matter requires a somewhat detailed record of the groundwork
of the plan, of the expectations with which the work is entered
upon, and of the foreseen conditions of its successful prose-
cution.

For those who may wish to obtain in the briefest possible
way a slight general knowledge of what is intended, the draw-
ing illustrative of the plan hereto attached, with which a con-
cise statement is printed explanatory of the design, will be
independently distributed in the form of a broadsheet, and it
is hoped that with such aid as the public journals may see
fit to give the purpose, an understanding of what is to be
reasonably expected of the park may become common before
customs in the use of it, growing out of different expectations,
can be established.

Part First.

PAET FIRST.

A CONSIDERATIOISr OF PUBLIC PROPERTIES IIST OR NEAR BOSTON
AVAILABLE FOR OCCUPATION OTHERWISE THAN BY BUILD-
INGS OR FOR THOROUGHFARES.

Among habits of thouglit that we have by inheritance there
is one which is evinced in the custom of speaking of public
grounds comprehensively and indiscriminatingiy as " the lungs "
of a city, " ventilating-places," " breathing-holes," and " airing-
grounds."

This habit originated in walled towns, with extremely narrow,
crooked streets, half built over, in which all the filth and gar-
bage of dwellings was deposited, and often remained until
flushed out by heavy rains. In such cities of fifty thousand
inhabitants, the deaths due to foul air were larger than they now
need be in cities of five hundred thousand.

With it has come down to us a subtile disposition, — the
ghost of a serious, solid, and firm-footed ancestral conviction, —
by which we are often influenced in dealing with questions of
public grounds more than we are aware. It is a disposition to
assume that the chief value of such grounds is that of outlets
for foul air and inlets for pure air, and to regard whatever
else our taxes are required to provide upon them in the
character of a comparatively trifling luxury, adding something
to the pleasure of life, no doubt, like sweet things after dinner,
or buttons on the back of a man's coat, or the "gingerbread
work " of a ship, but supplying almost nothing of solid suste-
nance and strength.

A wholly different understanding of the use of public
grounds has long since begun to prevail ; yet we are so much
haunted by the old idea that we are rarely able to take clear,
business-like views of the conditions of value in their equip-
ment.

Even those who have been advocating the great addition
lately made to the ground reserved from building within the
city of Boston, have frequently made the sanitary requirement
of airing-spaces in the midst of a city, and the need of provid-
ing them well in advance of the line of compact building, their
main argument. Let it be supposed that the term "airing-
place," as now used, means a little more than it once did ;
that it means a place to which people shall be drawn by various
attractions, and having been drawn shall be induced to exer-
cise in such a manner as to quicken their circulation and give
their lungs a good cleansing of fresh air ; it is yet an error
fruitful of bad management and of waste to suppose that such
an undertaking as this of Franklin Park is to be justified on
that ground.

This will be better seen and several other considerations
affecting the problem of the plan, will be made plainer if the
advantages which the people of the city now hold with respect
to airing-grounds are passed in review.

To aid a cursory examination of them the accompanying
map has been prepared, showing the city and so much of its
outskirts as can conveniently be brought within the limits of
the sheet, and indicating one hundred and eighty-six localities,
in each of which there is now a body of land, great or small,
serving, or available to serve, at least a ventilating purpose.
Of these, seventy-one have been already "improved," are now
in process of improvement, or are held with a definite intention
of improvement, with a view to recreative qualities, as for
example, by being turfed and planted. Fifty-six of these are
public squares, commons, or gardens, of the city of Boston
proper, the number of these much exceeding that of the same
class of grounds of the united cities of New York and Brook-
lyn. Thirty-nine are burial grounds, most of them small.

ancient, and disused. These are not likely to be built upon,
and should the course now being pursued in London and
other old cities be followed, as in time it probably will be, most
of them will eventually be made public groves and gardens. At
least they will be verdurous breathing-places. Forty-seven are
lands which in various ways have come into the possession of
the city, and may at any time be sold when the government
thinks it wise to part with them. Tlieir bearing on the present
subject is this, that when it shall be thought that additional
urban grounds are needed in any part of the city, it will not
always be necessary to make a special purchase of land to sup-
ply sites for them. Many of these properties, for instance, are
well situated for playgrounds for school children, and could be
adapted to that use at moderate exjpense. Others, smaller, are
available for open-air gymnasiums.

Within the city of Boston, or close upon its border, there are
nearly two hundred public properties which are not held with
a view to building over them, and most of which are secured by
legal enactments from ever being built over. Omitting the
larger spaces recently acquired and held by the Department of
Parks, these grounds are on an average thirteen acres each
in area. Omitting the islands, the burial grounds, the larger
grounds of the Department, and all that would not ordinarily
be classed with " city squares and gardens," the latter have an
average area of about four acres each.

The area of the entire number of public properties numbered
on the map, and of which a classified list follows showing the
situation and area of each, is 3356.63 acres, or over five square
miles. Of those likely to be permanent green oases among the
buildings of the city, the area is about four square miles, or
nearly as much as the entire building space within the walls of
some cities that had great importance in the world when the
building of Boston was began.

I, Properties now appropriated to the purpose of public refresh-
ment as recreation grounds or " hreathing-p>lacesP

Name.

City Pkoper.

9. Common . . .

10. Public Garden .

8. Fort-Hill Square

21. Franklin Square

20. Blackstone Sq. .

34. East Ckester Park |

30. Chester Park . I

29. Chester Square . |

19. "West Chester (
Park .... 1

13. Commonwealth (

Avenue . . . (

17. Union Park . . |

31. "Worcester Square |
3. Lowell Square . .

12. Square . . . . |

16. Montgomery Sq. |

5. Pemberton Sq. . |

14. Copley Square • |

15. Trinity Triangle |
2. Charles River Em- (

baukment . . \

KoxBUET District.
42. ISIadison Square |

46. Orchard Park . |
66. "Washington Park .
37. Longwood Park

68. "Walnut Park . |

41. Lewis Park . . .
52. Bromley Park . .

57. Fountain Square |
49. Cedar Square . |

40. Linwood Park . .

59. Public Ground . .

36.Paverdale and (

Back Bay . . |

Location.

Park, Tremont, Boylston,

Charles, and Beacon Sts. . .
Charles, Boylston, Arlington,

and Beacon Sts. . . . . .

Oliver and High Sts

"Washington, East Brookline,

East Newton, and James Sts.
Washington, "West Brookline,

"West Newton Sts., and Shaw-

mut Ave

Between Albany St. and Harri-
son Ave )

Between Harrison Ave. and)

"Washington St J

Between "SVashington and Tre- 1

niont Sts )

Between Tremont St. and Co- )

lumbus Ave )

From Arlington St. to"West Ches- )

ter Park (malls) )

Between Tremont St. and Shaw- )

mut Ave )

Between "Washington St. and I

Harrison Ave. ...... j

Cambridge and Lynde Sts. . . .

Columbus Ave., Eliot and Pleas- )

ant Sts )

Tremont, Clarendon, and Mont- )

gomery Sts )

Between Tremont Row and )

Somerset St i

Between Huntington Ave., Boyl- )

ston and Dartmouth Sts. . . J
Between Huntington Ave., Trin- )

ity PL, and St. James Ave. . )
Between Canal and "West Bos- I

ton Bridges I

Sterling, Marble, "Warwick, and )

"Westminster Sts )

Chadwick, Orchard-Park, and)

Yeoman Sts )

Dale and Bainbridge Sts. . . .

Park and Austin Sts

Between "Washington St. and )

W^alnut Ave J

Highland St. and Highland Ave. .
From Albert to Bickford St. . .
"Walnut Ave., from Munroe to )

Townsend St )

Cedar St., between Juniper and )

Thornton Sts )

Centre and Linwood

Centre and Perkins Sts

Between Beacon and Perkins)
Sts )

48.25 acres.

24.25 "
29,480 sq. ft.
2.42 acres.

2.41 "

9,300 sq. ft.
13,050 "

1.70 acres.
10,150 sq. ft.

9.86 acres.

16,000 sq. ft.

16,000 "
5,772 "
2,867 "

550 "

3,390 "

28,399 "

5,410 "

10.00 acres.

2.81 acres.

2.29 "

9.09
21,000

5,736

5,600
20,975

2.66

sq. ft.

Remarks.

26,163

3,625
3,200
216.00

acres,
sq. ft.

f Enclosed by an
I iron fence.

I Malls enclosed by
an iron f-ence.

[Enclosed by &
granite curb.

Park Department

Three enclosures.

[ Enclosed by stone
curb.

Park Department,

I. — Properties, etc., continued.

Name.

Location.

Remarks.

South BosTOisr.

71. Telegraph Hill . .

65. Independence Sq.

66. Lincoln Square .

67. Marine Park . .

DORCHESTEK DiST.

77. Dorchester Square

78. Eaton Square . .
80. Mt. Bowdoin Green

West Eoxbuet DIS'l^.

93. Public Grounds .

94. Soldiers' Monu- 1

ment Lot . . )

97. Franklin Park . .

96. Arboretum . . .

110. Public Grounds .

109. Franklin Park . .

Bkookline.

116. Play Grounds . .
115. Play Grounds . .

BEIGHTOIf DiSTKICT.

12.3. Public Grounds .
128. Massachusetts
Avenue . . .

130. Jackson Square

129. Brighton Square

Gambkidge.

141. Commons . . .
140. Winthrop Square .

146. Broadway Park .

147. Dana Square . .
149. Washington Sq. .

148. Hastings Square .

SOIVIEEVILLE.

143. Broadway Park .

144. Public Park . |

Charlestown Dist.

153. Sullivan Square .

154. Public Grounds .

160. Monument Square

Thomas Park

Broadway, Second, M, and N Sts.

Emerson, Fourth, and M Sts. . .
City Point

Meeting House Hill

Adams and Bowdoin Sts. . . .
Top of Mt. Bowdoin

Shore of Jamaica Pond ....

South and Central Streets , . .

Sever, Blue Hill Ave., and Morton
Centre, South, and Bussey Sts. .
Top of Mount Bellevue ....
Franklin Ave. and Hamilton St. .

Cypress Street
BrookUne Avenue

Pleasant and Franklin Streets .

Brighton Avenue to Chestnut j
Hill Reservoir )

Chestnut-Hill Avenue, Union, )
and Wiuship Streets . . . j

Between Chestnut-Hill Avenue 1
and Rockland Street, and op- I
posite Branch of Public Li- [
brary J

North Avenue

Brighton and Mount Auburn Sts.

Broadway

Magazine Street

Grand Junction Railroad . . .
BrookUne Street

Broadway and Mystic Avenue .

Highland Avenue, School and \

Walnut Streets )

Main and Sever Streets ....
Essex and Lyndeboro' Streets . .

High, Concord, and Lexington Sts,

4.36 acres.

6.50 "

9,510 sq. ft.
about 40 ac.

1.29 acres.

13,280 sq. ft.
25,170 "

31,000 sq. ft.
5,870 "

518 acres.

167 "
27,772 sq. ft.
30,000 "

5.27 acres.
3.83 "

1,900 sq. ft.
47.13 acres.

4,300 sq. ft.
25,035 "

10.29 acres.
10,236 sq. ft.
2.46 acres.
33,531 sq. ft.
42,123 "
29,999 "

15.90 acres.
12.60 "

1.30 acres.
930 sq. ft.

3.80 acres.

(Enclosed by an
( iron fence.
<( ><

Park Department.

I Soldiers' Monu-
( ment on this Sq.

( Enclosed by stone
\ curb.

Park Department,

( Enclosed by stone
I curb.

Four enclosures.

r Bimker Hill Mon-
( ument on this.Sq

Properties^ etc.^ continued.

Name.

Location.

Area.

Remarks.

Chablestown Dist.
contintjed.

161. Winthrop Square

162. City;Sqtiare . . .

163. Public Grounds |

East Boston Dist.

172. Maverick Square .
170. Central Square .

173. Belmont Square |

166. Putnam Square .

167. Prescott Square .

174. Wood Island Park

"Winthrop, Common, and Adams

Head of Bow and Main. . . .

Water Street, Charles River and )
Warren Avenues )

Sumner and Maverick

Meridian and Border

Webster, Sumner, Lamson, and )

Seaver )

Putnam, White, and Trenton . .
Trenton, Eagle, and Prescott . .
Wood Island

38,460 sq. ft.

8,739 "
3,055 "

4,398

32,310

30,000

11,628
12,284
81.3 acres.

Enclosed by an
iron fence. Sol-
diers' Alonument
on this square.

Enclosed by stone
curb.

( Enclosed by iron
( fence.

Park Department.

11. — burial Grounds^ etc.

Name.

Location.

Remarks.

City Pbopee.

1. Copp's Hill .

6. King's Chapel

7. Granary . .
11. Central . .

22. South ...

RoxBUEY District.

43. Eliot . .

47. Warren .

48. Catholic

South Boston.

68. Hawes and Union

69. St. Augustine .

Doechestek.

72. Dorchester North

83. Old Catholic . .

84. Codman . . .

90. Cedar Grove . .

91. Dorchester South

Charter and Hull Streets . .
Tremont and School Streets .
Tremont near Park Street . .

On the Common

Washington, near East Newton
Street

Washington and Eustis Streets

Kearsarge Avenue

Circuit Street

Fifth Street

Sixth and Dorchester Streets .

Stoughton and Boston Streets

Norfolk Street

Adams Street

Dorchester Avenue ....

2.04 acres.
19,200 sq. ft.
1.88 acres.
1.38 "

1.72 "

34,700 sq. ft.

1.25 acres.

15,000 sq. ft.

16,800 sq. ft.
1.00 acre.

3.10 acres.

12.00 "
3.7G "

42.01 "
2.00 "

Owned by the city.

Owned by the city.
Owned by the city.

II, — Burial Grounds, etc.^ continued.

Name.

"West Roxbukt.

I. Forest Hills . .
I. Old Catholic
5, Miinnt Hope
1. ]\iouut Calvary
5. Walter Street .
3. Cuiifre Street .
r. llouut Benedict

3. Catholic . . .

4. Hand-in-Hand

Location.

Morton Street . . .
Hyde Park Avenue ,
Walk Hill Street . ,
Canterbury Street

Arnold Street
Grove Street
Grove Street

Beooklinb.

7. Walnnt Street
1. Holyhood . ,
S. Walnut Hills ,

5KIGHT0N DiSTEICT.

lie. Market Street .
53. Evergreen . .

Cambhidge.

'39. Old Burying
Ground . . .

38. Cambridge Cem-
etery ....

37. Mt. Auburn "

,36. Catholic "

SOMERVILLE.

145. Cemetery . . .

Brookline .
Heath Street
Grove Street

Chestnut-Hill Aveque

North Avenue ,

Coolidge Avenue .

:Mt. Auburn Street
Cottage Street .

CHAJtlLESTO"5V3S- DiST.

155. Catholic . . . .

156. Bunker Hill St. .
.57. Old Burial )

Grounds . . )

East Boston.

168. Bennington St.

169. Ohabei Shalom

Somerville Avenue

Bunker Hill and Medford Sts.
Between Elm and Polk Streets

Phipps Street

Swift and Bennington Streets .
Wordsworth and Homer Sts. .

176.83 acres.

1.25 "

106.75 "

41.05 "

39,216 sq. ft.

30,460 "

86.05 acres.

5.09 "

2.50 "

1.42 acres.

about 30 acs.

" 30 "

Kemarks.

Owned by the city.
Owned by the city.

18,000 sq. ft. Owned by the city.
13.83 acres. " "

2.04 acres.

13C.0O
8.39

30,500 sq. ft.

1.68 acres.
1.10 "

1.76

3.62 acres.
1.38 "

Owned by the city.

»^im^iitmimmuimii^mmmmmmmmmM

III. — Parcels of Land xoithin which there are Reservoirs or other
appurteyiances of Public Water Works but which are
partly available for and generally in use as Public
Pleasure Grounds.

Name.

Location.

Kemarks.

Boston
"Water Wokks.

50. Highlaud Park
Stand Pipe .
39. Parker Hill Res-
ervoir . . .
70. South Boston "
120. Brookline "
119. Fisher Hill "
134. Chestnut Hill "
165. East Boston "

Brookltnb
Water Works,

118. Reservoir Lot .

Fort Avenue, Roxhury .

Fisher Avenue, Roxhury .

Telegraph Hill ....
Boylston Street, Brookline
Fislier Avenue, Brookline
Brighton District . . .
Eagle Hill

Fisher Avenue, Brookline

2.62 acres.
4.54

.S5.00

10.55

212.75

4.96

4.86 acreSi

IV. — Grounds in Connection with Public Institutions,

NaBie.

Location.

Remarks.

53. Marcella-Street \
Home ... I

99. Austin Farm . .

60. House of Oorrec- )

tion and Lunatic [

Hospital . . . )

152. Alms House . . .

100. Small Pox Hos- )

pital . . . . J

79. PuDjping Station .

142. City Farm . . .

Eoxbury District . . .
West Roxbury District
South Boston ....

Alford Street, Charlestown . .
Canterbury St., West Eoxbury

Old Harbor Point, Dorchester .
Somerville

6.98 acres.

50.00

14.52

2.39
4.18

22.50
10.20

' In charge of Di-
j rectors of Pub-
lic Institutions.

In charge of
Board of Health.
Main Drainage
Works.

V. — Miscellaneoiis Froperties in Land held^ except in a few cases

noted, with no permanent pur^^ose, and generally unimproved.

Location.

City Proper.

23. Harrison Ave., corner Stougliton St. . .

24. East Newtou St., north side

25. Stoughton St. to East Newton St. . .
28. Albany St. Wliaif. opposite Hospital .

26. Albany St. Wharf, opp. East Canton St.

27. Albany St., City Stables, etc

33. Chester Park and Springfield St. . . .

32. Northampton and Chester Park . . .

4. Keservoir Lot, Beacon Hill

18. Rutland St., west of Tremont St. . . .

KoxBPRY District.
35. Old Small-Pox Hospital Lot, Swett St. .

44. Fellows St., northwest side

45. Fellows St., southeast side

54. Greenwood St., opp. Marcella^St. Home,
38. Tremont and Pleath Sts

51. Highland St., Stable Lot

55. Ledge Lot, Washington St

South Boston.

61. East First and L Sts

64. East Third and L Sts

62. East First and M Sts

63. East Second and N Sts

Dorchester District.

73. Boston St., near Upham's Corners . .

74. Ledge Lot, Magnolia St

76. Almshouse Lot, Downer Ave

75. Downer Ave

82. Marsh west of Exchange St

85. Gravel Lot, Forest Hills Ave

86. Codman St., east of railroad ....

87. Codman St., west of railroad

88. Adams St., near Codman St

89. Ledge Lot, Codman St

92. Marsh near Cedar Grove Cemetery . .
81. Gibson School Fund Land, Dorchester 1

Ave., Gibson and Park Sts. . . . j

West Roxbury District.

95. Child St

98. Gravel Lot, Morton St

108. Gravel Lot, Moreland St

111. Muddy Pond

112. Toll-House Lot, Grove St

Brighton District,

124. City Ledge Lot, Cambridge St

125. Old Gravel Lot, Cambridge St

127. Wilson's Hotel Lot, Washington St. . .

131. Gravel Lot, Union St

132. Ledge Lot, Chestnut Hill Ave

Chaelestowit District.

151. Alford St., opposite Almshouse . . . .

158. Rutherford Ave., southwest side . . .

169. Rutherford Ave., northeast side . . .

East Boston District.
17] . Gravel Lot, Marion, Paris, and Chelsea )
Streets I

10,597 sq. ft.
16,120 "

2.09 acres.

l.GO "
26,024 sq. ft.

7.37 acres.
1.29 "

2.98 "

37,488 sq. ft.
30,600 "

2.56 acres.
25,288 sq. ft.

8,429 "
20,500 "

7.36 acres.

1.84 "
3.09 "

27,000 sq. ft.
33,250 "

2.89 acres.

1.45 "

5,300 sq. ft.

1.86 acres.

2.00 "
35,300 sq. ft.
21,844 "

1.10 acres.
9,800 sq. ft.
35,700 "

1.02 acres.

6.86 "

3.46 "

10.26 "

14,457 sq. ft.
14,520 "
30,421 "
12.00 acres.
27,432 sq. ft.

2.35 acres.
1.35 "
1.63 "
37,000 sq. ft.
13.00 acres.

1.67 acres.
20,000 sq. ft.
31,000 "

Remarks.

Subject to sale.

(Used by Health, Paving, Sewer,

\ and Water Departments.

(In care of Trustees of City

( Hospital.

I In care of Superintendent of

( Commons.

Subject to sale.

Reserved for a school-house.

Subject to sale.

fUsed by Paving and Health

i Departments.

Used by Paving Department.

Suhject to sale.

Subject to sale.

Used by Paving Department.

Used by Paving Department.
Subject to sale.

Used bv'Paving Department.
<r ■ it «

« II II

Subject to sale.

II <i
Used by Paving Department.

Subject to sale.

1.00 acre. Used by Paving Department.

VI. — Public Property upon Islands in the Harbor.

Name.

Remarks.

180. Long Island. ....

175. Apple Island ....
186. Great Brewster's Island

177. Deer Island ....

182. Kainsford Island . .

183. Gallop's Island . . .

181. Moon Island ....

178. Castle Island ....

176. Governor's Island . .

184. Loveirs Island . . .

185. George's Island . . .

179. Long Island Head . .

City of Boston owner.

United States owner.

Vll. — Properties of the United States on the Main Land, in part
open and planted.

Name.

Location.

Area.

164. Navy Yard

150. Hospital Grounds

Charlestown District .....

87.5 acres.

79.0 " "

The numbers prefixed to the names of localities in the preceding tables refer to their
corresponding positions on the map accompanying these Notes.

SUMMARY.

Area under Class I : —

Within limits of City of Boston 1204.15 acres.

« " " « Somerville 28.50 «

« « « " Cambridge 15.41 «

« " « Town of Brookline 9.10 «

Total .... 1257.16 acres.

Area under Class II. : —

Within limits of City of Boston 620.12 acres,

" " " « Somerville 0.70 «

" " " « Cambridge 187.24 "

" " " Town of Brookline 61.42 "

Total .... 769.48 acres.

Area under Class III, : —

Boston Water Works 273.31 acres.

Brookline " « 4.86 «

Total .... 278.17 acres.

Area under Class IV. : —

Boston 100.57 acres.

Somerville 10.20 «

Total .... 110.77 acres.

Area under Class V. (all within limits of Boston) . . 105.95 acres.

Area under Class VI. : —

Owned by City of Boston 406.00 acres.

« « the United States 172.60 "

Total .... 578.60 acres.

Ai'ea under Class VII. : —

Within limits of City of Boston 87.50 acres.

Outside " " " " 169.00 "

Total .... 256.50 acres.

The total area shown on the map, of all the classes, is 3356.63
acres. Of this, 659 acres are eitlier outside the limits of, or are not
owned by, the City of Boston.

Before taking up the question of the proposed large park, it
niaj be desirable to form some idea of the present standard for
the equipment of cities in respect to public grounds other than
large parks, and consider how Boston's possessions, as thej
have been set out, may be rated by it. Of course this can be
done but loosely, but the purpose may be carried far enough to
answer with assurance the question. How are the people of
Boston faring and likely to fare in this particular in comparison
with civilized townspeople generally ?

For this purpose it must be kept in mind that the public
grounds of most cities have come to be what they are and
where they are by various detached and desultory proceedings,
of which the result, as a whole, illustrates penny-wise-pound-
foolish wisdom quite as much as the result of laying out streets
with reference to immediate local and personal interests, regard-
less of burdens loading up to be carried by an entire city
ever after.

Of late, however, ideas of systematization, with a view to
comprehensive and long-sighted public economy, have taken
root, and in a few instances are growing to profitable results.

These ideas move in two directions; and as confusion between
them can only lead to blunders, it is well to see where the
parting occurs.

If a large town were about to be built on a previously deter-
mined plan, a series of public grounds might be contemplated,
to be situated at regular distances apart, all of the same extent,
and all looking to a similarity and an equality of provisions for
the use of those who would resort to them, the aim being to
distribute the value of whatever should be done for the purpose
of public recreation, as nearly as possible equitably among the
several corresponding districts of the city. A type of grounds
would result, an inclination to approach which is here and there
evident.

Certain advantages follow, but they are obtained at a cost
that would be unreasonable in any city, the site of which
was not generally flat, reckless, and treeless, or in any the nat-
ural growth, expansion on all sides and prosperity of which

were not singularly assured. Nor are the advantages aimed at
in such a system, so far as attainable, of controlling importa,nce.

As cities grow in a manner not to be accurately foreseen, as
centres of business and centres of residence sometimes shift,
and in the course of years become interchanged, and as some
parts of the site or the neighhorhood of a city will nearly always he
specially favorable to provisions of recreation of one class, other
parts to provisions of another class, it is generally better to have
in view the development of some peculiar excellence in each of
several grounds. And this may be considered the central idea
of the alternative system, only that in proceeding with refer-
ence to it, it is to be remembered that cities are built com-
pactly because of the economy of placing many varied facilities
of exchange of service in close and direct intercommunication.
Any large area within a city, not occupied by buildings, and
not available as a means of communication between them,
lessens this advantage, compelling circuitous routes to be taken
and increasing the cost of the exchanges of service, upon the
facilities offered for which the prosperity of the city depends.

It follows that so far as any purpose of public grounds can
be well provided for on a small ground, it is better to so provide
for it, rather than to multiply and complicate the purposes to
be provided for on a larger ground. In a system determined
with unqualified regard to this principle no ground would be
used for any purpose of recreation which purpose could as well
be served by itself elsewhere, on a small ground.

It follows, also, that the larger the ground needed for any
special purpose, the more desirable it is (other things being
equal) that that ground should be at a distance from the
centres of exchange, which will be the denser parts of the city,
and out of the main lines of the compact outward growth of the
city.

The smaller grounds of the class designed for general use
(being such as are commonly called squares and places) may
with advantage, as far as practicable, be evenly distributed, with
a view to local convenience, throughout a city. Yet, with
regard to these, there are at least three circumstances which

should make numerous deviations from such equalizing distri-
bution: First, topographical circumstances may compel spaces
unsuitable for building to be left between streets, which it will
be economical to use for such grounds; many such are found in
and about Boston. Second, spaces should be left about public
buildings, in order to give them better light, remove them from
the noise of the streets, protect them from conflagrations, and
make the value of their architecture available. Such spaces
will economically become small public grounds.

Lastly, it is most desirable to make use of any local circum-
stance of the slightest dignity of character to supply a centre
of interest for such grounds. Such a circumstance may be
found, for instance, in a natural feature, as a notable rock, or in
a historical feature, as the site of an old fort, or in the birth-
place of a great man, or simply in a point of vantage for a view,
as a prospect down the harbor. There is no better example of
a very small public ground than one in Paris, where a beautiful
church tower, decorated by centuries of superficial decay and
mossy incrustations, has been taken as the centre of the work,
the body of the church being removed and its place occupied by
seats and gardenry.

Usually, however, there is nothing better for the purpose
of this class of grounds than a simple open grove, or, on the
smaller spaces, a group of forest trees (selected with regard for
probable vigor and permanent health under the circumstances)
with a walk through or around it, proper provisions against
injury and unseemly use, a drinking fountain, and convenient
seats out of the lines of passage, of which type there are good
illustrations in Boston.

Playgrounds for children need not be so large as to interfere
with direct, short communication, and should be evenly distrib-
uted in the residential part of the town, except as special
localities are to be preferred on account of unusual topographical
fitness.

If it is thought desirable to make any special provision for
carriage and saddle exercise without going far from the central
parts of the town, the most convenient and economical plan is

that of a passage having the character of a street of extraor-
dinary width, strung with verdant features and other objects of
interest, so laid out as not to seriously interfere with the pri-
mary business of the city ; that is to say, with convenience of
exchange. Such passages are found between the principal
palaces and better-built parts and the more frequented parks in
Paris, Berlin, Brussels, Dijon, and other European cities, and
are there more commonly classed as boulevards ; in America
they are to be found notably in Buffalo and Chicago, and are
there called parkways.

To further develop a system of public grounds, areas will be
selected as far as practicable in parts of the city where they
will least interrupt desirable general communication, the topo-
graphical conditions of each of which adapt it to a special pur-
pose, and each of these will be fitted for public use upon a
plan intended to make the most of its special advantages for
its special purposes.

These observations may be considered to suggest the present
standard of civilization in respect to the urban grounds of a
city situated as Boston is. Looking with reference to this
standard to Boston possessions and Boston's opportunities held
in reserve to be used as her borders extend, hardly another city
will be found in an equally satisfactory condition.

In the Boston provisions for urban public grounds there are:

(1) Two extensive parkway S3^stems, one formed by Massachu-
setts Avenue, expanding into the broad, shady drives and walks
that pass around and divide Chestnut Hill Reservoir ; the other
formed by the Muddy River (Riverdale) roads, spreading into
the Promenade now forming about the Back Bay Drainage
Basins, and with Commonwealth Avenue connecting the Com-
mon and Public Garden with Jamaica Pond, the Arboretum,
and the site of Franklin Park.

(2) There are numerous local grounds so small in extent as
not to interfere with desirable lines of street communication.

(3) There are a few grounds adapted to serve a similar pur-
pose of a brief recreation for the people of their several neigh-
borhoods, which are larger than the first, but so situated that

they will interrupt street communication only where natural
obstacles occur (such as the deep slough of Back Bay).

(4) There is one ground which, though centrally situated,
is fully large enough for the purpose, wherein the enjoyment of
floral beauty and plant beauty of a specific character is liber-
ally provided for.

(5) In another, much larger and of strikingly diversified
surface, on the outskirts of the city, provision is made for the
greatest possible variety of hardy trees in a manner to show
their specific qualities, and to combine opportunity for scientific
research and popular instruction with the enjoyment of the
forms of individual sylvan beauty to be thus presented.

(6) In another, marine landscapes are offered and special pro
visions made for various aquatic recreations under particularly
favorable natural conditions for their enjoyment.

(7) In another, a natural lake with beautifully wooded
borders is to be availed of, which, besides its value in other
respects, has this, that it will serve as a general skating-place
and a safe still-water boating-place.

Looking for deficiencies in this system of non-rural grounds^
the chief will be found to be the want of sufficient local and
suitabl'fe general grounds for active exercises. It would be a
good thing for the city to have a large, plain, flat, undecorated
ground, not far away, easily accessible, if practicable, both by
rail and boat, adapted to military and athletic exercises.

Considering the advantage which pertains to the subdivision
of the city by bays and rivers, and the constant movement
through and around it of strong tidal currents, and the advan-
tages thus offered for boating and bathing, as well as for obtain-
ing unstagnant air, it is believed that this exhibit of Boston's
Breathing-Places will be found gratifying. Few cities have a
larger number of small urban grounds proportionately to their
population ; and, while some of Boston's grounds are of a non

descript character, serving no particular purpose very well,
others are models of their class, and in no Northern city is the
average usefulness of such grounds greater. As to reservations
for the future, in respect to this class of grounds, no city is
more forehanded.

Finally, it will be plain that with such advantages as Boston
has been shown to have within reach for a great varietj'- of
purposes to be served upon public grounds, it would have been
a wholly irrational thing for the city to have purchased five
hundred acres more of land, all in one body, except for a pur-
pose to which so large a space was more essential than it is to
the purpose of making a place attractive and suitable for those
needing air and exercise.

As to the idea that the main object of making a park beauti-
ful is to make it attractive, argument is hardly needed by any
one giving the slightest reflection to the question. Much
more efficient means than can be found in any public ground
could be easily and cheaply adopted for the purpose.

' Tell tliem, dear, that if eyes were made for seeing,
Then beauty is its own excuse for being."

Part Secoi^d.

PART SECOISD.

THE PLAN OF FRANKLIN PARK.
I.

OF CEKTAIN CONDITIONS OF THE SITE OF FKANKLIN" PAEK.

That the site for Franklin Park could have been rationally
bought only with a view to a purpose previously not all pro-
vided for, and that no use of the ground should now be per-
mitted likely to lessen its value for this distinctive purpose,
will yet more clearly appear if the topography of the ground
and the manner of its selection are considered.

The scheme of Franklin Park, as it now stands, is a contrac-
tion of a much larger scheme outlined to the city government
in 1869. This larger scheme included bodies of comparatively
rich, humid, flat land, much better adapted to provide many
forms of public ground than any within the field of the present
scheme ; a parade ground, for instance, and ball grounds ;
much better adapted, also, to the beauty to be obtained through
refined horticulture, floral displays, and other decorations. It
included streams of water and areas in which lakes with pro-
visions for boating, skating, and bathing, as well as water-side
beauty, could have been readily provided. All such ground
has, long since, upon mature consideration by the city govern-
ment, been thrown out of the scheme.

The ground finally selected has in its larger part the usual
characteristics of the stony upland pasture, and the rocky

divides between streams commonly found in New England,
covered by what are called " second growth " woods, the trees
slow growing from the stumps of previous woods, crowded^
somewhat stunted, spindling ; not beautiful individually, but, in
combination forming impressive masses of foliage. It not only
contains no lake, permanent pool or stream of water, but it
commands no distant water view. It includes no single natural
feature of distinguished beauty or popular interest. It is in
all parts underlaid by ledges which break out at some points
in a bold and picturesque way, at others in such a manner
only as to make barren patches, with scanty vegetation that
wilts and becomes shabby in dry, hot weather. It is thickly
strewn with boulders ; even in parts where the surface appears
smooth and clear, their presence just below it generally becomes
obvious in dry weather, and they are turned out by the plough
in great numbers. Any fine cultivation of the ground will be
comparatively costly. It is not generally adaptable at moderate
expense for lawn-like treatment, nor to the development of what
are commonly, though perhaps not accurately, regarded as the
beauties of landscape gardening. As a whole, it is rugged,
intractable, and as little suitable to be worked to conditions
harmonious with urban elegance as the site of the Back Bay
Drainage Basins, Mount Royal Park at Montreal, East Rock
Park at New Haven, or Arthur's Seat at Edinburgh.

It is on the borders of the city, remote from its more popu-
lous quarters, remote, also, from any of its excellent water
highways, and out of the line of its leading land thorough-
fares.

What can be said for the property as a whole is this : That
there is not within or near the city any other equal extent of
ground of as simple, and pleasingly simple, rural aspect. It
has been at various points harshly gashed by rudely engineered
roads, scarred by quarries and gravel-pits, and disruralized by
artificially disposed trees and pseudo-rustic structures, but,
considering its proximity to the compact town, it has remarka-
bly escaped disturbances of this character.

41
II.

THE PUBPOSE OF THE PLAN.

Under this head a distinction is to be made which is of criti-
cal importance. It is a distinction so rarely regarded in garden-
ing works, or in engineering or architectural works nominally
subsidiary to gardening works, that a strong prejudice of mental
habit will be found to be working against a complete entertain-
ment of it. It will be necessary, therefore, to set it forth
painstakingly and to justify insistence upon it. An indolent
indisposition to be bothered with it has added greatly to the
taxes of several cities.

What is the special purpose of a large park in distinction
from the various purposes that may be served by such smaller
grounds as Boston is provided with ?

In the first division of these pages reference has been made
to the manner in which various evils of town life, by the intro-
duction of one special expedient after another, have been grad-
ually so well contended with, that in cities that at present have
several times the population they had in the last century, much
less time is now lost than then to productive industry; the
average length of life much advanced, and the value of life
augmented. The evils in question have been for the most part
intangible, and to those who were not close students of them
have been considered inscrutable ; not to be measured and reck-
oned up like the evils of fire and flood, famine, war, and law-
lessness. Consequently plans for overcoming them have always
been regarded for a time as fanciful, and those urging them
as theorists and enthusiasts. For a time, no city outlays hgve
been so grudgingly made or given so much dissatisfaction to
taxpayers as those required to advance measures of this class.
Looking back upon their results, after a few years, it is admit-
ted that no other money has been so profitably expended. No
one thinks that they were untimely or were advanced too rap-
idly.

Of this class of evils there is one rapidly growing in Boston,
in contention with which nothing has yet been accomplished.
It is an evil dependent on a condition involved in the purpose
of placing many stacks of artificial conveniences for the inter-
change of services closely together. It may be suggested if
not explained (for evils of this class are seldom fully explaina-
ble) in this way.

A man^s eyes cannot he as much occupied as they are in large
cities hy artificial thijigs, or by natural things seen under obvi-
ously artificial conditions, without a harmful effect, first on his
mental and Jiervous system and ultimately on his entire constitu-
tional organization.

That relief from this evil is to be obtained through recrea-
tion is often said, without sufficient discrimination as to the
nature of the recreation required. The several varieties of
recreation to be obtained in churches, newspapers, theatres,
picture galleries, billiard rooms, base ball grounds, trotting
courses, and flower gardens, may each serve to supply a miti-
gating influence. An influence is desirable, however, that, act-
ing through the eye, shall be more than mitigative, that shall
be antithetical, reversive, and antidotal. Such an influence is
found in what, in notes to follow, will be called the enjoyment
of pleasing rural scenery.

But to understand what will be meant by this term as here
to be used, two ideas must not be allowed to run together, that
few minds are trained to keep apart. To separate them let it
be reflected, first, that the word beauty is commonly used with
respect to two quite distinct aspects of the things that enter
visibly into the composition of parks and gardens. A little
violet or a great magnolia blossom, the frond of a fern, a carpet
of fine turf of the form and size of a prayer rug, a block of
carved and polished marble, a vase or a jet of water, — in the
beauty of all these things unalloyed pleasure may be taken in
the heart of a city. And pleasure in their beauty may be en-
hanced by aggregations and combinations of them, as it is in

arrangement of bouquets and head-dresses, the decoration of the
dinner-tables, window-sills and dooryards, or, in a more com-
plex and largely effective way, in such elaborate exhibitions
of high horticultural art as the city maintains in the Public
Garden.

But there is a pleasure-bringing beauty in the same class of
objects — foliage, flowers, verdure, rocks, and water — not to
be enjoyed under the same circumstances or under similar com-
binations ; a beauty which appeals to a different class of human
sensibilities, a beauty the art of securing which is hardly more
akin with the art of securing beauty on a dinner-table, a win-
dow-sill, a dooryard, or an urban garden, than the work of the
sculptor is akin with the work of the painter.

Let beauty of the first kind be called here urban beauty, not
because it cannot be had elsewhere than in a city, but because
the distinction may thus, for the sake of argument in this par-
ticular case, be kept in mind between it and that beauty of the
same things which can only be had clear of the confinement of
a city, and which it is convenient therefore to refer to as the
beauty of rural scenery.

Now as to this term scenery, it is to be borne in mind that
we do not speak of what may be observed in the flower and
foliage decorations of a dinner-table, window-sill, or dooryard,
scarcely of what may be seen in even a large urban garden,
as scenery. Scenery is more than an object or a series of
objects ; more than a spectacle, more than a scene or a series
of scenes, more than a landscape, and other than a series of
landscapes. Moreover, there may be beautiful scenery in
which not a beautiful blossom or leaf or rock, bush or tree, not
a gleam of water or of turf shall be visible. But there is no
beautiful scenery that does not give the mind an emotional
impulse different from that resulting from whatever beauty may
be found in a room, courtyard, or garden, within which vision
is obviously confined by walls or other surrounding artificial
constructions.

It is necessary to be thus and even more particular in
defining the term used to denote the paramount purpose

embodied in the plan of Franklin Park, because many men,
having a keen enjoyment of certain forms of beauty in vegeta-
tion, and even of things found only in the country, habitually
class much as rural that is not only not rural, but is even the
reverse of rural as that term is to be here used.

For example : in a region of undulating surface with a
meandering stream and winding valleys, with much naturally
disposed wood, there is a house with outbuildings and enclo-
sures, roads, walks, trees, bushes, and flowering plants. If the
constructions are of the natural materials of the locality and
not fashioned expressly to manifest the wealth or art of the
builders, if they are of the texture and the grain and the hues
that such materials will naturally become if no effort to hide
or disguise them is made, if the lines of the roads and walks
are adapted to curves of the natural surface, and if the trees
and plants are of a natural character natui-ally disposed, the
result will be congruous with the general natural rural scenery
of the locality, its rural quality being, perhaps, enhanced by
these unobtrusive artificial elements. But in such a situation
it oftener than otherwise occurs that customs will be followed
which had their origin in a desire to obtain results that should
be pleasing, not through congruity with pleasing natural rural
circumstances, but through incongruity with them. Wh}'-?
Simply because those designing them had been oppressed
by a monotony of rural scenery, and desired to find relief
from it, and because also they desired to manifest the
triumph of civilized forces over nature. And on account
of the general association with rural scenery of things deter-
mined by fashions originating in these desires, they are care-
lessly thought of as rural things, and the pleasure to be de-
rived from them is esteemed a part of the pleasure taken in
rural scenery.

It thus happens that things come to be regarded as elements
of rural scenery which are simply cheap and fragmentary
efforts to realize something of the pleasingness which the
countryman finds in the artificiajlness of the city. This is why,
to cite a few examples familiar to every one, wooden houses

are fashioned in forms and with decorations copied from
houses of masonry, and why the wood of them is not left of
its natural color, or given a tint harmonious with natural
objects, but for distinction's sake smeared over with glistening
white lead. This is the reason why trees are transplanted
from natural to unnatural situations about houses so treated,
why they are formally disposed, why forms are preferred for
them to be obtained only by artificial processes, as grafting,
pruning, and shearing ; why shrubs are worked into fantastic
shapes that cannot possibly be mistaken for natural growths ;
why groups are made studiously formal, why the trunks of trees
are sometimes whitewashed ; why rocks too heavy to be put
out of sight are cleared of their natural beauty, and even some-
times also whitewashed; why flowering plants are often ar-
ranged as artificially as the stones of a mosaic pavement ; why
pools are furnished with clean and rigid stone margins and jets
of water thrown from them ; why specimens of rustic work and
of rock work are displayed conspicuously that have been plainly
designed to signalize, not to subordinate or soften, the artifi-
cialness of artificial conveniences.

Defining the purpose of the plan of Franklin Park to be
that of placing within the easy reach of the people of the city
the enjoyment of such a measure as is practicable of rural
scenery, all such misunderstanding of the term as has thus been
explained must be guarded against.

That rural scenery has the effect alleged, of counteracting a
certain oppression of town life, is too well established to need
argument, but as the manner of its action will have a practical
bearing on the purpose of the plan, the circumstance may be
recalled that the evil to be met is most apt to appear in
excessive nervous tension, over-anxiety, hasteful disposition,
impatience, irritability, and that the grateful effect of a con-
templation of pleasing rural scenery is proverbially regarded
as the reverse of this. It is, for example, of the enjoyment of
this pleasure, and not simply of air and exercise, that Emerson
says, "It soothes and sympathizes," that Lowell says, "It pours

oil and wine on the smarts of the mind," and which Ruskin
describes as " absolute peace."

It is not an easy matter, in the immediate outskirts of a great
city, to make a provision of scenery which shall be so far rural
in character and pleasing in effect as to have a high degree of
the influence desired.

Some wise men are accustomed to ridicule the earlier result of
efforts to that end by comparing it with scenery remote from
cities the rurality of which owes nothing to human care. But
these higher examples not being available for the frequent use
of the mass of the people of a city, it is only a question whether a
result is to be gained under such conditions as are offered in
the site of Franklin Park which shall be of so much value in
this respect that it will be worth more than it will cost. And,
in considering this question, it is to be borne in mind that the
purpose requires no elements of scenery of a class that would
induce sensational effects. It will be answered in a measure

— it is a question whether it may not even be better answered

— by scenery that may be comparatively characterized as tame
and homely. It is almost certainly better that the aim in
overcoming the difficulties of securing such scenery should be
modest, provided a modest aim can be sustained, and the temp-
tation to put it out of countenance by bits of irrelevant finery
resisted.

Given sufficient space, scenery of much simpler elements
than are found in the site of Franklin Park may possess the
soothing charm which lies in the qualities of breadth, distance,
depth, intricacy, atm.ospheric perspective, and mystery. It may
have picturesque passages (that is to say, more than picturesque
objects or picturesque "bits "). It may have passages, indeed,
of an aspect approaching grandeur and sublimity.

It is to be feared that there are some who may be inclined to
question if a considerable degree of refined culture, such as is
common only to the more worldly fortunate, is not necessary to
enable one to enjoy the charm of rural scenery sympathetically

with Wordsworth, Emerson, Ruskin, and Lowell. To enjoy it
intellectually, yes ; to be affected by it, made healthier, better,
happier by it, no. The men who have done the most to draw
the world to the poetic enjoyment of nature have, in large part,
come from lowly homes, and been educated in inexpensive
schools. Burns, the ploughboy, was one such, known to all.
Millet, whose works are honored in the stateliest houses, was a
peasant in habit, manner, and associations all his life long.
Leon Bonvin, whose pathetic love of the most modest natural
scenery was illustrated in Harper's Magazine of last December,
was by vocation the bar-keeper of a wayside tavern. And in
thinking of this question, especially with reference to a major-
ity of the people of Boston, it is well to remember a phrase
used by Dr. Shairp in his treatise on the Poetic Interpretation
of Nature. Speaking of Wordsworth and his sister, he says
that the woman was the greater poet of the two, " only not
a literary poet." Poetic sensibility is one thing; inclination
and capacity to give coherent form to poetic sentiment another.
The following is an account by Mrs. Gaskell of the poorer
sort of the humblest work-people of Manchester, England, and
is drawn from life, as any one chancing to be in that town on a
fine summer holiday may test. Abating something from the
grandeur of the trees, similar scenes have been witnessed
during the past summer in the new Brooklyn, Buffalo, and
Philadelphia parks, and in the yet hardly begun Beardsley
Park of Bridgeport. It is a question of time and of a whole-
somely restrained ambition when they shall be seen, in Franklin
Park.

" He was on the verge of a green area, shut in by magnificent
trees in all the glory of their early foliage, before the summer
heat had deepened their verdure into one rich monotonous tint.
And hither came party after party — old men and maidens,
young men and children. Whole families trooped along after
the guiding fathers, who bore the youngest in their arms or
astride upon their backs, while they turned round occasionally
to the wives, with whom they shared some fond local remem-
brance. For years has Dunham Park been the favorite resort
of the Manchester work-people. Its scenery presents such a

complete contrast to the whirl and turmoil of Manchester. . . .
Depend upon it, this sylvan repose, this accessible quiet, this
lapping the soul in green images of the country, forms the most
complete contrast to a town's person, and consequently has
over such the greatest power of charm. . . . Far away in the dis-
tance, now sinking, now falling, now swelling and clear came a
ringing peal of children's voices, blended together in one of
those psalm tunes which we are all of us familiar with, and
which bring to mind the old, old days when we, as wondering
children, were first led to worship ' Our Father ' by those beloved
ones who have since gone to the more perfect worship.

"Holy was that distant choral praise, even to the most
thoughtless; and when it, in fact, was ended, in the instant's
pause during which the ear awaits the repetition of the air, they
caught the noontide hum and buzz of the myriads of insects
who danced away their lives in the glorious day ; they heard
the swaying of the mighty woods in the soft but resistless
breeze, and then again once more burst forth the merry jests
and the shouts of childhood, and again the elder ones resumed
their happy talk as they lay or sat ' under the greenwood tree.'

"But the day drew to an end; the heat declined, the birds
once more began their warblings, the fresh scents hung about
plant and tree and grass, betokening the fragrant presence of
the reviving dew. . . . As they trod the meadow path once
more, they were joined by many a party they had encountered
during the day, all abounding in happiness, all full of the day's
adventures.

"Long cherished quarrels had been forgotten, new friend-
ships formed. Fresh tastes and higher delights had been im-
parted that day. We have all of us our look now and then,
called up by some noble or loving thought (our highest on
earth) which will be our likeness in heaven. I can catch the
glance on many a face, the glancino^ light of the cloud of glory
from heaven, which is our home. That look was present on
many a hard-worked, wrinkled countenance as they turned
backwards to catch a longing, lingering look at Dunham Woods,
fast deepening into blackness of night, but whose memory was
to haunt in greenness and freshness many a loom and workshop
and factory with images of peace and beauty."

in.

A EEVTBW OP THE PLAN BY DIVISIONS.

As to Local Names to he used in the following Review. — For
convenience of reference, names have been given on the draw-
ing to various localities. Some of these have been found in
use, as Abbotswood, Glen Road, and Rock Hill, In most
of the others, old homestead names of the neighborhood are
recalled, a choice from among them having been made of such
as would couple not too roughly with appropriate terminals.
ScABBOEO Hill, Hagboene Hill, Waittv^ood, Rock Mor-
ton, and Ellicottdale are examples. Some of this class
were suggested by the late Francis D. Drake, author of a His-
tory of Roxbury, shortly before his lamented death; others
have been obtained from Colonial records of the park property,
found at the Registrar's office of Norfolk County. Nazing-
dale is from the birthplace of the first settlers. Long
Cb-OUCH was the Colonial name of the road now known as
Seaver Street, adjoining the woods to which it is given in the
drawing. Old Tbail Road is nearly on the line of the Indian
footpath used in the earlier communications between Boston
and Plymouth. The name Resting Place marks a shady
knoll upon which the first military company formed in the
Colonies with the purpose of armed resistance to British author-
ity rested on its march home after the fight at Lexington.
The captain and lieutenant of the company were both of fami-
lies that at one time had homes on the park lands, and from
them the names Heathfield and Pierbepont Road are
taken.

The region named The Wilderness is referred to in records
of the early part of the last century as "the Rocky Wilderness
Land." Playstead is an old designation of a rural play-
ground, Steading of the offices of a rural estate. Greeting
refers to the purpose of a promenade. Country Park is a
term used to mark the intended distinction of character be-
tween Franklin Park and other public grounds of the city in a
report made by Alderman, now Mayor, O'Brien in 1877.
Schoolmaster Hill is so named in allusion to the circum-
stance that William Emerson and his brother, Ralph Waldo,
while keeping school in Roxbury, lived in a house on the east

side of this hill. Private letters of Emerson are preserved in
which he refers fondly to the wildness and rurality of the
neighborhood.

As to the map. — The broad sheet that has been spoken of in
the Introduction can be folded and carried in the pocket, and
it is intended that copies of it shall be exhibited at different
favorable points on the park site, with indices to the position
on the ground of the more salient features of the plan. The
drawing will best meet the intention with which it is prepared
if it is examined on the ground with some exercise of the imag-
ination, being considered as a map of what may be expected
should the plan be carried out, the usual limitations of a map
being had in mind.

In the review of the plan by divisions presently to be made,
the verbal observations upon the broad sheet will be repeated,
but in a slightly extended form, Avitii a statement of some addi-
tional particulars, and with special reference to readers intend-
ing to look over the ground as just suggested.

The " limitations of a map " advised to be had in mind will
be understood if it is reflected that a map of Boston would give
a stranger but little idea of what he would see if he were walk-
ing the streets of the city; still less of that more important
part that exists under its roofs.

Seen from above, the trees of even a half-grown park would
hide the outlines of the principal part of its roads, walks, and
other surface constructions. Hence in a map designed to
exhibit the general plan of a park, the woods, which will be
the most important element of its scenery, can be but vaguely
and incompletely represented; and bushes beneath trees, not
at all.

Again, if it were attempted to show by the ordinary method of
map-makers those variations of the surface which, next to the
woods, are the most important features of the design, the draw-
ing would be too complicated to fairly exhibit the plan of the
work to be done. To avoid the obscurity which would thu&
occur, figures are given on the drawing, by which the relative
elevation of the ground at various points may be determined.
The more important swellings and depressions are also indicated
by names ending in "hill" or "dale."

If the drawing is taken on the ground where the existing
hills and valleys can be seen, and if these and the principal
existing masses of foliage are regarded as fixed features, the

observer may with little personal trouble readily form a good
general idea of what is projected. The conventional signs for
foliage show, according as they are closely clustered, scattered,
or wanting, the intended division into wooded, semi-wooded,
and open turf -land ; the positions of the principal outcrops of
rock are indicated ; the various routes for opening the scenery
of the park to exhibition, in carriage, saddle, horse, and foot
travel, are conspicuously lined out, and sites for the few struc-
tures necessary to public convenience are plainly shown.

It is to be considered in observing the position of these
structures on the ground, that they are designed, as are all the
artificial objects of the park, to be kept as low as will be con-
sistent with their several purposes of utility, that their walls
are to be of the stones of the locality, with weather stained and
lichen mottled faces, and that they are to be so set in among
rocks and foliage that, with a single not very marked exception,
they will be seen only on near approach by those wishing to use
them, and not at all by visitors following the walks, drives, and
rides of the main circuit. The bolder ledges, on the other
hand, will be rather more open to view than they now are.
The woods, again, as they generally occupy the more elevated
ground, will be relatively more prominent than they appear in
the drawing.

It has been considered necessary to public convenience that
the park should be divided by a road crossing it from Blue
Hill Avenue to Forest Hill Street, and that this should be open
night and day for all ordinary street uses as the park roads will
not be. Also that a considerable space of ground should be
open for pleasure use after daylight ; that this space should be
lightable in such a manner that no part of it will be in dark
shadow, and to this end that it should be free from underwood,
low-headed trees or other conditions offering facilities for con-
cealment. (To keep all of the park open at night, making it a,
safe and decorous place of resort, would greatly augment its.
running expenses without securing an adequate return.)

The only favorable line for the cross-road is one correspond-
ing nearly with the present Glen Road. (The following dia-
gram represents the outline of the park property. Glen Road,.
passes from A to B.) Such a road will divide the park:

into two parts, as Charles Street divides the Common from
the Public Garden. The division on the side furthest from
the compact part of the city
will contain two-thirds of the
ground, and this being en-
closed by itself may be con-
sidered as the main park.

The ground on the other
side is designed to answer pur-
poses relatively to the main
park analogous to those of
a fore-court, portico, and recep-
tion room, with minor apart-
ments opening from them for
various special uses, and to

which it is desirable access should be had at all times with-
out entering the main park. It may be called the ante-park.
From the ante-park there are to be two general entrances to
the main park and an additional entrance for foot visitors.

For convenience in explaining the plan, the park must be con-
sidered as further subdivided as indicated by the black lines of
the diagram below, but it must not be imagined that these lines
will be obvious in looking over the ground. They are in part
imaginary, and where not so will have the effect of barring the
view or creating disunity of scenery less than an ordinary coun-
try road would do. Corresponding to letters on the diagram,
names will be used to designate the several divisions as follows :

^)/'^'i -^ The Country Park.

'^'^ - '' B The Play stead.

C The Greeting.
D The Music Court.
E The Little Folks' Fair.
F The Peer Park.
G Eefectory Hill.
H Sargent's Field.
I Long Crouch Woods.
J The Steading.
K The Nursery.

The distinctive purpose to which each of these divisions is
to be fitted will now be stated, the more comprehensive land-
scape design which includes them all being afterwards de-
scribed.

A. The Country Park (before referred to as the main park)
is designed to be prepared and taken care of exclusively with
reference to the enjoyment of rural scenery, that is to say, if
it is to be used for any other purpose, it is meant that its
advantages for that other purpose shall have accrued at no
appreciable sacrifice of advantages for this primary and domi-
nating purpose.

The division will be a mile long and three quarters of a mile
wide. Natural scenery of much value for the purpose in view
cannot be permanently secured in a tract of land of diversified
surface of these limits with a great city growing about it, if
the essential elements of such scenerj^ are to be divided, adul-
terated, or put out of countenance by artificial objects, at all
more than is necessary to its protection and to the reasonable
convenience of those seeking the special benefits offered. The
plan proposes, therefore, that in the Country Park nothing shall
be built, nothing set up, nothing planted, as a decorative fea-
ture ; nothing for the gratification of curiosity, nothing for the
advancement or popularization of science. These objects are
provided for suitably in the Public Garden, the Arboretum, and
other grounds of the city. No other city in America has as
good arrangements for them.

To sustain the designed character of the Country Park, the
urban elegance generally desired in a small public or private
pleasure ground is to be methodically guarded against. Turf,
for example, is to be in most parts preferred as kept short by
sheep, rather than by lawn mowers ; well known and long tried
trees and bushes to rare ones ; natives to exotics ; humble field
flowers to high-bred marvels ; plain green leaves to the blotched,
spotted and fretted leaves, for which, in decorative gardening,
there is now a passing fashion. Above all, cheap, tawdry, cock-
neyfied garden toys, such as are sometimes placed in parks
incongruously with all their rural character, are to be eschewed.

But a poor, shabby, worn, patchy, or in any way untidy rural-
ity is equally to be avoided with fragments of urban and sub-
urban finery. In this respect the park is designed to be an
example of thoroughly nice, though modest and somewhat
homespun housekeeping.

The site of the Country Park is in most parts rugged, every-
where undulating. Where there are no outcropping ledges,
solid rock is often close under the surface, and where it is not,
there is in many places almost a pavement of boulders. Com-
pared with that of most public parks, the surface soil is poor^
while the subsoil is stony and hard. For these reasons, when
the natural surface is much trampled and worn it becomes an
inert dust, pernicious to vegetation. It cannot, therefore, be
prepared to resist the wear of athletic sports without undue
expense.

Under wise regulations and with considerate customs of use,
for the establishment of which the good will of the people
must be engaged, the site of the Country Park will be found
happily adapted to its special distinctive purpose. But it can
be wisely used for no recreations which would tend to the de-
struction of its verdant elements ; for none not of the class of
those in which women and children may not and do not cus-
tomarily take part. The plan looks to its being maintained in
quietness ; quietness both to the eye and the ear. A grateful
serenity may be enjoyed in it by many thousand people at a
time, if they are not drawn into throngs by spectacular attrac-
tions, but allowed to distribute themselves as they are other-
wise likely to do.

As will soon be shown, the intention of the plan of the
park, as a whole, is that from no part of this Country Park
division of it shall anything in any other of its divisions be
visible, or, at most, be noticeable, except rock, turf, and trees,
and these only in harmonious composition with the natural
scenery of the Country Park. A large part of the Country
Park is to be wooded, and adapted to the use of picnic and
basket parties, especially small family parties. Various con-
veniences for these are to be prepared. Tennis courts, croquet

grounds, archer j ranges, and small lawns for children's festivi-
ties, are provided for in connection with suitable picnic grounds
in the several districts which are named on the Commissioners'
map — The Wilderness, Juniper Sill, Waittwood, Heatlifield^
Rock Milton, Rock Morton; on the western slopes of Scarhoro
Mill and in Abhotswood.

Near the picturesque declivity and hanging wood of School-
master's Hill, several small level places are designed to be
formed by rough terracing on the hillside. Each of these is
to be covered by vines on trellises, and furnished with tables
and seats. Most of the arbors so formed look, at considerable
elevation and advantageously, upon the broadest and quietest
purely pastoral scene that the park can offer. These arbors
are intended especially for the use of family basket parties. A
small house is placed among them, to contain an office for the
superintendence of the district, a parcel room and closets, and
at which hot water for making tea can be had without charge.
The house is to be placed and the other conveniences are to
be so sheltered by existing trees and vines to be grown upon
the trellises that they will be invisible except to those seeking
them.

At a point central to all the picnic and basket party grounds
that have been named, Abbotswood excepted, the map shows a
space of unbroken turf, about eight acres in extent, named Elli-
cottdale, with a winding margin, which is generally rocky and
shady. This ground is now for the most part boggy, and its
surface strewn with boulders. The design is to convert it into
a meadow adapted to be used (in the manner of the Long
Meadow of the Brooklyn Park) for lawn games, such as tennis
and croquet. On the north side of it another small house is
provided, at which parties wishing to play will obtain assign-
ments of ground, and can leave outer garments and store or
hire needed implements. The position of this house is in a
recess of the margin, near a great knuckle of rock and a large
oak tree on the east side.*

* In Brooklyn nearly every religious organization of the city, Catholic and
Protestant, has an annual picnic in the Paris. During the last year permits

The district last described and the circumjacent picnic
groves may be approached by a walk coming from William
Street. The entrance at this point is arranged with a view to
a terminus and turning place of a street railroad ; and to avoid
compelling women and children to pass through a throng of
carriages, the walk from it to EUicottdale passes the circuit
drive of the Park by a subway.

South of the Meadow last described a walk and a narrow
branch of the main drive will be seen on the map winding up
the steep and rocky woodside of Scarboro Hill to a resting-
place upon the summit, where a temporary shelter for visitors
now stands. Half-way up the hill, where a level shelf may be
found under a steep ledge, buildings are shown marked
"Datry." The Refectory, on the opposite side of the Park,
being intended to supply more substantial refreshments, and
to accommodate considerable numbers, the Dairy is designed,
first, to provide the necessities of picnic parties in this part of
the Park ; second, to supply to all a few simple refreshments,
such as are to be recommended for children and invalids, more
especially fresh dairy products of the best quality. Cows are
to be kept in an apartment separated from the main room by a

were given to seven hundred and fifty parties to occupy ground for the purpose.
Of these parties, three hundred numbered above one hundred and fifty person:,
each, and one twenty-five hundred persons. On the 24;th of May last, twelve
thousand children paraded on the Meadow under the observation of forty thou-
sand spectators. Seven hundred small parties of children applied for and
obtained the use of swings under special superintendence. The Commissioners
in their Annual Report say that the custom of taking children to a distance for
picnics has been generally given up in Brooldyn, the use of the Park being
found more convenient, cheaiDer, and safer. The Park keepers, diu-ing the last
year, retm-ned to their parents fiity little children who had strayed away while
playing in the Park. Permits were given to more than four hundred lawn
tennis clubs, with an average membership of ten persons each, haK of whom
were young women, to occupy courts on the Park, and to many others for
archery and croquet. These items show to some extent what an excellent,
popular, innocent, and wholesome use is made of the Park daring tbe hot
montlis.

glass partition, as in the famous exquisite dairies of Holland
and Belgium ; and those who desire it are to be furnished with
milk warm from the cow, as in St. James's Park, London.
Fowls are also to be kept and new-laid eggs supplied. Imme-
diately east of the grove in which this house will stand lies the
principal expanse of turf of the Country Park. This is in-
tended to be cropped with sheep, and a court with sheds south
of the dairy and connecting with its cow-house is for the
foldingc of the flock at nis^ht. The district of which this estab-
lishment is the centre slopes toward the prevailing summer
breeze; is sheltered on the north; is already agreeably wooded,
and will be a place at which invalids and mothers with little
children may be advised to pass the best part of the day.

B. The Play stead. This is a field of turf, thirty acres in
extent (the most nearly flat ground on the property, little
broken by rock), designed to be used for the athletic recrea-
tion and education of the city's schoolboys, for occasional civic
ceremonies and exhibitions, and for any purpose likely to draw
spectators in crowds. The ground about EUicottdale not being
adapted to accommodate many spectators, for example, and a
crowd being undesirable at any point in the Country Park, if a
parade of school children, such as occurs in the Brooklyn Park
every year, were to be made, this would be the place for it. " The
Overlook," on its left, is an elevated platform for spectators. It
is eight hundred feet long, covering a barren ledge which would
otherwise be disagreeably prominent. It is built of boulders
obtained in clearing the Playstead, which are to be mainly over-
grown with vegetation befitting the form and material of the
structure, adapted to harmonize it with the natural scenery, and
make it unobtrusive. The Overlook will be in the shade of
existing trees during the afternoon, and spectators will look
away from the sun. Among these trees, in a depression of the
rocks, a rectangular block appears on the map. This stands
for a structure which will supply a platform, to be covered by a
roof, to serve as a retreat for visitors during summer showers,
and in the basement a station for park keepers, with a lock-up,
a woman's retiring-room, a coat-room, lavatory for players, and

closets. An arched passage through the wall of the Overlook
gives admission to it from the Play stead.

C. The Greeting. This division is to be wholly occupied by
a series of parallel and contiguous drives, rides and walks, a
double length of each, under rows of trees forming a Prome-
nade, or Meeting Ground, of the Alameda type, half a mile in
length. Monumental, architectural, and various decorative ad-
juncts are here admissible, but not essential. There are suita-
ble positions for statues, water-jets, "baskets" of flowers,
bird-cages, etc. The Playstead and the Greeting are to be
without underwood, and adapted with electric lighting for
night as well as day use. Together they will form an unen-
closed ground, reaching across the Park, nearly a mile in
length.

D. The Music Court. A sylvan ampitheatre adapted to
concerts.

E. The Little Folks' Fair. A division for childish entertain-
ments, to be furnished with Swings, Scups, See-saws, Sand Courts,
Flying Horses, Toy Booths, Marionettes, Goat Carriages, Don-
key Courses, Bear Pits, and other amusing exercises and ex-
hibitions, mostly to be provided by lessees and purveyors, to be
licensed for the purpose.

F. The Deer Park. This will supply a range for a small
herd to be seen from the Greeting. Most of the ground, owing
to the thinness of the soil over a flattish ledge, cannot be adapted
to occupation by the public, or to be planted, except at exces-
sive expense.

G. Refectory Sill. A place for refreshments, to be princi-
pally served from the house shown, out of doors, under a large
pergola, or vine-clad trellis, upon a terrace formed in the man-
ner of the Playstead Overlook. From this terrace extensive
sylvan prospects open, one of which will be later referred to.
In the rear of the Refectory building, across a carriage-court,
there is a circular range of horse-sheds for the use of visitors.

H. Sargent's Field. This ground being comparatively free
from rock, and to be easily brought to a nearly level surface
of good turf, tennis courts and a small ball ground may be pro-

vided in it ; the object being to save players coming from the
east from walking further to reach a playing ground, and to
provide a place for players in general to go to, when on holidays
the Playstead shall be reserved for other uses. Until found to
be needed, it may with advantage be made a part of the Deer
Park.

I. Long Crouch Woods. A rambling ground, with sheltered
southwestern slopes, to be held subject to lease to a suitable
organization for a Zoological Garden.

J. The Steading. A rocky, sterile knoll, reserved for the
Commissioners' offices, within a screen of woods.

K. The Nursery. Depressed ground, to be used, when ade-
quate drainage outlets for this part of the city shall have been
provided, for a service garden.

Border Ground. The streets by which the property taken
for the park is bounded, are generally laid down on this plan as
if moderately enlarged from the present thoroughfares (which
at various points are but narrow lanes) and with a sidewalk on
the park side, at such varying distances from the wheelway as
may be necessary to avoid, in forming them, the destruction of
fine trees and. the cost of excessive grading. This arrangement
is made practicable by setting back park fences and other
obstructions fifty to eighty feet from the wheelways. In this
way, also, a much larger widening of the wheelways than is
suggested by the drawing can be made whenever public conve-
nience will be served by it, without inordinate cost. In a few
cases, for short distances, streets are shown as they may be
improved by a slight taking of private land. This is to avoid
heavy outlay for grading and the destruction of fine natural
features on the park side of the present roads — as where, for
example, rocky eminences of the park have their bases in the
street. It is suggested that Canterbury Street should be
widened ten feet opposite the park in order to avoid injury to
the fine trees now growing in the park close to the street.

It is suggested on the drawing, also, that at the Williams Street
entrance to the park the course of Forest Hills Street should
be made more direct, and the grade improved by throwing it

entirely into the park; and that some other variations from the
present arrangements should be effected with a view to greater
public convenience. To avoid interruption of pleasure travel
bv funeral processions, and to improve passage around the park,
a short cross-road is planned opposite Forest Hills Cemetery,
passing the park drive by a subway (LL in the index map).
A short new street in extension of Sigourney Street is suggested
to facilitate passage around the park. A small piece of land is
proposed to be taken into the park at the corner of Sigourney
Street to avoid awkward complications. The land proposed to
be thrown out of the park property for all these purposes of
street improvement is much larger than that to be taken in.

A direct apjproach to the park from Boylston Station of the
Providence Railroad, is suggested by an extension of the pres-
ent Boylston Street to the Playstead entrance. By this route
a thousand men could, in half an hour, be transferred in a body
from the Common to the Playstead.

IV.

A REVIEW OF THE GEISTBEAX, LANDSCAPE DESIGN.

Suitable provision has not commonly been made in the first
laying out of a large city park for the puposes of the Greeting
and the Music Court. Wherever it has not, ground that
could only be poorly adapted to these purposes, and this at
heavy cost, has generally come, in after years, to be used for
them. It is best to avoid this danger. The best arrangements
will be of a formal character, and these can be best provided
on the site of Franklin Park, in the locality indicated, near the
east corner. This not only has topographical advantages for
the ends in view, but it is at such a distance from, and stands
tjo related to, the Country Park, that great throngs upon it will
in no wise disturb the desired serenity of the latter. The
formal arrangement of trees within this division, and the small
structures that will be required in the adjoining Little Folks'

Fair Ground, will not be observable except upon close
approach, the rows of trees being so flanked by the outer,
naturally disposed trees that, seen at a short distance in con-
nection with the latter, they will have the effect of a forest
growth.

Setting aside these two features, which stand to the rest of
the park somewhat in the relation of the dwelling-house to a
private park, except that care is taken to place them in land-
scape obscurity, the landscape design may be understood by
considering that the intention is to make no change in any of
the present leading features of the ground except with the pur
pose of giving a fuller development, aggrandizement, and
emphasis to what are regarded as the more interesting and
effective existing elements of their scenery, and of taking out
or subordinating elements that neutralize or conflict with
those chosen to be made more of. This first, and second, the
sequestration, as far as possible, of the scenery of the park so
that the outer scenery, to be formed by the gradual growing of
the city about it, and which will necessaril}' be conflicting in
expression, sentiment, and association with it, may be kept out
of sight.

The latter purpose accounts more particularly for the woods
which, it will be seen, are intended to be formed where no
woods now are, along the borders of the Country Park ; and
the further to promote seclusion, these and other border trees
are to be imagined as furnished with underwood.

The woods of the Wilderness, after having been much thinned
and trimmed v/ith a view to the growth of the best of them in
sturdier and more umbrageous forms, and to some degree of
grouping and more harmonious companionship, are also to be
interspersed with scattered, irregular thickets of low, sturdy
bushes, not only for picturesqueness, but to keep the ground,
in the more arid parts, better shaded and moister, hide its
barrenness, check rushing movements of visitors, and prevent
the trampling of the drier ground to dust. *

Trees in the Greeting and Playstead are to be all of large
growth, and high stemmed (like those now growing spontane-

ously upon the Playstead), leaving room for light and vision to
range under their branches.

The slope west of Glen Lane where, near the entrance to the
Country Park, drives, rides, and walks come together, is de-
signed to be closely planted with low bushes (shown on the
Commissioners' map, but not on the reduced reproductions),
the object being to obscure the artificial features without mak-
ing a screen between the natural features of the Playstead and
Nazingdale. Looking in this direction from nearly all of the
Playstead quarter there will be an open prospect extending to
the Blue Hills of Milton, five miles away, the first mile within
the park. The proposed plantation along the line of Canter-
bury Street will hide ordinary buildings that may hereafter be
erected between the Park and the Blue Hills, leaving this per-
manently a broad, extended, purely rural prospect. The out-
look westwardly from the hillside ending at the Refectory
terrace will also extend permanently to a distant wooded
horizon formed in part by the tree tops of Forest Hills Ceme-
tery and in part by those of the Arboretum, two miles away,
both these properties, though out of the Park, being preserved
from building by legal enactments, and the objects to which
they are devoted requiring that they should be always over-
grown with trees.

The centre lines of the two broad fields of extended vision
that have been pointed out, cross nearly at right angles, the
point of their crossing being where the Ellicott and Nazing
dales run together, nearly midway between the two hanging
woods of Schoolmaster Hill and Abbotswood crags. This
locality, being at the centre of the property, may be con-
sidered the pivot of the general landscape design. Looking in
the general direction of the lines that have been defined as
crossing it from either of four quarters of the Park, a moder-
ately broad, open view will be had between simple bodies of
forest, the foliage growing upon ground higher than that on
and nea]^ the centre lines. From wherever these larger pros-
pects open, the middle distances will be quiet, slightly hollowed
surfaces of turf or buskets, bracken, sweet-fern, or mosses, the

backgrounds formed by woodsides of a soft, e-^en, subdued
tone, with long, graceful, undulating sky lines, which, accord-
ing to the point of view of the observer on the Park, will be
from one to five miles away. Causeways, trees, rocks, and
knolls interrupting or disturbing the unity, breadth, quiet,
and harmony of these broader open passages of the Park
scenery are to come away. There are none of importance that
are not of artificial origin and easily removable. Trees want-
ing to the results proposed are to be planted and suitably
developed by timely thinning.

A contrast to the fair open part of the Park which has been
thus described will be found in following the circuit road
where it is carried between Scarboro Hill and Rock Morton,
Rock Milton, Waittwood, and Juniper Hill, through a part of
the Wilderness, and between Hagborne and Schoolmaster Hill,
all of the localities named being rugged, rockj^, and designed
to be for the most part somewhat closely planted. A narrow
road is thrown out from and brought back to the circuit drive,
passing by winding courses among the rocks of the upper part
of the Wilderness, by which a higher degree of this character
of scenery (serving as a foil to that of the open dales) may be
enjoyed than it would be practicable to offer in a broad and
much used thoroughfare. The branch drive to the summit
of Scarboro Hill, before described, will serve a similar episodi-
cal purpose.

Comparatively speaking, this western region is picturesque
and romantic ; and the design is to remove what is inconsistent
with this character, and to add, develop, and expose elements
favorable to it.

Drives and Walks. — The roads and walks of the park have
been designed less with a purpose of bringing the visitor to
points of view at which he will enjoy set scenes or landscapes
than to provide for a constant mild enjoyment of simply pleas-
ing rural scenery while in easy movement, and this by curves
and grades avoiding unnecessary violence to nature. There is
not a curve in the roads introduced simply for the sake of
gracefulness. Every turn is suggested by natural circum-

stances. Notwithstanding the rugged surface of tlie larger part
of the site, the circuit drive is at no point steeper than Brom-
field Street between Washington and Tremont, its heaviest
grade being one in twenty-five ; nor are the branch drives at
any point steeper than Brattle Street near Court, the steepest
pitch being one in sixteen. The Greeting is an inclined plane
with a fall from south to north of four feet in half a mile, which
is about the same with that of State Street, or essentially level.
These grades are obtained without much disturbance of natural
features ; the heaviest cutting is in continuance of an excavation
already made for the quarrying of building stone, the heaviest
filling through an adjoining rocky depression. As a general rule,
the surface of the roads is to coincide closely vv^ith the natural
surface, where the natural surface has been hitherto undisturbed.
As far as practicable, it is designed to be slightly below it, so
that the road may be less observable from a distance.

Riding Pad. — From Boylston Bridge, Back Bay Basin, there
will be a shaded pad extending to the Park and through it
from Forest Hills to the main entrance from the Playstead. It
will be six miles long and from twenty-four to thirty feet wide.
There is a double riding course in the Greetings one division in
the central alley, adjoining the carriage promenade, forty feet
wide ; the other in a side alley thirty feet wide.

Enclosures. — The Countr}^ Park is designed to be enclosed
with a wall formed of the field stone drawn from its surface,
the wall to be four feet high and similar to that first built for
the New York Central Park. It is to be draped with vines,
and, though not costly, will be perfectly suitable for a rural
park. If, as the city is built about the park, a wall of more
urban elegance is thought to be required, the stone of the
original wall will be used for its foundation. The present
enclosing wall of the Central Park, which is but a neat, unob-
trusive piece of masonry four feet high on the street side, has
probably cost half a million dollars, and is yet incomplete.

Entrances. — Much pressure is generally brought to bear on
those controlling a park to establish entrances with a view to
neighborhood convenience and favorably to local real estate

speculations. Every entrance is costly in various ways, and
there should be none that can be avoided without incommoding
the general public. The plan provides ten carriage and foot
entrances and eight additional special foot entrances to the park
as a whole, and five carriage entrances and two special foot en-
trances to the Country Park, all at points offering natural facil-
ities of entrance and on easy grades. The average space between
entrances is a little more than in the New York park, a little
less than in most other large parks.

The drives within the park will be about 6 miles in length; bridle-roads,
2 miles; walks, 13 miles.

The Country Park will contain about 334 acres; Playstead, 40 (of playing
ground about 30); Greeting, 19; Music Court, 3; Little Folks' Fair, 14; Deer
Park, 18; Sargent's Field, 8; Long Crouch Woods, 20. (Boston Common is 48
acres in area; the Pubhc Garden, 22. The "Green" of the New York Cen-
tral Park is 16 acres in area ; the "Ball Ground," 10; the "North Meadows,"
19. The Central Park Mall is half the length of the Greeting. )

The area prepared for public recreation of Franklin Park will be 500 acres ;
(of the Central Park, 680; Brooklyn Park, 540. The drives of Central Park
are 9 mUes in length; riding pads, 5; walks, 28).

Part Third,

PAET THIED.

THE KEY OF A CONSERVATIVE PAEK POLICY AND THE COST
OF CARRYING OUT THE PLAN UNDER SUCH A POLICY.

Tece project of a rural park for Boston has been more than
twenty years under consideration. It has been advanced
always deliberately and cautiously. The earlier leaders of the
movement in its favor, most of whom have now retired from
active interest in local public affairs, and many passed away,
were, as a rule, no more anxious to press argument for a rural
park than to press the importance of proceeding toward it by
slow, frugal, and conservative methods. And this disposition
has not only been constant, but has been growing in the com-
munity. There has hardly been a public utterance on the sub-
ject for several years past in which it has not been manifest.
To carry out the scheme that was most prominently before the
public fifteen years ago, would have cost more than double as
much as to carry out that now in view. There is no party,
faction, division, or class of citizens pressing the matter. There
are no strong private interests engaged to force it.

The reasons why Boston should proceed in such an undertak-
ing with exceptional caution are fully realized ; yet, under the
circumstances that have been stated, there can be little danger
in pointing out the possibilities of an extravagant holding back.

Twenty years ago — even ten years ago — Boston was not
conspicuously behind other cities in providing for the rural
recreation of her citizens, but there was an apprehension that,
she might come to be, and a livelier conviction than at present.

that it would be a calamity. In 1869, Mr. Wilder, addressing
a meeting called by the City Council, pointed out that Boston
to sustain her reputation must not only have a park, but the
first park in the country ; and seven years later Mr. Collins, at
a meeting in Fanueil Hall, called to discuss the park question,
asked, " Can Boston afford to be less comfortable to dwell in,
less attractive, less healthy than her sister cities ? "

If such a question was then at all timely, it is now a great deal
more so. There were then but two well advanced rural parks
in America. There are now more than twenty. Every city
that was then at a parallel stage in the discussion of a park
project with Boston, now has that project in a large degree
realized, and is enjoying the profits of it. There is not one city
of America or of Northern Europe distantly approaching to
rank with Boston in population, wealth, and reputation for
refinement which, before unprovided with a park, has not gone
further and moved more positively than Boston to make good
the deficiency. London and Paris, Brussels and Liverpool
have each within a generation twice doubled the area of their
rural recreation grounds. All the cities of the British Islands
thirty years ago possessed but four parks adapted to rural rec-
reation ; they now hold thirty, as large, on an average, as
Franklin Park is intended to be.

There is an impression with some that the civilized world has
been swept by a ruinous rage for parks. Not an instance is
known of a park adapted to provide rural recreation that is
not regarded by those who are paying for it as well worth all it
has cost. No city possessed of a rural park regrets its purchase.
During the last year New York City, which has had the largest
and costliest experience of park-making of any in the world,
has been purchasing land for six additional parks averaging six
hundred acres each in area. This after long and heated debate
as to questions of extent and location, but upon the undisputed
ground, so far as known, that the city's outlay for parks hitherto
has had the effect of reducing rather than increasing taxation-
Philadelphia has a park nearly six times as large as Franklin
Park will be. Chicago has six rural parks, in each of wliich

large works of construction have been completed, and are found
valuable beyond expectation. Even smaller cities than Boston
{as New Haven, Bridgeport, Albany, Buffalo, Montreal) have
provided themselves with rural parks.

It cannot be questioned that a rural park is rapidly coming
to be ranked among the necessities of satisfactory city life, or
that a city that offers simply promises or prospects in this
respect stands at a certain commercial and financial disadvan-
tage— a more decided disadvantage to-day, very much, than it
did when Mr. Wilder or even when Mr. Collins advised atten-
tion to the danger.

At the present stage of the Franklin Park undertaking an-
other consideration enforcing a like caution presents itself.

Land having been acquired, a plan for forming a park upon
it adopted, operations of construction begun, and considerable
resort being had to the ground, the affair is bound to grow in
some fashion. And if the work is to be pursued in a desultory,
intermittent, and unimpressive way, that fashion will not be
altogether the fashion of a desirable rural park. The ground
will be much disordered. by the work, it will be streaked and
scarred, dusty and muddy. There will be an increasing public
use of it; the process of determining the customs of its use
and the manner in which it is to be regarded by the people will
be continuous, and every year something will be done toward
an irretrievable settlement of its character.

In their examination of parks last summer, the Commis-
sioners were struck with the different standard of keeping and
of manners that had evidently become established on different
parks. The keeping in one case was of a sort which in house-
keeping might be described as squalid, and the manners largely
loaferish. In another the keeping was comparatively neat and
efficient, the manners decorous and civil. No matter what may
be ultimately expended for a park, its value cannot fail to be
largely determined by the expectations and usage of it into
which the public is led in the early years of their resort to it.

Boston should continue to practice conservatism with respect
to the park, but there cannot be a greater mistake than to sup-

pose that conservatism will be concerned only to keep down
the current cost of the work, and to this end will be engaged
to impose checks on its progress at every opportunity. Con-
servatism cannot be concerned to have a state of things under
which the leading aim of those in direction of the work is
forced to be that of enlisting public support from year to year,
by producing results from year to year that shall be immedi-
ately pleasing to superficial observation. It cannot fail to be
concerned that the work shall be directed with a wise regard
to what experience may have taught as to conditions of lasting,
growing, and substantial value in works elsewhere of the same
leading purpose.

The cardinal requirement of economy in obtaining such
conditions has never yet been realized by the public in the
early stages of a park work, but it is perfectly plain to any one
who has so closely followed the history of a number of parks
as to be able to compare marked differences in methods of
management and the respective results obtained. It would
take too much space to present an extended comparative state-
ment of this kind, but the lesson it would present may be indi-
cated by reference to a few typical facts.

To realize the full bearing of those that will be cited, it must
be kept freshly in mind, first, that the only justification of the
cost of a large park near a growing city is the necessity of
spaciousness to the production of rural scenery.

Second, it must be remembered that the choicest rural park
scenery is that which, other things being equal, has been long-
est growing, and which has the least of the rawness and smart-
ness of new constructions, and the weak puerilities of new
plantations.

Third, it is to be kept in mind that the oldest part of the
oldest rural park in the country is not yet half grown, and the
primary construction of some of its parts is not even yet
begun.

Take, then, this oldest park and see by what courses it
has come to be what it is, and has been made to cost what
it has.

Its site was determined almost by accident ; no one, when it
was first defined in the bill which became the act establishing
it, giving the least thought to the question whether it was well
adapted to the purpose of a large park ; no one concerned hav-
ing any clear notion what that purpose might be. In fact the
idea in mind was simply this : " The great cities of the old
world have large areas called parks, and they are popular. Let
us have a great area to be called a park. To neutralize con-
flicting local jealousies let us have it as nearly as possible in
the centre of the city's territory." That was thought to be
the common sense of the matter. Not the slightest inquiry
was made as to what sort of land there might be at this central
point, and so thoughtlessly were the boundaries determined
that upwards of a million dollars were judiciously spent after a
few years, to secure an economical modification of them.
Even since this modification a great sum has been expended in
retaining walls and other adjustments between the park and its
bounding streets. A few pages further on, official statistics will
be quoted, further illustrating the costliness of this common
sense proceeding, about which it may be as well to mention
that there was nothing peculiarly American or democratic.
The Emperor of France began the Bois de Boulogne in the
same spirit, trusting to common sense in a matter which was
not one for common sense but for careful study and foresighted
regulation ; fell into blunderings even more humiliating than
those of New York, and was obliged to make an abrupt change
of plan after his work had been put well under way.

There is no important general public purpose now served, or
likely to be served in the future, by the New York Park, for
which if ground had been well selected, and if every step in the
subsequent operations had been well devised with reference to
it, and pursued without unnecessary complexity or confusion,
provisions of equal value might not have been made at half the
cost of those now possessed by the city.

The degree of public unpreparedness at the outset to sustain
such a course, however, may be inferred from the fact that one
of the leading newspapers at that time treated the undertaking

as an affair for the benefit of rich, men — an affair of fashiona-
ble luxury — while another thought that any park in New
York would be so entirely taken possession of by the low,
rowdy, and ruffianly element of the population, that respectable
people would avoid it, and that a woman would not be able to
enter it without compromising her reputation. Each of these
views turns out to have been as wrong as possible. There is
not a church in the city in which rich and poor come together
as satisfactorily to both. And for years after it came into use
there was not a public street of the city in which a woman or
a girl was as secure from rudeness.

The next most instructive circumstance in its history, as far
as it concerns Boston at this time, is the gradual advance of
public opinion toward a correct understanding of the conditions
of the park's value. Such an understanding has not yet, after
twenty-nine years, been universally attained. The papers of
the city are at this moment denouncing a proposition, made in
good faith and urged with elaborate arguments, for introducing
an important new feature into the plan of the park. An inter-
view is publicly reported (in the Sun^ January 15) with a
prominent citizen, who urges in counter-argument not the
waste that would be involved in the value of the park as a
place prepared at great expense for the ready enjoyment of
rural scenery, but what is assumed to be the more practical
objection of the contraction of areas available for games, a use
of the park in which with the present area available for it when
the park is in largest use, but one in several hundred of its
visitors takes part.*

* The New York Tribune, in a leading article of the 10th January, com-
menting on the ijroposition, classes it with a thousand others that one after
another have been urged upon the Park Commissioners, some of which it recalls
as follows: "Persons of quality who delight in steeple-chasing, and those who
pursue the fleet anise-seed bag to its lair, have had an eye upon the rolling
meadows and dense coppices of the Park as an inviting field for manly sport.
Commissioners have been petitioned to throw open the Park as a parade ground
for our citizen soldiery, and space has been asked for tents and enclosures for
popular exhibitions, circuses, shooting-matches, and trials of strength and skill.
Eminent educators have urged that the Park should be planned on the model of
a map of our native land, with miniature states, lakes, and rivers, with every

Twice in the history of this park, after enormous expendi-
tures had been made upon it with the stated purpose of exclud-
ing urban and securing rural scenery, this purpose has been
distinctly and publicly repudiated ; in one case, the Superinten-
dent for the time being, explaining to a reporter of the press
that his leading object was a display of architectural and urban
elegance, and that he had removed certain trees because they
prevented visitors passing through the park from seeing the
stately buildings growing up outside of it.

But although these incidents may seem to argue otherwise,
no one can have long been a reader of New York newspapers
without knowing that the public opinion of the city has of late
years been often aroused to prevent various proceedings upon
the park, running counter to the purpose of rural recreation,
that earlier would have been permitted to pass without objec-
tion. For example, when the trees of the park were yet sap-
lings, and its designed rural scenery wholly undeveloped, the
suggestion that the most central and important position upon
it should be given to a public building was received with no
apparent disfavor, and one of the Commissioners of the park
declared that any ground the promoters of the undertaking

physical and geological feature complete, so that the children of the public
schools could be turned loose thereon to study geography in its most attractive
form. It has been proposed that each religious sect should be invited to build
places of worship there; that one section should be set apart for a World's Fair,
and another section as a den for wild beasts, and again that a vast building
should be erected there as a sample-room and advertisement for all the wares the
merchants of the city have to sell ; that the lakes shoiild be enlarged so as to
float a full-rigged ship where the great maritime city of the continent could
train sailors for our merchant marine; that it shoiild be transmuted into a
burial-place for the country's distinguished dead, an experimental farm in the
interest of scientific agriculture, and a permanent Metropolitan Fair Ground.

" Now, if the Park is only a big scope of miimproved ground, it is natural that
people of different tastes should desire to pre-empt a quarter section here and
there for the particular business or pleasure in which they are chiefly interested.
For this reason, the people who drive their own carriages, or are able to hire
one occasionally, have clamored for widening the wheelways, to give them ample
space to roll around and be seen. Other citizens, in less fortunate circumstances
have asked that a street railroad be rim up throtigh the centre of the Park, so
that they might view it from the economical and democratic horse-car."

might desire would be gladly assigned to it. Fortunately,
because of hard times, the schems fell through. Ten years
later, a monumental building was actually given a site upon the
park, but it was one in which the structure would not interfere
with any extended view, or be seen from a distance, and even
this concession did not pass without much remonstrance.
When the next scheme of the class was disclosed, though
coupled with many most attractive incidental propositions, skil-
fully presented, and supported by eminent citizens, so much
popular indignation was soon manifested that in response to
petitions a bill was rapidly advanced in the legislature to make
it illegal for the Commissioners to entertain the proposition,
and would have passed had not the head of the movement
publicly and apologetically announced the abandonment of the
idea. At the present time, a proposition similar to that once
accepted in the case of the Museum of Art, no matter how
highly its objects were valued, and no matter how worthy a
body of public-spirited citizens were backing it, would be less
agreeable to the public opinion of New York than would a
proposition to build a public hospital in the middle of the Com-
mon to that of Boston.

In the early days of one American park a proposed ordinance
to establish a Small-Pox Hospital in its midst was gravely
debated in the City Council, being advocated on the ground
that there was plenty of unoccupied room there, that no private
interest would suffer from it, and that nobody wanted it any-
where else. Many occurrences showing similar public indiffer-
ence, in the early work of a park, to the essential conditions of
its ultimate value, might be cited. At least four times in the
history of one park obstructive disturbances of natural scenery
have been established, and afterwards, in respect to a rising
public sentiment, have been removed. Twice these have been
works of alleged art presented to the city and received and set
up with acclamation.

Is Boston quite safe from falling into similar costly courses?
Has she been so in the past ? Let the history of the little but
important ground called the Public Garden be considered.

The design first made public for this ground, prepared by an
eminent and popular architect, had in view a highly decorative
garden, with many beds of flowers and ornamental foliage,
architectural basins of water, jets, fountains, and other richly
artificial embellishments. The weight of influence in the
matter, however, tended toward a parklet in the natural style,
simple, quiet, and in a degree sequestered. The plan at length
adopted was devised mainly with reference to such a ground,
with a slight compromise manifested in a few scattered fea-
tures which would have been more congruous with a decorative
garden. But the work had not gone far before objections were
urged to its more important naturalistic features, and several of
these, one after another, were modified or radically changed.
Large mounds of earth at first formed in accordance with the
design were afterwards removed. What was intended to be a
rural lakelet with natural borders was changed to a basin with
formally curving outlines and a rigid edging of stone. After
many years and large outlays made with a plan thus fluctuating
in the spirit of its details, the purpose, originally rejected, of a
splendid urban garden, with all practicable display of art, was
fully revived, and has been gradually carried out as far as it
could be without a complete structural transformation of the
site, but necessarily under great disadvantages from the neces-
sity of working upon the timbers of a wreck originally modelled
with a wholly different ideal. It cannot be doubted that, had
all the work from the beginning been undeviatingly directed
with reference to the essence of the present leading motives in
the management of the ground, more valuable results would
have been attained, at much less cost.

Whatever the difficulties may be of avoiding another experi-
ence of the same kind, but on a much larger scale, it is best to
look them fairly in the face. It is best to beat them, and beat
them now, at the start. That it is practicable to do so, and at
moderate cost, may be established, if a single instance can be
shown in which a city has been able to secure a steady, straight-
forward, business-like pursuit of the proper purpose of such a
park.

Testimony of sucli an instance that cannot be gainsaid has
been furnished the Commissioners from Buffalo, a city that has
not earned a reputation for honesty and efficiency of adminis-
tration exceeding that of Boston.

It is believed that the difficulties of securing a sound public
opinion were at the outset much greater in Buffalo than they
are in Boston, There was a more general and a more heated
apprehension among the tax-payers that the undertaking of a
" big park " would be excessively costly. More ignorance and
confusion of mind prevailed as to its proper purposes. The
history of what has since occurred is summarized in the state-
ment below. Of the gentlemen signing this statement, five
have been Mayors of Buffalo during the period in which the
park work has been in progress, three Judges of its Courts,
three presidents of the Board of Aldermen, five members of
Congress, several members of the State Legislature, Commis-
sioners of the Park, leading editors, bankers, and merchants,
and heads of the working organization of each party, and of
each faction of party of any importance in local politics, a fact
in itself evincing the remarkable popularity earned by the
management to be described.

A BKIEF BLTSTOEY OF THE RURAL PARK OF BUFFALO, WITH
REFEREIsrCE TO ITS MANAGEMENT, COST, AND VALUE.

" There were at the outset many grounds of objection to the
site selected for the main Park of Buffalo. Parts of it were
rocky and bare of vegetation ; other parts swampy and most
unattractive. It was at the opposite end of the city from its
populous quarter, and more than three miles from its centre.
Hence the project had to encounter a strong sectional jealousy,
and for this and other reasons met with determined opposition,
which succeeded in reducing the area originally intended to be
taken — a misfortune since deeply regretted even by those to
whom it was due. After the work of construction was entered
upon, repeated efforts were made to arrest it ; to alter the phius ;
to introduce new features, and to compel the adoption of dif-
ferent methods of operation.

" In full view of the acknowledged objections to the site, it

■was selected as, on the whole, the best that could be found for
the purpose exclusively had in view. This was to provide
recreation for the people of the city through the enjoyment of
simple, rural, park-like scenery. The ground was laid out upon
a plan that made everything subordinate to this purpose,

"The work was organized with exclusive reference to the
steady and methodical carrying out of the plan. The heads of
the organization were drawn from a similar work in another
city, and were at once familiar with their duties, disciplined
and co-operative, No change in the staff of the superinten-
dence has since been made, except as the work has advanced to
points where permanent reduction could be afforded. The
present General Superintendent has been Superintendent from
the start. In the city reform movement that first brought
Grover Cleveland as mayor of the city prominently before the
public, no occasion for reform or improvement was found in
the park work. No change of men or methods was made or
suggested to be desirable. The work has been pursued steadily
and without the slightest deviation from the plan upon which
it was started. As it advanced and the intentions of the plan
approached realization, the park grew in favor. Opposition to
it gradually died out. It is now universally popular, and with
no class more so than the frugal, small house owning tax-
payers, who constitute an unusual proportion of the population
of the city.

"The cost of the work has been much less than was pre-
dicted by the opponents of the undertaldng, and even less than
its promoters expected it to be. It is regarded as moderate
relatively to the return already realized. It is believed that
through the increased attractiveness of the city as a place of
residence, the rise in the value of property adjacent to the park
and its approaches, and the additional taxable capital invested
in land and buildings in the vicinity of these improvements,
the outlay for the park has lightened the burden of the tax-
payers. The city has recently obtained an act of the legisla-
ture authorizing a portion of the land originally thrown out to
be purchased and added to the park. Its market value is now
estimated to be from four to five times as much as when
thrown out. Broad avenues from different directions have
been opened, and a street railroad constructed expressly for
the use of visitors to the park. Its value is largely increasing
every year. The city is now proud of it and grateful for it.

" But its promoters had ultimate results in view, which can-
not be fully realized during the lifetime of the present genera-

tion or of the next. As the growth of its plantations develops,
as the city extends to its borders and becomes densely settled
at the centre, the attractions, the accessibility, and the benefits
to the community to be derived from the park, Avill correspond-
ingly increase. Its chief value lies in its ever-growing capa-
bilities of usefulness in the future, as the city grows in wealth
and population.
(Signed)

"Pascal P. Pratt. S. S. Jewett.

Solomon ScEmw. Edward Benistett.

J. Mothajs" Scovillb. John M. Farquhar.

Jas. Sheldon. Edgar B. Jewett.

W. S. BissELL. Francis H. Root.

Alex. Brush. Gibson I. Williams.

Jajmes D. Warren. R. R. PIefford.

Henry A. Richmond. Chas. Beckwith.

Sherinian S. Rogers. Wm. F. Rogers.

Philip Becker. John B. Sacehltt.

Daniel N. Lockwood. L. P. Dayton.

Jajmes M. Smith. James Mooney.

Jno. B. Weber. Wm. Franklin." *

The estimate to be presented of the cost of preparing Frank-
lin Park for public use, will be so much less than has been
generally anticipated by those familiar with the cost of parks
elsewhere, that it will be received with incredulity. Some-
thing, therefore, should be said in explanation of it.

First, it may be observed that more than two-thirds of the
cost is calculated to be for the construction of roads, walks,

* Since the above paper was signed, a cliange has occurred in the city govern-
ment of Buffalo, and the new Mayor, addressing the new Council, has said: "We
have a park system of which we may be justly proud, and tliere will be very
little complaint of the cost so long as the parks are kept in order and made
accessible." In a later document, signed by the Mayor and the Park Commis-
sioners, the following congratulatory statement appears: " In looking back over
the period since the establishment of the park scheme, the retrospect cannot
fail to be exceedingly gratifying. The cost of the parks has been in a large
measure compensated by taxes receivable from increased valuation of adjacent
property, to say nothing of the health-giving recreation and i^leasure the pai'ks
afford to thousands who visit them during the summer months. With the
rapid increase of our city in wealth and in density of population, have grown up
both the need for such recreation and the taste to enjoy it."

concourses and other structures, for the estimates of which the
City Engineer is responsible, and that the entire estimate is
made in the same manner as that, of about the same amount,
prepared for the Department with respect to the work of the
Back Bay Basins, which work after a progress of seven years
is likely to be completed within the estimate.

That it is possible to meet Mr, Wilder's demand that the
Boston park should be the first park in the country, meaning
the first in respect to adaptation to provide city people with
rural recreation, is largely to be accounted for by the fact that
the site was selected discriminatingly for that purpose.

The advantage gained by this circumstance has already been
partly suggested in the statement that the cost of piecing out
the New York park has been considerably more than a million
dollars. It may be added that the annexations to the primary
scheme in the case of the Brooklyn and the Philadelphia parks,
made in each case with a view to rural advantages, have been
much larger though less costly. In Brooklyn the original
site was greatly modified by a process of exchange.

But a more important part of Boston's economical advantage
may be inferred from the statement made in the Third Annual
Report of the New York Department of Parks that the modi-
fications of the surface of the site of the Central Park had
involved the lifting and re-adjustment of its entire surface to
an average depth of nearly four feet, and of the material moved
that nearly half a million cubic yards had been originally in
the form of solid ledge rock, twenty thousand barrels of gun-
powder having been used for breaking it out. More than two
hundred thousand cubic yards of first-class solid mason work
have been laid on the Central Park, a large part under ground
and most of it in retaining walls that would have been unnec-
essary to the proper purposes of a park in a situation as well
adapted to those purposes as is that of Franklin Park.

A considerable part of the outlay for most parks has been
made for materials which the site for Franklin Park supplies.
The stone and gravel of the Chicago parks, for example, is
brought to them from distant quarries and pits, and the cost of

transportation is not a small matter. Tlie same is tlie case at
Detroit. The gravel used in the New York and Brooklyn
parks has cost twice as much per yard as that to be used in
Franklin Park. (It must be said that it is a better sort of
gravel.) In Franklin Park there are no difficulties of drain-
age to be overcome by costly expedients (there are thirty-
three miles of sewers in the Central Park). No costly works
of damming and puddling or concreting will be required as
has been the case elsewhere. And as an illustration of the
advantages of its site in these particulars (the plan being
adjusted to it) it may be said that the conditions in question of
the five hundred acres of Franklin Park are directly the reverse
of those which the city has for seven years past been gradually
and slowly and at great cost overcoming in the one hundred
acres of the Back Bay Basin.

The work required to carry out the plan of Franklin Park
can nearly all be done, after practicable training, by a force re-
cruited from the class of working-men who command but the
lowest wages, and who are most liable to fall into a condition
requiring charitable assistance from the city. More than nine-
tenths of the needed outlay would be in wages to citizens.
The few manufactured articles necessary would nearly all be
manufactured in the city. Not one per cent, of the entire
expenditure contemplated would be required for what are com-
monly called park and garden decorations. The larger part
would be for substantial matters, to endure, and generally to
gain, in value, for centuries.

Estimates of cost, to have any value, must be based on some
definite understanding as to the manner in which the work is
to be conducted, the adequacy and what in military operations
is called the solidity of the organization, the thoroughness of
the discipline, the time within which the work is to be com-
pleted, and, above all, the degree in which steady, orderly prog-
ress, smoothly interlocking in all parts, can be calculated on.

The work will proceed much more economically with a mod-
erately large force, if kept " well in hand," than with a small
one. The reason can easily be seen. It is to be mainly a

transfer of material, — stone, sand, gravel, earth, soil, peat. To
proceed with the work at one point certain materials are to be
sent away that are wanted for the work at another point, and
certain materials are required that are to be taken out at yet
another. Unless a force large enough to keep a considerable
system of exchanges in operation is employed, the same mate-
rials will need to be rehandled, perhaps repeatedly.

It is to be assumed that the work of construction will be
completed within a period of six years ; that it will be carried
on with as large a force as may be best ; that advantage may be
taken of favorable seasons and favorable markets, and that it
will be placed and maintained from the start in all respects
upon a soundly economical basis.

The work to be done during the period stated is not to
include the public roads and their borders outside the park, as
this would extend it beyond the territory under the Commis-
sioners' control. It does not include fountains, sculptural or
other purely decorative works that may be thought desirable
later, upon the Greeting, or in connection with the gateways,
nor does it include movable furniture. But it includes all that
is necessary to the making of the park in substantial accordance
with its general plan as it has been set forth.

As thus proposed, the work may be expected to cost not
exceeding fifteen hundred thousand dollars.*

Maintenance Cost. — The question of the economy of what is
proposed in the plan for a park is less a question of what the
work of construction will cost than of what ever afterwards will
be required for reconstructions, repairs, and for pursuing a sys-
tem of maintenance adapted to secure its intended qualities of

* The following is a comparative approximate statement of the cost of pre-
paring several large public groimds : —

Central Park per acre, $14,000

Brooklyn Park " " 9,000

Buffalo Park " " 1,400

Back Bay Basin and Promenade, as estimated,

and in large part realized . . . . " " 14,000
Franklin Park, estimated . . . . " " 2,900

beauty, and keep it in suitable order for its intended uses. An
explanation of the character .of the plan in this respect will
therefore be offered.

Rural parks may be excessively costly of maintenance, either
by setting the standard so low that visitors gain but little rural
refreshment from them, or by setting it so high that it cannot
be lived up to, and they become forlorn through shabby gen-
tility. In some parks both errors are illustrated, high keeping
being apparently attempted at some points as a compensation
for general gracelessness and dowdiness, with a result like that
from putting a few bits of bravery upon a meanly dressed and
dirty person. Nearly all American Park Commissioners apolo-
gize for the condition of some parts of their work, stating that
they are not allowed funds enough to keep them in good order
throughout.

In a considerable part of one park examined by the Boston
Commissioners last summer, they found roads in very rough
condition and dusty gravel walks in such bad repair that they
had actually gone out of use, and visitors were trying to walk
in lines parallel with them, some making a crooked way among
trees and bushes, or over what had once been turfed ground,
some turning out upon the wheel way. A family party was seen
moving along the ruts of the dusty road, the father dragging a
baby wagon, the mother in trepidation lest they should be run
over, and the entire party evincing anything but the quieting
and restful pleasure that they would have had in a park suit-
ably fitted and kept. Elsewhere they saw lawns from whiclr'
the turf had wholly disappeared, dry brooks and fountains,
green stagnant waters, dilapidated and rotting rustic structures,
trees with dead branches, flower-beds gray with dust, set in
coarse seedy grass half trodden out, opposite a sign, " Keep off
the Grass." They saw a large and substantially fine house, of
which the details and furniture were so out df repair that the
public had been for some time excluded from it, and its windows
appeared to be targets for ambushed boys. The explanation in
every case was that the city was unwilling to suitably carry out
and sustain what had been undertaken.

It is difficult to make comparative statements of the cost of
maintenance of different classes of public grounds. In most
cases it is found to vary widely from year to year, and this
capriciously, accordingly as successive city councils are dis-
posed. The appropriation for one year has in several cases
been but half that for others. Accounts are kept upon different
bases.

But omitting police, museum and menagerie expenses it may
be roughly reckoned that the annual running expenses of a
park of the extent of Franklin Park, if laid out, stocked, and
maintained in the manner of the Public Garden of Boston, or
of any much decorated, garden-like ground, would be about
1500,000 ; of the Central Park, New York, $160,000 ; Brooklyn
Park, $80,000 ; Buffalo Park, $40,000.

The plan adopted by the Commissioners for Franklin Park
is one that, when the designed plantings have been well estab-
lished, will require comparatively little fine garden work, no
exotic or fine decorative gardening, no glass, no structures of
an unsubstantial class, and few of any kind subject to fall into
serious disrepair, except roads and walks. All walls and roofs
are to be of stone, tile, or slate ; all guard rails and seat sup-
ports of stone or wrought iron. The economy of substantial
work in all such matters may be seen in the fact that of
upwards of forty arches and bridges on the Central Park built
more than twenty years ago, all but three were structures of
stone, brick, or iron. As a matter of alleged economy, three
were built with timber superstructures. Each one of these
three has been at times closed for use because of disrepair, each
has been entirely rebuilt, and one twice rebuilt; each has
already cost more than a substantial structure would have cost,
and no one of them is now in a satisfactory condition. The
others remain perfectly sound, and with but one important
exception have been in continuous service. The exception is an
iron bridge with a wood flooring. This has been several times
closed for painting and the relaying of the wood-work. A
similar story could be told of other structures ; and the moral
could be enforced by reference to every class of work done on the

park. Its entire history is an indication of the economy of
using as sterling masonry and thorough, exacting professional
superintendence in park work, as in water-works, sewers, and
monumental buildings. If the Commissioners could have taken
a different view of their duty, which for the moment would
possibly be a more popular view, the estimate they have pre-
sented might have been reduced.

To restate briefly the lesson in conservatism most important
for Boston to learn from the experience of other cities in park-
making, it is this : —

That those in charge of a park work may proceed economi-
cally and with profit they must be able to proceed with confi-
dence, method and system, steadily, step after step, to carry to
completion a well-matured design. Until the point of comple-
tion is reached the work of each year must be the carrying out
of work prepared for in the previous year, and the preparation
of work to be done the following year. Plans laid with an
economical purpose in this respect must not be held subject at
any moment to be nullified, or hastily and radically modified,
even under worthy impulses of economy.

Part Foukth.

PAET FOURTH.

OF THE DIFFICULTIES OF PUKSUING A SOUND POLICY, AND
THE MEANS BY WHICH THEY AEE TO BE OVEKCOME.

The difficulties in question are difficulties of securing a
sound controlling public opinion and of avoiding a costly
accommodation to demands based on mistaken or inadequate
impressions of what is desirable in the business of a rural
park.

As the notes to follow will be somewhat discursive, and the
facts to be stated will have bearings other than those indicated
by the headings under which they will be arranged, several
master difficulties may be here mentioned to which it is believed
that all will relate.

First, the difficulty of realizing the importance of a park
work, from which follows the danger that details of serious
consequence to the community may be settled too lightly.

Second, the difficulty of understanding the essential econo-
mies of so intangible a commodity as that of rural scenery.

Third, the difficulty of realizing how largely the interest of
the community as a whole lies in parts and elements of a park
that are of little direct personal interest to those who make the
largest figure in it, and who have the most direct influence
upon the conduct of the work.

Fourth, the difficulty, no matter how important the results
of the work to be soon obtained may be, of realizing how im-
measurably more important are those to come later.

Fifth, the difficulty to most men of realizing how greatly the
cost of suitably preparing a park is to be increased by frequent
shifts of responsibility, unsteady courses, breaks of system and
of routine methods.

OP THE SUPREME IMPORTANCE THAT A LARGE PARK MAY

COME TO HAVE IN THE HISTORY OF A CITY.

V
It is contrary to habitual modes of thought to take due

account of the comparative economico-political importance of
what is at stake in a large park undertaking — to recognize
how costly a park may be, otherwise than through the taxation
which it directly calls for ; how useful it may be in wholly
different ways from those most readily and customarily thought
about. How it has come to be so will be partly explained
later. The purpose of what is immediately to follow is to give
a single reason for soliciting a more thorough consideration of
various aspects of the subject than the occasion will be gener-
ally thought to require.

It is to be considered, to begin with, how much less likely
than we are apt to suppose, the larger fortune of a city is, in
these days, to turn controllingly and lastingly upon the local
legislation that from year to year is led up to and brought
about through an activity of local public opinion favorable to
its object : how much more the historic course of the city is
commonly determined by a discovery or an invention, for
example, made by some one having no personal interest or direct
part in it, as of a cotton-gin, a steel process, or of gold in a
river-bed.

When currents of such exterior sources have once been
established, the local defects of a city, with reference to them,
are apt sooner or later, at more or less cost, to be remedied.
The methods by which needed means for this purpose shall
ultimately be reached, may vary radically, as, with reference to
the currents of modern oceanic commerce, in the landing and
loading facilities of the ports, respectively, of Liverpool, New
York, and New Orleans. But the tendency to come nearer to
a common standard of utility in essential results is so strong
that if at one time a mistake of dealing inadequately with a

problem is made, while the blunder will be costly, it is but a
question of time when a sufficiently courageous and well-con-
sidered effort is to follow and sweep it away and build anew on
firmer ground.

It may be considered, also, how much more cities gain on an
average in all that makes them converging points of the growth
of nations in population, wealth, and refinement, from general
currents of scientific progress by which all the world benefits,
than from political proceedings of local origin and special local
application.

It is, for instance, through falling into such a current that
the ancient city of Cairo has come to be so relieved from its
former annual devastations by the Plague, that the life of its
people has come to be twice as long as it was in the first half
of the century, and the value of life in it has been more than
doubled through avoidance of pain, anxiety, and sadness, and
the steadier profits of all industry. It is by falling into such a
current that most of our southern cities have come to keep at
home and in active employment during the entke summer a
large part of the population, that would otherwise go out from
them at the cost of a general suspension of many profitable
branches of their trade, and nearly all important productive
industry.

Through the tendency thus illustrated, to work up to stand-
ards mainly provided by agencies acting on public opin-
ion from without, and established no one quite knows how, it
occurs, notwithstanding the great differences of origin and
historical development, of early social circumstances, of climate,
of back-country conditions, and of resources of wealth and
products to be dealt with, that schools, churches, hospitals,
courts, police, jails, methods of fire protection, methods in
politics, in benevolence and almsgiving, in journalism, in bank-
ing and exchange, are rapidly growing to be closely alike in
San Francisco and in Boston.

The change by which this similitude comes about, goes on
about as rapidly in the older as in the younger city. In many
small ways Boston is taking up customs originating on the

Pacific. In dealing with its sewerage problem, Boston availed
itself of Mr. Chesbrough's experience in Chicago, as well as
of Mr. Bazalgette's in London ; and the Boston Police Commis-
sioners are this winter seeking to engraft on their system,
which is of direct descent from Peel's system for London, a
scion grown in Chicago. In Europe there is quite as evident a
gravitation to American methods as in America to European
methods. Paris is just now looking to gain something from
observation of the Boston Fire Department, and something
from the experience of Memphis in sewerage. One European
government has within five years sent expeditions of experts
in three different branches of science applicable to the adminis-
tration of cities, to see by what, in the recent experience of
Boston, its people might profit. At least two other European
governments have sent skilled agencies here for the same
purpose.

Looking for important advantages which one city may possess
permanently over another in respect to the constant value of
life of those who are to dwell in it, in scarcely anything, per-
haps in nothing, will the estate of cities, as it may be affected
by local wisdom, effort, and timely legislation, be found to vary
more dnd more lastingly than in the matter of public grounds.
In scarcely anything is the general drift of civilized progress to
be less depended on to set right the results of crude and short-
sighted measures. In scarcely anything, therefore, to be deter-
mined by local public opinion acting influentially upon local
legislation and administration, is a city as likely to be so much
made or marred for all its future as in proceedings in prose-
cution of a park project.

To many who have not been closely following the history of
park enterprises, and tracing cause and effect in connection
with them, this will seem to be the assertion of a man with a
hobby. But let what has been occurring at the port of New
York, in a large degree under the direct observation of thou-
sands of the more active-minded business men of Boston, be
thoroughly reviewed, and it will not be found unreasonable.

First, let it be reflected how little of permanent consequence

in the history of New York has come about through the spon-
taneous movements of local public opinion as reflected in legis-
lation during the last thirty years, of which the broad, essential
results were not almost a matter of course. It has been little
more than a question of time, for instance, when and how the port
should be provided with docks, basins, elevators, and better gen-
eral water-side facilities for commerce ; when certain streets
should be widened ; when rapid transit for long, and street cars
for short, transportation, a civilized cab system, telegraphs,
telephones, and electric lights should be introduced, better con-
veyances across the rivers gained, better accommodations for
courts provided, the aqueduct enlarged, public schools multi-
plied, graded, and made more educational, industrial and night
schools started, public museums of art and natural history
founded, the militia made more serviceable, the volunteer fire
department superseded, and a strong police force organized.

There is nothing of general and permanent consequence in
all that has been gained in these particulars that could have
been more than delayed and made foolishly costly by careless,
capricious, or perverse local public opinion and corresponding
legislation. The same general currents of civilization that have
brought what has been gained to New York in these respects
have brought results answering the same general purposes to
Philadelphia and to Boston, to Cincinnati and to Montreal.
Or, if not fully so in each case, every live man in those cities
looks to see like results reached in a few years, — makes his
business plans, builds his house, orders his investments, educates
his children, with reference to them. The general plan of the
combined city of New York harbor, the position severally, for
example, of its domestic, its manufacturing, and its trade quar-
ters, has been very little determined as the result of local
legislation or of a settled purpose of public opinion. Such
changes of domestic and social habits as have occurred are much
less to be attributed to any of these improvements than to cir-
cumstances governing the general increase and distribution of
wealth throughout the world, to the general advances of
science, and to fashions originating in Europe.

But now let it be considered liow it has been with regard to
what has occurred through the park enterprises. Each of the
two large parks that during the same period have been set
a-growing through local agitation and the careless legislation it
has obtained, has had more such effect than all the other meas-
ures of that class together. The Central Park blocks fifty
streets that, had it not been formed, would now be direct chan-
nels of commerce and of domestic movement from river to
river. It takes out of the heart of the city two square miles
of building-space, as completely and as permanently as a gulf
formed by an earthquake could do, and for several square miles
about this place it determines an occupation of land and a use
of real estate very different from what would have been other-
wise possible. Its effect on social customs may be illustrated by
the statement that to enjoy the use of the park, within a few
years after it became available, the dinner hour of thousands of
families was permanently changed, the number of private car-
riages kept in the city was increased tenfold, the number of
saddle horses a hundredfold, the business of livery stables
more than doubled, the investment of many millions of private
capital in public conveyances made profitable.

It is often asked. How could New York have got on without
the park ? Twelve million visits are made to it every year.
The poor and the rich come together in it in larger numbers
than anywhere else, and enjoy what they find in it in more
complete sympathy than they enjoy anything else together.
The movement to and from it is enormous. If there were no
park, with what different results in habit and fashions, customs
and manners, would the time spent in it be occupied. It is
often said that the park has made New York a different city.
If it has not done so already, it surely will soon have made New
York a city differing more from what it would have been but
for the park than Boston differs either from San Francisco or
from Liverpool.

And the park of Brooklyn, while it has not as yet equally
changed the destiny of this branch of the town, is sure, as the
city grows, to be a matter of the most important moulding

consequence, — more so than the great bridge ; more so than
any single affair with which the local government has had to do
in the entire history of the city.

Similar results may be seen, or surely foreseen, from the new
parks in each case of Philadelphia, of Chicago, of Buffalo, of
St. Louis, of San Francisco.

Not less significant illustrations of the general fact may be
found abroad, in Paris and in Liverpool, for instance, and in
Melbourne, Australia.

But, it may be asked, if the Central Park had not been
formed as it was, would not another park have been formed
before this time ? No doubt ; but if so, the results of a differ-
ent park would have been more importantly different from
those that have followed the Central Park than the results of
any determination of the city's fortune equally open to be made
thirty years ago, through the action of its local government, in
any matter of architecture, of engineering, of jurisprudence, or
of popular education.

But before the comparative importance of what is to be
determined by a park work in the history of a city can be at all
realized, a very different view must be taken from that which
is common of the irretrievableness of any blundering in its
direction.

II.

THE ELEMENT OF LASTDSTGiTESS AS AEFECTING THE IMPOR-
TANCE OF WHAT IS TO BE DETBEMENED IN THE EARLY
WOEK OF A PARK.

It needs to be emphatically urged (for a reverse impression
is often apparent) that the plans of no other class of the public
works of a city are to be rightly devised with reference to as
prolonged and unchanging methods of usefulness as those of
parks.

That the fact of the matter in this respect may be under-
stood, let it be first reflected that the value of a large park does
not lie, as is apt to be thoughtlessly taken for granted, in those

elements whicli cost and manifest the most labor and tlie larg-
est absorption of taxes; that is to say, in the roads, walks,
bridges, buildings, and other obviously constructed features.
These have value as conveniences for making the larger ele-
ments of a park available for the enjoyment of the public. If
these larger elements are destroyed, the value of the artificial
elements is lost. In the degree that they are ill-treated the
value of the artificial elements depreciates. A park road is
pleasant by reason of that which adjoins it, or is open to con-
templation from it, not because it favors speed. Mainly the
value of a park depends on the disposition and the quality of
its woods, and the relation of its woods to other natural fea-
tures ; ledges, boulders, declivities, swells, dimples, and to quali-
ties of surface, as verdure and tuftiness. Under good manage-
ment these things do not, like roads and walks, wear out or in
any way lose value with age. Individual trees must from time
to time be removed to avoid crowding, or because of decay;
but, as a rule, the older the wood, and the less of newness and
rawness there is to be seen in all the elements of a park, the
better it serves its purpose. This rule holds for centuries —
without limit.

It is very different with nearly every other material thing —
material in distinction from moral or educational — to which a
city may direct outlay from its treasury. The highest value,
for example, of civic buildings, of pavements, aqueducts,
sewers, bridges, is realized while they are yet new; afterwards'
a continual deterioration must be expected. As to a park,
when the principal outlay has been made, the result may, and
under good management must, for many years afterwards, be
increasing in value at a constantly advancing rate of increase, and
never cease to increase as long as the city endures.

This (with an explanation presently to be made in a foot-
note) will be obviously true as to the principal element of a
park — its plantations. But whatever value a park may reach
simply through the age of its well ordered plantations, some-
thing of that value will be lost wherever repairs, additions, or
restorations are made by which the dignity of age in its gen-

eral aspect (or wliat the ancients called the local genius) is
impaired. Looking at the artificial elements of parks in Europe
— the seats, bridges, terraces, staircases, or any substantial fur-
niture of them, supposing that they are not ruinous — it cannot
be questioned that they are pleasing in the degree that they are
old and bear evidence of long action of natural influences upon
them — the most pleasing being those which nature seems to
have adopted for her own, so that only by critical inspection
is human workmanship to be recognized. Hence, not only
should park things be built for permanence, but ingeniously
with a view to a ready adoption and adornment of them by
nature, so that they may come rapidly and without weakness
to gain the charm characteristic of old things. For every thou-
sand dollars judiciously invested in a park the dividends to the
second generation of the citizens possessing it will be much
larger than to the first ; the dividends to the third generation
much larger than to the second.

The better to bring this class of considerations home, it may
be suggested that had five hundred acres of land been set apart
as a park for Boston, and trees planted, natural plantations
thinned, opened, preserved, renewed, and other natural features
protected and judiciously treated for two centuries past, instead
of deteriorating as most other public works would have done,
the park would have been all the time advancing with a con-
stantly accelerating rate of advance in value. But had the
artificial features been originally made in adaptation solely
to the wants of the people of the day or their immediate
successors, an enlargement and re-adjustment of them suitably
to a convenient use of the park by the present population of
Boston could only be effected by much destruction of the natu-
ral features ; by the rooting out of great and venerable trees,
the blasting of ledges rich in picturesque, time-worn crannies
and weather stains, the breaking up of graceful slopes, and the
interpolation of much that would be comparatively crude, raw,
incongruous, and forlorn. Rather than make radical changes
with these results, much inconvenience would long be endured.
For two hundred years, conditions of public inconvenience and

of peril and of uncouthness, have rightly been submitted to, for
this reason, in Hyde Park, which would not be endured for a
year in any new work.

In no other public work of a city, then, is it of as much
importance as in a park to determine courses to be pursued
with regard to growing results, and in a great degree distant
ends rather than ends close at hand and soon to be fully real-
izable.*

* It is the consideration that the value of a rural park grows with its age, and
that the value of the immediate result of principal expenditures for construction
must be slight compared with those to accrue in after years, added to the consid-
eration that it is a political impracticability to steadily pursue any fixed, definite
and limited piurposes in park work while those conducting it are dependent for
the means of cariying it on upon their ability to immediately satisfy tax-payers
of the value of what they are doing, that has elsewhere than in Boston been
generally thought to require that the cost of the primary work of a park should
be provided for by long loans, even exceptionally to a general administrative
policy. Where this course has not been taken, the results have been such as to-
establish beyond question the extreme importance — the vital necessity to any-
thing like economy — of secm-ing a sound and controlling public opinion at the
outset. The park of Detroit (seven hundred acres in extent) is a case of this.
kind. During all of last summer, work upon it was wholly suspended because
a majority of the City Council, and a majority of the Park Commissioners whom
a previous City Council had appointed, were not quite of one mind on a question
of police regulations, which might have been decided either way without the
slightest effect upon any permanent interest of the city in the park. The Coun-
cil refused to make any appropriation without a pledge from the Commissioners
that they would take action contraiy to the judgment of a majority of their Board.
Consequently the plant of the work lies idle for an entire year, the organization
and discipline of the force is lost, the constructions that were in progress are wast-
ing, and the ground is used by the public in a way sure to breed customs and expec-
tations much to be regretted. That a similar catastrophe is not impossible in
Boston is fairly to be inferred from an occurrence of the last summer. The
Park Commissioners prepared a dramng and numerous cross-sections showing
the necessity before any other work could be proceeded with at all economically
upon the site for Wood Island Park, of building a bridge by which it would be
made accessible, and of doing a large amount of rough grading. Por this pre-
liminary work they advised that an outlay should be authorized, to be made
during the present fiscal year, of $25,000. The result was an appropriation of
$5,000, with the condition that it should all be applied to planting. As no
planting was practicable without an abandonment of the plan, the appropriation
was tmavailable.

A liability to such occurrences is oppressively costly in its effects on the man-
agement of the work, even when it does not actually result, as it sometimes does^

III.

THE EA-RNIN-GS OF A PAKK TO A CITY ACCRUE LARGELY
THROUGH THE LESS CONSPICUOUS USE OP IT, AND, IP IT
IS SUITABLY PLANNED AND MANAGED, THROUGH THE USB
OP THE LESS CONSPICUOUS PARTS OP IT.

There are two ways of estimating the earnings of a park.
There is no doubt that the sixteen millions of dollars wliich
Central Park has cost New York have been returned throus^h
the profit that has accrued from the attractiveness of the city
as a place of residence for men of means. All classes of the
people benefit b}'- the wealth thus brought to and held in the
city, and it is generally considered by its financiers that simply
through the increased value of real estate which has thus oc-
curred, taxes are lighter than they would have been but for the
park.

This is one way in which the value of the park is seen.
The other is that which has been already indicated in point-
ing out the use of it that the leading capitalists of the city have
been taught by experience to make, as a means of preserving

in compelling purposes to be adopted of weak, narrow, trivial, sliort-siglited,
and time-serving character for those of more important lasting consequence.

F. L. O.

As the value of everything else to be contemplated in the plan of a park must
be forever dependent on the condition of its trees, and as, while every tree of a
park may go on improving for a certain period, it must also in time fall into
-decay and eventually disappear, it may be questioned if a limit is not thus fixed
to the alleged advancing value of a well-directed park work.

The answer is that the trees of a park must be expected to decay and disap-
pear one by one, and never, under decently economical management, in such
numbers at any time as to materially affect the general aspect of the park, a
main condition of good management being that it shall secure the little care
necessary to provide a sufficient succession of nurslings (generally through a
selection of those self-sown) and thinnings for the purpose. The plan of many
parks in Europe, originally private, has remained unchanged for centuries, and
they have never hitherto been more finely timbered, never as useful as they are
now. F. L. o.

100

their faculties id high working condition, — the value in health,,
vigor, and earning capacity, and in capacity to enjoy results of
earnings, which is gained through the use of it. This value is
not traceable in such form that it can be entered on the ledger
and totalled up in annual statements. In estimating it, every
man is, almost irresistibly, overmuch affected by his personal
experiences. In ordinary social conference about what is de-
sirable in a park, such a personal point of view sometimes
becomes ludicrously apparent.

A gentleman much before the public, and who had taken an
active part in urging publicly and privately certain measures
of alleged improvement in a park, but who probably had never
entered it on foot or seen any part of it not visible from the
drives and rides, once asked in passing through it, " What is
this pleasant odor ? " " It is from the bloom of the locust ; we
are passing between two groups of it." "I see. Beautiful
bloom ! beautiful foliage ! Why should not that tree be
planted more? Why not everywhere? Why should not the
park roads be lined with it ? Then this delightful scent would
be constant, and the beauty also. Why not have the best
everywhere ? " The answer was, " The tree is not long in bloom,
and after midsummer droughts we have few trees less beauti-
ful ; where its foliage predominates, as in some parts of New
Jersey, it makes the landscape really sad." " That's of no con-
sequence," was the rejoinder, " for nobody wants to see the
park in midsummer."

This, while said thoughtlessly, manifested an habitual mode
of thought. The man was neither thoughtless nor heartless.
Yet the truth is, that the most important purpose of a park, and
that through its adaptation to which its largest earnings should
be expected, is at the season of the year when the fewest visi-
tors come to it in carriages, when all citizens who can, have
gone to the country, and that it lies in conditions, qualities,
appliances, and modes of superintendence of which many citi-
zens and most strangers know hardly anything.

To understand this, let the imagination be gradually brought
from the consideration of the general, mixed body of park

101

visitors to tlie particular point of view of a distinct type. For
this purpose let that part of the people be thought of, first, who
are able to save enough from daily wages to be distinctly re.
moved from penury, but whose accumulation is too small to
relieve them from an anxious and narrowly dogged habit of
mind and a strong incitement to persistent toilsome industry.
Let it be considered that, setting aside the more floating and
transient, and the useless and harmful sections, men of this
class, and those who are dependent upon them, form much the
larger part in numbers of a city's population. For every
storekeeper or head of a shop there are several clerks and
workmen. Let it be considered also that those who shortly in
the future are to lead in the affairs of the city, are to-day of
this class, and are acquiring the aptitudes which are chiefly to
determine the strength and character of the city in the early
future. Then let it be further considered that more than half
the battle for the city's future prosperity lies, in fact, with the
matronly element — the housekeeping women — of this class.
Let the plan of the park then be regarded, for a moment, from
the point of view of this subdivision of those who are to be its
owners.

As a rule such women are compelled to live closely, in con-
fined spaces, with a more monotonous round of occupations
and more subject to an unpleasant clatter than is wholesome
for them or for those whom they are bringing into the world
and training. Many are constrained to give themselves up so
to live even more confinedly than is necessary, from having a
morbid sense of housekeeping necessities, bred by their confined
life. In the nervous fatigue that comes upon them, it is easier
to go with the current of habit than to make the exertion
necessary to find and secure opportunities of relief and refresh-
ment. The misfortune of the housekeeper in this respect, tells
day by day, as long as she lives, upon every member of the
family, from the master to the infant ; its most important result
being, perhaps, that of a disliberal educative tendency, a narrow
ing, stinting, materialistic, and over-prosaic educative tendency,
afiecting so many of the city's heirs as may be subject to it.

102

Suppose that women of this condition could be largely induced
to so far break out of their confining habits as, during the
season when the schools are closed, to frequently spend part of
a da}^ with their children in a place secluded from all the
ordinary conditions of the town ; a place of simple, tranquilliz-
ing, rural scenery, taking their needle-work, and the principal
means of a simple out-of-doors repast. Suppose that after
work-hours the master of the family and the older daughters,
who have been all day in a shop, should join the party, and all
should have their supper in the open air, under a canopy of
foliage. Suppose that once a week, during the hot weather, a
half -holiday should be taken, to provide for which in the regu-
lation of shops is a rapidly growing custom ; that parties of
friends should be made up to visit and picnic together in the
park ; what is likely to be the value in the long run of pro-
visions adapted to encourage such practices ? The possibility
of a general custom of this sort, and the value of it, is a ques-
tion of how the park is laid out, how it is nursed to grow, and
of how it is superintended, and by suitable service made con-
venient and attractive to such use. The character and
habits, then, of these women may with profit be a little further
considered.

Not uncommonly those the confinement and monotony and
clatter and petty detailed worry of whose lives it would be
most profitable for the city to have somewhat broken up are
modest, retiring, often shy, of timid disposition, and of nervous
temperament, a little thing leading them to painful and wear-
ing excitement and loss of presence of mind.

The idea which many would thoughtlessly be satisfied to see
realized in a public park would make it a place to which,
coming by street-cars with a number of children, some of them
marriageable girls, the mother's day would be one of greater
toil, anxiety, irritation, and worry than she would have had at
home.

It is an important test of the value of a park that it should
be found of such a character, so finished and provided with
such service, that a woman under these circumstances would

103

alwa}.^ find a visit to it economical, restful, tranquillizing, and
refreshing for herself and her household.

Such a preparation and management of a park as will make
it tolerably satisfactory with reference to this standard will
only make it more than tolerably satisfactory to the more
robust and less burdened part of the population.

But even a little greater refinement than is thus called for
may profitably be aimed at, as will now be shown.

IV.

THE ADAPTATION" OP THE PAKK TO THE USE OP INVALmS.

A HIGHLY important part of the business of a park is that of
arresting the progress of disease, hastening recovery, and con-
servating the strength of the weak and the infirm of a city.

It is a common practice with physicians to order patients
to be sent to the country. The necessity for doing so is com-
monly called a necessity for change of air and scene. The
importance of the practice is indicated by the fact that the
Massachusetts General Hospital Corporation maintains an
establishment in the midst of rural scenery, near the Waverly
Oaks, expressly for the purpose of hastening and confirming
the convalescence of patients first cared for at its general city
establishment. It is economical to do so. But it is impractica-
ble to send the vast majority of those who in private practice
come under the care of physicians, to be domiciled out of town ;
nor, in the majority of cases, were it practicable, would it be
best to remove them wholly from the comforts of home and the
attentions of friends.

There are two conditions on which a visit under favorable
circumstances to a suitably equipped park may be very useful.
One is where it is a question whether a person is going to be
able to throw off a little depression, or must let it be the begin-
ning of a serious illness ; the other, at a stage of convalescence
when a brief change from the air and scene of a sick-room, a
little easy exercise and a little variation from home diet may

104

greatly hasten a return to a healthy working condition. To
make such use of the park as is desirable in either of these
cases, a visit to it should not be costly or troublesome or
attended with needless worry or apprehension of rude encoun-
ters. In several cities what is thus desirable is now in a good
degree realized. A weary woman, broken down by watching
and anxiety, with a weakly child recovering from the debilita-
tion of summer complaint, may be put by friends on a street-
car in a distant part of the city, and be taken to the gate of the
park for five cents ; may then be assisted by a person appointed
for the duty into a low-hung, topped carriage and be driven
two or three miles through rural scenery at a cost of ten cents ;
may be set down to rest and saunter at a pleasant rambling
place with seats and drinking fountains scattered along its
walks ; may find, near by, a house with a woman whose business
it is to meet the common necessities of an invalid, without
charge, and at which a glass of milk, a cup of tea, or of hot
beef broth, or a boiled egg may be had at a cost of five cents,
tiie wholesome quality of these things being assured. She may
then return by the carriage and street-car, at a further cost of
fifteen cents. The entire outlay of the day thirty-five cents.
The city supplies the buildings and the roads and walks and
rural scenery, and bargains with contractors for the rest, the
contractors finding a profit on the whole transaction.

Let not this statement pass for a romantic fancy. Just that
thing has been done many thousand times, and year after year,
and in several cities. Charitable societies make contracts under
which carriages take poor invalids from and return them to their
own doors without charge, but this is another matter. What has
been described is no more a matter of charity than the bringing
of water and the carrying away of garbage by the city for the
same people. Every man whose wife or mother or daughter
benefits by it, has the satisfaction of knowing that he is one of
the owners of the park, and that he pays from his earnings the
full commercial value for the service of the street-car, the car-
riage, the gardener, the keeper, and the purveyor.

A park on a suitable site, discreetly prepared, and arranged

105

with reference to the class of considerations that have been
suggested, will, simply through the increased savings and
increased earning capacity of the industrial masses of a city,
make a profitable return for its cost. Yet, in the progress of
every large park undertaking, much public discussion occurs
with reference to it, in which this element of value and that of
the domestic use of it by people of small means are entirely
overlooked.

THE VALUE OF A EUEAL PARK TO THE PARTS OF A CITY
MORE DISTANT FROM IT.

That a well prepared and arranged rural park adds greatly to
the value of real estate in its neighborhood is well known. It
may be questioned if the gain at one point is not balanced by
loss at another. But in all growing towns which have a rural
park evidence appears that, on the whole, it is not. With a
good route of approach, such as was provided by the Champs
Elysees and the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne in Paris, Unter den
Linden in Berlin, the Parkways in Chicago, and such as will
be supplied by Columbia Street, Humboldt Avenue, and the
Biverdale Parkway from Back Bay, in Boston, people who ride
or drive do not object to a lengthened passage between their
residences and a park. As to others, the mass, even of habitual
users, do not use a rural park daily, but at intervals, mostly on
holidays and Saturdays, birthdays, and other special occasions.
How much less than is apt to be considered, in the early stages
of a park undertaking, such use of a park is affected by its
being at the far side of a town, has been shown in Brooklyn.

When the rural park of Brooklyn was determined on, the
people of a part of that city, the most remote from the site
taken, pleading their distance from it and the difSculties of
communication with it, were able to obtain a special exemption
from the taxation that it would enforce. They had local advan-
tages for recreation, and would never, it was thought, want to

106

cross the town to be better provided in that respect at its
opposite side. Nevertheless, long before the plan of the park
had been fully carried out, the people of this very district began
to resort to it in such numbers that two lines of street cars
were established, and on holidays these are now found insuffi-
cient, to meet their demand.

There is no doubt that the health, strength, and earning cap-
acity of these people is increased by the park ; that the value of
life in their quarter of the town is increased; that the intrinsic
value, as well as the market rating, of its real estate is increased.

The larger part of the people to whom the Brooklyn Park
has thus proved unexpectedly helpful are the very best sort of
frugal and thrifty working-men, their wives, and their children.

Every successful park (for there are rural parks so badly
managed that they cannot be called successful) draws visitors
from a distance much greater than its projectors had supposed
that it would. It is common for people living out of New
York, anywhere within a hundred miles, to visit its park in
pleasure parties on all manner of festive occasions. In Paris,
the celebration of weddings by the excursion of an invited
party to a park and an entertainment in it, is so common with
people of moderate means that the writer has seen ten companies
of marriage guests in the Bois de Boulogne in a single day.

VI.

THE BEAHING OF THE DIFFICUI.TIES THAT HAVE BEEN
REVIEWED UPON THE MAES" EKD OF THESE NOTES.

First, the chief end of a large park is an effect on the human
organism by an action of what it presents to view, which action,
like that of music, is of a kind that goes back of thought, and
cannot be fully given the form of words.*

* " It gives an appetite, a feeling, and a love that have no need of a remoter
charm by thought supplied." — Wordsworth, with reference to rural scenery.
" It would be difficult to conceive a scene less dependent on any other interest
tlian that of its own secluded and serious beauty. . . . the first utterance
of those mighty mountain symphonies.'^ — Kuskik.

107

Excellence in the elaboration and carrying out of a plan of
work of this kind will be largely dependent on the degree in
which those having to do with it are impressed with the im-
portance of the intangible end of providing the refreshment of
rural scenery, believe in it, and are sympathetic with the spirit
of the design for attaining it. Now, it has happened that
Mayors, Members of City Councils, Commissioners, Superin-
tendents, Gardeners, Architects, and Engineers, having to do
with a park work, have not only been wanting in this respect, but
have been known to imagine that it would be pleasing to the
public that they should hold up to ridicule any purpose in a
park work not of a class to be popularly defined as strictly and
definitely utilitarian and "practical," and should seek to elimi-
nate from it all refinement of motive as childish, unbusiness-
like, pottering, and wasteful. In the history of the park of
New York, three gentlemen of wealth, education, and of
eminent political position, two of them Commissioners of the
park, have used the word landscape to define that which they
desired should be avoided and overcome on the park. One of
them, and a man of good social position, a patron of landscape
arts for the walls of private houses, said in a debate in regard
to the removal of certain trees : " The park is no place for art,
no place for landscape effects; it is a place in which to get
exercise, and take the air. Trees are wanted to shade the
roads and walks, and turf is wanted because without it the
ground would be glaring and fatiguing to the eye; nothing
more, nothing else." He believed that in saying this he was
expressing the public opinion of the city, and at the time it
was not as certain as it has since come to be that he was not.

Second, spaciousness is of the essence of a park. Franklin
Park is to take the best part of a mile square of land out of
the space otherwise available for the further building of the
city of Boston. There are countless things to be desired for
the people of a city, an important element of the cost of pro-
viding which is ground space. It is the consequent crowded
condition of a city that makes the sight of merely uncrowded
ground in a park the relief and refreshment to the mind that

108

it is. The first condition of a good park, therefore, is that
from the start a limited number of leading ends shall be fixed
upon, to serve which as well as possible will compel oprtortunity
for serving others on the space allotted to it to he excluded. The
desirability of opportunity for using it for some of the ends thus
set aside will be constant, and in a great city there will always
be not only thousands in whose minds some one of them will be
of more distinct and realizable importance than those that have
been provided for in the plan of the ground, and who will be
moved to undervalue, relatively to them, that which has been
done and been reserved for the accepted purposes ; but many
thousands more who will fail to see that the introduction of
appliances for promoting new purposes is going to lessen the
value of the ground for its primary purposes. Where a strong
and definite personal interest is taken, even by a few persons,
in any purpose that is indirectly and furtively at issue with a
purpose of comparatively indefinite general interest to a com-
munity, the only permanent security for the efficient sustenance
of the larger purpose lies in a strong conviction of its impor-
tance pervading the community.

Such a conviction cannot be expected to develop intuitively
or spontaneously, at an early period of a large park undertak-
ing, because the work will as yet be supplying little of imme-
diate and direct pleasing interest to the public. On the con-
trary, the earlier work on a park site is apt to destroy, for the
time being, much of whatever rural beauty it may possess.
Such is the first result of operations in drainage, in road-
grading, and in tillage, for example: — such the result of all
operations for the improvement of woodlands. Even a new
plantation, if well designed for future beauty, is apt at first to
make an unpleasant impression ; and, while the heavy work of
park construction is going on, with much blasting of rocks,
loaded carts occupying the roads and crossing the ground in all
directions, and squads of workmen ever^avhere, the experience
of visitors can hardly fail to be adverse to a right understand-
insf of the aims of the work.

In the management of a large park it is then of the first

109

importance that the people to whom its managers are responsi-
ble should be asked and aided to acquaint themselves, otherwise
than by observation on the ground, with the general plan upon
which it is to be formed, to understand the leading ends and
motives of this plan, the dependence of one part upon another,
the subordination of the minor to the major motives, and to
take an intelligent and liberal interest, and a well-grounded
satisfaction, in its development through growth, as well as
through the advance of constructive operations the results of
which are to be of value only as they are fitted to serve as
implements by which to obtain enjoyment of the results of

OTOWth.

" And this the more, because it is one of the appointed conditions of the
labor of men, that, in proportion to the time between the seed-sowing and the
harvest is the fullness of the fruit."

"Let it not be for present delight, nor for present use alone; let it be
such work as our descendants will thank us for, and let us think . . , that
a time is to come when . . . men will say ' -See / this our fathers did for
us.'" — Seven Lasips.

Part Fifth.

Ill

PAET FIFTH.

THE PAEK AS A DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIOlSr.

There is yet one aspect of the scheme too important to be
left wholly unconsidered in a review of the design. As a seat of
learning and an " Academy," Boston is yet the most metropoli-
tan of American cities. Others are gaining at many points with
gratifying rapidity ; but, on the whole, Boston is moving in a
more simply evolutional and democratic way, taking ground
less by forced marches and at isolated points in advance of her
main line, consequently with a firmer footing. Her advantage
in this respect is a good form of civic wealth. Any sterling
addition to it is worth more to the reputation and commercial
" good- will " of the city than an addition of the same cost to
its shops, banks, hotels, street railroads, or newspapers. The
Arboretum, with the library, cabinets, laboratory, correspon-
dence, and records, of which it will be the nucleus, will not
simply bring a certain excellent accession to the population of
Boston ; it will extend her fame, and will make in a measure
tributary to her every man on the continent who wishes to»
pursue certain lines of study, and lines rapidly coming to be-
known as of great economic national importance.

The Park, if designed, formed, and conducted discreetly to
that end, will be an important addition to the advantages pos-
sessed by the city in the Athenaeum, in the Museum of Art, in
the examples of art presented in some recent structures and

113

114

their embellisliments, and in the societies and clubs through
which students are brought into community with men of
knowledge, broad views, and sound sentiment in art.

To see something of its value in this respect, imagine a
ground as near the centre of exchange of the city as the Agassiz
Museum or the Cambridge Observatory, in which, for years,
care has been taken to cherish broad passages of scenery,
formed by hills, dales, rocks, woods, and humbler growths
natural to the circumstances, without effort to obtain effects in
the least of a " brie-d-brae" " Jappy," or in any way exotic or
highly seasoned quality.

What would be the value of such a piece of property as an
adjunct of a school of art? The words of a great literary
artist may suggest the answer : —

" You will nev^r love art till you love what she mirrors
better:'

If we would cultivate art we must begin by cultivating a
love of nature, and of nature not as seen in " collections " or
in mantel-piece and flower-garden ornaments.

As to the value that a park may have in this respect, the use
may be recalled that is made by the art students of Paris, with
the doors of the Louvre always open to them, of the out-of-
door gallery of Fontainebleau, thirty miles away. There are no
rocks at Fontainebleau more instructive than those to be had in
Franklin Park. The woods of Fontainebleau that have been the
models of a thousand painted landscapes, being mostly of arti-
ficially planted trees, grown stiffly for the timber market, and not
for natural beauty, are no more art-educative than woods that
may be had on Franklin Park. And though the region to which
the name Fontainebleau is applied is so much larger, it offers
the student no better examples of landscape distance, intricacy,
obscurity, and mystery than may be had in Franklin Park.

But the art aspect of the scheme cannot be fairly seen from
the point of view of the school of the artist. The value of an
artist in the economy of a city, is as one of many agencies for
the exchange of services. . The artist dies when the love of art
and of what art mirrors is dead.

115

Would you have an art-loving people ? Take them to nature,
and to nature not as it is to be enjoyed in glass cabinets, or in
rows of specimens, or in barbered and millinered displays, or
as wrought into mosaics, embroideries and garden ribbons.
Let them enjoy nature, rather, with as much of the atmosphere
of scenery and on as large a scale as the walls of your school
will allow.

The main difficulty of gaining such an addition to the Bos-
ton Academy is that which lies in the momentary impatient
misunderstanding of the public, or of those who speak for the
public, of a policy that does not propose to make a great show
from year to year for the public money from year to year ex-
pended, and that does not look to making a splendid show at
any time.

Such misunderstanding and such impatience is not likely to
have a permanently and gravely disturbing effect on such a
work as that of Back Bay, where the justifying end is to be
reached wholly by engineering skill, and into which art enters
only as a process of dressing, but it may easily be absolutely
disastrous where this condition is reversed, as to any success in
its justifying purpose it must be, in the undertaking of Frank-
lin Park.

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