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SKETCH
MAP or THE
CIT" Or.NEWYOE:Z AND VICIITITY
PARKS :: :;;: ffiLKT[DBlTh£ COMMISSION
eppoMiJ m.W Cl.i[,lre 25.1. of fc L. WVS of 1083
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Digitized by the Internet Archive
in 2013
http://archive.org/details/reporttonewyorklOOnewy
REPORT
TO THE NEW YORK LEGISLATURE
OF THE
COMMISSION
TO
M anil f oralc laiiiis for |iiMir |j
arks
IN THE
Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards of the City
OF New York, and in the Vicinity thereof.
According to the Provmons of the Act of the Lefjidature of the State of
New York, Chapter 2o3, pfmed April 19, 1883.
NEW TOEK:
MARTIN B. BROWN, PRINTER AND STATIONER,
Nos. 49 and ol Park Place.
1884
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
The appointment and work of the Commission 7
Importance of information relating to parks 8
International, national, State and metropolitan parks 9
The public demand for larger breathing-places and play -grounds 10
Foresight of De Witt Clinton when Mayor of New York — Park reserva-
tions in 1809 — A great opportunity lo3t 14
The present park area of New York 20
A striking contrast 22
Excessive mortality of New York and its prolific causes 26
Hygienic effects of parks 28
Question of accessibility to suburban pleasure-grounds 31
Botanical and zoological gardens 38
Necessity for a site for a world's fair 40
The census returns and the lessons they teach — The grand future of
our metropolis 44
Cause of our limited park area 54
Effect of Central Park on the value of adjacent land 55
Objections to the proposed increase of park area answered 57
Parks as a profitable municipal investment— A notable instance — From
three thousand dollars to over a million and a quarter 64
Testimony from New York's ofBcial records 69
The city makes seventeen millions of dollars and acquires land worth
two hundred millions 72
Corroborative evidence from other cities * 74
Mode of Payment — The Parks will more than pay for themselves and
leave the title in the city free of cost 79
The moral aspect of the question — The remedy for a great evU 82
THE SITES SELECTED.
Van Cortlandt park and lake 87
A parade ground and rifle range for the National Guard 93
Landmarks and traditions of 1770 95
PAGE.
Letters from L. R. Marsh and Major-General Shaler 9T
The Bronx Park 102
Sanitary reasons demand the preservation of the Bronx 106
Crotona Park 109
St. Mary's Park Ill
Claremont Park 112
Pelham Bay Park 113
The parkways 121
The map and views of the proposed parks 122
AMERICAN PARKS.
Public pleasure-grounds of Chicago 127
The public grounds of Washington 129
The parks of Boston 134
A school of arboriculture the need of the times 137
The parks of St. Louis 141
The parks of Philadelphia 142
The parks of Brooklyn 148
The parks of Buffalo 155
The parks of Baltimore, San Francisco and Savannah 156
THE PARKS OF EUROPE.
Pleasure-grounds of London — Twenty-two thousand acres 161
Parks of Paris — One hundred and seventy-two thousand acres 168
The parks of Vienna 178
The parks of Berlin 180-
The parks of Dublin. 183
The parks of Amsterdam / 184
The parks of Brussels 185
Parks of Japan — Pleasure-grounds of the ( 'ity of Tokio 189
Conclusion — A^ea of lands recommended for parks and parkways 198
Engineer's Report 209-
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS,
Map Showing the Sites Selected for the Proposed Parks, and
THE Topographical Character op the Land.
VAN CORTLANDT PARK. page.
Parade Ground Frontispiece.
Van Cortlandt Mansion— Washington's Headquarters in 1781 and 1783. 11
View of Palisades from Vault Hill 17
Northern end of the lake 23
Old mill of the Revolution and ancient elms , . 29
THE BRONX PARK.
On the Heights above the river 35
The Cascade 41
Sylvan Point 51
Delancey's Ancient Pine. . . 59
The Woodland Mirror 67
The Trout Pool 75
The River Glade 83
In the Woods 91
The Lorillard Mansion 99
ST. MARY'S PARK.
Northeast view 107
Southeast view 115
Northwest view 123
East view 131
CROTONA PARK.
Entrance to Park — North view 1 39
Entrance to Park — South view 145
The Grove 151
The Dell 157
6
PELHAM BAY PARK. page.
From Pelham Bridge, looking- southerly 163
From Prospect Hill, looking westward 169
From Hunter's Island, looking south 175
From Bartow's, looking south 181
From Hunter's Island, looking easterly 187
East Chester Bay south of Pelham Bridge 193
View of Upland 199
Picnic Point 205
Map of Wooyeno ^ 215
The Appointment and Work of the
Commission,
To THE HONOKABLE THE LEGISLATURE OF THE StATE OF
New York :
In compliance with tlie provisions of the act of your
Honorable Bodies, passed April 19, 1883, " for the appoint-
ment of Commissioners to select and locate lands for Public
Parks in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards, and
the vicinity thereof,'' the undersigned respectfully report,
that immediately after their appointment by the Hon.
Franklin Edson, Mayor of the City of New York, and con-
firmation by the Board of Aldermen on the 1st of May fol-
lowing, they entered upon the performance of the duties
assigned.
Aware of the great importance and responsibility of the
work with the performance of which they were charged, its
effects on the progress and growth of our metropolis, and
the sanitary welfare of its people, your Commission took
the necessary steps to obtain all the information accessible
on the subject of public parks, not alone in the United
States, but in the Old World as well, the principal cities of
which are celebrated for the extent, the number and beauty
of their gardens, their parks, and other public grounds
devoted to the physical recreation and social enjoy-
ment of their inhabitants. To obtain the required data,
they entered into correspondence with the municipal
8
authorities of London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Dublin, Am-
sterdam, Brussels, and other European capitals, also with
the Governor of Tokio, Japan, and to the prompt courtesy
of these officials they are indebted for much of the infor-
mation embodied in this report. They are also indebted
for the facts in relation to the parks of Philadelphia, Chi-
cago, St. Louis, Boston, Buffalo, Baltimore, Brooklyn,
Washington, Savannah and San Francisco to the kindness
of the officials of those cities.
Importance of Information Relating to Parks.
The purpose of your Commission, in the collection of
this information, was to present in as brief a space
as the importance of the subject would permit, such
evidence as would show by contrast with other cities the
deficiency of New York in the vitally important matter
of public pleasure-grounds. The municipal authorities of
the great centres of wealth and population in Europe have
justly regarded this subject as deserving of their special
consideration, and viewing it from the highest standpoint
as affecting not only the physical well-being of the people,
but their moral and social welfare, they have made the
most liberal provision in the extent of land devoted
to their use and for its proper management and main-
tenance.
A new interest has been imparted to the subject by the
movement inaugurated a little more than two years ago by
the New York Park Association, composed of a number of
public-spirited citizens, whose attention, having been
called to this deficiency, organized a society for an increase
in the number and extent of public pleasure grounds of the
metropolis. In this movement they have been encouraged by
the approval which they have received from all sides,
and particularly by the cordial support so generously
given by the press. The whole country has, indeed, mani-
fested a warm and active interest in the liberal appropri-
a<tion of suitable tracts of land for the recreation and health
of the people, and for the cultivation of the public taste.
International, National, State and Metropolitan
Parks.
The United States and Canada have united in the forma-
tion of an International Park at Niagara, thus inaugurating
a new era in the history of nations. Our Federal Govern-
ment has reserved as pleasure domains for 'the people two
tracts of magnificent extent and grandeur unsurpassed, the
Yosemite and the Yellowstone. The State of New York is
to be sponsor for a State park, imposing, beautiful, un-
precedented, embracing the multitudinous summits of the
Adirondacks and an area of vast extent. There can be no
doubt that these wonderlands will, within a few years, when
they shall have been enclosed, adorned, interpenetrated
with roads and policed, become the attractive resorts of
visitors from every part of the civilized world. It remains
for the City of New York to do its part in this great and
most useful movement. Indeed the subject for the first
time rises into such importance as to assume a place in
history, and in a recent work of uncommon merit,* which
enumerates the progress of America for the last hundred
years and forecasts its glorious future, it is said :
" When that city (New York) had outgrown the ideas of its
inhabitants of the first half of the present century, the
necessity of a large park demanded serious attention, and
before it became too late a tract of 864 acres was reserved
in the then upper portion of the city and secured, which
not long afterward was laid out and embellished with taste
and beauty, and became the chief attraction of the com-
Lester'a United States.
10
mercial capital of the western world. The result far
exceeded the expectations or even the hopes of its pro-
jectors, and it led to other and broader plans. At length,
when the bounds of the city were vastly enlarged by the
annexation of a broad territory toward the North — the
only direction in which it could expand, being restricted
by the East river and the lordly Hudson — our leading
citizens united in a park association to promote the acqui-
sition of a large area for one or more public pleasure-
grounds which would correspond with the wants of a city
to whose growth no possible limits during one or two
hundred years could be assigned within some millions of
inhabitants."
With such a future, with such possibilities, with almost
unlimited resources at its command, with a territory no
longer pent up between narrow bounds, with lands whose
varied and picturesque attractions of forest, meadow, hill,
glen, rock and lake and stream are unsurpassed, New
York possesses, in her newly annexed territory, opportuni-
ties for the creation of parks unequalled by any other city
in the world. This much can in justice be said by your
Commission, after a thorough examination and inspection of
that section of the city bounded on the south by the Harlem
river, on the east by the Bronx and the region on the
Sound which, it seems probable, will ere long be added to
the city, on the west by the Hudson, and on the north by
the County of Westchester. To this portion of their report
more attention and space is given hereafter.
The Public Demand for Larger Breathing-Places
AND Playgrounds.
Having effected their organization by the election of
their ofHcers, and the appointment of Gen. J. C. Lane as
surveyor, tlio Commission announced througli the daily
press that public meetings would be held, at which ample
18
opportunity would be given for a hearing to all who desired
to present their views or to offer suggestions in relation
to the proposed extension of the park area of the city, the
location of sites, the recommendation of particular tracts of
land and such other considerations as properly belonged
to the question before the Commission. Several such
meetings were held in the City Hall, and correspondence
was freely invited from parties interested in the subject.
Of some fifty speakers who addressed your Commission,,
not one expressed himself in opposition to the general
proposition ; but on the contrary, all were in favor of the
enlargement of the area of the parks of the city, the only
point of difference being as to the selection of the land.
Local interests demanded j^^i'ks in particular sections,
and while the majority evidently regarded the subject from
a metropolitan standpoint, favoring two or more large
parks, others advocated the distribution of the proposed
increase in the form of many and smaller parks or squares.
Your Commission gave to these divergent and conflicting
views impartial consideration, and while they felt that they
were acting for and represented the city at large, they
considered that they were also bound to give due weight
to the arguments presented by the representatives of the
different localities. In reaching a conclusion as to loca-
tion and area they have been governed wholly by
questions of economy, suitability and accessibility.
In the selection of sites for the larger parks, the
necessity of making ample provision for the needs of our
National Guard has been recognized and taken into
account. The conclusions which have been reached on
this important point they feel satisfied, for the reasons set
forth in another portion of this report, will meet with the
approval of the public and the favorable action of your
HonoraVjle Bodies.
14
Foresight of De Witt Clinton when Mayor of New
York— Park Reservations in 1809— A Grand
Opportunity Lost.
Three-quarters of a century ago, when New York had
less than one hundred thousand inhabitants and Four-
teenth street was in the country, the city fathers of that
time, with a wise prevision of the future greatness of the
metropolis, planned a system of parks which, if carried out
to-day on the same liberal scale, would give us a total park
area of seven thousand five hundred acres.
On a map of the city of 1809, in which the street plan
was laid out, your Commission found various tracts of
land of different dimensions set apart as public grounds
for the recreation of the people. Nearly all of those have
been erased from subsequent maps, and as the largest, com-
prising about two hundred acres, was located in what is at
present one of the most valuable sections of New York, the
city may be said to have lost by the unpardonable negligence
of its officials in failing to secure the land in time and wJien
it could have been acquired for probably much less than a
million of dollars, hundreds of millions.
Of nearly five hundred acres which are shown on the map
as reserved for park purposes the tract referred to and en-
titled The Parade Ground, embraced the whole space bound-
ed by Twenty-third and Thirty-fourth streets and Third and
Seventh avenues. Of this magnificent space, worth to-day
hundreds of millions, there remain 0)}hj the six and a half
acres of Madison Square. Had this property been bought
at the time it was placed on the map of the city what a
valuable mine it would have proved, what a sinking fund it
would Ih'ivo formed as a means of defraying the expense
of needed ])ublic works and lessening the burdens of tax-
payers ! Tiiis part of the city, as stated, is one of its most
15
valuable sections, worth hundreds of millions of dollars,
and yet the public treasury is to-day not one dollar the
richer therefor. Had it been bought and held as public
land and a portion of it sold when the growth of population
and the imperative demands and necessities of business com-
pelled, the ,public treasury would have been the gainer by
untold millions. Is this short-sighted policy to be repeated
in the new domain which has become a part of the great
metropolis ? Will we with the invaluable experience which
this lesson teaches, be guilty of the same criminal negli-
gence, the same culpable indifference ?
The park system of 1809 presented a striking evidence
of the foresight of De Witt Clinton, the conceiver and arti-
ficer of our great canal, and whose genius saw the inevitable
as plainly in our city as in our State. That canal found
Ne-A^ York State with a population very little more than
she possessed at the beginning of the century, when it
numbered 589,051 inhabitants — less than Pennsylvania,
and about two-thirds that of Virginia which had 880,200.
But Clinton, availing himself of the only break in the moun-
tain range from the St. Lawrence to Georgia, enabled our
State to use its possibilities, so that in 1875, while Virginia
had only increased 90 per cent, in the century, Ner York
during the same time had advanced 702 per cent.
Had the wise provision of De W^itt Clinton in the matter
of our public parks been carried into effect, as was done in
the case of the great water way between the Hudson and
Lake Erie, we would to-day be far in advance of every
other city in the United States, instead of being the last
on the list. The great park of 1809, was, considering the
difference in population, equal to-day to an area of three
thousand acres, which should be the extent of Central
Park, if considered in its relative proportion to the present
number of inhabitants.
16
The other parks of New York laid out at the period
referred to were :
Market Place, extending from First avenue to the river
beyond Avenue D, and from Seventh street to Tenth street
— an area of about seventy acres.
Harlem Marsh, included within Fifth avenue and the
East river, some hundred feet beyond First avenue and One
Hundred and Sixth and One Hundred and Ninth streets,
containing about sixty-seven acres.
Elgin Garden, having an area of fourteen acres, em-
braced within the limits of Fifth and Sixth avenues and
Forty-seventh and Fifty-first streets.
Harlem Square, extending from Sixth to Seventh avenue,
and from One Hundred and Seventeenth to One Hundred
and Twenty-first street, covering twenty acres.
Hamilton Square, bounded by Sixty-sixth and Sixty-
eighth streets and Third and Fifth avenues, and containing
eighteen acres.
Observatory Square, having an area of twenty-six acres,
embraced within Fourth and Fifth avenues and Eighty-
ninth and Ninety-fourth streets.
Bloomingdale Square, about twenty acres, and bounded
by Eighth and Ninth avenues and Seventy-seventh and
Eighty -first streets.
There were besides these another square which con-
tained over tw(^nty acres, and was located between Second
avenue and tlie East river and Twenty-fifth and Twenty-
eighth streets, and other grounds of less extent, but witli
an aggregate area of at least thirty additional acres.
The total area of all the parks laid out on the map of
1809, under the administration of De Witt Clinton, was
abont four liundred and eighty acres, or one acre to every
two hundred and one inhabitants, whicJi i)roportion if
a])pli('(l to tlie ])r<isent population, wonhl give us now in tlie
year 1881, just three (quarters oi a century since the great
19
statesman mapped out the parks for liis day, seven thous-
and FIVE HUNDRED ACRES ; and even with this great area we
would be behind London and Paris.
It will be seen from the extent of land embraced within
the sites selected by your Commission, that the various
tracts recommended contain only one-half this area and
with the parks now in existence, the whole park territory
of the city will not amount to two-thirds of what it should
be were we to follow the example and adopt the broad-
minded views and statesmanlike policy of one of the
greatest of New York's Mayors and Governors.
The neglect of the city authorities of that time to secure
the land indicated on the map of 1809 for parks, was
repeated about a quarter of a century later in a somewhat
similar instance and to the serious detriment of the city's
interests. When the late Judge Ingraham was a member
of the Board of Aldermen, he introduced a resolution to
make Fourth avenue one hundred and fifty feet wide, to
construct an avenue one hundred feet in width through the
Bowery to Broad street and to devote this thoroughfare to
the railroads and commerce of the city. His idea was
treated as chimerical ; he himself was regarded as a
visionary, and this excellent project, which to-day would
be of the utmost importance to the business public and of
the greatest value as a means of facilitating rapid transit,
failed through the Avant of a proper appreciation of the
future of New York.
Since then the city has granted franchises for two
tracks, and has paid upwards of three millions of dollars
,in cash to secure far less facilities from the Harlem river
to Forty-second street, below which point no provision
whatever exists for facilitating the trade of the metropolis.
Other illustrations might be given where the plans of
far-sighted men, who had a better, though yet dim and
inadequate conception of the great future of New York,
20
were rejected ; plans which, if they had received the con-
sideration to which they were entitled, would have added
millions annually to the revenue of the city from the ter-
minal charges on its trade. It is to be hoped that no
such short-sighted policy will be permitted to prevail in
the present instance.
The Present Park Area of New York.
The remarkable contrast presented between the park
area of New York and the territory set apart for the recrea-
tion of their respective populations by the great capitals of
the world, becomes strikingly manifest on a comparison of
the official figures. This contrast becomes still more strik-
ing when the statistics of population are taken into the
account. Thus, while New York stands third on the
census list of the great centres of the civilized world, and
must eventually be the first, she occupies the lowest posi-
tion in the acreage of her public parks. In this important
respect she is behind even the second and third class
cities of Europe, while there are at least half a dozen in
the United States that have within a few years surpassed
her in the extent of the land appropriated to the use of the
people.
Since the Central Park was established, thirty years
ago, the addition made to the park area of New York is less
than two hundred acres, while her population has trebled.
In the laying out of the newly annexed district, which
comprises the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards,
certain tracts were indicated on the maps as the sites of
future parks, but the total area thus marked did not exceed
four hundred and fifty acres, and only a small portion
of tliis land has been *' condemned " or obtained for the
purposes of public domain. It is true that a parkway has
also been oHtal)lished in the Twenty-fourth Ward, but this
21
is, of course, mainly a thoroughfare, and cannot, in any
sense, be regarded as a substitute for a park.
It is very evident, then, that if our metropolis is to
occupy her proper position among the capitals of the civil-
ized world, no time is to be lost in making the necessary
provision for the enlargement of the area of her public
grounds.
When Central Park was created, New York, then
confined to its island boundaries, had a population of six
hundred thousand, and in parks and squares an aggregate,
including its then recent great addition, of about nine hun-
dred and fifty acres. Since that time, as stated, less than two
hundred have been added, and this tract was south of the
Harlem, and consisted of Morningside, Riverside and Mount
Morris parks. A very large portion of the surface of the
first two was rock, requiring for their completion a heavy
outlay. The following list affords the most conclusive
proof that could be given of our great deficiency in a mat-
ter vital to the physical well-being of our population.
With regard to the Central, it should be stated here that
over one hundred and forty acres are taken up with the
receiving and distributing reservoirs :
Acres.
Central Park 864
Riverside Park 89
Morningside Park 31|
Mount Morris Park 20
High Bridge " 23
The Battery " 21
Tompkins " lOJ
City Hall " 8^
Washington " 8
Union '' 3i
Madison " 6.^ '
Reservoir " 4|
Stuy vesant " 4^
1,094
22
Here we have a total of about eleven hundred acres
south of the Harlem river, while north of it, in a territory
of about equal extent, the park area indicated on the map
of that section is less than half that amount, and of this, title
has been acquired to less than one-fifth. In the mean time
values have advanced and will continue to advance, though
not with the rapidity which is certain to follow the estab-
lishment of parks now so urgently demanded by the inter-
ests of the metropolis.
At the date of the passage of the Central Park bill, the
park area of the city was equal to about one acre to every
six hundred and thirty inhabitants ; to-day it is still less,
showing that instead of advancing we have greatly retro-
graded. In place of one acre to every six hundred and
thirty inhabitants, it is now one acre to every thirteen
hundred and sixty-three.
A Striking Contrast.
If we should decide that our park area must equal that
of 1853 in its proportion to the then population of our
city, we should add at least three thousand acres to its
present area. But the reasons become still stronger in
favor of the proposed increase when we compare our
metropolis with other cities both in the old and new world.
The extent of park territory embraced within the municipal-
ities of London, Paris, Vienna, Berlin, Brussels, Dublin,
Amsterdam and the City of Tokio, Japan, is presented in
another part of this report, and we refer to the statistics
now for the jjurpose of contrasting the park area in each
instance with their respective populations as compared
with the present status of New York in this regard.
Those who imagine that we kept pace with tlie rest of
tli(i world in this particular department of progress will be
amaz(Hl at our shortcomings and the seeming apathy and
indif?er«uic(> exhibited in a matter of such serious import to
25
the public health. Since it is admitted that pure air alone
will not suffice for the sanitary well-being of the people,
and that physical exercise is also essential, there can be no
room for question as to the necessity for more open spaces;
in a word, for more and larger lungs for the city. The fol-
lowing figures speak for themselves. They show how
deficient New York really is, and how far we have lagged
behind in the extension of our park area :
Population.
New York 1,500,000
London 4,500,000
Paris 2,250,000
Vienna 800,000
Berlin 1,174,293
Dublin 366,000
Brussels 350,000
Amsterdam .... . 350,000
Tokio 1,000,000
Philadelphia 900,000
Chicago 600,000
Washington 150,000
St. Louis 350,000
Boston 400,000
Brooklyn 600,000
Buffalo 160.000
Savannah 33,000
Baltimore 400,000
San Francisco 250,000
One Acre
Acres in Parks.
to Every
1,094
1,363 inh,
22,000
205 "
172,000
13 '*
8,000
100 "
5,000
235 "
2,000
183 ''
1,000
350 "
800
437 -
6,000
167 "
3,000
300 "
3,000
200 "
1,000
150 -
2,100
167 *'
2,100
190 -
940
639 "
620
258 ''
60
550 -
776.i
515 ''
1,181
211 '^
Such an exhibit may well astonish those who are not
conversant w^ith the facts, and who have supposed that
New York's great park placed her, at least, upon an
equality with other cities. But, as we have stated, little
has been done since it was established, although year
26
bj year it has become more and more apparent that it was
wholly inadequate to the needs of our increasing popu-
lation.
Excessive Mortality of New York, and its Prolific
Causes.
Probably no stronger arguments could be advanced as
to the urgency of this matter than the statistics of mor-
tality published by the New York Health Department,
and which establishes the painful fact that our death rate
is greater than that of the principal cities of Europe and
of our own country. While New York's death rate is 29.64
to every thousand inhabitants, that of London is 21.29 ;
of Paris, 26.27; of Berlin, 25.96 ; of Baltimore, 21.84 ; of
Boston, 23.42 ; and of San Francisco, 21.68. There can be
no doubt that this excessive mortality is in a great degree
attributable to our pernicious tenement-house system, to
that criminal herding of people in those huge death-trcrps
in which the air is literally poisoned through defective
plumbing and drainage, striking down the young and the
old, the strong and the weak without distinction. Here pes-
tilential diseases have their origin, from hence they spread,
threatening to involve in a common fate the healthier
and wealthier portions of the city. Here, in the closely
packed dwellings of the workers and toilers, death reaps
his richest harvests, particularly among the very young.
In the summer heats, intensified in these localities by
the absence of ventilation and the over-crowded condition
of the apartments, the air is stifling, and the occupants
seek relief on the roofs or the sidewalks, where, as reported
in th(i city press, thousands are to be found during the
liot, sultry nights of the summer season. The mortality
among the young, owing to the causes stated, far exceeds
that of aiiv of the cities named. Of the deaths in New
York in 1882, numbering 37,924, no less than 17,520 were
children under five years of age, a little less than one-half
of the whole number, while in Paris the proportion was
below one-third, in London and other European cities a
little more, and in Boston, Baltimore, Cincinnati and San
Francisco a like ratio. This disparity, however, in the
death rate will cease to surprise when the packing pro-
cess which is practised in the densely populated sections
is fully understood.
In a report of the sanitary condition of the city, pub-
lished by the " Council of Hygiene and Public Health,"
some years ago (and there has been " little, if any, improve-
ment since," as shown by the statistics of mortality), it is
stated that the results of a sanitary survey of the Fourth
Ward showed that the population was packed at the rate of
two hundred and forty thousand to the square mile. '* As
now distributed," the report proceeds, "the tenant houses
of the city are nearly all found within an area of four square
miles. ^ ^ * Such concentration and packing of a
population has probably never been equalled in any city
as may be found in particular localities in New York. In
some entire districts, as in the Fourth, Sixth, and portions
of the Eleventh and Seventeenth Wards, the density of the
population is far greater than in any parish or ward in
London, or any other European city of which we have defi-
nite knowledge.''
In a report of the number of tenement houses, and
families occupying apartments therein, made by the Health
Board in 1881, for Mr. Charles E. Hill, Chief Special Agent
of the United States Census, it is stated that the total
number of persons living in those dwellings was 962,172,
or two-thirds of the whole population of New Y^ork.
28
Hygienic Effects of Parks.
It may be asked, What have these statistics to do with
the question before this Commission. The answer is, we
think, obvious and conclusive. Parks, rightly considered,
are demanded among great masses of population by the
laws of hygiene, by the very necessities of their condition,
by their deprivation night and day, and month after month,
through all seasons, of the pure air of heaven, except w^hen
on Sundays and holidays they are at liberty to enjoy them-
selves in the green fields, or out in the woods, cleansing their
lungs with the pure life-giving atmosphere. Even one
day's recreation in the country strengthens the body and
helps it to resist the approach of infectious diseases.
Sun and air are as necessary to human beings as to plants,
and to none are they more necessary than to the hundreds
of thousands of workers and toilers who are shut up all
day long and, at times, through a part of the night, in our
factories and workshops. That our death rate should
exceed that of other cities need, therefore, all things
considered, excite no surprise.
" The necessity," says Mr. Kussel Thayer, the able and
experienced Superintendent of Fairmount Park, " of pro-
viding some place where the people can take recreation,
breathe the fresh air uncontaminated by the smoke and
gases of the city, and see the green grass and the growing
trees, is so universally acknowledged throughout the civil-
ized world that at the present day there are but few cities
of any importance in Europe that have not their public
pleasure grounds or parks."
The duty of those who are charged with the responsi-
bility of government is clear and unmistakable. If hospi-
tals are indispensable for the cure of sickness and disease,
then certainly no less so are the means for the preservation
of the public liealtli. If bathing in clear water is essential,
31
still more so is an atmospheric bath. In a word, we cannot
hope to have a healthy population if we disregard the
ordinary laws of health. Sun, light, air and physical exer-
cise are the true hygienic factors, and, therefore, everj^ acre
added to our park area is a personal benefit to each mem-
ber of the community. It is not for the mere ornamenta-
tion of the metropolis, though that in itself is a high
recommendation, that parks are desired, but as great sani-
tariums, as essential parts of a system which embraces
within it the drainage of cities, the ventilations of dwell-
ings, and the establishment of institutions for the care of
the sick and the afflicted,
The Question of accessibility to Suburban Pleasure
Grounds.
On Sundays and holidays during the late spring and
through the summer and fall, the parks would be thronged
by tens of thousands of visitors, of all ages and conditions,
seeking healthful exercise, pure air, the pleasant sight of
the green fields, and the refreshing shade of the leafy
woods. The objection that these parks are too far from
the most populous parts of the city, and that they would
remain unused for many years, is sufficiently answered by
the fact that trains on the elevated roads are packed with
masses of humanity on their Avay to the vicinity of High
Bridge, and to resorts still more distant, while the steam-
boats that ply up and down the two great rivers, and those
that run to Eockaway, Coney Island, Glen Island and other
points of attraction are crowded to their utmost capacity.
Central Park has long ceased to meet the needs of the
people, and as a pleasure-ground it can hardly be said to
satisfy the public desire. Of its many attractions, its
picturesque views, its admirable design, its artificial
decorations, there can be but one opinion ; but inasmuch
as the public is confined to a comparatively limited portion
32
of its space, it fails of its original purpose, and rural or
suburban parks are, therefore, a metropolitan necessity. It
has been said, with much force, that " the prohibition against
the use of the lawns, woods and meadows, and the general
restrictions with regard to space render it as exclusive as
the domains of European nobles, in which the A'isitors are
confined to the roads and footpaths. As the parks are for
the people, and as the healthful. recreation of the visitors
is the one great object for which they are created, this
consideration should be made paramount over all others
in their management." The people want recreation
grounds where they are not confined to dusty walks, but
where they can stroll at will, wander in woods, rest or
picnic on the grass, and enjoy the freedom of unrestricted
use.
Admitting, however, that the objection as to distance
has some force, how long will it continue to apply, and
how many years will it take, in view of the present increase
of population, and the extension of our city northward and
easterly, the only directions, as already stated, in which it
is possible for it to extend, to bring the people up to the
very borders of the parks ?
The mere agitation of the subject has turned the public
attention to that part of the city as a most desirable sec-
tion for the erection of dwellings, and much progress has
already been made in the building line. The farm bound-
aries are rapidly disappearing, and acres are being divided
into city lots. Your Commission see in the demand for
dwellings north of the Harlem River and beyond the
boundary line eastward, where the land, from its level
cliaracter, is admirably adapted for building purposes, un-
mistakable indications of the advance of population ,in
tliat direction. Tlio removal of the last legal difficulty to
the construction of the Suburban Rapid Transit, and the
erection of the bridge over the river at Second avenue to
33
connect the rapid transit systems at this point (a work
which is now being expeditiously pushed forward), has im-
parted unwonted activity to building operations. Miles of
new streets are being opened, lines of dwellings are extend-
ing to all points within the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth
Wards, and by the time the available spaces south of the
Harlem River shall have been occupied, a new city with
nearly a million inhabitants will have arisen in the new
accession.
It is not necessary, however, to wait for the increase of
population and the extension of the city northward to ren-
der the parks available. There are noAV so many lines of
communication which bring them within easy access that
the argument as to distance has lost whatever force it may
have once had. To that portion of our inhabitants who,
during the summer and early fall crowd the various resorts
within twenty, thirty and even fifty miles of the city, mak-
ing daily excursions by rail and by water, the question of
distance is of but slight consequence. They simply regard
the time spent in going and returning as a part of ihe
day's recreation, and when they arrive at their destination
their pleasure is in no degree lessened by the time they
may have spent in getting there. But to those who pre-
fer to pass as much of their leisure as possible in the
parks the facilities presented by the various lines of com-
munication already established, as Avell as those projected
and in contemplation, will make them more accessible than
was the Central Park for many years after it was laid out.
To-day Van Cortlandt Park can be reached in an hour
from the Battery by the Northern Bailroad, which runs
through the grounds, while from the centre of population
the time occupied in making the trip need not exceed
three-quarters of an hour at the utmost. As through trains
will eventually be established the time will be still furtner
reduced. By the Hudson River Railroad from the Grand
34
Central wliicli runs to Kingsbridge within half a mile of its
southern boundary and by the Harlem Bailroad about the
same distance from the eastern limit, the time consumed
should not exceed twenty minutes, and as travel increases,
branch tracks will be constructed from both roads to the
very borders of the park itsell
The Arcade Railroad which proposes to provide through
travel at the rate of thirty miles an hour from the Battery,
as well as way travel, has projected a line which runs
through Broadway to Twenty-third street, passing under
Madison square and up Madison avenue to the Harlem
river, thence through the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth
Wards as shown on the map — furnishes additional rapid
transit to the Van Cortlandt Park.
The Bronx Park is accessible by the Southern Boule-
vard, within twenty minutes of the Harlem river, by the
Portchester and Harlem Branch of the New Haven at the
West Farms station ; by the New York and Harlem at Ford-
ham, and by the projected line of Suburban Rapid Transit,
the bridge connecting which with the Second Avenue Rail-
road is now in process of construction. In addition to
these there is talk of still other lines, which will be run by
the new cable process and the use of dummy engines on
surface roads, running to Tremont, Fordham and West
Farms.
The more central location of Crotona park places it al-
most directly on the line of the New York and Harlem
railroad while St. Marys and Claremont being more local
in their character have less need of rapid transit than those
grounds which are designed for the recreation of the great
mass of the people from distant as well as from contiguous
points.
As to Pelham Bay Park the facilities of communication
are equal to any we have mentioned. The Portchester and
Harlem Railroad, as will be seen by reference to the map,
37
passes tlirougli it, and the time from the terminus at Har-
lem river should not exceed ten minutes. This terminus
is easily reached by way of the Third and Second avenue
Elevated Railroads. But these are not the only means of
access ; for visitors who prefer to go by water and enjoy
the pleasure of a sail up the East river and the Sound, can
reach the park by one of the fleet of steamers which, we
have no doubt, will find profitable occupation during the
summer in conveying passengers to and from the great
water-side 'park of the metropolis. In addition to these,
other routes are in contemplation, and surveys have already
been made for a road which will pass in close proximity to
the park, and, entering the city line at Bronxdale, will find
its terminus at the Harlem river.
It is very evident that additional facilities for trans-
portation must be provided to keep pace Avith the rapid
growth of the city and the marked increase of our popula-
tion, especially in the northern section of the island, and in
the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards. The statistics
of business of the elevated and surface railroads are so
conclusive that there is no longer any room for doubt on
this point. The following table shows the travel by both
since and including 1877 :
El. R. R. Horse Railways. Total.
1877 3,011,862 160,924,436 163,936,298
1878 9,291,319 160,952,832 170,244,151
1879 46,045,181 142,038,381 188,083,562
1880 60,831,757 150,390,592 211,222,349
1881 75,585,778 146,050,808 221,636,586
1882 86,361,029 166,510,617 252,871,646
1883 92,113,209 175,994,523 268,107,732
It will be seen, by a comparison of the years 1877 with
1883, covering a period of six years, that the increase
of travel over both elevated and horse railways was
38
104,182,134 ; in a word, that there were over 104,000,000
more passengers carried in 1883 than in 1877. It is also
worthy of note that while there was a falling off in the
travel on the surface roads in 1879, 1880 and 1881, because
of the competition with the new system, they more than
recovered their business in 1882 and 1883, while the latter
also continued to gain on their percentage of increase.
Botanical and Zoological Gardens.
Botanical gardens being rightly regarded as indispen-
sable adjuncts to public parks, your Commission deem it
an imperative duty to call attention to the fact that we
have at present in our park system nothing really deserv-
ing of the name. We have in Central Park a conservatory,
in which a limited collection of rare plants is to be found,
and this, they beg leave to suggest, presents an excellent
nucleus for the purpose.
If we are to have an enlargement of our park area com-
mensurate with the present needs of our city, a botanical
garden must be included as an integral part of the system.
A tract of sufficient extent could be laid out in one of the
contemplated parks as soon as the land is secured, the
selection being, of course, determined by the adaptability
of the soil for this special purpose.
If we may judge from the success which has attended
the establishment of this attractive and valuable feature in
the celebrated Philadelphia park, there would be little
difficulty in regard to its proper maintenance. The pro-
ject, we confidently believe, would meet not only with the
warm approval but the substantial support of that large
and yearly increasing class who take delight in the cultiva-
tion of plants and flowers.
From a report of the Park Commissioners of Philadel-
phia, we find that in one year the value of contributions to
^9
the Fairmount Botanic Gardens was six thousand five hun-
dred dollars, and the number of plants, including many of
the rarest specimens, was nearly a thousand. We have no
doubt that among our citizens would be found as much
liberality. The example set by Boston in making the
Arboretum a permanent part of its park system is deserv-
ing of the highest praise, and might well be imitated by
New York. A botanical garden on a large scale, like that
of Paris or London, would serve as a practical school of
horticulture, and would exercise a favorable influence on the
movement for the preservation of our forests, a movement
which has taken permanent form in nearly all the Western
States, and which is nowhere more needed than here. The
Garden of Plants in Paris has an area of twenty-two acres,
exclusive of its nursery of forest trees, and in connection
with it is a school of botany. All the plants are classified
with great care — the medicinal, the alimentary, the orna-
mental, the poisonous, and those employed in manufactures
— each indicated by the color of the ticket with which it is
labelled and on which its distinctive name is inscribed.
All the plants and trees of our continent should have
a place in our botanical garden, and our schools and
colleges would find therein a grand field for instruction
in one of the most fascinating and useful branches of
scientific knowledge.
A park system that failed to include a zoological garden
would be wanting in one of the most essential requisites.
For a large number of visitors, an exhibition of such a char-
acter has an interest that surpasses every other. The
young never tire of it, the illiterate are captivated by it,
the student seeks therein a verification of the knowledge ac-
quired from books, and the busy man and the idler find in it
relaxation and recreation. It brings foreign lands as it were
to our gates ; it calls up strange scenes and unfamiliar land-
scapes ; for who can look upon a herd of camels without see-
40
ing, in his mind's eye, a background of desert sand, or at
polar bears, swinging like pendulums from side to side,
without thinking of the frozen solitudes of the Arctic circle.
A thoroughly supplied menagerie, classified and arranged
so as to include not only the rare animals from foreign coun-
tries but the fauna of our own land, would be a most valu-
able feature. Such a department should be made sufficiently
comjDrehensive to embrace, if possible, one specimen at
least of each variety, with the name and habitat inscribed
upon its cage, and large and enclosed spaces where
uncaged deer, and other animals, may disport themselves,
as in their native forests, to their own joy and that of
the spectators. A well-organized, well-kept zoological
garden might be made a medium of instruction for the
young, who would gladly and easily acquire knowledge pre-
sented in the guise of amusement through an organ so
difficult to fatigue as the eye.
A proper site secured by the favorable action of our State
Legislature, a number of wealthy gentlemen in New York
city, who have already signified their intention to subscribe
to an enterprise of such a character, would set the ball in
motion.
It is very evident that so long as the present so-called
menagerie is confined to the Central Park, where it has be-
come a subject of controversy and contention, it must be
contracted in its scope, unsatisfactory to the community,
and not of a character to invite individual or public bene-
factions. It is unfortunate that this is the case, but the
fact admitted, the remedy is obvious and easily applied
with the extension of our park area.
Necessity for a Site for a World's Fair.
I When the subject of a world's fair in the City of New
York was proposed as an aj^propriate manner of celebrat-
ing, in the year 1883, the centenary of the close of the
43
War of the Revolution and tlie successful accomplisliment
of our independence, the question of the selection of a
proper site was earnestly discussed. The proposition to
appropriate a tract in Central Park large enough for the
purpose led to animated controversy, but the apprehension
that the erection of the required structures and the works
connected therewith would materially damage the grounds
was so general and so strong that the design was finally
abandoned. It was evident, in fact, from the beginning that
wherever else the fair might be held, it certainly would
not be tolerated in Central Park. For this, as well as
for other reasons unnecessary to dwell upon, the project
fell through for the time being. The subject, however,
has been again revived and with better prospects of
success in connection with the contemplated enlargement
of our park area. In one of the proposed sites ample space
can be found, and the facilities of transportation afforded
by the projected lines of rapid transit will place any one of
the parks within comparatively easy access to the whole
population. Whether the favored locality be in the Twenty-
third or Twenty-fourth Wards, or on the Sound, at or near
Pelham Neck, there will, in the opinion of your Commission,
be no difficulty in procuring a suitable tract, adapted not
only by its topography but by its location, picturesque
surroundings, and accessibility for an exhibition of the
industry of all nations greater than the Avorld has yet seen.
Perhaps no site can be found more favored and beautiful
for such a display of the fabrics of all countries, than the
one hundred and eighty acres of Hunter's Island — included
within the boundaries of the proposed Pelham Bay Park.
By that time the means of transit will have become so far
advanced, as to place the isle within cheap and easy access.
The opportunity presented in the new and extensive
parks for a grand exhibition of the world's industrial pro-
ducts will give a new and powerful impulse to the project^
44
the success of which we believe is largely dependent on the
issue of the present movement for more parks. In fact,
experience has proved that the only proper place for such
an enterprise is a public park, and as in the case of Phil-
adelphia and other cities, the buildings can be utilized in
the embellishment of the ground and for the pleasure and
instruction of the people by industrial, artistic, scientific,
and other displays, as may be suggested by the judgment
of the managers or the desire of the public. "Upon the
favorable action of your Honorable Bodies therefore may be
said to depend not only the enlargement of our park area
but the establishment of a world's fair in the near future,
and an addition to the attractions of our city in the inval-
uable form of a permanent exhibition.
The Census Returns and the Lessons They Teach— The
Grand Future of Our Metropolis.
As the enlargement of our city is demanded by the rapid
increase of its population, a reference to the census statistics
of the last eighty years is deemed particularly appropriate.
The following table shows the number of inhabitants at
each decade commencing with the year 1800 :
Percentage
Years. Population. of increase.
1800 G0,489
1810 90,373 59.32
1820 123,706 28.36
1830...' 202,589 63.76
1840 312,710 54.35
1850 515,547 64.86
1860 813 669 57.84
1870 942,292 15.80
1880 1,206,299 28.02
In 1853, when at the close of an exceptionally protracted
session the State Legislature passed the Central Park bill,
the number of persons in the City of New York was about
45
six hundred thousand. To-day it is estimated at one mil-
lion and a half — an addition of nearly three hundred thou-
sand since the census of 1880. This estimate is based upon
data that, in the absence of an actual enumeration, may be
accepted as affording a fairly reliable approximation. The
death rate, which, except in periods of epidemic diseases,
bears an almost certain ratio to the whole population, the
great activity in building operations, the marked increase in
travel on the surface and elevated railroads, the rapid growth
of the upper wards, and the promise of still greater progress
during the present and succeeding years, afford unmistak-
able indications that a large addition has since the last
census been made to the number of our inhabitants.
The increase exhibited in the above table varies in the
different periods ; but the total of the eighty years from 1800
to 1880 shows an average increase of 46.54 per cent,
for each decade. From 1860 to 1870 there was, during
the civil war, a marked falling off in the percentage, but this
we are assured was owing to another cause which has not
been taken into the account in these calculations and
which exercised a great and controlling influence. This
cause so powerful in retarding the natural growth of New
York was to be found in the want of the necessary facilities
of transportation and travel, and which, as shown in an
address delivered some fourteen years ago by Hon. H. C.
Gardiner, before a meeting of the owners of real estate in
this city and Westchester county, resulted in a loss of
407,732 in its population from 1840 to 1870. In other words
the number of inhabitants in New York in the latter year
should have been 1,334,078 instead of 942,292. This
decrease of population we are further informed was attended
by a loss m value of the taxable property on the upper part
of the Island "to an amount exceeding $500,000,000 ; " a tax
on which of only two and one-half per cent, could have
produced a yearly revenue to the city of $12,500,000.
46
There can be no doubt that this result, so detrimental
to the interests and welfare of the city, to its growth and
prosperity, is mainly, if not wholly, attributable to the want
of adequate means of communication between its northern
and southern portions. What New York and Westchester
lost Long Island and New Jersey haye gained by meeting
the imperatiye demand for rapid transit. Within the last
few years, however, this demand has been to a great extent
supplied by the elevated railroads, and we have no doubt,
as already stated, that the beneficial effect will be found in
a larger percentage of increase from 1880 to 1890 than dur-
ing any previous decade. The marked increase in popula-
tion and enhancement in real estate in the upper part
of the Island, and particularly in the Twelfth and Nine-
teenth Wards, is chiefly attributable to the facilities
a^fforded by the system of rapid transit from the Battery
to the Harlem river. One fact is evident from these
indications, that our Metropolis is rapidly recovering
her lost ground and with the contemplated lines of rapid
transit, in addition to those in operation, we will have
nothing to fear from competition elsewhere, particularly
with the advantages which the proj^osed parks are certain
to confer.
Indeed the present prosperity of New York justifies an
estimate based upon the highest percentage of increase. The
whole country may be said to contribute of its wealth, its
growth and its population to our progress, and whatever
affects the one beneficially or injuriously produces a corre-
sponding effect upon the other. Taking as a basis of cal-
culation for the next ten years the largest percentage of in-
crease, which is sixty-five, we shall have in 1893 within the
limits of our metropolis nearly two million and a half of
souls, or an accession of 975,000 to our present number.
In a lecture delivered in 1881, the eminent Artie explorer,
Dr. I. I. Hayes, referring to the future of our metropolis.
47
spoke of it as "a city destined in time to be the largest in
the world ; a city which substantially holds in its popula-
tion, Jersey and Brooklyn as j)art of itself,'' and round
whose '' matchless harbor " there are " more than two mil-
lions of souls."
Those who are disposed to question the accuracy of an
estimate which places the population of New York at this
figure — equal to that of the City of Paris to-day — are re-
ferred to the census returns of past decades, which show as
large a relative increase. From the year 1820 to 1830 the
population increased from 123,000 to 202,000, or at the rate
of sixty-four per cent. ; and from 1840 to 1850 the increase
was sixty -five per cent. "With large accessions yearly from
immigration, of which New York receives a liberal pro2:>or-
tion, with very considerable additions from our returning
citizens who were induced by moderate rents and better
facilities of transit to take up their abode elsewhere, with
the inducements and requirements of business and the
attractions of city life, and the attractive power of large
and noble parks ; with all these causes and influences
at work, we may justly expect as great if not a still greater
percentage of increase within the present decade ; an in-
crease from all these various and combined influences of at
least sixty-five per cent.
That this is not an overestimate we have already had
incontestible evidence in the increased immigration since
1880. In the following year the accessions to our city's
population from this source alone was estimated by the
Commissioners at one hundred and forty-three thousand,
so that a large portion of the expected addition of sixty-
five per cent, may be regarded as secured in advance.
Should this ratio continue decade after decade for the next
half century, then at the end of 1933 the population of
New York will have exceeded the enormous and almost in-
credible aggregate of twelve millions of souls. But making
48
due allowance for every contingency, and particularly for
periods of business depression and financial revulsions,
and calculating on an average increase of forty per cent.,
which is eight per cent, per decade less than the average
of the percentage of increase from 1820 to 1880, as shown
by the census returns already given, the population es-
timated on this basis will have exceeded eight millions.
This is somewhat more than five times our present number
of inhabitants, and yet it is much less than the ratio of
increase in the fifty years from 1830 to 1880. In 1830 the
population was, as stated in the table referred to, 202,589,
and in 1880, 1,250,000, a six-fold increase.
Large, however, as the estimate may appear, it will
cease to excite surprise when the marvellous growth and
rapid development of the whole country is considered.
The last census showed that the population of the United
States was somewhat over fifty millions, and that it had
trebled in every forty years from 1800 to 1880. The three-,
fold increase was a constant factor in each of these periods-
as shown by the following table :
Percentage of
Year. Increase.
1800 5,308,483
1810 7,239,881 36.45
1820 9,633,822 3312
1830 12,866,020 33.49
1840 17,069,453 34.12
1850 23,191,876 35.86
1860 31,443,321 35.59
1870 38,558,371 22.62
1880 50,155,783 30.76
Here we have an almost uniform rate of increase, and
applying the calculation afforded by this basis to the next
forty years, we shall have by 1920, within the limits of the
United States, at least one hundred and fifty millions, and
at the close of half a century, or 1930, two hundred mill-
49
ions. Unlike the great capitals of Europe, New York will
not only be the capital of a nation but of a continent,
of a world. Who shall venture to place bounds to its
growth, its power, its magnificence ? How insignifi-
cant then shall appear the area set apart for the recreation
of its teeming millions ! One great element of the pros-
perity and fame of our city is, and will be, the coming
hither, for business and residence of men of wealth and
mark from other parts of the Union. If they can bring
their families to the head of navigation and find here a city
of attractions, a. city possessing all the charms and advan-
tages of a high state of civilization, where health is regarded,
where the sources of culture exist, where refined taste is
displayed, where art is fostered and learning honored. A
city which can compete in attractions with the foreign
capitals, our wealthier classes affect, and where they " most
do congregate ; " we may reasonably expect that New York
will become the great centre to which will tend for perma-
nent abode much of the wealth, intellect and influence from
other cities of the land. Perhaps no single means could
be devised of such magnetic power in this respect, none
which would so spread abroad the repute of our city for
beauty and attractiveness as the parks we recommend.
Such a reputation will entice hither and, if preserved, will
retain amongst us men whom enterprise and fortune have
favored in other parts of the country, men whose names
will swell the list of our celebrities, and whose means and
expenditures will add respectively more to the opulence of
our city than the whole combined outlay for the parks.
In a pamphlet issued about two years ago by the New
York Park Association, we find the following glowing but
not overdrawn picture of the future of our country and its
great metropolis :
" When we consider the gigantic strides the nation has made
within the last twenty-five years, despite the losses caused by the
4
50
most destructive civil war recorded in the history of the world, we
shall more fully realize its grand destiny. A nation of nearly two
hundred millions, all living under the one government and speaking
the one language, must exercise a vast, a controlling influence on the
civilization, the policy, the commerce of the world, and the great
metropolis, the commercial capital of that nation, must be the finan-
cial centre around which the business interests of the whole con-
tinent shall revolve. London shall no longer hold the balance of
power in the monetary world, and Lombard street and the Bourse
shall be governed in their movements by the Wall street barometer.
"The New York of the future will be not only to the new, but to
the old world as well, what London and Paris are to Europe — the
great centre of capital, commerce, and enterprise, the arbiter of taste
and fashion, the magnet to attract travelers from the ends of the
earth. Here the wealth of a continent will find profitable fields for
investment ; here art and genius will discover new forms of expres-
sion ; here invention will lighten labor, and liberty will dignify toil;
here, too, wealth will find its noblest work in erecting homes and
asylums for those who have been wounded in the battle of life ; and
its most graceful use in founding institutions wherein might be stored
the jjroducts of the brain power of the world, whether in printed
volumes or illuminated manuscripts, in speaking canvas or in sculp-
tured marble ; such institutions as the Astor and Lenox Libraries,
Cooper Institute and the Museum of Art. Standing midway in the
paths of commerce and trade between Europe and Asia, between the
active civilization of the one and the long dormant but awakening
civilization of the other, the most vivid imagination might well
shrink from foreshadowing the future of our imperial city. Nothing
can impede or delay its progress but the apathy or indifference of its
citizens ; nothing impart to it such an impetus as their active interest
in every project designed to extend its boundaries and increase its
attractiveness. Apprehensions of the decline of trade, or the loss of
this or that branch of business, from competition with rival cities,
may alarm timid minds, but the true i)olicy is to make our metropolis
so inviting that it will bring not only jjleasure-seekers, but profit-
seekers to enjoy its advantages and participate in its pleasures.
* ' The New York for which we are now to provide is a city
whose population will, within the present century, surge in great
waves up to the northern and eastern boundary lines and into West-
chester county. In the next (quarter of a century the })roposed jmrks
53
-will be as inadequate to the demands of the future as the Central
Park is to meet the requirements of the present. If our officials are
equal to the opportunity now presented they will, under the au-
thority which it is to be hoped the Legislature at its present session
will confer, secure a generous area for the jjurposes stated. Thiy
they owe to the whole population, but in a special manner do they
owe it to that most numerous portion, the workers and the toilers,
the men who have built up the great but still unfinished city, and for
whom these spacious pleasure-grounds would supply a want which
the Central Park can never satisfy. "
One of the most convincing proofs that could be pre-
sented of the correctness of the estimates of the population
of New York, is furnished by the remarkable activity dis-
played during the past three or four years in the erection
of all kinds and classes of dwellings. Should this activity
continue without abatement during the next ten years,
it is calculated that all the available space on Man-
hattan Island will be occupied by buildings. That all
, this space, however, will be built upon within the time
specified is not to be supposed. Such has not been
the case heretofore in the growth of our city, which
has been constructed, so to speak, in detached pieces
that have in time been united by connecting links
and finally swallowed up in the great mass. The same
process will continue in the annexed districts. Rapid
transit will bring into use the cheaper lands lying near or
■even beyond the suburbs, and these nuclei of population
will, like those which have been absorbed by the advancing
city, lose their identity and disappear within its ever-
extending boundaries.
Of the 975,000 which according to the foregoing esti-
mate will be added to New York's residents, what portion
will reside south and what north of the Harlem river ?
The question is not one of mere choice only but of
economy, and the answer is to be found in rapid transit
and low rents. If the annexed district receives half of this
54
increase, then there will be half a million, and possibly
three-quarters of a million, in the Twenty-third and
Twenty-fourth Wards at the close of the next ten years.
As our city can extend only in a northerly and north-
easterly direction, and as we should make provision for
an increase of our park area in time when land can be
had at low rates, then a proper regard for economy re-
quires that it should be purchased in that section and at
the earliest possible day.
Cause of our Limited Park area.
In the dimensions of park territoiy the City of New
York has lingered far l)eliind the principal cities both of
Europe and America, compared with her population and
prospects, and this has been owing to the shape and extent
of her domain. The North and East rivers bound her
securely on two sides, and the Harlem and Spuyten Duyvil
restrained her on the north. She could not overleap these
boundaries, and within them there was not room for any
parks of magnitude. She thought she had accomplished
wonders when from her limited resources she set apart
864 acres for public use and recreation.* Now she feels
how inadequate is that amount. She has learned that she
can stretch her growing and giant limbs into the outlying
region, incorporating a magnificent area within her elastic
bounds. She has space now, by the far-seeing wisdom of
the Legislature, for parks of adequate size and in territory
eminently fitted for the purpose. She has not awaked
from her sleep one moment too soon. Ten years more and
it would have been too late.
By a fortunate providence there are ample spaces in
the centre and on tli(^ coast wliich have been withheld from
commercial enterprises, which are not built upon, which
are still regarded by their owners as acrt^s and not as city
oo
lots, and which can now be obtained at a fair value as coun-
try grounds. If these lands should be now obtained for
park pur230ses, there can be no doubt that the value of the
tract appro^^riated will be not only greatly enhanced, as in
the case of Central Park, which, purchased thirty years
ago at a cost of 86,666,000, is to-day estimated as worth
$200,000,000 ; but new life will be infused into the sur-
rounding and neighboring property, adding immensely to
their taxable value, thus replenishing the city treasury.
Effect of Central Park on the Value of Adjacent
Land.
The bill providing for the establishment of Central Park
was passed by the Legislature of 1853, and in 1856 the
Commissioners appointed by the Supreme Court to con-
demn the land and make the awards therefor had concluded
their work, having appropriated a tract of 660 acres.
For this tract the total amount paid including all
expenses was $5,493,766, and the actual cost per acre was
about $7,800. The two reservoirs embraced an area of 142
acres, making a total, with the land already purchased
between Fifth and Eighth avenues and Fifty-ninth and One
Hundred and Sixth streets, of 802 acres. To this was
added by a law passed in 1859, six years after the passage
of the first act, the section extending from One Hundred
and Sixth to One Hundred and Tenth street, containing
sixty-two acres, making an aggregate of 864 acres, which
is the present area of the park For this tract the city
was obliged to pay nearly twenty thousand dollars an acre,
about five times the cost of the land at the upper extremity
of the park when the first purchase was made, six years
before. Had the whole territory been bought at the same
time, immediately after the passage of the act in 1853, at
least EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS WOULD HAVE BEEN
SAVED TO THE PUBLIC TREASURY.
56
The increase of values at the northern extremity of the
park, great as it appears from this striking proof, was
much less than the enhancement which took place at other
points, particularly near the southern limit, the year after
the passage of the law, when the advance was over theee
HUNDRED PER CENT.
Such facts as these speak volumes. The most convinc-
ing arguments are weak and impotent compared with the
invulnerable logic of these figures. The most eloquent
appeals for prompt legislative action have no such influ-
ence as these silent numerals. They prove beyond the
possibility of doubt or cavil the necessity of securing park
lands at once, and securing a sufficient amount.
The lesson taught by this costly experience should be
profitably applied in the present case. True economy is
best subserved by a liberal appropriation of land while it
can be had at low rates. Three or four thousand acres
secured in the territory north of the Harlem river within
the present year, and before the effect of the work now in
progress to facilitate rapid transit from the Battery to the
Bronx is felt in the inevitable and almost immediate
enhancement of values, will save millions of dollars in the
near future. If the city should issue its bonds for the pur-
chase price of the title of all the lands recommended
herein for parks, making the same payable in thirty years,
and at an interest of three and a half per cent., the argu-
ment derived from past experience demonstrates that at
the maturity of the bonds, the amount of both principal
and interest, and the expense of putting the parks in order
and maintaining tliem, would be more than repaid by the
increased tax income, while the city would hold the title,
enhanced in value thirty fold, free and clear and without
cost.
Since, in addition, it is conceded that parks are indispen-
sable to the health of great centres of po])ulation — a fact
Dt
which is sustained by the highest authorities in sanitary
science — there would seem to be no room for doubt as to
the duty of the official powers in the matter.
Objections as to the Proposed Increase of Park Area
Answered.
It has been said that the movement is premature, and
that many years must elapse before the population of the
annexed district will be large enough to justify the establish-
ment of public pleasure-grounds in the Twenty-third and
Twenty-fourth Wards and the adjoining territory of West-
chester. The reply to this objection is that this is a ques-
tion in which the whole city is interested, and that the
larger parks which have been located north of the
Harlem river, as shown on the accompanying map,
are for the whole people, while only the smaller spaces are
for the benefit and use of the immediate locality. Had
such arguments prevailed over a quarter of a century ago,
the City of New York would now be without the grand
park which is to-day the pride of its citizens ; and our only
breathing places would be a few public squares, or so-called
parks, unworthy the name.
As we have shown in another part of this paper. Central
Park, viewed in a financial aspect alone, has proved a most
profitable investment for the city, a magnificent real estate
speculation, which has netted the public treasury millions
of dollars over and above even the most prodigal expend
itures. Millions, it is true, were spent on works that could.
have been dispensed with, and which, in the proposed
parks that are to be of a rural character, will be wholly
unnecessary. Though Central Park was designed originally
as a public pleasure-ground solely, and not for show ; as a
place for the recreation of all the people, free from restric-
tions save such as were necessary for the preservation of a
proper degree of neatness and order, the public enjoyment
58
of it is, excej^t when official permission is given, rigidly
confined to its roads and drives and walks, under prohibi-
tion and penalty.
The observant visitor cannot fail to see that Central
Park is wholly inadequate to the wants of our present
population, that at certain seasons and certain hours of the
day it is overcrowded with vehicles, the number of which,
it is estimated, lias doubled within the past five years.
Yet, as we shall see, the most determined opposition was
organized against it during the years of agitation that pre-
ceded the enactment of the bill for its establishment ; but
who contends to-day that it has been other than a benefit
to the people, and one of the very few great public works
that has more than paid for the outlay? Wh(\ of all those
who so fiercely opposed it, would consent to its abolish-
ment ? If the question were now put to public vote, is it
likely there would be one ballot for its discontinuance ?
We have said that the Central is wliolly inadequate to
the wants of our present population, and Ave may also say,
much as it is to be regretted, that the time is fast approach-
ing when its dimensions must, in obedience to the imperative
necessities of business, be materially reduced. When the
vacant spaces which still remain on the east and west sides
of the park are covered w^th buildings, the number of
transverse roads which form the only means of communi-
cation through the park between those sections of the
city must be increased, and the area of our one great park
reduced in compliance with the stern necessities of busi-
ness. Indeed, the first step has already been taken in this
direction, and a new transverse road is about to be opened.
Can it, in view of these facts, be rationally argued that
the present movement for an enlargement of our park area
is premature in a city Avhose population lias increased from
a half million to a million and a half since our first great
park was proposed?
Bronx Park — DeLancey's Ancient Pine.
6i
In the meanwhile, as we have shown in these pages, we
have been surpassed by several cities which have followed
and improved upon our example. Within this period the
taxable value of our real estate has increased from three
hundred millions to one billion two hundred and seventy-
seven millions, but while the city has advanced in wealth
and population, the addition to our park area, as shown by
the figures, has been comparatively insignificant.
It has been urged as an argument against the proposed
increase, that the insular situation of New York, bounded
by two great rivers, secures an abundance of fresh air ; but
the tens of thousands of dwellers on our water-front, who
occupy long lines of tenement houses, and who breathe the
air which sweeps over the fetid outpour of sewers and the
poisonous refuse of factories and gas houses, filth, and
abominations that are ever on the increase, would, if con-
sulted on the subject, soon dispel any such illusion. The
North and East rivers cannot in any sense be regarded as
substitutes for parks. Let it be admitted that they purify
the air ; they afi'ord no playground for the children, no
opportunity for the exercises of athletic clubs, no parade-
ground for the militia, no drive for horses and vehicles, no
promenade for our adult population, no shady retreats, no
expanse of " sight-refreshing green," " the livery Nature
still delights to wear," for the enjoyment and recreation of
pic-nic, excursion, and other social parties.
We would suggest, moreover, that something more than
pure air, essential as that is, is required ; health-giving
physical recreation is also necessary ; and where can the
mass of our population look for this, but to the people's
summer resorts — the great rural parks — which are certainly
as necessary to the American metropolis as they are to
London, or Paris, or Vienna, or any of the other European
capitals ?
62
It has also been urged, as a reason why this question of
more public parks should be kept in abeyance for some
years, that the pressing need for an increase in our supply
of Croton water must be immediately considered and pro-
vided for. Your Commission, in common with the rest of
their fellow-citizens, recognize and appreciate the urgency
of this important work, and they fully concur in the views
expressed as to the imperative necessity for its accomplish-
ment at the earliest day. They would be the last to counsel
delay or to throw obstacles in the way of its speedy com-
pletion. But, for the all-sufficient reasons stated, and which
are based on the success of Central Park in financial results,
they believe that the proposed rural pleasure-grounds
would aid in furnishing the. means and defraying the
expense of the costly works required for an increase of our
water supply. From the greatly enhanced value of the
land, which, as experience in New York and other cities
affords conclusive evidence, has invariably attended the
creation of parks, the city will derive from year to year an
increased income that will materially lighten the expense
of necessary public works..
The importance of the subject demands for it the earnest
consideration oj^your Honorable Bodies, affecting, as it does
in a peculiar degree, the interests of the metropolis ; for if
by an outlay of five or six millions of dollars, in a mat-
ter of such vital importance to the public health, our city
will realize, within ten years, more than the cost of the
land in the income ..xom increased taxation consequent on
the largely enhanced value of the property adjacent to the
parks, so much will have been obtained toward the reduc-
tion of other expenses. In Boston, Philadelphia and
other cities this fact has been turned to profitable account.
More land having been })urchased than was absolutely
required, the surpUis was sold at an advanced valuation,
j)rodu('ing from five to ten times the amount originally paid ;
63
for this land, fronting on the parks, constituted the most
valuable portion of the property. Such, it may be stated
here, as an illustration, was the result of the vast improve-
ment conceived and carried out in the French capital by
Baron Haussman. Under the system devised by that dis-
tinguished engineer a large section of the city was pur-
chased by the government, the buildings removed, spacious
thoroughfares opened, and such improvements made in the
locality selected that the municipal treasury was much
more than reimbursed for the outlay, realizing a handsome
profit on the sales of lots, on which splendid structures
took the place of unsightly and unhealthy buildings, the
resort, in some cases, of the worst portion of the commu-
nity.
If, in the case of Central Park, a space extending to a
width of five or six hundred feet from the present boundar}^
had been included in the area appropriated, and disposed
of five or six or ten years after the passage of the bill,
enough would have been realized from the sale to have
more than paid for all the land taken. A reference to the
tax valuation shows that the increase in the value of the
adjoining property exceeded even the most sanguine antici-
pations. For the advantage of location and the enhanced
value of their land the adjacent owners were obliged to pay
a proportionate tax rate. That similar results will follow
the establishment of the parks now located there cannot be
a reasonable doubt. As a mere financial speculation for the
city, as a means of enabling it to meet other and necessary
expenditures, and, above all, as a provision that should be
made in time for the sanitary well-being of the population,
there should be no hesitation in regard to the proposed
extension of our park area.
64
Parks as a Profitable Municipal Investment— A Notable
Instance— From Three Thousand Dollars to
OVER A Million and a Quarter.
Among the iiaportant considerations growing out of,
and intimately connected with, the proposed enlargement
of the parks of the metropolis, is the effect it must inevita-
bly produce on the taxable value of real estate in the
immediate vicinity of the sites selected. In every instance,
as experience has invariably proved, not alone in New-
York, but in other cities, the creation of parks has been
followed by a large addition to the municipal revenues,
increasing steadily year by year as the area of improve-
ment and population extended.
The history of the establishment of Central Park fur-
nishes a notable instance of the correctness of the state-
ment. When the question of the creation of that popular
and now deservedly celebrated pleasure-ground was
agitated, the proposition led to a fierce and bitter contro-
versy. Among its determined opponents the large real
estate owners were conspicuous by their hostility, and
determined in their opposition. They contended that it
would bankrupt the city treasury ; that it would prove a
curse instead of a blessing to the city ; that the insular
position of New York, bounded by two great rivers, ren-
dered it wholly unnecessary as a sanitary measure, and
that it would be a resort for the worst characters of the
metropolis. They sent delegation after delegation to the
Legislature, and their agents were untiring in their efforts
to defeat the bill for its creation. But the friends and
promoters of the project had -faith in the good work in
which they were engaged, and confidence in its ultimate
success, and after a protracted contest of four years the law
creating Central Park was enacted.
65
The result more than justified the most sanguine expec-
tations of the friends and advocates of that truly beneficent
work. Standing second in its importance and consequence
only to the introduction of the Croton water in its effect
upon the public health, it has far surpassed that great
work in its financial results. From the moment it was
reasonably certain that the desired legislation would be
obtained and that the advocates of the park would be suc-
cessful, a marked improvement was perceptible in the value
of the territory in which its site was to be located. Eeal
estate advanced fifty per cent, in some localities, and this
only in anticipation of the passage of the act ; so eager
were purchasers to take advantage of the expected increase.
Speculators were quick to perceive and improve the oppor-
tunity, and the competition became so active that in a
single year there was in some localities a three-fold
increase.
In the pamphlet issued by the New York^Park Associa-
tion, and which contains much valuable information col-
lected from official sources bearing upon this particular
point, a striking instance is given of the unprecedented
rise in the values of real estate in the Wards wherein the
Central Park was located. The property in question is
bounded by Seventy-eighth and Seventy-ninth streets and
Fifth and Madison avenues, which, in 1852, the year pre-
ceding the passage of the bill, had been sold for three
thousand dollars. On the prospect of the success of the
movement by the enactment of the proposed bill in the
Legislature of 1853, the tract was disposed of for four
thousand five hundred dollars, and when the expected
legislation had been secured it was resold for ten thousand
dollars, having advanced within a brief twelve months over
three hundred per cent. Within four years, in 1857, a still
greater increase took place in the value of this particular
block, Mr. George Douglass having purchased it for forty
66
thousand dollars. Thus, in the comparatively brief period
of five years, the enhanced value of the property showed
the extraordinary increase of over thirteen hundred per
cent.
It would be absurd to attribute such a rapid rise to
any other cause than the establishment of our great metro-
politan park. It certainly was not produced by the growth
of population, for at that time a large territory south of
Forty-second street Avas still unoccupied, and one of the
principal arguments, one of the strongest objections urged
against the establishment of a park so far north, was its
distance from the centre of population and the difficulty of
access. Many of those who had been most strenuous and
pronounced in their opposition all through the controversy
were among the first to take advantage of the advance and
profit by the opportunity. In 1857, as stated, the piece of
land referred to was sold for forty thousand dollars ; tiuelve
year's aftti\ the owner, Mr. George Douglass, refused one
million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for his property
from Mr. Vanderhilt Nor was this the only offer for the same
property — another of the same amount was subsequently
offered and declined. A still higher value is placed upon
the property to-day.
We do not propose to follow the rapid acceleration of
values throughout the territory in which the park was
located. It is sufficient for our purpose to show that such
an increase was mainly due to the wise foresight and judi-
cious legislation to which we are to-day indebted for one of
the most attractive and valuable institutions of our great
city. We may, however, state without going into details,
that lots on the thoroughfares bounding the park and on
the streets in the immediate vicinity were sold and re-sold,
changing owners at prices varying from one hundred to
twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, and in some instances to
one hundred thousand dollars. The real estate market
never experienced such a period of activity, and the Tax
69
Department of the city was obliged year after year to make
marked changes in the figures showing the values of the
property surrounding the park. Whatever doubts might
have been entertained with regard to the effect produced on
the city's income, or of the sustained influence which this
one great improvement exercised on real estate values, were
speedily dispelled by the records of this department, — by
what has been so forcibly and expressively termed " the
illuminating and informative virtue of statistics."
Testimony from New York's Official Records.
In 1850 the taxable value of the Twelfth Ward, as shown
by the books of the Tax Assessors, amounted to $8,356,265.
This ward comprised the whole territory, which was subse-
quently sub-divided into three wards, known as the Twelfth,
Nineteenth and Twenty-second.
In 1853, by the purchase of the land for the park, mak-
ing, with one hundred and forty acres required for the
Oroton reservoir, and which had been previously secured
by the Croton Aqueduct Department, a total of 864 acres, a
large tract was withdrawn from the taxable area of the city.
Under other circumstances so great a reduction in the
amount of taxable property must have been attended with
a corresponding decrease in the city's revenue from this
source ; but in this case the contrary effect was produced.
The acquisition of this territory and its dedication to the
use of the people was attended by the most beneficial re-
sults to the financial interests of the city. The increase
which followed the enactment of the law in 1853 is shown
in the following table giving the taxable values in the three
wards every five years :
Twelfth. Nineteenth, Twenty-second. Totals.
1856 $8,149,360 $8,041,183 $10,239,022 $26,429,565
1861 12,454,375 16,986,152 17,666,866 47,107,393
1866 18,381,650 37,636,050 24,052,715 80,070,415
1871 50.362,925 77,771,930 57,666,340 185,801,195
1876 67,238,660 119,156,555 66,449,640 252,844,855
1881 85.573,039 152,303,375 74,686,475 312,562,889
70
From 1850 to 1856 the increase amounted to $18,073,300,
and from 1856 to 1881, a quarter of a century, it reached
the enormous aggregate of $286,133,324. Despite the
financial revulsion of 1857, 'the effects of which were felt
for many years after, the yalue of property in those wards
had advanced over twentj^-one millions of dollars, an in-
crease of about eighty per cent., while in the rest of the
city as shown by the records of the same department in
the table given below, the increase was a little more than
twelve per cent :
Upper Wards. Rest of City
1856 $26,429,565 $314,542,533
1861 47,107,393 359,848,272
1866 80,070,415 398,924,519
1871 185,8 '1,195 583,505,215
1876 252,844,855 639,452,160
1881 312,562,889 664,172,310
But it is in a comparison of the increased value of real
estate in the three upper wards with the assessed yalue of
the other nineteen wards that the contrast becomes so sig-
nificant and suggestive. While the increase in the first
instance was thirteen hundred per cent., or at the rate of
fifty per cent, a year, in the latter the increase was about
two-fold, or a little more than one hundred per cent. It
may be said that this increase was largely due to the
growth of population, but it is a most significant fact, as
bearing upon this particular point, that within the very^
period in wliicli this great advance took place in the three
upper wards, that is from 1853 to 1870, the whole country
was passing through a gigantic civil war, the destructive
effects of wliich on liuman life and in keeping down the
natural increase of our population was proved in a pecu-
liarly painful and emphatic manner by the census statistics.
While the increase during the decade from 1850, when
the census returns credited the city with 515,547 inhabitants^
71
to 1860, when it had 813,669, was 58 per cent., the percent-
age of increase in the succeeding ten years from 1860 to
1870 was but 16 per cent., the population of 1860 being
813,669, and in 1870, 942,292. In fact, long before popula-
tion began to extend in an appreciable degree to the terri-
tory surrounding the park, the value of real estate was
rapidly approaching its maximum. In 1873 the prostration
of trade and general commercial depression caused a
shrinkage of values, but the city had in the meantime
derived a largely augmented income from that section.
The objection urged that these values were to a large
extent prospective in their character only serves to prove
the correctness of the assertion that the greatly enhanced
value of property in the wards named, and during the
period stated, was mainly due to the creation of Central
Park.
Assuming that the advance in the three upper wards
kept exact pace with the balance of the city, which from
1856 to 1881 was a little more than two-fold, their assessed
value would be less than sixty millions of dollars, or about
one-fifth of the other nineteen wards. But, as much of this
is of course to be attributed to the settlement and building
up of this territory, it is impossible to arrive at exact re-
sults.
Comptroller Hawes in his report for the year 1858 says
that " tlie increase in the amount of taxes accruing to the
city in consequence of the enhancement in value of real
estate situated in the upper part of the island, over and
above the formal value of the land now withdrawn from
taxation on account of the opening of this noble park, will,
it is thought, afford more than sufficient means for the pay-
ment of. the interest on the debt incurred for its purchase
and improvement icithout any increase in the general rate
of taxation^ Time has more than proved the correctness
of this statement, for the amount received yearly from the
72
increased tax income from the three wards constitutes one-
third of the whole tax levy of the city.
The City makes Seventeen Millions of Dollars, and i
Acquires Land Worth Two Hundred Millions
From a calculation of the increased tax income derived
from the territory surrounding Central Park, it is estimated
that the city received seventeen millions of dollars over the
cost of the land, the interest on the bonds, the expense of
maintenance, improvements, etc., since the law for its crea-
tion was enacted. For the land the amount paid was $6,666,-
381 ; on construction account, $9,873,844 ; for maintenance,
$6,500,000 ; for interest during twenty-five years, $20,755,-
925 ; making a total of $43,794,150. During this period the
aggregate amount of taxes collected in these wards, as
approximately calculated, was $110,000,000. Estimating
fifty millions of this as due to the increase from ordinary
causes, there would be $60,000,000 left, and after deducting
the park expenses, the balance to the credit of the city
would reach the handsome net profit of seventeen millions of
dollars, on this magnificent real estate transaction.
This, however, was the least portion of the gain, for in
addition to the increased income, by whicli the city was en-
abled not only to meet the excessive expenditure on the
construction and maintenance account, and to put millions
into the municipal treasury toward defraying other ex-
penses, she acquired a tract of land vahied at iivo hundred
millio7is of dollars.
This is the financial result of the establishment of Central
Park, and that similar efi'ects will follow the enlargement
of the park area in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth
Wards and on the Sound, does not admit of a doubt. It is
possible to purchase in that section of the city to-day over
three thousand acres, or four times the area of the Central
73
Park, for about the amount paid for that tract, minus the
space required for the reservoirs.
Between the Central and the proposed parks there will
"be a marked difference. While the one may be regarded to a
great extent as artificial and ornamental, and as such impos-
ing a heavy maintenance expense, the others will be rural
or suburban in their character, requiring a minimum of
expenditure. The site of the Central was probably the
roughest and most unattractive portion of the island, and
involved great labor and expense to bring it to its present
condition. To maintain it in this condition requires a
large yearly appropriation ; but it is a charge to which
the people do not object, as it is justly regarded as the
most attractive ornament of the city.
" The Park," said a New York paper, describing it in
1860, seven years after the passage of the bill providing for
the taking of the land, " the Park when purchased by the
city was a straggling suburb, covered with low, squalid
houses, inhabited by a class of persons whose occupations
were really nuisances in the eye of the law. Heaps of
cinders, potshreds and broken bricks were scattered here
and there, and, in short, the ground Avas used as a sort of
repository for all sorts of rubbish. ^ ^^ ^ This un-
sightly spot of ground is neither a park, a stone yard, nor a
piece of ivasie ground, though by times it reminds you of all
these. * -^ -5^ After three years' labor and the expen-
diture of millions of dollars New York is almost as parkless
now as erer. For all practical purposes the Central Park
is at present useless, and there seems to be not the slight-
est probability that it will answer the real purpose for
which New Yorkers need a park for years to come. In-
complete, unfinished, with only joromises here and there of
good things to come, with no shade, with walks and drives
beginning in dust, running along sand banks and stone
yards, and ending, like humanity, in dust again, the Cen-
74
tral Park, instead of attracting a greater number of visitors,
is losing' its habitues who flock away to Jones' "Wood, to
Hoboken, to any place where there is shade, and it is
visited now only by a few rural strangers who go to see
the Park as they go to see Barnum's, or any other of our
city sights."
The lands recommended for park sites in the Twenty-
third and Twenty-fourth Wards and vicinity, and on the
Sound, form natural parks, as will appear from the de-
scriptions in this report, and the necessary outlay to
fit them for occupation will be proportionately small
as compared with the cost of the artificial and ex-
pensive work performed on the Central Park, which
as above stated ivas not ready for public use for many
years after its j9?(rc/?a.9e. In the case of the Bronx and
Van Cortlandt, St. Mary's, Crotona, Claremont and Pelham
Bay Parks, the moment the land is acquired they will be
ready for immediate use ; indeed, we have no hesitation in
predicting that immediately after the enactment of the
law, they will be visited by hundreds of thousands of our
fellow-citizens.
Corroborative Evidence from other Cities.
The effect of parks on real estate values, although par-
ticularly pronounced in our own metropolis, has been
hardly less marked in other cities. From Boston,
Chicago, Buffalo, Baltimore and other cities, your
Commission is in receipt of testimony of a similar
character. In March of 1882, Mr. J). Bayhice, Secre-
tary to the Park Commission of Baltimore, wrote as
follows to the Secre,tary of the New York Park Associ-
ation : " Druid Hill Park, purchased in 1860, is not
within the city limits, but is separated from it by some
three-eighths of a mile, which was formerly without a
77
dwelling for that distance. There are now rows of hand-
some dwellings lining the roads leading to the park. The
cost of the land within the park limits was somewhat
less than $1,000 an acre. The surrounding property is
now held at rates vastly higher. Before the park was
opened the Commission gave for an undivided interest $500
an acre ; they have since had to pay $3,000, and more
than that when they had to condemn land within the park.
Rough hillside lots, which would scarcely have found a
purchaser are now held at $3,000 in the expectation that
the Commission will have to pay the price to secure the
property which juts into the park. That the increased
value is very great is so palpable that no one doubts it."
From Mr. H. W. Harmon, Secretary of the Chicago
Department, confirmatory evidence was received that "the
immediate effect was to double and quadruple property
values."
Mr. Wm. McMillan, Superintendent of the Buffalo
Parks, stated that the increase in the Seventh, Eleventh
and Twelfth Wards, in which the parks are situated, is 370
per cent.
The experience of the Boston Commissioners has been
no less gratifying. They, too, have devoted particular
attention to this phase of the subject, and recognizing its
importance have collected evidence no less convincing than
that already presented. Of their own city they say, that in
1876 they expressed the belief that money expended in this
direction would be " well invested and quickly returned by
betterments and by the increase in value of all kinds of
surrounding property." They inform us that the assessed
value of lands adjoining Back Bay Park in 1877 was
$11,143,751, and that 1881 showed an increase of
$18,813,649, yielding an augmented revenue of $122,500;
" which," they add, " is the present monetary value of the
park as affecting the city's income, representing a value of
78
$3,000,000, at four per cent., and which justifies the opinion
heretofore expressed bj the Board that the park is not a tax
upon the city at large, but that the increased taxes from the sur-
rounding jyroperty pays its cost. The increase of valuation
is upon Lmd alone, and does not include the buildings. The
valuation of the land in the rest of the city during the same
time, 1877 to 1881, was reduced $27,621,449. New build-
ings have been erected upon this territor}- since 1877
(which was valued by the assessors in 1881 at $3,992,300),
which are due, in a large measure, to the influence of the
park, and from which the city derives an income this year
of $55,492."
A reference to the description of the parks of Brooklyn,
which will be found under its appropriate caption further
on in this report, adds still greater weight to the testimony
on this point and shows that the same financial results
followed in this instance, as in every other, the appropria-
tion of large tracts of lands for public pleasure grounds.
Mode of Payment— The Parks Will More Than Pay
FOR Themselves and Leave the Title in
THE City, Free of Cost.
One of the first and strongest objections which have been
urged against the enlargement of the park area of New
York is the heavy expense, which, it is said, it must
necessarily entail upon the city and the onerous burden it
would impose upon the taxpayers. That there should be
more parks is conceded and that it is wise to purchase the
required land while it can be secured at the lowest price, is
also admitted ; but it is contended that the debt of the
city should not be increased and that any measure which
adds to its present bulk should receive the most careful
consideration. Your Commission fully appreciating the
importance of the work in which they have been engaged
79
and to which they have given much thought and labor and
a thorough examination, have arrived at the conclusion
that the present is the most favorable time of all the
times to come, for the increase of the area of our recre-
ation grounds, that for the reasons stated elsewhere
in their report and which are sustained by official
and financial statements, the outlay instead of being a
burden on the city wall, as experience has proved in our
own case and that of other cities, aiford a largely increased
revenue and result in equalizing the rate of taxation.
It is obvious from the history of parks here and else-
where that property adjacent thereto is largely benefited,
and that the benefit conferred is proportioned to its
proximity. The increase of value varying, as we have
shown, from two hundred fold to an almost incredible
amount, has not only greatly augmented the income of the
city, but it has helped its munici]3al government to defray
other and unavoidable expenses, particularly those of
necessary public works. The facts and conclusions are
so clear and convincing that they leave no room for doubt
or misapprehension on this point. If a lot bordering on
the park is worth, for instance, $1,000 before the location
of the site, and its value is thereafter doubled, the taxes
are proportionately increased, and every subsequent
advance inures not only to the benefit of the city treasury,
but to the advantage of property in other wards by equal-
izing the rate of taxation. Thus, as we have shown, Avhile
property in nineteen wards increased only two-fold from 1856
to 1881, the taxable value of the three wards in which the
Central Park was located advanced/rom about tweiiiy-six
and a half millions to over three hundred and tioelve millions
on the same property, an increase o/ twelve hundred per
CENT., CONTRIBUTING ONE-THIRD OF THE EXPENSES OF THE
WHOLE CITY. So that this great pleasure-ground not only
paid the interest on its bonds at seven per cent, hut the cost
80
of maintenance and the principal, leaving a large surplus to
the profit side of the account besides the land.
It should be particularly noted here that while the bonds-
issued for the purchase of the land of the Central Park
and the work of construction paid seven per cent, interest,
the rate of interest to-day is one-half that figure, or three
and one-half per cent., and that no loan will be required
for construction account, as nature has already performed
that part of the work. If, therefore, the purchase price is
paid by city bonds, the payment, coming from taxation on
largely increased values, is as equally distributed as it can
possibly be, for such taxation is in proportion to the in-
crease in the value of property.
This mode of payment seems the fairer and more
equable for the additional reasons that the surrounding
property will come in for assessments for streets, and other
improvements by which the city at large will be benefited ;
and, besides, when all is done, the absolute title to the land
embraced in the parks, will belong, not to the neighboring
owners, but, with all its enhanced and enhancing values,
to the city itself There does not seem any fair reason why
the owners in the vicinity of the parks should pay a part
of the purchase price of property to be absolutely vested
in the city.
The testimony from other cities is of the same conclusive
character, particularly in the case of the Back Bay Park of
Boston, a tract of over one hundred acres, tho result proving,
in the words of the Park Commissioners of that City (already
quoted), " that the park is not a tax upon the city at large,
but that increased taxation from the sarrounding property
pays its cost.'' Moreover, while these j^arks would not oni;^*
be paid for out of the increased revenue derived from the
enhancement of taxable values, there would be a surplus to
be devoted to the construction of necessary public works,
such as the newCroton aqueduct, — and probably enough to
81
discharge the entire cost thereof — and the city itself wonld
have in addition large areas of land, like the Central Park,
— but five times larger — worth hundreds of millions of
dollars.
While it may be urged that the analogy between the
Central Park and the parks herein recommended, is, in one
respect, not wholly sustained, in regard to enhancement of
taxable values, for the reasons :
First. — That any increase of value of the lands north of
Yan Cortlandt Park would inure to the benefit of Yonkers,
instead of New York (which, however, would not apply,
should that portion of Yonkers, as it probably soon will,
gravitate to our own city) ;
Second. — While it is true, that that portion of the
lands, on the west of this park, which constitute Woodlawn
Cemetery would not give the city treasury the benefit of
any increased taxation ; and
Third. — That Pelham Bay Park, being so largely em-
braced by the water of the Sound, could only enhance
those lands which neighbor it, outside of Pelhain Neck
(though this would not apply to the lands of City Island
lying southwesterly of Pelham Neck) ; — yet it may be
answered, with more or less effect, that residential lands
along the coast would, after the establishment of Pel-
ham Bay Park, be the most enviable and valuable of
any within the city ; and that the restriction of benefit in
any one direction, would tend to make the enhancement
greater in every other.
When, on the other hand, it is remembered that the
purchase price of Central Park, small as the acreage is, was
nearly as large as the price of the large domain herein recom-
mended will be ; and that the expenditure for putting it in
order and maintaining it for thirty years, has been far
greater than will be required for the same^purpose through
an equal time, for these natural parks ; and also, that, not-
G
82
withstanding the restrictions above mentioned, there will
yet be around the 3,500 acres of the new parks a much
larger quantity of vicinage lands to be benefited, than there
was around the 864 acres of the Central Park, it must needs
follow, that, in the next thirty years, the relative propor-
tion, and indeed the absolute total of enhancement of
taxable values, caused by these new parks, will be far
greater than that which has resulted from the Central.
The Moral Aspect of the Question— The Remedy for
A Great Evil.
Having dwelt so long upon the material advantages
resulting from the creation of parks, the physical benefit
to the people and the pecuniary gain to the city treasury,
it will not be deemed irrelevant or out of place to refer
to the higher and larger profits to be derived from them.
True these profits cannot be calculated in dollars and
cents ; they cannot be converted into capital of any
kind ; they cannot be weighed in any material balance,
but they are none the less real and valuable on that
account. Anything that tends to refine the manners and
elevate the character of a people is an inestimable advan-
tage, and the government that recognizes this fact and acts
upon it, that provides its people with rural resorts, spacious
and picturesque, may expend less money on prisons and
reformatories. The more parks, the fewer penitentiaries ;
the more pleasure-grounds, the fewer hospitals.
It is conceded that confined dwellings and fetid air and
gases have a deadly effect upon the moral as well as the
physical nature of man ; that in such places vice flourishes
as weeds in a rank, congenial soil ; that there boys and girls
graduate and take their degrees in the criminal sciences,
and it is equally and indisputably true that contact with
nature has a regenerating effect, that it invigorates the
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85
frame, purifies the heart, and stimulates the intellect. It
is impossible to overestimate its silent influence. It is no
wonder that the Greeks and Romans peopled their woods
and hills and streams Avith gregarious deities. That was
their mode of accounting for the influence nature exercises
over man, for the elevation it imparts to his thoughts, the
wings it lends to his imagination. Of course we sneer at
such "mythologic stuff," but even while doing so, we can
imagine airy, fanciful creations springing into full perfec-
tion from the pen or pencil of some future artist, in words
or colors, whose first inspiration came to him under " the
windows of the sky '' in some spacious suburban pleasure-
ground. One of the speakers who addressed a public
meeting held by your Commission justly claimed for parks
an educating influence upon the people ; "Art," he tersely
said, " had had its ups and downs and critics had fallen
foul of it, but as yet no critic had tackled nature. No man
ever got so old, or woman so unpoetic, as not to be able to
appreciate great landscapes." Human beings are so con-
stituted that the surroundings from which one gains
health and strength and beauty may impart to another
original ideas on art or science, high thoughts on
duties and responsibilities, lofty projects of benevo-
lence, or daring schemes of adventure. But the sur-
roundings that produce such results are not to be
found in the overcrowded tenement districts, with their
offensive odors and pestilential atmosphere that sap the
vigor of the body and the strength of the mind. Then
should not Christian feeling and patriotic spirit combine,
and acting together force an outlet through which our
working population may emerge into the mind-developing,
body-strengthening air and sunlight?
We cannot help, in this connection, recurring to a
subject so fraught Avith vital importance to hundreds
of thousands of the dwellers of the great metropolis
S6
— the tenement-liouse — where men, women, beys luid
girls, the infant of a clay and the octogenarian, are
crammed, Layer over layer, into close, confined, un-
ventilated rooms ; where privacy is unknown ; the seat
of disease and the hotbed of 3vil ; a feature of New
York, and of no other city in the civilized world. It was a
necessity of our limitations. Our population was bounded
by water-walls, and could not stretch beyond, and so — for
it must grow — it was obliged to pile up, story above story,
and crowd into narrower spaces. No one can realize the
sufferings of the denizens of some of these miserable
abodes without a shudder.
But New York has broken through her barriers on the
north and east ; reclaimed many of her people who had
fled to New Jersey and Long Island, and invites them and
the crowds, packed like sardines in her tenement-houses, to
fresh air, to pleasant views, to held and wood, to health
and joy in her new domain. Centralize her business — for
that cheapens the cost of its transaction ; decentralize and
diffuse her population — for that gives health, comfort, and
the capacity to toil.
It should be understood that the parks are not for any
particular "class" — so called. The objectionable term
^' poorer classes " has been used without a proper regard
to the meaning of the words, or the odious distinction
which they imply. In this land, thank Hi^aven ! the people
are not divided into classes, and in the matter of public
parks it is the interest and welfare of the whole people
which is considered. The "poor man'' of to-day, with
the opportunities which this free land places within the
reach of talent and well directed energy, may be the
millionaire of to-morrow.
87
The Sites Selected.
Van Cortlandt Park and Lake.
Your Commission lias, after many visits and minute ex-
amination o^ the section of tlie city comprised within the
Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards, been most favora-
bly impressed with the tract known as the Yan Cortlandt
estate, and its immediate surroundings, as possessing, in
its varied topography, ample spaces, charming views, cheap-
ness, natural condition, and peculiar adaptability for park
purposes. Over a thousand acres can here be obtainetl
in one tract, presenting a remarkable combination of forest,
hill and valley, rock and glen, meadow, lake and stream.
It is in fact a natural park, requiring but little outlay to
fit it for immediate use. Although at the northern
extremity of the Twenty-fourth Ward, it can be reached
within half an hour, even now, by rail from the Grand
Central depot, and the New York City and Northern
Railroad passes immediately through it to Yonkers,
conveying to it visitors from the present most densely
populated portions of the city in much less than an
hour. But the centre of dense population moves so rapid!*
northward, that it will take but a few years to brin,i7 .s
border on the Yan Cortlandt Park.
The Hudson Iliver Hailroad runs within less tlr a mile
of its western boundary, while the Harlem E-ailro t is within
the same distance of its eastern limit ; and when the Harlem
river improvements shall have been completed, large
steamers can approach its southern extremity, and j^lace
their passengers within fifteen minutes' walk of its grounds.
If the contemplated Arcade Railroad shall be built, it will
88
lessen the time between the Battery and Van Cortlandt
Park, to thirty minutes. It is in point of time much
nearer to the centre of population than the Central Park
when it was purchased by the city, and with this great
advantaQ;e in its favor, that when secured throuij^h the
required forms of law, as provided for in the accompanying
bill, it can be thrown open at once to the people. Little
expense need be incurred beyond that absolutely necessary
for the laying out and construction of some miles of
additional roads and walks and the maintenance of a proper
degree of neatness and order.
The Park Department have already outlined about 200
acres of this tract of land including the lake, and by the
filing of the map as required by law it has been dedicated
to public use as a park. But as the area should, in the
opinion of your Commission, be enlarged, and, as experience
has shown, the proceedings to obtain title may not be had
for years, the tract in question having been located and
designated on the ofiicial maps four or five years ago, and
no steps yet taken in this direction either in this case
or that of the proposed Bronx park, the needs of the
city and true economy demand that the property which is
daily accumulating value, should be secured at the earliest
day. The necessity of speedy action has been shown in the
case of the addition to Central Park, and which, in conse-
quence of the serious mistake that liad been made in delay-
ing its acquisition, cost five times as much per acre as the
northern portion of the original and larger tract.
The advantages afforded by the Van Cortlandt Park
consist not only in its diversified and picturesque land-
scape, but in the spacious parade ground of nearly one
liundred and twenty acres, and a level stretch of land
extending in one straight line to a length of over fifteen hun-
dred yards, which at little cost can be converted into a
most desirable rifle range.
89
Tlie lake of pure fresh water is supplied by the ever-
dowing brook known by its Indian title of the Mosholu, as
well as by several natural springs. It covers an extent of
sixty acres, which can be easily increased by artificial means
to a surface of at least one hundred, forming one of the
chief attractions of the landscape. As the supply of w^ater
is continuous no danger from malaria is to be apprehended
like that which, it is said, arises from the stagnant water
in one at least of the Central Park lakes, to which attention
has been repeatedly directed by the press. The brook is
capable of being readily widened, and may be made to form
a particularly interesting feature in the general plan of the
park.
If thrown open throughout its whole extent, the people
can enjoy themselves strolling over its broad plains and
rambling through its well-shaded woods, and over its sightly
knolls, and the cost of keeping it in a condition suitable to
such general use need be comparatively trifling. No ex-
pensive embellishments, no costly structures would be
required ; the place can depend on its natural advantages.
On every side are spread landscapes that would delight an
artist's eye. Looking south from the ancient mansion, wdth
its grotesque corbels and quaint devices, nearly a century and
a half old, a magnificent view is had of the Spuyten Duyvil
Valley, with the flanking hills on either side, and occasional
glimpses of the great city to the south. Less than ten
minutes by rail is the gigantic and graceful structure of
High Bridge, a continuation of the Croton Aqueduct that
passes directly through the Yan Cortlandt estate from
north to south. The extensive lawn in front of the
dwelling descends by a series of terraces into the valley
below ; a relic of the old Dutch style of landscape garden-
ing. To the east of the mansion there are several fine
evergreens and a line of grand old chestnuts that were
planted nearly a century ago. From the hills that over-
90
look the lake, the towering Palisades of the Hudson are
visible, with the noble river flowing at their base, while to
the north the County of Westchester discloses many a
varied, extensive and picturesque scene.
Within the area selected by your Commission can be
found an extensive tract of land for a reservoir of ample
capacity to supply the hundreds of thousands of residents
who will, in the near future, occupy this portion of the
Twenty-fourth Ward. Indeed, the necessity of making
such provision in time has already been suggested to the
Croton Aqueduct Commission by prominent citizens, and
the subject is referred to here as of special importance in
connection with the question of our future water supply.
It is Avorthy of note that our reservoirs have heretofore
been placed within our park limits, and in tlie present in-
stance the Van Cortlandt Park has not only the advantage
of location, but the req^uired topographical conditions to
recommend it for this special j^urpose — with natural
ranges, instead of artificial embankments, on two sides
of the reservoir. AVe may add that the line of the
new Croton aqueduct, as projected by the Commission,
runs directly througli this park from north to south,
a circumstance which, in its relation to the reservoir
question, is regarded by your Commission as deserving of
particular consideration. The fact that there is on tliis
tract an inexhaustible sup})ly of stone which would be
available in the work of construction, affords an additional
and substantial reason in favor of its appropriation by the
city. A portion of the stone of which the present Croton
acqueduct was constructed, Avas obtained from this hind,
and the City has been, for several years paying the pro-
prietor a royalty for the supply obtained from his quarries.
On the map of this portion of the city, filed in the Park
Department, the streets laid out witliin t\\o space which
your Commission lias indicated as eminently adapted for
93
this rural park extend to an aggregate length of twenty-five
miles, involving in the work of construction, consisting of
opening, grading, regulating, paving, flagging, guttering
and sewering, a cost per mile, according to a reasonable
estimate — based on experience — of $150,000, or a total
street expense for this tract of one thousand acres, of
nearly $4,000,000. If the land should be appropriated for
public use in the manner designated, at least three-fourths
of this expense will be avoided, and a great saving to the
city and the owners of property in this ward be effected.
So that the cost of laying out and completing the required
streets through this tract, if the same should not be taken
for a park, will be far more than the cost of the title to the
entire grounds, if taken for a park. When, in addition to
this saving, the enhancement of the value of the land by
reason of its proximity to the park is considered, there can
be but one conclusion as to the pecuniary advantage result-
ing to the city.
The same remarks are apj^licable, and of equal force,
in regard to all the other parks recommended.
A Parade Ground and Rifle Range for the National
Guard.
By the appropriation of the Van Cortlandt estate and
a portion of the contiguous land, the First Division of the
National Guard will, for the first time in their history, have
at their command a space sufficient for their proper educa-
tion in the practical duties of the citizen soldier. They
have, for years, been dependent on the courtesy of the
Brooklyn authorities on the occasion of special parades,
and every effort which has been made to supply this defi-
ciency has been unsuccessful. When the Central Park
was laid out it was understood that an ample tract would
be set apart for their use ; but the pledge, whether given
94
or merely implied, was uever kept ; nor, indeed, was there
any adequate space within its drives and walks for mili-
tary evolutions on a large scale. By special enactment
a piece of land in another locality was appropriated, but
the law was subsequently repealed and their claims have
ever since been systematically ignored. It is to be hoped
that the present opportunity to make amends for this
unworthy treatment will not be neglected. We owe at
least this return to that efficient and excellent organization
which is ever ready when danger threatens the good order
and peace of society, to risk the lives of its members for
the protection of life and property, and whose name is a
" tower of strength " and a defence.
The location of a parade ground within the park does
not mean that it shall be exclusively occupied as such, or
that its use shall be confined to the military. At all times
when it is not required for the purposes to which it is to
be specially applied, it will be open to the people for phy-
sical exercise, for all athletic sports and games, while pic-
nics, excursions and other parties will have ample space
for social enjoyment and healthful recreation.
Such a space would become a resort for athletic and
sportive games by clubs from many cities of the Union.
Apart, however, from the right to the use and occupation
of a portion of the proposed park, which should be con-
ceded to the National Guard, the public will find in the
brilliant military displays afforded by the field drills, pa-
rades, and manoeuvres on a large scale, new features of in-
terest and attraction. From the elevated points overlook-
ing the level tracts, the various evolutions and movements
of from five to fifteen thousand men can be witnessed by at
least two hundred thousand spectators, and it is needless
to say that when the whole force of the city, with probably
additions from other divisions, would unite in a grand
95
review — infantry, cavalry, and artillery — the lines of rail-
roads would be crowded with men, women, and children,
all eager to be present at these brilliant spectacles.
Landmarks and Traditions of 1776.
It may not be out of place here to state that this par-
ticular part of the Twenty-fourth Ward, forming as it did
before the act of annexation was passed, a portion of
Westchester County, played a prominent part in the war of
the Kevolution, and the manorial residence of the Van
Cortlandts, a substantial old mansion, erected, as shown
by the quaint stone numerals engraved on its front, in the
year 1748, was for a brief space occupied by General
Washington, who from this point kept himself informed by
actual observation and report of the whereabouts of the
British forces. In 1783 he revisited the place and, with
his staff, occupied the dwelling for the three days imme-
diately preceding the evacuation of New York by the Eng-
lish. The bread, of which this distinguished guest par-
took was made of the flour ground in the old mill repre-
sented in one of the views of Yan Cortlandt Park and,
during the War of Independence, the same old mill served
both friends and foes of American liberty ; both red coats
and Continentals, as it changed owners in the varying
fortunes of the contest, and still stands a most interesting
memorial of that day. It would, of course, be most desira-
ble to preserve, as has been done with the headquarters at
Newburgh, so interesting and valuable a relic of " the time
that tried men's souls." The extensive tract comprised in the
Yan Cortlandt estate was, in fact, debatable ground dur-
ing the Revolutionary war ; Kingsbridge, which lies about a
mile to the south, constituting the " barrier" of the British
lines. In accordance with an order of Congress, dated
May 25, 1775, a post was established at this point for the
96
purpose of keeping open communication between New
York and the country. Here the outposts of both armies
had occasional encounters, and the records of more than
one fierce struggle are found in the bullets, bayonets, frag-
ments of muskets, and other relics which are occasionally
turned up in the Avork of excavation.
When Washington decided, in the eventfiilJuly of 1781,
to join Lafayette at Yorktown, he lighted his camp fires on
the summit of Vault Hill, the better to deceive the enemy
with regard to his movements. The vault which gives its
name to this eminence, from which an excellent view is
afforded of the surrounding country, was the burial place
of this historic family, and along its slopes and down
through the valley of the Mosholu, many a bloody skir-
mish took place between the outposts of the two armies.
A sanguinary fi^lit between a body of Stockbridge Indians,
who were firm allies of the patriots, and a portion of the
British force, has left its memento in the grave which en-
closes the remains of forty red men, and which is to-day
known as '* Indian Field."
But the Revolutionary reminiscences and traditions of
the place are so numerous as to forbid more than a passing
reference. Even that, however, is enough to show that this
tract possesses, in addition to its singular suitability for a
grand public park, parade ground and rifle range, an
historical interest which in these days of centennial cele-
brations gives it a special value — a value that will increase
as time rolls on and those grand old days recede further and
further into the past. In.leed, it would seem especially
appropriate, that on the very ground where so much was
accomplished to gain our fieedom, our citizen soldiery
should find its school for the education and training
necessary to maintain it. When the generation that clasped
bands Avitli the men who fought and fell on those fields,
watered by "the red raii; that made the harvest" of free-
97
dom "grow," have passed away ; when the remembrance of
their deeds transmitted from father to son grows fainter
with each remove ; when it is transferred from the memory
of the patriot descendants and legatees to the vigilant
guardianship of history and the loving custody of tra-
dition, then those hallowed spots will have an interest
for liberty-loving pilgrims from all parts of the world, sur-
passing extent of view, or beauty of outline. These are
shrines where patriotism is taught, not by wordy harangues,
but by stern example, and wherever possible they should
be preserved ; for no matter how glorious the succeeding
years of the Republic have be3n, and the future may be,
the roots of her power and her glory can be found only in
the battlefields of the Revolution.
Among the many pieces of land that were considered
available for the use of our citizen soldiers, and that had
been personally inspected by the Major-General and officers
of the First Division of the National Guard, the tract de-
scribed was regarded as the most suitable. No such ground
could be had elsewhere, affording the same easy means of
access, without entailing a heavy expense to the city, and
though probably not quite so extensive as could be desired,
yet for the reasons already given it was deemed, after a
careful examination, to be the best that could be selected.
"Your Commission, unwilling, however, to rely solely on
their own judgment in a matter of such importance, con-
sulted those best qualified to judge, as will be seen by the
following correspondence between
L R. Marsh and Major-General Shaler.
Desiring to obtain the views and opinions of Major
General Shaler, the Commander of the First Division, the
following letter was addressed to that distinguished officer.
98
from Avhom the subjoined reply, confirming their own
judgment in the matter, was received :
CoMsnssioN TO Select and Locate Sites for Parks, )
New York, June 25, 1883. \
Major-General Shaxer :
Dear Sir — You have been informed through the public press
that, under an act of the last Legislature of this State, a Commission
has been appointed by the Mayor and confirmed by the Board of
Aldermen, "to select and locate lands for public parks in the
Twenty -third and Twenty-fourth Wards of the City of New York, and
in the vicinity thereof."
In view of the remarkable jjrogress and growth of our city and
the inadequacy of its park area to the present and future demands of
its rapidly increasing population, this action of the Legislature was
dictated by a wise foresight and a true economy.
It will be generally conceded that within such area as may be
selected by the Commission there should be a certain space set apart
for the military evolutions of our citizen soldiers, and also for such
rifle and musket practice as is deemed essential to secure the highest
efficiency in the use of these weapons. The selection of the proper
location for a purpose so necessary to the thorough education of our
National Guard involves in a special degree considerations of conven-
ience and rapidity of access to and from the various armories, ample
room for parade and manoeuvres, and a lengthened range for target
practice.
Knowing how mucli more i)ractical the views and judgment of mili-
tary men must be than those of a mere civil commission on such matters,
and aware that you liave already devoted much time and tliought, as well
as personal examination, to the selection of a suitable locality for the ob-
jects specified, we would be greatly aided and benefited by learning the
result of your investigation on this important subject.
We would be much assisted by being placed in possession of your
opinions as to the extent of the space required for the uses mentioned. The
Commissioners would likewise be pleased to receive such suggestions as
may seem to you pertinent to the inquiry which it has in hand.
With much respect,
LUTHER R. MARSH, President.
John Mullaly, Secretary.
101
Headquarters, First Division, N. G. S. N. Y., ^
New York, July 31, 1883. f
Mon. Luther R. Marsh,
President of Commission to Select and Locate Sites for Paries :
Dear Sir — I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter
of the 25th ult., relative to the enlargement of the park area of the city,
combined with the provision of a parade and drill ground and rifle range,
and requesting my opinion on the suitability of a site, the extent or area
required for the purpose, and " suggestions pertinent to the matter."
In reply thereto I desire to say, that as to a site for the purpose, the
best one suggested, of which I have any knowledge, is that at Van Cort-
landt's, on the New York City and Northern Railroad, which location as
to the space required for the purpose, while not giving ample room, could
nevertheless be made very desirable. The actual present requirements are
for the drilling of a body of 5,000 men, the present strength of the First
Division, but, as in the laying out of additional park area the future
growth of the city should be considered, so also should an increase of the
Division to twice its present strength be provided for, say 10,000 of all
arms. For the review of such a body in one line, a distance of 10,000
feet is required in the length of the ground, and about 1,000 in width ;
the same body in two lines could be formed in one-half the space as to
length, say 5,000 feet, but would require, at least, 300 feet more in width ;
in three lines, length say 3,300 feet, and width 1,600 feet; the latter form
of ground, 3,300 x 1,600 feet, would be the best and most practicable for
reviews, and would also be ample for drills and for manoeuvres in mass.
It is not probable that a clear open space of this size can be obtained
within the city limits. The level ground, including the orchard lying
west of the creek, at the south end of the Van Cortlandt property, before
referred to, will only approximate that size.
The establishment of a rifle range 1,100 yards long on the east side
of the park, and the connecting of the two sides by bridges, will make the
south ends of that ground also available when required for manoeuvring,
and the two plots taken together, with a small outlay, can be made to answer
the requirements of the National Guard of the city for many years to
come. This ground has four important advantages over any other which
I have visited : 1st. It has a large area of flat land requiring but little
grading ; 2d. A rifle range of suflficicnt size can be established, having
two of its sides and one end practically walled in by water ; 3d. It fur-
nishes an admirable position for spectators on the tongue of high grounds
which extends southward into the flat land west of the park ; 4th. It is
102
made accessible by a railroad running through it, which connects with
the elevated system. This area will not necessarily be devoted exclusively
to National Guard purposes, and if a public park is located upon these
grounds, I would advise that all the laud lying south of the point where
the butts of the rifle range would be estaljlished, between the avenue on
the west and the east boundary of the rifle range, which will include the
high ground alluded to, be set apart for the use of the National Guard,
and of clubs and associations formed for athletic games and physical
culture, for pic-nic and pleasure-parties, and for such out-door amuse-
ments generally as are now prohibited in Central Park, to be used by the
latter when not required by the National Guard. Contrary to a general
impression which has prevailed, the occasional use of a grass field by the
military and moderate use of it by pleasure-parties will have no appre-
riable injurious effect upon it.
It will give me pleasure to confer with your Commission or represen-
tatives of it anytime upon this sul)ject, it being one of great importance
to the National Guard, and no less to the well-being of the whole com-
munity.
Very respectfully your.^,
ALEXANDER SHALER,
Major-Oeneral.
The area which your Commission have indicated on the
accompanying map for a park contains 1,070 acres, and is
substantially the same as that marked out in the petition
upon which your Honorable Bodies were pleased to enact
the statute under which your Commission have been con-
stituted, it being stated therein " that within the limits of
New York there is no large tract of land suitable for a park
which can be bought at low rates except the one desig-
nated (Van Cortlandt's), and that it is a tract of land of
about one thousand two liundred acres."
The Bronx Park.
Among the various tracts to which the attention of youi
Commission was invited, and which they personally ex-
amined, was the land extending to a distance of from half
to three-quarters of a mile on each side of the Bronx, and
loa
from West Farms to Williamsbridge. This section com-
prises portions of the Lydig, Lorillard and Neale estates,
and lesser portions of other property. Of this land your
Commission has selected and surveyed for a park site six
hundred and fifty-three acres. It would be difficult and
probably impossible in the State of New York to find within
an equal space a tract of such rare beauty, rivaling, if not in
broad expanded views, certainly in picturesque loveliness,
some of the most romantic scenes in the Adirondack region.
Though less than a half hour's drive from the Harlem river,
there are few in the City of New York who are aware of its
peculiar fitness for a public park and its rare charms of
scenery. That such a spot should exist in its original state,
in its native wildness, so near the settled portion of the city,
and yet almost so wholly unknown and unsuspected, may
well awaken surprise.
The Bronx, which now forms the eastern boundary line of
New York, runs through this territory from north to south,
varying in width from fifty to four and five hundred feet,
forming at intervals wide lake-like reaches, from which the
banks rise to the height of fifty, eighty, and in some places
ninety feet. Where its waters are interrupted by the Lydig
Dam, over which they are precipitated in one broad, foam-
ing cascade, that adds a new charm to the landscape, it
reaches its greatest width and preserves the appearance of
a broad lake for at least a mile. The banks on either side
of the wider part of the river rise somewhat abruptly, in
some places easily surmounted and at others of a precip-
itous character. Gigantic trees, centuries old, crown these
summits, "a shrubbery that Shenstone might have envied"
spreads around, while great moss and ivy-covered rocks
project here and there at different heights above the surface
of the river, increasing the wildness of the scene. Among
these is a grand old tree that towers to the height of over
one hundred and fifty feet, a veritable monarch of the forest,
104
standing apart in solitary magnificence, and known to the
present and several past generations as De Lancey's Pine.
It obtained its name from the De Lancey family, who owned
the land which is now known as the Lydig estate, and on
which was the house that, as stated in Bolton's "History
of Westchester," once served as the headquarters of Wash-
ington. This building was subsequently destroyed by fire.
De Lancey's Pine, however, remains, and would form not
only a consj^icuous and beautiful object in the Bronx Park,
but an interesting historical relic, having as such a value
above its mere pecuniary worth.
" Where gentle Bronx clear winding flows,
The shadowy banks between,
Where blossomed bell or wilding rose
Adorns the brightest green.
* vr * * * ♦
Stands high in solitary state
De Lancey's ancient pine. "
But Delancey's Ancient Pine, is not the only feature of
special interest in the Bronx Park, for it possesses in a
huge boulder (evidently deposited on its present resting
place during the world's glacial period), an object of peculiar
value and attraction. This great stone, weighing probably
a hundred tons, is so balanced upon the rock on which it
was originally deposited by the melting of some huge
iceberg, from whose embrace it was, countless ages ago,
released, that by an ordinary effort of human strength, it
can be set rocking to and fro on its immovable base. Such
an attraction could not probably be duplicated by the most
skillful appliance of man's ingenuity. It is, as Moore says,
" Like that stone of the Druid race,
Which the <jjentlest touch at once sets moving."
Within the Lorillard estate the Bronx courses through
a narrow rock-bound gorge, the walls of which tower to an
altitude of nearly a hundred feet, the great trees on either
105
side throwing weird and fantastic shadows on the glancing
waters below. Rocky knolls, green patches of meadow,
thickly shaded sylvan retreats and wide stretches of lawn
give a varied character vo the land, rendering any effort of
art wholly superfluous. On the Lorillard estate there are
tracts in which the natural beauties of the locality have
been aided by the skill of the landscape gardener, and here
in the character of the soil and the work already done, an
excellent opportunity is presented for the establishment of
8 botanical garden, without which the park system of our
metropolis must be considered incomplete.
The walks and drives on either margin of the river,'
which here and there through the vista has the appearance
of a lake, winding among the native growth of oak, chestnut,
hickory, pine, beach and other indigenous trees, could not
fail to render the Bronx Park one of the most frequented
and popular resorts in the city. We feel convinced that if
your Honorable Bodies could visit this beautiful tract of
country, which nature has designed for a park, and which far
surpasses in its natural wildness the artificial formations of
the Central, there would not be a dissenting opinion as to its
reservation for public use forever. The Department of Pub-
lic Parks has done its part in the matter by locating a tract
of about one hundred acres on one side of the Bronx, to
which it is confined by the fact that the other bank of the
river is in Westchester, and beyond the prescribed limits of
the city, and, consequently, beyond present municipal juris-
diction. This nucleus of a larger park is in the same condi-
tion as the Van Cortlandt estate, so far as possession is
regarded, having been withheld from improvement and
cultivation, and may remain so for years to come, the land
in the meantime augmenting in value with the approach of
population. It is needless to emphasize the danger, the
impolicy, the extravagance of delay, or to urge in the very
teeth of past experience the unwisdom of further postpone-
106
ment on the ground that other needs are pressing — a work
which in time pays ten hundred per cent, profit on the
outlay. It is essential to secure a certain space on both
sides of the Bronx, in order, as has been well said, " to put
the possibilities of disagreeable neighborhood at a
distance."
Sanitary Reasons Demand the Preservation of the
Bronx.
Convincing as are the arguments in favor of the dedica-
tion of this land for a public park, and which are based
upon its singular adaptability, requiring comparatively
slight expenditure to fit it for public use, there is another
and possibly a more powerful reason, why it should be pre-
served as a people's pleasure groui^d. It is very evident
that this section of the city is destined, ere many years, to
be occupied by a large and rapidly increasing population.
Present indications all point to this inevitable result. The
Suburban Eapid Transit has at last, after patient waiting,
and the removal of the many obstacles thrown in its path,
by legal and other difficulties, succeeded in securing the
right of way across the Harlem i»iver at Second avenue, and
has -commenced the construction of the bridge, which is to
unite at that point the two systems, making a continuous
line from the Bronx to the Battery. Thus the completion
of the long contemplated project of rapid transit between
the city's northern and southern limits, on the east side, is
destined to open up this heretofore neglected territory
to the inflowing tide of population.
The land in this section, with the exception of a part
already described, is admirably adapted for building pur-
poses, and is certain to attract a very large proportion of
the prospective settlers. It is not difficult to predict the
consequences. Unless secured in time, the Bronx will be
transformed from one of the most exquisite spots to a com-
109
mon receptable for the drainage of tliat section, and event-
ually, becoming a public nuisance, be condemned to the
uses of a common sewer, which, as a safeguard to the public
health, will have to be constructed along the bed of the
once picturesque stream, which will have thus disappeared
forever.
In the discussion of the subject of annexation a few
years ago, it Avas proposed to draw a line from the Hudson
river to the Sound, which would include Yonkers, Mount
Vernon and New Bochelle. That such an extension of our
city limits will eventually take place, there can be no
doubt. It is only a question of time ; and when accom-
plished, our enlarged park system can be extended into the
new territory, and another addition made, which should
include the upper waters of the Bronx, preserving it from
contamination along that portion of its course also. The
river might thus become the line of a magnificent parkway
which, as in the case of the Wissahickon in Fairmount
Park, could be made a valuable and beautiful addition to
the general plan, forming a connecting link with another
park, which should, and we have no doubt will be laid out
north of the present boundary, completing and crowning
the whole park system north of the Harlem river.
Crotona Park.
This tract of land lying between North Third avenue
and Boston avenue, and East One Hundred and Seventieth
and East One Hundred and Seventy-fifth streets, and here-
tofore known as Bathgate Woods, has been selected by your
Commission and denominated Crotona Park. Situate on a
ridge of land which forms the eastern crown of the water-
shed of Mill Brook Yalley, it commands an extensive view
of the surrounding country, and overlooks the valley below.
It is admirably adapted for park purposes ; its luxuriant
110
growth of forest trees affording ample shade even in a mid-
summer noon. Oak, elm, and magnolia, lofty and wide
spreading, their roots covered with carpeting moss and
lichens, their inteiiacing branches looking like the growth
of centuries, give an impression of solitude and isolation,
totally at variance with the idea of proximity to a great
commercial centre.
The ground is beautifully diversified with hill and dale,
glade and glen. Beneath the trees, pic-nic parties enjoy
themselves during the summer and autumn, the cooling
breezes that are to be found there in the sultriest weather
making the place especially suitable for social parties,
while those who take enjoyment in a magnificent prospect,
can, from some open height, in clear weather, sweep the
horizon round from the Palisades to the piers of Brooklyn
Bridge.
The location, geographically considered, is the centre
of the upper half of IS ew York City, more so, even, than
Central Park, is of the island portion of the Metropolis.
Means of access for the entire population of the city are
already furnished by the Harlem Eailroad, the Elevated
Railroads, the horse cars and the Suburban Rapid Transit
Company, which has projected routes along the eastern and
western boundaries of the proposed Crotona Park. On a
portion of this property the Board of Education has erected
a grammar school, one of the finest sites for an educational
institut^ion within the city limits. As the lines of travel are
already established on both sides of this proj)erty its dedi-
cation to purposes of public recreation would not offer any
impediment to the growth of the city.
Thus it is apparent that this tract possesses the first
indispensable requisites for a park — beauty and variety of
surface coupled with luxuriance and variety of vegetation.
In point of position it has the advantages of being near the
city and easily accessible while retaining its rural character.
Ill
The extent of Crotona Park is 135 ^\/v acres. Of this area
a space sufficient for a zoological graden, and well adapted
to the purpose, with an abundant supply of water, can be set
apart when the land shall have been acquired by the city.
St. Mary's Park.
The attention of your Commission has been specially
directed to the subject of local parks of smaller area than
those already described, and Y\-hich, from their dimensions,
they regard as not only suburban, but, like the Central,
metropolitan in their character. After due consideration
of the needs of localities within the Twenty-third and
Twenty-fourth Wards, they have selected three sites, of
different areas, which they deem particularly adapted for
local parks. The popular judgment has, we may say, already
marked out one of these as a public pleasure ground,
and given it the name of St. Mary's Park. In fact, the
people of this part of the city have used it as a place
of recreation for many years, and its green fields and
shady nooks are the almost constant resort of picnic, ex-
cursion, and other pleasure parties. Its suitability for
park purposes was recognized and fully appreciated by the
old town of Morrisania, and long prior to the act of annex-
ation, they had proposed to set it apart for the recreation
of the people. St. Mary's Park was formerly a portion of
the estate of Gouverneur Morris, who played a prominent
part in the Convention which framed the Constitution of
the United States, and who was also a delegate to the Con-
vention which gave its present Constitution to our own
Empire State, and subsequently occupied the positions of
United States Senator and Minister to France. Within a
few hundred feet of the park stands the picturesque edifice
known as St. Anne's Church, in the cemetery of which rest
the remains of this true patriot and eminent statesman.
112
Constituting a marked feature in the surroundiniGj terri-
tory, above which it rises in places to an elevation of
over one hundred feet, this natural park requires but
little change to adapt it for public occupation. From
its highest points extended views of the East river and
Sound, the Harlem and Hudson rivers, are presented,
while the park itself possesses a variety of scenery which
is only to be found in larger areas elsewhere. It is in fact
a park in miniature, covering an area of about twenty acres,
with woods, hills, valleys, rocks, beautiful stretches of
meadow land, and a small lake fed by natural springs.
While its topographical advantages are such that it requires
little expense for improvement, its irregular surface, form-
ing its greatest recommendation for the use stated, renders
it unsuitable for building purposes and the construction of
thoroughfares. To grade this beautiful upland to a level
Avith the city streets, and destroy its commanding view,
would be a heartless desecration ! In a word, nature seems
to have specially designed it for a park, and, in the opinion
of your Commission,its appropriation for any other purpose
would be a serious mistake, costing more in the end than
the amount expended in securing possession. The area of
St. Mary's Park in twenty-five and one-third acres.
Claremont Park.
This tract of land contains thirty-eiglit acres, or about
thirteen acres more than St. Mary's. Like that natural
park it presents from its elevated grounds, which in
some places rise to a height of qne hundred feet, extended
views of the surrounding territory ; while its well-wooded
tracts and level spaces, varied with many quiet little dells and
shady nooks, commend it especially for the purposes de-
signed by your Commission. It has one advantage which
distinguishes all the sites selected and recommended in
113
this report — it is a park already and would require com-
paratively trifling outlay to put it in a better condition
for public use. It is even now, however, ready for occupa-
tion and might be thrown open to visitors the moment the
land is purchased. Made up of two ridges and an inter-
Ijing valley it possesses a desirable variety of surface un-
dulations, eminences, depressions, and stretches of level
land. Part of it is at present used for farm purposes and
grass is cut and crops raised on it. A regular country road
runs through it, as unlike a thoroughfare in proximity to
New York as could be imagined. In fact the idea of re-
moteness is suggested at every turn, resembling in this
particular other localities described and recommended in
this report. The vegetation is luxuriant, vines and
mosses beautify and half conceal the rocks and stones that
crop out on the hillside, or huddle together here and there
in picturesque confusion by the unfashioned roadway.
Claremont Park is about three quarters of a mile from
Highbridge and is reached by the Harlem and New Haven
Railroad.
Pelham Bay Park.
The petition upon whicli the act, chapter 253 of 1883,
under which your Commission were appointed was passed,
stated "that in addition to such breathing spaces as Cen-
tral Park and the park mapped out in the bill referred to
•^Van Cortlandt Park], New York icants and should have
immediately, a grand park with a loater front on Long
Inland Sound ; one which should be the people's own, a
resort for picnics and excursions, a place where they could
enjoy the pleasures of boating, bathing, fishing, riding, etc.'*
It was furthermore urged " that as no such territory is now
included within the boundaries of the city, the question of
securing a suitable site for such a park is not so simple and
easily resolvable as that already considered ;" and prayed
114
that a Commission might be created " to more fully and
authoritatively inquire into the matter,'' and report to the
Legislature " what steps should be taken to secure this
desideratum." Your Commission, therefore, felt that such
inquiry was a portion of the duty imposed upon them by
your Honorable Bodies, and have had great reason to be
gratified by the favorable results of their investigation.
A large park on Long Island Sound, well situated and
picturesque, accessible both by land and Avater, swept by the
healthful breezes of each, a park which may be approached
by steamboats and all manner of* vessels, as well as by land
carriage ; where the people can roam in freedom ; well
shaded by native trees, seems so necessary to our city as it
is to be, and at the same time so beautiful, original and
healthful, and, as we judge, not beyond the limits of the
authority you have conferred upon us, that the members of
your Commission were impelled to examine the coast-line
for an appropriate location. They have, therefore, person-
ally inspected that line and its ind-entations for the most
suitable ground for such a park, believing that this growing
metropolis ere very many years, will embrace four and even
five millions of inhabitants, and the citizens of the State who
take a pride and an interest in the city's prosperity will not
much longer be content that its eastern boundary shall be
defined by the slender rivulet of the Bronx ; but will insist
rather that her territory shall embrace all the land below
her northern line, lying between the Hudson and Long
Island Sound — a domain that seems marked by nature for
the site of a city, which we hope, and firmly believe, is to
be one of the grandest cities of the world.
The improvements now in progress, the opening through
the Harlem river, by the Federal Government, of a great
commercial channel between the East and the North rivers,
which will s(^nd thither the centre of our business city,
the stupendous works of the National Government for the
117
removal of obstructions in the great channel connecting
the sound with the ocean ; the railroad facilities which the
last few years have developed and those contemplated in
the immediate future ; the improvement of the streams
which lead into the Sound ; and the push of population
and business in that direction, cannot but have the effect of
making the land bordering on the East river too indispen-
sable for domestic, commercial and manufacturing pur-
poses to permit the abstraction of the requisite number of
acres required for the park, and to interdict the location
of such pleasure grounds along the shore below Throgg's
Neck.
Around Port Morris, and below, and above that point
up to Throgg's Neck, it is evident that the shore is fore-
doomed to material and practical business uses, and that
any park situated there would soon be environed with the
smoke of furnaces and forges, and the noise of the trip-
hammer. Above Throgg's Neck the shore is so highly
cultivated, and studded with country seats, as to be too
costly to be taken with advantage for recreation ground.
Following the shore line still further we failed to discover
any land specially appropriate (except such as Avould, from
its high state of cultivation and improvement, be too expen-
sive), until we reach the peninsula of Pelham Neck and
its vicinity, where a natural park is spread out, of diversi-
fied grounds, rolling, healthful, well-wooded, almost sea-
surrounded and of generous amplitude.
This great park of seventeen hundred acres, with its
coastal indentations, including its picturesque .bays and
inlets, its open water front on the Sound and the wooded
margin of Hunter's Island, has an aggregate shore line of
nine miles and embraces a territory which your Commis-
sion can truly say is unsurpassed for purposes of public
recreation by any park in the world. A section of the land
having an extent of over four hundred acres stretches out
lib
in the form of a peninsula into the Sound, presenting num-
berless pictures of great diversity and beauty. This noble
expanse of water, which constitutes the highway for a large
portion of the coast commerce between New York and the
Eastern States, forms a splendid moving panorama, while
along the shore line of the park are large tracts of wood-
land, abounding in stately trees, wide-spreading oaks and
graceful elms, centuries old and forming natural groves.
Surrounding this peninsula, and of easy access, are
several islands, some of which are connected by bridges
and causeways with the mainland, and all of which can
be readily approached by steamboats and sailing craft.
The ocean tides which make their way through the East
river in one direction, and in an opposite course through
the Sound, meet a little below Throgg's Neck, nearly oppo-
site Whitestone — and result in a collision of waters forming
a tide-rip there. The upgoing tide carries with it the
odious bilge water and much contamination, as it passes the
wharves and sewers of New York and Brooklyn, until it is
arrested by the descending tide from the Sound ; at which
place of conjunction the tide-rip prevents the flow of any
impurities eastward, and protects the nari-ow channel at
Throgg's Neck, so that the waters above that part and those
which bathe the shores of Pelham Neck are sparkling and
pure. This consideration is certainly of great importance
in selecting a site for a park where the waters bordering it,
and forming, so to speak, a marine extension of it, and over
which much of the approach is to be made in all kinds of
crafts, are to constitute so prominent a feature, and one of
its greatest charms. The bathing and fishing facilities
attached to this park would form one of its chief attrac-
tions, but the healthful enjoyment derived therefrom would
of course depend mainly upon tlie purity of the water.
Fortunately this extended water-front has hitherto
escaped s(^-called improvements, as if reserved by some
119
good providence for the benign purpose to which we trust
it will be devoted. The land at Pelham Neck can, we are
informed, be obtained at a moderate price and it will require
but little expense in preparing it for visitors. It would,
with the exception of some necessary roads and walks,
— for it has already been fenced to our hand by water —
be better let alone. Nature has already done all that is
required, and the people will enjoy themselves with greater
zest if permitted to stroll unrestrained over its greensward
and through its woods, instead of being confined to prim
and narrow paths, and confronted on every side by prohibi-
tory notices and threatened witli the infliction of pains and
penalties. We would report in favor of parks where the
people can be free in all reasonable occupation and enjoy-
ment.
If it should appear at first sight too far away from the
present densely-populated portion of the city, the answer
to the objection is conclusive. It is certainly, with the
present means of access, not more remote than Central
Park wiien it was laid out over a quarter of a century
ago, and it is several miles nearer than Starin's Glen
Island. When the proprietor of that popular sum-
mer resort, who had a fleet of steamers constantly
employed in conveying visitors, announced the termi-
nation of the season, — new as the enterprise was — he
stated that the number of persons conveyed to and fro ex-
ceeded six hundred thousand, and that the enterprise had
proved so profitable and successful he intended, among
other features of interest, to establish a zoological garden
for the ariiusemtiut of his patrons. The inference is obvious
— if Glen Island, which is some miles further than Pel-
ham Neck, is not too distant for the hundreds of thousands
of health and pleasure-seekers, the objection as to its dis-
tance is not worthy of a moment's consideration. There is a
necessity upon the city to grow in that direction as well as
120
up the Hudson and in the central position, and tlie establish-
ment of a park in the location described Avill draw around
it the homes of the people. The facilities of access by land
and water will be so great, and the place so easily reached
and at such slight expense, that it will be a boon to the
workers and the toilers of the great city to get into such
an atmosphere, so fresh and uncontaminated.
This park will be a benefaction to the people, greater
each year as the necessity for it becomes more and
more apparent, and judging of the future by the past, and
by the fast coming impulses of the present, it is fair to as-
sume that in ten or fifteen years the advancing tide of
settlement will have invaded the section actually bordering
the site which is here recommended.
City Island, united to the easterly end of Pelham Neck
by a bridge, is cut up into small holdings, and is, in the
village part, quite thickly populated, having over 1,200
inhabitants, some 200 voters, and perhaps 250 dwellings.
These citizens, unless, by water, must necessarily traverse
the length of Pelham Neck on their way to and from their
island home. Before the Revolution this island was divided
into city lots of 25 by 100 feet, and some of the lots were
sold at fifty pounds apiece.
It is believed that this proposed park on the coast
would be cheaper in the purchase, and require less expen-
diture to put in condition and maintain, than any other
tract of equal size within our range, and would outrank
any park of any city in the ^vorld in the beauty of its posi-
tion, in usefulness, in the variety and magnificence of its
views, and the originality of its design.
It will be seen that the proposed Pelham Bay and
Bronx parks are directly connected by the Eastern Boule-
vard and Pelham and Fordham avenues, wliich latter be-
tween the ])arks, we propose to widen to four times the
present width, and call it "The l^ronx and Pelham Park-
121
way." As tlie boulevard is already public property, the
cost of the additional land required for such widening —
about ninety-one acres— would not be heavy. Such an
union of the entire park system of upper New York would
seem to be most desirable ; especially as it may be accom-
plished so easily and cheaply through the public avenue
already established.
The Parkways.
In the location and appropriation of certain tracts of
land for j^arkways, your Commission have considered these
as essential parts of the whole system. Referring to the
suggestions of the petition, upon which chapter 253 of the
Laws of 1883 was passed, they find that they are authorized
"to take into consideration the advisability of constructing
parkways between *the proposed parks, and of utilizing
some of the avenues and boulevards now existing for such
purpose." In the performance of this duty they recom-
mend two such grand avenues — one* uniting the proposed
Van Cortlandt and Bronx Parks, and entitled the Mosholu
Parkway, and tlie other connecting the latter with Pelham
Bay Park — which would not only unite these magnificent
recreation grounds, but would give a continuous drive
through the whole, and a smaller one uniting the Bronx
and Crotona parks.
The Mosholu parkway, which contains an area of
eighty acres, exclusive of roads, would l)e six hundred
feet wdde and nearly a mile long. In the park system
of Chicago, the Midway Plaisance, which unites the
Jackson, Washington and Gage parks, embraces ninety
acres, is about the same length, and nearly tAvo hun-
dred feet wider, forming an important and beautiful
feature of the whole plan, as will be seen by reference to
the description in this report of the public pleasure-
grounds of the great Lake City. The " Coney Island Con-
122
course," which is part of the Brooklyn park system, is one
thousand feet wide and over half a mile long. It is almost
needless to say that such a feature would not only greatly
increase the beauty of the general design, but throughout
its whole length would have the effect of largely enhancing
the value of the property fronting thereon and materially
augmenting the tax revenue derivable therefrom.
The Bronx and Pelham parkway, as shown on the
map, has an area of ninety-one acres, exclusive of the
present boulevard, which is taken in. Its width is four
hundred feet, its length about two and a half miles, and it
traverses a territory which, when annexed, as it eventually
will be. will form a most valuable and attractive section of
the metropolis. A smaller parkway is also recommended
to unite the limited Crotona with the Bronx Park, which
would thus give a continuity to the whole park system
contemplated in this report, with the single exceptions of
the small area of St. Mary's and the Claremont.
The Map and Views of the Proposed Parks.
In order to present to the eye, at a glance, the location
of the grounds herein recommended, their relative position
to other parks and the populated centres, the line of
advance of the city's population, the adaptability of the
grounds for places of recreation and exercise, their shape
and relative size, and the modes of access now existing and
contemplated by land, and the unlimited approaches to Pel-
ham Bay Park by water, your Commission have caused a map
to be prepared by their engineer, General James C. Lane,
who has given mucli personal inspection and study to the
subject. The experience of General Lane as a civil engi-
neer and landscape architect, and his artistic taste in all
matters pertaining to landscape gardening, will commend
his map and report, we doubt not, to your favorable consid-
125
eration. A diminished copy of the map is prefixed to our
report.
As your Honorable Bodies cannot visit the grounds in
person, and as, in winter, a committee cannot judge of
them to advantage, we have had a variety of limited views
taken from the different parks proposed, and copies inter-
spersed through our report, which will show how nature
has already taken on herself the business of creating these
parks, and saved us much of the expense and labor ; and
will give intimation of the picturesque and lovely scenes
which would be opened to the public use and enjoyment,
should our recommendation be adopted.
The sites selected are so dissimilar in character that
each seems to have a distinct individuality. Each has nat-
ural advantages and special beauties not to be found in the
others ; each has attractions that will appeal forcibly to dif-
ferent tastes, and peculiarities of configuration and position
that will render it suitable for different purj:)oses. This
marked diversity we consider an argument in favor of
each, for nothing would so dwarf the public taste as a suc-
cession of parks as much alike as a row of brown-stone
fronts.
In the sites selected by your Commission nature has
been so overmastering in her action that no amount of
intrusive cultivation can efface their natural traits, and no
artificial forcing can turn them into duplicates. Each
stands on its own merits, a complement of all, blending in
concordant beauty, but standing apart in harmonious
contrast. The illustrations prove it.
Van Cortlandt Park, with its wide stretches of undu-
lating country, its circling hills, its extensive prospects, its
limpid lake, margined by grassy slopes, its ever-flowing
brook, its historic sites, its patriotic associations, its level
tract, whereon our citizen soldiery could be exercised in all
the manoeuvers and details of mimic warfare — contrasts
126
strikingly with the romantic beauty and secluded loveli-
ness of the Bronx Park, where the picturesque stream,
which gives a name as well as a charm to the region, flows
through rocky glens darkened with the green gloom of
overhanging trees, or Avidens out into jdooIs where the
disciples of Izaak Walton might wile hours away ; or winds
its way through sunny meadows and scenes of unsurpassed
sylvan loveliness.
Not less striking is the contrast between both these
tracts and the park by the Sound. Indeed, Pelham Bay
, Park stands altogether alone, being necessarily unlike any
of its inland compeers. Unique in its position, form,
attractions and possibilities, a noble expanse of water
almost encircling it, a clear, unobstructed view of the
heavens ' overhead, the glory of space on every side,
it seizes on the imagination and satisfies the poetic
and artistic instinct. In addition, it has the mate-
rial advantages of affording opportunities for aquatic
sports and natatorial exercises, for fishing and boating, for
regattas and water excursions.
Altogether different is Crotona Park, seated on the
crest of a hill and overlooking the busy, thriving, populous
valley below. To the west, it commands a view of High
Bridge and the distant Palisades of the Hudson, while
southward, on a clear day, the massive piers of the Brook-
lyn Bridge can be seen against the background of the sky.
Richly wooded and beautifully diversified, musical with
running brooks, it is already a park ripe for occupancy.
Its elevated position, -which secures for it refreshing
breezes, even in the heart of summer, adds to its desira-
bility for park purposes ; while St. Mary's and Claremont
—fit for occupation the day they are declared and without
further expense — lift high their undulating plateaus, to
survey the homes and industries of the people.
127
American Parks.
Public Pleasure Grounds oe Chicago.
Your Commission, in directing the attention of yonr
Honorable Bodies to the limited park area of New York, so
wholly inadequate to its present wants, and so greatly dis-
proportioned to its future needs, desire to invite your
special consideration in this connection to the generous
provision that has been made by many of the principal
cities of the Union, which, though inferior in population,
are greatly in advance of our metropolis in this respect.
Taking London and Paris as their examples, they have
exhibited an earnestness and energy in the good work
that has already placed them far in advance of New
York, although it is less than ten years since some of them
entered the field of competition.
This is particulai-ly true of Chicago, Boston, St. Louis,
San Francisco, and Buffalo. While Philadelphia has its
Fairmount, the largest park in the United States, it is sur-
passed in the aggregate extent of its public grounds, as
compared with its population, by several other cities. And
first among these is the City of Chicago, the metropolis of
the West, the Lake City, par excellence, with its wide spread-
ing parks, looking out over the vast inland sea, whose inlets
and lagoons are skilfully embraced in the general park
plan, and made to contribute largely to the beauty of the
whole design.
While the level prairie land on which Chicago has been
built is unfavorable to that diversity of surface which gives
picturesque effect to the view, the resources of art have been
successfully employed in the work of construction and em-
128
bellishment. The improvements have been made on the
most liberal scale, and although, according to the last re-
port of the officials in charge of the work, soijie years must
elapse before its completion, sufficient has been done to
justify the belief that the parks will when finished fully
realize the highest expectations of the people.
The total number of acres embraced in the park sys-
tem of Chicago is 3,000, divided as follows :
Acres. Acres.
Jackson Park 586 Humboldt Park 200
Washington Park 371 Garfield " 185
Gage Park 20 Douglass " 180
Midway Plaisance 90 South " 372
Lincoln Park 250 Lake Shore " 593
Total 2,847
Besides these there are eleven smaller parks, which in-
crease the area to at least three thousand acres, and these
are connected by a system of boulevards conceived on a
grand scale, and Avhich are now being rapidly pushed to
completion. These splendid avenues have a width varying
from one hundred to two hundred and fifty feet, orna-
mented with long lines of stately and vigorous shade trees.
The length of these magnificent boulevards will be over
thirty miles, and one-half of that distance is ready for
use.
The South Park, which consists of Jackson, Washing-
ington and Gage, and a superb parkway, entitled Midway
Plaisance, has an extent of one thousand and fifty-five
acres. Artistic taste of the higliest order has been em-
ployed in the laying out and arrangement of the land and
water surface, for which Lake Michigan has been placed
under contribution. Lagoons and havens and meres
spread through the broad expanse of land, ramifying here
and there in miniature bay-like indentations ; in other
129
parts narrowing and widening like rivers, whose banks are
wooded to the water's edge. The undulating surface of
Lake Michigan seen through the green vistas of leafy
groves, with which the parks are liberally supplied, adds a
feature of enchantment to the landscape which gains
immeasurably by force of contrast with the great broad
meadows denominated " opens," that stretch away inland.
A peculiarly beautiful feature in the plan of the South
Parks is the Midway Plaisance already mentioned. It
contains, as stated, ninety acres, is nearly a mile long, and
between seven and eight hundred feet w^ide. Through its
centre is constructed a series of ornamental basins extend-
ing its entire length, margined by trees and shrubs, and
bordered by pleasant shaded walks. The basins, which
are a series of miniature lakes, vary in width from twenty
to over a hundred feet, and receive their supply of water
from Lake Michigan, through the Lagoon of Jackson Park,
which is connected by the Plaisance with Washington
Park.
Much has been done, but still more remains to be
effected before the parks of the Lake City are finished ;
but enough has been accomplished to prove the earnest
interest which the people take in the subject.
The Public Grounds of Washington.
It might be reasonably supposed that of all the cities in
the United States, the National Capitol, which has been
appropriately called " the City of Magnificent Distances,"
could most easily dispense with large breathing places.
With its broad avenues varying in width from one hundred
and twenty to one hundred and sixty feet, and with its
streets having an aggregate length of two hundred and
seventy-nine miles, it would seem as if other ''lungs " were
wholly superfluous. Yet with the wealth of space it pos-
sesses in its tree-bordered thoroughfares, resembling park-
130
ways, it lias a park surface of about oue thousand acres,
including the Soldiers' Home and other grounds, and its
great avenues and open spaces have an area of 2,554 acres,
which is little less than one-half the extent of the city.
The City of Washington was designed on a scale of
magnificence surpassing that of any other capital in the
wo:fld, and its " Eeservations," or public grounds, though
of less area than those of several other cities in the United
States, are specially deserving of notice for the taste and
skill displayed in their plan and embellishment.
" The Grounds," as the park spaces surrounding the
Capitol and Presidential Mansion, are called, have a total
area of about one hundred and thirty-two acres, of which
eighty-one acres belong to the latter and fifty-one to the
former. The space is divided into walks, parterres and
lawns, the character of the surface being best adapted to
this method of treatment. For their efiect they are largely
dependent on their artistic embellishments, fountains,
statuary, etc., besides the grand public buildings erected
within their limits. The Botanical Garden, and the grounds
and buildings, under the charge of the Department of
Agriculture, are, however, justly regarded as the most
interesting and attractive to the general public, and partic-
ularly to the visitors at the Nation's Capital.
The Botanical Garden, with its conservatories, contains
ten acres, the jirincipal feature in the plan being the
arrangement of the numerous flower beds, which are bright
with a wealth of color, and redolent of delicious perfume
during the spring and summer. In the conservatory are to
be found the plants of every climate, " the palm tree of
Scripture," " the tree fern from New Zealand," " the screw
pine of Australia, with its cork-screw leaves and roots in
mid air," *' the dumb cane of South America," the sap of
whose root, we are told, " takes away the power of speech ; "
'^ the Caffre bread tree from the Cape of Good Hope,"
en
133
*' the candle nut tree from the Society Islands," " the four
century plant," " the papay, which has the property of
rendering the toughest meat tender," " the monkey bread
plant, which grows on the banks of the Senegal, reaches
the enormous circumference of one hundred feet, and is
supposed to attain the age of five thousand years;" the
eucalyptus trees which drinks up miasm and purifies the
air; besides a long catalogue of other marvelous produc-
tions of the floral and vegetable world.
The Department of Agriculture, not so much for the
extent of its grounds, as for the almost endless variety it
presents, is one of the most attractive institutions of the
City of Washington. In the proper sense of the term the
land which has been appropriated for its special use can-
not be called a park ; and in fact the title as applied to
nearly all the public grounds of the National Capital is a
misnomer. They are either gardens or lawns, subserving
the use of parks, adorned in many instances with statuary,
vases, fountains, etc., or relying almost wholly for their
interest on the public buildings erected in their midst. The
Garden of the Department is a vast collection of flowering
plants, without a tree to break their classified order and
arrangement. The variety is almost bewildering, there being
nearly two thousand different species. In addition to the
Garden there are the Experimental Grounds for the cultiva-
tion and propagation of fruits, seeds and hardy plants, while
for aquatic plants there are artificial lakes, rivers and
swamps. The Arboretum is a practical school of botany,
in which nearly all the trees of the world are catalogued
and classified, and the Museum of Agriculture embraces
in its vast and ordered array, specimens of all the produc-
tions of the vegetable kingdom.
As in the grounds of the Capitol, so those of the Smith-
sonian Institute, covering an extent of about fifty acres, are
laid out in the form of lawns, groves, walks and drives,
134
while the Washington Monument Park, containing forty-
five acres, the Soldiers' Home, five hundred acres, with its
lakes and meadows, and drives of seven miles ; the Zoologi-
cal Garden, twenty acres ; the Propagating Garden eight
acres and its forcing houses and nursery, which supply the
public grounds with trees and shrubs — all bear testimony
to the liberal provision which has been made in the appro-
priation and dedication of large tracts of land to public
use.
But the City of Washington is not wholly dependent on
the " Reservation " or " Grounds," so called, for the recre-
ation of its people. In the suburbs there are many beauti-
ful drives and grounds open to the public, and within a dis-
tance of fifteen miles is Mount Yernon, the home and tomb
of Washington, a priceless legacy. Here is the garden
designed by Washington himself, and in it are several trees
planted by his own hands. Out of respect to the memory
of the Father of his country, the grounds have been left in
almost the same condition in which they were when the
Nation stood mourning by his grave.
The total area of the grounds, squares, places and
reservations open to the people of Washington and visitors
may be estimated at about one thousand acres, and as the
population of the National Capital is something over
150,000, there is about one acre to every 150 inhabitants.
The Parks of Boston.
In the history of the park movement in the United
States, the city of Boston is entitled to and should receive
special mention. With a true appreciation of the efi'ect of
large open spaces on the public health in the first place,
and of profitable results to the public treasury in the
second, as an important factor in tlie enhancement of real
estate values, the municipal autliorities of Boston have,
1
within the past four years, increased their park area from
three hundred and fifty-five acres to a total of two thousand
three hundred. From 1879 to 1883 they have added nine-
teen hundred and forty-five acres, of which they have
already secured, by actual purchase, seven hundred and
thirty-nine, leaving a balance of twelve hundred and six for
which the necessary proceedings to obtain title are yet to
be taken. The following list gives the names and area of
the several tracts, in acres :
Acres.
Common and public gardens 72|-
Small squares and parks 60|-
Chestnut Hill, Parker Hill, and Eagle
Hill Eeservoirs 222^
West Roxbury 561
Bussy Park and Arnold Arboretum 567
Brighton Park 160
Jamaica Park 122
Muddy Eiver Improvement 110
Back Bay Park 106
Wood Island Park. 80
City Point Park 50
Charles River Embankment 60
Connecting parkways 70
South Bay Park 35
Savin Hill Park 13
Total 2,289i
As the population of Boston, at the date of the last
census, was 362,839, or one acre to every 121 residents, its
park area compared to New York was thirteen to one, and
it largely exceeded even that of Philadelphia, Chicago, St.
Louis, and San Francisco, in fact of every park city in the
Union. Impelled by the laudable desire to place their
136
city in the front rank of the great movement now going on
in favor of more parks, the authorities of Boston have not
only made the most liberal appropriation of lands for
public use, but they have resolved that nothing shall be
wanting in their general design for lack of the necessary
means. Realizing, however, the true uses and purposes
of parks, the officials under whose control they have been
placed, do not believe in elaborate improvements involving
great expense. They favor the protection of the sylvan
features of large parks and the exclusion of all costly arti-
ficial ornamentation. " Simplicity of treatment only can,"
in their opinion, " harmonize with the natural beauties of
the grounds, while any unnecessary architectural or engi-
neering display will be both a waste and disfigurement."
Whatever difference of opinion there may be on this
question, there can be none that such should be the treat-
ment of suburban parks, which should be regarded as
everyday playgrounds, where the people and their chil-
dren, social parties, trade societies, benevolent associations,
athletic clubs, Sunday and other schools, can enjoy them-
selves in healthful recreation, and where they are sure of
protection against violence and rufiianism.
" The love of rural scenery," say the Boston Park
Commissioners, in one of their early reports advocating
more parks, " is universal, and the opportunity only is
wanting to prove how thankfully the people will walk mile
after mile from their city homes, if only they can find fields
and woods where they are free t6 enjoy their lioliday time.
The cultivation of the old-fashioned and healthful habit of
walking will not be the least of the blessings to follow from
the laying out of these suburban works." And, as the
result has proved, the people of Boston concurred in that
opinion, for in the few years that have elapsed since it was
expressed, they added, as we have shown, nearly two thou-
sand acres to the park area of 1879.
137
But while the Boston Commissioners are desirous of
avoiding all unnecessary expense, they do not underestimate
the value of flowers, plants, etc.
A School of Arboriculture the Need of the Times.
They have therefore added a new feature to their park
system, called the "Arboretum," which is commended to
the people as " a museum of living plants in which every
tree and shrub capable of withstanding the climate of
Massachusetts is to find its appropriate place," " as a school
of forestry and arboriculture," and as " a scientific station
for investigation into the relations of forests to climate
and the flow of rivers, and into the best methods of forest
reproduction and management."
An institution of this kind, if conducted with earnest-
ness and scientific ability, must prove a most valuable
adjunct not only to the park system of Boston but of other
cities as well, and particularly of New York.
The public interest which has of late been manifested
in the subject of forestry in this State in consequence of
the rapid destruction of the woods of the Adirondacks,
will ere long take such shape and direction as shall secure
the legislation so much needed for the preservation not
alone of the forests of that picturesque resort of hundreds
of thousands of visitors, but of the noble Hudson, the
navigation of which is already seriously threatened from
the same cause. We also require an arboretum which
shall teach our people wliat is necessary for the protection of
our greatest water course. And as through it the Erie Canal
connects us with the western lakes, the commercial suprem-
acy of our metropolis and all its dependent interests as
well, it is impossible to overestimate the importance of
this question. Every such aid, therefore, as the aboretum,
should be enlisted in a movement so vital to the material
interests of our metropolis.
13b
The park question is in fact intimately connected with
that of sylviculture, a topic which has for some years
interested the civilized world. In discussing, therefore, the
necessity for more public parks, your Commission deemed
a special reference to this subject neither inappropriate
nor inopportune. The planting and cultivation of trees is
an essential feature of park management, and these we are
told by a high scientific French authority (M. Becquerel),
" tame the infected air and deprive it of its miasmas." We
are also informed that " when a current of bad air laden
with pestilential miasma penetrates a forest of a certain
extent it is wholly deprived of these properties."
The public should be educated to a sense of the impor-
tant part performed by trees in the economy of nature, and
especially as to their effect in maintaining the fluvial sup-
ply of rivers, streams and canals, a matter which, as shown
in the able and comprehensive reports of Mr. Yerplanck
Colvin, the Superintendent of the Adirondack Survey,
seriously affects the navigation of the Hudson and the com-
mercial interests of our metropolis.
*' The influence of trees," says the Memorial of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science,
" in connection with the questions of water supply for
cities and the maintenance of hydraulic power and of nav-
igation in rivers and canals where these may be affected by
drought, deserves serious attention."
The Executive Committee of the Chamber of Commerce
of the City of New York, in a similar memorial, observes
that, " in consequence of the destruction of a considerable
portion of the forests which once formed the watershed
of the Hudson, many of the small streams which once
flowed continuously throughout the year are now dry
during several months, and the effect of the diminution of
the water upon the Hudson is already so great that naviga-
141
tion above Troy is rendered almost impossible in dry
seasons."
The Governor of our State, in his recent message, in
which he dwells with timely emphasis on this vital subject,
says :
The immense volume of commerce which passes through the Erie
Canal and the Hudson river to the seaboard, and the low stage of water
during the summer in the last-named waterway, as well as the other
rivers and streams of the State, have attracted the attention of the public
to the necessity of arresting the further destruction of our northern
forests.
This is certainly a very important matter, and should receive early
and serious attention. We find ourselves facing the danger which now
so excites the people, because the interests of the State have not been
cared for in the years that are past, and because our forest-laden lands
have been recklessly disposed of at nominal prices, until, at this late day,
we are awakened to the fact that the control which the State should have
always maintained over that part of those lands which are important to
the preservation of our streams has been to a large extent surrendered.
The President of the United States has made the sub-
ject a matter of special reference in his recent message to
Congress, and recommends as of " the highest conse-
quence," " the preservation of such portions of the forests
of the national domain as essentially contribute to the
equable flow of important water courses."
The Parks of St. Louis.
With a population of 350„522, St. Louis has a park area
of 2,232 acres and ranks next to Boston on the list of
American cities distinguished for their interest in this
movement. While they have made ample provision in the
acreage which they have set apart for pleasure grounds,
they have however, practised a rigid economy in their
management and are evidently satisfied to leave to the
future, works of embellishment that would necessitate a
large outlay. There are nineteen parks in St. Louis, the
142
largest of wliicli, Forest Park, contains 1,372 acres. The
following list gives the dimensions of the larger ones, the
others consisting of a number of small squares and places
varymcr in area from one to twelve acres.
1 o
Acres.
Forest Park 1,372
Carondelet 180
O'Fallon 158
Tower Grove 267
Lafayette 30
The Fair Grounds 83
Missouri Botanical Gardens 50
For the cultivation of fish and plants — two somewhat
incongruous industries, it must be admitted — yearly appro-
priations are made. From the last annual report, we learn
that ten thousand young carp were distributed from the
hatchery at Forest Park, and that thirty thousand healthy
young trees have been raised in the same park. As both
the Yan Cortlandt and Bronx Parks have a large water
surface, and as the lake and river are well suited, one to
the raising of trout and the other to the cultivation of black
bass, both kinds being found in their waters, our Fish
Commissioners would doubtless be permitted to turn them
to good account by establishing hatcheries, which could be
done at small expense. Thus, wdth a botanical garden, a
well supplied menagerie, and a fish hatchery, we should
take in nearly the whole field of animated nature, and our
parks would possess a school of natural history with living
illustrations, instead of dead specimens preserved in alco-
liol or stuffed with bran.
The Parks of Philadelphia.
While Chicago, St. Louis and Boston have each a
larger park area in proportion to the population than
Philadelphia, there is no city in the whole countr}^ which
143
can boast of a park of such magnificent dimensions.
Indeed, Philadelphia's splendid pleasure-ground is only
surpassed by the great parks of Paris and London, and,
according to the testimony of competent witnesses, it is
unsurpassed in its natural advantages. Covering an
extent of two thousand six hundred and forty-eight
acres, and endowed with the peculiar charm that belongs
to diversity of surface and picturesque scenery it requires
no artificial aid to enhance its beauty.
Nature, in fact, appears to have lavished upon this
favored tract some of her rarest gifts : j^rimeval forests,
deep shady glens, huge masses of gray rock, clear spark-
ling fountains, rivulets pouring from the hill-sides to swell
the waters of the broad Schuylkill and the wildly romantic
Wissahickon, one of the loveliest of mountain streams. For
miles and miles the visitor passes from one scene of enchant-
ment to another — at times traversing great tracts of green
meadow-land set in a frame-work of trees centuries old ;
at times wandering through the exquisite valley of the
Wissahickon, glimpses of which only can be seen through
the dense foliage in which it is partly embosomed ; now
passing through thickly wooded ravines, where the sun-
light hardly penetrates the deep gloom, then emerging into
the open country he finds himself among the scenes of the
famous International Exposition of 1876, where many of
the splendid structures then erected still remain as memen-
tos of that great event.
"Lying," says a recent report of Fairmount Park, "in
what in a few years will be the very heart of the city, con-
sidered in reference to the uses for which it is intended and
the situation it occupies, it may justly claim to be without
a rival." One important object was attained by its creation,
the prevention of the spread of manufacturing establish-
ments along the margins of the Schuylkill and its tributa-
ries, as in the appropriation of the land along the Bronx
144
we would save that stream from the pollution which would
inevitably follow from the discharge of impurities into its
waters. And to accomplish this result as well as to give
the people of Philadelphia a park of which they may well
feel proud, the Fairmount Park Commissioners paid for the
land taken $6,105,069, exclusive of the cost of improve-
ments. '' By Philadelphia having the park," say the Com-
missioners, " in contrast with Philadelphia without the
park, we shall soon have a value added to our real estate
and taxable resources more than commensurate ivith the pur-
chase money of all the 2^ci'i% ccnd that value iv'dl increase
indefinitely. In this way the city will be more than a second
time requited for her whole outlay. * * * Conceive of
our approximate millions and coming millions as being
without the Fairmount Park. Can any human imagination
begin to estimate the sum of human health and happiness
that would be lost to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the
world ? "Who could make the trial to run the parallel of
the value of $10,000,000 as the price of the park invested
and running at interest for the city with the successive
generations of her millions of people without the culture,
and health, and happiness of the park and not feel humilia-
tion, and, withal, being shocked at the meanness of the sug-
gestion ? Money is a sacred trust, indeed, for its potency
for good; but life, health, happiness and gratitude to God
are worth more than all hoarded wealth. We have and
will keep this park ; we will improve and love it ; it shall
be our pride and perpetual enjoyment ; it shall be for us ' a
thing of beauty and a joy forever.' "
This is enthusiasm, but it is excusable, nay more, com-
mendable, for Fairmount Park has indeed been made "a
joy" to many. Thus we are told that by the humane efforts
and charitable contributions of philanthropic citizens many
thousands of poor children have, during the heated terms
of several successive years, been enabled to enjoy the
10
147
beauties of Fairmount. For the accommodation of visitors
there are places of refreshment ; for sight-seers, observa-
tories ; for children, swings, flying-horses, etc. ; for the
militia, spacious parade grounds ; for athletic, base ball,
croquet, and other clubs, ample play grounds ; while the
Schuylkill is the scene of many a boat race and regatta.
Of the buildings of the Centennial there remain
Memorial Hall, Horticultural Hall, Machinery Hall, and
the Main Building, besides some pavilions of foreign coun-
tries and of the various States. So popular has the Park
become that as many as one hundred thousand persons
have visited it on a summer's day, and thousands come
from adjoining States to enjoy its scenery and health-giving
air. In its Centennial buildings it has of course an attrac-
tion which no other park in the country possesses ; but, if
New York do not permit her opportunity to pass, she, too,
may have, within the boundaries of one of the proposed
parks, the grand structures of another and a greater exhi-
bition to add to its attractions.
It is in the power of your Honorable Bodies to place this
possibility within her reach, by making timely provision
for the future. Every year's delay adds to the expense, and
reduces the area of the land demanded by the necessities
of the present, not to speak of the wants of the future.
Surely this is something not merely to hope for, but to
work for and to achieve. As we have shown, in our esti-
mates of the financial results which have followed the
creation of parks regarded as a speculation only, it is one
of the most profitable in which the public money could be
invested, giving more than tenfold returns on the outlay.
And after all, is this not a minor consideration compared
with its beneficial effects upon the people from a moral as
well as a sanitary standpoint ? If " a sound mind in a
sound body " is the one thing desirable, then whatever
U8
tends to secure that inestimable blessing for a people is
surely well worthy the attention of their legislators.
In addition to Fairmount, there are several public parks,
which swell the aggregate park area of Philadelphia to
nearly three thousand acres. The principal of these are
Hunting Park, forty acres ; Washington Square, seven ;
Franklin Square, eight ; Logan Square, eight ; Independence
Square, five ; Eittenhouse Square, seven ; and many others
of less extent.
Before closing this reference to the parks of Philadel-
phia, it is but justice to refer to the Fairmount Park
Association, a society of citizens of Philadelphia number-
ing over a thousand members, who have already done
much for the adornment of the grounds and contributed
many valuable works of art toward their embellishment.
In a notice of this great park, hardly less could be
said, but having said so much, we desire to express our
firm conviction that our new wards and the adjacent terri-
tory on the Sound possess capabilities for park uses that
are not excelled — that are not equalled — even by the City of
Brotherly Love. The views with which this report is
illustrated afford indisputable evidence in support of that
claim. In extent of territory embraced within the limits
of a single park, Philadelphia may take the lead, but in
the picturesque and romantic, New York, in the sites of
her contemplated parks, can hold her own against so for-
midable a rival, while the proposed park on the Sound
would stand without an equal.
The Parks of Brooklyn.
The evidence which your Commission have obtained from
the history and administration of the parks of Brooklyn,
sustain and confirm the experience of other cities in regard
to the beneficial influences exercised by these great public
improvements on the value of surrounding property. The
149
effect of the establishment of Brooklyn's great pleasure
ground (Prospect Park), which deserves a place among the
most beautiful parks of America and Europe, was only less
striking than that produced by the creation of our own
Central.
In the year preceding the commencement of the work
of improvement that portion of the city extending from
Atlantic avenue and sweeping around its southerly limits to
the west, and now including some of the most eligible
jDroperty, lay in a state of neglect, with no prospect of a
change. Much" of it was to be bought by the acre, its only
use being for the purposes of agriculture, and when sold
the price varied from $50 to $250 per lot. On the westerly
border of Prospect Park the extended sloping ground com-
manding a view of New York Bay, Staten Island and New
Jersey, the value of single lots ranged from $250 to $600.
This property, we are informed by Mr. John Y. Cuyler,
the Superintendent and Chief Engineer of the Brooklyn
Park, to whose courtesy we are indebted for these facts,
rapidly increased in value, and the real estate transactions
of the period from 1866 to 1873 were very active, prices
rising to a startling height. Many of the sales showed an
advance of between /ow/- a/ic?/ye hundred per cent, while as
much as $8,000 to $10,000 were paid in exceptional cases
for single lots. Real estate was depressed here as else-
where by the financial revulsion of 1873, but the effect was
transient, and to-day a much more extended area of prop-
erty has, by reason of its contiguity to the park, long since
recovered and reached a much higher value. "As a re-
sult," says Mr. Cuyler, " a careful investigation of the
change of values and the higher rate of taxation disclosed
by examination of the Assessors and Tax Office, it may be
confidently asserted that the establishment of Prospect
Park and the smaller parks ha& been generally beneficial as
a financial venture on the part of the municipality, and
150
that as a matter of fact impose no burden upon the taxpayer,
but have been and are an important factor in contributing
to the city an increased revenue, which, were it separated
and credited to a sinking fund, would at the present time,
and in some instances entirely so, go a long way towards
paying off the indebtedness incurred by the issue of bonds for
the original purchase of the lands and their improvement.
Prospect Park may be said to rival the Central, and it
certainly has a decided advantage over it in the command-
ing view afforded from its elevated points of the ocean, the
Bay of New York, and the picturesque shores of Staten
Island and New Jersey. Until our metropolis acquires
the magnificent area recommended by your Commission,
under the title of Pelham Bay Park, our sister city will
continue to possess the superiority which she now enjoys.
The tract of land embraced within the limits of Brook-
lyn's great park has an extent of 515 acres, and with the
adjoining Parade Ground an aggregate of 555. About fifty
of these are laid out in the form of lakes, w^hich are sup-
plied by artesian wells. They constitute, with their mini-
ature and picturesque islands, a most pleasing feature, and
seen through the vista of embowering trees are singularly
picturesque. The Long Meadow is a fine stretch of open
sward, extending the whole length of one side of the park,
with a thickly set and broad border of handsome shade
trees. Ample space has been given to playgrounds for the
children, and a picnic ground, while the Parade Ground
not only accommodates the National Guard of Brooklyn,
but through the courtesy of the authorities of that city,
our own citizen soldiers, who have for years been depend-
ent on our sister city, are allowed the privilege of using it
on special occasions. With its six miles of broad and sub-
j^tantial drives, its four miles of equestrian road, and its
t vventy miles of walks, traversing the most attractive and
153
pleasant portion of its grounds, Prospect Park is fully
entitled to all that has been said in its praise.
But Prospect Park, like the Yan Cortlandt, is not
wholly dependent on its picturesque attractions for the
high position it holds among j)nblic pleasure grounds. It
has historic traditions which give it a special value in the
eyes of the citizens of Brooklyn. The site of a redoubt
which commanded a road called "The Battle Pass," is
carefully preserved as a memento of the sanguinary combat
that took place there between the Hessian mercenaries and
the patriot forces under command of General Sullivan.
The redoubt was constructed on the summit of a bluff over-
looking the Flatbush and Old Port roads at their junction
in the Valley Grove, and around the fortification, wherever
the tide of battle ebbed and flowed, evidence of its fury
has been found by the workmen employed on this part of
the Park. Muskets, bayonets, sabres, balls, etc., were dug
up in the progress of the work and placed in safe-keeping
as valuable relics and mementos of the heroic past and of
the part which Kings county played in the war for inde-
pendence.
The next largest pul)lic ground, Washington Park,
formerly called Fort Green, has an area of thirty acres,
and is a favorite resort of the residents in its vicinity.
Here, as in the case of Prospect Park, the most satisfactory
financial results were obtained in the rise of real estate,
and an increased revenue from enhanced values. Within
this park is the vault to which were transferred, about ten
years ago, the twelve thousand bodies of the " seamen,
soldiers and citizens, who,'' in the language of the report
of the Park Commissioners of Brooklyn, " fell victims to
the cruelties of the British on board their prison ships
during the American Revolution ; " and over this vault a
memorial is in process of construction which will form the
chief object of attraction to every visitor.
154
The Parade Ground contains buildings for the use of
the Second Division. It is also the most popular available
resort for field sports for the youth of the city to be found
anywhere in the county, and affords accommodations with-
out charge for the use of colleges, schools, and amateur
organizations for the games of base ball, cricket, lacrosse,
foot ball, etc.
The following table shows the present park area of
Brooklyn, Avhich it is intended to increase by further
additions in the near future :
Acres.
Prospect Park 515
Parade Ground , 40
Washington Park , . 30
Tompkins Park 7|
City Hall 7J
Carroll Park 2
City Hall Park 1 J
Small enclosures 4
Ocean Parkway, 5J miles long and 270 feet wide. 180
Coney Island Concourse, 2,750 feet long by 1,000
feet wide 70
Eastern Parkway, 2 J miles long and 270 feet wide 82
939|
The Ocean Parkway, extending from Prospect Park to
Coney Island, is connected with the Coney Island Con-
course, which faces the ocean, and both of these splendid
avenues form one of the grandest drives and promenades
in the world.
An interesting and instructive fact connected with the
administration of the Brooklyn parks is worthy of special
mention. The total cost of lands for parks, parkways,
etc., was $4,000,000, and, as a means of defraying this
expense, a surplus of one hundred acres was set apart to
155
}^e sold under an empowering act of the Legisla^ture. Of
this tract one hundred lots have been disposed of for
$500,000, and there remains still to be sold seven hundred
more, which it is estimated will realize $1,500,000, making
in all $2,000,000, or one-half the original cost of all the
lands. This, it should be understood, is exclusive of
the financial gain accruing to the city through the
largely increased revenue obtained from the property
surrounding the parks. If we compare the efforts which
Brooklyn has made in providing recreation grounds for
her people with the progress of New York in the same
direction, it must be admitted that the advantage is largely
in favor of the former.
The Parks of Buffalo.
The area of all the public lands in the City of Buffalo
laid out in the form of parks and parkways is six hundred
and twenty acres, and of these something more than one-
half is embraced within the limits of the principal pleas-
ure ground, which is known by the distinctive title of
" The Park." It is connected by broad drives with a sur-
rounding, open tract of at least thrice its extent, and
adjoins the State Asylum Grounds of two hundred acres
and Forest Lawn Cemetery of two hundred and thirty
acres. So that there is in the whole combined area a grand
open space of at least one thousand acres. Besides these
there is " The Front,'' of fifty acres, which overlooks Lake
Erie from a bluff sixty feet above its waters, commanding a
fine prospect over the inland sea and pleasant views of
Niagara river and the Canadian frontier. An adjacent tract
of seventeen acres, called Fort Porter, is open to the pub-
lic, forming a total area of nearly seventy acres, which is
one of the most popular resorts during the summer months.
The Parade for military use has an area of fifty acres and
there are about forty acres in eight public squares or
156
places. The park approaches consisting of four parkways
have a width of two hundred feet and a length of three
miles, and these, in connection with four miles of avenues^
one hundred feet wide, form a connecting link between all
the public grounds of the city.
But when, in addition to this generous policy in pro-
viding breathing places for the people the comparatively
near proximity of the International Park at Niagara Falls
(a little more than half an hour by rail) is considered, the
City of Buffalo may be regarded as specially favored. In
anticipation of the establishment of this park through the
combined action of the State of New York and the Domin-
ion of Canada it is proposed to form a grand boulevard
uniting the two park systems, thus bringing Buffalo
'* within a two hours' drive," say the Commissioners, " of a
resort attracting tourists from all parts of the civilized
world."
The Parks of Baltimore, San Francisco and Savannah.
Among the finest public grounds in the United States,
may be classed Druid Hill Park, a beautiful tract of about
seven hundred acres, with finely diversified surface, and
presenting from its towering hill extended views of the
surrounding country. Its lawns, its forest, its pines, its
wilderness, its lakes and fish ponds, make up a combina-
tion of all the features that are essential to the popularity
of a park. The Baltimoreans are justly proud of it, and
have embellished it with many ornamental structures that
harmonize with and add to the natural attractions of the
place. Druid Hill is traversed by fourteen miles of car-
riage roads, two miles of bridle paths and fourteen miles of
walks. In its extent of land surface, it is almost equal to
Central Park.
159
In addition, Baltimore possesses the following public
pleasure-grounds under control of the Park Commission :
Patterson Park, fifty acres ; Riverside Park, seventeen acres
and a quarter ; and Federal Hill Park, eight acres and a
quarter, making an aggregate of seven hundred and
seventy-six acres and a half.
According to the last census, the population of San
Francisco was 233,936, and it has increased since then to
at least a quarter of a million. This is about one-sixth the
present number of inhabitants in New York, which it sur-
passes in park area in the proportion of six to one, for
while San Francisco, as shown by the statement on another
page, has one acre to every 211, New York has but one acre
to every 1,363 of its residents. The Golden Gate City pos-
sesses a total park area of 1,181 acres, in which are included
one great pleasure-ground of 1,040 acres, the balance, 141
acres, being divided into local parks, squares and botanical
and zoological gardens. The great park overlooks the bay,
and the land and marine views seen from its elevated
points are probably among the most attractive and
picturesque presented by any park in the world. The
park itself cannot justly lay claim to a place among pleas-
ure grounds of the first class, for a considerable portion of
its surface consists of sand wastes, which, however, are
being rapidly brought under cultivation. Much attention
is given to rare and tropical plants, and the conservatory
devoted to those marvels of the floral world, the orchids, is
one of the most pleasing and interesting features of the
park. The gigantic water lily of South America, known
as the " Victoria Regia," with its huge circular leaves,
twenty-two and twenty-three feet in circumference, has
been raised here successfully from the seed. The
deficiency of the park in woods — its natural condition is
that of an almost treeless waste — is being rapidly sup-
plied, over three hundred and twenty thousand trees of
160
many varieties, shrubs and flowering plants being set in
two years, leaving in the nursery still no less than 116,550.
The City of Savannah, situated on a tract of almost
level land, while it has only one large pleasure-ground,
exceeds in proportion to its population even London or
Paris in the number of its local parks and squares. These
vary in area from one acre to an acre and a half, and are
located two, three or four blocks apart, forming pretty,
green medallions in the central part of the city. The
Mayor of Savannah informs your Commission that the
establishment of these breathing-places had the effect of
doubling the value of the adjacent property, and there can
be no doubt that they aided largely in improving the sani-
tary condition of the city. The whole park area is about
sixty acres, of which one-half is included in the main
park, the other half being distributed among twenty-four
squares, many of which are planted with trees and flower-
ing shrubs.
161
The Parks of Europe,
L
Pleasure Grounds of London— Twenty-two Thousand
Acres.
European parks have been planned and laid out on the
most liberal scale, and with the exception of certain tracts
devoted to horticulture and particular purposes, they are
mostly free over their whole surface, without restriction to
visitors.
Thus they have come to be justly regarded as the play-
grounds of the people, where young and old, and all classes
and conditions are free to enjoy themselves, and roam over
their broad plains and under the shade of their magnificent
woods without unnecessary interference. Foremost among
the great capitals of the old world in the space devoted to
public use, deservedly stand Paris and London, and your
Commission feel that this report would be incomplete
were it to pass over without a brief notice the liberal pro-
vision which the municipal authorities of these cities
have made for their people in this important respect.
Within, and in the near vicinity of its suburbs, the City
of London has a park area of over twenty-two thousand
acres, a space, the extent of which will be fully appreciated
and realized when compared with the exceedingly limited
acreage of the tracts laid out in the City of New York, and
the total area of which does not exceed eleven hundred
acres. In fact the territory covered by the parks of Lon-
don is only four thousand acres less than the whole Island
of Manhattan and the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth
Wards combined. The area of our city is about twenty-six
11
162
thousand acres, and this space is divided into two nearly
equal parts by the Harlem river.
A glance at the map of London shows at once the im-
portance which has been given to this conspicuous and
interesting feature of the gigantic British capital, a capital
which the American metropolis is destined even within the
lifetime of a portion of the present generation to surpass
in population. Throughout its vast extent its surface is
literally studded with parks varying in area from fifty to
seven hundred acres, while in the suburbs and within easy
access are Eichmond Park containing over two thousand
acres, Windsor Park with nearly four thousand, Hampton
Court and Bushy Park having a combined area of over one
thousand eight hundred. Besides the parks of over fifty
acres there are, as indicated on the map of that metropolis,
over a hundred of lesser extent, so that London may be
literally denominated the park city. Five minutes' walk in
almost any direction takes the visitor to one of these
breathing spots, while the larger grounds, such as Hyde,
Regents', St. James' and Victoria Parks, Kew Gardens, and
others of nearly equal extent, can be reached by the great
rapid transit routes which traverse London at all points.
The British metropolis, notwithstanding the magnificent
provision which had been made for the health and recrea-
tion of its people, has outdone itself within the past two
years by the appropriation of an immense tract of land,
called Epping Forest, covering an extent of six thousand
acres, or about one-half the area of Manhattan Island.
Through the courtesy of the Mayor of London and the
different park authorities of that municipality, your Com-
mission has been placed in possession of much interesting
and valuable information concerning their public grounds.
Among the official publications forwarded in response to a
request were the voluminous reports relating to the pro-
ceedings for the acquisition of this splendid territory, and
Q.
o
o
o
c
165
two other tracts known as Burnham Beeches, containing
374 acres, and West Ham Park, having 80, making an addi-
tion of 454 acres.
Of the 6,000 acres in Epping Forest, 3,500 belonged to
the corporation of London on a public trust to keep them
open forever. The balance, consisting of lands to which a
questionable title had been acquired by long use and occu-
pation, cost .£286,159, or nearly $1,500,000. This, of course,
does not represent the actual value of the land, as the pur-
chase was effected by arbitration, and the title in numerous
cases was quieted by the payment of one-tenth of its real
worth. This grand expanse of territory, secured — as one
of the published reports from which we obtain these par-
ticulars states — for the population of the east side, was
acquired after many years of litigation against the claim-
ants. These claimants had enclosed the lands " for the ex-
clusion of the commoners," and a long, protracted contest
resulted, terminating in the success of the people. To the
persistence and resolution of the citizens, and to the pluck
and determination, as well as the sagacious liberality of
their municipal government, is London to-day indebted for
this grand addition to its park area. In Epping Forest it
possesses a place of recreation that is only surpassed in
extent by two other public pleasure-grounds in the world —
if we except our own inchoate Yellowstone — the Forest of
Fontainebleau, which embraces within its bounds a grand
domain of 42,000 acres, and the Forest of St. Germain,
which contains 8,000. The largest park in the world is,
however, about 36 miles from Paris, and is, therefore, not
so accessible to visitors.
In Epping Forest are to be found trees of every species
indigenous to the island ; green level stretches, hills, rocks,
streams — in a word every element of sylvan beauty. And
when to this is added the grand expanse, covering a terri-
tory over ten miles in length by nearly six in width, we are
166
not surprised at the claim of one of the officials when speak-
ing of its magnificence, " I know of no capital," said he,
" (and I have seen most of the European capitals), that will
have a playground, if I may use the word, which will at all
approach this in beauty."
We do not propose— indeed the space to which a report
of this character must necessarily be limited, forbids us —
to enter into details with regard to the parks of the British
metropolis, and we must, therefore, content ourselves with
the following list of those which cover an extent of fifty
acres and over, although there are many of less area which
are among the most beautiful and attractive :
Acres.
Epping Forest 6,000
Richmond Park 2,253
Windsor Park 3,800
Hampton Court and Bushy Park 684
New Park and Gardens 300
Wimbledon Com'mon 628
Hyde Park 400
St. James' Green and Regents' Park. . 450
Hampstead Heath 240
Kensington Gardens 290
Alexandra Park 192
Greenwich Park 174
Finsbury Park ' . 115
SoutJiwark Park 63
Blackheath 267
Hackney DoAvns 50
Tooting Beck Common 144
Tooting Graveny Common 63
Clapham Common 220
Burnham Beeches 374
Bostall Heath 55
West Ham Park 80
Plumstead Common 110
Wormwood Scrubs 194
Peckham Rye 64
When to this list are added the parks of small extent,
the " downs," " commons," and " fields," we shall have au
aggregate of about twenty-two thousand acres.
167
It must not be supposed on account of its immense area
that any portion of these grounds are mere waste lands.
On the contrary, there is no city where land is more valua-
ble than in the English capital, which is yearly pushing its
boundary at a rapid rate into the surrounding country, and
whose population of nearly four millions and a half Avill,
ere another decade has elapsed, at its present rate of in-
crease, have passed the limit of five millions. All of these
great breathing places are free to the people for use and
recreation.
In the report of the London Board of Public Works for
1882 — this Board having under its jurisdiction and man-
agement only a portion of the public grounds — we read
that " the principal works in Finsbury Park during the
year have been the formation of a gymnasium for the free
use of the frequenters of the park, the setting apart of a
portion of ground for the use of lawn tennis players, and
the provision of swings for the special use of children.
The swings have," it is added, " been placed in a part of
the park where the children can enjoy this form of recrea-
tion without being interfered with."
" In South wark Park the Board have afforded every facil-
ity for the playing of cricket," and we are also informed
that Blackheath "is the largest open space under the con-
trol of the Board," and that " it has for many years past
been much used for the games of cricket, football and golf."
Hampstead Heath, it appears, is a disputed ground between
the Board and the cricketers, who insist on playing in a
part of the park which is reserved for other visitors
"who find there recreation in strolling among the furze and
fern which abound on the West Heath." To the claim of
the disputants the Board reply that " so far from desiring
to limit the pleasure of cricketers on Hampstead Heath it
has during the year expended a considerable sum of money
in forming cricket grounds on the only part really suitable
168
for the purpose." Hackney Common is to suffer no altera-
tions in its natural features ; it is only proposed generally
" to improve them and render tliem more serviceable for
purposes of recreation." It is very evident that the Lon-
don Board of Works has a proper appreciation of the uses
and purposes for which parks are designed, and that noth-
ing will be left undone on their part to make them, in every
way possible, available for the enjoyment of the people.
The zoological and botanical gardens of London may
properly be classed with its parks, as they are a source of
not only pleasant enjoyment but a practical means of
instruction to the multitude of visitors by whom they are
daily thronged. Large sums of money are spent on their
maintenance, the authorities rightly judging that parsimony
in matters that afford legitimate amusement to the public
is false economy.
The Parks of Paris— One Hundred and Seventy-two
Thousand Acres.
Conspicuous among the public works of the French
capital, its architectural embellishments, its wealth of art,
its wide boulevards, its grand squares, places and fountains,
are its magnificent parks, the pride of its people and the
glory of the city. No expense has been spared to make
them in every way worthy of the great metropolis of which
they form so important a part, and of which they constitute
one of the chief attractions to visitors from all parts of the
world. The parks of Paris liave long been celebrated for
the grand scale on which they have been planned and the
generous policy which inspires their administration and
management.
Unlike the great breathing-places of London, which are
distributed not only in the suburbs but in the very heart
of that metropolis, the lungs of Paris with a few exceptions
liave been placed at its environs.
171
Of the thousand acres of gardens and open spaces
known as squares and places, the Champs Elysees, the
Place de la Concorde, the Place de la Bastille, the Place
Vendome, Square Victor, the Gardens of the Tuilleries, the
Place de la Trocadera, the Square du Ranelagh, Pare Mon-
ceau, Pare de Montsouris, Pare des Buttes Chaumont, the
Garden of the Luxembourg, the Garden of the Palais Boyal
are among the most celebrated, but the greater number are
more remarkable for their architectural surroundings, and,
as in the particular instances of the Pare du Butte Chau-
mont and the Pare Monceau, for the exquisite taste and
artistic beauty displayed in their design and cultivation.
The Pare des Buttes Chaumont covers an area of sixty-
two acres, and affords a striking illustration of the marvels
which can be wrought under the most unfavorable ciixium-
stances by the art of the landscape gardener. The part of
Paris where this beautiful creation is located had long borne
a bad reputation as the resort of the most depraved and
dangerous characters. The land was so sterile and the
locality so unhealthy that it was regarded as one of the
plague spots of the city. It had, in fact, become such a
public nuisance as to force itself on the attention of the
authorities and to compel the application of some remedy.
The matter was submitted to competent engineers, and
under their skill the plague spot was converted into one of
the most beautiful of the many attractive resorts of the
capital. An army of laborers was employed, the stagnant
pools of water and unsightly quarry excavations gradually
disappeared, hundreds of thousands of cubic yards of new
earth were deposited upon the barren surface, a spacious
lake was formed, from wliose centre rose a rocky islet
crowned with a miniature temple, and caves and grottoes
and statues and parterres completed a tout ensemble that
may well excite the admiration of visitors. This trans-
formation of course could only be effected at great cost, but
172
the city has been more than repaid in the improvement
which has been made, not only in the health of the locality
but in the largely increased value of neighboring and city
property.
The Pare Monceau is another instance of the triumph
of landscape gardening. Like that already described it is
wholly indebted for its beauty to tlie resources of this art.
It was literally destitute of everything that could aid the
engineer in his work. The twenty acres of barren land
embraced within its bounds were uninviting to a degree,
and to this doubtless the people of Paris are indebted for
one of the prettiest and most attractive garden spots in
their city. It was such an eye-sore and a nuisance that it
became necessary to get rid of it, and it was finally con-
signed to the skill of one of the first engineers of the day.
Liberal appropriations were placed at his disposal, and as
the work advanced and the design was revealed in a com-
bination of green lawns, sparkling fountains, glittering
cascades, shady walks in the midst of flowery parterres,
miniature caves, grotto-like recesses, and moss and ivy-
covered rocks, the people rejoiced at a change at once so
pleasant and so profitable ; gratifying the sense of beauty
inherent in the lowest natures and adding considerably to
the value of the city property at the same time. As a
specimen of ornamental gardening the. Pare Monceau is
said to be unsurpassed, and no expense is spared to main-
tain its beauty in this respect unimpaired.
These exquisite garden tracts, however perfect they
may be as showing what can be done by the resources of
engineering skill, are literally dwarfed into insignificance
by the two grand public pleasure grounds, the magnificent
breathing-places which are celebrated among the great
parks of the world. Tlie Bois de Boulogne and the Bois
de Vinconnes have a combined area of nearly five thousand
173
acres, the latter being the larger of the two by about three
hundred acres.
The Bois de Boulogne is the favorite resort of visiters,
and is traversed by broad boulevards, beautiful drives and
well-shaded walks. Lakes of artificial construction,
supplied by artesian wells and beautified by islands, diver-
sify the scenery. A French park without a waterfall would
be incomplete, and the Bois de Boulogne has several, with
the usual accessories of rocks thrown together in the most
fantastic forms. A cascade, which forms one of the princi-
pal attractions in the scenery of the Bois, is forty feet in
height, and as there is always a liberal supply of water the
effect is said to be very natural. The lakes are furnished
with boats, and as the islands are provided with restaurants
visitors have ample opportunity for enjoyment, while the
zoological gardens, the theatre and concert hall, the race-
course and other attractions afford sufficient variety to
please every taste. The Bois de Boulogne is, in a word, one
of the most picturesque and pleasant in addition to being
one of the largest parks in the world. Iii the general plan
of the grounds the object of the designer was to surprise
and please the visitor by the numberless variety of views,
and to this end he has combined, whenever it could be done
with effect, all the attractions of the natural landscape.
The Bois de Yincennes is inferior in point of beauty
and artificial embellishment to the Bois de Boulogne, but it
is nevertheless a popular resort, and contains a spacious
parade-ground and ranges for rifle practice, which give it a
particular interest to a large portion of the population. It
contains several lakes, spanned by ornamental bridges, and
connected by an artificial river three miles in length. There
are also islands, extensive woods, pleasant promenades, a
model farm, a race-course, and pretty meadow tracts where
the children are free to enjoy themselves without hindrance.
Altogether the Bois de Yincennes is one of the finest
174
resorts of Paris, and is indispensable to the inhabitants of
the east side of the city. The Municipal Government, it
should be stated here, derives a considerable revenue from
leases and privileges granted to the keepers of restaurants
and the caterers to the various public amusements, which
are permitted not only within these two great parks but on
other pleasure-grounds inside the city and its suburbs.
The Gardens of Versailles, with the Grand and Little
Trianon, are bewildering in their variety, and the magnifi-
cent structures, with their superb decorations, their rich,
costly furniture, their works of art in painting and sculp-
ture, their historical memories, their gorgeous saloons,
their numerous fountains, lakes, and basins, form a com-
bination that is unsurpassed even in Paris itself.
The Park of St. Cloudy about five or six miles west of
the city, has an area of over one thousand acres, and in the
extended views which it presents of Paris and the surround-
ing country from its highest points it has a decided advan-
tage over all the public pleasure-grounds in or near the
capital. Its plan is most elaborate and includes broad
avenues, beautiful promenades, fine tracts of meadow, lakes,
cascades and fountains.
The Forest of St. Germain, withiii half an hour of Paris
by rail, although more distant than those already referred
to, is a favorite resort of all classes, and though of great
extent, surpassing even Epping Forest in area, having an,
expanse of eight thousand acres, it is intersected by fine
walks and drives, and is enclosed by a substantial stone wall.
This grand domain is free throughout its full extent to the
great throngs which on certain fete days enjoy themselves
among its splendid groves.
Exceeding all the great parks, not only of Paris but of
the world, the Forest of Fontainebleau stands alone in the
vast extent of its territory. It has an area of forty-two
thousand acres, and is sixty-three miles in circumference.
177
Every variety of scenery is to be found within its limits ;
valleys, gorges, caverns, lakes, brooks, wide-spreading mead-
ows, grand old woods, with an endless variety of trees ; hills
that almost rise to the dignity of mountains, from which
glimpses even of the distant capital can be seen in clear
weather. Fontainebleau can be reached in about an hour
and a quarter from the city, and is the most distant of the
public grounds, which may properly be claimed as a part
of the park system of the French capital. A detailed
description of the many attractions, prominent among
which are the palace and the surrounding gardens, laid out
in the most elaborate style, would require a volume to do
justice to the subject.
The following list comprises only the principal public
grounds in Paris, or within easy approach by water or
by rail :
Acres. «r
The Forest of Fontainebleau 42,000
St. Germain 8,000
The Bois de Boulogne 2,200
Vincennes 2,500
Park of St. Cloud 1,000
*' Buttes Chaumont ,. . 62
Monceau 22
" Montsouris 40
Garden of the Tuilleries 50
" Luxembourg 40
" Plants 22
These are but a few of the long list of parks, forests,
gardens, etc., which adorn the city of Paris and its suburbs,
and which it is estimated contain in the aggregate no less
than 172,000 acres. Of course, of this vast territory the
smaller portion only is in its immediate neighborhood, but
to the hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers who often
12
178
extend their daily summer trips and excursions to a dis-
tance of thirty, forty and fifty miles by boat and by rail-
road, even the Forest of Fontainebleau will not appear to
be too distant for the health and pleasure-seeking Paris-
ians, or the temporary sojourners in their city. The
suburbs of Paris seem to be at several points continuous
parks, and the majestic boulevards which connect its gar-
dens and pleasure-grounds form, it may be said with truth,
the crowning glory of the whole. And yet Paris, famed for
the splendid provision which it has made for its people, is,
in the topography of its environs and its natural advan-
tages, far inferior to our own metropolis. The Twenty-
third and Twenty-fourth Wards and the adjacent sections
of Westchester possess natural beauties which neither
London nor Paris nor any city in the world can rival.
Nature has done for us what has only been accomplished
by toth those cities at an immense expenditure of money,
time and labor, and under the direction of the most skillful
and experienced engineers. All that is necessary to fit our
parks for public use is a comparatively trifling expenditure,
for which there will in time be a hundred-fold return to
the municipal treasury.
The Parks of Vienna.
The Austrian capital is justly distinguished for the pic-
turesque beauty of its surroundings, and for the many beau-
tiful parks not only within its boundaries but at varying
distances of from two to fifteen miles. Its great park, the
Prater, is almost as well-known as Vienna itself, and is, in
the literal meaning of the term, the i:)eople's pleasure-
ground, over the surface of which, whether on the green
sward or through its woods and groves, they are free to
roam as they please. Its fifteen hundred acres are divided
into grand drives, that in favorable weather are crowded
with all kinds of vehicles and all classes of people, ap-
179
parentlj no distinction being made on account of rank or
position ; and broad meadoY\^s and shady groves which are
thronged with visitors, who find both pleasure and refresh-
ment in the numerous restaurants, cafes, theatres, circuses,
bowling-alleys, shooting galleries, gymnasiums, swings, etc.,
etc. While ample space is allowed for the recreation of the
people, which is the chief object of this old and favorite re-
sort, little attention is given to the mere embellishment of the
park. The land itself is almost a dead level, and is devoid of
all those attractive features which are to be found in many of
the great parks of Europe. The Viennese, however, look
upon it as the playground of all classes, and any attempt to
change its character in this particular by landscape garden-
ing, or any other ornamentation that would interfere with
their full enjoyment, Avould never be tolerated. It was in
the Prater that the International Exposition was held in
1873, and the buildings still remain, forming a striking and
pleasing attraction to visitors.
Besides the Prater, there is the Yolksgarten and the
Hofgarten, which are handsomely cultivated tracts of about
twenty acres that embellish a portion of the Glacis, a broad
open space that formed a portion of the defenses of the
old city, but which has been converted into fine promen-
ades and laid out in regular plots. Like the Prater, it is a
popular resort, provided with places of entertainment for
the people. The Glacis nearly environs the ancient city
and has an area of about five hundred acres. In addition
to these public places, there are the Augarten, Brigittenau,
the Stadt Park, the Botanical Gardens, the Belvedere
Gardens, and smaller parks and squares, which, with those
already named, make a total area of public grounds in the
city and its immediate vicinity of about three thousand
acres.
Independent of these parks, the Viennese are within
easy reach of some of the most beautiful pleasure-grounds
IbO
in the world. The citj is situated on a plain, overlooked
by lofty hills, which form a portion of the range of the
Tyrolean Alps. Among the valleys and on the slopes of
these mountains are scenes of rare beauty. Every village
within a radius of ten miles may be said to be the centre
of a park, and thither the public flock on Sundays and
holidays to enjoy themselves without let or molestation.
Baden is set in the midst of parks, and there is a long list
of others, among which, Laxenberg, Schonbrunn, and the
park of Prince Schwartzenberg, are prominent, and all of
which are open to the people. The extent of the grounds
inside and outside of the city cannot be less than eight
thousand acres, or estimating the present population of
Vienna at 800,000, in the ratio of one acre to every hundred
inhabitants.
The Parks of Berlin.
While the Prussian capital is inferior in park area as
compared with London and Paris, her municipal author-
ities and the Imperial Government have not been unmind-
ful of the claims of the people in the matter of public
pleasure-grounds. Of parks and squares Berlin has about
sixty, differing in area from half an acre to over five hun-
dred. The Thiergarten, which is the great pleasure resort
of the people, has an area of about six hundred and fifty
acres, including the Zoological Garden and the space
inclosed as a hippodrome, which is one of the principal
attractions to visitors. It is situated on the river Spree,
and its chief features of interest are its groves of stately
and venerable trees, its lakes and promenades.
The squares are tastefully arranged in various styles of
gardening, and many of them are handsomely embellished
with statuary and fountains. Berlin, however, is not
dependent upon these for tlie recreation of her people, for
within half aii hour by rail are the great parks in the sub-
v^
183
urbs of Potsdam, with tlieir splendid lakes, constituting a
larger water surface probably tliSjU is to be found in any
inland parks in the world. The form of these lakes and
the sweep of the shores, now withdrawing in irregular
curves, now jutting forward in bold, sharp promontories,
heavily timbered to the water's edge, bestow an additional
element of picturesque beauty upon the landscape. The
area of these parks is about three thousand acres, pretty
equally divided between land and water, and if to these we
add the Konig's Garten, we have a magnificent pleasure-
ground covering an extent of four thousand acres.
In addition to these there are the Frederick's Park,
Humboldt Park, the Southeast Park, and the Little Thier-
garten, which have a combined area of six hundred and
fifty acres. The public pleasure-grounds of Berlin, as may
be judged from these figures, have been planned upon a
liberal scale. They aggregate at least five thousand acres,
which allows one acre to every two hundred and thirty-five
persons.
The Parks of Dublin.
The Irish capital, with a population of about three hun-
dred and fifty thousand, has in its great recreation-ground,
called Phcjenix Pai'k, a tract of 1,753 acres, and with smaller
tracts and squares distributed throughout the city, an aggre-
gate park area of nearly 1,900 acres. This also includes
several open spaces which it is proposed to devote to public
use, and for the possession of which, we are informed from
official sources, the necessary steps are at present being
taken. The principal square, known as St. Stephen's
Green, embracing about twenty-three acres, is highly cul-
tivated and one of the most popular resorts in the city. A
public-spirited citizen, Sir Arthur Guinness, the brewer,
now Lord Ardilaun, expended one hundred and twenty
thousand dollars in its embellishment, and it is now said
184
to be one of the most beautiful parks of its size in Europe.
The Phoenix Park, on the contrary, depends almost wholly
on its natural attractions, and these justly entitle it to a
place among the first not only of Great Britain but
of the Continent. It is situated on the banks of the
Kiver Liffey, a picturesque stream which flows directly
through the city. The surface is undulating, and a con-
siderable portion is covered with fine old woods that alter-
nate with broad stretches of emerald lawns and dappled
meadows, over which hundreds of tame deer roam at will.
A botanical and a zoological garden add to the pleasure of
the visitors, and both are well maintained.
Parks of Amsterdam.
Although the commercial metropolis of the United States
has been known for more than a century by its present name,
its ancient title of New Amsterdam has not been forgotten,
and your Commission, in including Old Amsterdam among
the number of the park cities of Europe, were actuated by
a desire to revive the memories of the past and the early
history and origin of the third greatest city of the world.
In reply to their inquiries regarding the park area of
Amsterdam, they were courteously furnished with the
required information and an excellent map of the famous
old Dutch capital. From the letter of Mayor Tienhoven
and accompanying documents, they learn that the space
laid out in parks and private grounds open to the people
is about eight hundred acres, among which the principal,
called Vondel Park, after the nation's great poet, Joast
VanderYondel, has an area of one hundred and fifty acres.
This park occupies a conspicuous position on the map,
and is particularly noticeable on account of its resemblance
in form and outline to our own Central. Both are of
oblong shape, and the position of the Lakes and the general
plan have many points of similarity. The level nature of
185
the country in which Yondel Park is located deprives it, of
■course, of that diyersitr of surface by which its Xew York
counterpart is distinguished. Ainonpj the most noticeable
of the works of art which embellish Yondel Park is a fine
loronze statue of the poet in whose honor it has been
named. Besides the principal pleasure-ground, there are
twenty-three squares and parks under the administration
of the city, and a still larger number which are free to the
people. The map of Amsterdam shows many a green spot
along the lines of its numerous canals, on the banks of
which, in the language of Mayor Tienhoven, "fine shade
trees, mostly elms, are planted, affording a grateful and
agreeable shade to the pedestrian."
Taking into account the difference of the population,
v\'e find that Amsterdam has been generous towards its
people in the matter of parks compared with the parsimony
of its whilom trans-Atlantic namesake. And this generosity
is the more striking, as its land has been wrested from the
ocean inch by inch, as it were, and is held by each suc-
ceeding generation under a tenure of continual struggle
with the same element, involving incessant watchfulness,
unremitting labor and constant outlay.
The Parks of Brussels.
From the official documents and excellent map of the
Belgian capital forwarded by its municipal authorities to
your Commission, it appears that the area devoted to pub-
lic grounds in that city and suburbs is at least eight hun-
<lred acres, exclusive of many other pleasure-grounds which
do not appear in the list. The principal is the Bois de
Oambre, containing over three hundred acres ; the Pare de
Bruxelles thirty, the Pare Leopold twenty-five, and at least
forty others varying in extent from one to ten and twelve
acres. Many of these parks are arranged as gardens, and
186
adorned with fountains, statues, and other works of art, and
are approaclied by boulevards which compare favorably
even with those of Paris. The principal avenues are thirty
feet wider than the boulevards of our own city. The Bois
de Cambre is to Brussels what the Bois de Boulogne is to
Paris, and the art of the landscape gardener has added
largely to its natural advantages.
Brussels, like Paris, Vienna, and Berlin, has in its-
suburbs many pleasant resorts to which the public have
access, but in the field of Waterloo, less than half an hour
distant by rail, it has a park, if it can be so designated,
which has a particular attraction and interest for every
visitor. As a place of public resort it has some claim to be
classed among the public grounds of Brussels, although not
properly included in its park area, which may be fairly
estimated at a thousand acres, or one acre to every three
hundred and fifty inhabitants.
i8y
Parks of Japan
Pleasure Grounds of the City of Tokio.
The high position which has been conceded to the peo-
ple of Japan in the workl of art has been fully maintained
in various international exhibitions, and particularly in
the grand display of the world's industry with which the
centennary of our Independence was celebrated over seven
years ago. The products of the skill and genius of Japan-
ese artists and artizans have become important items in the
business accounts of our merchants and dealers, and the
increase of our trade and commerce with Japan has brought
us into intimate and friendly relations with the people
of that interesting country, and given us an insight into
their domestic and social life which was before almost
impossible.
Your Commission, aware that not only in floriculture but
in the matter of public parks they occupy an advanced
position, felt that a reference to the pleasure-grounds of
the city of Tokio, the capital of the Empire, would be
interesting and acceptable to all wdio are concerned in the
movement for more parks. For the information which they
have obtained regarding the public parks of Tokio they are
indebted to the courtesy of the Japanese Consul.
The City of Tokio is celebrated not only for the num-
ber but for the extent and beauty of its parks, which are
among the most cherished objects of popular regard and
affection. There is, probably, no people in the world
among whom the love of flowers is more strongly marked,
or the art of landscape gardening brought to a higher state
190
of perfection. Their marvelous skill in the dwarfing of
plants, by which the pine and other trees are reduced to
lilliputian dimensions, is justly celebrated, and their artis-
tic taste is shown in the production of artificial landscapes
covering a space of fifty or sixty square feet, with hills,
lakes, valleys and rivers faithfully represented, and with
woods of living vegetation, but dwarfed in proportion to
the other features of the scene.
On the ten national holidays, and the additional local
festivals the people of Tokio, without distinction of class,
seek recreation in the many playgrounds of the capital, tak-
ing 2:>articular delight in the display of chrysanthemums,
the Imperial flower of Japan, the poenies, the lotus, and par-
ticularly the cherry blossom, which is one of their favorite
flowers. On such occasions the workshops are deserted,
and the people, without distinction of age or sex, turn out
en masse to witness the grand floral display prepared for
them by the gardeners in charge of the public grounds.
Here they revel in healthful recreation and enjoyment.
The feast of the anniversary of the coronation of their first
Emperor, who reigned twenty-six centuries ago, and which
occurs on the 11th of February, is kept up with great
enthusiasm.
Among the parks of Tokio, Wooyeno is distinguished,
not only by its size but by the picturesque variety of its
views, and particularly by its magnificent woods, composed
mainly of the cherry tree of which there are many varie-
ties, some of which are three or four centuries old, and
which constitute a distinguishing feature in nearly all the
Japanese public grounds. With an area of about twenty-
five hundred acres, equal in extent to the Bois de Bou-
logne and Windsor Forest, it is laid out with admirable
discrimination in the adajDtation of its topographical
features to the general design. The Lake Shinobashu,
which is situated on one side of tlie ]iavk, is its chief
191
attraction, and is surrounded by a broad drive or boulevard
about four hundred feet wide and four miles long. The lake
itself is set in a framework of trees of many varieties,
with occasional open spaces bright with flowering shrubs.
This park is also distinguished as possessing the great
temple which was erected over three centuries ago and
dedicated to Tokugawa Eyeyasu, a Shogun (commander-
in-chief of the army in feudal times) who was noted for his
administrative abilities and his prowess in war. From the
summits of the hills the great city of Tokio is seen spread
out like a map, with the Sea of Japan and its beautiful
islands visible in the distance. When General and Mrs.
Grant visited Japan they were, as a mark of special honor,
requested each to plant a tree in Tokio's principal 2^ark.
In 1881 the population of the Japanese capital was
886,000, but it is to-day estimated at one million, and as
Wooyeno is about three miles from the centre of the city
it is easily accessible to a large number of its inhabitants.
It is open to the public at all times, and a competent force
of police is in charge to maintain peace and order.
Shiba, the second largest park of Tokio, is five miles
from Wooyeno, and is reached by horse-cars, the fare being
six cents. It has an area of about twelve hundred acres,
and is noted no less for its celebrated temple of Zojogee
than for the Koyokan, or the Ked Maple Palace, a
structure of great size and built in the highest style of
Japanese architecture, in which distinguished strangers
are sumptuously entertained by the higher classes. There
are many very beautiful views in this park, and several
natural and artificial lakes in which the water lily, a
special favorite with the Japanese, is cultivated with much
care, not only for its floral beauty but for its edible
root which is highly prized. Here, and in the lakes of
other parks, but more particularly in Wooyeno, the gar-
deners produce not only the yellow but that rare plant the
192
red water lilj, which is noted as well for its exquisite
perfume as for its peculiar color. The blossoms of some
of these water lilies are ten inches in diameter.
On festivals and special occasions the Ked Maple Palace
is brilliantly illuminated with parti-colored lanterns of all
sizes and almost every conceivable design, some fashioned
in the most grotesque shapes. The lakes swarm with the
gold and silver carp, of which many attain a length of
three feet and a weight of from twelve to fifteen pounds.
Large quantities of these fish become the prey of the wild
duck which frequent the lakes in immense flocks, and
which feed upon them with impunity, as the shooting of
the birds is prohibited by law. Of this particular fish the
finest specimens are found in Wooyeno Park. The kingio
is another species of gold fish, for the cultivation of which
the Japanese have long been distinguished, and even the
form of which they have succeeded in materially changing
by their skill in the art of pisciculture.
Mookojima, is the third in extent of the public grounds
of Tokio, being a little more than three miles in length by
a quarter of a mile in width, and containing about five
hundred and fifty acres. The river Sumida, on which the
city is situated, forms a part of its boundary and affords
the means of transportation to the thousands who visit the
park. Steamboats ply to and fro on special occasions
during the spring and summer, carrying thousands of visit-
ors for a moderate fare to the park of the great river, the
banks of which are thickly planted with the favorite cherry
tree. Those who prefer the more primitive method of
conveyance can hire the Japanese pleasure-boat, with its
deck house and propelled by oars, at the low rate of a dol-
lar and a half a day. This covers the expense of such
music as may be desired and the wages of the attendants,
who not only row, but perform other necessary work. In
the spring when the cherry trees are in full bloom por-
13
195
tions of the park are literally packed with admiring spec-
tators, for whom the cherry blossom has a charm amounting
almost to fascination. These trees are not only cultivated
with the greatest care, but by the skill of the gardeners
they are so trained and fashioned during their growth as
to form long lines of arches over the roads and paths, and
from these arches clusters of blossoms hang in great pro-
fusion.
In this park there are many small but beautiful lakes, in
which anglers are permitted to fish on payment of a nominal
sum — twenty-five cents for a whole day's piscatorial amuse-
ment. The tea-houses and restaurants are light and grace-
ful structures, and add largely to the picturesque effect of
the grounds. The visitors are not only allowed to fish in
the lakes but to swim in the river, and the park is open
over its whole surface to the people who find a pleasant
shade from the sun under the dense foliage of the thickly
planted woods. There is, indeed, only one of the principal
parks of Tokio in which the people are restricted to the
roads and walks — Wooyeno — and here the notice so familiar
to the habitues of our Central is displayed in Japanese
characters warning the people not to injure the vines,
shrubs and branches, and to keep off the grass.
Asakusa, a park of five hundred acres, is situated a mile
from "Wooyeno, and is called after the Buddhist temple
which forms a conspicuous feature among its many attrac-
tions. It possesses a theatre, a circus, many tea-houses,
besides archery grounds and amusements for children.
Its woods of pine and cedar occupy a large part of its sur-
face, and beneath their luxuriant foliage the visitors find a
grateful shade from the fervid summer sun.
Fukagawa, the sea-side park, is situated on an island of
the same name in Yeddo Bay, which is connected directly
with the city by an admirably constructed bridge seven
hundred and twenty feet long. This park is one of the
196
most attractive of the many resorts in and near the city,
and is laid out with excellent taste as a public garden. It
contains four hundred acres.
Asukayama, which is about seven and a half miles from
the city, is situated between two lofty hills, the slopes of
which are in parts covered with the indispensable cherry
tree. It is celebrated for its extensive views, and particu-
larly for the romantic beauty of the Takino, the course of
which is broken by numerous cascades as it flows on
through the park to join the waters of the Sumida. The
Asukayama is said to be one of the most beautiful of the
parks of the Japanese capital, and although among the most
distant, is visited not only during festivals but at other
times by large numbers of pleasure-seekers. This park has
an area of about three hundred acres, and is particularly
noted for its high grass, so high in fact that it forms quite
an agreeable shade, and is much frequented by the visitors,
particularly by the youth of the city.
Besides the grounds around the Imperial Palace, the
residence of the Mikado, there are four magnificent gar-
dens situated at different points, which have an aggregate
area of over two thousand acres, and which are thrown
open to the people during the ten national holidays.
There are in addition to these and the public parks, one
hundred and forty local parks or squares, varying in area
from one to five or six acres. Many of these are arranged
as gardens and are pleasant features in the general plan of
the city. Indeed, every house, except the dwellings of the
very poor, has a garden in front and a plot in the rear for
the cultivation of kitchen vegetables.
The total area of the large public grounds of Tokio is
estimated, as will be seen from the following table, at
nearly 0,000 acres, or one acre to every 107 inhabitants :
197
Acres.
Woojeno 2,200
Shiba 1,200
Mookojima 550
Asakusa 500
Fukagawa 400
Asukayama 300
5,150
If to these are added tlie smaller parks, squares and
gardens, the area will be increased to nearly 6,000 acres.
Tokio itself has perhaps a larger area than any other city
in the world in proportion to its population, having a cir-
cumference of ninety miles. In AVooyeno there are well
arranged museums of natural history, in which there are
extensive collections of the fauna of the Japanese Islands.
, Many of the Chisai-Koyen, as the small parks are
called to distinguish them from from the Okii Koyen or
great pleasure grounds, are exquisitely laid out in the style
of Japanese gardening.
Map of Wooyeno Park.
Note. — Since the account of the parks of Tokio was
written the Commission received from the Governor of
that city an elaborate map of Wooyeno Park, a copy of
which is herewith given. No change has been made from
the original, the Japanese characters being reproduced as
they are printed thereon, though necessarily on a much
reduced scale. The lake (Shinobashu) is about a mile and
a half long and nearly a mile wide.
lys
Conclusions.
Area of Lands Recommended for Parks and
Parkways.
From tlie information obtained by your Commission,
after diligent inquiry and minute investigation, they have
arrived at the following conclusions, which they believe are
fully warranted and sustained by the facts and results pre-
sented in their report :
1. That the sanitary welfare of our metropolis and the
physical recreation and development of its inhabitants de-
mand an increase of its park area, commensurate not only
with its present wants but with its future and rapidly
increasing necessities.
2. That while over oi^e million of souls have been added
to our population since 1853, when Central Park was
created, the area of our public grounds is to-day less than
one-half what it was then, as compared with the number of
its inhabitants.
3. That while the grounds selected for the Central
Park were rough and unsightly, and only brought into
condition by a vast outlay, those here suggested to your
Honorable Bodies (both inland and on the Sound,) are
rarely endowed by nature for the purpose contemplated,
and would attract admiring visitors from all parts of
Christendom, while difiusing the blessings of health and
culture among our own citizens.
4. Tliat Central Park has paid for itself and netted a
handsome profit on its purchase, besides the valuable
I
201
property whicli the city possesses in the land, and which
is to-day estimated as worth two hundred millions of
dollars.
5. That while New York is the third largest city in the
civilized world in population, it is, in the matter of park
area, far behind not only the great capitals of Europe but
the principal cities of the United States.
6. That the cause which has made our metropolis lag
so far behind the cities abroad and at home, has been, not
the lack of appreciation and enterprise in her people, but
the peculiar conformation and narrow limit of its domain,
which, till it overleaped its confining bounds, gave no room
for generous recreation grounds.
7. That the financial statistics not only of New York but
of Boston, Chicago, Buffalo and other cities prove that
money expended in parks, by enhancing the value of adja-
cent property, more than compensates for the outlay, and
leaves a balance to the public treasury.
8. That the burden of taxation is thus equalized by the
improvement of property adjoining public parks and the
enhancement of its taxable value.
9. That the increased tax income from enhanced property
will not only meet the interest on the bonds, but, as shown
by the experience of Central Park, will afford a surplus
over and above the expense of maintenance, etc., sufficient
in a few years to pay the principal, leaving in possession of
the city property which will, within the present generation,
increase more than ten-fold in value.
10. That the lands hereiti recommended for public
parks and parkways — about 3,800 acres — could probably
be obtained at an average cost of not more than $2,000
per acre, thus aggregating between seven and eight mil-
lions of dollars, and that the adjacent grounds, the moment
202
an act sliould be passed dedicating the sites selected to
public nse, would be very largely enhanced in value.
11. That the bonds which will be issued for the pur-
chase of the lands recommended can be at present negoti-
ated at 3 J per cent., or one-half the interest paid on the
Central Park bonds.
12. That the land required for parks should be secured
while it can be had at its present minimum value, instead
of waiting several years when costly improvements shall
have been erected thereon, which would preclude the
possibility of its being taken for the purpose designated.
13. That as no park system can be regarded as complete
without suitable tracts for botanical and zoological gar-
dens, your Commission have provided for these in the
selection of sites. They have also kept in view the neces-
sity of making provision at the present time for the
World's Fair, and other industrial exhibitions, which will
in all probability^ be held ftom time to time in New York,
or its immediate vicinity, so long as our state shall hold
its present supremacy as the Empire State of the Union.
14. That the facilities afforded by the present, and
which will be largely increased by the projected, lines of
rapid transit, place the proposed parks nearer to the pop-
ulation of New York, and render them more accessible,
than Central Park when it was established.
15. That the population of the City of New York at the
end of ten years herefrom will, according to its present
ratio of increase, be in all probability nearly two and a
half millions, and that by that time, that is in 1894, the
means of land transportation will have been so improved
that passengers can be carried from the Battery to the
Van Cortlandt, Bronx and Pclham Bay Parks in thirty
minutes.
208
16. That the wants o! our citizen-soldiers are entitled
to immediate consideration, and that provision should be
made, as recommended by the commander of the First
Division of the National Guard, on the tract selected and
known as the Yan Cortlandt estate, for an ample parade-
ground and suitable rifle range.
17. That as within this property there is a large tract of
elevated land particularly adapted for the construction of a
reservoir, and an abundance of suitable stone, and as the
new Croton aqueduct is to run through it in a direct line
from north to south, your Commission consider the posses-
sion of this site as especially desirable for these additional
reasons.
18. That Central Park is wholly inadequate to the New
York of to-day, that it fails to meet the wants of the people,
that the proposed sites should be open for the unre-
stricted use of visitors, and that its already too limited
area is to be still further reduced by the construction of
transverse streets across its surface so necessary to secure
easy communication between the population on its western
and eastern boundaries.
19. That parks attract population, increase trade, invite
visitors, and add largely to the embellishment and renown
of the city.
20. That the proposed parks should be wholly rural in
their character, that they should be grounds for the recre-
ation of the people, and that only such improvements
should be made as are absolutely necessary.
21. That the necessary steps should be at once taken, by
the passage of an act of annexation, to secure possession of
the large tract on the Sound herein recommended, and
which embraces a territory of about seventeen hundred
acres (including an island of one hundred and eighty), and
having a water-front and drive of nine miles in length.
204
In the location of the sites jo\iv Commission have been
governed wholly by considerations of economy,, suitability,
and the means of access. The lands selected are natural
parks, requiring but little outlay to fit them for immediate
use, and in this important respect differing materially from
Central Park, the improvement of which involved an im-
mense expenditure and a delay of at least ten years before
it was wholly fit for public occupation. In the case of the
Yan Cortlandt, the Bronx, St. Mary's, Crotona, Claremont
and Peiham Bay Parks, the land could, if purchased to-day,
be immediately thrown open to and enjoyed by the people.
If the sites located by your Commission were now in
the condition in which the land taken for Central Park was
found when appropriated by the city, they could not be
brought to their present state of picturesque loveliness by
an outlay of untold millions. The artificial embellishments
of that park, which cost over ten millions of dollars, and
many more millions to maintain, are vastly inferior to the
natural beauty of the parks herein recommended. In fact,
nature has been so lavish of her gifts in this favored region
as to render the aid of art unnecessary^
To l)ring the Central Park to its present state from the
rough and unsightly condition of the land when bought,
cost the city, with the original purchase price, over twenty-
five tliousand dollars an acre; for its beauties are wholly
artificial in their character, made not by the hand of
nature, but by the skill and labor of man; whereas in the
tracts selected by yowv Commission no outlay is necessary
beyond the mere cost of maintenance, the work of embel-
lishment having been performed by the hand of nature
alone.
The influence of this system of parkage will not be
confined to the City of New York and the county of
Westchester. It will permeate the whole State. Our im-
perial Commonwealth takes a just pride in the prosperity
207
and grandeur of its great metropolis, and the success of the
metropolis reacts upon the cities and counties of the State.
Though the location of these noble institutions is in the
city, yet the citizens of the State are made participators in
the pleasures which they afford when they visit us, and may
justly feel proud of the additional attractiveness which
these grand parks lend to the metropolis. They tend to
weave thicker and closer the cords of union, sympathy and
a common destiny between the city and the country, between
the citizens of our crowded marts and the farmers of border-
ing Chautauqua and St. Lawrence, as well as of all the
counties of the State.
Fpr the reasons herein set forth and the overwhelming
array of evidence by which they are sustained, your Com-
mission respectfully recommend the several tracts of land
embraced under the following titles, to be appropriated
for the recreation and enjoyment of the million and a half
of inhabitants of the New York of to-day and of its millions
yet to be :
ACRES. ■
Yan Cortlandt Park l^OGPJi^
Bronx Park 653
Pelham Bay Park 1,700
Crotona Park 135^^^
St. Mary's Park 25^^^
Claremont Park 38yVo
Mosholu Parkway 80
Bronx and Pelham Parkway 95
Crotona Parkway 12
Total 3,8083V_
Your Commission submit the Eeport of their Engineer,
General Lane, giving the location and boundaries of the
sites selected, and the approaches thereto.
208
Thej have also drawn and lierewith submit for the
consideration of your Honorable Bodies, the form of a bill,
based on provisions already approved and adopted by the
Legislature, for carrying out the recommendations of this
report.
All of which is respectfully submitted.
^^^^^^
^^r>i
lyyf/i^z^^
209
ENGINEEE'S EEPORT.
Engineers' Office, 21 Park PiiACE, )
iNew York, December 26, 1883. \
Hon . Luther R. Marsh, President,
Louis Fitzgerald,
Waldo Hutchins,
Chas. L. Tiffany,
Wm. W. Niles,
Geo. W. McLean,
Thos. J. Crombie,
Commisfiioners appointed under chapter 253 of Laws of 1883 of the Legis-
lature of the State of New York to select and locate lands for public parks
in the Tuoenty-tliird and Twenty fourth Wards of the City of New York
and the vicinity thereof :
Gentlemen — Having been appointed surveyor to your Commission,
and in obedience to the duties incumbent on said appointment, I beg
leave to report as follows. Having officially examined and mapped the
different localities which the Commission have selected and located for
parks and parkways in the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Wards of
the City of New York and vicinity, and approximately calculated the
areas of said parks and parkways, I prepared a sketch map of the City
of New York and vicinity (which map accompanies this report) showing
the contour of the parks and parkways selected by your Commission
in the Twenty-third and Twenty fourth Wards of the city and vicinity,
and also showing the approaches and the means of transit to the same —
both those in actual oj^eration and those contemj^lated on land — while
the water conveyances to Pelham Bay Park are too obvious, on the
map exhibited, to need further description .
' The following is a description of the boundaries and acreage of the
several parks and parkways as selected by the Commission ; it being
understood that all internal streets and railroad rights of way, now
existing and having been purchased and paid for by the City of New
York, are herein deducted from the total acreage within the boundaries
given.
First— Yh.1^ CORTLANDT PARK BOUNDARIES.
Beginning at the intersection of the easterly line of Broadway with the
northerly line of the city of New York, running thence easterly along
the northerly line or l)oundary of the city to the intersection of said line
with the westerly line of Mount Vernon avenue ; thence southerly along
the line of Mount Vernon avenue to the junction of said westerly line of
Mount Vernon avenue with the northerly line of Willard avenue ; thence
14
210
westerly along said northerly line of Willard avenue, crossing Jerome
avenue to the westerly line of Jerome avenue ; thence along said westerly
line of Jerome avenue in a southeasterly and southerly direction to the
junction with the northerly line of Gunhill road ; from thence westerly
along the northerly line of Gunliill road, following its wanderings and
extending on said northerly line of Gunhill road to a point two hundred
and seventy -five (275) feet easterly and at right angles from the
easterly boundary of the Croton aqueduct right of way; from thence
crossing the Gunhill road at right angles for the full widtli of said Gun-
hill road ; from thence in a straight line southerly of west to a point on
the easterly side of Broadway aforesaid, ten feet southerly of the bridge
over Tibbetts brook on said Broadway ; from thence along the easterly
line of Broadway in a northerly direction, following its windings to
the place of beginning, containing about 1, 132f\^^ acres ; from which
area is to be deducted the existing streets, roads and railroad right of
way located witliin the before-described grounds, viz, : A street running
from jMount Vernon avenue boundary line northerly toward McLean's
lake, also Jerome avenue from intersection with Willard avenue
northerly to city line ; also Croton aqueduct right of way ; also Mosholu
avenue ; also New York and Northern Railroad Company's right of way ;
also Mount Vernon avenue from Jerome avenue to Gunhill road ; also
Gunhill road from two hundred and fifty feet east of Croton aqueduct
right of way to Van Cortlandt avenue ; also a continuation of Gunhill
road from Van Cortlandt Avenue to Broadway, all of which are
within the boundaries aforesaid, and contain an acreage of 63/^ acres,
which deducted from the acreage between the bounds as given, leave for
Park purposes about l,069/^\^ acres to be purchased if said park is
adopted.
Second— BUOWK PARK BOUNDARIES.
All the contents within the following boundary, viz. : Beginning at a
point in tlie Twenty-fourth Ward of the City of New York, formed by
the junction of the north line of Samuel street and the west bank of the
Bronx river ; from thence westerly along the northerly line of Sanmel
street to the easterly line of Bronx street ; from thence northerly along
said easterly line of Bronx street to the northerly line of Ann street ; from
tlience westerly along tlie nortlierly line of Ann street to the easterly line
of Boston road; from thence northerly along said easterly line of the Bos-
ton road to a i)oint in line with the northerly line of Kingsbridge road;
from thence westerly along the northerly line of Kingsbridge road to tlie
easterly line of tlie Southern Boulevard; from thence northerly, along
and following tlie easterly line of the Southern Boulevard, to the north-
erly line of St. John's College iiroperty ; from thence, crossing the South-
ern Boulevard and following the northerly boundary of the St. John's
211
College property northwesterly, to the easterly line of the right of way of
the New York & Harlem Railroad Co. ; from thence along said easterly
line of said right of way, and following its course northeasterly to a
l)oint about three hundred (300) feet northeasterly of the northerly line
of Water street, to a point formed by the junction of the prolongation
westward of the northerly line of Morris street, as laid down on a parti-
tion map and survey made by Egbert L. Viele, Civil Engineer, under an
order of the Supreme Court, bearing date the 23d day of August, 1869;
from thence along said prolongation of the northerly line of Morris street,
crossing the Bronx river and along said northerly line of Morris street, to
a point about twenty (20) feet easterly of the eastern line of Duncomb
avenue, as shown on the map aforesaid ; from thence, in a straight line
southerly, and nearly parallel to and east of Monroe avenue, as shown on
said map, to the northwesterly corner of land formerly belonging to John
Hitchcock, as shown on said map ; from thence, in a straight line south-
erly, to the southeastern corner of the Lorillard estate, as shown on map
aforesaid ; thence westerly along the southerly boundary of the Lorillard
estate, as sliown on said map, to the lands belonging to the Bronx
Bleaching Company ; thence southwesterly, southerly and westerly, along
the easterly and southerly boundary of the Bronx Bleaching Company, to
a point two hundred (200) feet easterly of the Bronx river; from thence
southerly and parallel with the general line of the Bronx river, crossing
tlie Boston road, to its southerly line ; thence easterly along said southerly
line of Boston road about five hundred and twenty (520) feet; from
thence southerly, and parallel with the general courses of the Bronx river,
and conforming thereto, about seven hundred (700) feet easterly of the
general eastern line thereof, to a point formed by such line, and a pro-
longation of the southerly line of Kingsbridge road as now existing in
tlie Twenty-fourth ward of the City of New York, between the Southern
Boulevard and Bronx street; eastwardly across the Bronx river to the
said line as drawn parallel to the general course of the Bronx river as
aforesaid ; from tlience in a straight line crossing the Bronx river to the
place of beginning, containing about six hundred and sixty-one sixty
ono-hundredths (601 60-100) acres, from which, deducting those portions
of Fordham and Pelham avenue, and of the Southern Boulevard, com-
prising together about eight and six-tenths acres, included and enclosed
in the within named boundaries, would leave for Park purposes about
six hundred and fifty-three (653) acres, to be purchased if said park is
adopted.
Third— FEJjllA^l BAY PARK.
All those pieces or parcels of land situate and lying within West-
chester County, contained within the following boundary, viz, :
Beginning on Long Island Sound at u point where a line drawn from
the termination of the northern boundary of the City of New York touches
212
the Bronx river to the furthermost northern point of tlie "Pass Rocks," a
ledge of rocks north of Hunter's Island, would touch the shore line and
waters of Long Island Sound ; from thence westerly along said line be-
tween the New York City northern boundary and Long Island Sound to a
l)()int about one thousand feet easterly from the easterly side of the Old
Boston Post-road, measuring from its junction with the extended northern
boundary of New York City ; from thence southerly to the nearest point
on tlie northerly shore of Hutchinson's river ; from thence southerly and
easterly ak)ng the northerly shore of Hutchinson's river to a point formed by
a line drawn due northwest from tlie most westerly point on Goose Island, in
said Hutchinson's river or East Chester bay, and touching the northerly
shore line of said Hutchinson's river ; from this point southerly in a
straigiit line to a point formed by the westerly line of the Harlem River
and Portchester Railroad Company's right of way with the southerly
shore line of East Chester bay or Hutchinson's river ; from thence in a
straight line to the northwesterly corner of the property belonging to and
known as the residence of John W. Hunter, Esq. ; from thence along said
property Imes of John Hunter southerly to the eastern line of the Eastern
Boulevard; from thence along said eastern line of the Eastern Boule-
vard to tlie southwesterly corner of lands belonging to J. Furman, Esq. ;
from thence easterly along the boundary line between the property of
said Furman and the lands of Lorillard Spencer and J. M. Waterbury to
Long Island Sound; from thence following northwardly tlie coast line
along the shores and waters of Long Island Sound, East Chester and
Pelham bays, around and including Pelham Bridge Island and Pelham
Neck to the southerly line of the causeway leading to Hunter's Island;
thence along said southerly line of causeway to Hunter's Island ; thence
southerly, easterly, northerly and westerly, and southerly along the shore
and waters of the coast line of said Hunter's Island and the small island
know as the Twin, following said coast line entirely around said Hunter's
and Twin islands to the northerly line of the causeway or bridge leading
to the main land from Hunter's Island ; from thence along said northerly
line of causeway to the shore and water line of the main land; from
thence along said main land shore and water line northerly to the place
of beginning. Together with all small islands, rocks, etc., situate and
lying within a line drawn between the extreme southerly bound herein
descril)ed and the farthest southeastern projection of Pelham Rock,
and between the most easterly jioint on Pelham Rock and the outermost
southern and eastern point of Hunter's and Twin islands; and also in-
cluding th(! rocks on the north and east of Hunter's Island known as Pass
Rocks. The whole within the above-described boundaries containing
about seventeen hundred and fifty-six (1,75G) acres. From which deduct-
ing the sliore road, also the road from City Island through Pelham Neck
toward Mount Vernon, also Fordham and Pelham Boulevards and the
213
Eastern Boulevard between the boundaries, also the right of way of the
branch railroad of the New York and New Haven Railroad Company,
composing together about fifty-six (56) acres, would leave for park pur-
poses about seventeen hundred (1,700) acres to be purchased if said park
is adopted.
Fourth— -BUO-^^iX AND PELHAM PARKWAY.
All those pieces or parcels of land situate and lying in Westchester
county, contained within the following boundary, viz. :
Beginning at the junction of Fordham and Pelham Boulevards with
Pelham Bay Park as heretofore described, and on the southerly side line
of said Fordham and Pelham Boulevard, a continuous strip of land is
taken three hundred feet wide, bounded by said southerly line of the
Fordham and Pelham Boulevard and a line parallel to said southerly
line of boulevard and three hundred feet distant southerly from said line.
The strip of land extending from Pelham Bay Park to the crossing of
said boulevard by the Kingsbridge road. From thence a strip bounded
by }jarallel lines four hundred feet apart, extends along said Fordham
and Pelham Boulevard to the Boston Post-road in such manner as to
allow said boulevard to cross diagonally said strip of land from end to .
end, viz., between the Kingsbridge road and Boston Post-road; from
thence a strip three hundred feet wide is taken on the northerly side of
the northerly line of said boulevard and touching it, and bounded by a
line parallel to and three hundred feet distant northerly from said north
line of said boulevard and extending to a complete junction with the
Bronx Park herein described, containing about ninety-five (95) acres,
exclusive of cross roads, to be purchased if said parkway is adopted.
Fifth— UOSROJJJ PARKWAY.
All that piece or parcel of land, situate and lying in the Twenty-
fourth Ward of the City of New York, between two parallel lines six
hundred feet distant from each other, connecting Bronx Park with Van
Cortlandt Park and located on both sides of and including Middle
Brook Parkway, Brook street and a small brook or tributary running
through said Middle Brook Parkway and Brook street, as shown by the
map of the new system of streets as laid out by the Commissioners of
Public Parks, containing about eighty (80) acres, exclusive of opened
streets and avenues crossing it, to be purchased if said parkway is
adopted.
Sixth— CROTQ-^ A PARK.
All those pieces or parcels of land lying and being in the Twenty-fourth
Ward of the City of New York, contained within the following
boundary, viz. : Beginning at the junction of the northern boundary line
of the Twenty-third Ward and the easterly line of Fulton avenue, as
214
shown on the map of the new system of streets as laid out by the Com-
missioners of Public Parks ; thence eastwardly along said northern
boundary of the Twenty-third Ward, crossing Franklin avenue (Broad-
way), and continuing on said boundary line to a point three hundred and
twenty (320) feet westerly from the westerly line of Boston Post road ;
tlience along a line parallel to and westwardly of the said westerly line of
Boston Post-road, and distant therefrom three hundred and twenty (320)
feet to the junction of the Boston Post-road with the Southern Boule-
vard ; thence on a line three hundred and twenty feet westerly and
parallel to the westerly side of the Southern Boulevard to a point three
hundred (300) feet southerly from the southerly line of Fairmount avenue
as shown on said city map ; thence westerly three hundred feet distant
from and parallel to the southerly line of Fairmount avenue crossing
Franklin avenue (Broadway) to a prolongation southerly of the westerly
line of Broad street as shown on said map ; thence northerly along such
prolongation of the westerly line of Broad street, and northerly along
said westerly line of Broad street to its junction with the southerly line
(»f Tremont avenue; thence westerly along the southerly line of
Tremont avenue to the junction of said line with the easterly line
of Fordham avenue ; thence southerly along said easterly line
of Fordham avenue to the northerly line of One Hundred and
Seventy-iifth (175th) street (Fitch street); thence easterly two hun-
(li-ed and eighty (280) feet along said northerly line of Fitch street;
thence in a straight line southerly to the place or point of
i)eginning. Containing within the boundaries named about 141 -^^jf acres,
from wliich deduct Franklin avenue for it full length within such
boundaries, viz. : 6 ^^^ acres, leaves to be purchased about 135 ^^^^ acres
if said park is adopted.
Seventh— OjAUBMO^T PARK.
Also all that certain tract of land situate and lying in the Twenty-
third and Twenty-fourth AVards of the City of New York, within the
following boundaries : Beginning at a point formed by the junction
of the i)rolongation westwardly of the southerly line of Jane street
(old name) with the easterly line of Fleetwood avenue ; thence east<
erly along said j^rolongation and along fho southerly line of Jane
street and continuing eastwardly said straight line to its junction with
the westerly line of (Grant Place) Elliott street ; thence along the
westerly line of Elliott street southerly to the easterly line of Fleet-
wood avenue ; thence along the easterly line of Fleetwood avenue to
th(^ place of beginning, containing about thirty-eight {^'q acres, to be
])urchased if said jjark is adopted.
Eighth—HT. MARY'S PARK.
Also all those certain tracts of land situate and lying in the
Twenty-third Ward of the city of New York within the following
MAP OF WOOYENO PARK. CITY OF TOKIO, JAPAN
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boundaries, viz. : Beginning at a point formed by the intersection of
the southerly line of St. Mary's avenue and the easterly line of St.
Ann's avenue ; thence northerly along the easterly line of St. Ann's
avenue to the southerly line of One Hundred and Forty-ninth street ;
thence along the southerly line of One Hundred and Forty-ninth
street easterly to the westerly right-of-way line of the Port Morris
Branch Railroad Company's property ; thence southeasterly along
said westerly line of railroad right of way to the easterly line of a
street forming a southerly extension of Robbins avenue, as shown on
a map of the new system of streets as laid out by the Commissioners
of Public Parks ; thence along the easterly line of such street, extend-
ing southerly from Robbins avenue, about one hundred and fifty (±oO)
feet ; thence westerly and in a straight line to a point in the southerly
line of St. Mary's street, distant about thirty feet northerly and at
right angles to the northerly line of One Hundred and Forty-third
street ; from thence along the southerly line of St. Mary's street
westerly to the point of beginning, containing about twenty-eight
and y'o acres, from which is to be deducted Passage avenue for its
full length within the bounds mentioned, containing about three
iVff (3 iVo) acres, leaving to be purchased about twenty -five jW (25^^)
acres if said park is adopted.
Mnth—CROTOl^A PARKWAY.
Also all those pieces or parcels of land contained in a strip one hun-
dred feet wide : Beginning at the junction of the Southern Boulevard
with the Bronx Park, at Kingsbridge Road crossing, thence southerly
along the easterly side of the Southern Boulevard, and parallel with and
touchmg the same, a strip of land one hundred feet wide, as an addition
to the width of said Boulevard, said strip to continue southerly, and of
its full width of one hundred feet to a point one hundred feet south of
the southerly line of Fairmount avenue, from thence westerly widening
Fairmount avenue on its southerly side by a strip one hundred feet in
width, to a point one hundred feet westerly of the northeasterly corner
of Tremont Park, and at right angles northerly from said northeast cor-
ner of park aforesaid ; from thence in a straight line parallel with said
right angle two hundred feet in width, touching the park and the street
running easterly of the park containing about twelve acres, to be pur-
chased if said Boulevard enlargement is adopted.
All of these descriptions of Parks, Parkways and Boulevard enlarge-
ment, substantially as laid out upon the Sketch Map of the City of New
York and vicinity, showing the sites of and approaches to the parks
selected and located by the Commission appointed under chapter 253 of
the Laws of 1 853, as submitted herewith, and dated New York, January
7, 1884.
Very Respectfully,
JAJVIES C. LANE, C. E.
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