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 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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