USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1886 > Part 16
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while the smoothest surface gets cut up by the continuous throng ; all disposed to make the best of what they have, but quick to appreciate better could it be put within their reach. There is no expenditure upon the Parks of the City, actual or prospective, that will repay a higher interest in the happiness and health of our young men and maidens, than that which shall contrive and ef- fectuate the formation and maintenance throughout the winter, of a hard, smooth sheet of ice all over the water area in ELM PARK. For a considerable period during the gathering cold, the snow was cleared from the surface so far as scraping could ac- complish it. But it was not long after Christmas when it be- came obvious that the very accummulation of material must stop the effort. It had been heaped up, on both shore and island ; piled in the form of mounds at the centre of the Pools ; until there was positively nowhere that another shovel could be emp- tied. Nature was too strong; and man must await her pleasure, - perchance her melting mood. Well,- the unexpected did happen and a thaw commenced. But, just as the surface was covered with water, and the fast-falling temperature gave prom- ise of a new ice-formation, the He-Goat and Wild-Ass* came capering and prancing along, leaving the devious print of their hoofs in the rapidly congealing slush. It has been thus, or
worse, throughout each successive thaw. The humps and ridges, thereby caused, could not be removed by any means within the
control of this COMMISSION. It might seem that other species of Abstinence than that which is the creature of law may well be in- culcated in the lay and secular schools ; and that a direction given to the boyish mind, averting its steps from wanton mis- chief, of no advantage to itself but a positive harm and sorrow to others, should be a lesson well applied nor perhaps entirely thrown away. Whenever the PARKS-COMMISSION shall be enabled to prepare and keep the ice surface as they desire, and hope ; measures will be taken, if necessary, that must be effectual to
* õyoo áyptoo [Latin: Onager.] Whence the probable degeneration of species, as illustrated in ASINUS Consummatus detected, a decade since, browsing on the Common; and ASINUS vulgaris,- caught floundering, beyond his depth, in the S. W. Pool of Elm Park, A. D., 1884. E. W. L.
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preserve order and prevent injury. But they would much prefer that the adequate and sole Police of the Parks should be the self-restraint of those-old or young,-who frequent them. In this-the self-constituted guardians would be but caring for their own property. The Park or "Common," should not be also "un- clean," ex necessitate rei ! If communism, in any form, must be interpreted to mean only depreciation and waste,- the lovers of neatness alone, to say nothing of acquisitiveness, will suffice to leave it in a wretched minority, as a mere dream of slovenli- ness and unthrift.
The reclamation of Lake Park was commenced under the old COMMISSION OF PUBLIC GROUNDS. In their final Report occurs the subjoined passage :-
The acceptance of Lake Park by the City, brought with it new duties to be discharged at first by the COMMISSION OF PUBLIC GROUNDS. Frequent visits, early and late perambulation of the ground, and guarded absorption of advice proffered from all quarters, each and all led to the straight-forward conclusion that little should be attempted save to develop Park-Ways and par- tially tame the uncouth wildness of Nature. A fine grove of trees standing upon the northwest corner of the new Park, sug- gested the possibility of supplying Societies and Schools with an unrivalled picnic site, free from burdensome expense. Mr. James Draper was willing to assume the task of clearing off the brush, stumps, and rocks (not stone); and the COMMISSION found ample reason to be glad of it, when they saw how admirably he achieved the work.
Towards the Spring of 1886, it occurred to the Chairman that use might well follow development; and the Master of the STATE GRANGE, than whom no one was more familiar with the locality, lent his whole energies to realize the idea. It is a pleasure to accord tribute where it is due; and Commissioner Draper is entitled to hearty praise for the unstinted devotion of taste and time toward the fitting up of that grove, as it was found on that afternoon of July 14, when log-fires were in request and winter furs could not be found at urgent need. How pleasantly and well everything passed off,-was it not of current comment ? And yet, how instead of an informal picnic
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resulted the inevitable public meeting; with its starch and prim- ness, and verbal-orefacture, may not the writer who stayed away from apprehension thereof, indulge in mild deprecation ! Why cannot a score or more of Yankees-male and female,- get together, but they must afflict and cramp each other by chairman and speech-facture ? Wherefore not rather the easy undress, an entire freedom from rigid or awkward restraint, the happy relaxation from conventionalism that does not care if school keeps or not ! Let the boys and girls go a-courting and pick huckleberries ! If any are too old for that, the Lake will be close at hand and they can catch crabs from one of Com- modore O'Leary's convenient flotilla. Reserve for the public hall, if you like it, your ceremony to kill,-oratory to repletion ! But the charm of the woods is in their naturalness. Why, then, should man carry with him, when he resorts thither, his artificial manner and parade dress ?
Of how the present Lecturer of the local Grange reduced his fighting weight in a walking match for coffee; how he subse- quently, in the phrase of the Prophet Young, "fretted his gizzard " essaying the path toward the Shelter and getting lost in its mazes ; in what manner and with what measure of success he guided the "light, fantastic toe" over those unplaned spruce plank by the glare of a locomotive head-light; shall it not, O ! Son of Malta, after thy defunct ritual, be forever recorded !
" Standing upon this rock of ages," exclaimed the Mayor, "I now, at the request of the PARKS-COMMISSION, christen this Forest Nook !" Few of his constituents dreamed of the re-action upon His Honor caused by his smiting that huge bowlder. Therefrom have flowed facility of speech and copious utterance, in which the modern Moses has led whole caravans of foxes and bears from the wilds of the Kaaterskill, introducing them to the open-eyed rustics from Maine and Vermont. It appears to have been a more miraculous tap than that of old in the Desert of Zin, and to have resulted in a continuous, vocal mellifluence.
Of Forest Nook in itself, the writer can but repeat himself :-
A few clumps of the more hardy flowering and fragrant shrubs should be planted ; and thereafter a place for out-door parties,
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of abundant space, easy access, and grateful cheapness, will be ever ready for the use and enjoyment of our whole people with- out distinction of age, sex, or previous condition of servitude. Those to whom distance lends the sole enchantment will, of course, continue to pay tribute to the railways, paring the lunch to eke out the fare !
The development of Lake Park, A. D. 1886, consisted mainly in rendering it accessible through and throughout its entire extent. The force and means at the control of the COMMISSION, are inadequate to maintain uninterrupted work. There are times when the COMMON, ELM PARK, or the SHADE-TREES, demand extra or exclusive attention; and then all hands must take hold together. But, everything considered, much has been accom- plished. The Park-Way through the Ford, leading up by the big bowlder to the Shelter; or, diverging at the Chestnuts and winding around towards the North until it re-enters Lake Avenue a few rods Southerly from the Circuit; was constructed, compacted, and sown to grass, in course of the Summer and early Autumn. During the first months of the Winter, just past, another Park-Way has been built, commencing from the North-East corner of Forest Nook,-thence running South,- South-West, until it comes out by the elevated slope, also near the Shelter. The earth has been so free from frost that little difficulty was experienced in the removal of rocks or stumps. Some labor will be requisite, in the vernal season, to level off the track, which will doubtless need covering and filling in spots when the material shall be found convenient.
A good part of the more open land was cleared of brush and undergrowth; thereby taking that first essential step toward all reclamation-the admission of sunlight. To remain effectual, however, the work must be radical. Since, if not supplemented by thorough grubbing, brake and briar will again usurp place and, in very few years, arrogate possession. Were the use of a breaking-up plough practicable, the task of the COMMISSION might be vastly facilitated. But haste does make waste; or would, if the COMMISSION allowed its calm equipoise to be disturbed. A first impulse often suggests that this tree impedes a possible view ; or advises that certain natural features be better adapted to the
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situation by artificial paring or mutilation. The rule is never left out of mind, however, that if
" The groves were God's first temples,"
Man, here in Worcester, may as well accept His architecture as try to model after any example set by our local ecclesiology. By selecting their own occasions for energetic action, or deliber- ate pause ; by striking quick and hard wherever opportunity and need concur ; by doing timely what was approved of old, or casually suggests itself upon the spur of the moment; or by call- ing a halt to take thought for the morrow when fore- and hind- sight may blend in a single focus ; the COMMISSION trust to pre- pare Lake Park, as they have the other Public Grounds of the City, so that the People shall not continually fret themselves, in their enjoyment, with the carking worry of what it all cost !
September 20., A. D. 1886., the PARKS-COMMISSION, which for sixteen months, had been studying the actual and pressing needs of Worcester ; in the line of their prescribed duty as of the reference to them for official consideration, and action, of certain popular petitions, by the City Council ; made formal Report of what would, in their judgment, provide the City with " a system of Parks sufficient for all the needs of the present and future, so far as they can be foreseen, and in area and distribution for con- venient access and use by all the people, unsurpassed, if equalled, by those of any city of like, or even considerably larger popula- tion in this country."
The scope of that Report, with its system of Parks, can be understood best from the subjoined series of formal votes, mak- ing a part of the Report of the COMMISSION and submitted there- with to the Honorable City Council :-
1. Voted, That in the judgment of this Commission it is for the interest of the City of Worcester to acquire the tract of land belonging to the Common- wealth and now held by the Trustees of the State Lunatic Hospital, to the extent of 54 acres more or less, for the purpose of a park, and to request the Honorable City Council to petition the General Court to determine the condi- tions and rates by which said tract may pass into possession of the City for the purposes above described.
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2. Voted, That in the judgment of this Commission, it is for the interest of the City of Worcester to take for the purpose of a public park the tract or parcel of land lying on both sides of Gold Street, belonging to Ephraim Mower, Trustee, Caroline C. Mower, and George A. Brown, containing about five acres at an estimated cost of $29,000. And this Commission hereby request the Honorable City Council to appropriate the above specified sum for that purpose.
3. Voted, That in the judgment of this Commission it is for the interest of the City of Worcester to take for the purpose of a public park the tract of land lying along and between Quinsigamond Avenue, Cambridge Street and the location of the Providence and Worcester Railroad, belonging to J. S. Ballard, George Crompton and heirs of Michael Neylon, comprising about 16 acres and at an estimated cost of $23,166, and the Commission hereby request the Honorable City Council to appropriate said sum for that purpose.
4. Voted, That in the judgment of this Commission it is for the interest of the City of Worcester to take for the purpose of a public park the tract of land lying along and between Crystal, Gates, Addison and Illinois Streets, comprising about 82 acres, at an estimated cost of $13,350. And the Com- mission hereby request the Honorable City Council to appropriate the above sum for the specified purpose.
5. Voted, That in the judgment of this Commission it is for the interest of the City of Worcester to take for the purpose of a public park the tract of land belonging to J. W. Wetherell, W. S. Lincoln, T. S. Johnson and C. G. Harrington, commonly known as Newton Hill, comprising 61 acres, at an estimated cost of $19,500. And the Commission hereby request the Honor- able City Council to appropriate the above sum for that purpose.
6. Voted, That in the judgment of this Commission it is for the interest of the City of Worcester to take for the purpose of a public park the tract of land bounded by Grove Street, Park Avenue, Salisbury Street, and Salisbury Pond, owned by Stephen Salisbury, and comprising about 31 acres, at an estimated cost of $20,274. And this Commission hereby request the Hon- orable City Council to appropriate the above sum for said purpose.
7. Voted, That in the judgment of this Commission it is for the interest of the City of Worcester to take for the purpose of a public park the tract and parcels of land bounded by Lincoln, Melrose and Burncoat Streets, com- prising 17 and eight one-hundredths acres, at an estimated cost of $9,700, and this Commission hereby request the Honorable City Council to make the above appropriation for the said purpose.
Attest :
EDWARD WINSLOW LINCOLN, Secretary of
Parks-Commission.
That Plan was comprehensive and wide-reaching; as was its intention, and as it should have been to be worthy of the City, and of the COMMISSION that was created solely for such purpose. Other propositions had been spasmodic : and although often
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repeated, were let alone to recommend themselves, or to depend, as they best might, upon the unassisted advocacy of the Chair- man of the old COMMISSION OF PUBLIC GROUNDS. Of such, New- ton Hill was a notable instance ;- for the taking which, by eminent domain, leave had been sought and granted by the General Court, times without mind ; for the securing possession of which, after the General Court assented, the City Council invariably
-" let I dare not Wait upon I would ;"
So that, at last, the Act of the Legislature having been suf- fered to fall into idle desuetude, the City was constrained to put all its eggs into one basket ; to locate its distributing basin within gunshot of its storing reservoir ; to take the countless chances of accretion, friction, and fracture, as the gambler stakes every thing upon a single throw. And all because of the lack of a clear purpose,-the omission of a pronounced policy. At a time when everything denoted that the emergency was at hand, ever anticipated in these Reports, when not even private interest, crass ignorance, or congenital stupidity, would avail longer to minimize that prevision of Nature whereby the eminence was put precisely where it was needed ; just at one apex of that triangle whereof Hunt's Reservoir and Bell Pond constitute the two other salients ; by which the hill was elevated to exactly the height that would be required to receive and reduce the pressure from the declivities of Asnebumskit ; and to which it is owing also that Worcester occupies the position, unlike thankless Millbury, of being more blessed in giving than receiving.
It happens, curiously enough, that about the last tract of land upon which the COMMISSION determined has been the first to re- ceive the indispensable sanction of the City Council. Cordially, and unanimously, appreciating the act of proposed munificence that undoubtedly prompted to such ready assent, and the subse- quent appropriation of money ; the PARKS-COMMISSION would be false to their duty were they not to insist that their projected system of Parks and Play-Grounds shall be considered upon its own merits and not taken piecemeal to uphold other and distinc-
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tive schemes of how much soever obvious benefit. It is not a very dignified position-being bob upon the tail of a kite !
The new South Park as it chances fortunately, if fortuitously, will serve a double purpose ; supplying, beyond its original in- tention, the youth who may be expected to throng the courts of Clark University with a much needed play-ground. For such a campus its selection will have approved itself judicious, even if consummated slightly in advance of the positive want. The good nature of Mr. Loring Coes will doubtless accord the use, for boating or skating, of that charming lake in miniature which, if exacted by the requirements of his business, is none the less a creation and evidence of his individual good taste. Such a sheet of water may well be the envy of less-favored sections of our city, to which lakes of any size must continue, as they now are, of impossible attainment ; and whose inhabitants can but gaze from afar upon the lofty towers of the growing University. But Parks and Play-Grounds are the products of man's will; and where there is a will, there has ever been found a way.
The formal approval and purchase of that tract of land, hav- ing been precipitated to anticipate the prospective needs of Clark University, let it be understood that its uses must be adapted to conform thereto. ELM PARK cannot be multiplied, nor transported for a local show. As so often insisted upon in these Reports, peculiar conditions have favored, if they did not invite, a growth of shrub and plant that would be impracticable elsewhere ; and that the condition of the municipal treasury would not suffer to be repeated, were duplication desirable other- wise. Boston with all her wealth, has and asks but one Public Garden. This new Southerly Park has been sought and secured for a complement to the new University ; and with its dedication thereto our people must learn to be content. If that University shall prove a success-as who distrusts ? there will be none too much land for a campus, whereon games of Base, Foot, and other Ball, may be accommodated; with suitable allowance for Croquet, or Lawn Tennis, assuming that Woman is to plant her positive, if smaller, foot in aggression upon that territory. Still, -there will be land enough. Larger, by at least an acre, than
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the COMMON ; as that pinched tract remains after God and Mam- mon got satiated and left off robbing the people; there should be ample space whose verge not even a juvenile Brouthers may transcend. For experts in athletic sports know well enough that when a game worth witnessing is in progress, all by-play ceases. The crowd are eager for the best; and quit their own side-show to admire the champions. As at Elis and Olympia, centuries agone, so will it be on the Crystal campus, and on every fair field where human ambition strives for laurel or parsley. No harm can ensue from a generous emulation, with an honorable desire to win the title to superiority. Such rivalry becomes any University,-new or old. It is only when avarice is the incentive; when the intrinsic value of the prize becomes a stimulus, that the contest should be branded, and terminated, as gambling without excuse or palliation.
But the one section of the City, in the irrevocable judgment of this COMMISSION, as now or heretofore constituted, where the want of a Park or Play-Ground is alike imperative and immedi- ate, and also of impossible attainment unless the intervention of the City shall be speedy ; is that which has been known, in slang parlance, as the "Island :"-lying toward the South-East, and down by the confluence of the streams that combine to form the Blackstone. Factories have covered much of what was once a hopeless swamp ; and the remnant is being rapidly absorbed for dwellings or stores,-often both under the same roof. Those dwellings are mostly tenement-houses, swarming with life, for whose conveniences the merest court-yard is reserved ; and, not seldom, scarcely that much ; the wash being hung out to dry from racks built up with the ascending stories, or waving like banners from the very roof. It may be, as has been declared, that there can be found, here and there, who would prefer to see that entire territory overwhelmed and choked, in like manner, and to similar pestilential invitation ! It looks so well, and argues from an inference of illimitable foresight, to run millions in debt for theoretical sanitation, and then to herd your popula- tion together like pigs in a sty ! Better ! wrote wise Mayor Knowlton, diffuse and disperse, than concentrate! Of what
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use are the aclivities and hills that encircle, and form the great charm of Worcester, if they are to be abandoned to the encroach- ing white birch or the occasional cow! Let them be occupied for homes by our constantly augmenting numbers; each with its garden-plot wherein, if the parents shall not elect to grow prize articles for Horticultural Shows, the children may gain health making mud-pies, thereby at least keeping them ont of the streets. Surrender the valleys, where need be, to the railway ; with factory and work-shops convenient by its side; to the tramway that has come to obviate the necessity for former density of settlement; or to the sewer which is always with us, making its latter day genesis unpleasantly but necessarily mani- fest to the nostrils and pocket. From the hill-sides spring men, -mayhap avalanches. But the valleys are ever a prey to freshets, and the invading foe. Upon the one may be found bracing air and rugged health. Lurking in the other, to be developed upon the first favorable occasion, exhalations, miasma, sullen gases,-the germs of all that becomes destructive of mortal life.
Into such crowded existence, against which this PARKS-COM- MISSION will never cease to protest, if powerless to prevent ; whose evils they would strive to mitigate, where they are impotent to cure or remove; it seems desirable to introduce clear, open spaces for recreation, rest, and the quiet enjoyment of the air and earth. In Ward Five, according to the State Census taken A. D. 1885, there were Twelve Thousand Four Hundred and Forty-six (12,446) inhabitants ; all but an insignificant fraction huddled together within the range of a modern rifle. When Worcester, as a Town, in 1848, attained to that population she deemed it indispensable to become a City. In Ward Five the ratio of persons to a dwelling is set at 10.08 : largely in excess of any other Ward save Four (4) which it also transcends. Does it require elaborate argument to demonstrate the need of a Park and Play-Ground in and for such a locality ? Not in the minds of the PARKS-COMMISSION certainly, to whose members as to the old COMMISSION OF PUBLIC GROUNDS, the imperative requirements of Ward Five (5) have offered an ever present problem and puzzle.
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Its solution as elucidated in the Report Sept. 20, A. D. 1886, was not entirely satisfactory to the COMMISSION, nor has it com- mended itself to ready acceptance by the City Council. At the time it was perhaps the best which might be considered in any way practicable. The proposition was in the alternative,-a lot divided by Gold Street, the smallest and highest-priced of any suggested ; or another lying to the South-West of Quinsigamond Avenue, much more extensive and of a less relative valuation. It has become quite evident that neither can command the re- quisite vote in the City Council in the present state of official and popular sentiment. January 3d, A. D. 1887, significant action was taken, as manifested in the subjoined :-
"CITY OF WORCESTER,
In City Council, January 3, 1887.
Ordered :- That the Parks-Commission be, and they hereby are requested to review their action as stated in their Report to the City Council dated Sep- tember 20, 1886, in so far as said action relates to the tracts of land described in the plans attached to said Report, numbered 2, and 3, severally. And fur- ther, to consider and report upon the expediency of the taking by the City, in lieu of either or both of those tracts heretofore proposed by them for Parks or Play-Grounds, so much as may be deemed necessary, for such purposes, of the tract of land lying to the East of Quinsigamond Avenue, South of Endi- cott Street extended to that Avenue, and West of the walled channel of Mill Brook.
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