USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Worcester > Town annual reports of the several departments for the fiscal year ending December 31, 1886 > Part 17
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January 8, 1887 :-
Approved, SAMUEL WINSLOW, Mayor."
The tract of land, specified in the aforegoing Order, had not escaped observation by this COMMISSION, although not mentioned in the Report of last September. So much of it, at least, as be- longs to the estate of the late George Crompton, had been the subject of correspondence between that gentleman and the Chairman, for some time previous. Mr. Crompton was in the wise habit of keeping his own counsel. His letters expressed reluctance to dispose of that land, upon any terms ; betraying to a somewhat incurious reader, whose business in life has never been to pry into that wherewith he could have no possible con- cern, that there might be plans, or projects, in posse, whereof the development awaited future contingencies. The lamented
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death of Mr. Crompton, cut off in the prime of life and useful- ness, may essentially modify the situation. The COMMISSION will apply themselves to its study, in all fidelity and devotion ; and are not without hope that they may satisfy the anticipations of the locality more directly concerned, achieve something to promote the general welfare, and not wholly discredit themselves.
Of the application to the General Court, for the contribution to common and popular use, of that considerable tract of rocky hill- side and swampy meadow lying between Bell Pond and Shrews- bury Street, it were idle to dream, or reason here. All has been stated, in the proper quarter, that was available by way of argument and the decision must be awaited patiently. The early and original purchase by the Town, and subsequent gift to the Commonwealth ; the resultant acquirement, by the State functionaries, from our townsmen, at a village price, of extensive landed estates, concerning whose disposition, at that time, no one cared as no one expected to be concerned ; the rapid growth of the City consequent upon the location and construction of the Union Railway Station, together with the density of settlement and the frailty of building in the vicinity more or less immediate ; the peril to health from that dense settlement and the inevitable risk to life and limb from the panic-terror imminent from settlement so dense : all these and more were the considerations advanced for the thoughtful reflection of the Committees before whom audience was had. That there is scant space in the open air, for that thronging population to take exercise ; that the girls from the Normal School must break over bounds and the scholars from St. Anne's commit trespass, except either or both invade the unim- proved wastes of the Commonwealth ; were reasons for obvious and absolute insistance. Of course the Commonwealth is com- petent to reap where it has not sown, or to gather where it has not strewn. It paid little and sells for much. Its original outlay for land has been re-imbursed by hundreds per cent. It can con- tinue to sell and to sink the proceeds ; but it will be an "unearned increment," all the same, derived wholly from the growth and prosperity of this City. An intelligent population, so fortunate as not yet to be adjudged insane, ask that a few, out of some hund-
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reds of acres, may be permitted to their enjoyment and use ; nor rigidly reserved for the exclusive freaks of lunacy. The use conceded to the City of Worcester for the purposes of a Park and Play-Ground, its enjoyment will be open to the Common- wealth as freely as ever. Fall River or Lowell may touch the shield and St. Anne's or St. John's must degenerate sadly, or a champion will respond to the first summons.
For the Eastern section of the City, comprising the present Wards 3, 4, and 5, wherein alone dwelt, according to the State Census of 1885, a population not less than Twenty-Nine Thous- and Six Hundred and Three (29,603,); and which, at present, doubtless exceeds the enumeration in so many as fourteen cities* of Massachusetts, there will, at best be none too ample provision. Owing to the configuration of the land, but little is or can be adapted for use in athletic sports ; an object that this COMMISSION keep steadily in view in their every plan and action. The tract of land below Endicott Street to which their attention has been invited and will, in due time, be closely directed, cannot be too large for public purposes, whether for play or parade. So too, with the level tract north of Shrewsbury Street, of such convenience and eligibility by reason of its location where inost wanted ; so well fitted to accommodate athlete and spectator in whatsoever multitude, upon the sides of its natural amphitheatre. Away beyond will be found LAKE PARK, as yet remote from crowded settlement, which however is drawing nigh with a rapidity where- of the casual visitor can form but an imperfect estimate. For now and hereafter; for the existing, pressing want, and the future imperative necessity ; for the multitudes who at present lack and for the countless throng that would, years hence, miss
* Instance the following cities.
Somerville,
29,992 28,084
Haverhill, Gloucester, Brockton, Newton, Malden,
21,795
Fitchburg, Waltham,
14,609
Holyoke,
27,894
21,713 20,783
Newburyport,
13,716
Chelsea,
25,709
19,759
Northampton,
12,896
Taunton,
23,654
16,407
15,375
Salem,
Worcester : Ward 3, 9,056, Ward 4, 8,101, Ward 5, 12,446,
AGGREGATE, 29,603.
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PARKS-COMMISSION.
the provision that was not timely made while there was yet open land and opportunity ; this PARKS-COMMISSION will continue to labor and convince. To labor with those who are slow of perception and yet more sluggish to act. To convince that still greater number to whom all sports are repugnant, or who have outgrown the capacity for their enjoyment; who find adequate exercise in their business pursuits and derive a solemn pleasure, once a week, from reckless indulgence in self-abasement and droning. For, are we not " all miserable sinners " !
The PARKS-COMMISSION, like the Black Douglas of old, would much " rather hear the lark sing than the mouse squeak !" And therefore it was,-that in searching for a spot whereon the people living at the North end of the City, who sympathize with them in that preference for the outer air, might be enabled to gratify such taste in perpetuity ; their gaze could not well help being riveted, as it were, to the tract of land lying along and between Burncoat, Lincoln, and Melrose, Streets. Yet here again comes up the facile and fluent objection, which challenges as wasteful every proposition to expend the public cash, or credit, that does not yield a quick, palpable return in dollars and cents ; whose dull contention is, that there are ample lots attached to the houses throughout the Northern portion of the City ; that there are numerous gardens attesting to the good sense and taste of the local population ; that settlement is not very dense and that there is room for expansion in any direction. Quite true, oh Midas ! whose wish is that everything should be converted into gold. But forget not that he who sought to gain the whole world lost his own soul ! You can, doubtless, obtain a fine farm and pleasant home, within the limits of the Second (2d) Ward, before you will over-run the Town-lines of Holden or West Boyl- ston. But all who dwell in Ward Two (2) are not farmers, could not be successful ones if they wished ever so much, and should not be encouraged to try the wild experiment. The PARKS-COM- MISSION are eminently practical. Their aim and effort,-it cannot be too forcibly stated; nor too often repeated ; is to provide ample and suitable Parks and Play-Grounds, in a circuit of the
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entire City, which shall meet the immediate requirements of a large population, at present ; anticipating a demand that must soon become imperative, before it shall be too late, or impossible to satisfy it. How many of our fellow-citizens have spared the time, or forced leisure, to observe the remarkable growth of Worcester in and around Adams Square ? To the writer, it has been a source of wonder for the last three years ; and each week of mild weather seems to bring a new development of enter- prise. How many of those who pride themselves upon their familiarity with municipal affairs, pause to consider that there were, by the State Census of 1885, Ten Thousand Six Hundred and Ninety-Two (10,692) inhabitants in Ward Two (2) or reflect that the growth of that Ward has been continuous and even more marked, since. Where are they ? if not this side of the Burncoat tract,-which however they are fast surrounding and upon which, if the City is unequal to the emergency, they will speedily encroach. The true and proper time to get a piece of land that you are certain to want, is when you can ! and not after it has passed from your reach, forever.
Of that tract at Adams Square, consisting of some Seventeen (17) acres, it may be declared with equal confidence as of the one so similar, below Endicott Street, to which the City Council appears partial, that it presents, even now, the advantage of being fit to use almost at once, after a comparatively slight outlay ; and with the ample and prompt return from an inconsiderable expen- diture, of a complete public ground which shall combine, in one and the same area, a sightly knoll, space for games, and room for their enjoyment by people who ask only the provision of clean ground and fresh air and then,-to be let alone.
Morever the tract along Burncoat is in close proximity to North Pond, supplying the prospect and contiguity of a Water or Ice surface as the exuberance of spirits, in that section of the City, may require the test of muscle and endurance by canoe or toboggan. Whenever the representatives from the 1st and 2d Wards, in the City Council, shall manifest the grit of a dying rooster, PARK AVENUE will be extended, so as to connect hill and dale ; swinging around at Barber's and the Dodge Ranche and
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PARKS-COMMISSION.
descending, by Melrose, and Lincoln Streets, to its junction with LAKE AVENUE, for leave to continue which Northerly the City Council has but just authorized a petition to the General Court. It is astonishing that two Wards, whose interests are so much in unison, should have suffered the natural barrier between them to endure so long, unsurmounted. Even Wards Five, and Six, have contrived some points and ways of mutual approach and contact. But, One, and Two, go along in parallel lines, when they should go across ; they avoid each other from compulsion, when they ought to meet, from choice ; they travel miles, where it might better be but rods. Either they do not know, or will not see, wherein their condition of isolation could be altered or wholly done away. Their Aldermen and Councilmen can get to the City Hall by the aboriginal chute. Why seek to save hours and miles over some new-fangled route that has not had time to become hide-bound or moss-grown ! Why insist upon thrusting Park Avenue across lots, from Barber's to Burncoat at the base of Bigelow Hill, a couple of hundred rods or so, when you can waste the whole forenoon driving around by the Five Points or Lincoln Square! The man who urges the cut-off gets leave to withdraw,-for, is he not obviously in advance of his generation ? And so it happens that opportunity is neglected, the people who are alive to it vainly fretting their energies against insuperable obstacles ; and the section of the City that failed to master the occasion sinks back in a confessed and helpless inferiority to a more aggressive and wiser vicinage. Therefore is it that Third Mortgages on land one and a half miles south from the City Hall are negotiable ; while a ton or so of hay to the acre is the hard- carned increment for pocket-books at a less distance, North- wardly, from that classic edifice.
When looking around, to discover what would be for the best, permanent advantage of the City, in the matter of a suitable and complete provision of Parks and Play-Grounds, NEWTON HILL could not escape attention. There are persons who seem to be cursed with a species of ocular introversion ; to whose dis- eased vision nothing can possibly appear conducive to the public benefit that shall not chiefly enure to their own. The beauties of
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CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 41.
Lake Quinsigamond are conspicuous and have been set forth for seventeen (17) years, in these Reports. But Lake Quinsigamond is not Worcester ! which stretches far and wide for miles from that its fair Eastern extremity. Because the wild Indian once raised hair by that sheet of water, it is not imperative that his assigns should flay the popular hide, as it were, in aboriginal suc- cession. A dispassionate observer will survey the situation calmly ; will frame, at least in outline, a plan comprehensive enough to embrace all imaginable, yet legitimate needs, and, at the same time, sufficiently elastic to admit of amendments : nor will weary, amid lukewarmness or hostility, in its advocacy, in and out of season, upon every occasion. Iteration and re-itera- tion ;- by these only is public opinion impressed, influenced, and persuaded to a logical and proper conclusion.
Few appreciate fully the territorial extent of Worcester. Few "to the manner (manor ?) born ": then how much less the number of those who have enriched the City by their voluntary accession and settlement ! You walk up and down Main Street, as you may for miles. You know of Pine Meadow,-an honest, descriptive old title whereof there is a snobbish shame, but whereto the value inherent in Pinus Strobus,-the most precious of our native woods, attaches by prescription. You may have heard of Adams and Webster Squares; but your affairs never called you to them and you therefore credited your informants, taking those localities for granted. But yet suppose that you subject a faithful map of Worcester, A. D. 1887, to the test of a trial scale,-East and West; North and South, laying down a straight edge from Auburn Gore to where the Southerly corners of Holden and West Boylston come together ! Transfer it S. E. by N. W., from Grafton to Paxton! and, in either case, what result do you find? What else than that sightly, symmetrical Hill; inevitable at either point of intersection, up-rearing itself the hub of our entire territory,-the geographical pivot of this our thrifty City of Worcester. They ridiculed Park Avenue, once, and pronounced Hadwen and Lincoln crazy. That laugh is but little more than a smile now, nor even that so pronounced as after May 1st; while the lunatics are rather more on the
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PARKS-COMMISSION.
other side of the town. The same straight edge, laid down from Webster Square to Northville subtends the arc and comes in con- tact, at its meridian with the base line of Newton Hill. But what does all that prove ? cry the Brakemen of Occasion : the temporizers when opportunity is suddenly presented. Are not the crowds,-the multitude,-oi polloi,-on our side ; and should not and will not the City, in spite of your geography, continue lop-sided, henceforth and forever? Not much, oh unilateral fellow-citizens! A. D. 1870, the present writer as Chairman of the COMMISSION OF PUBLIC GROUNDS, in his first Annual Report, gave official expression to the subjoined :-
" The broad Boulevards that encircle the fair city upon the banks of the Seine, contribute largely to the facilities of intercourse and traffic. A similar. AVENUE, encompassing our own Worcester, would contribute more to the development of the whole City, in the judgment of this Commission, than any other project that has been devised or consummated for years. The farm takes precedence of the shop; and yet, while no sum can be too great to lavisli upon the intricate network of alleys, courts and streets which separate the centre and heart of the Municipality into infinitesimal subdivisions, every dollar is grudged that is required to promote the convenience of those with- out whose toil man could not live. The farm and its produce are indispen- sable; the middleman and his store are not absolute necessities. Whatever, then, has a tendency to open up the surrounding country; to develop its natural charms; and to encourage settlement and cultivation where now the bramble and the woodchuck hold undisputed possession; substituting smooth lawns, neat gardens, and improved stock ; inducing the street loafer to become the independent yeoman, and attracting, by the simple aspect of rural loveli- ness the permanent sojourn of the chance wayfarer; surely here, and in all this, is an object worth striving for, worth far more, in fact, than even cur- rent extravagance could possibly make it cost in realization. With such an Avenue constructed, there would be an amount of intercommunication of the extremities of the city, as of the outlying but adjacent towns, that would astonish those whose ocular mote is Main Street. That great artery of busi- ness would be relieved of much needless yet serious incumbrance : a relief which, attempted in season, can be both cheaply and prudently afforded. As it is now, from Holden to Leicester, from Paxton to Shrewsbury, everything must pass through our one great thoroughfare, wearing out our pavements, impeding our local traffic, laming beasts used for traction and scaring into disease animals destined for consumption. All these annoyances and evils would be obviated, all those benefits and more would be derived, from the construction of the Avenue suggested. So broad as to admit of adequate and grateful shade to ample footpaths; so thoroughly built as to be proof alike against autumnal frost or vernal flood; a convenience for the loaded team and an attraction for the pleasure carriage; wooing occupation of
21
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CITY DOCUMENT .- No. 41.
hundreds of charming dells and nooks by its ruthless exposure of rustic beauty, thereby benefiting individuals and augmenting the general valuation; a measure which commends itself in proportion as it is considered : one which this Commission will advocate in season and out of season, living or dying, in the hope and faith of its ultimate consummation."
And that faith, thanks chiefly to the broad and sagacious public spirit of George R. Spurr and George P. Kendrick, has been largely justified of its prophecy.
Such is the configuration of the land in Wards One, Eight, and Seven (1, 7, 8), that they must, from the irreversible law of nature, depend for their pleasure-ground upon ELM PARK and NEWTON HILL. The whole western acclivity of that sharp ridge, by which the city is naturally divided, has become densely clus- tered with houses. Park Avenue, throughout its entire extent, is filling up so rapidly with comfortable dwellings, that shortly the wonder will be,-upon what spot can any more be crowded ? And therefore it is,-having eyes and seeing; and seeing, being able to understand ;- that the PARKS-COMMISSION strive so earnestly to impress upon their fellow-citizens how absolute is the necessity for obtaining possession of suitable tracts of land for Parks and Play-Grounds, while the territory can be found Westerly, as to South, East, and North, unoccupied and unim- proved. The clamor for a higher valuation upon the cow· pasture and sheep tracks, will avail, as well, to enhance the price that must be paid by the City. As elsewhere and heretofore urged, the time to acquire Parks and Play-Grounds is as soon as you apprehend the necessity for them; realize that you have them not; and estimate duly the importance of taking advantage of a favorable market. A good beginning has been made. Must we therefore crawl along at a snail-pace ? paying all the bills our- selves, in this our day and generation, but transferring the en- joyment to others as an uncharged legacy !
Pay as you go! enjoins a wise policy that is approved by the PARKS-COMMISSION, but to the exclusive and invidious application of which, in this matter of a timely provision of proper Parks and Play-Grounds the argument as to its expediency or sound- ness may well be challenged. In what other department of municipal administration, involving a permanent investment, is
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it pretended that the debt for Purchase or Construction must be discharged the precise year that it was contracted ! Surely not in the case of an adequate water supply, for which, obligated throughout a series of years past, a considerable portion of our Bonds are now running. Nor, assuredly, in the instance of Sewerage; which fragrant burden is so largely responsible for the amount of our "Funded Debt prior to 1876." In acquiring land for Parks,-thereby providing sufficiently for a generation to come,-there can be no valid reason adduced why that genera- tion should not put at least one shoulder to the wheel and partially help move the load. Assume that it would cost One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000), not reckoning the land of the Commonwealth on Chandler Hill and Shrewsbury Street, to do what ought to be done; and what double that sum would fail to accomplish, a short time hence, even if the very land will stay unencumbered; may not the saving from an advance in price, badgered and hounded on as the Assessors are, and are likely to be (human nature continuing the same), more than off- set any possible expenditure for interest ? An annual payment of Twenty Thousand Dollars ($20,000) would extinguish every obligation in the short course of Five (5) years. Meanwhile the people, for whose enjoyment and use, in perpetuity, the various tracts were purchased, would have such use and enjoyment during their own existence,-brief, at best; have it as of their own especial property, by no one's sufferance ; and without other restriction than what might be essential for due care and conduct. Procrastination is a thief of something more than time, which .can scarcely be termed our own. For it leaves undone that which ought to be done; renders us the victims of weak minds and more infirm purposes ; and having robbed us of all that we might have enjoyed, through chronic irresolution, when only a little energy was required for its possession ; degrades and stints man to a bare and barren existence,-his last state worse than his first !
More than half a generation has elapsed, and of those, keen of wit as prompt in action, whose old-time prescience Worcester now tardily and shamefacedly admits, few survive. Chamberlin,
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ever apt to perceive and quick to decide, when anything promised to enure to the public welfare, is, happily, yet with us. Kendrick can be found, when the self-seekers disperse : but Verry and Spurr have gone on, to blaze out newer Avenues of rare celestial material, whereon foot-falls sound softly and hoofs are not hammered out. When Park Avenue was finally decreed, its location might have been described as about equally divided between brush, sand-barren, swamp, and wilderness; the distinction at the time, being hardly worth differentiation. What is the present outlook, -and what is the return, now, by the Assessors ? This last can be ascertained by the curious, upon simple inquiry. But he who drives out, on Sunday, after the dinner that has clinched a hard-shell sermon, will require the fingers of both hands to keep tally of new batters ; and even, likelier than not, will have over- looked the development of a later Jerseyville,-the matured product from " Maximum !" Trending westerly, by hill and vale, why should not settlement overlap and reach out, until it meets and clasps in a close embrace the tentacles putting forth from the Chamberlain District ! When the men of that section arouse from their lethargy ; realize that a saving of time may be money in their pockets, and that distance can be obviated where not annihilated ; then June Street will be opened from the Sears Homestead to Chandler Street and miles of needless travel spared to the juror, or witness, from the country ; or to the doctor who. hurries to elongate the chain of voters by the addition of a living link.
The People of Worcester have shown, repeatedly, that they are tired of this interminable delay and are ready for decisive action. By their vote of 5,094: Yea, to 181 : Nay, they called this PARKS COMMISSION into existence. For that emphatic expres- sion, at the polls, there was absolutely no other reason than that the people were determined upon something being actually done; were weary of continually importuning the General Court for leave to act and sick of seeing such license, when ob- tained, suffered to lapse from non-user. Acts almost without number were secured, empowering Worcester to take Newton Hill for the purposes of a Park, and Reservoir. Yet,
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just when that authority would have been of use and, in the opin- ion of our excellent Engineer, most desirable, it was found that the talent had been buried ! - whether in engrossed parchment no record existing to disclose. But such was simply civic death ; -- or, more mildly, - official inertia. The breath of life was still vigorous beneath the popular ribs, animating and inciting to public movement. And therefore and therefrom, that remarka- ble Petition from Stephen Salisbury, David Whitcomb, Samuel Winslow and Jonas G. Clark ; that other from Richard O'Flynn and associates ; as also from E. Harlow Russell, Philip L. Moen, Clark Jillson, and others; all deprecating further delay ; all begging earnestly that positive steps be taken in advance; and each and all concurring in one common sentiment that the period for action was fixed when public opinion was so harmonious. Malingerers or sceptics may contest that these gentlemen did not know their own minds, nor realize what they were sign- ing ! Will they then consent, for themselves, to meet the Peti- tioners in a Town-Meeting, under the reservation in the Charter ; and to test the avail and benefit of which the Chairman of the PARKS-COMMISSION has been, for long, almost irresistibly tempted ?
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