USA > New Jersey > Essex County > The first county park system : a complete history of the inception and development of the Essex County parks of New Jersey > Part 11
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PETITION FROM EAST ORANGE.
"On December 16, 1895, a committee represented by Messrs. George W. Bramhall, Frank H. Scott and William S. Macy also urged favorable consideration, as did the same committee again on February 10 following. On March 2 a petition signed by every member of the East Orange Township Committee and by 160 representative citizens of East Orange was received. This communication referred to the proposed park as "particularly desirable," and as "not opposing in the slightest degree the proposed plan of a speedway north and south in East Orange," adding that, "although the larger part of this land lies in Orange, it is nevertheless as convenient to East Orange residents as to those in Orange."
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"We also advocate," said this petition, "the control by the Park Commission of Central avenue as a parkway, it being one of the most important avenues in the county and the most direct route from the center of Newark to the Orange Mountains."
At this time the citizens' committee had offered to make liberal donations in cash or land, or both if necessary, to secure the park which all desired. I moved that the propo- sition as proposed by Frank H. Scott, chairman of the local committee, be accepted; that the architects and engineers prepare an official map, and that "a separate map of a con- necting parkway along, or adjacent to, Mosswood avenue, from Warwick avenue via Tremont avenue to the triangle tract," be included. The resolution was objected to, and the following substitute, as drawn by Commissioner Murphy, finally agreed upon :
"Resolved, That if the parties interested in the Triangle Park in Orange present a proposition to the commission sat- isfactory to it as to quantity of land, and involving an ex- penditure for land by the commission not to exceed $100,000, the commission would act upon it favorably."
Just where the adoption of this resolution left the propo- sition for assistance which had been made by the citizens' committee, I was puzzled at the time to know how they, or we, were going to find out. It was at this time considered very doubtful if the land could be acquired for that amount, in which event the resolution would defeat the project. The real crux of this situation lay in the fact that J. Everett Reynolds owned about sixteen acres of the land which it would be necessary to acquire for the park, and at what price he would be willing to sell this land, no one in, or out, of the commission had thus far been able to ascertain.
The city of Orange had built a large and costly storm- water sewer as far south as Central avenue. Mr. Reynolds, as a heavy taxpayer, and others, had been most urgent in petitioning the city to extend that line through his prop- erty, situated just south of the avenue. This extension would drain his and other acreage property there, and im-
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mediately place all the land within the proposed site, on the "city lot" basis. The extension had been deferred, pending the decision of the Park Commission. If a park, then no sewer extension. If no park, the extension would be promptly built. With this see-saw of possibilities, the un- certainty continued for months. Mr. Reynolds would not fix a price. The commission decided, owing to the opposi- tion referred to, that it would not undertake to acquire his property unless it could be secured by purchase. The local committee did not know what proposition might, or might not, be "to the commission satisfactory"-and thus the in- creasing doubt continued, to the advantage of the opposi- tion, though not to the discouragement of those favoring the park.
At last the uncertainty culminated. The Orange Com- mon Council arrived at an understanding with the triangle property owners that, if on December 7, there should have been no decision by the Park Commission regarding the park, proceedings to extend the storm-water sewer would then be taken. The public agitation continued, more gen- erally and more earnestly than before. All the newspapers favored the proposition. There was not a dissenting voice- outside the Park Commission. The citizens' committee and the local authorities were becoming impatient at the delay. Finally, on December 7, 1896, Mr. Reynolds was invited to attend the Park Board meeting on that day. He was pres- ent. For nearly an hour we endeavored to ascertain his price. These efforts were without success. It was then after 6 o'clock. The Common Council was to meet that evening. With the passage of a resolution to extend the storm-sewer, there would be no triangle park.
OUTLOOK BRIGHTENS.
By one of those peculiar decrees of fate, when, at the last moment, the tide seems irrevocably set in an adverse direc- tion and is as abruptly changed, so in this instance a single incident completely altered the drift of events.
"Mr. Shepard," I asked, "what, in your judgment, would
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be a fair price for Mr. Reynolds' holdings there in the tri- angle-one which the commission would be justified in pay- ing him by purchase?" After a moment's reflection, he replied, "Twenty thousand dollars."
"Gentlemen,' I said, "will you entrust me to negotiate with Mr. Reynolds before the council meeting to-night, and close with him for his land at the limit which Mr. Shepard has stated he thinks a fair price ?"
We were all tired and anxious to get away. I think no one believed, and I was myself in grave doubt, as to whether any practical result would materialize from the proposition which I had made for the purchase. I have always under- stood that a like impression was in the minds of the other commissioners. But this resolution went through : "Moved, that the counsel and Mr. Kelsey be authorized to offer Mr. Reynolds not to exceed $20,000 for such of his property as the commission desires, and if he (Reynolds) signs an option to that effect they are authorized to state to the Common Council of Orange that the park commission ex- pects to locate a park in the triangle bounded by Central avenue, Center and Harrison streets, Orange."
It was then nearly 7 o'clock. The council was to meet at 8 o'clock. Mr. Shepard conveyed the word to Mr. Rey- nolds to meet me at the council chamber at 7:45 o'clock. Before that hour I was in a coupé by the entrance there. Mr. Reynolds soon came along and stepped into the carriage as requested. I cannot now recall all of the conversation. It is not important here.
PURCHASE OF LAND.
We were in the carriage together perhaps a half hour. We then entered the council chamber together. The meet- ing was in session. F. H. Scott and others of the friends of the parks were anxiously waiting.
"Mr. Scott," I said, "I have just closed the purchase on behalf of the Park Commission of all Mr. Reynolds' land in the triangle for $17,500 and you may announce to the council that there is to be a triangle park."
THE DRIVEWAY, ORANGE PARK.
ء
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Mr. Scott soon got the floor and made the announcement, which was loudly applauded by those present, even by some of the aldermen.
Early the next morning Mr. Shepard came to my office. Mr. Reynolds had already advised him of the result of our negotiations the evening previous. For eighteen months or more, both officially and personally, he had opposed the proposition for a triangle park with apparently all the re- source he could command, and with a persistence against an emphatic public sentiment and the expressed wish of his own immediate constituency which challenged my admiration.
On the morning in question, however, in a gracious and agreeable manner he said : "Well, now that we are to have a park in Orange, let's go right ahead with it." The senti- ment was accepted in the same spirit in which it was ten- dered, and from that time the acquirement and development of the park went smoothly forward. Mr. Reynolds soon received the $17,500-the agreed price-instead of the au- thorized price, $20,000. A direct saving of $2,500 was thus effected. The citizens' committee proceeded to collect their subscriptions for the park and turned over to the commis- sion for that purpose in cash, as before stated, $17,275.
Commissioner Murphy's attitude, after the purchase was closed with Mr. Reynolds, was quite in contrast to that of Mr. Shepard. At the meeting of December 14, Mr. Murphy sent an official letter to the board "formally protesting against the purchase of property for the said triangle park · until the sum promised by neighborhood owners shall have been received." On my motion Mr. Shepard was appointed "a committee of one to reply."
When, later, the official map of the park had been pre- pared and was signed by the other four commissioners, Mr. Murphy declined to attach his signature, and it thus re- mained for a long time unsigned by him.
Commissioners Peck and Meeker were all along favorably disposed toward the park, but when the decided opposition referred to developed in the early part of 1895, they were
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inclined to let Mr. Shepard and myself, as more directly familiar with the local situation, "get together" first. This, after months of earnest effort, it was found impossible to do; Commissioner Shepard repeatedly declining to accom- pany me in looking over the proposed site.
The announcement of the final decision favorable to the triangle park was everywhere most cordially received. All the Newark newspapers, and others in the county, contained commendatory references to the action. The Call of De- cember 13, 1896, referred to the decision as one that will be hailed with delight, and added: "It is within the scope of the commission to make this park one of the garden spots of the county." A prediction that has been amply verified by results since.
In 1898, largely through the interest of Commissioner Bramhall, who had succeeded me as a member of the Park Board in April, 1897, the lines of the park were extended on the Central avenue side about 700 feet, and resulted in making the park, together with the finishing improvements inaugurated at that time, what it has since frequently been called, "The gem of the Essex County park system." The transition from the former swail and swamp conditions there, to those of a completed park of unexcelled attract- iveness, was as rapid as the effects, to the public were gratifying. The low swamp portion of the tract is now a beautiful English park-like meadow. The attractions are greatly accentuated by the small lake of about one and a half acres, and the beautiful specimens and groups of well developed trees. The effective shrubbery borders, and rising slopes on each side of the park, make an appropriate frame to one of the most attractive and restful landscape pictures that have resulted from modern park-making. The total cost for the forty-eight acres of land and buildings, with the expensive additions of 1898 included, has been $185,213, and for all improvements about $115,000.
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CHAPTER IX.
MORE BONDS AND "HIGH FINANCE."
With the many and extended land acquirements by the Park Commission during the latter part of 1896, and with some of the single purchases running into the thousands, money went fast. In February, 1896, a requisition was made on the Board of Freeholders for the remaining $1,500,000 of the authorized $2,500,- 000 appropriation. By June 1, 1906, the commit- ments and assumed obligations were nearly a million of dollars. Bids were advertised for and received for the new additional bond issue under the same plan and method as employed in the disposition of the first million of bonds the year previous. Of the bids opened June 16, there were four for the full amount, $1,500,000. The new York Life Insurance Company offered 104.08 and D. A. Moran & Co. 101.68 for four per cent. bonds; Franklin Savings Insti- tution, of Newark, in series of bonds at four per cent., 101.40 to 102, and J. & W. Seligman "10028" for a 3.65 interest issue-the same as the $1,000,000 of bonds awarded Vermilye & Co. in August, 1895. In comparing the bids, a controversy between the representatives arose over the omission of a period in the Seligman bid. This led to a series of triangular protests and an attempted withdrawal of some of the proposals; which, however, was not per- mitted. It was admitted by members of the Finance Com- mittee of the freeholders, in charge of the bond-letting, that the bid in question, and all the bids, had been made in good faith, and that the meaning and intent of the "10028," minus the period, was "perfectly clear." It was there stated that the Seligman bid was "upward of $20,000 better than that of the New York Life," and that "the four per cent.
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bonds, on a 3.65 basis, are worth 1064,"-a statement the correctness of which was not challenged or denied. A lively discussion ensued.
The Finance Committee later retired and went into executive session. The bonds were there in secret awarded to the New York Life Insurance Company. The reasons for this action, as then given out for publication by Counsel Munn, were that, as the Park Commission might not want all the money "for five or six months," the interest account would be quite an item, which would not result from the acceptance of the Seligman offer ; and that the bid accepted would, out of the $1,572,900 proceeds, allow the $72,900 premium to go to the sinking fund, for the subsequent re- demption of these same bonds. This disposition of the premium received was soon afterward made.
An interesting incident in sequence of the action of the Finance Committee occurred in the payment for the bonds. Although the award was formally made to the life insurance company, the certified check received a few days later in payment for the bonds, bore the signature of J. & W. Seligman.
After the requisition referred to had been made, the Park Commission took no farther formal or official action regard- ing this issue. Treasurer Murphy had a few weeks before been appointed one of the sinking fund commissioners of the Board of Freeholders, and as both he and Counsel Munn were at that time "close to" that board, the individual mem- bers of the Park Board did not deem it consistent to take up the subject farther than to express their convictions in an informal way as opportunity presented. This I did, both at the Park Board rooms and in conversations with the president, treasurer and counsel.
BOND SALE RECOMMENDED.
On May 1, 1896, I wrote Counsel Munn as follows :
"Personally, I have for some time had the feeling that if handled rightly the remaining issue of bonds can be placed
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during the coming 'dull season'-say June to August-at the same rate, 3.65, as before ; and private sale, in my judg- ment, is the best way to accomplish the most favorable results.
"You recollect Mr. Morgan told me he would take the whole two and a half millions at private sale, but he would not go into competition for an issue of that size.
"There has been no perceptible change in the underlying conditions as to rates of interest in the moneyed centres. English consols touched the highest price last week they have ever sold for. The demand for high-class bonds was shown the other day, when Brooklyn's million and a quarter loan, 3.50 bonds, were bid for two or three times over above par.
"All there is in making a good sale of bonds now is, first, a good bond ; second, the right method of handling it."
I was free to confess then, as since, my inability to grasp even the possibility of advantage to the taxpayers of Essex County from the proposition for them to pay in $5,250 extra every year for thirty years (the average life of the bonds) in interest, for the privilege of having a sinking fund of $72,900 in the hands and under the control of the sinking fund commissioners of the Board of Freeholders, instead of the $5,250 each year being saved and retained in their (the taxpayers) own pockets. That the bonds of a 3.65 interest rate were then saleable "at not less than par," as provided in the park charter, was manifestly shown by the Messrs. Seligmans' bid of 100.28 for the whole $1,500,000 issue.
"MODERN HIGH FINANCE."
What the actual loss to the people of Essex County by the issuance of those bonds at four per cent. and the addi- tional $2,500,000 of bonds since issued for the parks at that rate instead of at the 3.65 rate, as with the first million issued, may, I think, be properly left to the future and for
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the public to determine. From present indications, it will not be long before the question of detriment to the public at large, from the methods of modern high finance, and the concentration of large sums of other people's money in the hands of a few men to control, will be readily understood and the false principle upon which the operations are based generally appreciated and measured at their true worth.
At the close of 1896, within fifteen months after the re- ceipt of $2,450,000, the commission found that its financial limit had been practically reached. The results of the policy of individual selection of the parks, rather than that of a careful prior study of the requirements for the park system as a whole had, in this comparatively brief time, fully materialized. Although the balance sheet of Decem- ber 31, 1896, showed a cash balance on hand or $1,209,559, the outstanding obligations for land and other liabilities and contracts were then sufficient to absorb all but a rela- tively small portion of this unexpended sum. At the board meeting of December 2 the landscape architects and engi- neers submitted, under a resolution of September 17, 1896, a "general plan of the system of county parks and park- ways," including a formal estimate of the cost of the parks already determined upon. These estimates were made after consultation with the land agents and other employes of the department, who were then in charge of the various phases of the work. This estimate was as follows:
Estimated cost for land at various parks :
Branch Brook $1,076,000
Lake Wcequahic 180,000
Eastern (East Side) 125,000
Eagle Rock 227,000
Millburn (South Mountain) 250,000
Orange Triangle 100,000
*South Orange Park 25,000
*This item of $25,000 was for park or parkway lands out in South Orange, on or near Grove road; formal action regard- ing which had not then, and has not since, been taken.
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West Newark (West Side) 75,000
Total $2,058,000
Approximate estimates of park improvements suggested for early construction :
Branch Brook improvements from Sussex avenue to Old Bloomfield road
$350,000
East Side Park. 40,000
Weequahic Park 25,000
Eagle Rock Reservation 25,000
Triangle Park, Orange 25,000
West Newark Parks.
25,000
Total
$490,000
As will be seen from these figures, they represented a total actual and estimated expenditure of $2,548,000, from an appropriation made but the year previous "for a system of parks in its entirety" of $2,500,000. This, notwithstand- ing the conservative estimates for the cost of the remaining land yet unacquired in the different parks, and the ex- tremely limited amounts noted for improvements in those parks, other than in Branch Brook, where contracts were made and improvement work was already well under way.
THE FINANCIAL SITUATION.
Although the subject of the impending dificiency was not referred to in the first official report of the commission for 1896, issued early in 1897, it became well understood in the park board room that there would be no object in longer "executive sessioning" the fact from the public. As Com- missioner Franklin Murphy had been the most active and outspoken exponent of the sectional policy adopted in ac- quiring the various parks, he was delegated by his colleagues to convey in his own way the financial situation in the board's affairs to the public. This was done, and I think the first inthein the people had of that matter was ob-
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tained through a published interview given out by Mr. Murphy January 5, 1897. It was there stated that "unless additional appropriations be made for park purposes in the future, the system of public pleasure grounds and county boulevards outlined in a general way by the Essex County Park Commission will not be completed," and "that the commissioners do not expect to turn all the property pur- chased into finished parks with the $2,500,000 that was placed at their disposal for the purpose." Mr. Murphy further said : "The board has no right to suppose that addi- tional money will be furnished. On the other hand, it has no reason to think that additional appropriations won't be made. * The commission feels bound to give the county certain completed parks for the money it has been given, to satisfy the people, and this no doubt will be done."
"The conditions as to the Orange Park," he said, "are in the air. Yes, we did agree to purchase the land, but there were certain conditions that-oh, well, I can't tell you now. * We cannot arrange for maintenance before we have something to maintain. That question has not been considered yet."
As a part of the same interview, Counsel Munn, the same morning, was reported as having said: "The plans of the commission have not been laid out on the theory that there will be additional legislation."
APPOINTIVE OR ELECTIVE PARK COMMISSIONS.
These announcements were evidently something of a sur- prise to the public. The time had run by so quickly since the appointment of the commission, only about twenty months before, that many, even among the friends of the park movement, hardly realized that the work of the com- mission was by that time well begun. The public utter- ances, for the most part, were not favorable. Mayor Sey- mour made a severe arraignment of the commission, and of the appointive system of legislation under which it was created. This law, providing for an appointive board, he de- clared, in a written statement a few days prior to the an-
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nouncement of the Park Commission shortage, "should be amended." This method of appointment, he said, "is wrong and opposed to the popular notions of self-government."
"Under certain contingencies," he wrote, "it might re- move the power of selection entirely from an officer of Essex County and place it with an official residing in some dis- tant part of the State. This might occur in the event of the selection of a Park Commission being made during a vacancy in the Supreme Court in this county. Officers of such importance should be chosen by the people. A public board making such large demands upon the taxable prop- erty of the community should be in closer touch with the people of the community. According to the highest concep- tions of popular government, that closer touch is to be had only through the medium of the ballot-box. The law should be changed and the Park Commissioners be compelled to take their chances before the community."
These forcibly-expressed sentiments, published both in the leading New Jersey and New York papers almost con- currently with the park deficiency statements quoted, appar- ently touched a responsive chord with many people through- out Essex County. While the Mayor's presentment was merely an elaboration of the anti-appointive commission plank of the Democratic city platform, as before mentioned, its reception by the public was no doubt accentuated by the disappointment which the call for more funds to complete the parks occasioned. The claim was at once made by the partisan advocates of the appointive plan, that the attack of the Mayor and those favoring his side of the question was in reality naught but an incident in the play of politics, and an attempted flank movement by which the Democratic minority hoped to secure a "vantage" point with the people over their Republican opponents, who counted upon then having a safe working majority locally as well as in the Legislature.
Senator Ketcham came at once to the rescue, and in a published interview told of his surprise at the Mayor's state- ments. He explained the features of the park law he had
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so earnestly favored, and defended his support of that measure in the Legislature on the ground of expediency- as he considered the appointive Park Board under the ex- isting conditions far preferable to an elective commission.
MONSIGNOR DOANE'S VIEWS.
Monsignor G. H. Doane was also a zealous supporter of the Park Commission's cause. He, too, responded vigor- ously. While not touching in any way upon the political features of the controversy, his optimistic thought in favor of some of the things then accomplished toward the im- provement of Branch Brook Park was clearly expressed in a published letter January 9, 1897. In this letter, after re- ferring to the skating he had just witnessed in the park as being "Holland over again" and wishing he were "a boy once more," he added : "The promise of the beauty of the park is great, and the commissioners and engineers are showing great judgment, skill, knowledge and good taste."
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