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 9
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23
112
FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM
COMMISSION PAID CITY $20,000.
The city authorities, not wishing to delay work on the parks, had in the meantime, during the years 1896 and 1897, with reasonable promptness, taken proceedings to close · the necessary streets leading to each of the parks-Branch Brook, East Side, and West Side-as located within the city limits. But the questions referred to were not fully disposed of until the offer of the commission, agreed upon at the meeting November 16, 1898, was accepted. Under that proposition and the final settlement, the commission paid the city of Newark, through the Board of Street and Water Commissioners, $20,000, together with the privilege of constructing the city sewer through the park; and, in consideration of this, the latter board ceded to the commis- sion the two blocks of land-all the city then owned-in the Sussex avenue division of the park, between Duryee street, Orange street and the Morris Canal.
TURNING THE FIRST SOD.
The real work in grading, and for the surface embellish- ment of Branch Brook Park, was begun the morning of June 15, 1896. No special ceremony graced the occasion.
Three of the commissioners, Messrs. Peck, Meeker and myself, with the secretary and Engineer Bogart, were pres- ent. Promptly, at 8:30 o'clock, the president, with a new spade, turned the first sod. The contractors had a large force of men and teams ready, and, from that time, the work on this great pleasure ground went rapidly forward. Now that more than nine years have passed and more than $2,500,000 has been expended there, the work is hardly yet completed, and at the present rate of progress it may be another year before the bridge approaches and other improvements are finished.
When completed, this park of 278 acres will be one of the most attractive and interesting pleasure grounds of the size in the country. The topography is sufficiently varied to make practicable the different styles of landscape treatment em-
113
THE FIRST $1,000,000
ployed. The lawn tennis courts and comparatively open level surface of most of the northern division; the play fields and open lawn features of the middle division, bor- dered with raised and closely planted banks on each side; these are in pleasing contrast to the formal treatment-the Italian gardens, arbors, pergolas, bordered walks and other ornamental attractions of the southern division. The lake, with the connecting waterways under Park avenue and Bloomfield avenue, with the artistically beautiful bridges, carrying both avenues over the park driveways and water- ways, greatly enhance the other landscape features of this park. In winter the merry faces and gay costumes of thou- sands of happy skaters enliven the scene, and turn the somber effect of the winter season into a joyous moving panorama for all.
That the people of Essex County may derive increasing benefit and enjoyment from the very large expenditure for this park, must be the earnest wish and hopeful expectation of every one who is a sincere believer in parks, and whose sympathies are touched by the needs for that uplifting in- fluence to all classes, which only attractive public parks can supply.
3
1
CHAPTER VII.
PARK SITES CHOSEN.
As noted in a preceding chapter, the decision to locate a small park in the eastern and densely populous portion of Newark was made soon after the organization of the com- mission in 1895. This determination was the outgrowth of a sentiment within, rather than from any particular pressure brought to bear from without, the board rooms.
In like manner, the ownership of nearly all the property to the extent of 134 city lots being vested with one person, and all that property unbuilt upon, was an important factor in deciding the location. Indeed, no other site in that por- tion of the city was, I think, at the time under considera- tion. All the commissioners were agreed that if there was a particular place in the county where a park was especially needed it was in that section, and by November the land- scape architects and engineers were authorized to prepare a map for the park. The announcement of the location and the purchase of the O'Brien property soon afterward was well received.
The arrangement with the Newark Street and Water Board for closing the necessary streets was made at a con- ference with that board held at the commission's rooms, January 2, 1896. These city officials were also in favor of the park.
The press commended the action. One of the papers, on January 3, contended that "nothing the Essex County Park Commission had done will be received with more genuine satisfaction by a great population than the plan approved yesterday by the Park Board and Board of Works in joint session for a fourteen-acre park in the heart of the Iron-
114
115
PARK SITES CHOSEN
bound District." A similar sentiment was reflected by other editorial notes and published expressions of the opinions of many persons entirely outside the district immediately affected.
There was no adverse criticism that ever reached the com- mission until the board declined to extend the lines of the park as originally established. These objections were, how- ever, confined to those more directly interested, and evi- dently never got beyond the point of individual opinion. The lines of the park were at first located at the limits that it was desired should be placed in each direction. As soon as the requisite property outside of the O'Brien purchase could be acquired, the working plans were completed and the contracts, in August, 1896, were let for practically all the work for completing the park. This work, also undertaken by the Messrs. Shanley, was pushed rapidly forward and finally completed in 1897. It was the first of the county parks to be turned over in a finished condition for public use. The entire area was a level tract, and the landscape treatment, with trees on the borders, walks, lawn, etc, simi- lar to most city squares or parks of small acreage. The park contains a little more than twelve acres, and has cost upward of $160,000.
THE WEST SIDE PARK.
Although the decision to locate a park in the western por- tion of Newark was not in the order following that for the East Side, the conditions controlling the selection were so directly the reverse of those in the other case as to make the comparison of them quite apropos here. With the West Side situation, instead of the moving forces being from within the commission, they were-at least during the early stages of the discussion-wholly from without. The park experts to the first commission had not made any special recommendation for a park there, and none were included in the plans of that board, as it was believed that a park of creditable dimensions within the city limits there would in- Volve in proportion to its size too great cost. While other
116
FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM
possible or probable park sites were receiving attention dur- ing 1895, no suggestion had come before the new commis- sion favoring a "West Side" park, and not one of the com- missioners had advocated such a location.
This was the status of affairs when, on January 30, 1896, a letter from Mayor Lubkuecher was received. It called attention to the need of the "Hill section" of the city for a park and bespoke favorable consideration of the claims of the people in that vicinity. Active agitation toward press- ing those claims did not, however, begin until it became well known through the local associations in that district that the East Side park had become an established fact. Then the trouble began, and extended "all along the line."
If there was ever a public board literally bombarded with communications and delegations by which a strenuous con- stituency can bring pressure to bear toward favorable offi- cial action, it was the Essex County Park Commission, as the recipient object of that attack and siege during the year 1896.
First, on March 12, came a committee of citizens urging that a park was "a necessity.in the West End." This visit was followed two weeks later by a resolution from the New- ark City Council favoring the project for a park in the western part of the city. On the same day a committee rep- resenting the West End Improvement Association, includ- ing Mayor Lubkuecher, A. B. Twitchell, Commissioner Frederick Kuhn, of the Board of Works, E. G. Robertson, president of the association, and George H. Forman, made a forcible presentation of the subject before the commission. The speakers dwelt at length upon the imperative need of a park in proximity to the large public school there; they referred to the healthy location of the "Hill" district ; con- tended that there were "close upon 70,000 people in that western portion of the city, or nearly a third of the popula- tion of Newark;" and added that it was their belief "that ninety per cent. of the people of Essex County were op- posed to the Waverly Park site." They asked for a park "convenient to the population," such as the proposed site in
·
117
PARK SITES CHOSEN
the vicinity of Eleventh street, Seventeenth street, and from Sixteenth to Eighteenth avenue would provide.
DEMAND FOR PARK.
During April and May, 1896, four petitions, with aggre- gate lists of 1,717 names, were received; and during the summer various delegations of citizens and associations from that district attended the meetings of the commission, urging favorable action. On October 29, a request from the Newark Board of Works for a "conference" was received. This was arranged for November 9, when Commissioners Van Duyne, Stainsby, Burkhardt and Ulrich again urged favorable action, recommending a location "somewhere be- tween Springfield and South Orange avenues, west of South Tenth street and including the Magnolia swamp."
At the meeting on October 2, President Robertson, of the improvement association, and Messrs. Twitchell and Kuhn appeared and reiterated the claims of the West End Asso- ciation and the people of that district generally ; and later, during October and November, there were other delegations, including one from Irvington, on November 19. All urged that the locality favored should not be overlooked. How could it be? There was the commission, with petitions to the right of them and petitions to the left of them, while in front of them delegations had "vollied and thundered."
The board had been reminded that, by its own official ac- tion, it had established a precedent favorable to the West Side cause.
"You have located a park on the East Side," said the West Side people ; "why should you not now follow the same precedent for the same reasons for our side? We, too, have a large industrial population, and why not do something for us also ?"
WEST SIDE PARK.
Early in February, 1897, the commission having decided to locate a West Side park, the requisite maps were ordered and land options and purchases were authorized. At last it
118
FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM
was done, and the strenuous cohorts of the West End had won.
In December, 1896, the provisional estimate of cost for "a park on the West Side" was $75,000. One year later the cash disbursements for land and buildings there amounted to $172,234. This amount, however, covers about all that has been paid for land in that park. The improvements have now cost something over $100,000. The area is twenty- three acres. The varied topography has given opportunity for diversified landscape effects, with a small lake or pond feature, attractive stretches of turf, and effective tree and shrub plantations.
About $40,000 in value of the acquired land on the west side of the park, originally intended for a parkway, is still held in the name of the Fidelity Trust Company-the mat- ter of the parkway extension having been suspended-and has thus remained in statu quo for years.
EAGLE ROCK RESERVATION.
Since "ye olden time" and the days of Carteret, and of "East and West Jersey," Eagle Rock has been famed for its commanding views and attractive natural surroundings. For generations residents and sojourners in Essex and neighboring counties have made it a place of pilgrimage to enjoy the views, and the numbers have increased with the growth of population and the added facilities for reaching "the rock." Situated as this point is, on the bold precipi- tous cliff of the Orange Mountain, 600 feet above tide water, yet but a short air line distance from it, with Montclair, Bloomfield and the beautiful Llewellyn Park on the side of the mountain in the immediate foreground, and the Oranges, Newark, New York, and the hills of Staten Island in view beyond-what more fitting place could be selected for the first choice of the outlying parks than this.
It was, therefore, quite within the natural order of things that the Park Commission should turn its attention to the location of a park at this place as soon as the selection of park sites was taken up. Immediately after the Branch
-
*
ROAD IN EAGLE ROCK RESERVATION.
119
PARK SITES CHOSEN
Brook location and that of the East Side Park were dis- posed of, this was done. Each of the commissioners favored the proposition. The only points for determination, there- fore, were as to the lines of the park limits, and the acreage that should be included. The subject was under discussion during the summer and early part of the autumn of 1895, and on October 3 the architects and engineers were author- ized to prepare a map of the outlines that they would rec- ommend for a park, including Eagle Rock. A little later, H. D. Oliphant was appointed purchasing agent to look after land options and purchases within the established lines. These limits included a little more than 400 acres, extending along the mountain cliff something more than a mile north of Eagle Rock avenue, nearly to Upper Mont- clair, and about a mile westward; and besides Eagle Rock, containing many of the finest viewpoints in New Jersey. A road along the crest, since constructed, has opened up a great variety of beautiful views over the hills and valleys to the eastward, while from the western slopes the views of the surrounding section and of the Second Mountain beyond are unsurpassed.
MONTCLAIR DELEGATION HEARD.
While it was the intention of the commissioners to extend at the outset the limits of this park as far as it was deemed advisable to make them, a delegation of citizens from Mont- clair on January 20, 1896, urged that the northern limits might be still farther extended. The boundaries of the park remain to the present time substantially as finally agreed upon after a personal inspection by the members of the commission in 1896.
In November, 1895, the announcement that there was to be an Eagle Rock Park met with favorable response from the public. The press was cordial in its approval. All the' county papers commended the selection. Some of the New York papers were equally outspoken in the indorsement of the project. An editorial in the Newark News of Novem- ber 28; 1895; on "The New Park Sites," referred to it thus :
120
FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM
"Whatever other property the Essex County park commis- sioners may acquire, there is no question that they have acted wisely in securing Eagle Rock and the land about it. This is the show place of Essex County." On the same day The Daily Advertiser expressed this sentiment : "A county park system without Eagle Rock would be in the nature of an anomaly. That elevated point, overlooking an extensive and varied panorama of town, country and river, seems to have been destined by nature for a public breathing place." An editorial in the New York Press of November 27 stated that "the acquirement of the far-famed Eagle Rock the other day for park purposes was a great thing for the peo- ple. From this giant knoll the homes of tens of thousands of New Jersey's citizens can be plainly seen, and it is de- clared that it looks upon more homes and varied industries than any other natural elevation in the world."
And The Orange Chronicle of November 30 thus referred to the acquirement : "A more suitable or a more beautiful site for a park could not possibly be found. There is double reason for rejoicing at the announcement just made."
With the exception of opening roads through this reser- vation, some thinning of the natural growths and clearing in places the cast brow of the cliff so as to open unobstructed views, little has been done in the way of improvement of this beautifully situated and densely wooded reservation, and it yet remains largely in the primitive state as of years gone by-a place to delight an Emerson, a Thoreau, or a Ruskin, and to charm any lover of nature who revels in her rugged and unintruded haunts.
The estimated cost of this park in January, 1896, was for land acquirement, $202,775. The actual disbursements by January, 1901, were for land and buildings, $243,563. Up to the present time the total cost of the park, including the 413 acres of land, and the improvements, has been about $300,000.
A FINE PARK SITE NOT CHOSEN.
During the tours of inspection of the Orange Mountain by the first, commission, in 1894, perhaps no one observation
121
PARK SITES CHOSEN
had more favorably impressed the members than had the plans and the forethought of Llewellyn Haskel in his scheme for the county boulevards extending from Newark to the mountain crest; these avenues in turn to be con- nected by a crest boulevard along the top of the First Moun- tain. In the study as to how this idea could be utilized in the park scheme then under consideration, it was practically agreed that the plans for the park system should embody this feature of a mountain boulevard, at least from the pro- posed Eagle Rock Reservation, south as far as the Walker road or South Orange avenue, a distance of two or three miles.
It was intended that this crest boulevard should be one of the great features of the park and parkway system, with its beautiful vistas and commanding views opening from the crest along the edge of the cliffs ; then diverging back where extensive improvements existed, giving the western slopes and view of the mountain beyond ; and then emerging again to the great view stretching out from the cliff itself-and by these changes enhancing the beauty of the whole. Also that Central avenue should be continued up the mountain after the Swiss Mountain road,plan, winding or "zigzaging" up the mountain side at an easy grade, up which horses or vehicles might proceed at a fair rate of speed.
The object in extending the line, at least as far as the points indicated, was to make this intended mountain park- way at the apex of the park system topography accessible and convenient to the mass of people of the county. With the location and construction of this parkway there would be, from the base of the mountain below, an almost un- broken area of the compactly built up portion of the county from that line direct to the Passaic River. For like reason it was deemed in every way desirable that a park location of suitable. size should be selected on and back of the crest, somewhere between the Northfield road and some point south of the terminus of the mountain cable road. In this way not only would the crest boulevard become a most at- tractive and convenient central feature of the park system,
-
FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM
122
but a park at this point would, like Eagle Rock Park as a terminus at the north, greatly accentuate the attractions, not only of that crest parkway and the approaching park- ways, as proposed from the east, but of each of the parks as well.
Moreover, this site would make a direct and convenient park and parkway entrance to the Great South Mountain Reservation, which the members of the first commission had from their earlier investigations also favored.
In August, 1895, this subject was brought regularly be- fore the board for consideration in a resolution offered by me, "that it is now deemed expedient to acquire for park purposes :
"First, suitable areas of park lands and parkways on and adjacent to the crest of the Orange Mountains.
"Second, that such locations be selected with regard to convenient approaches; that the crest of the mountain be followed as far as practicable, and with reference to obtain- ing the best east and west views.
"Third, that the total area be not less than 2,000 acres, and that the architects and engineers proceed to locate the above parks and parkways connecting with Branch Brook Park and prepare the necessary maps and plans."
PARKWAYS TREATED SEPARATELY.
These resolutions were afterward modified, in accordance with the "piecemeal" or sectional policy already referred to, and the park locations were treated separately from the parkways.
As the subject of the parkways was such an important one to the whole enterprise, and for years occupied so much public attention as well as the attention of the commission, the progress of those events will be consecutively stated in succeeding chapters.
In November, 1895, the question of locating a park in what had then become known in the boardroom of the sec- ond commission as the "cable road tract," and as "a counter-
123
PARK SITES CHOSEN
part of the Eagle Rock Park" in so far as its being an ob- jective mountain park, came up for formal action. F. W. Child had already been authorized to obtain options on the tract, and on my motion the matter was made a "special order" for the meeting of November 11. At that time a written report from Mr. Child was presented. It gave a list of the land options he had secured from George Spottis- woode and others and stated that he could then acquire the property-the 121 acres, upon which options had been re- quested-for $67,000, or possibly $65,000-"a very low figure."
On November 23, I wrote Commissioner Shepard, who also favored the purchase, that I was "very much im- pressed that a reservation for the future, south of South Orange avenue, is entirely a secondary consideration to the cable tract, in that central location ; and that I believed no further action should be taken toward acquiring those out- side reservation lands until the more important in location, convenience, value and other respects are first considered."
And the same day I wrote Commissioner Franklin Murphy : "Unless I am greatly misinformed, it will be a long time before the trolley will overcome in practical use the long steep grade of South Orange avenue, and when it does that section will still remain entirely at one side and out of the reach of the mass of population. Surely, for the present, we ought not to have a reservation at the expense of a park accessible at once to all the county.
"As to any commitment regarding the reservation track, with the exception of the statements upon which our charter was obtained, it is my conviction that we are committed to nothing, save the interests of the people, the county and the parks."
ORANGE MOUNTAIN PROPERTY.
At the board meeting November 29, I offered a resolution "that the property on Orange Mountain at the head of the cable road between Northfield avenue and Walker road, be acquired, and that F. W. Child be authorized to purchase
124
FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM
at a cost not exceeding $65,000 the 121 acres in that tract." There was considerable discussion. Two of the commission- ers expressed the view that, with the needs of the Newark and other parks then practically agreed upon, the purchase could not be afforded. This was answered by a reference to the fact that that park would be "at the very door" of, and directly convenient to, most of the people of the whole county, and would be in reality a corner-stone of the chain of parks, and, like Eagle Rock, the mountain key to the western portion of the park system.
It was also pointed out that the whole 121 acres, extend- ing for such a long distance on the mountain crest back to the proposed South Mountain reservation, would cost far less than the single city block of the Branch Brook Garside street extension east of Clifton avenue. In view of all this it was asked how could we afford not to acquire it.
As Commissioner Peck had all along been one of the most earnest supporters of the mountain park and parkway projects, it was thought by at least some of the commis- sioners that he would without a question of doubt favor the resolution. Mr. Shepard and myself were known to be in favor of the plan. Mr. Shepard called for a vote. It was lost. Two ayes, Messrs. Shepard and Kelsey; three nays, Messrs. Peck, Murphy and Meeker. The options were al- lowed to expire, and as the subject had been gone over very fully, it has never, so far as I know, been brought up for consideration since. The following day, in sending to the park board's office the return of the papers, I wrote Com- missioner Peck as follows :
"Nothing that has occurred since the inception of the enterprise has been such a surprise to me as your action and statements on this subject yesterday."
In March, 1896, the commissioners paid Mr. Child $250 for his services and expenses in obtaining the options, and the proposition to acquire this most accessible of all the mountain locations was then most regretfully closed. The opportunity of obtaining this magnificent park site, the most direct in communication with Newark and the nearest
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.