THE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK 



this, and that our impressions of the superior qualities of many of 

 these old estates are not based on sentiment alone. 



A visitor to Manhattan in 1748 (Kalm, the Swedish naturalist) 

 has left behind him a delightful description of his impressions. 

 He was astonished at its elegance and beauty. He found it ex- 

 tremely pleasant to walk in the town for "it seemed quite like a 

 garden, the shade trees were plentiful, the birds sang sweetly from 

 their branches and the frogs chanted so merrily in the Elm and 

 Locusts that one could hardly hear one's self speak." The streets 

 were narrow and most of them paved, and the houses a mixture of 

 Dutch and English architecture. The chief trees were the Locust 

 and Water Beech and there were also Lime-trees and Elms in the 

 sidewalks. He states : "One seldom meets with trees of the same 

 sort adjoining each other, they being, in general, placed alternat- 

 ing." On the tops of the gentlemen's houses were balconies, 

 where long views of the bay were obtamed. 



As late as the end of the Colonial era, the tree-Hned streets of 

 the city were a feature and the streets were well paved and clean, 

 another visitor, in 1775, leaving word that "on Broadway nearly 

 all the houses had rows of trees in front of them and were en- 

 circled by pleasant gardens." At the end of the Revolution, how- 

 ever, came a period where the upbuilding of the city was attended 

 with difficulties and the parklike conditions were more difficult to 

 adhere to and the problems of sanitation more involved. 



In 1789 an ordinance was passed forbidding the planting of 

 trees in the thickly populated sections, except in front of churches 

 and public buildings, as it was considered detrimental to public 

 health. 



At the end of the readjustment following the Revolution, the 

 natural prosperity of the country began to assert itself and a new 

 class of landed proprietors appeared. The shipping business was 

 still a principal source of wealth and there were many citizens who 

 had accumulated considerable means and lived in comparative 

 luxury. The old aristocracy of the period of the English rule 

 had pretty well disappeared, so many having been loyalists, and the 

 large manorial estates had dwindled in size and in substance. 

 Those of Manhattan of means and prominence were principally 

 of the old Knickerbocker set, in most cases descendants of the 



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