23 



TJte Wasliiiigtoii Az'cintc Gates 



The ])rececling annual report recorded the Sichiey Maddock be- 

 quest of $10,000, "to be used to make some needed improvement 

 in the Garden." No improvements have I)een more sorely needed 

 for several years than suitable gates at our entrances. During 

 the fall of 1915 entrance turnstiles and make-shift exit gates were 

 installed with the definite anticipation that the}- were to serve only 

 for a year or two at longest. These supposed!}'- temporary de- 

 vices, which have now served more than twenty years, became 

 more and more unsuitable as attendance increased, and woefully 

 inadequate when the attendance began to exceed 50,000 on a bus}' 

 Sunday in spring — as many as 21,000 entrances at the Richard 

 Young Gate alone, from noon on a Saturday to the closing hour 

 the following Sunday afternoon (A])ril 30-J\lay 2). On some of 

 the busy Sundays in May, 1937 and 1938, a double queue of 

 visitors was maintained for two to three hours at the north AVash- 

 ington Avenue gate and at the Richard Young Gate, entailing no 

 little inconvenience to the public. But it was not until 1929 that 

 a suitable gate was made possible at the south Flatbush Avenue 

 entrance by the generous gift of the late Hon. Richard Young. 



And so it was decided that nothing could more fully carry out 

 Mr. Maddock's generous wish to provide for " some needed im- 

 provement " than to use the bequest for gates at the two Wash- 

 ington Avenue entrances. McKim, Mead and White, who had 

 designed more imposing structures for these entrances in 1930 ^ 

 made new ])lans for simpler structures that could be built at a cost 

 within the amount of the bequest. In addition to the entrance 

 and exit turnstiles (of the Percy type) and the su])])orting piers, 

 there is a small booth just inside each gate to provide for vending 

 guide books, souvenir postcards, and other objects; also for the 

 storage of small garden tools used in the upkeep and in emergen- 

 cies. These gates and booths now make it possible to service the 

 public more properly at these points. The funds were sufficient 

 for the construction of a third booth just inside the Richard Young 

 gate. No bequest could have been more opportune. The con- 

 struction work began on August 15 and was completed on De- 

 ceml)er 21. 



1 Brooklyn Bot. Card. Record for May, 1930. 



