The Palisades Interstate Park' 



NOTES FROM AN ADDRESS BY THE HONORABLE GEORGE W. PERKINS, 

 BEFORE THE MEMBERS OF THE AMERICAN SCENIC AND HISTORIC PRE- 

 SERVATION SOCIETY AND THE AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY 



LOOKINCi across the Hudson from 

 Grant's Tomb the appearance of the 

 Palisades is that of an almost perpen- 

 dicular escarpment, wooded and beau- 

 tiful. There is i)erhaps no other river, the 

 banks of which, so near one of the world's 

 great cities, have been permitted to retain 

 their natural grandeur. 



Fifteen years ago, because of the destruc- 

 tion which had been going on all through the 

 lower end of the Palisades from a point south 

 of Nyack to Grant's Tomb, twelve and a half 

 miles, a bill was introduced at Albany creat- 

 ing what is known as The Palisades Inter- 

 state Park Commission. Exactly the same 

 bill was introduced in New Jersey, nine- 

 tenths of the Palisades lying within the 

 boundaries of this State. Five commissioners 

 were appointed by each governor and an 

 arrangement was made by which the two 

 groups of five from the two states were to 

 work together as one body of ten men, but 

 legally as two separate bodies. 



The destruction of the Palisades, at three 

 main points, was fast making inroads into the 

 cliffs for the purpose of getting out the flat 

 rock for road building. The rock from these 

 quarries was so desirable that it was likely to 

 be a question of a short time only when 

 twenty or thirty quarries would be strewn 

 over the cliffs. 



When the bill was passed in Albany, the 

 legislature gave $10,000 for expenses, the 

 commission was given general instructions, 

 and went to work. Most of the men on this 

 commission were business men or lawyers; 

 there were no politicians. With the 110,000 



' At the twenty-first annual meeting of the Amerioan 

 Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, held, with 

 the cooperation of the American Museum of Natural 

 History, at the Museum building on Friday evening, 

 January 21, 1916, the principal speaker was the Hon- 

 orable George W. Perkins, president of the Palisades 

 Interstate Park Commission and one of the vice presi- 

 dents of the Society. With the aid of stereopticon views 

 Mr. Perkins gave the audience the fullest popular ex- 

 position of the work of the Palisades Interstate Park 

 Commission that has been made since the commission 

 was organized fifteen years ago. It is probable that few 

 of his hearers had realized the progress made in the de- 

 velopment of this great mountain and riverside j)ark ol' 

 22,000 acres. 



given by the legislatiu'c negotiations were 

 begun with the quarry owners, and by fall an 

 agreement was made with them by which 

 they were to shut down their quarries and sell 

 the property for $135,000. Only $10,000 

 was available, so a contract was made with 

 the quarry people to put down $10,000 on 

 account of the purchase, with an understand- 

 ing that they would not open again until the 

 first of the following auttmin. It was then 

 determined that all that part of the Palisades 

 which was not yet destroyed could be bought 

 for $400,000, and individuals were approached 

 for the $125,000 required for the first pur- 

 chase, the condition being that the legislature 

 should give the $400,000 with which to buy 

 the rest of the Palisades, and thus prevent 

 other quarries from being opened later. The 

 late J. Pierpont Morgan generously provided 

 the initial $125,000, and the State finally pro- 

 vided the other $400,000. Then began the 

 opening up of the cliffs, the planning of an im- 

 mense park, and arrangements for getting out 

 into the open country bej^ond. 



The west bank of the river, between Nyack 

 and the Ramapo Hills and the Highlands of 

 the Hudson, is a wonderful country. It is 

 here that a tremendous scheme of park de- 

 velopment is tmder way, made possible in the 

 first instance by a gift of a million dollars 

 and ten thousand acres of land by Mrs. E. H. 

 Harriman.- Great difficulty was experienced 

 in securing the quarries north of Nyack, 

 btit all except one have now been obtained. 

 The price asked for that one is $2,320,000. 



The advantage of this park for recreation 

 is scarcely to be overestimated. The cliffs 

 are thought to be perpendicular. This is far 

 from true. There is as mtich level land in 

 the strip of territory from P^ort Lee to the end 



- This was the nucleus of five and one-half million 

 dollars raised for the work in one special movement. 

 One million was given by Mrs. Harriman; one and 

 one-half millions by Mrs. Sage and Messrs. Morgan, 

 Rockefeller, Vanderbilt, Stanley, Perkins, Baker and 

 others; two and one-half millions by the State of New 

 York; and half a million by the Stale of New Jersey. 

 This, added to a million and one-half provided by New 

 York and New Jersey and private contributors at 

 other times, has given the commission about seven 

 million dollars thus far. 



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