422 



NEW YORK CITY. 



and Assessments, $349.900; Board of Assessors, 

 $30,300; Armory Board, $107,807.50; Department 

 of Education, $20,003.017.77 : College of the City 

 of New York, $298,3(52; Normal College of City 

 of New York, $220,000; coroners, $151,300; Com- 

 missioners of Accounts, $151,000; Civil-Service 

 Commission, $100,000: Board of Civil Record, 

 $518,800; Examining Board of Plumbers, $5,154; 

 for library purposes, $431.543.80; City Court of 

 New fork, $136,050; municipal courts, city of 

 New York, $392,250; Court of Special Sessions, 

 First Division, $96,150; Court of Special Sessions, 

 Second Division, $54,400; City Magistrates' 

 courts, First Division, $166,450; City Magistrates' 

 courts, Second Division, $172,800; for charitable 

 institutions. $2,728,264.04; miscellaneous, $1,268,- 

 2C4.21; total, $93,395,966.96. Also the budget 

 shows an allowance for the County of New York, 

 s-_'.::-J7.7.sl.2l ; the County of Kings, $1,174,305.89; 

 the County of Queens, $157,366.68; the County of 

 Richmond, $63,610.36; making a grand total of 

 $97,119,031.10, which is a net decrease of $1,500,- 

 f>ti!).78 over that of last year. 



Parks. The public parks are under the care 

 of commissioners appointed for the various bor- 

 oughs, with a -salary of $5,000 each. The in- 

 cumbents during the year were: Manhattan and 

 Richmond, William R. Willcox; Brooklyn and 

 Queens, George V. Brower; Bronx, A. Moebus. 



On July 1, Coney Island Park, which is at the 

 terminus of the Ocean Parkway on Coney Island 

 and comprises 70 acres, was formally opened to 

 the public. Calvin Tompkins, chairman of the 

 Municipal Art Society, chairman of the cere- 

 monies, began the exercises by the following ac- 

 count of the work: "On April 18 the Board of 

 Estimate and Apportionment granted the Park 

 Department $50,000, with the request that it be 

 devoted to improving this part of the city. On 

 May 17 the serious work began, and in forty- 

 three days this park has been made; the barren 

 waste has become a beautiful garden; the sand 

 hills have become a park, in which are found 

 the plants of the tropics, flowers, trees, and 

 shrubs. An irrigation plant has been put in, 

 and nearly 15,000 cubic yards of soil, and about 

 1,200 trees, shrubs, and plants are growing here 

 to-day." 



On July 11, Thomas Jefferson Park, between 

 lllth and 114th Streets and First and Pleasant 

 Avenues, was opened by Park Commissioner 

 Willcox. The park now contains 9 acres, but it 

 is to be extended to the Harlem river front, giving 

 it about 15 acres and including in its boundaries 

 the recreation pier at 112th Street. The park 

 is in a barren condition at present. It is en- 

 closed by a fence, and is divided into two sec- 

 tions, one section, 260 by 603 feet, being devoted 

 to a playground for children, with tents and set- 

 tees. The other section is for a ball-ground. It 

 is in a section of Harlem that is known as " Lit- 

 tle Italy." 



On July 17 the following resolution was adopt- 

 ed by the Sinking-Fund Commissioners and the 

 Committee of Public Buildings, Markets, and 

 Supplies of the Board of Aldermen: "The inter- 

 ests of the city require the removal from the City 

 Hall Park of the Hall of Records, the engine- 

 house and hook-and-ladder company, and the 

 brownstone building occupied by the City Court 

 as soon as suitable arrangements can be made 

 for the accommodation of the occupants of these 

 buildings elsewhere, and that the space occupied 

 by these buildings be added to the City Hall 

 Park." 



In December plans for the extension of River- 

 side Drive were published. These have for their 



chief purpose the carrying of the driveway to 

 Boulevard Lafayette. The extended driveway is 

 to begin at 135th Street, with an elevation of 80 

 feet above the river. Traversing the old Otten- 

 dorfer property, it will cross 138th Street at a 

 grade that will permit the street to pass below. 

 The bridge over the street will be of masonry of 

 artistic design. Its abutments will contain pub- 

 lic-comfort houses. From the bridge the route 

 swings gradually to the west, approaching close- 

 ly to the tracks of the railway, but at such a 

 height that the prospect of the river and the 

 cliffs beyond is not shut out. Leaving the estate 

 of Robert Hoguet on the right, the roadway at 

 143d Street broadens until its width is nearly 300 

 feet. Between 145th and 155th Streets are to be 

 3 bridges of ornate design, to carry the driveway 

 across intersecting streets that fall below the 

 grade of the new thoroughfare. The most elab- 

 orate of these bridges will be at 155th Street. It 

 will form a series of masonry arches and will be 

 at an elevation of 60 feet. An inclined approach 

 on the north side will connect the drive and the 

 street. Passing through Audubon Park, the ex- 

 tension crosses over 158th Street to the Boule- 

 vard Lafayette. The approach widens, forming 

 a plaza corresponding, to some extent, with the 

 entrance to the viaduct north of Claremont. The 

 general plan of the extension provides for a car- 

 riage road 60 feet wide, a bridle-path 20 feet 

 wide, two walks of 15 feet each, and grass-plots 

 5 feet wide between roads and walks. The carry- 

 ing out of the plans will provide a pleasure drive- 

 way from Central Park West, through Riverside 

 and the Boulevard Lafayette to Dyckman Val- 

 ley, and back by the Speedway and St. Nicholas 

 Avenue, in all a distance of 15 miles. 



Museum of Art. A new wing of the Metro- 

 politan Museum of Art, on Fifth Avenue and 81st 

 Street, was formally opened on Dec. 22. The new 

 building, owing to its. position on Fifth Avenue, 

 forms a natural entrance to the museum, and the 

 stately and impressive portal is regarded as 

 worthy of the largest collection of works of art 

 in the country. In the great entrance hall have 

 been arranged a series of modern bronzes and 

 marbles, as well as many of the sarcophagi from 

 Cyprus. In the long narrow galleries are steles, 

 reliefs, pottery, seals, and tomb inscriptions from 

 Palmyra, Etruscan pottery, and bronzes, Greco- 

 Roman masks, and Egyptian antiquities. The 

 Elizabeth Cole tapestries and an Italian eight- 

 eenth-century tapestry are shown in one wing 

 of the new building. In the upper galleries are 

 Chinese bells, the Phenix collection of Chine-e 

 and Japanese lacquers, the Marquand porcelains, 

 and the jades from the Bishop collection, as well 

 as the porcelains from China, loaned by J. 

 Pierpont Morgan. 



Aquarium. On Oct. 1 this institution, which 

 has been in the custody of the Park Department 

 since its inception, was formally transferred to 

 the custody of the New York Zoological Society, 

 although the municipality will continue to pro- 

 vide the funds for its maintenance. Park Com- 

 missioner Willcox. in making the transfer, told 

 how the building had been erected originally 

 upon the rocks and connected with the shore l>y 

 a bridge, and how the structure had been u-cd 

 successively as a battery, a place of amusement, 

 and a landing-place for immigrants, until in isnti 

 it was opened to the public as an aquarium by 

 the Department of Parks. Charles H. Townsend, 

 the new director of the Aquarium, formerly a 

 member of the United States Fish Commission, 

 said in part: "The possibilities of an aquarium 

 as an institution for the instruction of the people 



