10 THE DESIRABILITY AND ACQUISITION OF PARKS 



before or after the appointment of the Metropolitan Park 

 Commission, which provide for local needs not met by the 

 Metropolitan Parks. Boston has parks covering a total 

 area of 500 acres; Cambridge has developed a frontage 

 on the Charles River; and Lynn has acquired large tracts 

 for park and water-supply purposes. 



The Metropolitan Park Commission consisting of five 

 unsalaried commissioners was created in 1892. Up to 

 the present time it has purchased 10,250 acres of land, of 

 which the largest tracts are the Blue Hills Reservation, 

 twelve miles from the State House and easily reached by 

 electric cars; and the Middlesex Fells Reservation, five 

 miles from the State House. The metropolitan parks 

 with their connecting parkways and seashore and river- 

 bank reservations form a model system. 



ESSEX COUNTY. With the exception of Military Park, 

 a tract of but a few acres in the city of Newark and a few 

 other small squares, Essex County had no parks up to the 

 year 1895. 



At a dinner in the city of Orange in January, 1894, a 

 plan was suggested for obtaining parks and a meeting was 

 soon after arranged and held in the rooms of the Board of 

 Trade in Newark. Park committees from Newark and 

 Orange were present and the plan previously suggested was 

 approved. A committee was appointed to prepare a bill 

 for the State Legislature which was promptly drafted and 

 approved and then presented to the Senate at Trenton. 

 It was passed and signed by the Governor early in May of 

 the same year. 



The bill authorized the presiding county judge to appoint 

 a Commission of five persons to consider the advisability 

 of laying out a system of parks and provided an appro- 

 priation of $10,000 to cover the salaries of assistants and 



