104 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



cially to the city from the improvement. The amount collected 

 in twenty-five years on the property of the three wards named 

 (the wards contiguous to Central Park) over and above the ordinary 

 increase on the tax value of real estate in the rest of the city, was 

 $65,000,000, or about twenty-one millions of dollars more than 

 the aggregate expense attending and following the establishment 

 of the park up to the present year. Regarding the whole trans- 

 action in the light of a real estate speculation alone, the city has 

 twenty-one millions of dollars in cash over and above the outlay, 

 and acquired in addition thereto land valued at two hundred 

 millions of dollars." 



The above statement shows the influence Central Park had on 

 the value of contiguous property up to 1882. The enormous value 

 of the same property at the present day, in comparison with real 

 estate further removed from Central Park, shows the continued 

 influence of public parks on the value of adjoining property. 



That the establishment of park areas has invariably enhanced 

 the real estate value of contiguous property has been the experience 

 also of other cities. The commissioners of the Boston Park 

 Department, in their report for the year 1896, page 63, referring 

 to the increased value of lands surrounding park areas, say, — 

 "With regard to the influence of public parks on the neighboring 

 real estate, no recent figures have been made. In 1890 the Board 

 published a statement of the increase in value of the Back Bay 

 lands since the establishment of the park. By this table it will 

 be found that the land alone was trebled in value in thirteen years, 

 while the valuation of land in the rest of the city during the same 

 period increased only eighteen per cent. The increased taxes on 

 this land, without including the buildings erected, aggregated over 

 two million dollars, a sum more than sufficient to pay the entire cost 

 of the improvement at that time. The increased taxes on new build- 

 ings erected on these lands yielded one and one-half millions more of 

 revenue. While the increase in the value of the lands adjoining 

 other parks of the city has not shown alike phenomenal growth, pres- 

 ent indications point to a largely increased revenue from this cause 

 in the future which may justify the opinion expressed in the earliest 

 report of the Board, that the establishment of public parks will 

 have the tendency to lessen the rate of taxation instead of increas- 



