WEST llOXBURY PARK. 97 



tiered against tlie city being more than $500,000, for 

 nothing- can be more certain than tliat tliese pictnresqne 

 and lovely estates will soon be wanted for the conntr^' 

 homes of onr citizens. 



Ifl had made an effort to improve these lands and 

 oifered the lots for sale, many of them on Glenroad, lia- 

 venswood Park and Walnnt avenue wonld have been 

 sold long ago at 50 cents a foot, for there are no lands 

 so attractive for fine dwellings within fonr miles of the 

 city, nor so available. You well know how to appreci- 

 ate the beauties of Monteglade and RavenswoocI, foi- 

 nothing can be more charming; and besides, the pecu- 

 liar location, relative to the other park lands renders 

 this property, especially, indispensable to the form and 

 perfection, and in fact it is to be the grand entrance to 

 the great Fi-anklin Park. 



Did it ever occur to the commissioners, past and 

 present, that that grand old man. Dr. Fi-anklin, would 

 not, if here, have considered it any com])liment to have 

 his name adopted for the park? 



Shall I enumerate the names of those owners who 

 have suffered by the exercise of this unrigiiteous power? 

 No; but I will speak of the treatment dealt out to one 

 of Boston's old and worthy merchants, who for o\'er 

 forty years did a large business, and paid his taxes in 

 this city. He was interested in a valnable and promi- 

 nent lot of land, condemned by the park commissioners 

 and, after many earnest and repeated efforts to make a 

 fair settlement, he, also, was dragged into court and 

 finally obtained a verdict of more than double the 

 amount offered by them, even after the very damaging 

 testimony presented by the city against him; and sup- 



