PARKS INCREASE LAND VALUES 



made is that the very rapid increase in the values of real estate is 

 coincident with the period of park development; and the most 

 marked increase has been in the districts where the parks are lo- 

 cated. As well stated in the report: "The committee has 

 been unable to obtain data affording accurate or definite in- 

 dications of the actual increase in realty values in the terri- 

 tory adjacent to the parks and other improvements referred to; 

 but there is abundant general information indicating that 

 actual values have increased very rapidly in such districts after 

 the establishment of the parks or other improvements, begin- 

 ning as soon as the plan for making the improvement has be- 

 come known to the public. Rarely has such increase been less 

 than 100 per cent, within three or four years from its beginning, 

 where the improvement is of any considerable importance, and 

 in some cases the gain has been several hundred per cent." 



(Report of the Directors of the Madison Park and Pleasure 

 Drive Association, 1909.) 



Boston 



In 1849 a Land Commission was appointed to deal with the 

 subject of creating new land out of the Back Bay mud flats, 

 Boston. Comprehensive plans were reported in 1852, but the 

 work of filling the land was not begun until 1857. The Com- 

 monwealth had the right to the flats below the line of riparian 

 ownership. The plan of the Back Bay Improvement was the 

 work of the late Arthur Gilman, an eminent architect. 



In 1857 the Commonwealth owned on the Back Bay 4,723,998 

 feet, and the net profits on the sale of this land up to 1882 were 

 $3,068,636.28, with 102,593 feet remaining unsold, valued at 

 not less than $250,000. The net profit of the Land Company 

 amounted to over $2,000,000. 



The Back Bay to-day is characterized by broad, handsome 

 streets and the magnificence of architecture both in its public 

 buildings and private dwellings. Commonwealth Avenue, 

 the principal street, is 200 feet wide with broad green mall in 

 the centre, and the distance from house to house across the 

 street is 240 feet. The Back Bay is one of the most valuable 

 parts of the city, the real estate assessment being now about 

 $100,000,000. 



One mistake was the short-sighted policy which permitted 

 the building over of the territory between Beacon Street and 

 the Charles River, as that street might have been placed on the 

 line of a beautiful embankment. Three times a proposition 



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