PARK AND PLAYGROUND SYSTEM 



Hartford, Conn. (1) 



Parks also contribute materially to a city's property values, 

 and prevent real estate in their neighborhood from deteriorat- 

 ing. No exact statement of this return can be made in figures, 

 but a careful examination shows that the parks constructed 

 during the last ten (10) years have increased the Grand List 

 by a sum equal to that expended by the city in their purchase 

 and development and have gone far toward making up that 

 which has been taken from the Tax List. This increase will 

 continue for years. The estimate which real estate dealers 

 have made of the value of the city's Park System, as an asset, 

 exclusive of Keney Park, is about two and one-half millions of 

 dollars. That of the four (4) large parks constructed during 

 the past ten (10) years, Riverside, Goodwin, Pope, and Eliza- 

 beth, aggregated $800,000. In securing these, the city issued 

 bonds to the amount of $300,000, which represents the cost 

 to the city, and about $230,000 worth of property has been 

 received by gift. The true value of a park system in municipal 

 development cannot be computed, however, except after the 

 lapse of a longer period of time, as the history of Bushnell Park 

 shows. Such connecting parkways as have been projected 

 would add vastly to the park system, and the more practical 

 objects of its usefulness can only be secured by the layout of 

 small areas easily accessible for playgrounds in the densely 

 populated sections of the city. 



(Hartford Park Commission.) 



Hartford (2) 



Keney Park has been entirely constructed and maintained 

 from funds of the estate of Henry Keney under the direction 

 of the Keney Park Trustees. It consists of over six hundred 

 acres, and is developed as a country park. At the time the 

 lands were purchased, sixteen years ago, their value was from 

 $25 to $400 per acre. The abutting property was of a some- 

 what higher value, as much of Keney Park was interior land. 

 If the influence of Keney Park is considered to exist only one 

 thousand feet from its borders, then the value of the lands abut- 

 ting it is probably four times the value they were sixteen years 

 ago, and with the buildings erected has at a low value probably 

 four million dollars' increase. 



The maintenance of Keney Park, when turned over to the 

 city, is supposed to be about $12,000 (under present prices) 

 per year, and if my estimate is correct, that there should be 



