CHAPTER VII. 
PARK SITES CHOSEN. 
As noted in a preceding chapter, the decision to locate 
a small park in the eastern and densely populous portion of 
Newark was made soon after the organization of the com- 
mission in 1895. This determination was the outgrowth 
of a sentiment within, rather than from any particular 
pressure brought to bear from without, the board rooms. 
In like manner, the ownership of nearly all the property 
to the extent of 134 city lots being vested with one person, 
and all that property unbuilt upon, was an important factor 
in deciding the location. Indeed, no other site in that por- 
tion of the city was, I think, at the time under considera- 
tion. All the commissioners were agreed that if there was a 
particular place in the county where a park was especially 
needed it was in that section, and by November the land- 
scape architects and engineers were authorized to prepare a 
map for the park. The announcement of the location and 
the purchase of the O’Brien property soon afterward was 
well received. 
The arrangement with the Newark Street and Water 
Board for closing the necessary streets was made at a con- 
ference with that board held at the commission’s rooms, 
January 2, 1896. These city officials were also in favor of 
the park. 
The press commended the action. One of the papers, on 
January 3, contended that “nothing the Essex County Park 
Commission had done will be received with more genuine 
satisfaction by a great population than the plan approved 
yesterday by the Park Board and Board of Works in joint 
session for a fourteen-acre park in the heart of the Iron- 
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