CHAPTER VIII. 
SELECTION OF ORANGE PARK. 
THE Orange or Triangle Park, the last of the county 
parks not already referred to, has a unique history, quite 
unlike the other seven locations described. The selection 
of the Orange Park involved a continuous contending of 
differences between the commissioners themselves on the 
one side, and the almost unanimous sentiment of the public 
on the other side. That those favoring the project finally 
won, after two years of persistent effort, was the outcome 
of an incident which may be of interest here. 
As a prelude, however, it may be well to give a very brief 
history of the events leading up to this conclusion. Nearly 
forty years ago, after the triangle bounded by Central ave- 
nue, Harrison street, Hast Orange, and Center street, 
Orange had been formed by the opening of these streets, it 
was a favorite topic for discussion among those in the 
Oranges who had a spirit of civic pride and forethought for 
the future, to refer to this tract as a place for a public park, 
which would be much needed in the time to come, and 
which, from its topography, would be one of the most at- 
‘tractive of parks, at a comparatively small cost. Although 
the central portion of the tract was low, swampy, marsh 
land, this was surrounded on each of the larger sides of the 
triangle with gentle slopes to higher ground the entire dis- 
tance. Among the pioneers of civic betterment at that time 
who continued to refer to the desirable improvement were 
Llewellyn Haskel, Mr. and Mrs. Ross Browning, of 
Llewellyn Park, and Edward Gardner, then proprietor of 
the Orange Journal. Some of the articles published in The 
Journal many years ago on this subject, show how clearly 
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