138 ‘FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
“We also advocate,” said this petition, “the control by the 
Park Commission of Central avenue as a parkway, it being 
one of the most important avenues in the county and the 
most direct route from the center of Newark to the Orange 
Mountains.” 
At this time the citizens’ committee had offered to make 
liberal donations in cash or land, or both if necessary, to 
secure the park which all desired. I moved that the propo- 
sition as proposed by Frank H. Scott, chairman of the local 
committee, be accepted; that the architects and engineers 
prepare an official map, and that “a separate map of a con- 
necting parkway along, or adjacent to, Mosswood avenue, 
from Warwick avenue via Tremont avenue to the triangle 
tract,” be included. The resolution was objected to, and 
the following substitute, as drawn by Commissioner 
Murphy, finally agreed upon: 
“Resolved, That if the parties interested in the Triangle 
Park in Orange present a proposition to the commission sat- 
isfactory to it as to quantity of land, and involving an ex- 
penditure for land by the commission not to exceed 
$100,000, the commission would act upon it favorably.” 
Just where the adoption of this resolution left the propo- 
sition for assistance which had been made by the citizens’ 
committee, I was puzzled at the time to know how they, or 
we, were going to find out. It was at this time considered 
very doubtful if the land could be acquired for that amount, 
in which event the resolution would defeat the project. The 
real crux of this situation lay in the fact that J. Everett 
Reynolds owned about sixteen acres of the land which it 
would be necessary to acquire for the park, and at what 
price he would be willing to sell this land, no one in, or out, 
of the commission had thus far been able to ascertain. 
The city of Orange had built a large and costly storm- 
water sewer as far south as Central avenue. Mr. Reynolds, 
as a heavy taxpayer, and others, had been most urgent in 
petitioning the city to extend that line through his prop- 
erty, situated just south of the avenue. This extension 
would drain his and other acreage property there, and im- 
