SMALL CITY PARKS 



By SAMUEL PARSONS, JR. 

 (Meetine of March 6, 1906) 



DE WITT CLINTON PARK 



I HAVE one special park to consider as having perhaps more in it, and being a more 

 genuine city playground than anything else in the city; this is De Witt Clinton Park 

 on the west side of town, between gid and 54th Streets and Eleventh and Twelfth 

 Avenues. You can hardly imagine anything more difficult than to establish a playground 

 in this place. It is in one of the most densely populated sections of the city. There are 

 nothing but tenement houses as far as one can see, and a little further. The Hudson is 

 on the west side, with a great number of docks between the park and the water. It is 

 a peculiarly shaped piece of ground, tolerably level though the center, but it slopes off 

 each way, so that it is not a flat piece of ground by any means. 



This region is so densely filled with houses, or was, that it was quite an experience 

 to prepare it. In the beginning, as we had done in several cases of other parks, we sold 

 the houses, got it turned over to the city, and ail the people out of the houses. It was 

 very difficult to get these people out. 



The condition of this ground was very rough when it was turned over to the Park 

 Department to make the park; it consisted of a mass of cellars and old, half-pulled-down 

 houses, and all that sort of thing. The first thing we did was to cross-section and get 

 exact contours of this rough piece of ground, then lines of surface were established to 

 fit the contours. The map showed the exact condition of the place, and where it was 

 too high it was cut down, the holes filled in and all the rubbish cleaned away. It was 

 a tremendous undertaking; it took a good deal of soil to do it, and it had to be watched 

 very carefully. It is a very important thing to leave the ground at least six months or, 

 better, a year or more; this one was left over a year before the real park work was com- 

 menced. These holes and old cellars and ground would settle and settle and there would 

 be great cracks. Some of the parks in years gone by have been built too hastily, and the 

 cracks and settlement in the walks and holes have made a great deal of trouble. We have 

 been more particular during the past five years. 



When we had secured the proper condition of soil, we commenced to make the park. 

 Then the next question was to have a final survey of the contour lines, and to work from 

 those contour lines in order to secure a suitable park for the use and enjoyment of the 

 public, a park that would be not only beautiful to look at, but give accommodation 

 to the people, the girls and men, not only the young but the grown-up people, for the 

 women and the children, and everybody. It was decided to devote the end of the park 

 nearest the city, where the surroundings are less attractive, to playgrounds, and to take 

 the end next toward the Hudson and develop it largely for ornamental purposes, making 

 it beautiful, a place where people would want to go and sit and enjoy themselves. We 

 had one playground for the little children and the women, keeping the boys and men 

 separate, for they are so hard to control; in preparing these grounds we had to surround 

 them with fences and protect them in every way possible. That is one thing which is 



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