OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS 107 



that rich and poor could breath the same atmosphere of nature and of art, and enjoy the 

 same scenery without any jealousy or any conflict. 



"The actual work of constructing Central Park was not begun until six years after 

 Downing's untimely death, but it was his stirring appeals that aroused the city to feel 

 its need, and provision to meet it quickly followed. By rare good fortune, too, designers 

 were found whose artistic temperament and training were akin to his own, so that our 

 first great urban park was planned on such broad lines as he would have approved. The 

 works which followed at once in Brooklyn, Buff"alo, Chicago, San Francisco, and other 

 cities were, beyond question, the result of this same inspiration, so that his keen foresight 

 and conscientious devotion to an idea were the most powerful of the agencies which united 

 to initiate the movement that has given to American cities their thousands of acres of 

 parkland during the past thirty-five years. When we think of the health and comfort, 

 the rest and refreshment, the delight to the eye and the imagination which these smiling 

 landscapes have given and will continue forever to give to all the people, it is not too much 

 to say that Downing takes rank among the greatest benefactors to his country which this 

 century has produced. It is now more than forty years since he met death in trying to 

 rescue others. Is it not time that some memorial of him should be erected in the park which 

 his genius secured for the city? There are too many statues now in Central Park, such as 

 they are, and it may be that a statue is not the most appropriate way of commemorating 

 the work of such a man as Downing. But somewhere in grove or glade it is certainly possible 

 to place a fitting memorial to one whose life was devoted to the cause of rural art. We are 

 glad to know that this thought has occurred to more than one person lately, and that a 

 movement is partially organized to carry it into efi"ect. There can be little doubt that 

 enlightened Americans will delight in an opportunity to keep green the memory of our 

 earliest master in horticulture and landscape art." 



These words fitly commemorate Andrew Jackson Downing's important relation to 

 the inception of the idea of Central Park. 



The first official action in the establishment of Central Park was taken on the 5th 

 day of April, 1 85 1 , by Hon. Ambrose C. Kingsland, then Mayor of the city, who transmitted 

 to the Board of Aldermen a special message setting forth the limited extent of the places 

 devoted to the public; their inadequacy to the wants of any class of the people, and the 

 necessity, both from a moral and sanitary point of view, of securing a more extended area 

 for the purposes of public recreation. 



This message was referred to the Committee on Lands and Places, who reported 

 that the subject awakened an uncommon degree of interest, and that they heartily concurred 

 in the views of the Mayor. The report indicated the ground known as "Jones' Woods," 

 as suitable for the required purposes; and recommended that application be made to the 

 Legislature for the passage of an act authorizing the appointment of commissioners to take 

 that property for the use of the city. 



This report having been adopted, and concurred in by the other branch of the Common 

 Council, application was, in accordance therewith, made to the Legislature at its extra 

 session in 1851, and the act known as the "Jones' Woods Park Bill" was passed by that 

 body on the i ith day of July, 1851. The passage of this act gave rise to a discussion regard- 

 ing the relative advantages of other pieces of ground for this purpose, and the Board of 

 Aldermen adopted, on the 5th of August, 1851, a resolution appointing a special committee 

 to examine and report whether there was not, within the limits of the city, a piece of ground 



