The General Superintendent's Report. 



DEPARTMENT OF PARKS. 



Office of the 

 General Superintendent, 

 Litchfield Mansion, Prospect Park, 



Brooklyn, December 31, 1895 



I [1 >.\. Frank Squier, 



Commissioner of the Department of Parks. 



Dear Sir : — I am pleased to report that most of the improve- 

 ments which were begun last year under your direction and upon 

 plans prepared or approved by you have been successfully carried 

 out, and are now either completed or in a stage of progress that 

 is exceedingly satisfactory. 



We have had the advantage of favorable weather throughout 

 the entire season, and this has enabled us to carry on the work of 

 grading uninterruptedly until the middle of November. Most of 

 the work of this nature has been done in Ridgewood Park, Bush- 

 wick Park, Sunset Park, the Twelfth Ward Park and East Side 

 Lands. In Ridgewood Park the sub-grading of the main drive, 

 about a quarter of a mile in length, has been completed. The 

 work of curbing and guttering the drive has been begun. The 

 main drive in its centre has been widened so as to provide a 

 carriage concourse, from which a magnificent view of the adjoin- 

 ing portion of the city and of Jamaica bay and of the Atlantic 

 ocean can be obtained by visitors. The work was begun in July, 

 and an average of twenty men, five teams and eight carts have 

 been employed during the season. They have removed 15,640 

 cubic yards of sandy clay, mixed with boulders and gravel, an 

 average distance of one-quarter of a mile, in the work of finishing 

 the main drive ; 2,000 cubic yards of the same material in filling a 

 large hollow in the northern portion of the Park that was filled 



