200 



be offered would not benefit themselves alone, but the whole com- 

 munity. The Romans seem to have been wiser than we have been 

 in this particular. Rich people were offered every facility for sur- 

 rounding their houses with open garden spaces, and the larger part 

 of the Eternal City was composed of what we should now term de- 

 tached villas, while in no part was it permitted that a new house, 

 even though intended for the residence of slaves, should be built 

 within five feet of walls previously erected. 



How far it might be desirable for property-owners to extend the 

 plan in the peculiar form suggested is, of course, an open question, 

 depending on the anticipated demand for lots of the size indicated, 

 but it will be readily seen that as the proposed subdivisions are 

 not of the ordinary contracted character, a comparatively small 

 number of residents will suffice to fill up a considerable stretch of 

 ground laid out in this way, and it is also evident that if, within a 

 reasonable time, it should become certain that a specific number of 

 blocks would be carried out on this plan, the lots included within 

 the boundaries determined on would not require to be improved 

 in regular succession, but would be selected with reference to 

 slight, fancied advantages anywhere along the line, every purchaser 

 feeling satisfied that the main question of good neighborhood had 

 been settled on a satisfactory basis at the outset. 



ADVANTAGES OF THE PARKWAY LIKELY TO BE SECURED 

 TO BROOKLYN EXCLUSIVELY. 



Having so fully described, in its principal aspects, the question 

 of the desirability of developing, in Brooklyn, a plan of public 

 improvement of the general character indicated, it may be proper 

 for us to enquire whether the broad streets which are proposed to 

 be opened on New York Island, under the name of Boulevards, 

 during the next few years, are calculated to interfere with the 

 probable success of such a scheme. 



While the Central Park was in its earlier stages of progress, a 

 commission was appointed to prepare a plan for laying out the upper 

 end of New York island, and some years later this responsibility 

 was transferred to the Central Park Commission, whose plan is pub- 

 lished in their last annual report. 



The same document contains an elaborate discussion of the sub- 

 ject by Mr. A. H. Green, on the part of the board, and as our pro- 

 fessional relations with the Commissioners have not been extended 

 over this department of their work, and we are not aware of their 

 intention in regard to this improvement, except so far as it is set 



