260 



The Commissioners are pleased to find also that the advan- 

 tages of the park to surrounding property have not been con- 

 fined to the three wards we have specified, but have been pro- 

 ductive of still greater benefit to our neighbours of Flatbush, 

 where the value of real estate has more than doubled during 

 the year ; the assessed value of that town in 1867 being two 

 millions five hundred and nineteen thousand nine hundred and 

 fifteen dollars, while in 1868, at a period of the year when 

 property had not yet realized the great advance it has since 

 attained, it amounted to five millions and thirty thousand nine 

 hundred and seventy dollars. 



The proposed modification of Carrol Park is nearly com- 

 plete. After an entire revision of its drainage and of its grassy 

 slopes, the walks were laid with pine tar concrete, and finished 

 with fine gravel well rolled in, producing a perfectly firm and 

 smooth surface for the ease and comfort of visitors. Some addi- 

 tional trees and plants, with an ornamental flag staff, and a 

 playground for children, were also introduced, and the im- 

 provements made seem to be fully appreciated by our citizens. 



The revision of the ground at Washington Park — or old 

 Fort Greene, as the older residents of our city still delight to 

 call it — in pursuance of the plan which was laid down in the 

 special report of our landscape architects, and appended to the 

 last annual report of the board, is now so far advanced that it 

 is expected to be opened for public use early next summer. 



In concluding this statement of their operations for the year 

 eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, the Park Commissioners take 

 occasion to congratulate their fellow citizens upon the fact that 

 we may at length be said to have a park in some degree com- 

 mensurate with the magnitude and the requirements of a great 

 city — a park where our eyes may be refreshed by resting upon 

 something else than mere interminable rows of brick and mor- 

 tar, and whose refining meditative influences will be ever teach- 

 ing us that trade is not the whole end and aim of life ; that we 

 have a park richly garnished with natural beauty, whose quiet 

 repose, luxurious foliage and fragrant ocean breeze will continu- 

 ally withdraw us from those engrossing mercenary pursuits by 

 which we are too apt to be absorbed, and lead us up to better 

 things. A broad precinct — free of access, permanent in dura- 

 tion, guarded well from rude intrusion — where genius may 



