316 



quire any detailed statement, failed to receive the approval of 

 the reorganized board. ~No principal entrance, or none suited 

 to the dignity of a large park, had been provided, and they 

 deemed it proper, therefore, to apply to the Legislature at 

 once for authority to annex so much additional land as was 

 necessary to form what now constitutes the Plaza. 



Nor upon the question of boundaries could they satisfy 

 themselves that the ground which had been taken was all that- 

 was required in respect to extent or opportunity of improve* 

 ment, and least of all that the land on the east side of Flatbush 

 avenue, in consequence mainly of its isolated and disjointed 

 character, could be made to harmonize in any tolerable degree 

 with the fine park land on the other side. They consequently 

 proceeded to mature a plan which they thought better suited 

 to the character of a first-class park, which added very con- 

 siderably to the dimensions of the original plan, but extended 

 it in a direction in which land was cheapest, and fortunately 

 best adapted to park purposes, while it took nothing from our 

 own taxable property. Their report upon this plan, with a full 

 explanation of its details, and a map showing the contemplated 

 change of boundaries, with the proposed abandonment for park 

 uses of the land east of Flatbush avenue, was thereupon printed 

 and extensively circulated throughout the community, and re- 

 ceived a very decided and unqualified approval. And the 

 Commissioners here deem it worthy of notice in passing, that 

 the map annexed to that report is the same design, without 

 material alteration or addition, upon which the engineers of 

 the board have been working from the beginning of their oper- 

 ations, and upon which they still continue to work. 



Being satisfied with the favorable expression of public 

 opinion thus obtained, the Commissioners applied to the Legis- 

 lature for the additional territory required to carry out their 

 enlarged plan of improvement, at the same time asking for 

 authority to sell so much of the land on the east side of Flat- 

 bush avenue as was not embraced in the plan, in order that 

 they might have means to pay for what they proposed to annex 

 on the other side. They obtained a portion of the land re- 

 quired, but, much to their regret, were refused the fifty acres 

 referred to in a former part of this report, and which consti- 

 tuted one of the prominent features of their design. Their re- 



