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grounds adjacent. But after making these reservations for a public 

 garden on the hill, and sites for public buildings and places, and after 



laying out the ample- avenues which we propose, to make, with their 

 bordering plantations, there will still remain a body, of over one 

 hundred acres of land to be disposed of, with such restrictions as will 

 insure the erection upon it of strictly first-class dwelling-houses. 



If we assume thai these lots will command the price of twenty- 

 live hundred dollars a-piece, which is below the estimate generally 

 put upon them, the sum which would be realized by the city from 

 their sale would he three millions of dollars. 



But we shall also save the expense of forming and maintaining the 

 ground as a park ; this we judge from our experience in dealing with 

 the ground of a similar character on the other side of the avenue 

 would be about a million of dollars. Of course we include in this 

 estimate the fencing and all the usual and necessary furniture and 

 equipment of a convenient and agreeable place of crowded public 

 resort. Add this million to the sum which we expect to receive 

 from the sale of the ground we do not want, and it makes a difference 

 to the city in favor of our plan of four millions of dollars. We 

 reckon that this sum will pay the city subscription of three millions 

 to the Bridge and the improvements at the Wallabout, which may 

 cost one million. This, however, is not all. If we double the price 

 of the land, for the value of buildings which would probably be 

 erected on it, we should add, independently of the immense stimulus 

 thereby given to the surrounding property, at least eight millions of 

 dollars to the taxable property of our city, and enlarge its revenues 

 by nearly half a million of dollars annually. 



We have very carefully considered the matter, and we express 

 in these estimates our deliberate and well established convictions. 



The ability of the city to make a good title to this land is some- 

 times questioned by persons who are not familiar with the history of 

 park legislation. 



In 1SG4, when land was first taken for the park, and it became 

 necessary to raise one million three hundred thousand dollars to pay 

 the awards, city bonds were issued and put upon the market for 

 sale. The main security for these bonds consisted in a statutory 

 lien upon the park land. Our capitalists, however, objected to this 

 security, that the city had not the fee, but merely an easement in the 

 land, similar to that by which a street is held, and that if the holder 

 of the security should be obliged to realize, he could have no perma- 

 nent possession of the land, since it must necessarily revert to the 

 owner of the fee as soon as it ceased to be used for park purposes, 



