REPORT 



LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTS AND SUPERINTENDENTS. 



Brooklyn, January, 1871. 

 To the Brooklyn Park Commissioners. 



Gentlemen : — The primary construction of the park is now essen- 

 tially complete in all of the territory which was at first placed under 

 your control, and in the greater part of the remainder, or in all of 

 the park from the Plaza gate to the Lookout hill, the design is so 

 thoroughly fixed upon the ground that the character of the scenery, 

 and of the public accommodations aimed at, can hardly be ques- 

 tioned. 



As mistaken ideas of the intention of the design have evidently 

 gained some currency, it seems timely, before referring to what is 

 now in course of preparation, to review what has thus far been 

 done. 



When the formation of the park was begun, there was little 

 pleasure-driving in Brooklyn, except of fast trotters ; the gay pro- 

 cession which is now to be seen, every fine day, was scarcely at all 

 foreshadowed ; there were fewer private carriages relatively to the 

 population than there had been at an earlier period, and probably 

 fewer than in any other city of equal population in the country. In 

 driving for pleasure — not merely for conveyance from point to point 

 — it had always been an object to get as soon as possible out into 

 the country, and, if tolerable roads could be found, into the midst of 

 woods and scenes of a secluded and rural character. It was even 

 more of an object to do so with those who walked or rode for recrea- 

 tion, and still again more so with those who made up picnic parties 

 for a holiday. It was from the rapid destruction of all rural charm 

 in the suburban roads, and the constantly increasing difficulty of 

 finding any place near the city in which natural landscapes or a rural 

 ramble could be quietly enjoyed, that the want of a public park was 

 experimentally known. 



