DEPARTMENT OF PARKS. 29 



park entrance should be inviting and not repellant. Whai 

 could have been the Landscape gardener's idea of such a large 

 amount of street and pavement ? The entrance drive to the 

 park has to accommodate all the vehicles. Why thirty times 

 as much outside ? Why build those circular mounds to hide it 

 from view? Brooklyn had no public garden, and needed one. 

 The natural lay of the ground before it was changed was 

 good. Near the main entrance of the park is the correct 

 place to have one. Had the architect seen fit to make Plaza 

 street a wide eliptical drive, connecting with all the city 

 streets it came in contact with, but crossed by none, shaded 

 with tine trees, &c, the entire elliptical centre concaved instead 

 of ridged with mounds, so that every part could be seen from 

 the drive and the walks — had he, with plants, flowers, grass 

 and shrubbery, laid out a public garden — had all this been 

 done it would have been an eminently proper place for the 

 Lincoln monument. An excellent example may be seen on a 

 larger scale at Boston in its public garden. 



The improvement of West Plaza street by giving the proper 

 grade and levels, has now become a necessity, and cannot be 

 delayed longer without doing great injustice to adjacent 

 property owners. Still the Committee feel that it would be 

 continuing a great mistake. The question what to do with the 

 Plaza will soon press as urgently as just now that other 

 question, what to do with the east side lands. It looks to us, 

 to s;iy the least, as if a serious financial blunder has been 

 made. 



J he j\few Music Stand. 



During the year 1883, the Board of Estimate appropriated 

 $12,500 toward new construction for the year 1887. The Com- 

 missioners were painstaking in their discrimination as to what 

 constructions were really most needed. Foremost among the 

 things that the Board deemed necessary was a durable and 

 appropriate music stand. The old one had lotted down and 

 the surrounding space was found to be too small to accom- 

 modate the yearly increasing influx of people to these concerts. 



