21 



grounds, simply because they are both called into existence to meet 

 the same class of wants, in the same class of people, at the same met- 

 ropolitan centre. The Brooklyn Parkway, on the other hand, will, 

 if executed, be a practical development, particularly applicable to 

 the city of Brooklyn, and which are considered by those in authority 

 to be unsuitable for development in the city of New York ; it will 

 consequently have no such family resemblance to the New York 

 Boulevards as exists between the two parks and its attractions will, 

 for a time at any rate, be of a special and somewhat individual char- 

 acter. 



4 



[From the "New York Times," Oct. 21, 1872.] 



A NOVEL IMPROVEMENT IN BROOKLYN. 



We believe that to Mr. Frederick Law Olmstead, is to be cred- 

 ited the first successful application, in part, at least, of the idea that 

 the growth of American cities can be judiciously guided ; and that 

 we need not necessarily sit patiently by, and see the most beautiful 

 portion of them overrun by various occupants whom it is very diffi- 

 cult and very expensive to dislodge. Mr. Olmstead, has frequently 

 had occasion to point out that in Brooklyn a special opportunity 

 was offered, by early improvements, to determine beforehand that » 

 certain very beautiful quarters of the city should be taken up by 

 first class residences, and be owned and occupied by men whose 

 dwellings and grounds would be continually made more and more 

 attractive. Luckily, this argument was addressed on the one hand 

 to a class of property owners, intelligent and enterprising enough to 

 see that their own interest lay in carrying out Mr. Olmstead's idea, 

 and on the other to the Brooklyn Park Commissioners, a body of 

 gentlemen of great foresight and energy. The result is that a 

 definite and well considered plan is now being put in execution with 

 the intent we have referred to. 



The entrance to Prospect Park, in Brooklyn, lies at the junction 

 of Union street and Flatbush avenue, at the summit of a broad 

 ridge, which, east and north of that point, spreads into a more or 

 less irregular upland for a number of miles. The city line of 

 Brooklyn crosses this ridge some four miles east from the entrance 

 to the Park. By an Act passed in 1868, five streets running along 

 this broad ridge from the Park to the city line, were directed to be 

 laid out in the following manner ; the central one of the five, Sackett 



