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and Sciences to the City of New York on Saturday afternoon, 

 the 19th of April, 191 3, which was the 30th anniversary of the 

 legislative enactment authorizing the acquisition of the splen- 

 did park system of the borough. 



The first tablet unveiled was attached to the wall of the 

 entrance to the Zbrowski Mansion, the headquarters of the 

 Bronx Commissioner of Parks. Directly across the road 

 Troop No. 112, Boy Scouts of America, formed a guard of 

 honor, with their staves stretched from boy to boy; and on 

 their right, a platoon of Battery D, 2d Field Artillery, under 

 Capt. Thereon D. Strong, was lined up. 



At 1.35 o'clock Cornetist Edward A. Stahl, of Squadron A, 

 1st Cavalry band, sounded "Attention," whereupon Chancel- 

 lor Henry Mitchell MacCracken, president of the Society, 

 said: 



' The six parks which we celebrate to-day, with the three 

 great connecting parkways, came to our City under the lead- 

 ership of a few citizens who secured, just thirty years ago, 

 April 19, 1883, being the anniversary of Lexington Battle, an 

 act of Legislature which appointed a Special Park Commis- 

 sion for New York City. Its members served without pay, 

 and if the entire seven were at all like the two of their number 

 whom I personally knew, Mr. William W. Niles, Sr., and Mr. 

 Charles L. Tiffany, they well deserve this honor of being 

 remembered in tablets of enduring bronze. 



" As we stand here by our Park Commissioner's headquar- 

 ters we look east to Crotona Park, less than half a mile away, 

 where the capital of our Borough is now situated. Claremont 

 and Crotona Parks are nearly central in location; they are 

 about 2 miles from tidewater, east or west about three to four 

 miles distant from those foreign regions to the south, Ran- 

 dall's and Ward's Island in Manhattan Borough, and four to 

 five miles from these foreign cities on the north, Yonkers and 

 Mount Vernon, Pelham Manor and New Rochelle. Nearer 

 by to the north is Bronx Park, less than two miles away; 

 northwest is Van Cortlandt, three miles away; and northeast 



