49 



the date of which this is the thirtieth anniversary. What 

 broadmindedness and grasp of future need is made apparent. 

 All the world is now convinced that, with concentration of 

 people in cities, parks must be provided, and that moneys thus 

 spent provide the best sort of investment for health, morals 

 and efficiency. 



" Vienna, Berlin, Brussels, Prague, and other European 

 cities have their parks and park systems. Paris is about to 

 convert its fortifications into a circle of parking. A green 

 belt about London is projected. Boston has the most superb 

 system in this country. New York has now a fair supply. 

 Manhattan has 1,000 acres, Brooklyn, 1,000; Queens, 1,000, 

 and Richmond, 100, making a total of 3,100 acres. The 

 Bronx alone has in these splendid areas we have visited today, 

 3,800 acres. 



" Parks are of five kinds : very small, small, large, larger, 

 largest. New York has many examples of the four first 

 kinds, but only one of the fifth — this lordly Pelham Bay Park, 

 with its 1,756 acres of unsurpassed variety; of natural beauty, 

 and of features of attractiveness. Its size ensures its protec- 

 tion from encroachment by the crowding city, and its char- 

 acter as a natural and sylvan tract, while its accessibility puts 

 it in easy reach of the thousands who seek its pleasant reaches 

 of shore and meadow, woods and stream, for recreation and 

 enjoyment of nature. Bathing and boating, picnicking and 

 camping, driving and walking, field sports and games, nature 

 study and the restfulness of contemplation of views of land 

 and water and sky, afford satisfaction for all lovers of the 

 open air life. 



" Well may we honor by this tablet the names and achieve- 

 ment of this Commission, who planned so wisely, and the 

 City, which executed their plan, to dedicate for public use for- 

 ever this great and beautiful tract, bounded on the north by 

 Pelham Manor and the countryside of Westchester County, 

 on the east by the mind-expanding prospect of the Sound and 

 the Long Island shore, and on the south and west by the 



