22 FIRST COrXTY PARK SYSTEM 



could, to adrance its credit to the various municipalities for 

 millions of dollars, as liad been done in Massachusetts, 

 reljdng, as there, upon a future apportionment or assess- 

 ment upon the cities and towns within the district for final 

 reimbursements. 



DIFFEEENT PLANS IN" MANY PLACES. 



It was, therefore, recognized at the outset of the discus- 

 sion that onl}' the general fonn of the preliminary legisla- 

 tion in Massachusetts could be in any way advantageously 

 used here. It had also been recognized that the movement 

 for larger parks or park systems had taken different forms 

 in nearly eYery city. New York had in 1888 expended mil- 

 lions of dollars in adding nearly 4,000 acres of new park 

 lands, extending, with the great connecting parkways, from 

 Van Cortland Park on the Hudson, to the beautiful Pel- 

 ham Bay Park on Long Island Sound — all embraced in 

 what was soon afterwards known as the park system of the 

 Bronx, 



In and about London the County Councils had at that 

 time located and acquired, as had the authorities of Paris, 

 vast tracts of lands for park uses, but each was then lack- 

 ing, as in most other European and American urban com- 

 munities, in any concerted action or comprehensive con- 

 nective park system such as, I believe, was first adopted in 

 this country in Detroit, and as was now deemed desirable 

 for Essex County. 



It was accordingly understood that the favorable legis- 

 lation that had just then been so promptly obtained in our 

 own Legislature, would not only enable the work of acquir- 

 ing and developing a park system here to go readily and 

 rapidly forward, but, under the law, a commission, ^^se- 

 lected for fitness," would be enabled to adopt the best 

 features of all the park systems, and by holding the enter- 

 prise on the lines so cordially approved by the Legislature, 

 the press and the people, would ritain public confidence and 



