FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 



CHAPTER I. 



PLAN FOE THE ESSEX COUNTY PAEKS. 



The inaiTgiTration of a great system of public improve- 

 ments is often preceded by general discussion, more or less 

 public agitation, and sometimes by party divisions, in the 

 efforts to obtain the requisite legislation. This has been 

 not infrequently the case in the selection and acquirement 

 of lands for public parks, which, owing to the great cost 

 usually involved, becomes at once an important factor 

 within the community or the areas affected. 



In Xew York the discussion over a proposed "outer park" 

 in 1851 resulted in a special session of the Legislature in 

 July of that year and the authorization made for the city 

 to locate the park on the East Eiver, above Sixty-sixth 

 street, and including the tract then known as St. John's 

 Wood. Opposition to the project promptly developed, and 

 the property was never acquired for park uses. Two years 

 later, in 1853, a commission was created with authority to 

 locate and acquire land above Fifty-ninth street for what 

 is now Central Park. It was not, however, until three 

 years afterward that the park received its name, and not 

 until 1859 that the lines were extended to One Hundred 

 and Tenth street, and that that park, which has since been 

 so much to N'ew York and to the country, was fully and 

 firmly established. This history of Central Park has been 

 repeated in many of its phases in nearly^ every large park 

 undertaking where the parks have not been acquired by 

 gift from individual owners. 



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