102 



FIEST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 



as a nucleus. At that time the estimated cost of the land 

 and buildings, between Fifth avenue and Orange street, 

 above mentioned, was $361,685. It soon became apparent 

 that a creditable "Central Park" for E'ewark and for the 

 county could not be established within those lines. By 

 January, 1896, the Sussex avenue extension and the block 

 east of Clifton avenue, the G-arside street addition had been 

 included. The questions as to these additions were not long 

 pending. 



BRANCH BROOK PARK EXTEN'DED. 



The extension from Park avenue to Bloomfield avenue 

 was a more serious matter. A large acreage of city lot 

 property was involved and the estimated cost was nearly 

 $300,000. Such an expenditure, together with the cost of 

 improvement, would make a heavy drain on the available 

 funds, before the needs of the other portions of the county 

 could be considered. The proposition was finally carried, 

 however, and on January 9 that liberal extension through 

 to Bloomfield avenue was also included in the Branch 

 Brook Park. 



But the lines were not to stop there. Pressure had been 

 brought upon the commission to carry the northern limits 

 of the park still farther. North of Bloomfield avenue and 

 east of the Morris Canal on the line of the park, the land 

 was mostly low, swamp property, impossible of improve- 

 ment without draining, and until thus improved, practi- 

 cally worthless. In the springtime, or during a rainy sea- 

 son, many acres there were practically as impassable to a 

 person on foot as the jungles of Africa. In the spring of 

 1896 the commission made two or three tours of inspection 

 there, but no one would take the risk of sinking in the 

 swale by attempting to explore the inner recesses ol the 

 waterlogged tangle of grassy bumps and hummocks, then 

 known as the old Blue Jay Swamp. 



On December 4, 1896, this northern extension matter was 

 the special order of business. Commissioner Murphy had 

 offered a resolution the July previous that the northern 



