118 FIRST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 



was done, and the strenuous cohorts of the West End had 

 won. 



In December, 1896, the provisional estimate of cost for 

 "a park on the West Side" was $75,000. One year later the 

 cash disbursements for land and buildings there amounted 

 to $172,234. This amount, however, covers about all that 

 has been paid for land in that park. The improvements have 

 now cost something over $100,000. The area is twenty- 

 three acres. The varied topography has given opportunity 

 for diversified landscape effects, with a small lake or pond 

 feature, attractive stretches of turf, and effective tree and 

 shrub plantations. 



About $40,000 in value of the acquired land on the west 

 side of the park, originally intended for a parkway, is still 

 held in the name of the Fidelity Trust Company — the mat- 

 ter of the parkway extension having been suspended — and 

 has thus remained in statu quo for years. 



EAGLE ROCK RESERVATION. 



Since "ye olden time" and the days of Carteret, and of 

 "East and West Jersey," Eagle Rock has been famed for its 

 commanding views and attractive natural surroundings. 

 For generations residents and sojourners in Essex and 

 neighboring counties have made it a place of pilgrimage to 

 enjoy the views, and the numbers have increased with the 

 growth of population and the added facilities for reaching 

 "the rock." Situated as this point is, on the bold precipi- 

 tous cliff of the Orange Mountain, 600 feet above tide water, 

 yet but a short air line distance from it, with Montclair, 

 Bloomfield and the beautiful Llewellyn Park on the side of 

 the mountain in the immediate foregTound, and the 

 Oranges, Newark, New York, and the hills of Staten Island 

 in view beyond — what more fitting place could be selected 

 for the first choice of the outlying parks than this. 



It was, therefore, quite within the natural order of things 

 that the Park Commission should turn its attention to the 

 location of a park at this place as soon as the selection of 

 park sites wag taken up. Immediately after the Branch 



