PARK SITES CHOSEN- 



119 



Brook location and that of the East Side Park were dis- 

 posed of, this was done. Each of the commissioners favored 

 the proposition. The only points for determination, there- 

 fore, were as to the lines of the park limits, and the acreage 

 that should be inclnded. The subject was under discussion 

 during the summer and early part of the autumn of 1895, 

 and on October 3 the architects and engineers were author- 

 ized to prepare a map of the outlines that they would rec- 

 ommend for a park, including Eagle Eock. A little later, 

 H. D. Oliphant was appointed purchasing agent to look 

 after land options and purchases within the established 

 lines. These limits included a little more than 400 acres, 

 extending along the mountain cliff something more than a 

 mile north of Eagle Eock avenue, nearly to Upper Mont- 

 clair, and about a mile westward ; and besides Eagle Eock, 

 containing many of the finest viewpoints in New J ersey. A 

 road along the crest, since constructed, has opened up a 

 great variety of beautiful views over the hills and valleys 

 to the eastward, while from the western slopes the views 

 of the surrounding section and of the Second Mountain 

 beyond are unsurpassed. 



MONTCLAIR DELEGATION HEARD. 



While it was the intention of the commissioners to extend 

 at the outset the limits of this park as far as it was deemed 

 advisable to make them, a delegation of citizens from Mont- 

 clair on January 20, 1896, urged that the northern limits 

 might be still farther extended. The boundaries of the park 

 remain to the present time substantially as finally agreed 

 upon after a personal inspection by the members of the 

 commission in 1896. 



In November, 1895, the announcement that there was to 

 be an Eagle Eock Park met with favorable response from 

 the public. The press was cordial in its approval. All the 

 county papers commended the selection. Some of the New 

 York papers were equally outspoken in the indorsement of 

 the project. An editorial in the Newark News of Novem- 

 ber 26^ 1895, on ''The New Park Sites," referred to it thus ; 



