138 FIEST COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 



"We also advocate," said this petition, "the control by the 

 Park Comrdssion of Central avenue as a parkway, it being 

 one of the most important avenues in the county and the 

 most direct route from the center of Newark to the Orange 

 Mountains.*^ 



At this time the citizens' committee had offered to make 

 liberal donations in cash or land, or both if necessary, to 

 secure the park which all desired. I moved that the propo- 

 sition as proposed by Frank H. Scott, chairman of the local 

 committee, be accepted; that the architects and engineers 

 prepare an official map, and that "a separate map of a con- 

 necting parkway along, or adjacent to, Mosswood avenue, 

 from Warwick avenue via Tremont avenue to the triangle 

 tract," be included. The resolution was objected to, and 

 the following substitute, as drawn by Commissioner 

 Murphy, finally agreed upon : 



"Resolved, That if the parties interested in the Triangle 

 Park in Orange present a proposition to the commission sat- 

 isfactory to it as to quantity of land, and involving an ex- 

 penditure for land by the commission not to exceed 

 $100,000, the commission would act upon it favorably." 



J ust where the adoption of this resolution left the propo- 

 sition for assistance which had been made by the citizens' 

 committee, I was puzzled at the time to know how they, or 

 we, were going to find out. It was at this time considered 

 very doubtful if the land could be acquired for that amount, 

 in which event the resolution w^ould defeat the project. The 

 real crux of this situation lay in the fact that J. Everett 

 RejTLolds owned about sixteen acres of the land which it 

 would be necessary to acquire for the park, and at what 

 price he would be willing to sell this land, no one in, or out, 

 of the commission had thus far been able to ascertain. 



The city of Orange had built a large and costly storm- 

 water sewer as far south as Central avenue. Mr. Rej-nolds, 

 as a heavy taxpayer, and others, had been most urgent in 

 petitioning the city to extend that line through his prop- 

 erty, situated just south of the avenue. This extension 

 Fould drain his and other acreage property there, and im,- 



