182 



FIEST COUNTY PAEK SYSTEM 



had been distributed as far as Harrison street, were after- 

 ward removed from the avenue. 



Locally the party organization in East Orange in 1896 

 was yet so overwhelmingly on the Eepublican side that 

 little doubt as to the authorities again lining up on the 

 franchise-granting corporation side was entertained by the 

 traction people or their attorney there. And they were 

 right. After exhaustive public hearings by the Township 

 Committee on November 30, and at three public meetings 

 in Commonwealth Hall in December, 1896, when the whole 

 situation as to the needed parkways had been fully out- 

 lined by many representative citizens, and in a way ex- 

 plained by the Park Commission, the new ordinance fran- 

 chise for a railroad on Central avenue was passed on first 

 reading January 18, 1897. In the meantime, at the meet- 

 ing of the previous week, January 11, the request of the 

 Park Commission for the transfer of the avenues had been, 

 by unanimous vote, declined. This declination was based, 

 as was then stated, upon "the reticence of the commis- 

 sioners as to what they proposed doing with the avenues 

 if they secured them.'' Whatever the cause, when the rail- 

 road franchise was passed the town woke up. 



The awakening had been accelerated by the methods em- 

 ployed by the traction company. The property owners' 

 consents filed with the authorities, were found to be those 

 obtained for the Eapid Transit Company several years be- 

 fore; and, owing to the favorable sentiment for the park- 

 ways, new consents were unobtainable — owners of two- 

 thirds of the feet frontage, and of three-fourths of the 

 property value on the avenue, having petitioned for the 

 parkway. 



The morning after one of the public meetings, Counsel 

 J. B. Dill stated that "a resolution would be passed by 

 the Park Board granting the trolley people, whom he rep- 

 resented, a franchise for Central avenue, as soon as the 

 avenue came in possession of that board." 



Not long afterward Eev. H. P. Fleming, of St. John's 

 parish, Orange, informed me that a v/ell-known lav/yer, 



