522 



WASHINGTON PARK. 



this, each acquisition of new territory necessitated some 

 modification of portions of the park area already defined, 

 and still further advanced the value of lands ultimately 

 found necessary to be taken for park purposes. All this 

 points to the desirability of locating parks where sufficient 

 land for the purpose can be obtained in a body. 



There is an interesting quotation in Mr. Egerton's book 

 from the report of the treasurer for 1875, that cites some 

 pecuniary advantages conferred by parks upon surround- 

 ing portions of a city. "The assessed valuation in the 

 year 1868, one year prior to the organization of the park- 

 commission by the legislature, of portions of the Ninth 



But aside from this pecuniary aspect of the case, the 

 city has an asset that is cumulative in interest to the citi- 

 zens. Every year lends additional charm to the park. 

 "The fundamental elements of any large park," s9.ys 

 William McMillan, "are not its roads, walks, bridges, 

 buildings and other accessory features requisite for public 

 accommodation in the use of the grounds. These may 

 rather be classed as necessary evils. The essential ele- 

 ment is the landscape, its surface undulations of hill and 

 dale or lawn ; its trees, shrubs, flowers, single or massed, 

 in grove or copse ; its deep woods or open glades, and its 

 broad stretches of green sward or water. All of these 



Washington Park ; Dwellings on Thurlow Terrace. 



and Tenth wards — those most benefited by the park — 

 was |2, 696,688. This exact area, now contained in parts 

 of the Tenth, Thirteenth, Fourteenth, Fifteenth and Six- 

 teenth wards under the reorganization of the wards of 

 the city, was assessed in 1875 at $4,843,440, being an 

 increase of $2,146,752. The assessed valuation with- 

 in the same bounds in i8gi, according to the present re- 

 port, was $14,534,000, showing an increase of $9,690,600 

 in 16 years, or $11,837,352 since the organization of 

 the board. The assessed valuation of the Englewood 

 Place, front on Washington Park, formerly called Robin 

 street, was, in 1875, $9,500 ; in i8gi, as improved, it was 

 $175,800. The same comparisons could be made on 

 State and Willett streets." 



in their endless combinations are constantly modified by 

 the varying conditions of the point of view, the atmos- 

 phere and the seasons. Many visitors, however, because 

 they happen to have little knowledge of individual trees 

 or shrubs or little taste for landscape beauty, take in like 

 proportion little notice of the ever-fresh, ever-changing 

 features of the verdant landscape, and enjoy chiefly the 

 accessory works of mechanical construction. But the 

 true ideal of park recreation to persons worn by the har- 

 assing turmoil of city life is the refreshing enjoyment of 

 all that is beautiful and blissful that may be seen and 

 felt amid the. serene manifestations of nature embodied 

 in the scene." 



Alluding in this report to the flower-garden, illustrated 



