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PARK AND CEMETERY. 
UNIQUE PROBLEMS of HUDSON COUNTY, N. J., PARKS 
The Hudson County, N. J., Park 
Commission has met with some, unique 
and interesting problems in its work of 
creating a system of parks in one of 
the areas of densest population on the 
American continent. The acquisition of 
the land for this system has cost more 
on the average than in any other park 
system in America. It embodies an in- 
teresting scientific plan to establish water 
and landscape views in situations either 
neglected, destroyed or condemned for 
such purposes two generations previ- 
ously. The population of Hudson 
County is 487,991, and the area of the 
county includes 27,254 acres of land and 
11,455 acres of water. 
The commission has recently issued 
a report covering the first five years of 
its history, which shows some remark- 
able park construction work under way. 
While in one sense Hudson County 
is a municipal unit as a county, and is 
also divided into other municipal units 
by the several cities and towns which 
go to make up the county, yet in an- 
other sense Hudson County is only a 
part of the metropolitan unit of which 
New York city is the center. There are 
nowhere else in America such peculiar 
conditions as rule in the relationship of 
Hudson County to New York city. The 
proportion of the very poor and the 
very rich in the county’s population is 
small. The park problem, therefore, is 
a unique one, and must be met and 
solved with but little light from other 
cities. It was deemed wise to ap- 
proach it from the people’s side and not 
from the land side. It is customary 
to approach the park problem from the 
land side. A piece of land readily 
lending itself to park purposes is se- 
lected to be made into a park, and a 
landscape architect is employed to de- 
sign the park. He makes a plan that 
will bring out the greatest scenic value 
of the land and its outlooks, but the 
highest ideal of a park is to serve the 
needs of the people. 
Hudson County has no open country 
in its suburbs in the usual acceptation 
of the term “country,” and for that 
reason, as it increases in population, it 
cannot spread out like the ordinary city 
with an open country around it. 
The county includes the municipali- 
ties of Jersey City, Hoboken, Bayonne, 
West Hoboken, Town of Union, Kear- 
ny, Harrison, North Bergen, Weehaw- 
ken. West New York, Guttenberg, Se- 
caucus. East Newark. 
It has been held by those competent 
to give an authoritative opinion that the 
minimum area of park space for the 
population of any community should be 
at least one acre for every two hundred 
persons. Assuming this to be a correct 
estimate, Hudson County should have 
at this time more than 2,439 acres of 
park space, and Jersey City more than 
1,242 acres, or more than thirty times 
its present city park area. Available 
space cannot be purchased in this 
county for less than an average of 
$3,300 per acre. This, then, in order to 
give an acre to every 200 persons, would 
require the expenditure for land alone 
of over $8,000,000, which the commis- 
sion does not advocate. 
The plan of the Hudson County sys- 
tem has as its chief feature a series of 
large parks connected with Hudson 
Boulevard, a pleasure way of eighteen 
miles, built in 1904 at a cost of about 
$4,000,000. The county has at present 
no large public parks, with the excep- 
tion of the sites already selected by the 
commission. With local parks Jersey 
City is the most bountifully supplied, 
with nine public squares, aggregating 
39.10 acres. 
Bayonne now has two city parks, con- 
taining 20 acres, and there are three 
small squares in Hoboken. 
These fifteen public squares, aggre- 
gating 68.16 acres, are the only public 
pleasure spots in Hudson County to- 
day outside of the parks acquired by , 
this commission. They offer no rural 
effects whatever, and are merely city 
squares, with asphalt paths, grass and 
trees, yet they are thronged on warm 
evenings with men, women and children, 
affording additional evidence of the 
need of park lands in Hudson County. 
Hudson County is made up of a 
number of distinct local communities, 
each regarding its public affairs from an 
independent and isolated point of view, 
and generally in a spirit of competition 
and jealousy. The marked topographi- 
cal divisions of the county have aggra- 
vated sectional feeling to an unusual 
degree. 
PLAN FOR WEST SIDE PARK. 
HUDSON COUNTY, N. J. 
Daniel W. uangton, 
Landscape Arch. 
