769 
PARK AND C EM ET ERY. 
BUILDING NEW JERSEY COUNTY PARK SYSTEM 
The Hudson County, N. J., park 
system, including several New Jersey 
townships opposite New York City, is 
doubly interesting as an example of 
scientific development of a system 
of county parks and as an example of 
park building in an area that is prob- 
ably the densest in population of any 
similar tract in the country. 
The second annual report of the 
commission records that the work 
since the last report has covered a 
greatly extended field in the estab- 
lishment of the system of county 
parks provided for by the law which 
created this commission and gave 
definition to its duties. 
The commissioners deemed it best 
to proceed with park development so 
as not unreasonably to burden tax- 
payers, and while, up to date, this 
commission was entitled to total ap- 
propriations of $4,679,308, it has asked 
for only $3,940,000. 
When the commission took up the 
work of providing the county with a 
system of parks, it had nothing upon 
which to proceed, but the task 
planned is now practically in hand. 
The w'ork of the commission in fu- 
ture, with its present appropriations, 
will be largely the development of 
the sites already located. 
Six park sites, aggregating an area 
of 517.9 acres, have been selected 
and most of the land purchased. The 
plans of the commission further pro- 
vide for the extension of the present 
park system upon the appropriation 
of additional funds from time to 
time. One park — West Side — has 
been completed as to its upland por- 
tion and thrown open to the public; 
the playground at Hoboken Park has 
been a source of enjoyment and edu- 
cation to tens of thousands of chil- 
dren, and the open-air skating-rink 
has been largely used and appreciat- 
ed. Work is progressing rapidly on 
the construction of West Hudson and 
Hoboken parks. 
The desire to locate parks through- 
out the county so as to benefit all 
parts has been foremost in the plan 
of the Commission. Park sites have 
been secured with a view not only to 
provide ample facilities for the recre- 
ation of the people, but also to pro- 
vide forms of recreation in each park 
which are not common to the other 
parks. 
During the year 1910 two park 
sites have been selected in Bayonne, 
and a large part of the property has 
been purchased; work of construction 
has been prosecuted in West Hudson 
and Hoboken; pathways have been 
constructed from the Boulevard Loop 
to the Hudson River, in North Hud- 
son. Plans have been accepted and 
work is under way for the comple- 
tion of the park in Hoboken, and per- 
manent buildings of attractive design 
are now in process of construction. 
As was stated in the first report, 
which was discussed in Park and Ceme- 
tery, the value of land for a gen- 
eral park system in Hudson Coun- 
ty reaches the highest average cost 
heretofore made necessary in any 
American community, for available 
space cannot be purchased for less 
than an average of $3,500 per acre. 
This fact is brought strikingly to at- 
tention by the Metropolitan Park 
Commission of Providence Planta- 
tions, which says, in its sixth annual 
report to the General Assembly of 
Rhode Island; 
“Among other park districts of the 
United States, the one which most 
closely corresponds to our own in 
tax valuation and population is that 
of Hudson County, New Jersey, com- 
prising Jersey City and its adjacent 
towns. Hudson County, however, 
has now to pay the penalty of pro- 
SHBLTER HOUSE IN HUDSON 
COUNTY PARK. 
crastination, for it waited until all of 
its available natural opportunities 
were gone before making a begin- 
ning of its park system, and now dis- 
covers, to quote the report of its 
Commission, ‘that available space can- 
not be purchased in this district for 
less than an average of $3,500 per 
acre.’ Consequently, the two million 
dollars that Hudson County had ap- 
propriated up to April 1, 1908, for be- 
ginning its work, will not buy as 
many acres as this Commission has 
already secured for $125,000. We 
may observe, also, that Hudson 
County’s appropriation, applied to 
our own district, would secure land 
for all of the projects needed for the 
complete system.” 
This comparison is an especially 
striking one, when it is considered 
that the Metropolitan Park Commis- 
sion of Providence, Rhode Island, 
does not possess the power of emi- 
nent domain, while much of the land 
in Hudson County was acquired by 
condemnation proceedings. 
The average price paid for the land 
in the two parks — West Side and Ho- 
boken — for which land purchases are 
completed amounts to $4,005.85 an 
acre, and the indications are that 
when the land for the other four 
parks is all purchased this average 
will be reduced to about $3,500. 
The West Side Park is today a 
most popular recreation spot is evi- 
denced by the fact that during the fis- 
cal year ending November 30, 1910, 
it was patronized by an unusually 
large number of people, the estimated 
attendance being 334,000 on foot, 
47,200 by automobiles, carriages and 
bicycles, 1,500 equestrians, and 147,- 
700 on the athletic fields and play- 
grounds, making a total of 530,000 
visitors. 
The band stand in West Side Park, 
adjoining the Administration Build- 
ing and fronting on the concourse 
leading from Upland Drive is octag- 
onal in shape and is built with mold- 
ed base course, steps of hard blue- 
stone, Indiana limestone columns, and 
surmounted by a roof of red Spanish 
