8o 
PARK AND CEMETERY. 
GATEWAY AND OFFICE BUILDING, WOODMERE CEMETERY, WOODMERE, MICH. 
GATEWAY AND OFFICES, WOODMERE CEMETERY, 
WOODMERE, MICH. 
The accompanying illustration gives a perspec- 
tive view of the new entrance gates and office build- 
ing; in course of construction for Woodmere ceme- 
tery, Woodmere, Mich., to take the place of the 
buildings destroyed by fire in April last which also 
consumed the superintendents’ residence. 
The structure will be built of random rock face 
limestone, with archways, architraves, door and win- 
dow dressings and cornices of cut sandstone, from 
designs by Messrs. Donaldson & Meier, architects. 
The roof will be covered with tile. 
The plan provides for an entrance on one side of 
the offices and exit on the other, which gives a 
total frontage of 84 feet, of which the building oc- 
cupies 45 feet, with a depth of 35 feet. 
The ground floor will contain a large waiting 
room, secretary’s and superintendent’s offices, vault, 
and eventually toilet accommodations. The second 
story in the tower will contain the superintendent’s 
drafting and working rooms. The interior finish 
will be of oak. The gateway at the right will be 
14 feet in width, and the exit gate on the left 10 
feet. The final cost of the structure will be some 
$10,000. 
A new home for the superintendent is also to be 
built just north of the entrance, to be constructed of 
brick and sandstone trimmings, to cost between 
$3,500 and $4,000. It will be plain but commodi- 
ous and substantial. The new buildings will be a 
great improvement on those formerly occupying the 
site and will meet the requirements of modern ideas 
in this direction. 
SOME EARLY HISTORY OF THE PARKS OF NEW 
YORK CITY. 
The first park created in New York dates back con- 
siderably over a hundred years. 
On the 15th of August, 1785, a letter was published 
in the New York Packet, addressed to the mayor and 
aldermen of New York, in which the writer said: 
“The size and consequence that this town must one 
day arrive at ought strongly to impress the necessity of 
attending to this object, as well as to contribute to the 
comfort and health of the inhabitants, as from the pro- 
priety of adding to the pub ic ornaments of the city. In 
this view the Battery naturally presents itself as a sub- 
ject capable of vast improvement, were the margin of 
this ground laid out with judgment, planted with a row 
of trees and furnished with seats, from whence, after be- 
ing jaded with the heats of August, we could enjoy the 
cool breezes of the evening and admire the beauties of 
one of the finest harbors in the world — what an orna- 
ment would this city derive from it.” 
How correct this writer’s judgment was, all who have 
ever seen the Battery well know. The Battery, however, 
was not the first open space in the city, which is now a 
park or square. It is the Bowling Green which has this 
distinction. The name Bowling Green reminds us that 
in 1732 certain burghers, who then lived in lower Broad- 
way, leased this plot of ground from the city in order to 
play the now wellnigh forgotten game of bowls upon 
the grass plot there. As is well known the block bounded 
by Bowling Green, State street and Whitehall street was 
covered as far back as 1645 by a fort, erected by the 
Dutch, and which remained there until the end of the 
last century. On the site of this fort was erected in 1790 
what was known as the governor’s house, originally de- 
signed as a residence for the president, and subsequently 
occupied by Governors Clinton and Jay. It was after- 
ward used as a customhouse, and was torn down in 1815. 
