PARK AND CEMETERY. 
13-3 
THE PARKS OF NEW YORK CITY. 
The June issue contained an article on “Some 
Early History of the Parks of New York City,’’ 
which appeared in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, com- 
piled from addresses on the City’s Parks, delivered 
belore the New York Historical Society by Mr. 
Gherardi Davis. From the same source the fol- 
lowing continuation of the above is taken: 
Central Park has an area of 840 acres, being a 
little more than two and a half miles long and 
something over half a mile wide. The reservoirs 
and transverse roads take up about one hundred 
and sixty acres, and the water in the park covers 
an area of about forty-four acres. The northern 
and southern ends of the park are very different in 
character. Between Fifty-ninth and Seventy-second 
streets the ground is undulating, and does not 
show the rough characteristics found in the north- 
ern end of the park. The lower end of the park has 
been laid out with greater care, as far as grass 
plots and flower beds are concerned, and in gen- 
eral has been much more embellished than the up- 
per part of the park. The natural condition of the 
land calls for this, the rocks and gullies in the up- 
per part of the park not requiring anything like as 
much attention to make them effective. This part 
of New York was described at the time it was 
taken for a park, as a rough country, covered with 
thickets and swamps. There were numerous shan- 
ties scattered over the land, and the land was cov- 
ered with a rank growth, all of which, of course, 
has disappeared and been replaced by fine trees 
and beautiful lawns. 
At the northern end of the park, alo.ng the line 
of hills which there crosses the city, are to be seen 
some remains of the block houses and redoubts 
erected in 1812. They are sometimes spoken of as 
having been erected in revolutionary times. This, 
however, is an error. The famous McGowan’s pass, 
which led across these hills, can no longer be ac- 
curately traced, but in general it maybe said to 
have gone diagonally across the northeast corner 
of the park about where the east drive now runs 
from the tavern to One Hundred and Tenth street. 
The water which lies to the right of the road is the 
westerly end of what was formerly Harlem creek, 
a branch of the Harlem river, which extended into 
the island as far as this, and into which various 
streams of water still flow through the park, 
drained. 
The cost of the land taken for Central Park was 
over $5,000,000, and upward of $15,000,000 has 
been expended for its construction and mainte- 
nance. It is said that the land covered by the park 
is now worth over $200,000,000. 
Under the wise and liberal system of improve- 
ment which has proceeded uninterruptedly since its 
creation, Central park has become one of the finest 
and most beautiful pleasure grounds in the world. 
Its kaleidoscopic landscape views, spacious, wind- 
ing driveways, broad promenades, wild wooded 
nooks and rocky projections, its leafy walks and 
disappearing bridle paths and many artistic groups 
of statuary contrive to make it a constant delight to 
the people and an educational factor in their artis- 
tic life which cannot be too highly estimated. In 
natural beauty Prospect park, Brooklyn, has the ad- 
vantage, but so cunningly has artifice been em- 
ployed in Central park that it stands to-day the most 
finished product of landscape architecture to be 
found in the country. The central promenade of Cen- 
tral park is the mall, a quarter of a mile long and 
208 feet wide, bordered by double rows of elm trees 
and famous for its notable collection of statues, 
prominent among which are Shakspeare, by J. Q. 
A. Ward, erected on the three hundredth anniver- 
sary of the poet’s birth; Burns and Scott, both in 
sitting posture; the “Indian Huncer,” by Ward; Fitz 
Greene Halleck, and a collossal bust of Beethoven, 
Not far away are the music pavilion and the terrace, 
a sumptuous pile of richly carved masonry, the lake 
and the famous Bethesda fountain designed by 
Emma Stebbins and made in Munich. Beyond the 
lake is the Ramble, a place of many footpaths 
through thickets and by the side of rocks and streams, 
passing a bust of Schiller, rustic cabins, gorges and 
waterfalls. Still further on are the Belvidere, a 
great stone tower, from which a fine birds-eye view 
of the whole park and city is to be had, and the res- 
ervoirs. Nearby the latter stands the obelisk, a 
monolith relic of an age dating back more than fif- 
teen centuries before the bi-rth of Christ, which was 
presented to the city by the late Ismail Pasha, 
Khedive of Egypt. It is of granite, about 70 feet 
in height and weighs 200 tons. The four sides are 
covered with hieroglyphic figures. Opposite the 
obelisk and near the Fifth avenue entrance, at 
Eighty-third street, is the Metropolitan Museum of 
Art, containing the finest collection of pictures in 
America. The American Museum of Natural His- 
tory is situated just outside the park, on the west- 
ern side of the city. 
Northwest of Central park is Morningside park, 
laid out along the easterly slope of the hills which 
run along the Hudson river at this place. The 
westerly slope of these hills is taken up by River- 
side park, which stretches from Seventy-second street 
to One Hundred’and Twenty-fifth street. On the 
top of these hills, about where Columbia college 
now stands took place the last part of the 
battle Wf Harlem heights. Riverside drive, which 
was acquired in 1872, was first opened to the pub 
