PARK AND CEMETERY. 
267 
or about 16 cents per square foot. The cost of the 
land was $80,651.08, or about 13 cents per square 
foot, making total cost to December 1st, the date 
of report, 29 cents per square foot. The area of 
section G is 602,966 square feet. The cost of con- 
struction was apportioned as follows: Filling, 
$35,420.02; labor, $22,836.74; loam, $11,488.99; 
gravel, $7,638.01; miscellaneous, $18, 189.74. 
It is well to note the results obtained from this 
river work as applied to Cambridge, and which are 
summed up as follows: 
1st. The general improvement in appearance — 
the making beautiful that which was disgraceful 
and abominable. 
2d. The cleaning out of unwholesome and un- 
desirable hovels, a constant menace not only to the 
health of those who lived in them, but through the 
conveyance of disease germs to the children in our 
schools. 
3d. The increase in the values of abutting 
property, in some cases more than 40O per cent. 
The filling of marshes and bog holes, a work that 
never would have been done by private capital. 
The erection of new and expensive buildings, and 
laying out of new streets, thus changing this former 
picture of desolation into one of beauty and use- 
fulness. 
4th. The effect it has had upon the State Com- 
mission, resulting in a plan to lay out the huge 
Lowell and Longfellow marshes, so that the Boston 
shore will correspond to that of Cambridge. The 
Metropolitan Commissioners have made the taking, 
and will begin at once the building of the shore 
drive, the dykes and the speedway, to be followed 
by other improvements. 
It is unnecessary to suggest what will be the 
final result of these wise expenditures. As the re- 
port well says: A city well located on the sunny 
bank of a beautiful river, with wide, well-shaded 
streets, non-partisan government, freedom from sa- 
loons, the seat of the greatest university in the 
country, the one-time home of Longfellow, Holmes 
and Lowell, surrounded by historical associations 
— should be the ideal spot in which to build a home 
and educate one’s children. 
A beginning was made in the work of improv- 
ing the schoolhouse grounds, by making lawns, 
planting borders and flower beds where appropriate, 
