PARK AND CEMETERY. 
■U 
HUBBARD PARK, MERIDEN, CONN. 
The field of philantrophy is a very broad one, 
offering many opportunities either for the good 
Samaritan or the public spirited citizen, and each 
opportunity fraught with far reaching possibilities. 
Yet the beneficence which lies in the donation of a 
park to a community is of peculiar significance, 
touching so many features of public benefit, and 
moreover extending into the future further than any 
one generation can see. 
Hubbard Park, Meriden, Conn., is one of the 
most suggestive examples of this class of philan- 
thropic effort we know of. Meriden is a manufac- 
turing city of some 30,000 inhabitants, and yet by 
this gift of Mr. Walter Hubbard to his fellow citi- 
zens it is placed in the front rank of park cities. 
The park has an area of some 800 acres and is the 
largest single public park in New England. Messrs. 
Olmsted Bros., the landscape architects, pronounce 
it the most interesting and striking reservation of 
natural scenery possessed by any New England 
city. Meriden may well be grateful for this sur- 
passing gift, not only for the beautiful tract of 
scenic splendor and health giving opportunities but 
for the fact that Mr. Hubbard gave himself to the 
work, and being a rare lover of nature conceived 
and carried out the phases of improvement which 
in his cultured eye seemed to him best for the de- 
velopment of the park. 
As will be seen from the illustrations it is largely 
a mountain park, suggestive of primeval days, but 
including rare spots of sylvan beauty. Brooks 
course down the hill sides, rippling and bounding 
from point to point; wild flowers of many descrip- 
tions give touches of color with nature’s lavish hand; 
while shady dells and mossy crags alternate, to in- 
terest, refresh and instruct, as one passes along to 
VIEW IN HUBBARD PARK, MERIDEN, CONN. 
investigate and discover the various attractive fea- 
ture to be found on every hand. 
Mr. H. Phelps Arms gives the following de- 
scription in the Connecticut magazine: “The scen- 
ery of the hills is exceedingly pictures- 
que, the crags being partly, and most 
charmingly, draped with evergreen and 
deciduous trees and bushes of the most 
interesting species. The trap ledges 
are softly tinted with various delicate 
hues, merging into a general effect of 
warm gray that harmonizes most admir- 
ably with the broad stretches of different 
shades of green of the all pervading de- 
ciduous woods. Here and there groups 
of dark green hemlocks, pines and ce- 
dars occur, especially on the steepest 
and least accessible parts of the moun- 
tain side, and serve to divide almost 
as strikingly as the cliffs the ever re- 
curring masses of deciduous foliage. 
“A tour among the peaks well re- 
pays the effort to climb them. The 
scene is remarkably bold and pictures- 
que in its varying forms of crags, cliffs 
and precipitous hill sides. The view '^of the sur- 
rounding country is more than usually beautiful 
VIEW IN HUBBARD PARK, MERIDEN, CONN. 
