Llewellyn Park 
AN OLD GARDEN ON MR. D. O. HEALD’s PROPERTY, LLEWELLYN PARK 
apiece,and are furnished 
by an outside company 
at that rate. The water 
supply comes from 
mains laid across the 
park, as a short cut, 
by a corporation intent 
upon reaching Orange 
and Newark. There 
is no general sewage 
system. The conveni¬ 
ences of gas, electric 
light and telephone 
service are, of course, 
a personal charge to 
each consumer. 
11 will be seen, then, 
that the communal 
funds are hardly ade¬ 
quate. Here appears the difficulty found in 
nearly every residence community. I o pro¬ 
vide more money, the ten dollar per acre limit 
of contribution would have to be raised by vote 
of three-fourths of the property owners. I his 
majority, it is declared by some of the mem¬ 
bers, might not be obtainable, because of the 
already heavy burden of taxation exacted by 
the borough of West Orange, practically 
none of which is spent in the park itself, the 
latter being private property. In effect, this 
is double taxation. To the West Orange 
treasury, Llewellyn Park residents contribute 
annually some $20,000, without police, light, 
highway or water service in return from the 
town authorities. The small but positive 
sign at the several entrances, “ Private 
Grounds,” is to blame for this. 
As a remedy, certain park residents, 
though others oppose them, suggest asking 
for a legal separation from West Orange, 
and the creation of a new borough of Llew¬ 
ellyn, comprising only the park itself. Phis 
would compel the opening of a few roads— 
the main avenues of travel across the park— 
to the public, for no borough or township 
can erect a barrier about itself. At the same 
time, more than half the roads might remain 
private parkways. T his would enable the 
retention of all borough taxes within the 
park itself; probably these taxes could be 
much reduced and still suffice for borough 
administration, for police, for lighting, water¬ 
ing and repairing roads, for landscape gar¬ 
dening and for other uses in that portion of 
the park thrown open to the public. The 
original acreage tax of the Llewellyn Park 
Association could then be applied to the 
private territory, with beneficial results. 
The actual privacy thus sacrificed by park 
residents woidd be, it is held by advocates 
of this plan, unimportant. As a matter of 
fact, the entrance gates are closed only on 
summer and autumn Sundays when the 
abundance of flowers or of ripe chestnuts 
might tempt juvenile visitors to break first 
the tenth and then the eighth commandment. 
An adequate force of policemen probably 
coidd solve the problem. Until two years 
ago, Llewellyn Park had no paid guardians 
of the peace ; since then, one constable, on 
duty from 10 a. m. to 10 p. m., has suc¬ 
ceeded in upholding the majesty of the law, 
and thefts or violence are nearly unknown. 
From the foregoing, it will be seen that 
the communal ties binding Llewellyn Park 
into an organic whole are for the most part 
loose, and in some cases purely voluntary. 
Phis is reflected, naturally enough, in the 
park’s layout. Voluntary acquiescence in 
what seems best for the majority is about the 
limit to which the residents go in setting up 
a central authority. And this is really what 
Llewellyn Haskell aimed at. A benevolent 
despotism would never have suited the 
mood of this dreamer. In the Essex County 
settlement, he foresaw a community of inde¬ 
pendent families allied for protection of one 
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