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market value, even when surrounded by dwellings, but they may be made, under skilful treatment, to combine the most varied and beautiful of park scenery, or else render an equally important service to the public in securing increased health and cheerfulness.

THE GENERAL PLAN.

The "Report on the Establishment of a Public Park" (City Doc. 105, 1874) recommends,

"First, that, in view of the present grade, and of the class of buildings which may be erected there, a park be laid out in some part of the territory between Arlington street and Parker's hill.

"Second, that a series of parks of moderate size, connected by proper roads, be laid out between the third and fourth mile circles; and that the land for a second series of larger size, beyond the first, be secured at once; these outer parks need not be improved until the growth of the city makes it necessary."

The study which the Commissioners have given to the topography of the city, during the past six months, has led them to the same general conclusions. The difficulty has been so to apply these ideas as to accomplish the purpose in a manner which would prove to be reasonably successful and satisfactory to all interested immediately and in the future.

The plan which is herewith submitted undertakes to secure, in a greater or less degree, the prominent physical characteristics to be found within the city which would be valuable features in pleasure-grounds, and to use them so that they may contribute to the general health and pleasure of the people.

It is too late to accomplish these purposes in some localities as well as could be desired. Existing railroads, streets and grades, many of which were established independently of each other, have already determined the general character of the surface improvements, and any scheme for public grounds must, in the main, conform to these conditions. This lack of a comprehensive plan for the laying out of a large city is, with comparatively small exceptions, everywhere apparent. The growth of Boston, from its infancy (as shown in its streets), has, till within a very few years, been without method, dependent chiefly upon the individual fancy or convenience of property owners, instead of being directed by municipal authority; this objectional policy is still practised in the suburbs, and will entail like results. Since the town became a large city the inconvenience of this want of system has compelled the government to expend

large sums, in partially correcting these irregular lines and grades, and in compensation to owners of property taken for these purposes. Uneconomical in lands and distances as this accidental growth of a city always is as affecting the practical affairs of life, it is not without some compensation in its greater picturesqueness. A city on a level plain, with rectangular streets, is doubtless laid out on the most convenient plan for the daily work of its citizens, but it is likely to be monotonous from its excessive regularity.

While, therefore, it has been impracticable to design a system or "series" of parks, accurately speaking, it has been possible to locate several independent parks, connected with each other, and corresponding, to a reasonable degree, with the ideas expressed in the report of 1874.

The plan now offered, and described in detail, includes water-fronts at City Point and Savin Hill, on the harbor, and on Charles river, as points of primary importance. Any plan which neglected to use these distinctive features of a sea-board city would not be worthy of the situation.

Between the waters of Charles river and Dorchester bay two urban parks are located, one each on the Back and South bays. The most prominent natural feature in the topography of the city is Parker Hill, a part of which has been taken and connected with the Back Bay Park, both for convenience, and in order to secure the effect of a long vista to and over Charles river.

These water-fronts, with their intermediate parks, complete the inner "series" of proposed improvements, and may, for convenience, be called the urban park system.

The Commissioners have felt that the Back and South Bay parks were, in fact, matters of prime necessity, rather than choice, in a sanitary sense, and that no suburban parks, however beautiful and extensive, would at all compensate, either now or in future years, for the want of open spaces in these low and dangerous localities, bordering as they do upon the most densely inhabited parts of the city.

The first series of suburban parks has been selected with a different motive, inasmuch as local sanitary considerations, though always incidental, are not controlling. The large extent of unoccupied country between the fourth and fifth mile circles offers a broad field for choice, and the Commissioners have found themselves at liberty to consider the subject comparatively free from the limitations existing in the more thickly settled districts.

The character of these outer parks should be essentially rural. They should possess a variety of surface, sufficient elevation to secure purity of air, a good degree of pictu

resqueness, and, in parts, extensive views. If some portions are already in wood, and others in meadow, with the outer limits well disguised, and with opportunities for ornamental water, all the best elements are combined.

Such a piece of land is not a park, but it may be transformed into one, both quickly and without great expense. Two locations answering to these requirements in a remarkable degree, easily accessible, and sufficiently large to meet the immediate wants of the people, have been selected.

The western location is in the Brighton district, directly east of and adjoining the Reservoir lands; the southern and larger one is in West Roxbury, on the high land, lying between the two valleys in which are the Boston and Providence and the New York and New England Railroads.

As a unique feature in the suburban system, Jamaica Pond, with its immediate surroundings, has been included in the plan. These various locations will, immediately or eventually, be connected with each other, and also with the inner system, by park-ways, as hereinafter described. For reasons which are mentioned further on, a second and outer series of suburban parks has not at this time received attention.

For East Boston, a local park has been selected, on West Wood Island, which has a water-front; but it is believed that the people of that district will, in common with the general public, largely make use of the parks above referred to.

The scheme thus briefly outlined, includes the two systems, urban and suburban, the former having water-fronts on the harbor and the river, with intermediate parks; the whole designed mainly with reference to the requirements of the public health, but valuable also for the daily pleasure of the citizens; the latter, selected more with reference to the recreation of the people, will also, as the city grows, become essential to the health of the population then living in their vicinity.

Referring to sanitary considerations, always paramount to to such as are purely financial, the report of 1874 says:

Nothing is so costly as sickness and disease; nothing so cheap as health. Whatever promotes the former is the worst sort of extravagance; whatever fosters the latter is the truest economy.'

"The population in the territory within the six-mile circle from the State House has doubled every eighteen years since 1820; at this rate 1,700 acres” (comprising the area bounded by a line from Charles river to Arlington street, Dover-street bridge, Albany and Dudley streets, Longwood avenue, Cottage Farm station to point of starting on Charles river) "will be entirely occupied in less than twenty years. More than 150.000 people will then be living between Arlington street and Parker's hill.

This district is a natural cesspool; from its centre the land rises to the highlands of Roxbury, to Parker's hill, and even towards Washington and Arlington streets. If it be filled to the grades of twelve feet above mean low water for the cellars, and eighteen feet for the streets, which are the ones established for what has been hitherto filled, there will be a large and densely populated district, into and over which will flow the surface drainage and much of the filth from an extensive tract of a higher level nearly all around it. It is easy to predict that the deathrate, not only of that district, but of the whole city, will be alarmingly increased unless stringent measures are adopted to prevent such misimprovement."

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FINANCIAL CONSIDERATIONS.

The estimated expense of the purchase or taking of the various locations hereinafter described has been based throughout upon the assessed valuations of 1875. The Commissioners are of the opinion that these valuations are fully up to the real market values of the properties at this time.

While they do not wish to be understood by the tenor of this report as intending to express an opinion in regard to the wisdom of making appropriations at this time for the large expenditures necessary for securing the parks as located, leaving that important consideration with your Honorable Body, where the Act has placed it, it should be kept in mind that so far as the locations are, at the present time, unimproved and non-income-producing properties (and this is the condition of nearly the whole), the transfer of the fee from individual owners to the city will not in any degree affect the aggregate income of the community.

FINANCIAL EFFECT OF PARKS.

In the "Report on the Establishment of a Public Park" (City Doc. No. 105), the Commissioners say:

"We think that money so expended will be well invested, and quickly returned, by betterments, and by the increase in taxable value of all surrounding property. In this connection it will not be out of place to see what has been done elsewhere, and what have been the results."

This opinion would appear to be justified by the recent experience of other American cities, as is shown by the accompanying table condensed from the same report : —

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"It thus appears that while the increase of the cities has ranged from 21 to 143 per cent., the increase of the lands adjoining their parks has ranged from 117 to 768 per cent.

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While it would not be just to say that this remarkable growth in the vicinity of these parks has been entirely owing to their establishment, enough remains, after all reasonable deductions shall have been made, to show that they have been sources of large pecuniary profit to the communities in which they are situated."

One of the strongest objections has been that Boston at this time should not increase its debt for any purpose not absolutely necessary. We think that the necessity exists from a sanitary point of view, and that the experience of other cities proves that the question of cost need not stand in the way of immediate action."

INFLUENCE OF CENTRAL PARK ON TAXES.

The official records of the New York Central Park Commissioners, for its first decade, are instructive as bearing upon financial considerations.

The assessed value of the three wards surrounding the park

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Showing a gain in the taxes of the three surrounding wards, above interest on all the cost of land and improvements, of

1,809,966 39

Even allowing that one-half of this excess of tax income over interest on cost of Central Park is due to the natural growth of the city, there still remains nearly one million

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