The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1860-08-20
What Has Feen Achieved by Ten Thou
sand Workmen and an Expenditure
Of Two Millions of Dollars.
INADEQUACY OF RESULTS.
What the Park Was, What il Is, What IL May
Be, and What II Night Have Been,
Co., &C.. Go,

ties location They could then judge fer thcmselves
IN present and prospective condition. b: all
that changed It's novelty has OF. The gay and
well who used 70 fock 70 tie Park OF ur
day afternoons there mere and the Central
Park fast lspsirg state Of neglect; has
fallen upon the Battery, Union square, and orr other
public breathing grounds. Be: few OF citizens
from actual inspection hat tho Park looks ike jus: at
present. Therefore Ia all the necessary that
should inform them The following report from spe
cial reporter viii probably suggest the truo reasons
why Central PARK ceased DO the attractive place
It year ago
Franklin in one o: his admirable essays, kecn,y sa
rzes hose who pay too dearly for their wh stles but
what would he have said regard TO those who, after
paying moe dearly, find themselves poseessors OF
whistle at all New York paid most iavshly for her
Japanese whistle; Adermanic band blew upon most
melodously refreshing themselves at expense, be-
the tunes and all New York dances at the great ball.
and can afford laughed at when the bills in
The Central Park whistle, however though dearly bought,
will not play. In other words, after three years
labor and the expenditure Of millions Of dol.
lars,- New York is almost parkless
For all practical purposes the Central Park is at present
useless and there be not the slightest proba
bity that viii the real purpose for which New
Workers need park, for years 70 come Incomplete, IN
finished, with only promises here and there Of good
things To come-with shade, with walks and drives
beginning In dust running along sand banks and stone
yards ending like humanity, IN dust again, the Cen
tra Park instead of daily attracting greater number Of
vsters s losing its habituss, who flock away TO
Jones' Wood, Hoboken-to any place where there Is
shade, and il is visited now only BY few rural
strangers who 60 to the Park - they 60 tsee Bar
NUNS or any other Of city sights That this might
have been other wise-that might more than year
ago. have had the Park in condition TO attract and de
DC aplu ond
failure Ia due 70 the magnificent and complicated plan
which been adopted III laying out and 10 the mis-
the land and also in not completing of ali that por
Of the Park which needed the least labor 80 taat the
public might have had present good while better H.
ture was preparing for txkm
THE CENTRAL PARK
Is about two miles and half long, and one half mile
wide bounded by Eighth and Fifth avenues, Fifty
ninth and 10th Its about seven hundred
and sixty eight acres Of which about hundred and
thirty occupied by the reservoirs of the Gro
ton aquoduct from whence The city supplied with
ter who know anything OF the preparation Of land
and the laying Of gardens viii be surprised TO learn
that since beginning Of the work May l. 1857, up
10 January $780, thousand i've hundred mou in all
have been employed and million seven hundred and
sixty four thousand hundred and fifteen dollars and
cents expended upon these six hun
and thirty two acres Of land included In tho
and yet be sad 70 be completes and over
In the third annual repor. Of the Park
the actual OF work done Is stated. Three and
besun or In progress: seven miles OF compets
seven bridges complete, nearly these bridges
being either built faced with the finest recs.one or
marble and costing largely; seventeen thousand three
hundred and sixty i've trees and shrubs have been plant
ed and ten miles Of drainage completed Few, however
are able 10 what has and what has not been DONE
simply by perusa Of these statistics, and these points
will be much better determined by actual inspection OF
the Park itself
WHAT THE PARK WAS.
The Park Is naturally divided by the reservoirs into
two portions which have been termed the upper and low
er PARK The upper Park has been scarcely altered and
will be described presently The lower Park when pur
chased by the city, a struggling suburb, covered
with low squad houses inhabited by class Of persons
whose occupations really nunces In the eye OF the
law Heaps Of cinders, potshreds and broken bricks
were scattered here and there and in short the ground
used sort Of repository for al SORTS Of rubbish
embsnkments and rugged excavations assisted TO make
the general aspect Of the place still more wretchcd
and woe begone. Swamps and outcropping rocks aided
an eject which scarcely needed aid The cost OF the land
taken for the Park was 81 400, l93 "a
PRELIMINARY cLEARNGs.
This unsighty plot Of ground however presented the
best area for park which could be found in the vicinity
OF our city In the lower part there little surface, 10
be sure aud much rock but soil and trees be easily
procured while II rocks, necessary to picturesque
effect, be wanting, they seldom be obtained, and
never in such positions and with such effect Nature
ranges them with her artistic hands The ground was
well selected therefore, and during the autumn OF 1887
the preliminary work was commenced. Three hundred
dwellings several factories and few COW stables were
drained and thousand carloads OF stones were taken
from the surface Of the ground and during the winter
were built into the rough wall which at present encoses
the Park In April, 1858, the design upon which the
Park IL being laid adopted reward Of two thou
sand dollars paid for H. and one OF It's authors MI FRED
law Onstea was subsequently appointed Architect in
Chief Under this eentlemans super ntendencc the work
now began In earnest, and the Park has become
WHAT IT rs.
The what II Ia" is we greatly fear, relative OF
the "wbat ~" and Is almost equally incapable Of
definition or description II Is neither Park, stone
yard nor piece Of waste ground though By turns re-
minds you Of all these you enter the gate at Eighth
avenue and FIny. street, you are Immediately
yeoped IN cloud Of dust which renders further progress
impossible and makes necessary for you 70 return 10
the hotel opposite and clear your throat, noting 10
your blank book what you Afterwards aud TO be really
true that although there plenty Of water carts upon
the Park roads, where dust Il impossible, they never
approach gates where dust is most plenty II the
the hotel. where be can ait under the balcony
look at the Park be annoyed by nes whose ancestors
have intermarricd with mosquitoes be alarmed nj
doss which abound In unmuzred muttudcs, and which
look they were ready 10 20 mad upon the slightest
he bsdpsss Of the water and be socIied BY hack dr
yers whose ackadaisi al countenances and general
appearance and are strongly suggestive o
several email families. like John Rogers the brink o
starvation homche very rightly draws the infcrcnce
that fares are few near the Park lie had
out however than try the Park but n, was the case
with our reporter, business says "go,n let him make
another trial gasp through the dust and enter the pre-
cincts sacred 70 sunstroke large pile OF dirt guards
the entrance, and Immediately In sight IN roadbcd
OF loose stones Just placed and n rocky mound upor
which about twenty Eve workmen engaged In tappn;
with picks and hammers with countenanoes a. firmly SCI
the rock beneath them, " they hoped TO th'
rock away some time or other and wen, 70 work cheer
fully, and have given up the hope but stuck W th
work: and this reminds that all the Park rocks
have been removed by blasting and boring, and II
. rocky ridge, enclosing the northeast por
ton OF . plateau, has been reduced by BLASTING
at least sixteen feet, simply for the purpose 0
opening views OF the Park Taking the path 10 the right
enter the Park, find few spots OF grass
and ledge Of rock picuresquey overgrown, put oppo
site the seventh entrance. Below the entrance
bridge building, very unnecessarily, and We suppo
for purposes OF ornament Thirty Of these bridges oe'
In the Commissoners report "ornamcntsF'-and IN
term s good one fessore than ressonbuilt most