The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-10-05
Greuins Telegraph
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER s, 1870.
TIE MUNJCTPAL BUTLDTNGS.

THE MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS
The argument in favor of the Penn Square
site for the municipal buildings which is
founded on it's proximity to the present and
prospective centre of population should of
itself be conclusive. The buildings to be
erected are to serve not only this generation
but posterity. Even now nearly as many people
live west of Sixth street as east of it, and the
number of streets running north and south
already exceeds sixty. A hundred years hence
the population west of Sixth street will be
ten, or perhaps twenty, times as great as that
residing east of it, and even the location
at Penn Square will be rather too far eastward
instead of too far westward to accommodate
future generations The rapid growth of the
city in a northwestern direction should also
be borne in mind An unlimited field of ex-
pansion is there to be found, and when Phi
ladelphia attains-as she will before great
many years, if no calamity befalls her--a po-
pulation of three millions, seven-eighths of
her citizens will be better accommodated by
the Broad street site than the site on Wash
ington Square.
Another point in this controversy is worthy
of public attention. The new buildings will
necessarily cost large sum of money, and
efforts will be made to render them orna-
mental as we'll as useful. If Washington
Square is selected as the site this expenditure
for establishment will be nearly useless.
Strangers will rarely visit that locality, and it
will not be adjacent to the walks or drives of
the mass of our citizens. At Penn Square, on
the other hand, the municipal buildings will
be the central point of attraction alike to
strangers visiting Philadelphia and to the
throngs of citizens who, in carriages and on
foot, will make the Broad street of the future
q teeming hive of humanity. 1t will
be the favorite walk of the artisan as we'll as
the favorite drive of the millionaire, and
Penn Square will be the place above all others
where those who have business with the
courts or municipal buildings can go with the
least trouble and with the best prospect of
making their journeys source of pleasure.
New York properly erects her new City Hall
on Broadway, and if we neglect our present
chance to choose an equally eligible locality
for our municipal buildings we will deserve
the contempt of more enlightened communi-
ties and the reproach of the taxpayers and
citizens who are to come after us.
If the Washington Square project is ap-
proved by the people both squares will be
covered by buildings, the public will lose two
of their open walks instead of only one, and
the sacrifice of Washington Square for build
ing purposes will be especially detrimental to
the health and comfort of the many thou
sands who will continue to live near the
centre of the old city, even after its leading
streets are lined with stores and offices.
and thousands of other persons whose
vocations compel them to be at their
posts early in the morning and late at night,
will continue to reside, with their families, in
the alleys and side streets east of Tenth, even
after the main thoroughfares are occupied
wholly by business edi6ces; and as Fairmount
is too distant to accommodate them or their
children, the occupancy of Washington Square
as a site for municipal buildings will, year
after year. become more and more of priva-
tion. This consideration alone should secure
large vote for the Penn Squares among the
masses who are living now and expect
to live hereafter in the vicinity of
Washington Square. While Fairmount
Park will compensate those who reside west
of Broad and Market for the loss of Penn
Squares, it will be practically beyond the
reach of large proportion of the future
population east of Eighth and south of
Market.
1t is alleged, on apparently very good
grounds, that the city has no legal right to
erect public buildings on Washington Square,
and that her title to that invaluable piece of
ground will be forfeited if she attempts to
use it for this unauthorized purpose. 1t is
not pretended in any quarter that similar
difficulties exist in regard to Penn
Square, for even the advocates of the
opposing site claim that it can be legally oc-
cupied by the buildings of literary and scien-
tiic institutions. The founder of the city
and State, with forecast which we would
do we'll to initiate, however, intended ii
especially for edifces of public character;
and the time which he, with prophetic vision,
foresaw, when it would become the most ap-
propriate site in the whole municipality for
our most useful city structures has now
manifestly arrived.
THESELEOIION OF SCHOOL BOOKS.
AT the meeting of the Board of Public Edu-