The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1896-07-09
NAMES OF PARKS.
No Comprehensive System, Adopted by the
Authorities of New York City.

Authorities of New York City.
No general plan seems to have
been followed by the city authorities
in naming the parks of New York.
The names of the early presidents
have been adopted in some cases, but
with no uniformity. There are Wash
ington square, Madison square and
jackson square, but Adams, the SEQ.
ond of the presidents, and jefferson,
assuredly more prominent than Mad
ison, are ignored. Tompkins, who
was the sixth vice president, has his
memory and achievements perpetu-
ated in Tompkins square. The name
of the poet Bryant was substituted
some years ago for the title "Reser-
voir" in the name of the Forty-sec-
ond Street park, and Van Cortlandt
is appropriately retained as the off,
cial designation of the park which
includes the national guard parade
grounds and the old Van Cortlandt
homestead.
Abingdon square, on the west side
of town, traces its name to general
of the Revolutionary war. and
Christopher street park, in the same
neighborhood, owes its name to
Christopher Columbus. Bronx park
and East River park derive their
names from rivers, but the Hudson
river, which is much more impor-
tant to the commerce of New York
city than either, is not so perpetual
ed, and Harlem River park is pri-
vate picnic ground.
The name Central park, when orig
inally given, or rather when origin
ally agreed upon in 1857, was the
designation of an undeveloped area
of city territory far north of the
inhabited portion of the city at that
time, but the selection of the word
Central showed the prescience
and sagacity of the projectors of this
important public work, for it is now,
if not in the central portion of New
York, at least in the central portion
of that part of the city which is
most generally reserved for resi-
Dental purposes. City Hall park
derives its name, of course, from
the ancient and historic building in
it, though in respect to size the city
hall is quite overshadowed by the
marble courthouse to the north and
the granite postoffice to the south
of it.
New YOrk's famous pioneers arc
not honored in park names. Henry
Hudson, the discoverer, is ignored,
and so are Thomas Dongan, who
gave the city its first charter, and
George Clinton, who was the first
governor of New York and held that
| Office for six terms consecutively.
There is no park named after Thorn
as Willett Though there is Willett
street,, the first mayor of New York,
or James Duane Though there is a
Duane street,, the first mayor after
| tA1O OAOoO Vi uAO WAX.
Neither is there any park named aft
er his immediate successor as may
or, Richard Varick Though there is
a Varick street), and yet Varick
was for ~ years mayor of the city.
The new park, to be established on
tho site of st. Johns burying
ground at Hudson and Clarkson
streets, might appropriately, some
think, be called Varick park, but as
yet no official action in the matter
has been taken. The Battery park
continues to bear name which is
no longer a significant designation,
having been derived from the forti-
hcations erected on Manhattan Is
land by the Dutch. New York Sun.