The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1899-05-23
4 PASSA|C BOULEVARD. :
Beauties Of the River Road
in Late Spring Chance
For Imnrnuers.
For lmproVers.

Everybody seems to admit that the
Park Commissioners you'd wisely spend
their money If they used it in laying out
a boulevard along the west bank of the
Passai9 River, beginning at MT. Pleasant
Cemetery, says the Newark Sunday
Call But to say they admit it is
a tame way of stating the fact; rather
should it be said that they are quite en-
thusiastic over the project. And the Park
Commissioners, too, have expressed them
selves as strongly DESTROYS of gratifying
the popular wish in this matter, and one
has said that the next new piece of work
to be undertaken by the Board will be the
cherished scheme of making the Passaic
minister more han it has done in the
past to the pleasure of the people.
The river is the one thing in the way of
scenery that Newark and the northern
part of the county can boast of. Other
cities have parks, or his and that dis
tinctive piece of topography, but compar-
atively few have at their door a large
tidal stream, with beautiful windings and
attractive banks. When Newark men,
who now are middle aged, recall the hap
py days of their boyhood, they find them
selves dreaming of the Passaic, and feel
regret that the lads of today do not
know what pleasure it is possible to find
on and around a pretty river. They re-
call, too, the east bank between Newark.
and Be1leville, where the trees interlaced
their boughs over the winding roadway.
They remember what an ideal drive was
here afforded them. On the one hand
flowed the placid stream, then clear as a
mirror, and on the other hand were beau
tiful lawns, sloping up to grim Kearny
Castle and a score of stately villas.
All that the river, with its shaded and
grassy banks, was then above the Morris
and Essex bridge, it may yet become
north of Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, provid-
ed it be cleansed and kept free of sewage
pollution. True, it has not at Woodside
and Belleville the breadth it possessed at
Fourth avenue before wharves were built
there. Nevertheless it is a broad stream
with much of it's original beauty left. Let
the engineer construct a boulevard along
the shore, and the landscape artist prlng
his skill into play in adorning the frregu-
lar strips and plots of ground that Will
lie between the roadway and the stream
and the new Passaic may yet shame the
old, if not in beauty at least in its cap
acity to contribute to the delight OF a
greater number of people.
Three years ago there was little travel
along the Passaic on either side. A few
carriages went over the road, and now
and then an equestrian. Wheelmen avoid
ed the locality. Today the east bank
Of the river below Bellevile, with It's
rough roadway, is still deserted While
on the Newark side there are usually
true. Does anybody ask for the reason!
The answer is a simple one, but full OF
significance. Two or three years ago the
road from Mt. Pleasant Cemetery to
Belleville was graded a little and macad-
amized. IT is not half the width of
PARK. Central or Washington avenues,
and vet the .pleasure-seekers go over II
in large troops and travel it four or nVe
times as often as they do any other ave-
nue. running from Newark. Ana they
keep going that way MISUNDERSTANDING
that when they pass Belleville they hno
the macadam pavement full Oh hoies ana
roughened by loose stones.
What attracts them, think you, Messrs-
park commissioners? There are no ele-
CANT residences up that way; no splen-
did estates, with lawns dotted with now
err mounds n marble statuary; no syi-
van park, with concerts by a skilled or
chestra; no popular pavilion; with a vau-
deville show and dancing; seldom do any
brilliant ~eouipages go by, with ladies OF
elegant attire reclining on soft cushions.
Think it over, please, gentlemen OF the
Park Board, and see Whetner you Can
ind m there any attraction other than
the beautifula Passaie itself. And also SET y
This problem: If the river, with a mar
row little road on its west bank minis
ters to the pleasure every week OF, say,
ten thousand persons, how many more
thousands would it delight and benehts II
YOU should lay out a broad and hand
some boulevard there? And still how
many more If you should remove the un-
slightly buildings which stand between
The road and the river, obstructing ones
view of the stream and its east bank,
and put miniature parks in their placer
Local artists have found along the wind>
ing Passaic many beautiful bits Of seen
ery to produce on canvass. who can
iustify a system of county. parks n
parkways that does not include this love
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