The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1911-10-16
Interesting State
 Of Land Affairs
Nobody Can Tell How Much
 Connecticut Owns
They Could if They Con- suited the Treasurer's Files However, Certain Deeds Have Not Been Put There.

COHnecClcuJ, one or the SmdlleSl states territorially in the Union, does
 not know how much land it owns
 Put the question to aged natives and
 active officials in any of the 16S towns
 Or at the Capitol and they will tell you they do not know. It had never occurred to them. Inquire where you might perhaps find out how much land within the state belongs outright to the state, and you find the inter viewer is as much at sea about di- recting you for informa tion as he is about the land itself. Sweeping as this statement is, it is fact that
 nobody knows how much land in Con- necticut is not under private owner
 ship Or municipal ownership.
 Real estate deals have risen fre-
 Quently within the year. Public in-
 terest is taken in the advance in real,
 ties. How far has the state gained
 in land values? One may we'll ask where are the titles on file. Since the famous Park River ran under the name of Little River and flowed be-
 tween noisome grist mills instead of ''state shops transfers in real prop critics have greatly expanded the states own area. Incidentally, the value of the land along Park River has changed with the passage of rights from parties to parties. When Con- necticut was young, the river along Bushnell Park and between Nthe Capi
 tol and the state armory of today turned out industrial revenues. So many mills were built on both banks
 that they were close neighbors and the stream became known as Mill River The value of the land today is it's location for state buildings on Capitol Hill.
 ic %o EnI I,o acreage on the hill which conveyed from dealer to holder and from city
 to state has been groomed into the grandest beauty spot on the surface of Connecticut. It is about forty acres and is a small percentage of the land directly controlled by the Connecti- cut government This includes the grounds on which stand the Capitol
 the State Library and the state arm ory, buildings aggregating in value almost s5,OO0,000. The buildings occupy very little of the acreage. Yet they far exceed the value of the land. This cannot be said authoritatively, for mo- body knows.
 Considering the land occupied by armories in New Haven, Meriden, Bridgeport, Norwalk, New Britain, Waterbury, New London. Norwich, Shelton, the military reservation and highway at Mantle, the soldiers home at NOrOLOu, the CuDeTCuIOSlS IIOUIGS III Hartford, Meriden and Shelton. the lands connected with various insti- tutions belonging to the state, the rifle ranges at East Haven, proper ties distributed in all the cities and in many of the towns, the state has much to oversee as. an enterprising landlord and property holder.
 To find out where the deeds of lands are filed for state possessions, a reporter within few days has held consultations with various officials in different departments of the state Among offices he visited was the state comptroller He was informed that record of land transactions, and the only way to discover how much land the state owned outside of Hartford would be to read the deeds. The re- porter was advised to call at the treasurers office, where it was said such records are kept.
 He was told by the deputy state treasurer that the records of such transfers are filed in the state treas urer's office. The deputy said every deed of land to the state, every trans fer of realty which pertains to the state as a state should be filed in the state treasurer's office. This is not the case. There is land owned by the state as a state, should be filed in. These missing deeds probably are on file in the offices of the town clerks in the towns where the land is To- cated AS an example where stands the Capitol itself It was acquired minus a deed. This was found out at the time a location was sought for the Petersburg Express.
 Several commissioners in the state have neglected to file with the treas urer's office their deeds obtained from the previous holders The deputy treasurer says all deeds pertinent to state ownership should be in the treas urer's office, where they may be con- suited Appraisers are appointed every five years to inventory the state property. It has not been customary for the appraisers in making their list to view all the land. Sometime somebody will be interested to pore over the old and modern documents to see just how much land Connecu-