Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1912-04-24
BATTERY PARK IMPROVEMENT.
Changes Will Be in the Interest of the
Public Service.

chanSe is coming over Battery
park The old granite castle SUCCESS
i've barge office has vanished To make
way Tor a government building with
zas-foot tower of brick and stone. the
top of which eventually will be used
by the weather bureau to help inter-
pref meteorological mysteries. The
park itself now looks somewhat as it
old more than so years ago, when
Jenny Lind sang in Castle Garden.
This impression is based ON the as
sumption that the observer gazes
toward the sea wall. Looking the 9TH
er way he will find the elevated rail-
road loop to bring back to him the
progressive spirit of the goth century
that demands sometimes the efface
ment of the beautiful for the useful.
The aquarium. Castle Garden re
modelled is scheduled for Enclosure
within a handsome structure to cost
more than 81 100000. that will be 200
feet long and will extend to the sea
wall from the front of the present
pulldlns, thus not encroaching on the
park itself. The new building will be,
three stories tall and have three tiers
OF tanks. making it the largest struc-
ture of its kind in the world The new
barge office and the new aquarium will
he the only architectural ornaments to
the park; but there also may be prac-
ticaily new park from the viewpoint
of the landscape architect of the park
board, Charles Downing Lay.
Park Commissioner Slower had n
plan for the utilization of parts of the
park for a children's playground and a
bowling green, which did not meet the
approval of Mr.. Lay, and the latter re-
Gently finished a new design for the
park that will harmonize with the new
aquarium and the new barge office.
The changes. if carried out. will in
voive the planting of many rows of
trees, and will give the park more of
wooded aspect. with plenty of shade
for the young and old folks of the list
ward on summer days Altogether.
the breeziest green spot in the city will
be Sreener than ever. and will be
converted into finer place, except
where the elevated loop intrenehes
than was looked upon by the silver
buckled Americans who paraded the
walks more than hundred years ago
with gilt-hilted swords and powdered
wigs.
In that Slow going period of stage
coaches the waters of the rivers and
the bay were clearer than now. the
fishing was better and there were no
hoboes to ask the powdered wigs for
the wherewithal to work the GROWER:
but the discomforts of travel by land
ana sea were many and perilous;
maybe almost as much as by the mod
ern airship Battery park even in
the early days was regarded as the
most healthful seaside resort'-it
was so called--in the little town. OF
course, it was not then the Battery
park of today which was created on
made ground, showing that art in the
past was just as fnsistent on changes
for the better as it is now
In 1926 the shore line was away up
in State street and the present site of
much of the park was made up of tide
washed reefs. In 1861 town wind
mill was within the present limits or
the park. as shown in map made at
the time. The householders of the
city living i'm fine residences in State
street and the lower part of Broadway
in 1873 enjoyed the air of the park
with hundreds of others from what
was then uptown which did not ex-
tend above Canal street
A change much for the worse came
over the park in 1858 after one of the
periodical filings in, The job was
done by contract that was obtained
through political means. Bad material
was used, and Mayor Daniel M. Tie