Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-04-11
BY DUKE wELLINGToN.

A group of freeholders and other
county officials were discussing
changes that could be made in the
Court House in order to provide room
for the accommodation of petit Jurors,
the lack of which has frequently been
commented on by the Evening Star,
and which was the subject of pre-
sentiment by the December grand jury
on April 2.
A number of suggestions were made,
none of them really feasible, untli
this suggestion was made: 1t is
only a question of a short time before
the county will have to buy land on
the west side of High street, immedl-
ately in the rear of the Court House,
for a new hall of records. Why not
buy that land now and until such
time as the county gets ready to bul4d
use one of the 1three houses now on
High street as quarters for the pro
baton office and Juvenile GourtE
With very little remodeling, any one
of the buildings would do for that
purpose. The rooms now used by the
probation office could then be utilized
for the jurymen."
The idea seemed to meet with pop
ular approval with all, until 1t was
taken up with Chief Probation officer
John J. Gascoyne by the writer. The
scheme was outlined to him. Just
read now and see how quick he tore
it all to pieces and the very good rea-
sons he gives for doing so. In the
first place." said Mr.. Gascoyne, the
work of our office requires that 1t be
here in the Court House building,
That argument did not carry such
an awful lot of weight as the head of
every county department thinks the
same way But Mr.. Gascoynes other
arguments did carry weight here
they are: ever since the probation
office was inaugurated, ii has been
one of our chief aims to give as much
secrecy as possible to those who are
forced to call at our Office to make
payments on probation fines or to re-
port to the office as to their behavior.
"In order to keep the probationers
from attracting attention, 1t Is abso-
lutely necessary that the office be IN
the Court House building. Why!
Simply for this reason: The Court
House is a great, big, busy bulldlhg,
with people going in and out OF 1t all
the time. The entry or exit OF per
son from the building attracts no at
tention and probationers coming to
our office simply mingle with the
crowd and no one is the wiser.
y Now. take this proposition to put
the office in a separate bulidlnB on
High street. Even if we had no sign
on the building, it would soon become
known that it was the county proba-
ton office and that persons, or the
majority of those entering or leaving
the office, were persons who in some
manner had transgressed the law.
ut would soon be found that idle
and curious persons would get haplt
OF standing in front of the ofllce ana
sizing up the persons going IN ana
out, 1t would be bad enough for the
men probationers, but what would II
mean to the young girls, many OF
them good looking and just at the age
TO attract attention from such ldlerS.
To my idea, it would tend TO do away
with much of the good now accom-
piished by the probation Office: Inc
idea of having the office outside OIL
the Court House building Is entirety
out of the question:
Although the entire argument above
came up over the generally accepted
view that the county will eventually
mcguire the land on the westerly side
of High street it is by no means GER
Ezir that 1t will ever come to pass.
The county now owns the triangular
etrip bounded by Springfield and
Thirteenth avenue and Hlgh street.
purchased several years ago at q
cost of S250,000 The property is worth
more than that inquire
today.
A canvass made of members of the
BOARD of Freeholders the other day
reveals the fact that the majority OF
Them are in favor of building hail
Of records on the site now owned,
rather than on the High street site
in the rear of the present building.
If an understanding with the city
as TO certain provisions relating to
rrhirteenth avenue could be obtained,
14here is no question but what the new
building would be erected on the
triangular plot. The idea that seems
to appeal to most of the freeholders
is to get permission from the city to
close Thirteenth avenue from SPRING
field avenue to High street and then
erect a building that would abut on
The present Court House. If 1t should
prove to be possible to close Thir-
feenth avenue. the hall of records
would not then be a separate build
ang, but an addition to the present
one.
1t would be easily possible to eX-
tend the present building clear TO
Springfield avenue and at the same
time maintain the same general type
of architecture on the front of the
building with the long rank of steps
leading down to the street level Such
an addition would make the Court
House a most massive and beautiful
structure, for in the general scheme
would be a plan to build two more
stories TO the entire building. thus
giving the height that would be nee
essary with increased frontage.
In any event, as has been pointed