New-York tribune., 1917-07-21
The New Memorial in the Park

The project described in yesterdays
issue of The Tribune for the creation of
an Aqueduct Memorial on the site of the
old Croton reservoir in the park invites
favorable but not unqualifedly favorable
comment. It's ultimate persuasiveness de-
pends altogether upon the manner in which
it is carried out The basic idea is a good
one. 1t is to turn the "dehydrated" area
into sunken garden, embracing terraces
and pools, a monumental fountain, play
grounds for the children, and band pa
vilion at the foot of great amphitheatre
framed to seat 10000 people. Mayor
MitchePs Celebration Committee, formed
to take due notice of the completion of the
Catskill Aqueduct, thinks we'll of the plan
presented by Mr.. Thomas Hastings, the
architect, and it is moving in the matter
with an optimism apparently unchilled by
the fact that most of the cost will have to
be raised by private subscription. The
city is to pay only for the grading.
1t will be an inexpensive improvement
for New York, as regards cash. 1t will
be more than costly if the sharpest pre-
cautions are not taken to insure thor
, oughly sylvan treatment of the site. A
garden is a garden, and every effort
should be made to minimize the masonry
{ in this one. The severest of the many
criticisms provoked by the Pulitzer
( fountain in the Plaza has been the one
directed at its substitution of illimitabIe
tons of stone for the "green shade" which
ought to have been given fair chance
at the spot. The attempts at planting
made in the neighborhood will never sue
cessfully modify the existing monstrous
weight of the thing; it is out of scale
forever. The site in the park of course,
is Of a size to permit greater scope in
respect to basins, pillars, parapets, bal
ustrades, pavements and all the rest but
just for that reason it is important for
the Park Commissioner to be on his guard
The purpose of the committee, it is said
is to rival the gardens of the Luxembourg
In that case the first thing for its mem
bers to do is to ponder the character of
those gardens long and well, allowing
their absolute integrity, as gardens, to
sink into their minds. This also is for
not only the Park Commissioner but for
the public to consider. The beauty of al
most any public place in France rests
largely upon the French sense of measure
The French introduce into it nothing that
is obtrusive, nothing that is incongruous
Imagination boggles at what an amphi-
theatre seating 10000 may do to the park
if it is not kept well in hand. In stone il
will be a dubious enough experiment. In
concrete it would be malignant horror
perfectly calculated to set the teeth OF
generations on edge.
Apropos of this question of materials, ar
interesting issue is also raised by the
intimation that the celebrated fountain
modelled by Mr. MacMonnies for the
Court of Honor at the Worlds Fair ir
1893 is to be reproduced in this new
scheme, in bronze. The permanence and
splendor of that metal cannot be denied
vet il is not to be forgotten that the white
flashing elegance OF this fountain at Chi-
cago was one Of the chief sources of its
success, and apart from that there is a
close relation between the choice of ma
terial here and the sylvan virtue whose
preservation we have signalized as i'm
perative. The MacMonnies fountain is a
huge affair, with many figures. Put all
the latter, or a predominating proportion
Of them, into bronze, and it will take a
lot Of weather to bring them into har-
mony with the surroundings they ought
TO have. Marble or stone would accept
far more graciously the ministrations OF
time, the play of erosion, the accretons
of moss and stain.
We can figure the opposition in some