Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1919-01-15
Eurntttg Glrat

A copy of an official advertisement
of the State of Pennsylvania for
trees for its Capitol Park dated
ninety years or so ago shows that
the proper method of laying out the
pubic grounds was receiving as
much attention then as it is to-day
when the Commonwealth is about
to create an unsurpassed park about
It's official center. Although this city
became the capital of Pennsylvania
about LOG years ago, as q matter
or fact 1t took several years to clear
the Knoll now known as Capitol Hill
vi the prush and old trees which it
contained and to grade it. John Har-
ris gave four acres to the state for
the use of the Capitol, just as he do
mated the lot for the courthouse
ana prison, and the state bought
ten acres from William Maclay. This
gave 1t possession of the whole knoll
from the line of North street to a
point something close to the line of
Walnut street. Some of the old resi-
dents remember the wall which used
TO separate the original park from
What was later the Arsenal plot and
the tract belonging to the first ex-
tension of Capitol Park. This latter
was purchase of five lots made after
the Maciay transaction. Between 1919
and 1919 the cost of grading the
Capitol Hill and laying out the park.
building fences and otherwise "em.
bellishing" 1t as the early appro-
priation acts style it, in their quaint
way, was over $4,000. BY 1928 it
as round that the grounds looked
ragged and further appropriations
were made to level them and for
the purchase of trees.
1t was apparently in pursuance of
authority and an appropriation
made about that time that the state
began to buy trees to plant in the
park and the Arsenal plot Nova
uays, the superintendent of public
srounos and buildings asks for bids
ana the contracts are let by the
board, which is headed by the Cow
ernor. 1t is an interesting comen-
tary upon the methods of govern
ment in those days to see the names
OF the clerks of the two legislative
houses as the signers of the invita-
tlon Tor bids. The legislative branch
would seem to have been exercising
functions which are now consider
ed as wholly the part of the execu-
tive. Nine decades ago being a mem
Der or the Legislature was rather
more important than now because
the lawmakers had to travel by
coach and coming to Harrisburg to
ieglslate was not matter of two or
three days or a week, but six. Hence.
the greater interest taken in the de-
tails of government by the lepisla-
tors. Another interesting feature
about the advertisement is the char
acter of the trees. Just exactly how
warren II. Manning, the distinguish
ed landscape architect, who has
peen going over the trees in the park
10 select those for removal and pre-
scribing the trees for the improve
ment of the old park and the ad-
ornment of the new would regard
the selection as matter of contec-
ture. We can imagine MIR. Manning
thinking bit at the suggestion of
cucumber trees for the public
grounds and just how he would re-
gard sugar naples for the front of
DIR. Thomas Lynch Montgomery's
classis white library building. can
be left unsafd. Probably the park
contains to-day some of the trees
bought in that far off times by the
two clerks of the Legislature, one
OF whom was later to become Gov
ernor of the state and the ancestor
of the present Attorney General,
Francis Skunk Brown, and of a Har-
risburg engineer who achieved in
ternational fame. the late William
+. Skunk.
In any event the two clerks gave
thought to the problem and secured
the best advice available. This is the
way their advertisement reads:
The subscribers will receive
proposals until the 9th of No.
vember, (1S3O), for delivering
at the State Capitol in Harris
burg on or before the 18th day
of the same month the follow
ing kinds of young, thrifty and
growing trees, fit for transplant
ting. as follows: Twenty locust,
twenty American poplar or
tulip tree, twenty sycamore,
twenty-five elm, twenty sugar
NAPLES, fifteen ash, fifteen as
pen, ten maple, ten spruce, ten
pine, ten cedar, fifteen varieties
ofAoak, ten hickory, fifteen Gu
cumber trees.
Direct proposals either to
WALTER S. FRANKLIN,