Year: 1879




A SITE FOR THE EXHIBITION.
A survey of tho upper portions Of Manhattan
Island will show that there is no vacant ground
well adapted to the purposes OF Worlds FAR.
If it is Thought essential to have park-Ilke IN
closure surrounding the Exhibition bindings, with
walks and shrubbcry and space enough for minor
structures to be erected by foreign nations, States
and individual exhibitors, as at fbladeiphla and
Vienna and to q less extent at Paris, then location
must be sought elsewhere than on the island, pre-
suming public opinion 10 nave already reJocted Vhe
plan for appropriatng Central Park. Those who
still cling TO this dea will be interested in exGoy-
ernor McCormck's letter, printed on another
page, in which he shows that, all other
considerations apart, Central Park is not
the most advantageous site for an exhibition.
His other suggestions are the fruit of ex-
perience and much native ability. 1t would be
possible however, to obtain site ample
for the main buildings Of an EXhIb-
ton without going into the country. Inc
whole area between Eighth aud Nnth-ayeS.
and Sixty-third aud One hundred-and-tenth-sts.,
facing the Park. and extending nearly lts entire
length, is bare Of bindings of any value worth con-
sidcring save the Museum of Natural History and
two blocks of brick dwellings on EIghty-fourth ana
Eighty-ifth-sts. Much Of this territory Is wholly
unoccupied tho rest Is sparsely dotted with squat
ter5' shanties The ground is broken and rocky,
and the surface IS fifteen or twenty feet below the
street level that the crOssstTeets filled mp to the
level of the two avenues, divide the tract INTO
row of huge quadrangular pits. 1t would cost a
good deal of money to fill up these PITS,
bnt this expense need not be incurred, for
the buildings. except Machinery Hall, for
which solid foundation would be requisite.
1rfcI Mill AhpVn he Park
there are vacant tracts both sides of Elghth-ave
extending from Observation-Disclosures to the
crossing of St. Nicholas-ave. at One-hundred-and-
twenticth-st. bus the ground is low and unhealthy,
and the situation unsightly. better location, al
though not at all desirable would be the long mar
row strip above Harlem between Seventh ami
Eighth-aves. reaching nearly up to Central Bridge
There very few buildings on this tract and those
few are cheap wooden structures. East of the Park
there can be found no available site, the city being
built with considerable compacCness all the way up
to the marshy ground just south OF Harlem.


If any urban location be selected the site must
necessarily be long, narrow tract, lying between
two avenues, for although the cross streets could
be closed without much Inconvenience 10 the pub
lie the avenues must be left open. 1t would be
feasible 70 place one, two or three large buildings
on a line facing Eighth-aye either south north OF





them symmetrical arch,tecturally and imposing in
their proportions. There would, however, be no
space for decorated grounds, but tnis would be
defect largely remcdied by the immediate proximity
of the Park. Either of these two sites would have
great advanta ges-being high, healthy, con-
spicuous, comparatively central and easily ac-
cessbe by single lines of transit from the principal
hotels Two elevated railways would convey
visitors to the Ninth-aye side of the grounds, and
Eighth-ave would afford ample space for street
lines. 1t is very desirable that the bulk OF the
travel to and from an Exhibition should be con-
veyed without change en- route. This could not
be done were any location Off Manhattan Island
selected


When we come to consider suburban sites there is
a wide range of choice, but not for q choice that
would be wholly satisfactory. Long Island, Staten
Island and various locations in New-Jersey have
been mentioned, but all are open to the objection
that they could be reached only by two changes Of
conveyance-fr0m street cars to ferry-boats and
from the boats to other cars. Westchester County
would be a better situation because grounds could
be selected there accessible by RAIL- by the Harlem
Road and probably by ono or both of the elevated
roads There would also be attractive landscape
surroundings. No permanent building could wisely
be left behind in so distant locality as a beGuest
from the Exhibition to the public. whereas, in
q site west Of Central Park should be chosen, a
handsome structure available for museum uses
might be secured. Probably the question Of local
itv will in the end be narrowed down TO West
chester and the district west OF the Park.


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