Fredrick Law Olmsted
Subject File
City and Regional Planning
Brooklyn, N.Y.
1868 & UD[*V Brooklyn*]

[*PR
GS 34*]

[*Olmsted R?*]

STREET PLANS.OBSERVATIONS
ON THE PROGRESS OF
IMPROVEMENTS IN STREET PLANS.
WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO
THE PARK-WAY
PROPOSED TO BE LAID OUT
IN
BROOKLYN.

1868.

BROOKLYN:
I. VAN ANDEN'S PRINT, EAGLE BUILDINGS, 30 & 32 FULTON STREET.
1869.[*Rodgers Dec 31 1875*]

Philadelphia Depot of the O. M. Department 
Philadelphia, January 12, 1876

Mr Fred. Law Olmsted
New York

D [?Fred]:
The Department is about to erect a [?] flag staff at the Depot. Is there any objection to changing its location and erecting it in the centre of the flat between the front wall and rear of Building [?]?

Very respectfully
J. J. Dana
Major Quartermaster
[Duchamp?] Clo. depotCONTENTS.

Relations of the Park to the street arrangements of the City.
Elements of ordinary street arrangements. 
Why ordinary arrangements are inadequate to public requirements. 
Historical development of existing street arrangements—First stage.
Second stage of street arrangements. 
Third stage of street arrangements. 
Erroneous view of the necessary disadvantages of town life. 
Evils of town life have diminished as tows have grown larger. 
Reason for anticipating an accelerated enlargement of metropolitan 
towns. 
Conditions under which the evils of large towns have diminished. 
Change in habits of citizens affecting structural requirements of towns. 
Separation of business and domestic life. 
Recreative requirements and distance of suburbs. 
Change in the character of vehicles. 
Inadequate domestic access to suburbs and Parks. 
New arrangements demanded by existing requirements. 
The position of Brooklyn.
The opportunity of Brooklyn.
How the opportunity may be missed, and how availed of.
Influence of the Park on the value of property.
How the advantages of vicinity to a Park may be extended. 
Example of a fourth stage of street arrangements. 
The Park-way—a fifth stage.
Practicable future extensions of the Park-way.
Plan of the Park-way neighborhood. 
Advantages of the Park-way likely to be secured to Brooklyn, 
exclusively.

THE PARK-WAY.

RELATIONS OF THE PARK TO THE STREET ARRANGEMENTS OF THE CITY. 

The unsatisfactory character of the approaches to the Park has been
recognized by your Board, from the outset of its undertaking, as calculated 
to seriously detract from the value of the service which it would 
otherwise be able to render the city, and it has accordingly been an incidental 
part of our duty to devise means of improvement. To do so it has 
been necessary that we should extend our field of study beyond the territory 
under your jurisdiction. Our first suggestion led, through the subsequent 
action of your Board, to the special appropriation of the ground 
necessary for the formation of the Plaza, and to the establishment of the 
several circular spaces by which amplitude, symmetry, and dignity of 
character was sought to be secured on the street side of each of the 
Park gates. Through the promptness of the necessary legislative 
action, of the subsequent proceedings in regard to the Plaza, a very 
great advantage was gained at a comparatively small cost for the necessary 
land, much of the adjoining ground having since been sold in the 
open mark at rates indicating an advance of several hundred per cent. 
upon the prices paid by the city. 
In our Preliminary Report, accompanying the first study of the plan 
of the Park, without making any definite recommendations, we suggested 
the leading features of a general scheme of routes of approach to 
and extension from the Park, through the suburbs, in which the sanitary 
recreative and domestic requirements of that portion of the people of 
the city living at the greatest distance from the Park should be 
especially provided for. In our Annual Report of last year portions of 
this project were somewhat more distinctly outlined, and the economical 
advantages were pointed out of preparing and adopting plans for the 
purpose well in advance of the public demand, which it was intended to 
anticipate, and while land properly situated might yet be selected in 
the suburbs of such moderate value that no private interests of much 
importance would be found to stand in antagonism in this respect to 
those of the public. 
Your Board having brought these suggestions before the public they 
have during the last year attracted considerable attention. One of the6

minor recommendations has been already taken up by a body of citizens 
and an organized effort to carry it out is understood to be in progress. 
Under your instructions a topographical survey has also been 
made of a section of the ground to which the larger scheme applies, 
being that lying immediately east of the Park and extending from it to 
the city line, and a study has been prepared, also under your instructions 
and which is herewith presented, for a revision of a part of the 
present city map of this ground with a view to the introduction of the 
suggested improvement. 
The period seems to have arrived, therefore, for a full and comprehensive 
inquiry as to the manner in which the scheme would, if carried 
out, affect the substantial and permanent interests of the citizens of 
Brooklyn and of the metropolis at large. 

The project in its full conception is a large one, and it is at once conceded 
that it does not follow but anticipates the demand of the public; 
that it assumes an extension of the city at Brooklyn and a degree of 
wealth, taste, and refinement, to be likely to exist among its citizens 
which has not hitherto been definitely had in view, and that it is even 
based upon the presumption that the present street system, not only of 
Brooklyn but of other large towns, has serous defects for which, 
sooner or later, if those towns should continue to advance in wealth, 
remedies must be devised, the cost of which will be extravagantly increased 
by a long delay in the determination of their outlines. 

ELEMENTS OF ORDINARY STREET ARRANGEMENTS. 

What is here referred to under the designation of our present street 
system, is essentially comprised in the two series of thoroughfares extending 
in straight lines to as great a distance within a town as is found 
practicable, one series crossing the other at right angles, or as nearly so 
as can be conveniently arranged. Each of the thoroughfares of this 
system consists of a way in the center, which is paved with reference 
solely to sustaining the transportation upon wheels of the heaviest 
merchandise, of a gutter on each side of this wheel-way, having occasional 
communication with underground channels for carrying off water, 
and a curb which restricts the passage of wheels from a raised way for 
the travel of persons on foot, the surface of which, to avoid their 
sinking in the mud, is commonly covered with flags or brick. 
This is the system which is almost universally kept in view, not only 
in the enlargement of our older towns, but in the setting out of new; 
such, for instance, as are just being projected along the line of the 
Pacific Railroad. If modifications are admitted, it is because they are 

7

enforced by some special local conditions which are deemed, by those 
responsible for the arrangement, to be unfortunate. The reason for 
this is probably found chiefly in the fact, that it is a plan which is 
readily put on paper, easily comprehended, and easily stake out; it 
makes the office of an Engineer or Surveyor at the outset almost a sinecure, 
as far as the exercise of professional ability is concerned, and facilitates
the operations of land speculators. 
Its apparent simplicity on paper is often fallacious, and leads either
to unnecessary taxation or to great permanent inconvenience. It is 
obviously incomplete, and wholly unsuited to the loading and unloading 
of goods which require storage, but, where it can be well carried 
out, offers very great advantages for the transportation of merchandise 
between distant points. It is also well adapted to equalize 
the advantages of different parts of a town, and thus avoid obstructions 
to improvement which mercenary jealousies might otherwise interpose. 
In our judgment, advantages such as these have hitherto been pursued 
far too exclusively, but, as the presumption is always strong 
against any considerable innovation upon arrangements which have 
been long associated with the general conditions of prosperity and progress 
of all civilized communities, we desire, before giving reasons for 
this conviction, first, to remove any reasonable prejudice against the 
introduction of the entirely new elements into the street plan of Brooklyn,
which we shall have to propose, by showing under what conditions 
of society and with reference to what very crude public requirements, 
compared with those which now exist, our present street 
arrangements have been devised. 

WHY ORDINARY ARRANGEMENTS ARE INADEQUATE TO PUBLIC 
REQUIREMENTS.

At present, large towns grow up because of the facilities they offer mankind 
for a voluntary exchange of service, in the form of merchandise; but 
nearly all the older European towns of importance, from which we have 
received the fashion of our present street arrangements, were formed 
either to strengthen or to resist a purpose involving the destructions of 
life and the plunder of merchandise. They were thus planned originally 
for objects wholly different from those now reckoned important by 
the towns which occupy the same sites, and an examination of the 
slow, struggling process by which they have been adapted to the 
present requirements of their people, may help us to account for some 
of the evils under which even here, in our large American towns, we 
are now suffering.8
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF EXISTING STREET ARRANGEMENTS,
FIRST STAGE.
They were at the outset, in most cases, entrenched camps, in which a
few huts were first built, with no thought of permanence, and still less
with thought for the common convenience of their future citizens. The
wealth of  their founders consisted chiefly in cattle, and in the servants
who were employed in herding and guarding these cattle, and the trails
carelessly formed among the scattered huts within the entrenchments
often became permanent foot-ways which, in some cases, were subsequently
improved in essentially the same manner as the sidewalks of
our streets now are, by the laying upon them of a series of flat stones,
so that walkers need not sink in the mud.  If the ground was hilly,
and the grades of the paths steep, stairs were sometimes made by laying
thicker slabs of stone across them.  Convenience of communication
on foot was, of course, the sole object of such improvements.

If, in these early times, any highways were more regularly laid out,
it was simply with reference to defence. For example, although two
nearly straight and comparatively broad-ways were early formed in
Paris, so that reinforcements could be rapidly transferred from one gate
to another when either should be suddenly attacked, no other passages
were left among the houses which would admit of the introduction of
wheeled traffic; nor in all the improvements which afterwards occurred,
as the city advanced in population and wealth, were any of the original
pathways widened and graded sufficiently for this purpose until long
after America had been discovered, and the invention of printing and
of fire-arms had introduced a new era of social progress.

The labor required for the construction of permanent town walls, and
the advantage of being able to keep every part of them closely manned
during an attack, made it desirable that they should not be unnecessarily
extended. To admit of a separate domiciliation of families within
them, therefore, the greatest practicable compactness in the arrangement
of dwelling-houses soon became imperative. As families increased,
the demand for additional house-room was first met by encroachments
upon the passages which had been left between the original
structures, and by adding upper stories, and extending these outward
so as to overhang the street. Before this process had reached
an extreme point, however, the town would begin to outgrow its
walls, and habitations in the suburbs would occur, of two classes: 
first, those formed by poor herdsmen and others who, when no enemy
was known to be near at hand, could safely sleep in a temporary shelter,
calculating to take their chance in the town when danger came; and,
second, those formed by princes, and other mean of wealth and power,



who could afford to build strongholds for the protection of their families
and personal retainers, but who, in times of war, yet needed to be
in close vicinity to the larger fighting forces of the town. Neither the
castle nor the hovel being placed with any reference to the enlargement
of the town, or to public convenience in any way, streets were formed
through the suburbs, as they became denser, in much the same way as
they had been in the original settlement; then, as the walls were extended,
the military consideration again operated to enforce the idea of
compactness in every possible way.

The government of these towns also, however its forms varied, was
always essentially a military despotism of the most direct and stringent
character, under which the life, property, health and comfort of the
great body of their people were matters, at best, of very subordinate 
consideration.

Thus the policy, the custom and the fashion was established in the
roots of our present form of society of regarding the wants of a town,
and planning to meet them, as if its population were a garrison, to be
housed in a barrack, with only such halls and passages in it, from door
to door, as would be necessary to turn it in, to sleep and feed, and
turn it out, to get its rations.

It naturally fell out that when at length the general advance of
society, in other respects, made it no longer necessary that a man
should build a castle, and control, as personal property, the services
of a numerous body of fighting men, in order to live with some degree
of safety in a house of his own, apart from others, all the principal towns
declined for a time in wealth and population, because of the number of
opulent citizens who abandoned their old residences, and moved, with
servants and tenants, to make new settlements in the country.

The excessive suppression of personal independence and individual
inclinations which had before been required in town-life caused a strong
reactionary ambition to possess each prosperous citizen to relieve himself
as much as possible from dependence upon and duties to society in
general, and it became his aim to separate himself from all the human
race except such part as would treat him with deference. To secure
greater seclusion and at the same time opportunity for the only forms
of out-door recreation, which the rich, after the days of jousts and
tournaments, were accustomed to engage in, all those who could command
favor at Court, sought grants of land abounding in the larger
game, and planted their houses in the midst of enclosures called
parks, which not only kept neighbors at a distance, but served as nurseries
for objects of the chase.

The habits of the wealthy, under these circumstances, though often
gross and arrogant, and sometimes recklessly extravagant, were far10
from luxurious, according to modern notions, and as, in order to realize
as fully as possible the dream of independence, every country gentleman
had his private chaplain, surgeon, farrier, tailor, weaver and
spinner, raise his own wool, malt, barley and breadstuffs, killed his
own beef, mutton and venison, and brewed his own ale, he was able to 
despise commerce and to avoid towns. The little finery his household 
coveted was accordingly brought to his door on pack-mules by traveling
merchants. The vocation of a merchant, in its large, modern sense,
was hardly known, and the trade of even the most considerable towns
was, in all respects, very restricted. Thus the old foot-way streets still 
served all necessary requirements tolerably well.
As the advance of civilization continued, however, this disinclination
to the exchange of service, of course, gave way; demands became
more varied, and men of all classes were forced to take their place
in the general organization of society in communities. In process of
time the enlargement of popular freedom, the spread of knowledge
by books, the abatement of religious persecutions, the voyages of 
circumnavigators, and finally the opening of America, India and
the gold coast of Africa to European commerce, so fed the mercantile
inclinations, that an entirely new class of towns, centres of manufacturing
and of trade, grew upon the sites of the old ones. To these
the wealthy and powerful were drawn, no longer for protection, but for
the enjoyment of the luxuries which they found in them, while the 
more enterprising of the lower classes crowded into them to "seek their 
fortune."

SECOND STAGE OF STREET ARRANGEMENTS.
Wagons gradually took the place of pack-trains in the distribution
of goods through the country, and, as one man could manage a heavy
load, when it was once stowed, as well as a light one the wagons were
made very large and strong, and required the employment of many 
horses.
In comparatively few town-streets could two of these wheeled merchantmen,
with the enormous hamper they carried on each side, pass
each other. The seats and hucksteries of slight wood-work with which 
the streets had been lined were swept away; but, as the population
rapidly increased, while the house accommodation was so limited that
its density, in the city of London, for instance, was probably three times
as great as at present, any attempt to further widen the streets for the 
convenience of the wagoners had to encounter the strongest resistance
from the house-holders.
Thus, without any material enlargement, the character of the streets
was much changed. They frequently became quite unfit to walk in,


11
the more so because they were used as the common place of deposit
for all manner of rubbish and filth thrown out of the houses which
was not systematically removed from them.
Although London then occupied not a fiftieth part of the ground
which it does now, and green fields remained which had been carefully
preserved for the practice of archery within a comparatively short distance
of its central parts, to which the inhabitants much resorted for
fresh air on summer evenings; although the river still ran clear, and
there was much pleasure-boating upon it, the greater part of the inhabitants
were so much confined in dark, ill-ventilated and noisome
quarters, that they were literally decimated by disease as often as once
in every two years, while at intervals fearful epidemics raged, at which
times the morality was much greater. During one of these, four
thousand deaths occurred in a single night, and many streets were completely
depopulated. All who could by any means do so, fled from the
town, so that in a short time its population was reduced more than fifty
per cent. It had not yet filled up after this calamity, when a fire occurred
which raged unchecked during four days, and destroyed the
houses and places of business of two hundred thousand of the citizens.
Its progress was at length stayed by the widening of the streets across
which it would have advanced if the buildings which lined them had
not been removed by the military.
Five-sixths of the area occupied by the old city was still covered with
smoking embers when the most distinguished architect of the age
seized the opportunity to urge a project for laying out the street system
of a new town upon the same site. The most novel feature of this plan
was the introduction of certain main channel streets, ninety feet wide,
in which several wagons could be driven abreast upon straight courses
from one end of the city to the other. It was also proposed that there
should be a series of parallel and intersecting streets sixty feet wide,
with intermediate lanes of thirty feet. The enormous advantages of
such a system of streets over any others then in use in the large towns
of Europe were readily demonstrated; it obtained the approval of the
king himself, and would have been adopted but for the incredible shortsightedness
of the merchants and real estate owners. These obstinately
refused to give themselves any concern about the sacrifice of
general inconvenience or the future advantages to their city, which it
was shown that a disregard of Wren's suggestions would involve, but
proceeded at once, as fast as possible, without any concert of action, to
build anew, each man for himself, upon the ruins of his old warehouse.
There can be little question, that had the property-owners, at this time,
been wise enough to act as a body in reference to their common interests,
and to have allowed Wren to devise and carry out a complete

12
street system, intelligently adapted to the requirements which he would
have been certain to anticipate ; as well as those which were already
pressing, it would have relieved the city of London of an incalculable
expenditure which has since been required to mend its street arrangements;
would have greatly lessened the weight of taxation, which soon
afterwards rose to be higher than in any other town of the kingdom,
and would have saved millions of people from the misery of poverty 
and disease. 

Although in a very few years after the rebuilding of the city, its
commerce advance so much as to greatly aggravate the inconveniencies
under which street communication had been previously carried on, the
difficulties were allowed to grow greater and greater for fully a century
more before anything was done calculated to essentially alleviate them.
They seem to have been fully realized and to have been constantly deplored,
nore were efforts of a certain kind wanting to remedy them : the
directions of these efforts, however, shows how strongly a traditional
standard of street convenience yet confused the judgement even of the
most advanced.  A town being still thought of as a collection of
building all placed as closely as possible to one centre was also regarded
as a place of necessarily inconvenient confinement, and therefore, 
of crowding, hustling and turbulence.  An enlargement of the
population of a town could only aggravate all the special troubles
and dangers to which those living in it were subject, add to the number
of its idle, thriftless, criminal and dangerous classes, and invite
disease, disorder and treasonable tumults.  As, therefore, to amplify
the street arrangements or otherwise enlarge the pubic accommodation 
for trade or residence, would be to increase its attractions, the 
true policy was generally assumed to be in the other directions. In
London, not only its own Corporations followed this policy, but Parliament
and Sovereign systematically did the same. 

Once, for instance, a proclamation was issued, to forbid under heavy
penalties the erection of any houses, except such as should be suitable
for the residence of the gentry, within three miles of the town ; another
followed which interdicted householders from enlarging the accommodations 
for strangers within the town ; another enjoined all persons 
who had houses in the country to quit the town within three weeks,
while constant efforts were made to ship off those who had none to
Ireland, Virginia, or Jamaica.

In spite of all, new houses were built on the sides of the old country
roads, the suburban villages grew larger and larger till at length they
were all one town with London and population became twice as
great and commerce much more than twice as great as at the time

13

of the great fire.  Even when at last plans of real improvement began
to be entertained it was no thought of resisting the increase of disease, 
pauperism and crime, by other means than fencing it out, that produced
the change, but mainly the intolerable hindrance to commerce of the old
fashioned arrangements.  Though some refused to see it and still protested
against the plans of improvement as wholly unnecessary, hazardous,
reckless, and extravagant, and denounced those who urged, them, as
unprincipled speculators or visionary enthusiasts, the merchants generally
could no longer avoid the conviction that their prosperity was
seriously checked by the inadequacy of the thoroughfares of the town
for the duty required of them.  Parliament was therefore induced in
the latter part of the last century, to authorize a series of measures 
which gradually brought about in the course of fifty years, larger and
more important changes than had occurred before during many centuries. 

As the definite aim of these changes was to get rid of certain inconveniences
which had previously been classed among the necessary evils
of large towns and as the measure with reference to which the purpose
of their design was limited is thus clearly established it is evident that
before we can realize the degree in which they were likely to approach 
the ultimatum of civilized requirement we need to know more exactly
what the inconveniences in question amounted to. 

It appears then that the imperfect pavements, never having been
adequately revised since the days of the hand-barrow and pack-horse transportation, 
were constantly being misplaced and the ground worn into 
deep ruts by the crushing weight of the wheels ; the slops and offal
matters thrown out of the houses were combined with the dung of the 
horses and the mud to make a tenacious puddle through which the
people on foot had to drag their way in constant apprehension of
being run down or crushed against the wall.  In the principal streets
strong posts were plants at intervals behind which active men were accustomed
to dodge for safety as the wagons came upon them.  Coaches
had been introduced in the time of Elizabeth, but though simple, strong
and rudely hung vehicles, they were considered to be very dangerous
in the streets and their use within the town was for some time forbidden.
Sedan chairs for all ordinary purposes superseded them and for a long time had been in common use by all except the poorer classes upon every occasion of going into the streets.  When George the Third went in the state coach to open Parliament, the streets through which he
passed were previously prepared by laying faggots in the ruts to
make the monitor easier.  There was little or no sewerage or covered
drainage, and heavy storms formed gullies of the ruts and often flooded
the cellars destroying a great deal of merchandise. 14
This was the condition in which after several hundred years, the town
had been left by the transformation of the passages, first occuring
between the huts of the entrenched camp of a tribe of barbarians, from
the serviceable foot ways of the early middle ages to the unserviceable
wagon ways of the generation but one before the last.

THIRD STAGE OF STREET ARRANGEMENTS.
To remedy its evils, in the construction of new streets, and the reconstruction
of old, the original passage for people on foot was restored,
but it was now split through the middle and set back with the house
fronts on each side so as to admit of the introduction of a special roadway
for horses and wheels, at a lower level. A curb was placed to
guard the foot way from the wheels; gutters were used to collet the
liquid and floating filth, and sewers were constructed which enabled the
streams thus formed to be taken out of the streets before they became
so large as to flood the sidewalks. At the same time an effort was made
to so straighten and connect some of the streets that goods could be
taken from one quarter of the town to another by direct courses, and
without the necessity of doubling the horse-power at certain points in
order to overcome the natural elevations of the ground.
Thus, just one hundred years after Wren's suggestions were rejected
by the merchants, their grandsons began to make lame efforts to secure
some small measure of the convenience which his plan had offered
them.
A few of the latter improvements had been adopted in other towns
at a somewhat earlier period than in London. In the plans of St.
Petersburg and Philadelphia, for instance, directness and unusual
amplitude of road-way had been studied, and some of the free cities of 
Germany had, at an earlier date, possessed moderately broad and well-paved
streets, but the exceptions do not affect the conclusion which we
desire to enforce.

To fully understand the reason of this long neglect to make any wise
preparation for the enlargement of population which it would seem
must surely have been anticipated, we need to consider that while a
rapid advance was all the time occurring from the state of things when
a town was intended to be governed with little direct regard for the 
interests of any but a very few of its occupants, at the same time direct
responsibility for the care of its interest was being diffused and held
for shorter intervals, and was, consequently, less and less felt, as a
motive to ingenuity and energy, by any one of the several individuals
who partook in it. The theory and form of town government changed


15
more slowly than the character and modes of life of those who were
called upon to administer it, but an adherence to the antiquated forms
was only calculated to make a personal duty, which reference to the
actual new conditions of the people, less easily realized and less effectively
operative. What is everybody's business is nobody's, and although
of late years experts, with professional training in special
branches, are not unfrequently engaged by municipal bodies to study
particular requirements of the people, and invent means to satisfy them,
still, as a general rule, improvements have come in most cities, when
they have come at all, chiefly through the influence of individual energy,
interested in behalf of special mercantile or speculative enterprises, by
which the supineness of the elected and paid representatives of the
common interests of the citizens has been overbourne.

ERRONEOUS VIEW OF THE NECESSARY DISADVANTAGES OF
TOWN LIFE.

What is of more consequence, however, not merely that we may
avoid injustice to our ancestors, but that we may realize the changes
which have occurred in the standard of requirement, with reference to
which the merits of a street system are now to be judged, is the fact
that when these improvements were devised, it was still pardonable to
take for granted that the larger the population of a town should be
allowed to become, the greater would be the inconvenience and danger
to which all who ventured to live in it would necessarily be subject,
the more they would be exposed to epidemic diseases, the feebler,
more sickly, and shorter their lives would be; the greater would be the
of sweeping conflagrations; the larger the proportion of mendicants
and criminals, and the more formidable, desperate and dangerous
the mobs.

EVILS OF TOWN-LIFE HAVE DIMINISHED AS TOWNS HAVE
GROWN LARGER.

We now know that these assumptions were entirely fallacious, for, as
a matter of fact, the towns have gone on increasing, until there are many
in Europe which are several times larger than the largest of the Middle
Ages, and in the largest the amount of disease is not more than half as
great as it formerly was; the chance of living to old age is much more
than twice as great; epidemics are less frequent, less malignant and more
controllable; sweeping fires are less common, less devastating and are
much sooner got under; ruffians are mush better held in check; mobs
are less frequently formed, are less dangerous, and, when they arise, are
suppressed more quickly and with less bloodshed; there is a smaller
proportion of the population given over to vice and crime and a vastly

16
larger proportion of well-educated, orderly, industrious and well-to-do
citizens.  These things are true, in the main, not of one town alone, but
of every considerable town, from Turkey one the. one side to China on
the other, and the larger each town has grown, the greater, on an aver-
age, has been the gain.  Even in Mahomedan Cairo, chiefly through
the action of French engineers, the length of life of each inhabitant
has, on an average, been doubled.  The question, then, very naturally
occurs:  What are the causes and conditions of this amelioration? and
Can it be expected to continue?

REASON FOR ANTICIPATING AN ACCELERATED ENLARGEMENT OF
METROPOLITAN TOWNS.

If the enormous advance in the population of great towns which has
been characteristic of our period of civilization, is due mainly to the
increase of facilities for communication, transportation and exchange
throughout the world, as there is every reason to believe that it is,
we can but anticipate, in the immediate future, a still more rapid move-
ment in the same direction.

We are now extending railroads over this continent at the rate of
more than fifteen hundred miles a year, and before our next President
takes his seat, we shall have applied an amount of labor which is
represented by the enormous sum of two thousand millions of dol-
lars, to this work, most of it preparatory, and more than half of it
directed to the opening up of new lands to profitable cultivation.  The
productive capacity of the country thus laid open, and the demand
upon commerce of its people, has scarcely yet begun to be manifested.
We have but half made our first road to the Pacific, and we have only
within a year begun to extend our steam navigation to Japan and
China, where the demands upon civilized commerce of a frugal and in-
dustrious population, much larger than that of all Christendom, yet
remains to be developed.  We are ourselves but just awake to the value
of the electric telegraph in lessening the risks of trade on a large scale,
and giving it order and system. Thus, we seem to be just preparing to
enter upon a new chapter of commercial and social progress, in which
a comprehension of the advantages that arise from combination and
co-operation will be the rule among merchants, and not, as heretofore,
the exception.

CONDITIONS UNDER WHICH THE EVILS OF LARGE TOWN HAVE
DIMINISHED.

The rapid enlargement of great towns which has hitherto occurred,
must then be regarded as merely a premonition of the vastly greater
enlargement that is to come.  We see, therefore, how imperative,
with reference to the interests of our rare, is this question, whether

17
as the enlargement of towns goes on the law of improvement is such
that we may reasonably hope that life in them will continue to grow
better, more orderly, more healthy?  One thing seems to be cer-
tain, that the gain hitherto can be justly ascribed in very small
part to direct action on the part of those responsible for the good
management of science has had much to do with it.  It can not even,
in any great degree, he ascribed to the direct action of the law of sup-
ply and demand.

Shall we say, then, that it has depended on causes wholly beyond the
exercise of human judgement, and that we may leave the future to take
care of itself, as our fathers did?  We are by no means justified in
adopting such a conclusion, for, if we can not yet trace wholly to
their causes, all the advantages we possess over our predecessors, we
are able to reach the conviction, beyond all reasonable doubt, that
at least, the larger share of the immunity from the visits of the
plague and other forms of pestilence, and from sweeping fires, and the
larger part of the improved general health and increased length of life
which civilized towns have lately enjoyed is due to the abandonment
of the old-fashioned compact way of building towns, and the grad-
ual adoption of a custom of laying them out with much larger
spaces open to the sun-light and fresh air; a custom the introduction
of which was due to no intelligent anticipation of such results.

Evidence of this is found in the fact that the differing proportions
between the dying and the living, the sick and the well, which are
found to exist between towns where most of the people still live on
narrow streets, an those in which the later fashions have been gene-
rally adopted; and between parts of the same town which are most
crowded an those which are more open, are to this day nearly as great
as between modern and ancient towns.  For instance, in Liverpool, the
constant influx of new-comers of a very poor and ignorant class from
the other side of the Irish Channel, and the consequent demand for
house-room, and the resulting value of the poor, old buildings which
line the narrow streets, has, till recently, caused the progress of im-
provement to be much slower than in the much larger town of London,
so that, while the average population of Liverpool is about 140,000 to
the quare mile, that of London is but 50,000; the average age at death
in Liverpool is seventeen, and that in London, twenty-six.  In the city
of Brooklyn the number of deaths for each thousand of population
that occurred this last year in the closer built parts, was twice as large
is in those where the streets are wider and there are many gardens.
218

Comparisons of this kind have been made in such number, and the 
data for them have been drawn from such a large variety of localities 
in which the conditions of health in all other respects have been different, 
that no man charged, however temporarily and under whatever 
limitations, with municipal responsibilities, can be pardoned for ignoring 
the fact that the most serious drawback to the prosperity of town communities 
has always been dependent on conditions (quite unnecessary 
to exist in the present day) which have led to stagnation of air and excessive 
deprivation of sun-light.

Again, the fact that with every respiration of every living being a 
quantity is formed of a certain gas, which, if not dissipated, renders the 
air of any locality at first debilitating, after a time sickening, and at 
last deadly; and the fact that this gas is rapidly absorbed, and the atmosphere reliever of it by the action of leaves of trees, grass and 
herbs, was quite unknown to those who established the models which 
have been more or less distinctly followed in the present street arrangements 
of our great towns.  It is most of all important, however, that 
we should remember that they were not as yet awake to the fact that 
large towns are a necessary result of an extensive intercourse between 
people possessing one class of the resources of wealth and prosperity 
and those possessing other classes, and that with each increase of the 
field of commerce certain large towns must grow larger, and consequently, 
that it is the duty of each generation living in these towns to 
give some consideration, in its plans, to the requirements of a larger 
body of people than it has itself to deal with directly.

CHANGE IN THE HABITS OF CITIZENS AFFECTING THE STRUCTURAL 
REQUIREMENTS OF TOWNS.
If, again, we consider the changes in the structure of towns which 
have occurred through the private action of individual citizens we shall 
find that they indicate the rise of a strong tide of requirements, the 
drift of which will either have to be fairly recognized in the public 
work of the present generation or it will, at no distant day, surely 
compel a revision of what is now done that will involve a large sacrifice 
of property.

SEPARATION OF BUSINESS AND DOMESTIC LIFE.
In the last century comparatively few towns-people occupied dwellings 
distinctly separate from their place of business.  A large majority 
of the citizens of Paris, London and of New York do so to-day, and 
the tendency to divisions of the town corresponding to this change of 
habits must rapidly increase with their further enlargement, because of 
the greater distance which will exist between their different parts.  The 


19

reason is obvious; a business man, during his working-hours, has no occasion 
for domestic luxuries, but needs to have access to certain of his 
co-workers in the shortest practicable time, and with the smallest practicable 
expenditure of effort.  He wants to be near a bank, for instance, 
or near the Corn Exchange, or near the Stock Exchange, or to shipping, 
or to a certain class of shops or manufactories.  On the other hand, 
when not engaged in business, he has no occasion to be near his working 
place, but demands arrangements of a wholly different character.  
Families require to settle in certain localities in sufficient numbers to 
support those establishments which minister to their social and other 
wants, and yet are not willing to accept the conditions of town-life which 
were formerly deemed imperative, and which, in the business quarters, 
are yet, perhaps, in some degree, imperative, but demand as much of 
the luxuries of free air, space and abundant vegetation as, without loss 
of town-privileges, they can be enabled to secure.

Those parts of a town which are to any considerable extent occupied 
by the great agencies of commerce, or which, for any reason, are especially 
fitted for their occupation, are therefore sure to be more and more 
exclusively given up to them, and, although we can not anticipate all 
the subdivisions of a rapidly increasing town with confidence, we may 
safely assume that the general division of all the parts of every considerable 
town under the two great classifications of commercial and 
domestic, which began in the great European towns in the last century, 
will not only continue, but will become more and more distinct.

It can hardly be thought probable that street arrangements perfectly 
well adapted in all respects to the purposes to be served in one of these 
divisions are the very best in every particular that it would be possible 
to devise for those of the other.

RECREATIVE REQUIREMENTS AND DISTANCE OF SUBURBS.
Another change in the habits of towns-people which also grows out 
of the greatly enlarged area already occupied by large towns, results 
from the fact that, owing to the great distances of the suburbs from the 
central parts, the great body of the inhabitants cannot so easily as 
formerly stroll out into the country in search of fresh air, quietness, and 
recreation.  At the same time there is no doubt that the more intense 
intellectual activity, which prevails equally in the library, the work 
shop, and the counting-room, makes tranquilizing recreation more essential 
to continued health and strength than until lately it generally has 
been.  Civilized men while they are gaining ground against certain 
acute forms of disease are growing more and more subject to other and 20
more insiduous enemies to their health and happiness and against these
the remedy and preventive can not be found in medicine or in athletic
recreations but only in sunlight and such forms of gentle exercise as are
calculated to equalize the circulation of relieve the brain.

CHANGE IN THE CHARACTER OF VEHICLES.
Still another important change or class of changes in the habits of the
people of towns may be referred to the much greater elaboration which
has recently occurred in the division of labor and the consequent more
perfect adaptation to the various purposes of life of many instruments
in general use. A more striking illustration of this will not readily be
found than is afforded by the light, elegant, easy carriages which have
lately been seen in such numbers in your Park. When our present
fashions of streets was introduced sedan chairs were yet, as we have
shown, in general use for taking the air or making visits to neighbors.
The few wheeled vehicles employed by the wealthy are exceedingly
heavy and clumsy and adapted only to slow travel on rough roads,
a speed of five miles an hour by what was called the "flying coach,"
being a matter for boasting. Now we have multifarious styles of 
vehicles in each of which a large number of different hands has been ingeniously
directed to provide in all their several parts for the comfort,
pleasure, and health with which they may be used. For the sake of
elegance, as well as comfort and ease of draft, they are made extremely
light and are supplied with pliant springs. They are consequently
quite unfit to me used in streets adapted to the heavy wagons employed
in commercial traffic, and can only be fully enjoyed in roads expressly
prepared for them. In parks such roads are provided in connection with
other arrangements for the health of the people.

INADEQUATE DOMESTIC ACCESS TO SUBURBS AND PARKS.
The parks are no more accessible than the suburbs, however, from
those quarters of the town occupied domestically, except by means
of streets formed in precisely the same manner as those which pass
through the quarters devoted to the heaviest commercial traffic.
During the periods of transit, therefore, from house to house and
between the houses and the Park there is a little pleasure to be had in
driving. Riding also, through the ordinary streets, is often not only
far from pleasant, but, unless it is very slowly and carefully done, is
hazardous to life and limb. Consequently much less enjoyment of the
Park is possible to those who live at a distance than to those who live near
it and its value to the population at large is correspondingly restricted
The difficulties of reaching the Park on foot for those who might enjoy

21
and be benefited by the walk, are at the season of the year when it
would otherwise be most attractive, even greater, for they must follow
the heated flags and bear the reflected as well as the directed rays of the
sun.
But we cannot expect, even if this objection were overcome, that all
the inhabitants of a large town would go so far as the Park every day,
or so often as it is desirable that they should take an agreeable stroll in
the fresh air. On the other hand we cannot say that the transportation
of merchandise should be altogether interdicted in the domestic quarters
of a town, as it is in a park, and as it now is through certain streets of
London and Paris during most hours of the day. On the contrary it is
evidently desirable that every dwelling house should be accessible by
means of suitable paved streets to heavy wheeled vehicles.

NEW ARRANGEMENTS DEMANDED BY EXISTING REQUIREMENTS.
It will be observed that each of the changes which we have examined
points clearly towards the conclusion that the present street arrangements
of every large town will at no very distant day require, not to be 
set aside, but to be supplemented, by aa series of ways designed with express
reference to the pleasure with which they may be used for walking,
riding, and the driving of carriages; for rest, recreation, refreshment,
and social intercourse, and that these ways must be so arranged
that they will be conveniently accessible from every dwelling house and 
allow its occupants to pass from it to distant parts of the town, as, for
instance, when they want to go to a park, without the necessity of
travelling for any considerable distance through streets no more convenient
for the purpose than our streets of the better class now are.
We may refuse to make timely provisions for such purposes in our
suburbs, and we may by our refusal add prodigiously to the difficulty
and the cost of their final introduction but it is no more probably, if
great towns continue to grow greater, that such requirements as we 
have pointed out will not eventually be provided for than it was
two hundred years ago that the obvious defects of the then existing
street arrangements would continue to be permanently endured rather
than that property should be destroyed which existed in the buildings 
by their sides.

THE POSITION OF BROOKLYN.
If we now take the case of Brooklyn we shall find that all the reasons
for an advance upon the standards of the street arrangement of the
last century which apply to great towns in general, are applicable to
her special situation with particular emphasis.22

With reference to general commerce, Brooklyn must be considered as
a division merely of the port of New York. The city of New York is, 
in regard to building space, in the condition of a walled town. Brooklyn
is New York outside the walls.

The length of suitable shore for shipping purposes which the city of 
New York possesses is limited. Many operations of commerce cannot
be carried on in the northern parts of the island. It may be reckoned
upon as certain that the centre of the commercial arrangements of the
port will be in the lower part of New York island.

It may be also reckoned upon as certain that everywhere, within a 
limited distance back from its shores, all the ground will be required for
commercial purposes. The amount of land enclosed by this commercial
border remaining to be devoted to purposes of habitation will then be
comparatively small and will be at a considerable distance north of the
commercial centre, probably not nearer on an average than the upper
part of the Central Park which is more than seven miles from the
present Custom House. On each side of it, north, south, east, and west,
will be warehouses and manufacturing and trading establishments, and,
at a little greater distance, wharves and shipping.

The habitable part of New York island will then necessarily be built
up with great compactness and will in every part be intersected with
streets offering direct communication for the transportation of merchandise
between one part of its commercial quarter and another.

If now, again, we look on the Long Island side of the port we find a
line of shore ten miles in length which is also adapted to the requirements
of shipping. It may be assumed that the land along this shore
will be wanted, as well as that along the shore of New York island
and for an equal distance back from the water, for mercantile and
manufacturing purposes. Supposing that the district thus occupied
shall, after a time, reach as far back as the corresponding district on New
York island; in the rear of it, (and still at a distance from the commercial
centre of the port, not half as great on an average as the Central
Park), we find a stretch of ground generally elevated, the higher parts
being at an average distance of more than a mile from any point to
which merchandise can be brought by water. East of this elevation the
ground slopes to the shore, not of a harbor or navigable river, but of the
ocean itself. A shore in the highest degree attractive to those seeking
recreation or health but offering no advantages for shipping, manufacturing
or mercantile purposes. At present this slope is occupied chiefly
by country seats, and the habitations of gardeners and farmers, and only
through the most perverse neglect of the landowners of their own interests
is it likely to be built upon for other purposes. 


28
THE OPPORTUNITY OF BROOKLYN.

Here, then, there is ample room for an extension of the habitation part
of the metropolis upon a plan fully adapted to the most intelligent requirements
of modern town life. A large part of the elevated land
which has been referred to lies not more than half as far from the commercial
centre as the habitation district of New York island, the ground
is better formed with reference to sanitary considerations; it is open to
the sea breezes and lies in full view of the ocean; it can never be enclosed
on all sides by commerce as the habitable part of New York
island soon will be; and, its immediate back country being bounded by
the sea, the commercial traffic through it is always likely to be light 
and will be easily provided for in a few special channels. Thus it seems
set apart and guarded by nature as a place for the tranquil habitation
of those whom the business of the world requires should reside
within convenient access of the waters of New York harbor.

It does not follow, however, that it will be so occupied. In the drift
of the population of towns it is generally found that natural advantages
alone go for but little, and except in the part controlled by your Commission
no other arrangements as yet exist within reference to the convenience,
health, and pleasure of residents upon this land than such as
would have been formed if it were desired to invite to it nothing but
factories, ship yards, or the warehouses and offices of merchants. One
or two streets were laid out through it some years ago with an avowed
intention of being especially adapted to residences; they were so designed
however, as to offer every advantage to commercial transportation
and consequently for shops and factories but, except in mere width,
without intelligent regard to the alleged purpose in view. They are
nevertheless adapted to serve an important purpose in concentrating
such commercial traffic as must pass through their neighborhoods and
in furnishing sites for shops and public buildings which will in any case
be needed to meet local requirements.
 
Upon the manner in which there are good grounds for confidence
that the elevated district which has been indicated will be occupied in
the future, depends the valuation which can justly and sagaciously be
now placed upon it, and upon this valuation mainly depends the financial 
prosperity of the city of Brooklyn.

HOW THE OPPORTUNITY MAY BE MISUSED AND HOW AVAILED OF.

It would be a perfectly simple problem to cause this land to be given
up in a few years almost exclusively to shanties, stables, breweries, distilleries,
and swine-yards, and eventually to make the greater part of it
a district corresponding, in the larger metropolis which is hereafter to
exist on the shores of New York harbor, to that which the Five Points
has been in the comparatively small town we have known.24

The means by which it may be made a more suitable and attractive
place of domestic residence than it is possible that any other point of
the metropolis ever will be, are equally within command.

INFLUENCE OF THE PARK ON THE VALUE OF PROPERTY.
The effect of what has already been done, under the direction of your
Commission, has been to more than quadruple the value of a certain
portion of this land, and we have thus an expression of the most simple
character, in regard to the commercial estimate which, at this period in
the history of towns, is placed upon the circumstance of convenient
access from a residence to a public pleasure-ground, and upon the sanitary 
and social advantages of a habitation thus situated. The advance
in value, in this case, is quite marked at a distance of a mile, and this
local advantage has certainly not been attended by any falling back in
the value of other land in Brooklyn.
If we analyze the conditions of this change in value, we shall find
that it is not altogether, or even in any large degree, dependent upon
mere vicinity to the sylvan and rural attractions of the Park, but in
very large part, in the first place, upon the degree in which these attractions
can be approached with security from the common annoyances
of the streets, and with pleasure in the approach itself. If, for instance,
the greater part of the Park were long and narrow in form, other
things being equal, the demand for building sites, fronting on this portion
of it, would not, probably, be appreciably less than for those
fronting on the broader parts. Secondly, the advance in value will be
found to be largely dependent on the advantages of having near a residence,
a place where, without reference to the sylvan attractions found
in a large park, driving, riding, and walking can be conveniently pursued
in association with pleasant people, and without the liability of encountering
the unpleasant sights and sounds which must generally accompany
those who seek rest, recreation or pleasure in the common streets.
There are other things to be valued in a Park besides these, but these
are the main positive advantages which would make the value of a residence,
if upon the Park, much greater than if at a distance from it.

HOW THE ADVANTAGES OF VICINITY TO A PARK MAY BE EXTENDED.
So far, then, as it is practicable, without an enlargement of the Park
in its full breadth and compass, to extend its attractions in these especial
respects, so far is it also practicable to enlarge the district within which
land will have a correspondingly increased attraction for domestic residences.
The further the process can be carried, the more will Brooklyn,
as a whole, become desirable as a place of residence, the higher will be


25

the valuation of land, on an average, within the city, and the lighter
will be the financial burden of the Corporation.

EXAMPLE OF A FOURTH OF STREET ARRANGEMENTS.
We come, then to the question of the means by which such an extension
can be accomplished. Although no perfect example can be referred
to, there have been in Europe a few works by which a similar
end, to a certain extent, has been reached. Of these, the most notable
is the Avenue of the Empress, in Paris, which connects a palace and a
pleasure-ground within the town, with a large park situated far out in
the suburbs. This avenue, with its planted border, occupies so much
ground (it is 429 feet in width) that it may be considered to constitute
rather an intermediate pleasure-ground than a part of the general street
system. It is lined with a series of detached villa residences, and
building-lots facing upon it are much more valuable than those facing
upon the Park.
The celebrated Linden Avenue, at Berlin, leads likewise from a palace
and palace grounds, to a great rural park on the opposite side of
the town, through the very midst of which it passes. The finest private
residences and and hotels of the town, as well as many public buildings,
such as Art Galleries and Museums, front upon it, and it is
equally convenient for all the ordinary purposes of a street with any
other. It nevertheless differs essentially from an ordinary business
street, in that the process which we have described, by which wagonways
were introduced into the old streets, has been carried one step
further, the wagon-way having itself been divided as the foot-way formerly
was, and a space of ground having been introduced, within
which there is a shaded walk or mall, and a bridle-road, with strips of
turf and trees.

THE PARKWAY.—A FIFTH STAGE.
The "Parkway" plan which we now propose advances still another
step, the mall being again divided into two parts to make room for a central
road-way, prepared with express reference to pleasure-riding and
driving, the ordinary paved, traffic road-ways, with their flagged sidewalks
remaining still on the outside of the public mall for pedestrians,
as the Berlin example. The plan in this way provides for each of
the several requirements which we have thus far examined, giving access
for the purposes of ordinary traffic to all the houses that front
upon it, offering a special road for driving and riding without turning
commercial vehicles from the right of way, and furnishing ample public
walks, with room for seats, and with borders of turf in which trees may
26

grow of the most stately character.  It would contain six rows of
trees, and the space from house to house being two hundred and sixty
feet, would constitute a perfect barrier to the progress of fire,

PRACTICABLE FUTURE EXTENSIONS OF THE PARKWAY.

With modifications to adapt it to variations of the topography and
the connecting street arrangements, the plan should eventually be extended
from the Park in one direction, to Fort Hamilton, where ground
for a small Marine Promenade should be secured, overlooking the Narrows
and the Bay ;  and in the other to Ravenswood, where it should
be connected by a bridge with one of the broad streets leading in 
the New York side to the Central Park.  A branch should extend 
from it to the ocean beach at Coney Island, and other branches
might lead out from it to any points at which it should appear that
large dwelling quarters were likely to be formed, at such a distance
from the main stem that access to it from them would otherwise be inconvenient.

There are scarcely any houses at present on the general line
indicated and it would pass nearly parallel to, and be everywhere within
from fifteen to thirty minutes walk of the wharves of the East River.
The distance between extreme points would be ten miles and
the average distance of residences upon Wall Street would be
about half the distance to the Central Park.  Spacious and healthful
accommodations for a population of 500,000 could be made within ten
minutes walk of this Parkway.

PLAN OF THE PARKWAY NEIGHBORHOOD.

Our plan, it will be observed, covers more ground than is necessarily
required to be taken for the purposes which have been indicated.  The
object of this is that in addition to providing for an enlargement of the
Park advantages, throughout its whole extent, the Parkway may also
constitute the centre of a continuous neighborhood of residences of a
more than usually open, elegant, and healthy character.  It is believed
that such a neighborhood would not merely be more attractive, to the
prosperous class generally, of the metropolis, than any which can be
elsewhere formed within a much greater distance from the commercial
centre, but that it will especially meet the requirements of an element
in the community that is constantly growing larger and that is influenced
by associations and natural tastes that unquestionably deserve
to be fostered and encouraged.  A typical case, for the sake of illustrating
the class in view may be thus presented.  A country boy receives
a common school education, exhibits ability and at a comparatively 

27

early age finds himself engaged in business in a provincial town ; as his
experience and capacity increase he seeks enlarged opportunities for the
exercise of his powers and being of superior calibre ultimately finds himself
drawn by an irresistible magnetic force to the commercial cities ;
here he succeeds in becoming wealthy by close attention to his specialty
and the sharp country boy becomes the keen city man.  Trees and
grass are, however, wrought into the very texture and fibre of his constitution
and without being aware of it he feels day by day that his life
needs a suggestion of the old country flavor to make it palatable as well
as profitable.  This one aspect of the natural phenomena with which
we are now attempting to deal ;  no broad question of country life in
comparison with city life is involved ; it is confessedly a question of
delicate adjustment, but we feel confident that whenever and wherever,
in the vicinity of New York, this delicate adjustment is best attended
to, and the real needs of these city-bred country boys are most judiciously
considered, there they will certainly throng.  We do not of
course mean to argue that the tastes to which we have referred are
limited solely to citizens whose early lives has been passed in the country,
but only that the existence of the special social element thus typified
gives one of many assurances that such a scheme as the proposed
Parkway neighborhood would be successful, if judiciously carried out
within the lines suggested, before the demand is more of less perfectly
met in some other locality.

It is clear that the house lots facing on the proposed Parkway would
be desirable, and we assume that the most profitable arrangement would
be to make them, say 100 feet wide, and the full depth between two 
streets, convenient sites for stables being thus provided.  The usual
effect of such a plan of operations would be a occupation of the rear
street by houses of inferior class, and it is with a view of avoiding any
such unsatisfactory result that the design is extended over four blocks
of ground.  If the two outermost streets are widened to 100 feet and
sidewalks shaded by double rows of trees introduced in connection with
them, the house lots of these streets will be but little inferior to those
immediately facing the Parkway, for they also will be of unusual depth
and will be supplied with stable lots that can be entered from the street
already mentioned, which should be made suitable for its special purpose,
and with the idea that it is only to be occupied by such buildings as
may be required in connection with the large lots which are intended to
be arranged throughout back to back, with the stable street between 
them.

Thus, as far as this arrangement should be extended, there would be
a series of lots adapted to be occupied by detached villas each in the 
midst of a small private garden.  This arrangement would offer the28

largest advantages possible to be secured in a town residence, and there
is no good reason why they should not be of a permanent character. 
With the modern advantages for locomotion which would be available, 
the departure from the old-fashioned compactness of towns might be 
carried to this extent, in that part of them devoted to residences, without
any serious inconvenience. The unwholesome fashion of packing
dwelling-houses closely in blocks grew, as we have shown, out of the
defensive requirements of old towns; it may possibly be necessary to
continue it under certain circumstances, as, for the reasons already indicated, 
on the island of New York, but where there is no necessary 
boundary, either natural or artificial, to the space which is to be occupied 
by buildings, as is the case with Brooklyn, it is, to say the least, 
unwise to persist in arrangements which will permanently prevent any
indulgence of this kind. 
   Those who availed themselves of the opportunity here proposed to 
be offered would not benefit themselves alone, but the whole community.
The Romans seem to have been wiser than we have been in 
this particular. Rich people were offered every facility for surrounding
their houses with open garden spaces, and the larger part
of the Eternal City was composed of what we should now term detached
villas, while in no part was it permitted that a new house, 
even though intended for the residence of slaves, should be built within
five feet of walls previously erected. 
   Those who availed themselves of the opportunity here proposed to 
be offered would not benefit themselves alone, but the whole community. 
The Romans seem to have been wiser than we have been in 
this particular. Rich people were offered every facility for surrounding
their houses with open garden spaces, and the larger part
of the Eternal City was composed of what we should now term detached
villas, while in no part was it permitted that a new house,
even though intended for the residence of slaves, should be built within
five feet of walls previously erected.
   How far it might be desirable for property-owners to extend the plan
in the peculiar form suggested, is, of course, an open question, depending
on the anticipated demand for lots of the size indicated, but it will
be readily seen that as the proposed subdivisions are not of the ordinary
contracted character, a comparatively small number of residents will
suffice to fill up a considerable stretch of ground laid out in this way,
and it is also evident that if, within a reasonable time, it should become
certain that a specific number of blocks would be carried out on this
plan, the lots included within the boundaries determined on would not
require to be improved in regular succession, but would be selected
with reference to slight, fancied advantages anywhere along the line,
every purchaser feeling satisfied that the main question of good neighborhood
had been settled on a satisfactory basis at the outset.

          ADVANTAGES OF THE PARKWAY LIKELY TO BE SECURED TO
                                           BROOKLYN EXCLUSIVELY.
   Having so fully described, in its principle aspects, the question of the
desirability of developing, in Brooklyn, a plan of public improvement of
the general character indicated, it may be proper for us to enquire
whether the broad streets which are proposed to be opened on New


29

York island under the name of Boulevards during the next few years,
are calculated to interfere with the probable success of such a scheme.
   While the Central Park was in its earlier stages of progress, a Commission
was appointed to prepare a plan for laying out the upper end
of New York island, and some years later this responsibility was transferred
to the Central Park Commission, whose plan is published in their
last annual report. 
   The same document contains an elaborate discussion of the subject
by Mr. A. H. Green, on the part of the Board, and as our professional relations
with the Commissioners have not been extended over this department
of their work, and we are not aware of their intention in regard
to this improvement, except so far as it is set forth in the plan and
public statement above mentioned, we make, for the purposes of this Report,
the subjoined quotation, which sets forth clearly the limitations
that are to be recognized in New York as controlling the designs of the
Commissioners:

   "We occasionally, in some country city, see a wide street ornamented
with umbrageous trees, having spaces of green interposed in its area,
the portion used for travel being very limited. This arrangement is
only possible where thronging population and crowding commerce are
not at liberty to overlay and smother the laws that are made to secure
the legitimate use of the public streets. "It would seem inexpedient,
at any rate, until some better permanent administration of our streets
is secured, to attempt these fanciful arrangements to any great extent
in a commercial city, under our form of government."

   It is clear, therefore, that the Central Park Commissioners have no
intention of carrying out, in New York, any such scheme as the "Parkway,"
and consequently, if, as we believe, the requirements that such
a plan is designed to meet are already felt to exist in this community,
Brooklyn can soon be made to offer some special advantages as a place
of residence to that portion of our more wealthy and influential citizens,
whose temperament, taste or education leads them to seek for a certain
amount of rural satisfaction in conclusion with their city homes.
   Although the plots of ground appropriated to the Brooklyn and
Central Parks are entirely different in shape, while their landscape opportunities
and general possibilities of design are equally dissimilar, a
generic family resemblance will yet be found between the two pleasure-
grounds, simply because they are both called into existence to meet the
same class of wants, in the same class of people, at the same Metropolitan
centre.
   The Brooklyn Parkway, on the other hand, will, if executed, be a
practical development of the ideas set forth in this Report, which seem30

to be particularly applicable to the city of Brooklyn, and which, as we
have shown, are considered by those in authority to be unsuitable for
development in the city of New York; it will consequently have no 
such family resemblance to the New York Boulevards as exists between 
the two parks, and its attractions will, for a time, at any rate, be of a
special and somewhat individual character.

________________

In pursuing the general question of approaches to the Park, in accordance
with your instructions, we have thus been led to the examination
of some other scarcely less important topics, and although the consideration
of such problems as those we have adverted to can only come
before your Commission in an indirect and incidental way, we have
thought it best to lay the results of our study thus fully before you,
because during the investigations and consultations of the past year it
has become more and more evident that the early adoption of some
such scheme as the "Parkway" would have the effect of adding very
greatly to the advantages which your Commission is endeavoring to
secure to the citizens of Brooklyn in the construction of the Park.

Respectfully, 
OLMSTED, VAUX, & CO.,
Landscape Architects and Superintendents.
BROOKLYN, January 1st, 1868.500
Coney Island 
Coney Island before the completion of the
Ocean Parkway was for three fourths of its five
miles of beach a wild waste. Several common
buildings, common in design, equipment, and
management were resorted to by a few people in
warm weather. A limited number of the old
residents, fond of a long drive frequently rode
down then by the old Coney Island Road. An old
wharf at the extreme west end served as a landing
place for a steamboat from New York , making 3 or
4 trips a day. The people who came to the Island
by this means, confined themselves to a very small
area and mostly gave themselves up to cheap
rioting.
         The effect of the completion of the Park
Way in 1874:'75 and of the Concourse embankment
the next year was to induce many people
to explore this comparatively new Country by
extending their drive to the Ocean, the facility
with which this was accomplished, and the
attractions which the ocean and the then
unincumbered beach afforded, carried the
people in large numbers to the ocean, by
that means alone. At this time the
Island was accessible to the Public only by
the fitful trips of a single steamer in summer,the old Coney Island horse rail road which
ran cars once or twice an hour, and the pioneer
steam dummy road known as the Gunther
Road, which started from near Greenwood Cemetry 
and passed through Bay Ridge & Gravesend to
its termini at the westerly side of the Island.
Bathing was something of a novelty, and those
who indulged in it were amply provided for by
comparatively few of the old fashioned primitive
bathing boxes. I have an old painting by Regis Gignoux
painted 30 years ago, which represents only two such
houses with half a dozen bathing boxes on the whole
of the Beach, from a line two thousand feet East
of the Ocean Parkway to the life saving station
located beyond the present Oriental Hotel at the
Easterly end of the Island, what is known as the
Propect Park and Coney Island Railroad Company
or Culvers road was projected by Mr Culver following
the completing of our Parkway and was a paying
enterprise from the start. This road I laid out from
the top of the [?still] in the City on 9th avenue near
Greenwood Cemetry in an almost direct line
to the Beach- It runs West of, and parallel
to the Ocean Parkway, about 1500 feet from it.
The next road was the Manhattan Beach Road
with termini at Bay Ridge and Williamsburgh,
connecting with New York ferries. Two years
later the Brighton Beach road was built, the








line passing through Flatbush and New Lotts
to a terminus within about 500 ft of the Easterly
line of the Concourse, or about 2500 ft from, & parallel
to the Ocean Parkway on the East. Two other roads
with ferry connection were subsequently built,
but these are practically abandoned as Bankrupt,
There are therefore four paying roads to the Island,
with a section of elevated road on a line to the rear
of the Concourse parallel with the ocean and
connecting the two busy ends of the Island on either
side of the Concourse, the Concourse being 2750
feet long, forming the head of the T at the
end of the Parkway. The old horse road still
continues in operation and does a good business
in summer.  The Hotel enterprises of good
character are represented by two, the Manhattan
and Oriental at the East end, built by the
Manhattan Railroad Company, the Brighton Beach
Hotel at the Easterly end of the Concourse,&
the Culver Depot at the West end of the Concourse;
these are buildings of good design and costly,
and probably represent first and last about
a million and a half of dollars. The amount
of money represented by Railroad construction
might be put down to about two millions more,
Besides these structures the West End is covered
with buildings of all sorts in design & character,
most of them undesirable and should never














have been allowed to be erected; perhaps 500,000 
has been spent upon them. The elevated
Railroad cost about $300,000.

 There have been two substantial Iron piers
erected with shelters and Restaurant accommodation
upon them. The iron steam ship Company make
frequent trips in summer to these, bringing &
taking away a great many people, these cost
in the aggregate about $600,000. An iron observatory 
from Fourmount Park was brought to
the Island and placed upon the Beach at a cost
of about $30,000. A small marine steam R.R
built by the Manhattan Beach Company carries
passengers over their property from near the Brighton
terminus, a distance of half a mile and realizes
great profits.

     There exists 3 large bathing pavilions,
so called, each capable of accommodating from
500 to 100 bathers.  Owing to mistakes in construction 
and a failure to appreciate the conditions 
as to the effect of storms and the variations
in the beach line due to the changes of the seasons, 
the Manhattan Beach and the Brighton 
Beach pavilion have been partially destroyed
and their accommodations greatly curtailed
at many of the smaller hotels along the beach 
to the West, more primitive accommodations for 
bathing exist to a more a less extent. Altogether.there are probably good, bad, and indifferent
accommodations for bathers which are taken advantage
of on holidays for several thousand persons,
probably 5000.
The largest amount of travel over any one
road in one day, has not exceeded 18000 people.
It has been estimated that there have been over
100,000 people on the Island in one day, it is a
great number and exceptional; large gatherings
are almost always over estimated.  I presume
that there have been frequently 50,000 people.
One great advantage of Coney Island has come from
the facility with which people could go by Rail
or Boat and spend the day, returning at 
night, others going down in the evening from
city, the fresh air, generally, cool evenings
and attractive music being sufficient 
inducement.  Special nights, as for instance
when displays of fireworks were arranged for,
or extra musical entertainments were provided,
always brought a greater number of visitors.

In the foregoing I have  given you what I
believe you want, I could supplement this
by more accurate statistics if I had more
time and were it necessary.  You know it was
the intention of the Commission to exert its influence
in establishing a permanent good character
upon the Island, the first step was bybuilding the concourse drive to show the effect 
and possibility of a broad, convenient promenade
and thoroughfare with the beach intact in front
and full view of the ocean without interruption
or interference from undesirable & incongruous
structures of any kind. We undertook to
influence the extension of this promenade drive 
to both ends of the Island, and to prohibit the erection
of all structures upon the beach except temporary
bathing pavilions of suitable design, and to
preserve the beach for free intercourse to the Public.
We failed, owing to the cupidity and short
sightedness of these corporations, who each wanted
a little hell of his own, so to speak. We also
wanted to have the Police surveillance of the
Island and authority to experiment with the 
sewerage question, and matters of the kind,
which we deemed to be of importance and of 
common interest. Their combined opposition
was powerful enough in the Legislature to
defeat all our projects - such provisions as would
have been developed under the wise 
management of a man like Shanahan, for he really
knows more than all the rest of them put
together, would have made Coney Island
what it ought to have been, but what it now
never can be. Its beach is obstructed, and 
in some portions ruined, its police and legalstatus is of the lowest order, controlled by
the meanest of politicians. The Manhattan
Beach Company preserve the only decent part of
 the Island, which with the Parkway + Concourse 
make up the Island's only saving clause: An
effort was made this winter to take even that out
of our control. What I deduce from this state 
of things is this, that for all purposes of argument
in favor of such a resort as is Coney Island, the 
reasons are as good as ever, but it is not 
possible to emphasize too strongly the vital necessity
for the wisest and most thorough provisions for 
controlling all the incidental features at the
start necessary to make such enterprises of
permanent nature, this includes the control
of the common thoroughfares, of the police, and 
of the sewerage, and to some extent this should
include the supervision over the management
of the Hotels and Railroads as to fares, as to 
prices + quality of food etc. All these things
were possible at Coney Island, but ignorance
and cupidity combined have almost ruined
it. The authorities of Brooklyn themselves outside
of the Park Commission have never appreciated
its uniqueness and value of the Parkway &
the Concourse. For years we have been required
to keep in as good order as was possible under
the circumstances, nearly 6 miles of driveand planting, and 300.000 square feet of 
concrete upon less than $15000 per year - 
I need note more than suggest to you the absurdity
of expending vast sums of money, upon improvements 
of this kind, without such liberal provisions for
their maintenance as will keep them in the
best of order.