In the judgment of the Landscape Architects, the most important matter that has been before the Board for several years is the scheme for a Common, Play Field and Skating Place which has taken form in a plan to which has been given the title of “The Muster Ground.” From what you said in a few words after the last meeting of the Board in regard to a recent interview that you had had with the Mayor, I am apprehensive that the question of such a ground has become complicated in the mind of his Honor and that of others, with another question which is not necessarily any part of it, and which is of less consequence. I think it a duty to present our views, together with certain facts and considerations bearing upon the subject, and I shall do so individually because I wish to refer to circumstances of which my associates are not officially cognizant.

Several years before I had any professional or official relations with the City of Boston, I went, in company with the then existing Board of Park Commissioners, at their invitation, over ground in West Roxbury which they were then considering the advisability of selecting as the site of a large park.

After such cursory examination of the locality as was practicable, I advised the Commissioners that it was an admirable one in most important respects, but I pointed out that no part of it was well adapted to be formed into a field for musters, sports, athletic exercises, for the display of fireworks, or for bringing people together in large numbers for any purpose. I also observed that it contained no large pond, or apparent means of forming one, and that it had been found in other cases impracticable to provide satisfactorily for boating or skating in narrow waters in the midst of a large park, attempts to do so having generally led to much disorder and popular dissatisfaction in respect to details of management, and, in one case, to a lamentable loss of life.

I stated that no advantage had been found to result from the introduction of provisions of the class in question in close connection with the rural elements of a park, and that it had been found better to make such provisions on land somewhat separated from a rural park, but at no great distance from [481]it, and that in near connection with Prospect Park of Brooklyn, a detached Muster Ground and Base Ball Field had been so provided, and the arrangement has found to be economical and politic. For these reasons, I advised the Commissioners to look for some body of land near by, which would be better adapted for the purposes in question than any lying within it.

The Board should understand that this was not an offhand, thoughtless expression of immature opinion, but that it was based on extended experience and upon reflection under pressure of official responsibilities. I had, twelve years before, made a careful study of the principal public parks of Europe; had watched the operation of the skating and play-field arrangements upon them; had superintended the first and the second large parks in America, including the skating arrangements, had been President and Treasurer of the Park Commission of New York, and had had official connection with all the large parks that had then been formed in the country.

Nine years after I gave the advice above stated to the first Park Commissioners of Boston, I was employed by their successors to devise a plan for laying out Franklin Park, and presented a drawing of such a plan at a meeting of the Commissioners held on the Park site, at which meeting Mayor Hugh O’Brien was present. At this time I repeated the observation that I had made to the first Board and strongly urged the same advice, pointing out that neglect to procure in the vicinity of the Park suitable land for the purposes in question would surely lead at some time in the future to attempts to make such provisions on unsuitable land within the Park, that such attempts would be a great injury to the rural character of the Park; would be inadequate to their purposes; would be costly, and in the end only aggravate the objection they were intended to remedy. The same view has been informally urged since on several occasions.

More than a year ago, a body of citizens laid before the Commission a proposition for providing a skating pond near Franklin Park, on low, flat land designated by them. On that occasion, remarks were made by Commissioners, indicating a conviction that such a pond was extremely desirable, and the Landscape Architects and the City Engineer were instructed to consider and report the outlines of a project for the purpose.

It was no part of the object of the Commission in calling for such a report to connect with it the project of a rostrum for public speaking. The plan subsequently submitted to the Board provided for a large rectangular field, with a formal, shaded promenade on its border. All within this border was to be at a lower elevation, with a flat surface, adapted to be used in Summer as a ball field, a parade ground, a field for the display of fireworks and balloon ascensions, and for many other purposes that could not be well provided for on the rugged and undulating ground of the Park. It was also adapted to be flooded in Winter to a depth, which, when frozen, would make it a safe and altogether suitable place for skating and other Winter amusements. It is believed that this project was approved by the Commission, but no action has [482]

General Plan of Franklin Park, Boston, 1891

[484]

Photograph of Scarboro Pond and Bridge, Franklin Park, Boston

I wish at this time to renew, in behalf of myself and my associates, the advice that the city should secure a sufficient body of flat, low land, where water in sufficient quantities can be commanded from natural sources, to serve, without heavy outlay for grading, as a field for the purposes had in view in the plan now before your Board, called “Plan for a Muster Ground.”

I wish also to restate that the arrangements for ponds now being made on Franklin Park have been designed primarily with a view to add to the beauty of the scenery of the Park, and on the presumption that a much larger pond, planned with express reference to economy of management and to safety and convenience in the use of it as a skating field, would be formed for the general use of the public on land naturally well adapted to that purpose in the southern part of the city. If this element of the scheme is not to be realized, the ponds on [485]Franklin Park will, in the judgment of the Landscape Architects, be found inadequate and unsuitable for the purpose. The natural topography of Franklin Park does not admit of proper arrangements for the accommodation of large numbers of skaters upon it, except at a cost for construction and maintenance that would be extravagant.

Respectfully,

Your obedient servants