Lately, while on a long journey in the South, I saw a newspaper statement that we had been engaged as landscape architects to the Brooklyn Park Commissioner. It was not exactly true at the time, and I undertook to write you what the facts were that had led to the statement. My impression is that I did not complete my letter, but as I cannot find it in my port-folio possibly I did and sent it to you. I think not, however, and therefore will briefly tell you what I had intended, and what has occurred since.

[757]

Some time ago; perhaps two years; I was asked if I would become the professional adviser of the Brooklyn Park Commission. I replied that I would only in association with you, and that ended the matter for the time. A few months ago, while I was absent, an inquiry came to our office as to whether we knew of a suitable man for superintendent of the Brooklyn parks. In answer, Ulrich, whom we had had at Chicago was named. Ulrich was afterwards engaged and is now in Brooklyn. When I came home, it seemed to me that our unqualified recommendation of Ulrich was a little imprudent and it might be given a significance that had not been intended. I accordingly wrote a note adapted to relieve us of responsibility. Then came a note from a gentleman who had married a relative of ours saying that Commissioner Squier was a neighbor of his, and had expressed a wish to see me. I was passing through New York a few days afterwards, met my relative and accepted an invitation to dine with him. At his house I met Mr. Squier whom he had asked to come in to see me. I was given to understand that Mr. Squier would like to engage our firm if he could do so on satisfactory terms, but that he did not want you. White, of McKim, Mead & White, had been employed on the park and Mr. Squier intended to further employ him as architect. The implication was that to bring you in would make the arrangement too complicated. When I reported this conversation to my partners, it was thought that we ought to treat with Mr. Squier. A proposition was therefore submitted to him. Ten days ago, on my return from my long journey in the South, John and Eliot met me in New York and we spent the best part of a day with Commissioner Squier and Ulrich looking over the ground, and were informally engaged, or assumed to be engaged as Landscape Architects Advisory. The engagement has not yet been made in any documentary or written form. What we saw in going over Prospect Park was melancholy and perplexing; wide and erratic variations from our plan having been made, and work being in progress in still further and more radical variation from it. This work we have formally advised to be arrested. It is doubtful if it will be, because the Commissioner is very anxious to meet the pressing demands for giving men employment; while we can as yet only advise him {at} what points to stop work and reduce the small force he now has employed.

The difficulty of the problem is such and the expectations and demands as to what should be done are such that if I were to consult my own comfort and convenience I should have nothing to do with it, but the opportunity to return to our original design as far as possible under the changed circumstances, and to prevent any further waste of advantages which have been gained for carrying it out, is one that I have not felt that I could rightly discard. It is evident that certain radical changes of design have been already made and that the ground lost by them cannot be recovered. Other changes are contemplated and some must be made in consequence of what has been done. I am disposed to put what limit we can upon them. I have not seen White with whom it is apparently expected that we shall be in consultation.

[758]

Since writing the above we have recvd a letter from a gentleman representing property holders on the West Side, seeking our assistance in respect to planning, or to the revised planning, of Riverside Park, as desirable because of {…} on its Western Boundary &c.&c. I have written advising that those he represents should call on you, and implying that we would have nothing to do with it, except at the request of the Park Commission, in association with you.

Sincerely Yours