On the 12th of August last you asked our advice for a body of gentlemen who wished to present the main outlines of a scheme for establishing a public park in Buffalo to the consideration of their fellow citizens. We shortly afterwards visited your city, studied its plan with you and made a cursory examination under your guidance of its immediate suburbs, giving special attention to three localities the merits of which for the purpose in view we understood from you had been already under discussion.

We have since gone more carefully over the ground, tested soils, examined maps and obtained all the information we could, without making a topographical survey, of the conditions of the general problem you have to solve and have subjected our first impressions to a close and deliberate review, the result of which we now propose to give to you. In doing so we shall restrict our advice to such general suggestions as it is practicable for us to offer with entire confidence, upon points which need to be well considered before any legislative action could be properly asked for; assuming that all questions, except those bearing directly upon the general and approximate outlines of the proposed scheme, should be left to a body officially accountable to the whole body of citizens interested.

We think it right to distinctly state the fact that if you, or any of the gentlemen whom you represent, have had any special interests, predilections, purposes or opinions in this matter, which it is hardly possible should not have been the case, they have been perfectly concealed from us and that our judgment of what would be for the best interests of the citizens at large, without regard to classes or localities, has been consulted in the simplest and fairest manner possible.

We think it necessary, first of all, to urge that your scheme should be comprehensively conceived, and especially that features, the desirableness of which are most apparent, should not at the outset be made so important as to cause others, the possible value of which may seem more distant, to be neglected.

For this purpose it should be well thought of that a park exercises a very different and much greater influence upon the progress of a city in its general structure than any other ordinary public work, and that after the design for a park has been fully digested a long series of years must elapse before the ends of the design will begin to be fully realized. Even in the initiatory discussions of a plan for such a work therefore it would be unwise to have in [159] view merely the satisfaction of the probable demands of those who will be expected to use it in the immediate future. If a park should prove not adapted to the requirements of those who are to come after us and even of those who are to come after our immediate successors, the outlay which will be needed for it would be an extravagant one.

This caution applies especially to questions of situation, extent, general outlines, approaches and relations with other public ways and places. Minor interior arrangements may be adapted merely to suit immediate and clearly obvious requirements, as the cost of adding to these when found advisable will not necessarily be very formidable, provided the ground first secured shall have been of good shape, wisely located and the general plan of improving it shall have been a well balanced one. It is universally found, however, when this has not been the case and when a growing town has once begun to accommodate itself to a large park that any essential modification of its outlines becomes an undertaking of greater difficulty than the original enterprise itself.

To establish the advantages of a careful prevision, in this respect, we may mention that after land for the Central Park of New York had been acquired, but before work had been commenced upon it, we called attention to the value of certain improvements which might be made in the park and its appr’oaches by the addition of a small amount of land to that already secured. The necessary land for most of these improvements has since been acquired and they have been carried out but their cost has been increased by the neglect to provide for them at the outset from 800 to 2500 per cent., while one of the most desirable, which might have been adopted originally at small expense, will probably never be realized on account of the occupation of the land by important constructions, the undertaking of which was induced by the opening of the park. Prompt action on similar advice to the city of Brooklyn, in one case, secured land for the enlargement of an approach at a cost of only one fifth what it would have cost two years afterwards, while a delay of three years in securing a tract of sixty acres foolishly omitted in the original purchase for a park has cost that city over a million of dollars.

Similar facts are found in the recent experience of London, Liverpool and Paris. Nor are they peculiar to very large towns. To slightly straighten the boundaries, enlarge the ball grounds, widen the adjoining streets and amplify the approaches of the little park laid out nine years ago in the town of Hartford, Connt, improvements very obviously desirable and the requirement of which should have been anticipated, would now probably involve an expense larger than was necessary for the purchase of all the land included in the park and several times larger than would have been originally necessary had the project been formed with a sufficiently comprehensive exercise of forethought.

The still smaller town of Bridgeport acquired a tract of land for a park of seventy acres which, less than two years ago, we were called upon to [160] examine. We enquired as to the practicability of making some change of the boundaries and were told that the land had already advanced so much since the purchase for the park had been made that the idea could not be entertained. It happened, however, that upon an explanation which we made to the owner of a large adjoining field used for agricultural purposes, of the improvement which could be made in the plan of the park if a slight addition were made to it from his property, he wisely but generously offered to make a free gift to the city of what was required; the offer was accepted and the gentleman informs us that he has recently sold a part of the remainder of the field in question for building lots at more than twice the valuation he had placed upon it at that time, and that he considers that the acquisition of any land required for a modification of the boundaries of the park or for an enlargement of the approaches to it would now be assessed at sixteen times as much as it would have been originally.

It must be observed, also, that a really fine, large and convenient park exercises an immediate and very striking educational influence which soon manifests itself in certain changes of taste and of habits and consequently in the requirements of the people.

To understand the character of these changes and their bearing upon the task we have in hand it will be necessary to understand what a park is, or rather what it may be if properly designed and administered.

The main object we set before us in planning a park is to establish conditions which will exert the most healthful, recreative action upon the people who are expected to resort to it. With the great mass such conditions will be of a character diverse from the ordinary conditions of their lives in the most radical degree which is consistent with ease of access, with large assemblages of citizens with convenience, cheerfulness and good order, and with the necessities of a sound policy of municipal economy.

Much must necessarily be seen in any town park which sustains the mental impressions of the town itself, as in the faces, the dresses and the carriages of the people and in the throngs in which they will at times here and there gather and move together. Inasmuch as there are these necessary limitations to the degree in which a decided and at the same time a pleasing contrast to the ordinary conditions of town life are possible to be realized in a park, and inasmuch as the town is constituted by the bringing together of artificial objects, the chief study in establishing a park is to present nature in the most attractive manner which may be practicable. This is to be done by first choosing a site in which natural conditions, as opposed to town conditions, shall have every possible advantage, and then by adding to and improving these original natural conditions. If this is skillfully done, if the place possessing the greatest capabilities is taken and nature is not overlaid but really aided discreetly by art, it follows as a matter of course that in a few years the citizens resorting to the locality experience sensations to which they have before been unaccustomed, disused perceptive powers are more and more [161] exercised, dormant tastes come to life, corresponding habits are developed and a new class of luxuries begins to be sought for, superseding to some extent certain others, less favorable to health, to morality and to happiness, if not wholly wasteful and degrading. The demand thus established will of course sooner or later make itself felt in several other ways besides those which pertain to the park.

Before laying out a park, therefore, it is best to consider what the character of the demand which must thus be expected to grow up with it will be and see if it cannot be anticipated with advantage.

It is easy to determine that its character will be that of a liking for things which are in no way essential to the requirements which had led to the building up of the town as it was before the park was called for. For example, the demand for convenience in getting quickly from places where business is done to places where such rest and sustenance can be had as are necessary to maintain the ability to do business, and for convenience of transferring goods from shops and shipping to stores obliges the obliteration of all natural objects, gives occasion for compact building, causes the removal of whatever would obstruct wheeling and walking between buildings, and leads to the construction of solid and rigid pavements, and the general prevalence of noise, jarring and confusion.

All these things are compatible with a great deal of luxury, especially with the luxury of architectural grandeur and elegance, but the tastes which will be fostered by a park will demand luxuries not only of another kind but such as cannot be associated intimately with these things, luxuries more natural, more healthful and more desirable to be brought within easy reach of the citizens.

The park, as we have described it, must necessarily be large and costly; to place it in the midst of the town would be to make it excessively costly in the first place and permanently a great obstruction to business. It should then be placed at such a distance from the great body of citizens that time will necessarily be spent in going to and coming from it, time which will either be spent unpleasantly or at best with reference to the gratification in any degree of the tastes under consideration, will be wasted. The demand then will be that means of escaping from streets bearing the character which inevitably attaches to the greater part of the compact business parts of a city shall be put everywhere more nearly within reach of all the people than they would be merely by the formation of a park, however large, at some one point in the suburbs.

For these reasons we would recommend that in your scheme a large park should not be the sole object in view but should be regarded simply as the more important member of a general, largely provident, forehanded, comprehensive arrangement for securing refreshment, recreation and health to the people. All of such an arrangement need not be undertaken at once but the future requirements of all should be so far foreseen and provided for [162] that when the need for any minor part is felt to be pressing it may not be impossible to obtain the most desirable land for it.

A comprehensive and well prepared scheme seems to us for several reasons to be peculiarly desirable for Buffalo; first, because Buffalo is a place of singular mobility and progressiveness, rapidly increasing in population and wealth, with every reason for expecting a prolonged career of prosperity, and a more than usually rapid development of advance in the common requirements of civilization; second, because the immediate environs of the town in the conditions they are now and have been for a number of years are not generally at all attractive, and young people in search of recreation especially, have very little inducement to a pure, healthy, natural exercise of their faculties and tastes, and, in consequence, there are special inducements to offer them facilities and stimulants to unwholesome substitutes for recreation; third, the relation of the town to its canals and railroads and the lake and rivers is such as to make an escape from it in several directions, to anything like rural quiet, difficult and disagreeable if not impossible; fourth, during a considerable part of the year that portion of the environs which is otherwise least repellant to rural exercise is swept by harsh, damp winds, very trying to those who are in most need of quiet open air recreation.

Each of the three sites to which our attention has been called possesses some special advantages to which we shall now refer.

The first is the most elevated ground in the city on High street near the old Potters field. From this a finer lookout may be had over the city than from any other point and the distant wooded plains, backed by blue hills, make a beautiful background to the view on the South. It is nearer to the more densely populated parts of the city than any other site having distinctive natural advantages. In a few years unless soon reserved for a public ground it will probably be occupied and surrounded by buildings when the view from it can no longer be had.

The second site referred to is one adjoining Fort Porter. It is also comparatively elevated and has attracted attention because of the view which is commanded from it over the lake. This, especially at sunset in certain states of the atmosphere, is a very fine one and it is within the province of art to enhance the sense of beauty in the distance by forming a substitute for a part and a screen for the remainder of a foreground which is at present rude, discordant and essentially disagreeable. The outer scene thus framed and emphasized would be peculiar to Buffalo and would have a character of magnificence admirably adapted to be associated with stately ceremonies, the entertainment of public guests and other occasions of civic display.

The third site to which our attention was directed is to be found on the banks of the creek west of the Forest-lawn Cemetery. By the construction of an embankment about half a mile below the road which is a prolongation of Delaware Street a body of living water might here be formed about twenty acres in extent with a very agreeable natural line of shore, the greater [163] part of which would be shaded by beautiful groves of trees, already on the ground, and most of which are now in their prime and of very desirable species. This water would be well adapted to the requirements of ornamental water fowl, to skating and boating; the groves adjoining it would furnish a cool place to be resorted to for rambling and rest on a hot day, the views over the water might easily be made charming and appropriate and the general situation is one to which your citizens could go, and in which they could remain, for several hours during many days of the spring and autumn, when most other places in the suburbs, and especially the two elevations which have been considered, would be made disagreeable by the harshness of the winds which sweep them.

On the east side of the road and north of the Cemetery there is a series of large open fields which are graced by a number of remarkably fine, umbrageous trees such as are never found except under unusually favorable conditions of soil and climate. The general aspect of this ground is not only beautiful but its beauty is of that kind which is appropriately termed park-like. Taking these circumstances in connection with the groves and the creek we cannot hesitate to conclude that whatever advantages for pleasure grounds of a certain kind the other sites we have examined may offer they are not to be compared for a moment with that which is here offered you, when the question is of what we call, by distinction, a park.

The objections to the situation which may be anticipated are those which would be felt by some portion of the people of the city to any situation, namely distance, and difficulty of access from certain quarters.

We have seen no other situation nearer the centre of population in which it would be possible to form a spacious park, even at an expense several times larger than would be required for one at this point, where it would not very certainly prove a great inconvenience to business and involve large changes in the general plan upon which the building up of the city is otherwise likely to advance. The site which we have in view is now either waste land, or is occupied, with the exception of a single unimportant manufacturing establishment, exclusively for agricultural purposes, and, for farming land near a large town, can be bought at an extraordinary low rate. A park would neither interfere with nor be interfered with by any existing or probable line of business communication, the character of the topography of the neighborhood not having encouraged the formation of roads from either side through it. It would be feasible by a slight divergence from the present route to carry the only existing public thoroughfare across it, whenever it shall be found desirable, where by means of a natural depression of the surface it would be out of view from the pleasure routes of the park.

Due weight being given to these facts we doubt not that it will be clear to you that no other situation would on the whole be equally convenient for the main purposes which a park should be designed to serve, and that a park in no other situation would occasion so little inconvenience to those [164] living or doing business, even in the parts of the city to which the objection of distance and difficulty of access may be considered to be of the most consequence.

If you are thus prepared to adopt the conclusions that the principal feature of your scheme should be a park, intended for the general enjoyment of all citizens of Buffalo, as Buffalo may be expected to be a generation or two hence, and that this park shall be situated as we have advised, then you will find it necessary to consider how the people of the more distant parts of the city can be secured access to this park without a journey long, fatiguing and discordant with the sentiment and purposes of recreation in view, and what compensation can be offered them for the distance at which they will be placed by the location of the park as proposed.

To reach sound conclusions on these points you will need to reflect that public pleasure grounds are chiefly used in three ways, as follows: First, for recreation of a decided character, involving an absence of some hours from ordinary pursuits, and that such recreation is either taken after the main business of the day is over by those who are able to leave their business somewhat early in the afternoon, or that it involves a holiday or half holiday. Second, for the airing, exercise and recreation of children, invalids, women, and others who are not methodically occupied by any regular business yet are necessarily much confined within walls. Third, for a slight diversion of those whose business usually holds them so late that they are able to leave it only for short periods during the day but to whom an attractive recreation ground would be worth perhaps more than to any other, if it could be put within their easy reach.

For both the latter purposes a large park outside a city is resorted to by those living or working within a limited distance of it, but it cannot serve these purposes, so far as the larger body of citizens is concerned. Grounds need to be provided, therefore, less complete in their opportunities for a variety of forms of recreation and adapted to accommodate a smaller number of persons at a time, but to which many can resort for a short stroll, airing and diversion, and where they can at once enjoy a decided change of scene from that which is associated with their regular occupations.

The sites near Fort Porter and on High Street are both suitable for this class of grounds; each would be conveniently accessible from a different quarter of the town, and each of these quarters would have less direct access to the main parks than to any other quarter where vacant land can be found offering any advantages for the formation of pleasure grounds.

If you accept the conclusion thus suggested the question only remains of making the main park more readily and more agreeably and more appropriately accessible from a distance.

Fortunately the plan of Buffalo is such that the proposed site of the main park is already accessible by the most direct way possible from the very centre of population, and from the only quarter not proposed to be otherwise [165]

provided with a local pleasure ground, by Delaware avenue, an approach of stately proportions. So far as this quarter of the city is concerned a better solution of the difficulty is thus at once offered than can often be obtained at large expense in other cities. The avenue is susceptible also of great improvement at a very moderate outlay.

For them rest, we would suggest that the two ends of the main park on the Southeast and West be gradually narrowed and curved toward the town, so that the greater part of the ground taken would be included within a crescent-shaped figure, and that strips of ground, at least two hundred feet wide, be acquired, extending from them toward the North and West parts of [166] the city on one side, and the South and East parts on the other. Through these strips a series of roads and walks adapted exclusively for pleasure travel should eventually be formed and outside of them roadways to answer the purpose of streets, for ordinary traffic, which could thus be disassociated from the movement to and from the park. So much of these strips as would not be wanted for passage-ways should be occupied by turf, trees, shrubs and flowers; they should follow existing lines of streets as far as practicable, so as not to interfere unnecessarily with the present divisions of property, and they should be so laid out as to connect the two subordinate grounds which have been indicated with the main park.

Thus, at no great distance from any point of the town, a pleasure ground will have been provided for, suitable for a short stroll, for a playground for children, and an airing ground for invalids, and a route of access to the large common park of the whole city of such a character that most of the steps on the way to it would be taken in the midst of a scene of sylvan beauty and with the sounds and sites of the ordinary town business, if not wholly shut out, removed to some distance and placed in obscurity. The way itself would thus be more park-like than town-like.

Such a park-way on the East might follow the line of Jefferson Street from Genesee or Batavia Street to near Main Street, and soon after crossing the latter begin to expand into the crescent ends of the park itself. On the West, starting from an architectural construction and esplanade on the bluff at or near the present base-ball grounds, it might divide and enclose the Niagara and York Street Public Gardens and continue in a straight course to Rogers Street, then follow Rogers Street to Clinton Grove, near which it might slightly expand and take a more picturesque character than would be desirable nearer the town, and finally open fully into the park itself near the foot of the proposed ornamental water, half a mile west of the Cemetery.

At a point near the entrance of the Race Course, and at the crossing of important streets, the Parkways might, for greater convenience in crossing and turning, be expanded in a circular or elliptical form, and such points would, in the future, offer suitable positions for fountains, statues, trophies and public monuments.

It is impracticable to form even an approximate estimate of the cost of such arrangements as we have suggested without a plan based upon a careful topographical survey, but it will be readily seen that the opportunity may be secured for them and held by the city at a very moderate expense.

The most costly items in the acquisition of a park by a city usually are; first, the land; second, grading; third, the foundation or stone work of roads; fourth, constructions of masonry. The land which you would require for the park is mere farming land, with no costly buildings upon it, instead of being as is usually the case town building-lots more or less occupied by expensive structures and for important business purposes. Its surface is almost everywhere gently sloping, so that the necessary grading to adapt it to park purposes [167]

would be extraordinarily light. The chief topographical change suggested would be effected by the construction of a simple embankment, about one hundred feet in length and the natural action of the water which would accumulate above it. An abundance of stone suitable for road foundation is found on the ground, in quarries already opened and the facility with which these can be worked and the stone prepared is such that we are informed that contracts for road-metal may be made at less than half the prices we have usually found it necessary to pay elsewhere. There is no necessity for any large work of masonry and what little may be required will, for the reasons first indicated, be inexpensive.

[168]

On reviewing all the circumstances it cannot be doubted that they present an opportunity of acquiring a property at comparatively moderate cost, which when gradually improved, as from year to year may be deemed expedient, will ultimately be of inestimable value to your city.

We are, with great respect for the generous and impartial public spirit with which our counsel has been sought and received by your associates and yourself,