Page:Architectural Review and American Builders' Journal, Volume 1, 1869.djvu/68

 48 Sloan's Architectural Review and Builders' Journal. [July, The buildings it contains, might, after the proposed purchase, be rented out by the city for a number of years, until it should be held advisable to level them all, and throw into the Park this entire tract. Besides its inherent advantages, all ready for the landscape-gardener, this would, in effect, add the Girard Col- lege property to the City Park domain, and perpetually advantage both fran- chises ; it would also grandly bear out Councils' idea of the pressing want of acres upon the east side of the Schuyl- kill, and appropriate!}' finish Fairmount knoll. The tract here mentioned is of the minimum dimensions. If the city would not regret in future it should also include, as a maximum, the whole irregular triangle between Ridge road from Oxford street to York street, and the limits just described. This is ONE great point. The SECOND is, to sur- round the new cemeteries in the neigh- borhood of Laurel Hill, such as Mount Vernon, Mount Peace, &c, with a narrow strip of the Park, thus measurably con- stituting them a portion of itself, and forever protecting them from the en- croachments of the great city. The "THIRD is, to purchase a narrow strip of land on both sides of the Wissahickon, from Paul's Mill road — the presumed present northwesterly outer-guard of the Park, in its utmost proposed dimensions — as far as the banks remain high, rocky and picturesque, terminating with the transition into general level meadow, or farm land. The FOURTH is, to pur- chase and add to the Park all of the right-angled triangle, formed by Biddle street, Twenty-fourth street, and the Schuylkill, not already owned by the city. This will include the gasometer on Callowhiil street, and carry the line on the east side of the Schuylkill down as far as Vine street. The FIFTH is, to acquire the narrow tract forming the west shore of the Schuylkill, from Biddle street, on the line of Bridgewater street, fairly to the demesne of the Blockley Almshouse, there being no reason why the abjectly poor, and, of necessit}', the community, should not be guarded through an expanse of verdure and full play of air from the pestilence lurking in the lengthening mud bank, which then would be reclaimed and elevated into the healthful companionship of the Park. Besides, what so gratifying to the tired business-man, from the heart of the city, but dwelling in West Phila- delphia, as, on seeing the living green of the whole western shore, to reflect, that far beyond that pleasant scene snugly lies his waiting home. The great thoroughfares of course would all remain open through the Park, as at present, only conforming a little to the line of beauty. As the Woodlands' Cemetery joins the Almshouse bound- ary, it would virtually be a portion of the Park, which thus would extend nearly to Gray's Ferry, an immense advantage to the future over-crowded city. The SIXTH is, to secure a narrow strip on both sides of the Schuylkill, fairly to Norristown. This latter would give an extended continuous drive of thirty- four miles. Its object would be to preserve the scenery of the river from vulgar desecration, as the Sherman family, buying up both shores for several miles, have preserved West Canada creek, or the Cayoharie, the principal branch of the Mohawk, at Trenton Falls, New York, thus perpetuating the native romantic surroundings of the dark fossil-sprent ravine and its inimit- able cascades. Those who at first start, at the pro- portions here laid down, must remember that within one generation, "thirty-three years, Philadelphia will, in all likelihood, number two and a half million inhabit- ants. The members of the Park Com- mission, cool-brained gentlemen, offi- cially predict for it within twenty-five years one million and a half. In a new and free country, population far outstrips the average normal increase. This being the case, it behooves the present public at least to obtain and lay out the. ground,