Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 92, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 August 1900 — About a Public Park. [ARTICLE]

About a Public Park.

About every so often the people of Rensselaer awake for a while to the necessity of securing a public park, but the enthusiasm soon passes away, and nothing is done. Whether an agitation started now ; would have any more enduring , results, is a doubtful questiop. One' thing is sure, however, and that is i the longer we wait the harder it will be to secure a suitable place, the more we will have to pay for it, and the further out we will have to go to find it. Several excellent opportunities! that were open to us in the past, have now passed iwevocably away. One such was the Thompson grove . in the north part of town, near the railroad, now divided into lots, I and sold for residences. Another: was that portion of the 014 Yeo- j man farm, further west, from the above, which has been cleared of i its fine groves and laid out into j lots also, as Benjamin & Magee’s ! addition and Austin & Paxton’s addition. Better than either of these was the chance to have secnr d all that tract south of Wofk and Grace streets, where now are the S. P. Thompson, Foltz and Granville Moody residences, and taking in and between the two streets just mentioned and the river. The Republican strove ' hard but unavailingly to induce our j people to secure this fine tract, while it could have been secured, and when the late James C. Van Rensselaer, the then owner, offered it to the town, almost as a free "gift. That was then almost an ideal opportunity "for a public park. The best part of it. is now gone, but oven ypt, it is probably the best opportunity left us, for a park near town. The unimproved block lying between the Foliz and Thompson properties on the west and the Moody property on the east, would make an excellent entrance to a park It is well shaded already, by widespreading thorn trees, and if these were properly trimmed, the square would be a very attractive 1 place, at once. Bapk of this, land could be secured, up and down the river and if clear around to the west to include the, tract where the old “coal-oil well,” is all the better. To the east on cotli sides of the river there is room for indefinite expansion. We even might go east far enough eventually to take in the grove on the Stook Farm. Some of this land, especially along the river could doubtless be had very cheap, some perhaps even donated. And what could not be had in that way, could he ‘condemned and taken, at a legal valuation, by process of law. The square where the thorn trees are, would be the first desideratum. It belongs to Mrs. Susan Van Rensselaer Strong, of Brunswiok, N. J. She is not at all anxious to dispose of the tract, but seems willing to do so for a sufficient consideration. Of course there is no good reason why she should give it to the city, for n park, any ipore, nor perhaps as much, than some of our own residents should ' make an equally valuable donation for the same piwpose. We believe ! however, in faot she has just intimated as much, that she is willing to dispose of it for park purposes on much more liberal terms, that to private parties. But in case her estimates of its value and that of our city authorities could not there is still left the method of legal condemnation. . And the law not only provides methods for securing lands for parks, but it also provides easy means, by the issuing of special bonds, for paying for and improving them. Therefore a pa»k ceuld

now be secured and improved, without adding anything very onerous to our city taxes. And whatever we did pay in that way, if expended judiciously would soon pay itself . back, in public benefit a hundred times over.