- --   -   -   - -   -     -     -   - -   - -     -     -     -   - -   - - - - - - - - - - - -
REPORT    4
iOF THEE T
H(N. M1ARl:K  D. NXILB3ER
CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE ON CITIES AND VILLACES,
-TO TTHE;'
SENATE OF MICHIGAN,
ON7S
THE DETROIT PARK BILL,,
MARCH 5, 1873.
DETROIT:
DAILY POST BOOK AND JOB PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT.
1873.
- - - - - - - - - - - -








REPORT
OF THE
HON. MARK D. #WILBER,
CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMITTEE ON CITIES AND VILLAGES,
TO THIE
SENATE OF MICHIGAN,
ON
THE DETROIT PARK BILL,
MARCH  5, 1873.
DE TRO IT:
DAILY POST BOOK AND JOB PRINTING ESTABLISHMENT.
1873.








REP ORT.
IN  SENATE, LANSING, March 5, 1873.
HE  committee on cities and villages, to whom  was
referred House Bill No. 69, entitled a Bill to amend
an act entitled "An act supplementary to the charter
of the city of Detroit, relating to a public park or other public
grounds for the use of said city," being act No. 277 of the
session laws of the year i871, approved April 15, i871,
Respectfully report, that in January, 1871I, certain leading
citizens of Detroit issued a call for a meeting "to consider the
expediency of purchasing grounds for a public park."
The call stated that " the importance of securing lands for a
public park cannot well be over estimated, as such grounds can
be secured now cheaper than at any future time."
The meeting was held on the evening of January 24, I87I,
when a committee was appointed "to propose and report a
plan."
"On the Ist of February this committee made a report to a
very large meeting. The substance of the report was that the
Legislature, then in session, should be asked to pass a law
providing for the appointment of a Board of Park Commissioners,
whose duty it should be to select grounds for a park or boulevard,
within or without the city limits, and to acquire such land after
the means have been provided by the common council and a
citizens' meeting."
At this meeting the report of the committee was adopted
without change, and a new committee appointed, by whom "the
meeting directed the reported plan to be embodied in the form
of a bill, and submitted for enactment to the Legislature, then in
session. The result was the Park Act passed April i5th, I871.
See Laws I871, vol. 2, p. 1325.




The act of 187I created a commission or board consisting
of six persons. The board of commissioners were "vested with
full power and authority to adopt plans for a public park or
boulevard," and "to select and acquire the lands needful for
such purposes;" conditional, however, "upon the ratification of
such purchase by the common council, and the vote of a citizens'
meeting."   The park commission was duly organized, and
immediately invited proposals of land suitable for a public park.
Every site offered was carefully examined, and finally the commission selected a most eligible site, and entered into conditional
contracts for the same on the most favorable terms.
"On December 8, I871, the common council, by a vote
of i6 ayes to 4 noes, approved the report of the commissioners,
and ordered the proposition for the issue of the bonds necessary
to complete the purchase to be submitted to a citizens' meeting.
" This action was vetoed by Mayor W. W. Wheaton, but on
December  9, the council passed the resolution over the veto by
a vote of 15 to 5."
After this final vote of approval by the common council, the
commission, as the act required, called a meeting of the citizens
to ratify their report. This meeting was held at the circuit court
room; but was controlled, and finally broken up, through the
influence of persons whose conduct your committee do not deem
it necessary here to describe.
A second citizens' meeting, called for the same purpose, was
held May 2d, I872, which, though not as discreditable as the
first, was nevertheless so conducted as to defeat its purpose.
These several attempts convinced the commissioners that the
city had outlived the period, as it had outgrown in numbers, the
time when these once popular assemblages were practicably'useful, and the "citizens' meeting" was, therefore, from necessity
for this purpose, abandoned. With this failure to execute the
plans adopted, according to the various conditions of the act,
the commissioners were compelled either to abandon further
attempt, or to seek and obtain relief from a higher source. To
this end the commissioners addressed to the Legislature a memorial, reviewing the original defective act, and "asking that the




law may be so amended as to give the commissioners.the power
necessary to secure a park for the city of Detroit." Upon this
the "bill," which is the subject of your committee's report, was
introduced into the House of Representatives, and passed. The
passage of the bill has been warmly supported, as well as vigor_
ously resisted.
Your committee have listened to several eloquent and learned
discussions, both for and against the bill. In these arguments
various and important issues were raised, as to-wit:  Whether
the city needs a "public park," and if so, whether it should have
two or three parks, including a boulevard-the area sufficient for
a park-its, or their location-the principle of assessment known
as "benefits and damages" —the power of the Legislature to
regulate and control municipal governments, and the proper
exercise of its powers in authorizing compulsory taxation, without
the consent of the tax-payers, for public projects not deemed
"public necessities," in violation of ancient municipal customs.
Upon these several issues, your committee, after hearing counsel,
advocates, and citizens,-after visiting Detroit and examining
with care the proposed park locations, their topography, characteristics, and surroundings, with a view to the prospective needs
of a large, wealthy, and rapidly increasing commercial city,-find
and submit:
That public parks for large cities are not mere pleasure
grounds, and costly public luxuries, but public necessities. Their
utility has been recognized through all the ages of civilization, as
shown by all the large cities in every land. The public health,
moral as well as physical, requires them,-every principle of
sanitary law  demands them.   The poor, the sick, and the
children cry out for them. The prolonged existence of the
thousands who are born, live, die, and are buried within the walls
or limits of large towns, depends upon these "public lutngs."
The millions that people our great cities cannot each have the
costly private grounds, nor even the simple "door yard" and
garden, but all may have, own, and enjoy in common one still
grander and better, a public " door yard" and garden, towards
which the doors of the whole city open-a park for the parent,
and a play-ground fo:r the children of all.




The uses and purposes of a public park are grand and comprehensive in their scope, and far reaching in their benefits. It
becomes of necessity a public educator. Visitors at Central
Park see admirably illustrated the use of money in the hands of
men of genius and taste, used in instructing the public in the
art of landscape gardening, as taught in older lands. Yet, as an
educator, Central Park is still far behind many of the parks of
Europe.  Their zoological gardens-conservatories of exoticstheir tropical gardens, their aquaria, representing sections of the
seas, with their fishes, animals, shells, corals, anemone-in a
word, the wonders of the world as found in their native element
-their museums of natural history, botany, geology, mineralogy,
etc., are almost unknown to American parks.
The "Garden of Plants," in Paris, contains the forest and
fruit trees, the shrubs and flowers, almost, of the world. Each
has attached a small tin label, on which is written its name,
country and use. Thus, a tree, shrub, or plant with a white label
shows that in fruit, leaf, flower, bark, root, or juice it is food-producing. The blue label indicates its extracts are used in some
form in the arts as a coloring, ink or dye. Those with yellow
label are medicinal; the black poisonous; the red ornamental,
etc. Here tens of thousands receive free that which Americans
would destroy-the surplus shrubs, plants, slips, grafts, roots,
seeds, etc., for their private homes and gardens, and instruction
in their culture. All this can be had and practiced in any park,
with scarce an added cost.
The park is also a school of art. In our country, where the
law of primogeniture does not obtain, private parks of any extent
are the exception; hence, the public park must be the high
school, where students in "landscape gardening" are to receive
instruction from the hand of a master.  Parks are pictures; aye,
whole galleries of paintings, where nature comes, with the pencil
of spring, and summer, and autumn; of bud, and flower, and
fruit, of sunlight and shadow, to execute the design of man's
imagination.
America has but begun to take lessons in the art of picturemaking with tree, fruit and flower, lakelet, lawn aud fountain;




7
indeed, only such as the gardens of Versailles or Potsdam give a
just conception of how beautiful and how instructive these can be
made. The park, therefore, becomes the "Academy of Design"
for the city and the State. Here are the originals from a master's
hand. With such institutions of learning in our cities, where all
may enter and graduate, you will soon find the people here, as in
Europe, copying to embellish their own homes.
The locating of one for the present, rather than two or three
parks and a boulevard, considering the amount of money to be
appropriated, and the present population of the city, is believed
to have been wise. The sum named in the act to purchase
grounds, with the annual sum for their improvement and care, is
not too great for one park, in size and arrangement creditable to
such a city.
Upon the question of area, and access, the experience of other
cities cannot but be profitable. New York city has eighteen
public parks and squares, amounting to one acre in fourteen of the
whole island, besides quite an area of private grounds and those
belonging to State and city asylums and institutions, not open to
the public. Central Park contains 844 acres. It is in the form
of a parallelogram, the narrowness of which necessitated the
expenditure of several millions to create artificial hills and valleys,
so that in following its labyrinth of carriage drives, bridle paths,
and walks, the illusion of immense areas should be preserved.
New York should have, and desired much greater areage, but her
limited island space, unlike almost all other cities, forbid it.
"Prospect Park," in Brooklyn, occupies the finest park location
in the world.  It is larger than Central Park.  Convenience of
access, however, was sacrificed to its other desired advantages.
Philadelphia had many fine squares and parks, including Fairmount. Her citizens, thoroughly appreciating the great need of
parks for a manufacturing population, already the largest in the
world, and failing to find sufficient and suitable space within the
city limits, crossed the Schuylkill, opposite Fairmount, where they
laid out and are completing a park in size truly imperial, it having
been enlarged by the present Legislature of Pennsylvania to
2,700o acres. Baltimore, Washington, Chicago, Buffalo, and all




8
the cities of New England, indeed, nearly every American city,
has its parks among its proudest monuments, as well as useful and
beneficent public works.  Even our Nation has its parks-" The
Valley of the Yosemite" and the "Yellowstone."  "National
Parks" are not limited to acres numbered by hundreds, but by
hundreds of square miles, filled with objects such as only God
can carve, and plant, and water. The cities of Europe are also
largely supplied with public parks.  The  "Phcenix Park," of
Dublin, contains 1,752 acres.  "Calton  Hill," "Princess Gardens," the Castle grounds, those of " Holyrood," "Arthur's Seat,"
and  "Salisbury Crags," in and adjoining Edinburgh, occupy
spaces united as large as the entire city besides. In the arguments
before the committee, statements were made giving the small sizes
of the London Parks, as follows:
St. James Park,........  59 acres
Green  Park,............  55  acres
Buckingham Palace Gardens,.......... 5 acres
Hyde Park,......                 389 acres
Kensington Park,.....,.... 3 acres
Kensington Gardens,..........   262 acres
But the fact was omitted that all these are almost in one body,
850 acres-a mere chain of parks, separated or broken only in
their continuity by two or three short avenues, unoccupied by
buildings. Besides these, London has. within its limits numerous
other parks and places, including Regent's, 473 acres; Victoria,
248 acres; Greenwich, I85 acres; Battersea, 175 acres-with
1,200 acres in parks of lesser size-being considerably above
3,ooo acres within the city-while in her suburbs are found Windsor, 3,800 acres; Hampton Court, 1,842 acres; Richmond, 2,468
acres; Kew, 648 acres; Sydenham, 200 acres-making, with
some smaller ones, over io,ooo acres mote; added to these are
the parks of several noblemen, all used and frequented by great
masses of the citizens of the metropolis.
London therefore has opened to her 3,500,000 people greater
comparative park accommodations than a new park covering 450
acres would afford the Ioo,ooo of Detroit. Paris includes within
its fortifications I2 or 15 elegant parks and gardens, but the




"Bois de Boulogne," her central park, containing 2,150 acres is
entirely outside the fortifications.  The park at St. Cloud is
beyond the "Bois de Boulogne" and across the Seine. Versailles
is i i miles distant, the forest of Fontainbleau, 60 miles in circumference, is 40 miles distant, yet these and several other large
parks within the same limits are daily frequented by the millions
of Paris.  The "Thier Garten" of Berlin extends for several
miles, and is adjoining, but entirely outside the city's gates. The
park history, however, of any one of these old towns is substantially the history of all.
The location of the Detroit park by the commissioners was
perhaps the most delicate and difficult question presented for
their solution. Several sites were named to the board, but four
only were reported upon by them. Below the city on the river
they failed to obtain any considerable quantity of land, and had
land sufficient been offered, the gravest objections were presented
by the fact that the proposed site was already cut by two great
thoroughfares and one railway. The second proposed site, that
upon the Grand River road, and the third, upon the Pontiac road,
or Woodward avenue site, are subject to quite the same objections.
They are more remote than that of Hamtramck from the population centers of the city, the lands are unbroken plateaus, entirely
wanting in those topographical conditions so desirable for the
purpose required.  The soil is clay and not well adapted to
garden purposes. The routes to these sites lie over three constructed and one located railway line, which cross the avenues on
a level, and over which it is estimated there will soon pass a train
every five minutes, making the drive extremely dangerous.
The Hamtramck site, the one chosen by the Board, is above
the city on the river, three miles from the city hall. It has a
river frontage of I,300 feet, or about one-fourth of a mile.
This affords not only a sufficient water approach, but admits
of a very considerable river drive, and promenade. A portion of
these lands next the river are low and admirably adapted in their
improvement, to the construction, at slight expense, of artificial
lakes, a most desirable adjunct to a park, for boating, sailing, and
skating, combining as they do the element of safety, to all seeking




10
this union of health and pleasure.   The  main portion of
these lands rises to a considerable altitude above the river, the
highest, it is believed, in the vicinity of the city.  This elevation
"commands a view of the city, of the Canada shore, of Belle
Isle, and an unsurpassed water view, extending far into Lake St.
Clair. During the season of navigation, save in the Bay of New
York, so animated a water view is nowhere else to be seen in this
country. It may not be generally known that the vessel tonnage
that passes through the Detroit river exceeds the whole tonnage
of the United States employed in foreign commerce.  By actual
count made a few years ago, it was found that about twenty-three
thousand water craft passed the light houses on the St. Clair Flats
in a single season.
About 300 acres of this land is forest and second-growth
woodland, an almost invaluable consideration, Nature having
already made it what otherwise would have cost years of time and
great expense. This wood shades a long, deep, irregular ravine,
broad enough in the bottom  for a carriage-way-with sloping
sides for walks, rustic seats and  bridges, grottoes, waterfalls, and every method of adornment peculiar to the art of
landscape gardening.  There are several kinds of soil, but the
largest portion is a sandy loam, valuable for roads and walks, as
well as park culture.
Another important fact associated with this location, and with
no other proposed site, is its half isolated position, occupying as
it does, lands jutting out into, or between the river and Lake St.
Clair, and outside the line of commercial traffic. It is not now,
and never will be, traversed by any great railway or highway.
Even Jefferson avenue is so situated in its passage across this
site, as to admit of the park being entirely separate and exclusive.
All drives, walks and bridle paths can be carried under the avenue,
so as to admit the freest and most unobstructed communication,
from one part to the other. A city railway already runs to the
entrance of these grounds —they having been chosen long since,
as the best adapted in the suburbs of the city, for a "driving
park " and "fair purposes." As a matter of general access, the
principal approach in summer will be the river. The city, as now




1l
built, stretches its length along the river a distance twice to four
times its depth. The mass of citizens live, therefore, at short
distances from the steamer highway. In summer boats will run
with great frequency, and at half car fares, giving a delightful sail
and the pure air of the straits, as added benefits and pleasures to
a park visit. The park dock would also be used for landing
material required in the improvement of the park, and in building
the new water works and reservoirs, saving, as compared with the
cost of transportation to an inland site, sums, in the course of
years, greatly lessening the cost of these works. The principle
of assessments, known as benefits and damages, is one that
merits the most careful consideration. This does not, however,
appear a popular doctrine in this State. At the same time, it has
been very equitably and practically met in this case. First, the
lands have been offered in contract, to the park commissioners,
for a park, at prices far below their market value. Second, parties owning adjoining property have subscribed $i8,ooo with
which to purchase 300 feet additional river front, to be donated
to the city for park purposes.  In addition to the foregoing, the
territory surrounding the proposed park shall, bey the terms of the
act, be annexed to the city before its provisions are enforced or
executed. This territory has already upon it residences and manufactories worth from one to two millions; all this must be taxed at
once for its proportion of the expenses of the city government,
together with the city's present indebtedness. In the argument
heard, it was claimed that by the location of the park the adjoining lands would not be increased in value. This cannot be
correct. That the effect upon valuations will be the same upon
the location of this, as universally obtains in the location of parks
in other towns, is believed.  The surrounding property would
then be appreciated to double or quadruple its present value, and
increase relatively the amount of taxes produced by it.
The statement that the mere location of the park, without its
improvement, will not result in increased values, is also a fallacy.
The fact alone that the park has been legally located will at once
double the price, and hence, assessed value of the surrounding
property. The city has now, practically, no public grounds for




12
the people. Locate the Hamtramck park, open it to the public
on the avenue and river front, bring it within the control and protection of the city police, and its driving-course, its open spaces
for "ball clubs" and drill grounds, its 300 acres of forest and
woodland, its pure air, its extended views, its rural charms and
natural attractions, alone, without the expenditure of a dollar in
imwrovement, will make it at once the popular resort of the
people.
For the first, then, in its history will the city have provided
grounds dedicated to the use of the public, where, henceforth, the
picnic party, the public and Sunday schools, all the children who
work or study, can go and breathe the pure air, and gather
instruction from the trees, birds, flowers, river, lake, and rivuletGod's tutors-too much neglected by the over-worked, overstudied, over-crowded children of our cities.
The area included in the proposed annexed territory, exclusive of the park, is about 3,ooo acres. This, with its factories
and buildings, is estimated at $2,000,000, which, long before the
maturity of the bonds would equal $20,000,000. The assessed
valuation of property in Detroit is about 40 per cent. of its real
value. Forty per cent. of $20,000,000 equals $8,ooo,ooo. This
at one per cent., which is less than the city tax, would yield
$80,ooo per annum, which will pay the $50,00o annual appropriation for park improvement, together with $30,000 interest on
$300,000 park bonds,-leaving in fact no cost whatever to be
charged to the city, and taxed upon either rich or poor; giving
them  a park at the expense of those owning property in its
vicinity.  True, there will be city expenses upon this new territory, but this will be largely met by its growing population.  It
will not be forgotten that the water board propose taking for the
city, by an arrangement with the park commission, a considerable
portion of the park grounds, on which to erect the new city reservoirs. The cost of these lands, charged to the water board, will
materially lessen the original cost, interest, and maintenance
accounts properly charged to the park.
The constitutional and legal principles involved in the issue
as to "the powers of the Legislature to regulate, and control mu



13
nicipal governments, and the proper exercise of its powers in
authorizing compulsory taxation, without the consent of the taxpayer, for public projects not deemed public necessities," the
committee believe to be too well settled, to require any elaborate
opinion.
An act of the Legislature is the exercise of the highest
authority that the State exercises upon earth; or, as Blackstone
says, "The act of Parliament is the exercise of the highest
authority that the kingdom exercises upon earth."
"Municipalities must look to the State for such charters of
government as the Legislature shall see fit to provide."   "The
creation of municipal corporations, and the conferring upon them
of certain powers, and subjecting them to corresponding duties,
does not deprive the Legislature of the State of that complete
control over their citizens which was before possessed." " It still
has authority to amend their charters, enlarge or diminish their
powers, extend or limit their boundaries, over-rule their action
whenever it is deemed unwise, impolitic, or unjust, and even
abolish them  altogether in the legislative discretion."- Cooley's
Co'n. Linz., 19I, I92, and numerous cases there cited.
Upon the question of taxation the following case is deemed
conclusive:
In People vs. Mahoney, 13 Mich., 500, where the Metropolitan Police act of Detroit was attacked, the court said: "The
taxation under the act, it is said, is really in the hands of a police
board, a body in the choice of which the people of Detroit have
no voice. This argument is one which might be pressed upon the
legislative department with great force, if it were true in point of
fact.  But as the people of Detroit are really represented throughout, the difficulty suggested can hardly be regarded as fundamental. They were represented in the Legislature which passed the
act, and had the same proportionate voice there with the other
municipalities in the State, all of which receive from that body
their powers of local government, and such only as its wisdom
shall prescribe within the constitutional limit.  They were represented in that body when the present police board were appointed
by it, and the Governor, who is hereafter to fill vacancies, will be




14
chosen by the State at large, including their city. There is
nothing in the maxim that taxation and representation go together
which requires that the body paying the tax shall alone be consulted in its assessment; and if there were, we should find it violated at every turn in our system. The State Legislature not only
has a control in this respect over inferior municipalities, which it
exercises by general laws, but it sometimes finds it necessary to
interpose its power in special cases to prevent unjust or burdensome taxation, as well as to compel the performance of a clear
duty."
It is not the rule of government first to obtain the consent of
the tax payer, before the passage of laws authorizing compulsory taxation.  "The government provides court-houses, buildings for its
seminaries of instruction, aqueducts to carry pure and wholesome
water info large towns, etc., etc., and other measures of public
utility, in which the public at large are interested, and which
require the appropriation of private property."   "Such, for
instance, as the construction of a public park, which, in large
cities, is as much a matter of public utility as a railway or a supply
of pure water, or sewers of cities." Cooley's Con. Limn., 533, 534;
also, Matter of Central Park extension, I6 Abb. Pr. Rep. 55;
Owners of Ground vs. Mayor, etc., of Albany, i5  Wend., 374,
and Hildreth vs. Lowell, II Gray, 345.
The original park act was passed in i87I, without opposition
from Detroit, or other source.
" The principle is established that whenever a power is given
by a statute, everything necessary to the making of it effectual, or
required to attain the end, is implied."  I ]Kent. C.oni., 272.
Men are comprehensive in their grasp of ideas, limited in their
philosophies and faiths, generous in their charities, or the opposite,
as they are educated in life, as their tutors, business and surroundings, are broad or narrow. America and her cities are no " pent
up Uticas." Nor is Detroit pent up. It is growing with a
healthy, strong, vigorous growth. Her public works should speak,
if they speak at all, words worthy the metropolis of the Peninsulas.  Seated, as she is, at the gate of the lakes, receiving court
and tribute from a continent, her petition, bearing the names of so




45
many whose intelligence, culture, wealth, rank, and public worth
are written all over the city they builded, expresses a prayer that
should be granted.  Your committee therefore have directed me
to report back the park bill favorably to the Senate, without
amendment, and recommend its passage.
M. D. WILBER, Chairman.