Palisades
Описание книги
How the famous and not-so-famous like-minded citizens all gave their time, expertise, and money to build a park legacy of incomparable benefit The Palisades park and historic site system in New York and New Jersey is a significant anchor-point for the spread of national and state parks across the nation. The challenge to protect these treasures began with a brutal blast of dynamite in the late nineteenth century and continues to this day. Palisades: The People’s Park presents the story of getting from zero protected acres to the rich tapestry that is today’s Palisades park system, located in the nation’s most densely populated metropolitan region. This is an account of huge determination, moments of crisis, caustic resistance to the very idea of conservation, glorious philanthropy, a steep learning curve, and responsibilities for guardianship passed with care from one generation to the next. Despite the involvement of men of great wealth and fame from its earliest beginnings, the Palisades Interstate Park Commission faced an early and ongoing struggle to arrange financial support from both the New York and New Jersey state governments for a park that would cross state lines. The conflicts between developers and conservationists, industrialists and wilderness enthusiasts, with their opposing views regarding the uses of natural resources required the commissioners of the PIPC to become skilled negotiators, assiduous fundraisers, and savvy participants in the political process. The efforts to create Palisades Interstate Park was prodigious, requiring more than 1,000 real estate transactions to establish Sterling Forest, to save Storm King Mountain, to preserve Lake Minnewaska, to protect Stony Point Battlefield and Washington’s headquarters, to open Bear Mountain and Harriman state parks, and to add the other sixteen parks to the Palisades Interstate Park System.Beginning with the efforts of Elizabeth Vermilye of the New Jersey Federation of Women’s Clubs, who enlisted President Theodore Roosevelt’s support to stop the blasting and quarrying of Palisades rock, author Robert Binnewies traces the story of the famous, including J. P. Morgan, the Rockefellers, and the Harrimans, as well as the not-so-famous men and women whose donations of time and money led to the preservation of New York and New Jersey’s most scenic and historic lands. The park experiment, begun in 1900, still stands as a dynamic model among the nation’s major environmental achievements.
Оглавление
Robert O. Binnewies. Palisades
PALISADES
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
FOREWORD
1
A Dynamite Park
2
The Commission
3
Upriver
4
Harriman
5
Legend and War
6
Welch
7
Bear Mountain
8
Perkins
9
Jolliffe
10
Trail and Bridge
11
Uncle Bennie
12
Black Thursday
13
The Compact
14
The Palisades Parkway
15
Storm King
16
Minnewaska
17
Sterling Forest
18
Honor and Electronics
APPENDIXES
Appendix A
Appendix B
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
SOURCES
Chapter 1: Boss Blaster
Chapter 2: The Commission. Books
Pamphlets and Periodicals
Newspapers
Correspondence
Chapter 3: Upriver. Books
Reports
Pamphlets and Periodicals
Correspondence
Newspapers
Chapter 4: Harriman. Books
Pamphlets and Periodicals
Correspondence
Newspapers
Chapter 5: Legend and War. Books
Reports
Chapter 6: Welch. Books
Reports
Pamphlets and Periodicals
Correspondence
Newspapers
Chapter 7: Bear Mountain. Books
Pamphlets and Periodicals
Correspondence
Reports
Newspapers
Chapter 8: Perkins. Books
Correspondence
Newspapers
Chapter 9: Jolliffe. Reports
Correspondence
Newspapers
Chapter 10: Trail and Bridge. Books
Pamphlets and Periodicals
Reports
Correspondence
Newspapers
Chapter 11: Uncle Bennie. Pamphlets and Periodicals
Reports
Correspondence
Newspapers
Chapter 12: Black Thursday. Reports
Correspondence
Newspapers
Chapter 13: The Compact. Reports
Pamphlets and Periodicals
Legislation
Correspondence
Press Releases
Newspapers
Chapter 14: The Palisades Parkway. Reports
Pamphlets and Periodicals
Correspondence
Chapter 15: Storm King. Reports
Correspondence
Newspapers and Periodicals
Chapter 16: Minnewaska. Reports
Correspondence
Newspapers
Chapter 17: Sterling Forest. Correspondences
Reports
Newspapers
Books
Correspondence
Chapter 18: Honor and Electronics
Correspondence
Articles
Newspapers
INDEX
Отрывок из книги
The People’s Park
Robert O. Binnewies
.....
In October 1900, he contacted the brothers George and Aaron Carpenter, beginning a negotiation that would span several weeks. Many successful, socially privileged, patrician businessmen of the day might not have been willing to sit down with hard-scrabble, blue collar, tough-minded quarrymen to try to hammer out a purchase deal, deferring instead to their lawyers. Not so Perkins: he sat across the table from the brothers.
The asking price started at $200,000 and then was “shaded” to $190,000. Perkins offered $100,000. In response, the brothers boosted the price back up to $200,000, offering to donate $25,000 to the park commission if the deal was struck. After several sessions, the Carpenters were flirting with a sales price of $145,000, and Perkins had come up to $125,000. In the meantime, the brothers were racing to produce as much crushed stone as possible. A compromise option-to-purchase finally was reached at $132,500. Perkins used the $10,000 appropriated to the commission by the state of New York for the down payment. No one bothered to ask whether spending New York money to buy land in New Jersey was legal. That detail aside, Perkins had to find $122,500 to close the deal, and quickly.
.....