The BPC also encouraged winter sports and made the lakes at Wakefield, Bronxville, Scarsdale, and White Plains available for skating. Skaters also enjoyed some slack-water stretches of the Bronx River. In Bronxville, the BPC built a dam behind its office building to back up water and provide a skating pond. Skating was very popular during 1918, and when the dam washed out in the spring, the BPC appropriated funds to rebuild it.(148) The parkway afforded opportunities for a variety of other leisurely pursuits including horseback riding, strolling, picnicking, and organized holiday celebrations. The latter activity suggests the ways in which the BPC attempted to win public support by stretching the boundaries of traditional parkway design and management. Another example of this flexibility was the retention of a formal garden at Hartsdale that had been built by a private real estate development company and conveyed to the BPC when the surrounding land was acquired. Like most park authorities of the time, the BPC favored naturalistic landscapes over formal designs, but the fountain and surrounding plantings were popular with local residents and the commission allowed the fountain and adjacent tennis courts to remain. Scouting was another popular parkway activity. Both Merkel and Clarke had long been active in the Boy Scouts and helped secure the use of a building for the scouts in 1916. Clarke served as the troop’s scoutmaster. The BPC erected a simple shack for the scouts in 1917. In 1920, the Boy Scouts received permission to build a log cabin in Yonkers. The permit was revocable at the discretion of the BPC. If the commission eventually decided the scouting activities were incompatible with the broader goals of the parkway, the cabin would then be removed and the landscape replanted.(149) Additional Survey WorkDuring the winter of 1913-14, the BPC field engineering staff began a thorough field-checking and revision of the 1911 survey maps. Downer reported that all thirty survey sheets were being revised to show corrections and changes in ownership. In some cases, the study of old records and title company searches revealed discrepancies between boundaries. Despite the BPC’s desire to obtain the most accurate surveys possible, Downer reported that many of the original survey sheets were unreliable. He had been unable to procure corrections from two of the contractors whose firms had since dissolved. As a result, Douglas Knox, who had satisfactorily surveyed another section, was hired to correct the inaccurate surveys. Downer complained that some of the other maps had "gross errors." He did not want to rely on the surveyor who had done the original work to make the corrections, so the BPC engineering staff addressed the problems. Correcting the original surveys and accurately plotting boundaries required a considerable amount of additional fieldwork, but the BPC considered it essential to compile an accurate basis for the reservation’s land titles.(150) In addition to correcting and updating the survey sheets, the BPC ordered topographical surveys of the BRPR. The entire parkway was plotted, showing contours of one-foot intervals, the physical features of the land, and the location of all trees with a diameter of 2" or more. Studies were also ordered to determine the river diversions at North White Plains and Crestwood, a proposed change of grade at Scarsdale, and the location of a proposed viaduct at White Plains. A standard monument head, marked with "B.P.C.," was chosen and set to mark the outside boundaries of the reservation.(151) |
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| (148)Bronx
Parkway Commission, Report, 1916, 35; Bronx Parkway Commission,
Minutes, October 29, 1918, 173-175. |
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