The rock we see today rising up as the East and West Rock ridges was once underground magma that cooled and solidified and later rose to the surface. The geological story of how East and West Rock came to be takes us back 200 million years, Yale geology professor David Evans says, to a time when active volcanoes were spewing fountains of lava from fissures in the earth. The old Alms House which had been situated in the area was relocated and the land became available to be part of the new park.W hat New Havener hasn’t been stunned on a sunny evening by the view of West Rock’s cliffs bathing Westville in their carmine light, or by East Rock’s sheer rosy face, frilled with trees, basking in the glow of the sinking sun? Holding the city as if between two fingertips, these ridges of trap rock may be our finest natural landmarks. The plans included a redesign of what became “Edgewood” Avenue. Mitchell took on the task of designing the entrance to the new “Edgewood” Park, named in honor of his own nearby farm. It was also during this time that the council authorized the issuance of $200,000 in bonding to be put toward the expansion of the new parks system. Mitchell and others donated land along the West River and the Court of Common Council requested him to help lay out the Park in the area between Whalley Avenue and west Chapel Street. In 1899 the City decided that more open parkland was needed on the west side of town in the area where Mitchell’s Edgewood farm was situated. Report to the Commissioners on Layout of East Rock Park, 1882 Beside those ragged reaches of precipice, and the skirting forest, little fetches of garden craft would be impertinences … I have tried to subordinate the walks and roads and plantings to the grander features of interest, under the conviction that the things best worth seeing there will always be the rocks and woods and views as nature has shaped them.” Donald G. “The bold picturesqueness of the site does not invite the niceties of conventional gardening. The New Haven Museum’s Whitney Library holds a multiple page hand-written list of the shrubs and plantings that he recommended.įor an account of Donald Grant Mitchell’s role in the design of New Haven’s East Rock Park and some early images, see “The Connecticut Landscape Architect”, Fall Issue 2014, page 24-26, “East Rock Park, A Designed Historic Landscape”, by Channing Harris, ASLA. His report to the Parks Commissioners in 1882 was accompanied by maps and drawings of his suggestions. A Board of Commissioners was appointed in charge of its development and Donald Grant Mitchell was engaged, drawing up a plan for “the harmonious development” of the new park. The remaining acreage was purchased by the city. Of the initial 353 acres, 87 were donated Yale College, John W. In 1880 East Rock Park was established by an Act of the State Legislature. East Rock Park NHM origĮast Rock Park is the crown jewel in the New Haven Parks system. Interest in urban parks during the mid-1900s was spurred by the creation of Central Park in New York City, designed by Frederick Law Olmstead and opened in 1859. Donald Grant Mitchell was responsible for much of the layout and design of many of New Haven’s early parks, East Rock and Edgewood being the most well-known and most reflective of his distinctive natural designs.
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