A deserted millionaire estate became Moses’s template for public recreation land

Evidence

There may have been caretakers on the Taylor Estate, but Moses didn’t see them when he returned to it. Tramping through the brush and the woods, frightening groups of deer, startling coveys of pheasants, he came to a group of out-buildings, all deserted and all except one, which had been turned into a hunting lodge, crumbling. Looming over them was an old mansion, paint peeling, with broken windows. In front of the mansion was a long meadow of uncut, waving grass that had evidently once been an imposing lawn. Beyond it was white sand and then the dark blue-gray of the bay, and beyond the bay, just a line on the horizon, the dunes of Fire Island. Stirring the trees, the grass and the water was the gentle breeze which Moses had learned from the baymen invariably cooled the bay shore every day from about eleven o’clock in the morning until near sundown. Overhead was a lot of sky. To the east, across a little stream, was an expanse of carefully manicured grass and, on it—the only human figures anywhere to be seen—several foursomes in caps and knickerbockers and long socks striding along with the caddies of the Timber Point Club. Moses had taken to carrying a yellow legal note pad on his excursions. On it now he began to sketch the property, and on the sketch he drew lines, some to indicate where the bathhouses for the bathing beaches would be, others to show a golf course, still others to outline where a public bridle path would wind through the trees and where the fences would be placed to pen the deer and pheasants so youngsters could watch them. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 722

Categorization

• SEED: The detail that he would pen the deer and pheasants so ‘youngsters could watch them’ — preserving the private wealth display as a public zoo — could anchor an essay on how public amenities inherit the aesthetics of private privilege.
• XREF: connects to: Moses chose the Gold Coast route to showcase the estates he relished passing — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 724; Moses scouted estate property secretly on foot to plan seizures — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 748; Moses used publicity tours to recast seized land as public park — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 942 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Moses scouted estate property secretly on foot to plan seizures #expands (0.80) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 748
• Moses invented the idea that parks should host active recreation, not just passive nature #expands (0.75) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 710
• Moses used publicity tours to recast seized land as public park #responds-to (0.70) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 942
• A private property transformed into a public space can incubate revolution. #exemplifies (0.70) — Hilary Mantel, A Memoir of My Former Self- A Life in…, 109