Robert Moses acquired parkland options through calculated charm and sociability in 1924

Evidence

Much of the remainder of the route for the envisioned “Southern State Parkway” was farmland. Moses quickly learned not to visit farmers during the day when they were occupied with chores. Instead, in the twilight of Long Island spring evenings, a big black Packard and uniformed chauffeur would be standing in the front yards of neat little farmhouses in Valley Stream, Rockville Centre and Merrick while inside, at the kitchen table, Robert Moses sat, jacket off, tie loosened and shirt sleeves rolled up, drinking what he later remembered as an endless succession of glasses of beer and trading an endless succession of loud jokes with an endless succession of jovial, florid-faced but canny German and Dutch farmers, trying to bargain them down to the price—1,200 per acre—that he had set for right-of-way. Soon he had obtained options from a dozen farmers from whom he needed infertile land or land on the very edges of their farms, for which 1,200 per acre (payable by June 30, 1925, out of the anticipated legislative appropriation) was a good price. … After he worked on the owners of the land he coveted at Hampton Bays and Sunken Meadow, they gave him similar options. The Montauk Point and Lloyd Neck owners seemed ready to follow suit. By the end of the summer of 1924, he seemed well on his way to establishing a state park system on Long Island on the basis of his charm alone. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 794

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Moses collected park land piecemeal through charm and personal persuasion. — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the…, 1658

Broader Connections

• Moses collected park land piecemeal through charm and personal persuasion. #corroborates (0.95) — Robert A. Caro, The Power Broker, 1658