CHAPTER XI. DEPARTMENT OF PARKS. TITLE I. THE PARKS OF THE CITY. 2. THE ART COMMISSION. TITLE 1. THE PARKS. Sec. 607. Administrative jurisdiction; board; president; salaries; branch offices. 608. Titles to parks, squares and public places. 609. Gifts of real and personal property. 610. General powers of the board; ordinances. 611. Landscape architect; appointment and duties. 612. General powers of commissioners as to the management of the parks. 613. Maintenance and management of buildings in parks. 614. Appointment of subordinate officers. 615. Permits to buildings for fire apparatus. 616. General powers of commissioners under former acts. 617. Accounts; annual estimates; expenditures. 618. Advertisements for supplies. 619. Battery place; boat landings. 620. Harlem river improvement. 621. Metropolitan museum of art. 622. American museum of natural history. 623. New York public library. 624. Brooklyn institute of arts and sciences. 625. New York botanical garden. 626. New York zoological garden. 627. Military encampments and evolutions; public fairs. Administrative jurisdiction; board; president; salaries; branch offices. § 607. The head of the department of parks shall be called the park board. Said board shall consist of three members who shall be known as commissioners of parks of The City of New York. They shall be appointed by the mayor and shall hold their respective offices as provided in chapter four of this act. One of said commissioners shall be the president of the board, and shall be so designated by the mayor. In appointing such commissioners, the mayor shall specify the borough or boroughs in which they are respectively to have administrative jurisdiction, to wit: one in the boroughs of Manhattan and Richmond; one in the borough of The Bronx; and one in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. The principal office of the department of parks shall be in the borough of Manhattan. There shall be branch offices in the boroughs of Brooklyn and The Bronx, and a branch office may be established in the borough of Queens, or the borough of Richmond, in the discretion of the board. At any time. when requested so to do by said board, the mayor may make a new specification of the borough or boroughs in which said commissioners are respectively to have administrative jurisdiction. The salary of each of said commissioners shall be five thousand dollars a year. See § 101, ante. (a) The commissioners of the department of public parks simply constitute a subdivision of the city government, and cannot be sued as a separate corporation. Rauh v. Commrs. of Public Parks, 66 How. Pr. 368. See Ehrgott v. The Mayor, 96 N. Y. 264; rev'g 66 How. Pr. 161. Title to parks, squares and public places. § 608. The title to each and all of the parks, parkways, squares and public places comprised within and belonging to the corporation heretofore known as the mayor, aldermen and commonalty of the city of New York, or the corporation heretofore known as the city of Brooklyn, or the corporation heretofore known as Long Island City, or the county of Kings, or the county of Richmond, or which are owned by the county of Queens and are comprised within that portion of said county which is included in The City of New York, as constituted by this act, or belonging to any of the subdivisions of said counties, is hereby vested in The City of New York, as hereby constituted. Gifts of real and personal property. § 609. Real and personal property may be granted, devised, bequeathed or conveyed to The City of New York, as constituted by this act, for the purposes of the improvement or ornamentation of the parks, squares, or public places in said city, or for the establishment or maintenance, within the limits of any such park, square, or public place, of museums, zoological, botanical, or other gardens, collections of natural history, observatories, or works of art, upon such trusts and conditions as may be prescribed by the grantors or donors thereof, and be accepted by the department; and all property so devised, granted, bequeathed, or conveyed, and the rents, issues. profits, and income and increase thereof shall be subject to the management, direction and control of the commissioner for the borough or boroughs in which the same is situated or to which it appertains, and except such surplus animals and duplicate specimens as the park board may deem it judicious to dispose of by sale or otherwise, the same shall be forever properly protected, preserved and arranged for public use and enjoyment, subject to such rules and regulations as the park board may prescribe. The said board shall hereafter, with its annual report, make a statement of the condition of all the gifts, devises and bequests of the previous year, and of the names of the persons making the same. L. 1882, ch. 410, § 700. General powers of the board; ordinances. § 610. The park board shall by a vote of a majority of its members have power to establish general rules and regulations for the administration of the department, which rules and regulations so far as practicable shall be uniform in all the boroughs. Said board shall have power to appoint a secretary, and, within the limit of its appropriation, to appoint such subordinate officers as may be necessary for the proper conduct of the office of the department. The board shall also have power by a vote of a majority of its members to enact ordinances for the government and protection of all parks, parkways, squares and public places within the city, and the same shall at all times be subject to all such ordinances as to the use and occupation thereof and in respect to any erections or encumbrances thereon. Any person violating any of such ordinances shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and shall on conviction before a city magistrate be punished by a fine not exceeding fifty dollars, or in default of payment of such fine by imprisonment not exceeding thirty days. (a) In regard to the power vested in the park commissioners to pass ordinances regulating the use of parks, see Ex parte Wright, 29 Hun, 357; s. c., 63 How. Pr. 345. Landscape architect; appointment and duties. § 611. The board shall also appoint without definite term a landscape architect, skilled and expert, whose assent shall be requisite to all plans and works or changes thereof respecting the conformation, development or ornamentation of any of the parks, squares, or public places of the city, to the end that the same may be uniform and symmetrical at all times. It shall be the duty of such architect, from time to time, to prepare and submit to the board, or to any commissioner, as he may deem proper, or as he may be requested by said board or by any commissioner, plans for works or changes thereof respecting the parks, parkways, squares or public places of the city. The salary of said architect shall be fixed by the board within the proper appropriation. General powers of commissioners as to the management of parks. § 612. Subject to such general rules and regulations as shall be established by the board, each commissioner shall have charge of the management and be responsible for the care of all such parks, parkways, squares and public places as are situated in the borough or boroughs over which he has jurisdiction, and of the streets and avenues immediately adjoining the same; but such jurisdiction shall not extend to nor include the buildings which are now or may hereafter be erected in such parks, squares or public places for governmental purposes, other than those of the department of parks. It shall be the duty of each commissioner, subject to such general rules and regulations and in conformity therewith, to maintain the beauty and utility of all such parks, squares and public places as are situated within his jurisdiction, and to institute and execute all measures for the improvement thereof for ornamental purposes and for the beneficial uses of the people of the city. Subject to the general rules and regulations established by the board, each commissioner shall have power to determine the line or curb and the surface construction of all streets and avenues lying within a distance of three hundred and fifty feet from the outer boundaries of any park, square or public place in his jurisdiction; and he shall also have power to plant trees and to construct, erect and establish seats, drinking fountains, statues and works of art, when he may deem it tasteful or appropriate so to do, on any part of the public streets and avenues within such environments, subject to the provisions of title two of this chapter, and to determine when and where new lamps or lighting appliances shall be placed and lighted. L. 1882, ch. 410, § 689. See §§ 637-639, infra. Maintenance and management of buildings in parks. § 613. It shall be the duty of the commissioner for the boroughs of Manhattan and Richmond to maintain the meteorological and astronomical observatory, the Museum of Natural History, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Central park, the Aquarium in Battery place, and such other buildings as now are or may hereafter be erected in such parks or in any other park, square or public place under his jurisdiction by authority of the municipal assembly. It shall be the duty of the commissioner for the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens to maintain the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, and such other buildings as now are or may hereafter be erected in any park, square or public place under his jurisdiction by authority of the municipal assembly. It shall be the duty of the commissioner for the borough of The Bronx to maintain the New York Botanical Garden and the buildings appurtenant thereto, and such other institutions or buildings as may be established or erected in any park, square or public place in his jurisdiction by authority of the municipal assembly. It shall be the duty of the several commissioners to provide the necessary instruments, furniture and equipments for the several buildings and institutions within their respective jurisdictions, and, with the authority of the municipal assembly, to develop and improve the same, and to erect additional buildings; but the maintenance of all such buildings and institutions shall be subject to the provisions of the acts incorporating said institutions, or either of them, and the acts amendatory thereof, and to the powers of said corporations thereunder, and of the boards by such acts created or provided for; and shall also be subject to and in conformity with such contracts and agreements as have heretofore been made with such institutions respectively, and are in force and effect when this act takes effect, or as may be hereafter made by the authority of the municipal assembly, and no moneys shall be expended for such purposes unless an appropriation therefor has been made by the board of estimate and apportionment and the municipal assembly. Out of the moneys annually appropriated for the maintenance of parks each commissioner may apply such sum as shall be fixed by the board of estimate and apportionment for the keeping, preservation and exhibition of the collections placed or contained in buildings or institutions now situated or hereafter erected in the parks, squares or public places under the jurisdiction of such commissioner. L. 1882, ch. 410, §§ 693, 696, 697, 698. Appointment of subordinate officers. $614. Each commissioner shall have power to appoint such superintendents, engineers, subordinates, clerks and assistants as may be necessary for the efficient performance of the duties of the department respecting the parks, squares and public places within his jurisdiction, and as may be authorized by the municipal assembly and provided for by the proper appropriation. He shall, subject to the approval of the board, fix the salaries of his appointees within the limits of such appropriation. Each commissioner shall also have power to employ all of the mechanics, agents or laborers needed or required for the work of the department in the parks, |