owners' associations in behalf of such a reform, and in 1889 a bill was submitted to the legislature which provided for the creation of tk a department of street improvements of the 23d and 21th wards of the City of New York." This measure did not pass, but the State senate appointed a committee to make an investigation and report as to the necessity of the proposed department. The reasons in favor of the plan were ascertained to be so strong that in 1890 a law was enacted creating the new department, which was to be under the direction of a commissioner elected by the people of the two wards. The act took effect on the 1st of January, 1891, the first incumHe died in 1893, and bent of the position being Louis J. Heintz.

I'OE

COTTAGE,

FORDHAM.

was succeeded by Louis V. Haffen. With the inauguration of the department of public improvements a new order of things obtained soin the North Side, and it presently began to be realized that the styled " annexed district " was something more than an outlying integral locality, and was in process of rapid transformation into an of part of the metropolis. When it is considered that the portion nearly River Bronx the of west Bronx the of Borough the present n' Island in area, while the portion east of that in equals Manhatta stream exceeds it, the difficulty of the problems to be dealt with ed. appreciat readily be will Side North the on building up the city have With regard to the district annexed in 1871, these problems