Utica has been uniquely blessed by magnanimous gifts and immeasurable benefits bestowed by the Proctor families upon the city in practically every phase of its development. Our park system is one of the most conspicuous of these legacies, given for the most part while the donors were living.

During the 1890s, the city was expanding in all directions. In spite of agitation to add a park system, the city fathers were reluctant to expend the funds necessary to acquire the land. It was then that public-spirited benefactors came forward to give Utica one of the most extensive public park systems of any city of its size in the country.

Thomas Redfield Proctor married Maria Williams, and his brother, Frederick Towne Proctor married Maria's sister Rachel. These two couples were active in making Utica a better place to enrich the lives of the people.

Starting at the east is the Frederick T. Proctor Park, extending from the former tracks of the West Shore Railroad to Rutger Street, maintained by the Proctor family until 1933 when Mrs. T. R. Proctor gave it, complete with the impressive entrance gates, to the city.

In April 1904, Thomas R. Proctor made his first purchase of lands on what has come to be known as the Parkway. He purchased one farm after another until the total acreage contained about 380 acres. He engaged Frederick Law Olmstead, the well known landscape architect, to lay out drives and paths, and plant trees. The Thomas R. Proctor Park, on Culver Avenue and along Welsh Bush Road, and Roscoe Conkling Park, given by T. R. Proctor in 1908, extends the full length of the Memorial Parkway from Valley View Road to Oneida Street, and includes the South Woods, the Zoo, the Municipal Valley View, Golf Course and the club house, part of which the Mohawk Valley Museum now occupies.

On the summit of the hill, there was erected a tall flagpole. Nearby a huge 20 ton boulder was placed upon which a bronze tablet dedicating the park in honor of Roscoe Conkling was attached. In July 1909, both Roscoe Conkling Park and Thomas R. Proctor Park were dedicated to use of the citizens.

We hope you enjoy the slides of historic photos and postcards ("hand colored" black and white photos that were popular in the early 20th century.)