Susan B Anthony Neighborhood Association

During the 1820's, brothers Bradford and Moses King from Connecticut entered into a partnership with Obediah W. Bush to purchase the land that became the Bush and King Tract. An 1832 survey map shows the early layout of this tract. The Bush and King Tract, bounded by Canal and New York Street,*(now Jefferson Ave), was located within the boundaries of the newly chartered city in an area still large

ly undeveloped. Three major transportation routes would border the tract in its northern and eastern sides by the end if the 1830's, greatly influencing the development of the area in the nineteenth century. With the proximity of the canals and railroad to the Bush-King Tract, it has been thought that the developers may have assumed the area would become a neighborhood of working class (mechanic) families and, therefore, they designated the park "Mechanics Square" for those residents. In the early 1900's the park was re-designed by The Olmsted Brothers. Anthony Square and continues to serve as a focal point for the residential area. In many northeastern communities, urban park squares were considered crucial to the health of a city.