Tag: Van Cortlandt Park

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Bronx History

Seven places to experience early Bronx history today and this weekend

We’ve received such an overwhelming positive response to our Bronx history podcast — and we’re just at Part One. You may know a few things about 20th century Bronx history, but it’s so important to familiarize yourself with the early stories as well. Almost all of these stories figure into the creation of the modern Bronx and will help shape the borough’s future.

But there’s need to wait for us to release Part Two next week. There are many institutions in the borough where you can experience the early history of the Bronx firsthand. May we suggest planning an afternoon adventure around a visit to these places? (NOTE: It’s always a good idea to call ahead before planning a visit. Some of these locations often host private events.)

For reasons which will become obvious, late summer and autumn are the perfect times to visit some of these sites. You’ll see why many people consider the Bronx to be the most beautiful borough in New York City.

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Bronx County Historical Society

Start an exploration into Bronx history here, a non-profit organization located in the Valentine-Varian House, the oldest farmhouse in the Bronx (from 1758). As is the way with historical homes, this structure once owned by the family of New York mayor Isaac Varian and Bull’s Head Tavern owner Richard Varian was actually moved to its present location in the Williamsbridge Oval back in 1965. Inside you’ll find a complete display of exhibits and examples of colonial life in the Bronx.

LOCATION 3266 Bainbridge Avenue, Norwood, the Bronx
WHY YOU SHOULD VISIT SOON A special exhibition (open until October 9) explores the history of Westchester Town, one of the earliest settlements in the region. We recommend pairing a visit to the home with a trip to New York Botanical Garden, just a short walk down Mosholu Parkway.
HOURS AND ADMISSION Saturday 10AM-4PM; Sunday 1PM-5PM, $5 per adult, $3 for students, children and seniors
HOW TO GET THERE BY SUBWAY — The D train to East 205th Street or the 4 train to Mosholu Parkway

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Van Cortlandt House Museum

Few places in New York feel as authentically connected to the era of the Revolutionary War as the old 1748 home of the Van Cortlandts, sitting within the family’s former estate in the park named after them. Depending on the time you get there — call ahead just to be sure they’re open — you’ll take a guided tour (perhaps even with a costumed guide) or have the opportunity to explore the house yourself.

LOCATION 6036 Broadway, Van Cortlandt Park, the Bronx
WHY YOU SHOULD VISIT SOON The park is popular with joggers and sports fans, so you may want to join in the fun after a visit. Plan a trip here on the same day you go to Wave Hill.
HOURS AND ADMISSION Tuesday-Friday 10AM-4PM; Saturday and Sunday 11AM-4PM, $5 per adult, $3 for students, children and seniors, free on Wednesdays
HOW TO GET THERE BY SUBWAY — The 1 train to the last stop West 242nd Street

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Wave Hill

This is your home now! Well you can at least fantasize that this sumptuous 1843 mansion — and its 1927 companion Glyndor — is yours as you stroll the property, looking out at the splendid view of the Hudson River and the Palisades. The feeling of calm and isolation  you get from an afternoon here is almost impossible to find in the five boroughs.

LOCATION 649 W 249th St, Riverdale, the Bronx
WHY YOU SHOULD VISIT SOON They encourage you to take your shoes off and walk in the grass. The already-gorgeous surroundings become even more extraordinary starting in the early fall. Perfect day-trip with the Van Cortlandt House Museum (see above)
HOURS AND ADMISSION Tuesday-Sunday 9AM-5:30PM; $8 per adult, $4 for students and seniors, $2 children +2 (Parking is available)
HOW TO GET THERE BY SUBWAY — The 1 train to the last stop West 242nd Street. A free Wave Hill shuttle van meets passengers on the west side of Broadway in front of Burger King (!) at 10 minutes past the hour, from 9:10am to 4:10pm. The shuttle van returns visitors to Broadway in front of Burger King, departing Wave Hill’s front gate on the hour, from 10am until 5pm. (You can also get here via Metro-North Railroad. See website for more information.)

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Edgar Allan Poe Cottage

This remains one of the strangest literary landmarks in New York City. Positioned in charming Poe Park, right off the Grand Concourse, the cottage has lost all of its original context but none of its allure. Standing on the porch, the more creative among you may be able to close your eyes and imagine the dark, sullen worlds the poet was able to conjure from here. (A few of his most famous poems were written at the cottage, and the short story “Landor’s Cottage” is believed to be heavily inspired by this place.)

LOCATION 2640 Grand Concourse, Fordham Manor, the Bronx
WHY YOU SHOULD VISIT SOON Fall is always the best time experience anything Poe-related.  You’re also a short walk to the culinary delights of Arthur Avenue.
HOURS AND ADMISSION Tuesday-Friday 10AM-3PM; Saturday and 10AM-4PM, Sunday 1PM-5PM, $5 per adult, $3 for students, children and seniors
HOW TO GET THERE BY SUBWAY — The D train to Kingsbridge Road lets you off right at the park, however the 4 train to Kingsbridge Road will also get you there too.

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Woodlawn Cemetery

Sometimes you learn more about the great figures from the past by seeing how they’ve chosen to spend eternity. Woodlawn Cemetery, which opened in 1863 and was specifically notable for its access to the new railroad, is the final resting place of moguls, robber barons, politicians, socialites and musicians. A stroll along Woodlawn’s paths will tell you more about human vanity and the urge to preserve personal legacy than any college psych class.  (Above: the plot for members of the Van Cortlandt family — THE Van Cortlandt family — is relatively modest.)

LOCATION  517 E 233rd St, Woodlawn Heights, the Bronx
WHY YOU SHOULD VISIT SOON There are an abundance of intriguing public programs planned for the next couple months. Our favorites — a concert by the Bardekova Quintet on September 25 and a special walking tour on October 9 called “Shuffle Along and the Stories of Black Broadway.”  Visit their website for more information.
HOURS AND ADMISSION Monday-Sunday 8:30AM-4:30PM, free, no bicycles
HOW TO GET THERE BY SUBWAY – The 4 train to Woodlawn Station or the 2 or 5 trains to E 233rd Street

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Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum

The Bartow-Pell Mansion, tracing its lineage back to the original Pell family, may not have the breathtaking view of the Palisades that Wave Hill has, but it has something else equally lush — an extraordinary formal garden in the back. This lovely and occasionally surreal feature has only been part of the house since 1916. It makes a perfect addition to the family home, originally constructed between 1836 and 1842.

LOCATION  895 Shore Road North, Pelham Bay Park, the Bronx
WHY YOU SHOULD VISIT SOON This is the 100th anniversary of that garden, and a new exhibit celebrating its centennial pairs the formal beauty with strange and unusual pieces of modern art. If you go this weekend, you’ll be able to pair your experience here with a trip to Orchard Beach, which closes for the season on September 11.
HOURS AND ADMISSION The house – Wednesday, Saturday-Sunday Noon-4PM, $5 adults, $3 seniors and students, free for kids under 6. The gardens — open daily, free, from 8:30AM to dusk.
HOW TO GET THERE BY SUBWAY – The 6 train to the Pelham Bay Park station, then transfer to a #45 bus. More information here.

 

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City Island Nautical Museum

This lovely and strange little museum is tucked away off the main road and feels like a old ship in a bottle, dusty and preserved. If you can time your visit to City Island to coincide with its opening hours, it’s well worth a visit. You may think you’re in a small town in Maine! (But then again, the whole island often feels like that.)

LOCATION  190 Fordham Street, City Island, the Bronx
WHY YOU SHOULD VISIT SOON If you’re clinging on to the last scraps of summer, then a visit to City Island — and its delicious eateries on the southern point — will provide you with the inspiration you need.
HOURS AND ADMISSION Saturday and Sundays only, from 1PM to 5PM. Also by appointment.
HOW TO GET THERE BY SUBWAY – The 6 train to the Pelham Bay Park station, then transfer to a #29 bus to City Island.  More information here.

 

Categories
Bronx History Podcasts

Bronx Trilogy: The Bronx Is Born — Before It Was A Borough 1638-1874

PODCAST A history of the land which would become the Bronx, from the first European settlement to its debut in 1874 as New York’s Annexed District.

The story of the borough of the Bronx is so large, so spectacular, that we had to spread it out over three separate podcasts!

In Part One — The Bronx Is Born — we look at the land that is today’s borough, back when it was a part of Westchester County, a natural expanse of heights, rivers and forests occasionally interrupted by farm-estates and modest villages. Settlers during the Dutch era faced grave turmoil; those that came afterwards managed to tame the land with varying results. Speculators were everyone; City Island was born from the promise of a relationship with the city down south.

During the Revolutionary War, prominent families were faced with a dire choice — stay with the English or side with George Washington’s Continental Army? One prominent family would help shape the fate of the young nation and leave their name forever attached to one of the Bronx’s oldest neighborhoods. Sadly that family’s legacy is under-appreciated today.

By the 1840s, Westchester County was at last connected to New York via a new railroad line. It was a prosperous decade with the development of the area’s first college, a row of elegant homes and some of its very first ‘depot towns.’ Two decades later, the future borough would even cater to the dead — both the forgotten (at Hart Island) and the wealthy (Woodlawn Cemetery).

The year 1874 would mark a new chapter for a few quiet towns and begin the process of turning this area into the borough known as the Bronx.

FEATURING: Many places in the Bronx that you can visit today and experience this early history up close, including Wave Hill, Pelham Bay Park, Woodlawn Cemetery, City Island and more.

The Bowery Boys: New York City History podcast is brought to you …. by you!

We are now producing a new Bowery Boys podcast every two weeks. We’re also looking to improve the show in other ways and expand in other ways as well — through publishing, social media, live events and other forms of media. But we can only do this with your help!

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In this 1896 Robert Bracklow photograph, a solitary woman stands by the Bronx River, looking almost completely unchanged from how it would have looked when Jonas Bronck saw it.

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Museum of the City of New York

A 1914 illustration recounting the tale of Jonas Bronck:

Museum of the City of New York
Museum of the City of New York

Another book illustration, this one of the massacre of Anne Hutchinson and her family.

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NYPL

The Split Rock as it appeared in 1910, with a memorial plaque to Anne and her family and no highways anywhere around it. The rock today has no plaque but the impression of one can still be seen.

Courtesy MCNY
Courtesy MCNY

An auction map of the Bronx from 1910, highlighting the area of Throg’s Neck which gets its name from Throckmorton or Throgmorton.

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NYPL

The King’s Bridge from an 1856 illustration.

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NYPL

The town of Westchester in the East Bronx, pictured here in 1872. Throg’s Neck is in the lower portion of the map. Today’s neighborhood of Soundview comprises the green portion.

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NYPL

The village of Morrisania, pictured here in 1860, which arose from land owned by the Morrises after the railroad encouraged a row of ‘depot towns.’

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St Ann’s Episcopal Church in Morrisania, where both Lewis and Gouverneur Morris (and Gouverneur’s wife Ann) are buried.

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Courtesy MCNY

A view of St. Ann’s today:

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The Van Cortlandt Mansion then (in 1906)…

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And today (featuring George Washington’s room):

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The old City Island monorail from 1910

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The old City Island Bridge, the only way on or off the island that’s not a boat. That remains true to this day, although the bridge is much sturdier-looking today!

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The old City Island Cemetery with Hart Island in the distance.

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Breathtaking Wave Hill and the grounds which provide an unbelievable view of the Hudson River and the Palisades.

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Here’s Tom, getting a peek inside George M Cohan’s mausoleum at Woodlawn Cemetery:

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Jerome Park Racetrack where the Belmont Stakes were first run in 1867.

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From Harpers Weekly, 1886:

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The former (awkward) location of Edgar Allan Poe’s cottage. It has since been moved to the Grand Concourse.

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And finally — Gouverneur Morris’ mansion which — believe it or not — stood at the foot of St. Ann’s Avenue until the 20th century.

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We want to give a big thanks to the Bronx Historical Society, Wave Hill, Woodlawn Cemetery and St. Ann’s Episcopal Church for helping us with our research. Keep coming back to the blog throughout the month of September as we’ll have additional stories about these places and others.

Categories
Mysterious Stories Podcasts

Ghost Stories of Old New York: Tales from the Revolution, restless Indians, haunted forts and a drunk, headless actor

 

The Van Cortlandt House, 1906

PODCAST This is the Bowery Boys 7th annual Halloween podcast, with four new scary stories to chill your bones and keep you up at night, generously doused with strange and fascinating facts about New York City.

For this episode, we’ve decided to go truly old-school, reaching back to old legends and tales from the years of the Revolutionary War and early 19th century.   These ghosts have two things in common — George Washington (directly or indirectly) and ghosts! Although no ghosts of George Washington.

We venture to the haunted woods of Van Cortlandt Park for the tale of an Indian massacre and a forlorn servant girl, looking for her master’s silver.  From there, we head to the early days of Greenwich Village and tormented vice president Aaron Burr (at right), waiting for his daughter’s return.

Meanwhile, over in Brooklyn, the ruins of an old Revolutionary War fort in the future neighborhood of Cobble Hill provide the setting for a horrific tale of a late-night booze run gone wrong.  And, finally, no Bowery Boys Halloween podcast would be complete without an historic cemetery (in this case, the burial ground at St. Paul’s Chapel) and the ghost of a dramatic actor — in this case, one without his head!

PLUS: How did Westchester County become so rocky? The Devil did it!

A cairn of stones memorializing Danial Nimham at Indian Field in Van Cortlandt Park, in 1906, the year it was placed here by the Daughters of the American Revolution.  The original plaque states that 17 members of the Stockbridge Militia lost their lives, though it’s now believed that up to 40 men may have died during the massacre of August 1778. (NYPL)

Looking out the upstairs window of the Van Cortlandt House, looking out in the park. The house has seen its share of strife and, if legends can be believed, more than a few spirits.

Van Cortlandt House as it looked last weekend. What’s that in the window?

Richmond Hill, the beautiful mansion home of both John Adams and Aaron Burr.  The carriage house from this old manor was moved to Barrow Street and is today the restaurant One If By Land, Two If By Sea. (NYPL)

Theodosia Burr, the daughter of Vice President Aaron Burr, who was mysteriously lost at sea. Was she shipwrecked, rescued by an Indian prince, or forced to walk the plank? (Courtesy NYPL)

A short remnant of Red Hook Lane still exists in downtown Brooklyn.  You are unlikely to find anything too scary at this street corner however.

A 1822 illustration of the George Frederick Cooke monument and the man who paid for it, actor Edmund Kean.  Kean so admired the late actor that he actually took a very odd portion of his body back with him to England.

The monument to George Frederick Cooke in the graveyard at St. Paul’s Chapel, pictured here sometime in the 1940s.  Does his ghost still linger here? [NYPL]

We had a very chilling event occur as we were recording last weekend.   Just as I began to launch into the ghosts of the Stockbridge Militia, our recording equipment went all insane, spewing out a distorted and very disturbing version of our voices.  It went on for about 20 minutes.  Below is a sampling of the audio.  What do you think — otherworldly interference or a faulty mixing board?

 

Mayor Franklin Edson: Bronx man and distillery king

Above: a cartoon mocking Edson’s hiring practices (courtesy New York Public Library Digital Gallery)

KNOW YOUR MAYORS Our modest little series about some of the greatest, notorious, most important, even most useless, mayors of New York City. Other entrants in our mayoral survey can be found here.

Mayor Franklin Edson

In office: 1883-1884

Although the political career of one-term mayor Franklin Edson was indeed brief, he helped commission both the city’s largest acquisition of park land and one of its biggest improvements in drinking water. And he was present for the opening of one of New York’s greatest landmarks. So how did the city thank him for his service? By nearly throwing him into Ludlow Street Jail — where Boss Tweed had been left to rot just a few years before.

Edson, a transplanted New Yorker, was a farmboy from Chester, Vermont, born in 1832, who distinguished himself in the art of whiskey distillery — distinghished with “precocious tact and sagacity,” in fact.

He worked his way over to Albany, New York, as a successful distiller and grain merchant with his brother. Franklin took full advantage of drink demands during the Civil War; his company soon became so profitable that he moved the entire venture to New York in 1866.

Edson, a burgeoning booze mogul of sorts, immediately became a prominent merchant voice in Manhattan, becoming the president of New York’s Produce Exchange three times, serving his first term in 1866 before he had to time to even unpack his moving boxes.

While this naturally afforded Franklin an incredible vantage for commercial power, it would soon place him in the crosshairs of political power as well. In later years he would be most proud of his Exchange days, priding himself in being one of the encouraging voices to tear down the inadequate castle-like Produce Exchange (designed by Leopold Eidlitz) and erecting the larger, more impressive George Post-designed Produce Exchange building near Bowling Green (which itself would be sadly torn down in 1957).

Below: the new Produce Exchange

What sets Edson apart from other future mayors of the time — and what might have potentially hindered his political ambitions — was that he loved the countryside, in this case Old Fordham Village, today a neighborhood in the Bronx.

He would live here for many years and would remain a member of the (now landmarked) Episcopal Saint James Church in Fordham for most of his days. Whether by design or coincidence, this love for what would become New York’s northern borough would soon prove fruitful for the city as a whole.

Franklin was also a practicing anti-Tammany Hall Democrat. And who wouldn’t be anti-Tammany during the 1870s? Edson became politically active in the years following the Boss Tweed scandals, when Tammany was still reeling for the highly publicized affair involving Tweed and then-mayor A. Oakley Hall.


Despite a slow rebounding, Tammany would never fully rinse off the stench of corruption. Naturally, Edson’s prominence among the business class married nicely with mayoral ambitions by the mid 1880s and would eventually include a denunciation of Tammany practices and condemnation of Tammany boss John Kelly (at right). But not at first.

For the election in November 1882, the various Democratic factions, including the still-potent Irving Hall, soon decided on the relatively green Edson, because he was a uncontroversial, neutral choice. To Tammany’s Kelly, Edson must have seemed a fairly agreeable pick indeed compared the previous mayor William Russell Grace, a reform Democrat rebelliously outside the realm of Tammany’s power.

Edson easily swept past his opponent, railroad man Allan Campbell — a sweet victory for John Kelly, as it was Campbell that had replaced Kelly as the city comptroller several years previous under the administration of mayor Edward Cooper. (Check out Edward’s entry for some juicy details of the Kelly/Cooper rivalry.)

How did a political nobody — a “seven day wonder in the political world” — sweep so handily into office? It helps to ride coattails; during that same election, the popular Democrat Grover Cleveland was elected the governor of New York.

At first, Edson gave in readily to political favoritism, paying back some of his Democratic cohorts — including many of the Tammany variety — with lucrative city jobs, a decision which disgruntled many of his former supporters. In fact, he even appointed Richard Croker as fire commissioner; Croker would become the head of Tammany Hall in the 1890s. (Harper’s Weekly has a coy little cartoon chiding the Croker decision.)

Like many before him, however, Edson soon grew tired of Tammany’s corrupting influence and began adopting reform policies which were currently being installed on the state level. And also like many before him, his against-the-wind attempts at reform would essentially spell the end of his political career. Edson would serve but a single term and would almost entirely vanish from politics afterwards.

But not before throwing his weight behind a major expansion of the Croton Aqueduct, which within in a few years would triple the supply of water into the city. (In fact, most of the expansion he pushed for is still in use today.)

Edson is also partially responsible for the huge increase in New York park land, commissioning a citizens group in 1884 to lobby the state to purchase lands in the area of today’s Bronx; accordiing to an old Bronx history, “the ‘new’ parks, as they were called, comprised 3,757 acres, now included in Van Corlandt, Bronx, Pelham Bay, Crotona, St. Mary’s and Claremont parks.”

And most notably, he was the first New York mayor to walk the Brooklyn Bridge, astride president Chester A. Arthur and governor Cleveland on the bridge’s opening day, May 24, 1883. He would be met in the middle by the mayor of Brooklyn — future New York mayor — Seth Low.

He might have crept quietly into obscurity had Edson not been accused of contempt of court shortly after he left office, threatening a man in his early 50s with jail time with a stint at the notorious Ludlow Street Jail. Apparently, despite a court injunction, Edson had quietly made promotions to two posts — the Commissioner of Public Works and the Corporation Council — on his last day in office. However, after a stressful two months in court, Edson was declared not guilty of the crime.

This did not stop people from imagining the ex-Mayor trapped behind bars, as the newspaper illustration below evidences:

Edson died in 1904, at his home on the Upper East Side. 42 West 71st Street, to be exact, a block from the Dakota Apartments, which were completed during his tenure as mayor.