Skip to main content

Posts

Stuyvesant Square Park, Manhattan

Stuyvesant Square (1930) New York Public Library Stuyvesant Square Park is a park spanning from East 15th Street north to East 17th Street and from Rutherford Place east to Nathan D. Perlman Place. The square is commonly thought to be named for  Peter Stuyvesant, the last of the Dutch Director-General of the colony of New Netherlands until it was ceded to English  control in 1664. It is actually named for Peter Gerard Stuyvesant. Stuyvesant Square (1905) Museum of the City of New York The park lies within what was the Stuyvesant family farm. The farm once stretched from the Bowery to the East River and from 3rd Street to 14th Street. The park itself is in the approximate location of the original Stuyvesant family mansion. Randel Farm Map 1818-1820 In 1836, Peter Gerard Stuyvesant and his wife Hellen Rutherford reserved four acres of the family farm and sold it to the City of New York for $5 as a public park, with the proviso that the City of New York bu...
Read more
Recent posts

Bronx River

The Bronx River is approximately 24 miles long.  It flows from southern Westchester to the East River. Bronx River flowing through Bronx Park (1896) Museum of the City of New York It was named for colonial settler Jonas Bronck.  The Bronx River is the only fresh water river in New York City. The Bronx River originally sourced from the area of the current Kensico Reservoir in Westchester.  With the construction of the Kensico Dam, in 1885, the flow was limited to a small tributary stream as its source. Bronx River (1900) Library of Congress It flows into the Bronx at Bronx Park and continues through the New York Botanical Garden, Bronx Zoo, and into the South Bronx.  It empties into the East River, separating the Hunt's Point and Soundview neighborhoods. Bronx River flowing (1900) Library of Congress The river was called Aquehung or "River of High Bluffs" by the Mohegan Indian Tribe who lived and fished along it.  In 1639, a 5...
Read more

Little Syria, Manhattan

Completed b y 1797 the area of Greenwich Street in lower Manhattan is planned, constructed, and land-filled.   By 1817 Washington Street becomes the westernmost avenue lined with piers, maritime stores, and basins and remaining waterfront property until the completion and opening of lower West Street in the early 1840s. In the 1850s with the conversion of Castle Clinton into the Castle Garden immigration station nearby, the wealthy began to desert the neighborhood and by the 1880s immigrants of Eastern Europe and the Syrian province began moving in. Little Syria is the former name of a neighborhood that once stretched from Battery Place up to Cedar Street and from Trinity Place to West Street, with  Washington Street serving as the Main Street of Syrian America . Selling cool drinks in Syrian Quarter Library Of Congress From the late 1800s until the 1940s construction of the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel, presently known as the Hug h L. Carey Tunnel, the...
Read more

Ferry Point Park, The Bronx

Ferry Point Park is a park located in the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx along the East River and Westchester Creek.  The park spans 413.8 acres. The neighborhood " Throggs Neck " takes its name from John Throgmorton who obtained a license on October 6, 1642 from Niew Amsterdam's Governor to settle in the area.  The area served primarily as farm land for families for the next two centuries. In 1850 the land that will become Ferry Point Park is purchased by Augustus diZerega and Jacob Lorillard, a shipping tycoon and a tobacco manufacturer, respectively. In 1916, the land is sold to the Catholic House of the Good Shepherd. The east side of Ferry Point Park prior to land-filling New York Public Library 1905 The original parcel of Ferry Point Park totaled 171 acres and came under the jurisdiction of the New York City Department of Parks & Recreation in 1937.  It was purchased by New York City from the Roman Catholic House of the G...
Read more

Fort Totten, Queens

Fort Totten Park is a former United States Army installation in Bayside, Queens on the north shore of Long Island. Decommissioned as a military base in the 1970s, Fort Totten is located at the head of Little Neck Bay where the East River widens to become the Long Island Sound. Although the United States Army Reserve maintains a presence since 1974, the property is currently owned by the City of New York. Fort Totten Flag Bearers New York Public Library Construction began in 1862 after the United States government purchased the land from the Willet family.  The former federal military base was composed of 93 acres.  Plans for the Civil War-era project were initially prepared by Captain Robert E. Lee in 1857.  Construction was undertaken five years later to protect the eastern approach of New York Harbor from the Confederate States, along with Fort Schuyler across the East River in the Bronx. The fort was named for General Joseph Gilbert Totten (1788-1864...
Read more

Shore Acres, Staten Island

Shore Acres  is a neighborhood in eastern Staten Island, between Rosebank and Fort Wadsworth.  The area remains today a secluded enclave of pricey, waterfront homes.  The neighborhood's generally agreed boundaries are Bay Street to the West, Nautilus Street to the North, New York Bay to the East and Arthur Von Briesen Park to the South. Topographical Map of Shore Acres (1906-1913) New York Public Library Arthur Von Briesen Library of Congress The serene Von Briesen Park is 12.77 acres.  The site of Von Briesen Park was the former estate of Arthur Von Briesen (1843-1920).  Von Briesen was a native of Germany, a sergeant during the Civil War and New York lawyer.  In 1876, Von Briesen helped found the German Legal Aid Society which provided free legal services to poor German immigrants in New York.  After rising to the position of President of the society, Von Briesen argued for the broadening of benefits to all immigrants and in 1896 the soc...
Read more

Holland Tunnel, Manhattan

 South Tunnel of the Holland Tunnel December 6, 1923 New York Public Library  The first automobile tunnel built under the Hudson River was the Holland Tunnel, opened to vehicular traffic on November 13, 1927.  The Holland Tunnel was formerly named the Hudson River Vehicular Tunnel or the Canal Street Tunnel.  Today it is named for it's chief engineer Clifford Milburn Holland (1883-1924). Beginning in 1906, a joint commission of New York and New Jersey explored the possibility of construction of a roadway crossing to connect the states.  After design proposals from various engineers including George Goethals, and the firm of Jacobs and Davies, the design of two separate tubes by Clifford Holland was chosen.  In 1919, Holland was named Chief Engineer of the project. North Tunnel of the Holland Tunnel July 20, 1925 New York Public Library On February 1, 1920 funds were appropriated for construction by the New Jersey Interstate Bridge and Tunn...
Read more