| Inwood Hill Park | |
|---|---|
| Type | Urban park |
| Location | Manhattan in New York City, New York |
| Area | 196.4 acres (79.5 ha) |
| Created | 1926 |
| Operated by | New York City Department of Parks and Recreation |
Inwood Hill Park is a city-owned and maintained public park in Inwood, Upper Manhattan, New York City, operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. It stretches along the Hudson River from Dyckman Street to the northern tip of the island. Inwood Hill Park's densely folded, glacially scoured topography contains the largest remaining forest land on Manhattan Island. Unlike other Manhattan parks, Inwood Hill Park is largely natural (non-landscaped).
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Between 1915 and the early 1940s, the City purchased the parcels of land that make the park what it is today. The park was officially opened on May 8, 1926.
The park's western boundary is the Hudson River, and the southern boundary is 200th Street. From Dyckman to 204th Street the eastern boundary is Payson Avenue, from 204th to 214th Street it is Seaman Avenue, and from 215th Street to the park's end at 218th Street the eastern boundary is Indian Road.
Before becoming parkland, it was known during the Colonial and post-Revolutionary War period as Cox's Hill or Tubby Hook Hill.
As the current name suggests, large areas of the park are hills, mostly wooded. A number of foot paths criss-cross it, allowing easy access to Dyckman Street, Fort Tryon Park and the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway. Some of these trails are former roads leading to what were once summer estates that later were brought under the control of the city in the creation of the park. Bolton Road, which was the main drive to the Bolton estate, is now the primary pedestrian pathway within the park; it's entrance marked by a sign located on Payson Ave.
Many trails were paved over and illuminated with lampposts as a project of the Works Progress Administration during the 1930's. Today, most of these paved pathways and nearly all of the lampposts have fallen into a state of severe disrepair, the result of decades of neglect and indifference from the city.
Geologically speaking, Inwood Hill Park is quite diverse, with marble, schist and limestone all prevalent in the area. The park is located next to the seismologically active Dyckman Street Fault which runs parallel along the southern border of the park. As recently as 1989, activity of this fault caused a magnitude 2 earthquake.[1]
The area of the park along the Harlem River includes Manhattan's last remaining natural salt marsh, which attracts large numbers of waterbirds. These waterfowl can be studied further via educational programs held at the Nature Center at the north end of the property. Mallards, Canada Geese and Ring-billed gulls are year-round residents, using both the water and the nearby lawns and ballfields. Many wading birds and waterfowl pass through on the spring and fall migrations, and herons and cormorants often spend the summer.
The woods also support a wide variety of birds, including common species such as Blue Jays and Cardinals. Birds of prey that breed in the park include Red-tailed Hawks and owls. A five-year project that began in summer 2002 is attempting to reintroduce the Bald Eagle to Manhattan using hacking boxes in the park and eaglets brought in from the Midwest. In the first summer, three of the four introduced eaglets fledged successfully; three or four fledged each year of the program.[2] As of 2007 none had returned to nest in Manhattan, but most of the eagles raised in the park are too young to be nesting.
The park covers 196.4 acres (79.5 ha).[3] The Henry Hudson Parkway and Amtrak's Empire Connection run through it, and at its northern end the Henry Hudson Bridge links Manhattan to the Bronx. Though the park does not support large wild mammals, the local wildlife does include raccoons and skunks as well as the usual city rodents. Both locals and people from outside the neighborhood fish from the riverbank at the north end of the park.
Human activity has been present in Inwood Hill Park from prehistoric times. Through the 17th century, Native Americans known as the Lenape inhabited the area. There is evidence of a main encampment along the eastern edge of the park. The Lenape relied on both the Hudson and Harlem Rivers as sources for food. Artifacts and the remains of old campfires were found in Inwood's rock shelters, suggesting their use for shelter and temporary living quarters.
Legend has it that under a tulip tree in the park Peter Minuit, Director General of New Netherland, 'purchased' Manhattan from the a band of Native Americans in 1626 for the Dutch West India Company; the purchase price being a shipment of goods worth 60 guilders. The tree, the largest tulip on the island, survived for centuries until it was felled by a storm in the 1933. Until the 1950s the base of the tree under which this transaction allegedly took place was still to be seen, surrounded by a large iron fence, but as it rotted it was finally removed and a boulder (Shorakkopoch Rock) and plaque replaced it.
Fort Cockhill, one of many forts built in New York by the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, stood slightly north from the center of Inwood Hill Park. A small, five-sided earthen structure equipped with two cannons, it overlooked the mouth of Spuyten Duyvil Creek at its confluence with the Hudson River.
The park was home to country retreats for some of the wealthier families of the community and the rest of New York's social elite in the 19th century.[4] One such notable who had a summer estate in Inwood was Isidor Straus, co-owner of the Macy's department store and a passenger on the ill-fated voyage of the RMS Titanic. The Lords of the Lord & Taylor department store chain owned two mansions built within the park. Both were destroyed by fire in the latter part of the 19th century.
An orphanage was located high on a bluff in what is now Inwood Hill Park in the nineteenth century. The site today includes a small paved area and park benches; no trace of the building remains. At least three freshwater springs arise in the park, one of which was used for drinking water by the workers who constructed the Henry Hudson Bridge.
Today, the park contains three children's playgrounds, baseball and soccer fields and tennis and basketball courts. The Inwood Hill Nature Center at the north end of the park is both a location for educational programs and the local headquarters of the Urban Park Rangers.
The lack of green space in the eastern part of Inwood and the Bronx nearby creates an enormous demand for picnicking with barbecues and table/chair setups, activity that is either illegal or tightly controlled in most city parks but which Inwood Hill Park has managed by allowing such setups to take place on the manicured, maintained peninsula portion of the park. This has not been without controversy from those who oppose any such noise, smoke and litter-inducing activity, but it has been successful in keeping illegal picnics away from the other sections of the park.
Inwood Hill Park's ballfields are heavily used and indeed completely subsumed by local and other city Spanish-language leagues during the long baseball season. It is not uncommon to see hundreds if not thousands of uniformed players and spectators at the Dyckman Fields and Seaman Avenue ballpark compounds. This usage places extreme pressure on the park, which as a result has required more active management in recent years.
On September 15, 1995, the Inwood Hill Nature Center was dedicated and opened to the public. It is located near the park entrance on 218th Street and Indian Road. The center is located on Manhattan’s only salt-water marsh. It has also been designated as an interactive exhibit with ongoing monitoring of the natural area. It is also the focal point to watch the eagles which have been placed in the park to be freed when they are able to adjust to the environment.[5]
Fiction authors Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child set Inwood Hill Park as a mysterious locale for their 2009 bestseller Cemetery Dance. The book also goes into some of the history of the park, but plays a bit of artistic license in adding a small dark enclave within the area as a plot device. Previously, mystery writer S. S. Van Dine (Willard Huntington Wright) set the plot of his novel The Dragon Murder Case (1934) in a fictional estate located in the middle of Inwood Hill Park.
In the 1995 pastiche, Sherlock Holmes and the Houdini Birthright by Val Andrews, Holmes and Dr. Watson visit with Bess Houdini, widow of the legendary magician Harry Houdini, at 67 Payson Ave. (the home she lived in after her husbands death) located next to Inwood Hill Park.[6]
Edward Conlon's novel Red on Red (2011) begins in Inwood Hill Park ("the stalagmite tip of Manhattan") where a woman is found hanging from a tree.