Williamsbridge Reservoir was a natural lake (despite its name) measuring 13.1 acres (53,000 m2) just south of Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, New York.[1] Specifically the body of water was located at 208th Street and Bainbridge Avenue.[2] It was shaped like a saucer[3] and was normally forty-one feet deep[1] Its water level dropped approximately fourteen feet in mid-August 1901.[4] On April 3, 1934 Commissioner of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity, Maurice P. Davidson, proposed that it be offered to Robert Moses to be used as a park site. The reservoir had ceased to be used after 1919.[1]
A site for the Montefiore Home, first organized in 1884, was acquired in the West Bronx, between Columbia Oval and the Williamsbridge Reservoir, in January 1910. On the plot a hospital for treating various diseases replaced the previous site of the Montefiore Home, a building at Broadway (Manhattan) between 137th Street and 138th Street.[5]
In June 1928 a four-year-old boy, Frederic Fleishaus, of 3315 Rochambeau Avenue, the Bronx, drowned in Williamsbridge Reservoir. He gained access to the water through a small opening in an eight foot fence which had been erected for protection.[3]
The Williamsbridge Reservoir property came under the control of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation on June 27, 1934. A new sport and play area covering 20 acres (81,000 m2) opened there on September 11, 1937. A Works Progress Administration project, the facilities cost $1,500,000 to build.[2]
The Keeper's House at Williamsbridge Reservoir was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1999.[6]