The Bronx Journal/Spring 2003 A 6 C O M M U N I T Y High on a Hill: Fort Tryon Park’s Past

DANIELLA DESILVA Opened to the public in 1935, Fort Tryon BRONX JOURNAL STAFF REPORTER Park received good reviews from writer Lewis Mumford, best known for his column in The New Yorker called “The Skyline.” lthough William Tryon had a dis- According to Mumford’s review published tinguished army career in the on November 9, 1935, “…this site gives mid-eighteenth century even one of the most magnificent views in the being the last British governor of colonial world…. I know no landscape near a big New York, today’s visitors seemed interest- city that takes the breath away more com- ed in learning the history of Fort Tryon Park pletely.” The New York City Guide of 1939 as well as enjoying the scenery. listed Fort Tryon as “one of the most beau- “It (Fort Tryon Park) was given to New tiful public parks of America. The views York by John D. Rockefeller. The name from its heights are perhaps the finest Tryon comes from an English general. Manhattan offers….” Actually he was an English governor of In 1938 after purchasing sculptor George New York,” said Jason Donovan, a 26 year- B a r n a r d ’s collection of medieval art, old registered nurse at Columbia Rockefeller opened The Cloisters Museum. Presbyterian Hospital. Donovan who has Located at the northernmost hill of Fort lived in the Washington Heights area all his Tryon Park paralleling a pathway called life called the park “sacred grounds,” Margaret Corbin Drive, the museum con- adding that he visits the park “sometimes tains the remains of several cloisters or religiously every Sunday.” FILE courtyards from actual French medieval Accompanying Donovan was 26 year-old Palisades. Broadway binds the park on the General and last British governor of New monasteries. Margaret Corbin was a hero of Daniel Elsmore who was visiting New York east, the Hudson River on the west, York, Sir William Tryon. the American Revolution who stood firm for the first time from England. Although he Riverside Drive on the north and Overlook In 1909, oil mogul John D. Rockefeller, against the British abetting Hessians on one did not know the history of Fort Tryon Park, Terrace on the south. Jr. purchased the sixty-two acres of land for of the hills of the park. When her husband Elsmore was getting a history lesson from William Tryon (1729-1788) was born at $1.7 million. In 1931, Rockefeller donated was killed, Corbin took his gun and contin- friend Donovan. Elsmore said, “I love it. Norbury Park, England. In 1765 he was the property to New York in an exchange ued firing until she too was badly wounded. The actual architecture looks very English, appointed governor of North Carolina. for a plot of land between 64th and 68th The Cloisters, a branch of the Metropolitan the windows, the stonewalls. We have a lot Tryon was unpopular with the colonists Streets on the easternmost portion of Museum of Art, was designated an official of English heritage castles that are built because of his rigorous suppression through Manhattan, which were to become home to landmark in 1974. very similar.” government administration. He was detest- Rockefeller University. Mr. Rockefeller Heriberto Torres, a 33 year-old auto parts Built in the summer of 1776, Fort Tryon ed for the inhumane treatment of revolu- then spent another $3.6 million improving manager in Yonkers who was strolling was seized in the fall of the same year by tionary prisoners but mostly for his destruc- Fort Tryon Park. along the park with his girlfriend said the the aHessians, a German army aiding the tion of Danbury, Fairfield and Norwalk in The Olmsted brothers, Frederick Jr. and place, “has a lot of great history if one takes British during the American Revolution. Connecticut. In 1771 Tryon became the John Charles, sons of the co-designer of the time out to read up on it.” From 1775 to 1783, American colonists governor of New York. After the outbreak Central and Prospect Parks were hired by “Who would have thought that the park fought for independence against Great of the American Revolution, which began Rockefeller to do the architectural work on still bears the name of a British general in Britain. Located at the highest natural ele- in 1775, he was forced to remain on a Fort Tryon Park. Around 1930 the brothers spite of the fact that we (The United States) vation of Upper Manhattan, Fort Tryon British ship docked at the harbor fearing his designed the plans and in 1931 they began won and claimed our independence from Park starts at about 181st Street and ends at life was in danger. After defeating the working on the park. The Olmsted brothers England? I feel it should be named Dyckman Street. The park offers views of Continental Army, which fought in defense spent the next four years transforming the Rockefeller Park, after all he donated all of the lowlands of the Hudson Valley and of the colonists, the British renamed “Fort site’s rocky land and thin soil into the bril- the land and invested all of his money,” across the Hudson River to the New Jersey Washington” in honor of their Major liant scenery enjoyed by many today. added Torres.

LEHMAN COLLEGE City University of New York 2003