THE story of Van Cortlandt Park begins in 1699, when future NYC mayor Jacobus Van Cortlandt bought a large tract of the Frederick Philipse holdings in the northern Bronx. The land was originally populated by the local Indians as early as 500-600 years ago.
In 1748, Jacobus’ son, Frederick, built Van Cortlandt Mansion, which still stands today. New York City obtained the land in 1888 and committed much of it to parkland. Van Cortlandt Park is marked by rocky outcroppings made mostly of gneiss, a metamorphic rock with a distinctive banded texture. Streaks of mica can be found in the rocks, as well as quartz. Van Cortlandt Park’s Northwest Forest contains the park’s older-growth trees, featuring red, white and black oak, hickories, beech, cherry birch, sweetgum, red maple and of course, the incredibly tall and straight tulip trees. Fauna fans won’t be disappointed either as owls, bats, chipmunks, woodchucks and large gypsy moths, rabbits, raccoons, opossums and coyotes are all here and accounted for.
Van Cortlandt Park is divided by no fewer than three major roadways, the Henry Hudson Parkway, the Mosholu Parkway and the Major Deegan Expressway, yet is large enough to accommodate them all without losing its distinctive rural character. The 1997 John Muir Nature Trail as well as the Putnam Railroad and Croton Aqueduct Trails run through the park.
Roaming in Van Cortlandt Park east of the Parade Grounds and athletic fields (including NYC’s premier cross country running course) that line the park’s western edge at Broadway and just south of the Henry Hudson Parkway, you can find the original burial plot of the Van Cortlandt family, Vault Hill. NYC municipal records were hidden from the British here in 1776 by NYC clerk Augustus Van Cortlandt (Frederick’s son), and in 1781 George Washington lit campfires here to deceive the Brits while he marched to Yorktown to face Cornwallis in a decisive battle of the Revolution. By 1917, the region in view of the cemetery was being used as a training ground for World War I troops: doughboys dug trenches and hiked the surrounding hills. Most of the Van Cortlandt family remains are now in Woodlawn Cemetery.
The burial plot boasts a stone wall and iron fence, but there are no tombstones or markers within. However, there was once a NYS historical marker here, which read…
Burial vault of the Van Cortlandt family, where Augustus Van Cortlandt, City Clerk, hid New York records during Revolution.
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8/24/23