place

Pelham Bay Park

Geographic coordinate listsGeography of the BronxLists of coordinatesLong Island SoundNature centers in New York City
Parks in the BronxPelham Bay ParkProtected areas of the BronxUrban public parksUse American English from January 2020Use mdy dates from October 2017
Pelhambay1
Pelhambay1

Pelham Bay Park is a municipal park located in the northeast corner of the New York City borough of the Bronx. It is, at 2,772 acres (1,122 ha), the largest public park in New York City. The park is more than three times the size of Manhattan's Central Park. The park is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation (NYC Parks). Pelham Bay Park contains many geographical features, both natural and man-made. The park includes several peninsulas, including Rodman's Neck, Tallapoosa Point, and the former Hunter and Twin Islands. A lagoon runs through the center of Pelham Bay Park, and Eastchester Bay splits the southwestern corner from the rest of the park. There are also several recreational areas within the park. Orchard Beach runs along Pelham Bay on the park's eastern shore. Two golf courses and various nature trails are located within the park's central section. Other landmarks include the Bartow-Pell Mansion, a city landmark, as well as the Bronx Victory Column & Memorial Grove. Before its creation, the land comprising the current Pelham Bay Park was part of Anne Hutchinson's short-lived dissident colony. Part of New Netherland, it was destroyed in 1643 by a Siwanoy attack in reprisal for the unrelated massacres carried out under Willem Kieft's direction of the Dutch West India Company's New Amsterdam colony. In 1654 an Englishman named Thomas Pell purchased 50,000 acres (200 km²) from the Siwanoy, land which would become known as Pelham Manor after Charles II's 1666 charter. During the American Revolutionary War, the land was a buffer between British-held New York City and rebel-held Westchester, serving as the site of the Battle of Pell's Point, where Massachusetts militia hiding behind stone walls (still visible at one of the park's golf courses) stopped a British advance. The park was created in 1888, under the auspices of the Bronx Parks Department, largely inspired by the vision of John Mullaly, and passed to New York City when the part of the Bronx east of the Bronx River was annexed to the city in 1895. Orchard Beach, one of the city's most popular, was created through the efforts of Robert Moses in the 1930s.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Pelham Bay Park (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Pelham Bay Park
Orchard Beach Road, New York The Bronx

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Pelham Bay ParkContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 40.865555555556 ° E -73.808333333333 °
placeShow on map

Address

Orchard Beach Road

Orchard Beach Road
10475 New York, The Bronx
New York, United States
mapOpen on Google Maps

Pelhambay1
Pelhambay1
Share experience

Nearby Places

Battle of Pell's Point
Battle of Pell's Point

The Battle of Pell's Point (October 18, 1776), also known as the Battle of Pelham, was a skirmish fought between British and American troops during the New York and New Jersey campaign of the American Revolutionary War. The conflict took place in what is now part of Pelham Bay Park (namely the Split Rock Golf Course and Pelham Bay Golf Course) in the Bronx, New York City and the towns of Pelham Manor and Pelham in Westchester County, New York. On October 12, British forces landed at Throgs Neck in order to execute a flanking maneuver that would trap Gen. George Washington, commander-in-chief of the American revolutionary forces, and the main body of the Continental Army on the island of Manhattan. The Americans thwarted the landing, and Gen. Sir William Howe, commander-in-chief of British forces in North America, looked for another location along Long Island Sound to disembark his troops. On October 18, he landed 4,000 men at Pelham, 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Throgs Neck. Inland were 750 men of a brigade under the command of the American Col. John Glover. Glover positioned his troops behind a series of stone walls and attacked the British advance units. As the British overran each position, the American troops fell back and reorganized behind the next wall. After several such attacks, the British broke off, and the Americans retreated. The battle delayed British movements long enough for Washington to move the main army to White Plains and avoid being surrounded on Manhattan. After losing to the British in a battle at White Plains, and losing Fort Washington, Washington retreated across New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

Freedomland U.S.A.

Freedomland U.S.A. (usually called Freedomland) was a theme park in the Baychester section of the northeastern Bronx, New York City, dedicated to American history. Operating from 1960 to 1964, Freedomland was built on marshland owned by the Webb and Knapp company, of which William Zeckendorf Sr. was the major owner. Zeckendorf announced his plans for Freedomland in May 1959. The park layout was conceived and built by C. V. Wood, and consisted of over 40 attractions arranged in the shape of a large map of the contiguous United States. Groundbreaking ceremonies for Freedomland occurred in late 1959, and Freedomland opened on June 19, 1960, to large crowds. Due to Freedomland's $65 million cost, the park already faced financial issues at the time of its opening, and by the end of the 1961 season, Freedomland was $8 million in debt. To generate revenue, the park added more exhibits and conventional amusements. By 1963, further financial issues led the owners to sell off a portion of Freedomland's lot to a pension fund of the Teamsters Union, as well as close off a section of the park. Even though Freedomland's planners anticipated that the park would eventually be developed into a full-time amusement area, it closed for the last time at the end of the 1964 season. On September 14, 1964, Freedomland filed for bankruptcy. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the site of Freedomland was redeveloped as Co-op City, the world's largest housing cooperative. Also built on the site were the Bay Plaza Shopping Center and an indoor mall. Many Freedomland attractions and design features were auctioned or sold to other parks, and many of these rides no longer exist. While little physical evidence of Freedomland remains, several media works commemorate the former amusement park.

Hunter Island (Bronx)
Hunter Island (Bronx)

Hunter Island (also Hunters Island or Hunter's Island) is a 166-acre (67 ha) peninsula and former island in the Bronx, New York City, United States. It is situated on the western end of Long Island Sound, along the sound's northwestern shore, and is part of Pelham Bay Park in the northeastern part of the Bronx. Hunter Island initially covered 215 acres (87 ha) and was one of the Pelham Islands, the historical name for a group of islands in western Long Island Sound that once belonged to Thomas Pell. The island is connected to another former island, Twin Island, on the northeast. The area around Hunter Island was originally settled by the Siwanoy Native Americans. One of Pell's descendants, Joshua Pell, moved onto the island in 1743. It was subsequently owned by the Hunter and Henderson families, and the island was briefly named Henderson's Island after the latter. Henderson's Island was purchased by politician John Hunter in 1804. Hunter built a mansion on the island and his family resided on the island until 1865, when it was sold to former mayor Ambrose Kingsland. Hunter Island was owned by several other people before being incorporated into Pelham Bay Park in 1888. Subsequently, the island became a vacation destination. In the 1930s, New York City parks commissioner Robert Moses extended nearby Orchard Beach, to the south of the island, by connecting Hunter Island to the mainland. Hunter Island formerly contained Hunter Mansion, which Hunter had built for his family in 1811. It was located on the island's highest point and was destroyed in 1937 when Orchard Beach was expanded onto the island. A causeway connecting Hunter Island to the mainland still exists. Today the former island is part of a wildlife refuge, the Hunter Island Marine Zoology and Geology Sanctuary, which was established in 1967 on the northern shores of Hunter and Twin Islands. The sanctuary includes rock outcroppings and an intertidal marine ecosystem that is not found anywhere else in New York state. Hunter Island also contains the Kazimiroff Nature Trail and Orchard Beach Environmental Center, which was established in 1986 as a tribute to Bronx preservationist Theodore Kazimiroff.