Van Cortlandt Park
In the hills of Van Cortlandt Park Living in new York City, person o ften looks for a place to outside, find some open space, and get a taste of n ature. In the Bronx, the Van Cortlandt Par k is a great place to do this. The Van Cortlandt Park occupies land in the northwest corner of the city, that was part of the estate of Adriaen van der Donk, one of the original Dutch settlers of New Amsterdam. After his death, the land was bought by Frederick Philipse, whose land holdings grew to over 81 square miles in what today is Yonkers and The Bronx. When Philipse’s wife died, he married the daughter of the Van Cortlandt family, and his daughter eventually married his brother-in-law. The land in the Bronx was transferred to the Van Cortlandt family in 1699. It was farmed for corn and other grains. Tibbett Brook was dammed to form a mill pond, and that pond still exists today as Van Cortlandt Lake. The family built a house on the land, although the spent most of their time in the home in Manha...