Cloisters ca. 1915 Fort Tryon Park takes its name from the last British governor of New York, Major General Sir William Tryon. The area played a major role in the American Revolution, serving as a northern defense for Fort Washington. However, it was later lost to the British. After the war and during the nineteenth century the land went through many owners until John D. Rockefeller bought it in 1917 for the incredible amount of $35,000 an acre. After landscaping the property, he donated the land to the city for use as a public park. Fort Tryon Park opened to the public in 1935. Rockefeller also played a major part in the creation of the Cloisters, the medieval-looking structure visible in this photograph, which opened to the public in 1938. As you walk through the park and come upon this structure, you feel as if you've been transported out of one of the busiest cities in the world right into the past. In spite of the many changes that the neighborhood of Washington Heights has been through, the many people who have come and gone, the Cloisters and the park remain the same, there for all New Yorkers to enjoy.

Libbey Castle, Fort Washington Park, unknown date. The Libbey Castle was built in 1856 by merchant Augustus C. Richards (the property was named for a later owner) in present-day Fort Tryon Park. A 1930 history of Fort Tryon properties published in the New York Times referred to Richards's castle as "the most pretentious structure in the section at that time." The castle and the surrounding properties had several 19th century owners — including the infamous William "Boss" Tweed — before it passed to William Libbey in 1880 via the widow of a business partner, the department store magnate A.T. Stewart. The castle served as the Libbey family summer home until 1904, when it was purchased by former New York City Mayor Hugh J. Grant (no relation). In 1919, John D. Rockefeller acquired the property from C.K.G. Billings. Rockefeller would later donate the former Libbey tract to the city along with his other Washington Heights holdings. Libbey Castle was razed in 1931.

Fort Tryon Park, Manhattan Margaret Cochran Corbin (1751-1800) was the first American woman to receive a military pension for her service during the Revolutionary War. When her husband, John Corbin, enlisted in the army to fight for the colonists, Margaret decided to go with him as a “camp follower” to cook, do laundry and nurse the wounded. On November 16, 1776, Corbin assisted her husband in operating a cannon during a Hessian attack on Fort Washington (today’s Fort Tryon). When John was fatally wounded, Margaret heroically took over his post and continued to fire at the enemy. Before the four-hour battle was through, she was severely wounded and nearly lost her left arm. In 1779, the Continental Congress awarded her a lifelong pension equivalent to half that of a male veteran. She died at age 49 and was buried in Highland Falls, NY, but in 1926, the Daughters of the American Revolution had her remains moved to the post cemetery at the U. S. Military Academy at West Point, where she is the only Revolutionary War soldier buried on the academy grounds. Today, a plaque in Fort Tryon Park honors her bravery and both the park drive and circle are named for her.

Inwood is located at the top of Manhattan Island, at the point where the Hudson and Harlem Rivers meet at the Spuyten Duyvil. It begins as a valley to the south, roughly at Dyckman Street and Riverside Drive along the base of the Fort Tryon Park hill. The area is historically, architecturally and environmentally unique—almost half of the land is public park space that preserves the natural terrain and geological features of the island, as opposed to the designed landscapes of many parks in New York City. Inwood is distinctive in that its pattern of development and architecture was created in relation to the original landscape of Manhattan Island. In 1906, the extension of the IRT transit lines to Dyckman Street, where the first mass-transit station in the area opened, resulted in the rapid development of six- and seven-story apartment houses on land purchased from existing farms and private estates.Working-class immigrants of varied cultural origins, seeking better living conditions than those of cramped tenements downtown, moved to Inwood to reside in new, spacious and more affordable apartments in buildings designed in the Neo-Classical, Italianate and Tudor Revival styles. As the pace of development continued, steps were taken to create city parkland that would preserve the natural beauty of the landscape and provide open space for new residents. In 1911, Julia Isham Taylor donated land from her family’s estate to create Isham Park. Spurred by her gift in 1916, the city finalized the purchase of adjacent land to the west for Inwood Hill Park. New apartment houses were designed, named and advertised in reference to the new parks. Around the time of the construction of the IND transit lines along Broadway in Inwood during the 1920s, a group of distinctive Art Deco style apartments were built in the blocks around that historic transportation corridor. Today, Inwood remains characterized by early-20th-century apartment residences built in relation to the preserved landscape of its public parks to the west and south. An industrial area, serving the transportation, sanitation and utility infrastructure of New York City, occupies a large portion of its eastern edge. Four historic bridges span the rivers along the surrounding waterfront. And, although resident populations have often changed in Inwood, from migrating Native Americans to the immigrant populations of the 20th and 21st centuries, the built environment has changed little since the period of rapid development after the turn of the 20th century, yielding surprisingly rich architectural discoveries.

Southeast corner of Dyckman and Broadway, 1945. This photograph depicts a commercial intersection occupied by a cigar shop, flower shop and a well-loved local restaurant called Bickford's. The restaurant was a popular hang out spot pre- or post- movie or a night at the nearby bowling alley. The large billboard advertises kosher meat products. Nearby Washington Heights was home to a German Jewish community that was, by in large, recently immigrated (most arrived in the 1930s) and Orthodox.

Jewish Memorial Hospital, 1942. Constructed in the mid 1930s with funds from the Public Works Administration, this Art Deco hospital building commemorated the Jewish veterans of World War I. In the early 1970s the hospital made plans for an additional ten-story building. The new structure was never begun because the hospital entered bankruptcy proceedings in 1977. The hospital finally closed in 1983 and the building was demolished.

Tryon Hall, 1913. Although Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings, a wealthy industrialist, already owned a home on Fifth Avenue and 53rd Street, he fell in love with northern Manhattan while visiting the Harlem River Speedway, a dirt, horse-racing track. Already retired at age 40, so as to devote himself to his passion for horses, Billings decided to construct a summer home in the area. He purchased 25 acres and built a 25,000 square foot horse stable and mansion. The mansion sat on the highest point of his property, just above the Hudson River on land that had once been Fort Tryon. Called Tryon Hall, the extravagant residence was designed in a Louis XIV chateau style and completed in 1907. It featured a heated indoor swimming pool, a two-story squash court, a bowling alley, and numerous formal gardens. The home was reached from Riverside Drive via a 1,600 feet long driveway that had a 6-degree grade. The Billings moved on to other (more exorbitant) living spaces in 1916 and sold Tryon Hall and its surrounding property to John D. Rockefeller Jr. Initially Rockefeller planned to demolish the buildings and donate the land to the city for a park. Architects protested the anticipated loss of the house and the city actually turned down the land. The mansion was then lived in for some years by the president of a large realty company, but burned to the ground in 1926 (no lives were lost but artwork valued at $1 million was destroyed). The ruins were removed and Rockefeller finally got the city to accept the land for a park. Fort Tryon Park was designed by Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr. Of the mansion, a few features remain, including the gatehouse, entrance pillars, and original S-shaped roadway.

Construction of the Jewish Memorial Hospital, 1934.

The original Mount Washington Presbyterian Church was founded in 1844 on the property of Samuel Thomson. Mr. Thomson was a deeply religious man, and upon realizing the closest church to him was 4 miles from home, he decided to build a wooden Gothic church with a steeple at the intersection of modern-day Dyckman Street and Broadway. Upon the expansion of the subway system that would be built underneath the church, it was relocated to its current day home at Vermilia Avenue and 204th Street. The original church was torn down in 1929. The church was named after the site of Fort Washington (current day Bennet Park) where a Revolutionary Battle took place on November 16, 1776. Ultimately the battle was lost by the Continental Army as they faced a three-sided assault by the British Army. At the end of the battle, Americans suffered 59 casualties, 96 wounded and 2,837 prisoners of war.

Erected by the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society in 1909 (and still standing in its original location), this marker celebrates the defense of nearby Fort Tyron by Maryland and Virginia Regiment on November 16, 1776. The monument also notes the participation of Margaret Corbin, "the first American woman to take a soldier’s part in the War for Liberty." Corbin, a nurse, was allowed to accompany her husband into battle to help with the wounded. When he fell, she took over his position at the canon, firing until she too was seriously injured. The Fort Tyron marker was funded by Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings and originally placed on his estate (near to the location of the battle). When the Billings estate, Tryon Hall, buried in 1926, the land was finally accepted by the city for parkland. (The owner of the estate since 1917, John D. Rockefeller had been trying to donate it to the city for years at that point). When Fort Tryon Park was laid out the marker remained and two different roads in the park were named in honor of Margaret Corbin.

Before Olmstead sculpted Fort Tryon Park, the land was the grounds of a luxurious estate.

Mt. Washington Presbyterian Church, 1928. The congregation of Mt. Washington was founded in Inwood in 1844. In the same year the church constructed a Gothic style, wood-frame structure on land owned by Samuel Thomson, the parish's founder. The bucolic setting of the church included a large front lawn and two massive willow trees framing the building. Enlarged in the 1850s the church building ultimately was brought down by technological advancements coming to the neighborhood. Plans for a subway line through northern Manhattan resulted in the condemnation of the old church building in 1927. The last services in the church were held on June 16, 1929 and the congregation moved into their new home on Vermilyea Avenue and 204th Street in September.