Van Cortlandt Park Lake, ca. 1906 Van Cortlandt Park contains the Bronx's largest freshwater lake. This lake was originally created in the 1690s, when nearby Tibbetts Brook was dammed to power a gristmill. The lake and the surrounding 76 acres of land were owned by Jacobus Van Cortlandt, who served two terms as the mayor of New York City in 1710 and 1719. The city came into possession of the lake and the land that became the park in 1888. In the late 1890s, the lake was used for boating in the summer, and, while frozen over the winter, for curling and ice skating. By 1935, it is estimated that the lake was used by over 20,000 ice skaters per day during the winter months. The lake is still used for fishing today.

Van Cortlandt House Museum, ca. 1900. The three-story Van Cortlandt House was built in 1748 by Jacobus Van Cortlandt's son, Frederick (1699-1749), at the south side of the park. The oldest existing building in the Bronx, it is now a National Historic Landmark. The Georgian mansion played an important role during the American Revolution: In 1776 Augustus Van Cortlandt (1728-1823), Frederick's son, who had been appointed by the British as city clerk, took the city records out of Manhattan, fearing that they might be destroyed during an evacuation. He first hid them in the mansion and later placed them in one of the family's burial vaults on Vault Hill. When the war ended, Augustus turned the records over to the new government. During 1874, the same year the area west of the Bronx River was annexed by New York City, talks began about turning the land into a park. The city of New York finally acquired the title to the Van Cortlandt property on December 12, 1888. The house comprises a number of attractive historic rooms, including a "Dutch chamber" created in 1918 by the Colonial Dames of New York (which runs the museum) to represent what was considered a "typical" 17th-century New Amsterdam room. This room includes a beautiful cupboard (was) and a children's sled (pricker-sledge.) The house also contains many heirlooms donated by descendants of the Van Cortlandts.

Van Cortlandt Manor An excellent example of how the landed gentry lived in the eighteenth century in and about New York is this ample stone house with its wood shutters and unpretentious exterior, contrasting strangely with its rich Georgian interior. It is interesting to note that stone was widely use for country houses but rarely in the city, where brick predominated.

Horace Mann School, undated postcard. The elite prep school, Horace Mann was first established in 1887 as an experimental co-educational institution of Teachers College at Columbia. Originally located in Greenwich Village, the school moved to the Columbia Campus in Morningside Heights in 1894, sharing a building with Teachers College. In 1901, they moved into their own building nearby. Horace Mann became independent of the university in the 1940s. The education of male and female students separated in the early 20th century, with the all-boys facility moving to the Bronx in 1914. (The girls' school remained at Teachers College, merging with a new school before closing in 1946). The new campus in the Bronx, seen here, overlooked Van Cortlandt Park. Over the second half of the 20th century a number of new buildings were added to the campus and in 1975 the school once again became co-educational. Famous alumni of Horace Man include Seymour Durst, real estate developer; Beat writer Jack Kerouac; illustrator Rockwell Kent; and Arthur Hays Sulzberger, publisher of The New York Times among other well-known artists, actors, scientists, and politicians.

Survey photograph looking south at the 242nd Street Station on the IRT West Side / Seventh Avenue Line, two months after the opening of the station. The photograph shows a carnival, including a ferris wheel and carousel, being either put up or taken down, October 8, 1908."

My grandpa Ray Sr. was a shutterbug, and this is my Dad's neighborhood team. They hailed mostly from the Fordham Road area. It's Grandpa's writing and my Dad, Ray Jr., is the black-haired boy in the second row holding a glove. \--Carolyn Crapo

Van Cortlandt Park elevated station, September 12, 1913.

Van Cortlandt Grist Mill, ca. 1900. The Van Cortlandt saw and gristmill was situated at the southernmost tip of Van Cortlandt Lake. The lake itself was created 1699 when Tibbetts Brook was dammed to power the Van Cortlandt family’s grist mill. The mill survived )perhaps just barely) into the 20th century. It was depicted in various mediums by a number of artists, perhaps inspired by its historic significance and quaint rural look. Sources agree that the grist mill burned down after being struck by lightening, though the year it occurred is variously given as 1900, 1901, or 1911.

Van Cortlandt House is the centerpiece of a 1,000-acre urban park that encompasses what was once the Van Cortlandt family’s estate.

Sugar House Prison Window, just east of the Van Cortlandt House, undated postcard. In 18th century New York City a number of sugar houses—constructed for the storage of imported sugar and molasses— were commandeered during the Revolutionary War. The five-story brick sugar house at Rose (now William) Street and Duane Street was constructed in 1763. According to local lore, this sugar house was used by the British army as a prison during the war. Recent scholarship, thought, suggests that perhaps this specific sugar house was not, in fact, used as a prison. Regardless of this evidence, for more than two centuries the building was considered part of Revolutionary War history. The Duane Street building fell into serious disrepair in the late 19th century and was demolished in 1892. Given the history of the building, two of its "prison" wall sections with windows were saved. One was installed in the Rhinelander Building, and later One Police Plaza when it replaced the Rhinelander Building in 1973. A second wall section with single window was moved to Van Cortlandt Park, where it remains next to the Van Cortlandt House.