Labor Day weekend marks the traditional end of the summer season in NYC. So before you fire up the BBQ, check out this tour of historical summer scenes across the city.

In 1902, the first Farm Garden was opened to provide city children the invaluable experience of cultivating and caring for the land. Its founder said of her creation: "I assure you that all the virtues can be taught from a little patch of ground, not eight feet square." Read on to learn of this history and legacy of New York's Farm Gardens.

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.

William D. Hassler was a photographer working in New York in the early 1900s. He shot all around the city, but let's take a look at his images of his own life in the upper Manhattan neighborhood of Inwood.

William Bradley Isham, a prominent leather merchant who later worked in the banking industry, rented the land that is now Isham Park from the estate of Dr. Floyd T. Ferris in 1862 as a summer residence. Around 1864 Isham bought the property which had beautiful views of the Hudson River and the Harlem River as it was situated on a hilltop. Upon his death in 1909, parcels of the estate went to members of the Isham family. Starting in 1911 and roughly through 1922 various members gifted lots to the city to create and expand the park. The city also purchased lots throughout the area originally intended to be added to Isham park, but eventually, it was decided to add the extra lands to the newly created Inwood Hill Park and maintain the boundaries of the original Isham estates. Current day Isham Park is a 20-acre park bordered by Seaman Avenue, Isham Street, Broadway, and 214th and 215th Street. Originally the park extended out to the Harlem River but with the creation of Inwood Hill Park in 1926, the lands were reallocated. It is said that Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from the Lenape Native Americans in Inwood Hill Park. The site is currently marked by a boulder known as Shorakkopoch Rock. The area originally intended to be added to Isham park, but eventually, it was decided to add the extra lands to the newly created Inwood Hill Park and maintain the boundaries of the original Isham estates.

Isham Park Dedicated September 28, 1912 Isham Memorial, ca. late 1930s In 1911, land for the purpose of a public park was offered as a gift to the city by Julia Isham Taylor. Newspaper accounts reveal that Mrs. Taylor’s gift was intended to preserve green space and views from her father‘s land—a central, natural high point in the area. A bit later, Julia’s aunt Flora bought and added land to the gift “just to preserve the view” to the Hudson River. The gifts of land from the Isham family are detailed on a bronze plaque in the stone wall surrounding a circular paved terrace situated above Broadway between 214th and Isham Streets. Samuel Isham, Julia’s brother, is quoted in the New York Times on March 24, 1912: “My father . . . re-graded the whole hill from top to bottom, planted nearly all of the trees that now remain . . . .” So the enormous gingko tree still seen at the Broadway entrance just above Isham Street, the former entrance to the estate, may have been planted by William Isham in the late 1860s.