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Van Cortlandt Park is a park located in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. It is the third largest park in New York City, behind Pelham Bay Park and Staten Island Greenbelt. The park was named for Stephanus Van Cortlandt, who was the first native-born mayor of New York, and the Van Cortlandt family, which was prominent in the area during the Dutch and English colonial periods. Contained within the Park is the Van Cortlandt House Museum, the oldest building in the Bronx. The park is owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation With assistance from the Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy, a private non-profit organization founded in 2009 and the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park, an independent non-profit established in 1992. There are two nearby New York City Subway stations: the eastern side of the park is served by the Woodlawn subway station (), and the western side by 242nd Street subway station (). Van Cortlandt Park contains New York City's largest freshwater lake.〔()〕 ==History== The Wiechquaskeck Lenapes were among the first recorded people to settle in the area now referred to as Van Cortlandt Park. The Lenapes used the geographic features of the area, such as the Tibbetts Brook for fishing and flatland areas for farming, to support their community. The land that Van Cortlandt Park now occupies was purchased by Jacobus Van Cortlandt from John Barrett around 1691. Passed on to his son Frederick Van Cortlandt (1699–1749) and family, it was once a vast grain plantation. In 1748, Frederick built what is now known as the Van Cortlandt House on the property, but died before its completion. Frederick willed the massive home and surrounding lands to his son, James Van Cortlandt (1727–1787). The Van Cortlandt family land was used during the Revolutionary War by Rochambeau, Lafayette, and Washington. It was in this area that the Stockbridge militia was destroyed by the Queen's Rangers; a stone memorial was placed at "Indian Field" in 1906. In 1888, the family property was sold to the City of New York and made into a public parkland, with the majority of the grain fields converted into a sprawling lawn dubbed "The Parade Ground". The Van Cortlandt House was converted into a public museum and, with the city's approval, particularly overgrown areas of the property were made passable. Wide walking paths were built over original walkways, including the thin paths that led to the Van Cortlandt family cemetery, high on the nearby bluffs. On July 13, 1905, Isaac Mackie won an Open Tournament at the Van Cortlandt Park golf links by shooting 152 on a course that had been soaked with rain. He held off joint second-place finishers Willie Anderson and Bernard Nicholls who finished on 157. It was the first ever professional tournament held on a public links golf course in the United States. In 1907, due to overcrowding, Dr. William Hornaday transferred several of the Bronx Zoo's then-rare bison to Van Cortlandt Park's parade grounds. Later that year, they were shipped to prairie land in Oklahoma. Robert Moses's development plans in the 1930s called for the construction of the Henry Hudson Parkway and Mosholu Parkway to bisect Van Cortlandt Park and meet at a cloverleaf interchange about half a mile north of the center. The last remaining freshwater marsh in New York City was dredged and landscaped to accommodate construction. The Van Cortlandt House was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1967 and became a National Historic Landmark in 1976.〔(Van Courland House ) National Park Service〕〔(National Historic Landmark Survey, New York ), retrieved June 3, 2007.〕 The city's fiscal crisis in the 1970s caused much of the park to fall into disrepair. Gradual improvements began taking place from the late 1980s through the mid-2000s, including the addition of new pathways, signage, and security. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Van Cortlandt Park」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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