Givans Creek Woods

New England Thruway bet. Co-op City Blvd. and Rombouts Ave

Bronx

This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

Adjacent to Co-op City’s urban development, Givans Creek Woods is a natural area that not only preserves many plants and animals that once thrived here, but also reminds us of the families who settled this area over two hundred years ago. In 1795 Robert Givan, his wife Agnes Thompson, and their seven children, emigrated from Kelso, Scotland to what was then Westchester. They settled on a tract of land purchased from the Bartow family, chosen for its high elevation and a navigable creek that emptied into the Hutchinson River. Givan established a mill here which he powered with the tidal run of the creek which bore his name. He built his estate, named Edman after his home county in Great Britain, east of the present day Givan Square, at the intersection of Eastchester Road and East Gun Hill Road. Givan died in 1830, leaving his considerable estate to his descendants. They included members of the Palmer, LeRoy, and Morgan families, whose names are preserved in nearby streets. Th…