Fall Foliage in Parks

Pelham Bay Park

Fall foliage walks through Pelham Bay Park highlight its oak, hickory, and sweet–gum forest. Urban Park Rangers call it some of the most exquisite fall foliage in the city. One special white oak tree on the Split Rock Golf Course is 400 years old and thought to be one of the oldest white oaks in the United States (other venerable white oaks, which can live to be over 500 years old, include the former Charter Oak in Hartford, Connecticut, which is depicted on the state’s commemorative quarter, and the Wye Oak in Maryland, which died in 2002).

One of the best places to look at fall colors in Pelham Bay Park is the Kazimiroff Trail which runs through 189 acres of Hunter Island and which was named for Dr. Theodore Kazimiroff (1914–1980) in 1987. A dentist by profession, Kazimiroff is most remembered for his dedication to the fight for the protection of the delicate ecosystems that still thrive in the Bronx, especially the preservation of Pelham Bay Park. He was instrumental in protecting Split Rock (a large glacial boulder in the northwest corner of Pelham Bay) from destruction during the extension of the New England Thruway in 1962 (Split Rock has since been designated an historical landmark). The Kazimiroff Trail reveals much of the natural beauty of Hunter Island including the tall Norway spruce and the white pines that provide a habitat for great horned owls. The remnants of the Hunter Mansion garden, as well as fragments of the mansion house foundation and stone walls, are reminders of the large estates that once dotted the park’s shoreline.

Two large boulders on Hunter Island, the Gray Mare and Mishow, were important during rituals and ceremonies to the Siwanoy, a group of the local Lenape Native Americans who inhabited this area up until the European arrival in the 17th century. The Siwanoy were attracted to this area by the plentiful deer, turtle, and sturgeon. When the Dutch West India Company purchased the land from them in 1639, they termed the area “Vreedelandt,” meaning land of freedom. However, after years of unsuccessful attempts to occupy the land, the Siwanoy still controlled the area. The most famous of these failed communities was the short–lived English colony founded by Anne Hutchinson in what is now the northwest corner of this park. Having fled religious persecution in Puritan Massachusetts, Hutchinson and most of her party were killed by Native Americans just a short time later in 1643. The nearby Hutchinson River bears her name. In 1654, the Siwanoy sold 50,000 acres of land to Thomas Pell (c.1610–1669), for whom Pelham Bay Park is named. During the Revolutionary War, Pell’s land was part of the buffer between the British–held Manhattan and rebel–held Westchester.

Hunter Island is named for John Hunter (d. 1852), whose family owned the land for nearly 50 years. After the Siwanoy Indians sold the land to Thomas Pell, the island was originally known as Pell’s Island, and then Pelican Island, until 1804 when Hunter bought the island for $40,000. Hunter cultivated the land, creating a magnificent garden and mansion built in the English Georgian style. Hunter Mansion held a large collection of fine wines and valuable art, and Hunter entertained guests from around the world, including Napoleon Bonaparte’s brother, Joseph of Spain, and President Martin Van Buren. Hunter served in the New York State Senate and started the Leather Manufacturer’s National Bank, which became part of Chase National Bank in 1926.

Hunter died in 1852 and left his entire estate to his son Elias. When Elias died in 1865, his son, John III, inherited the land. However, Hunter required in his will that John III inherit the land only if he lived on the island. As John III chose to live on Bayard’s Farm in nearby Throgs Neck, he sold Hunter Island to former New York City Mayor Ambrose Kingsland (1804–1878) for $127,501. Ownership then passed through Alvin Higgins, Gardiner Jorden, and Oliver Iselin until the City of New York purchased the land in the 1880s. Once the city acquired the land, the Society of Little Mothers used the Hunter Mansion as a children’s welfare house. Hunter Mansion, which had fallen into disrepair, was destroyed during construction of Orchard Beach and its subsequent expansion in the 1930s.

Across the lagoon from Hunter Island is the Bartow–Pell Mansion. After the Pell family sold most of their land, Robert Bartow, a publisher and Pell descendant, purchased the remainder in 1836. He built the Bartow–Pell Mansion in 1842, a grey stone mansion with Greek Revival interiors located on Shore Road. It remained in the family until 1888, when the City acquired the estate. The mansion and its grounds have been maintained by the International Garden Club Incorporated since 1914. The site opened as a museum and educational center in 1947. Bartow–Pell Mansion was designated an official New York City landmark in 1966. Parkgoers can visit the purported site of the tree where Thomas Pell and Siwanoy leader Chief Wampage exchanged land in 1654; although the so–called Treaty Oak fell in 1909, a fence on the grounds of Bartow–Pell Mansion marks and commemorates the site.

In the late 1800s, Bronx resident and founder of the New York Parks Association John Mullaly spearheaded a movement to retain some of the natural areas before they were destroyed by overdevelopment. The State Legislature appointed a commission to acquire large tracts of land to form a Bronx parks system. Pelham Bay Park officially became Bronx Parks Department property in 1888 when the City of the Bronx purchased the land for a total cost of $2,746,688 and changed the collection of estates into a unified park. The original site was over 1,700 acres.

The park’s natural woodlands were complemented by recreational facilities when Parks Commissioner Moses filled the park with playgrounds, comfort stations, and other amenities. He upgraded the Pelham and Split Rock Golf Courses in the 1930s and began one of his most ambitious park projects: the building of today’s Orchard Beach. Eager to increase public use of the area, Moses initiated an $8 million project that added a new parking lot and a 90,000–square–foot bathhouse complex. When it opened in 1936, the landfill–fortified beach attracted thousands of bathers. In 1937, the beach was extended 1.25 miles by filling in the shallow water in LeRoy’s Bay between Hunter and Twin islands, adding 115 acres of parkland. The Orchard Beach Bathhouse and Promenade was designated a New York City landmark in June 2006.

Learn More about Pelham Bay Park
Learn More about the Bartow–Pell Mansion Museum

Back to Top

Van Cortlandt Park

Van Cortlandt Park, New York City’s fourth largest park, comprises more than a thousand acres atop the ridges and valleys of the northwest Bronx, and its forests and trails are perfect for enjoying fall colors. The park is home to much history, including the country’s first public golf course and the oldest house in the Bronx.

Around twenty thousand years ago, New York was buried beneath massive glaciers. When the ice receded, it left behind the characteristic sketch of Van Cortlandt Park—steep ridges, smooth hillsides, and open flats—and exposed its three major rock components: Fordham Gneiss, Inwood Dolomite, and Manhattan Schist. It took about seven thousand years for Paleo–Indians to arrive in this area, following mastodon, giant beaver, and caribou across North America. By 1000 AD, Woodland Indians known as the Lenape began permanent settlements from lower New York State through Delaware. The Wiechquaskeck Lenapes occupied this site when, in 1639, the Dutch East India Company brought the first Europeans to settle in the Bronx. In 1646, Dutchman Adriaen Van Der Donck (1620–1655) became the first single owner of what is now Van Cortlandt Park. His vast estate “de Jonkeerslandt” gave Yonkers its name. The land passed through several families, each gradually developing it into viable farmland and a working plantation. During the 1690s, the 16–acre lake was created when Tibbetts Brook was dammed to power a gristmill.

The Van Cortlandt name was first associated with the tract of land bounded by modern Yonkers City Line between Broadway, Jerome Avenue, and Van Cortlandt Park East in 1694, when Jacobus Van Cortlandt (1658–1739) bought 76 acres of property around the site of the Van Cortlandt Mansion. Over a 38–year period, Jacobus, twice mayor of New York City (1710–11 and 1719–20), systematically purchased the entire area of the present–day park, developing it into a productive grain growing and milling operation. The family lived on and farmed the land until 1888 when the city purchased the estate, and the land became the nucleus of Van Cortlandt Park. The Mansion was built in 1748 by his son, Frederick Van Cortlandt, whose family occupied the land until 1888. Frederick also established the family burial plot on Vault Hill where, at the onset of the American Revolution, City Clerk Augustus Van Cortlandt hid the city records from the British Army. Although the City of New York acquired Van Cortlandt Park in 1888, it did not name it in honor of its long–time residents until 1913. Van Cortlandt Mansion was designated an official New York City landmark in 1975.

The first municipal golf course in the country opened in Van Cortlandt Park in 1895; a second golf course, the Mosholu Golf Course, opened in 1914. By a special act of the New York State Legislature, the Van Cortlandt Mansion was leased by City of New York to the Society of Colonial Dames and the historic house opened as a museum in 1897. The Parade Ground was created in 1901, and the National Guard used it for training exercises until the end of World War I. In 1906, The Bronx Chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution dedicated a cairn of stones as a memorial to Chief Daniel Nimham, his son Captain Abraham Nimham, and as many as 14 other Stockbridge Indians who were slain there during the Revolutionary War.

Fall Foliage Walks in Van Cortlandt Park

Old Croton Aqueduct Trail: The trail, which follows the remnants of the 41–mile–long Croton Aqueduct, runs north–south through the middle of the park and features a native hardwood (oak–hickory) forest. The Croton Aqueduct system stands out as one of New York City’s major early public works projects. Completed in 1837, the Croton system brought water from Westchester County to a reservoir on the site now occupied by the main branch of the New York Public Library at 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan. Earth berms along the trail show where the old water delivery system ran.

Putnam Trail: A native hardwood (oak–hickory) forest surrounds this former railroad route, which operated in the park into the 1980s. The Putnam Railroad Line was established in 1881 to serve Brewster, New York, and points north. Two tracks of the New York Central Railroad’s Putnam Division once ran here (look for the double wide railroad bridge) and a spur of this line provided a quick trip northwest through the park to Yonkers’ Getty Square from 1888 until 1943. The line carried passengers and freight between High Bridge in the Bronx and Brewster, New York until 1958. Freight continued to be hauled on these tracks occasionally until 1981. What remains of the Van Cortlandt Station can still be seen just south of the lake. A mysterious element along the trail is also related to trains: just off the Parade Ground are 13 stone pillars standing in the woods. The New York Central Railroad placed the different types of stone here to determine which would be most durable for use as the façade of Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan. They chose the stone that was the cheapest to transport along their rail lines: Indiana limestone (the two pillars on the far right, when you visit).

John Kieran Trail: This trail runs through a native hardwood (oak–hickory) forest and features views of Van Cortlandt Lake. John Kieran (1892–1981) was a writer and amateur naturalist who focused his attention on the swamps and woods of Van Cortlandt Park. The Bronx–born Kieran began his career as a sportswriter for The New York Times, wrote for various other New York City papers during his long career, and received the John Burroughs Medal in 1960 for his A Natural History of New York City. The John Keiran Nature Trail, established in 1987, leads visitors through some of the park’s most scenic natural highlights, beginning with Van Cortlandt Lake, which was created during the 1690s when Tibbetts Brook was dammed to power a gristmill. During the American Revolution (1775–1783), Van Cortlandt’s mills ground grain and cut lumber for both the Americans and the British, depending on who controlled the region. In the early 1800s, new mills were built here, and local corn farmers continued to use them through the end of the century.

Finally, Muir Trail, established in 1997 and the only east–west trail in the park, affords one the opportunity to see many parts of the park’s native hardwood oak–hickory forest. It traverses Old Croton Aqueduct Trail and is named for renowned naturalist John Muir. Enjoy the red colors of the oaks and the golden colors of the hickory trees.

Learn More about Van Cortlandt Park
Learn More about the Van Cortlandt House Museum
Take the John Muir Nature Trail Virtual Tour

Back to Top

Though the borough with the least percentage of parkland, Brooklyn is not lacking in scenic spots from old growth forests to landscaped vistas, in which to view the colorful palette of autumn.

Fort Greene Park

One of Brooklyn’s most venerable open spaces, and its oldest major park, Fort Greene is the site of some of the most spectacular tree specimens, and the vantage point from its apex at the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument affords great views of the changing leaves and the city beyond.

While editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, poet Walt Whitman advocated for a park at this site—home to Fort Putnam in the Revolutionary War—and his dream came to fruition in 1847, when the site was set aside by the state legislature for what was then known as Washington Park. Initial improvements were completed by 1850. A subsequent design in 1867 by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux (also co–designers of Central and Prospect Parks) gave it much of the arboreal character of the modern park. Also at that time Olmsted and Vaux made plans for a temporary crypt and monument to the prisoners of war who had perished nearby about British gallery ships during the Revolutionary War. In 1908 this was replaced by the massive classically–styled Prison Ship Martyr’s Monument designed by architect Stanford White.

A 1930s rehabilitation of the park under the direction of chief consulting landscape architect Gilmore Clarke introduced new park play spaces, as well replanting of trees and the introduction of new species.

Today the autumnal color of the park can be traced to the two distinct landscape eras of the park. Massive London planes trees, oaks, elms, and osage orange trees from the 19th century plan—slustered throughout the park, especially on its hillsides— contrast with a glorious stand of mature gingkos whose yellow–green leaves blaze as brightly as the beacon at the top of the Martyrs Monument which they surround.

Owl’s Head Park

This verdant park, a veritable arboretum, is distinguished by its splendid trees and views of New York Harbor. The land was deeded to the City in the 1920s by a wealthy manufacturer Eliphlet W. Bliss, who maintained an estate here. The park has been renovated on several occasions, first during the era of Parks Commissioner Robert Moses (1934–1960), as well as in the modern era. A large and diverse collection of established trees—including colorful oaks, maples, beeches and tulip poplars—make this an ideal venue for a fall foliage stroll.

Prospect Park

Many landscape historians consider Prospect Park the pinnacle of the designs of Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux (who also designed Central Park and Fort Greene Park, among several projects on which they collaborated). Their park design dating to the 1860s is a rich palette of varied landscape and vistas from woodland to pastoral. Visitors to the park during autumn will not be lacking for a variety of thrilling fall foliage experiences.

At the Long Meadow—at nearly a mile long, the longest unimpeded greensward in an American urban park—the rolling lawns are punctuated by well established trees occasionally dotting the meadow and defining its perimeter. At the areas known as the Lullwater and the Peninsula, a portion of land that juts into the Lake, visitors are treated to open vistas of great color, where native and exotic tree species weave a tapestry of hues. At the heart of the park is the Ravine, where the borough’s last vestiges of old–growth forest combine with a designed woodland reminiscent of the Adirondacks. A stroll through this portion of the park grants views of fall foliage outbursts from native hardwoods, coupled with the asesthetically pleasing experience of meandering paths and artfully placed rustic boulders.

Highbridge Park

The trail that runs along the high ridge above the Harlem River Drive for the length of Highbridge Park from 155th Street to Dyckman Street is another fall highlight. The trail passes the landmarked High Bridge and High Bridge Water Tower, which were part of the Old Croton Aqueduct system that also ran through Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. One of Manhattan’s most picturesque landmarks, the water tower has looked over old High Bridge and the Harlem River valley since 1872. The city’s oldest standing bridge (1848), the High Bridge was built to carry the Old Croton Aqueduct over the Harlem River.

The High Bridge was once part of the first reliable and uninterrupted water supply system in New York City. As the City was devastated by fire and disease in 1830s, the inadequacy of the water system of wells–and–cisterns became apparent. Numerous corrective measures were examined, but in the final analysis only the Croton River, located in northern Westchester County, was found to be sufficient in quantity and quality to serve the needs of the City. The delivery system was begun in 1837 and completed in 1848.

The Old Croton Aqueduct was the first of its kind ever constructed in the United States. The innovative system used a gravity feed, running 41 miles into New York City through an enclosed masonry structure crossing ridges, valleys, and rivers. The High Bridge soars 138 feet above the 620 foot–wide Harlem River, with a total length of 1450 feet. The bridge was designed with a pedestrian walkway atop the Aqueduct and was not used for vehicular traffic. In the 1920s, the bridge’s center masonry arches were declared a hazard to navigation and replaced by a single steel span. Although it is closed to all pedestrian traffic today, plans are underway to renovate and reopen the span, reconnecting the two neighborhoods that the bridge spans.

Learn More about Highbridge Park
Learn More about the High Bridge & Tower
Take the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail Virtual Tour

Back to Top

Inwood Hill Park

Numerous trails wind through the last remaining naturally occurring native hardwood (oak–hickory) forest on Manhattan Island in Inwood Hill Park. In fact, Inwood Hill Park is a living piece of old New York. Evidence of its prehistoric roots exists as dramatic caves, valleys, and ridges left as the result of shifting glaciers; evidence of its uninhabited state afterward remains as its forest and salt marsh (the last natural one in Manhattan); evidence of its use by Native Americans in the 17th century continues to be discovered. Much has occurred on the land that now composes Inwood Hill Park since the arrival of European colonists in the 17th and 18th centuries, but luckily, most of the park was largely untouched by the wars and development that took place.

Through the 17th century, Native Americans known as the Lenape (Delawares) inhabited the area. There is evidence of a main encampment along the eastern edge of the park, and the Lenape relied on both the Hudson and Harlem Rivers as sources for food. Artifacts and the remains of old campfires were found in Inwood’s rock shelters, suggesting their use for shelter and temporary living quarters.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, colonists from Europe settled and farmed here. During the Revolutionary War, American forces built a five–sided earthwork fort (known as Fort Cock or Fort Cox) in the northwestern corner of the park. It fell to British and Hessian troops in November 1776 and was held until the war ended in 1783. After the Revolutionary War, families returned to the area to resume farming.

In the 1800s much of present–day Inwood Hill Park contained country homes and philanthropic institutions. There was a charity house for women, and a free public library (later the Dyckman Institute) was formed. The Straus family (who owned Macy’s) enjoyed a country estate in Inwood; its foundation is still present. ’Isidor and Ida Straus lost their lives on the S.S. Titanic’s maiden voyage.) When the Department of Parks bought land for the park in 1916, the salt marsh was saved and landscaped; a portion of the marsh was later landfilled. The buildings on the property were demolished. During the Depression, the City employed WPA workers to build many of the roads and trails of Inwood Hill Park.

In 1954, the Peter Minuit Post of the American Legion dedicated a plaque at the southwest corner of the ballfield (at 214th Street) to mark the location of a historic tulip tree and a legendary real estate transaction. A living link with the local Indians who resided in the area, the tree stood on the site for 280 years until its death in 1938. The marker also honors Peter Minuit’s reputed purchase of Manhattan from the Lenape in 1626. The celebrated sale has also been linked to sites in Lower Manhattan.

Many places in Inwood Hill Park became overrun by invasive Norway maple trees, which had killed the groundcover layer and suppressed native tree regeneration. In the early 2000s, NRG’s Forest Restoration Team, working with the Urban Forest and Education Program, removed many of the Norway maples and replaced them with Tulip poplar trees, whose leaves turn bright yellow in the fall.

Learn More about Inwood Hill Park

Back to Top

Alley Pond Park

Numerous trails wind through native hardwood (oak–hickory) forest and the kettle ponds of Alley Pond Park. The park itself, the second largest in Queens, offers glimpses into New York’s geologic past, its colonial history, and its current conservation efforts.

The site is named for The Alley, an 18th century commercial and manufacturing center formerly located here. The origin of that center’s name is the subject of some debate. One theory is that “alley” refers to the shape of the glacier’made valley. Another holds that colonial travelers, who passed through the valley to Brooklyn, en route to the Manhattan ferries, named it “the alley.” The well–traveled passage is believed to have been the route George Washington (1732–1799) took while touring Long Island in 1790 (a marker at 233rd Street near the entrance to the Cross Island Expressway commemorates Washington’s supposed route).

The native Mattinecock once inhabited the area around Alley Pond Park, attracted by the shellfish in Little Neck Bay. In 1673, King Charles I of England gave a 600–acre land grant to Thomas Foster, who built a stone cottage close to modern–day Northern Boulevard. Two other Englishmen, Thomas Hicks and James Hedges, built mills that harnessed water flowing into Alley Creek. Although the area supported light industry, it stayed essentially rural throughout the 19th century and attracted residents with its natural beauty.

William K. Vanderbilt, Jr.’s (1878–1944) privately run Long Island Motor Parkway was built through the area in 1908, a harbinger of the age of automobile travel that would continue to shape the park through the 20th century. The Parkway was one of the first concrete roads in the nation, the first highway to use bridges and overpasses and the first high–speed route from Queens to Suffolk County. Vanderbilt, the great–grandson of the famous railroad developer Cornelius Vanderbilt (1794–1877), entered the family business, but became a serious devotee of a brand–new mode of high–velocity transportation: the automobile. After two years of organizing his own automobile race, the Vanderbilt Cup (1904–1910), over narrow local roads, Vanderbilt decided to build a new, limited–access landscaped parkway between Queens and Riverhead. In 1906, along with other financiers, corporation heads, and car manufacturers, Vanderbilt formed the Long Island Motor Parkway Corporation. The first ten–mile stretch of the Parkway opened in 1908. By World War I (1914–1918), the completed 48–mile, privately owned Parkway was open to the public as a toll road. It was used primarily by New York City socialites travelling to their summer estates on Long Island. After the dawn of Prohibition in 1920, the toll road acquired the nickname Rumrunner's Road, because bootleggers often used it to outrun the police. Competition from a newly expanded public highway system put the parkway out of business in 1938, and the property was donated to the City as parkland. Today the parkway provides a tree–lined path for walkers, joggers, and bicycle riders.

Alley Pond Park was almost totally infested with non–native invasive vines and shrubs such as multiflora rose and oriental bittersweet. The Urban Forest and Education Program (UFEP) began working on the site in 1991 and, by the time the project ended in 1996, had cleared 14 acres. NRG’s Forest Restoration Team began restoring native species at the site in 1998, going on to plant more than 30,000 native trees and shrubs, like native oaks and maples.

Oakland Lake

Oakland Lake is a 15,000–year–old spring–fed glacial kettle pond located in Alley Pond Park. The lake, once known as Mill Pond, became known as Oakland Lake, named for the 19th century estate on this site called “The Oaks” for the many oak trees in the area.

Oakland Lake is fed by underground springs and a ravine, and at one time it was speculated that the lake was 600 feet deep and had a massive underground river leading to nearby Little Neck Bay. In 1969, a diving expedition went in search of the lake bottom, undergoing elaborate emergency prevention measures in case the alleged river’s current was too strong. However, the dive proved that the lake was only approximately 20 feet deep and did not lead to an underground river as legend claimed.

The lake was part of the estate of John Hicks, who first settled the land in 1645 as a recipient of one of the original Dutch land grants. In the 19th century, the lake was acquired by the Village of Flushing as a municipal water source and transferred to the City’s Department of Water Supply, Gas and Electricity after the consolidation of the five boroughs in 1898. A pumping station, called the Bayside Pumping Station, was built on the property. The water source stayed in use until the City began relying on upstate reservoirs and aqueducts after consolidation, though some local residents claimed that people drank from the lakeside springs as recently as the 1950s. Title to the lake was transferred to Parks in 1934.

Although part of the original forest remains, in 1987 Parks spent nearly $1 million to restore Oakland Lake to its natural state, planting new tulip, beech, and oak trees and adding shrubs to rebuild the depleted forest around the lake, and began a program to reduce erosion around the lake’s shores.

Learn More about Alley Pond Park

Back to Top

Cunningham Park

Many trails wind through native hardwood (oak–hickory) forest in the rolling terrain of Cunningham Park. Archaeological evidence indicates that Native Americans, ancestors of the Mattinecocks, were the first people to settle in the area, arriving about 7,000 years ago. They fished, hunted, and later farmed near the shores of Little Neck and Flushing Bays. Dutch colonists arrived in the area in the early 1600s and were followed by the English. During the American Revolution, British soldiers occupied the area and clear–cut most of the native forests for firewood. The rural landscape of eastern Queens remained largely intact until the economic boom and population explosion of the first decades of the 20th century.

The Long Island Motor Parkway also ran through parts of Cunningham Park, which was originally called Hillside Park until it was renamed in 1934 for City Comptroller W. Arthur Cunningham (1894–1934) who served during Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia’s tenure as mayor.

Learn More about Cunningham Park

Back to Top

Forest Park

The trails that wind through the native hardwood (oak–hickory)forest of Forest Park run through land that was inhabited by the Rockaway, Lenape, and Delaware Native Americans until the Dutch West India Company settled the area in 1635. Forest Park, today the largest continuous oak forest in Queens, was occupied by various landowners until the late 19th century, when Brooklyn officials began eyeing the land for a large public park. The Brooklyn Parks Department purchased the first parcel of what was then known as Brooklyn Forest Park in 1895. (The Brooklyn Parks Department managed Forest Park and all of Queens’ parks until an independent Queens Parks Department was established in 1911.)

Forest Park contains many different species of old growth trees, including the Northern red oak, Scarlet oak, Tulip poplar, shagbark hickory, White oak, and Wild black cherry. Several trees here are more than 150 years old and create a canopy with an under–layer of Dogwood, Virginia creeper, Sassafras and Corktree. Fall colors will range from deep red (oak trees) to bright yellow (Tulip poplar trees). The pine trees (which do not change color in the fall) in Forest Park’s Pine Grove were planted in 1914, after a fungus infected and killed 15,000 chestnut trees in Forest Park in 1912.

Frederick Law Olmsted (1822–1903) surveyed the park and designed the Forest Park Drive. As Olmsted noted in 1895, the park is bisected by several transportation arteries; two lines of the Long Island Rail Road, the Montauk Line and the Rockaway Line, ran through the land before Forest Park was acquired, though only the Montauk Line still operates today.

Learn More about Forest Park

Back to Top

Greenbelt

Located in central Staten Island, the Greenbelt has some 35 miles of walking trails running along the crest of the Serpentine Ridge and winding through one of the last undisturbed forests in the city. Along its woodland paths are mature stands of oak, hickory, beech, maple, sweetgum, and tulip trees, as well as rare species of fern. The Greenbelt also boasts glacial ponds and a 16–acre lake, one of the finest natural watersheds in New York City, offering refuge to a variety of small animals.

The Greenbelt has several historic sites. The remains of the “Heyerdahl House” in Bucks Hollow just off the Red Trail are a link to Staten Island’s 19th century past. The landmarked New York City Farm Colony was built on land acquired by Richmond County in 1829 and was used as the Richmond County Poor Farm until 1898 when the city was consolidated, at which point it became the New York City Farm Colony and was used as an institution for the indigent poor. Residents there worked to provide food for themselves and the residents of other city institutions. In 1915, the Farm Colony was merged with the Sea View Hospital directly across the street and became known as Sea View Farms. The facility was closed in 1975, and in 1985 the site was designated a city landmark as the New York City Farm Colony – Sea View Hospital Historic District. The morgue facility was readapted to become the Bloodroot Valley Recreation Center in 2007. A man–made mountain in High Rock Park, dubbed “Moses Mountain,” was built out of excavated debris from the construction of the aborted Richmond Parkway, which had it been completed in the 1960s, would have cut through the center of the Greenbelt. Finally, at the edge of the Greenbelt lies Richmondtown Restoration, the historic center of Staten Island during its early years, which has been resurrected as a spot for rescued historic structures from around the borough and a holding place for interpretive programs.

Learn More about the Greenbelt

Back to Top

Clove Lakes Park

Clove Lakes Park, another great fall spot, derives its name from the Dutch word “kloven,” meaning “cleft.” The particular cleft in question is the valley and brook between Emerson and Grymes Hills. This valley was deepened by the glacier 20,000 years ago. The brook which ran through the valley originated in Clove Swamp and ran to the Kill Van Kull. The damming of this brook over the years created the different lakes and ponds in the area.

In pre–colonial and colonial days, Native Americans used a path adjacent to the stream as a route to the Kull. By 1683, Governor Thomas Dongan owned many acres in the northern section of Staten Island where he hunted bears. He built several dams across Clove Brook, and the resulting water pressure was used by local mills to grind grain and saw wood. After Dongan returned to England he left his property to his sons, one of whom continued to sell off land to pay for his heavy alcohol habit. A subsequent owner, Abraham Britton, built a dam and a grist mill at the east end of Britton’s Pond in 1825. The body of water created by the dam was called Clove Lake.

In 1863, Erastus Brooks, the newspaper publisher, established a large estate and residence in West Brighton at the corner of what is now Forest Avenue and Clove Road. He built a dam which created Brooks Pond. The Staten Island Water Company, one of the local companies supplying water in the 19th and early 20th centuries, bought the rights to use the water from this dam. The two other ponds created by different dams were Martling’s and Schoenian’s. Martling’s Pond was the site of an ice house in the mid–19th century; Schoenian’s Pond is no longer in existence.

Staten Islanders considered making this area a park as early as 1897, one year before the consolidation of New York City. By that time, the grist mill had burned down, and the ice house had suffered numerous fires. The dams dividing the three lakes were unsafe and were washed out several times. Leading Islanders William T. Davis, Charles Leng, and Frederick Law Olmsted spoke out for the need to preserve this area’s natural beauty. In 1921 and 1923, the land around and including Crystal Lake and Brooks Dam was acquired as a city park. Major construction in Clove Lakes Park did not get underway until the early 1930s.

The northwest section of the park is home to Staten Island’s largest living thing, a tulip tree. One hundred and seven feet tall and at least three hundred years old, this tree survived the extensive logging and clearing which occurred when the settlers came. Tulip trees are known for their straight trunks from which Native Americans carved canoes.

Learn More about Clove Lakes Park

Back to Top