page_title: Tibbetts Brook
section_title: Human development
hierarchical_section_title: Tibbetts Brook / History / Human development
caption_attribution_description: English: Outlet at the south end of Van Cortlandt Park Lake where it flows into the sewer.
context_page_description: Tibbetts Brook, originally Tippett's Brook or Tibbitt's Brook, is a stream in the southern portion of mainland New York, flowing north to south from the city of Yonkers in Westchester County into the borough of the Bronx within New York City. Originally emptying into Spuyten Duyvil Creek as part of the Harlem River system, the stream is now partially subterranean, ending above ground at the south end of Van Cortlandt Lake within Van Cortlandt Park. There it proceeds into city sewers, draining into either the northern end of the Harlem River or the Wards Island Water Pollution Control Plant. The brook provides significant watershed to both Van Cortlandt Park at its south end and Tibbetts Brook Park at its north end. There have been modern proposals to daylight the southern portion of the brook back onto the surface.
context_section_description: In the 1690s, Jacobus Van Cortlandt acquired property near Tibbetts Brook from his relative Frederick Philipse, located in modern Van Cortlandt Park. This area was called "George's Point", where the brook turned west towards Broadway. In 1699, Van Cortlandt dammed the stream in order to power a gristmill and sawmill, creating Van Cortlandt Lake as a mill pond in the process. By the 19th Century, the eastern stream was filled in, connecting Kingsbridge to the rest of the Bronx.
  From 1872 to 1880, the New York and Putnam Railroad was built along the Tibbetts Brook valley. The construction of the railroad altered the natural drainage pattern of the brook, leading new marshes to develop around it. In 1888, the New York City Parks Department acquired the land to create Van Cortlandt Park. The Parks Department began draining the brook wetlands for recreational areas, creating the park's parade ground in 1888 and the Van Cortlandt Golf Course in 1895.
   Between the late 1890s and the early 1910s, around the time the original course of Spuyten Duyvil Creek was filled in and replaced by the Harlem River Ship Canal, the double-arched Broadway sewer was constructed, as was the tunnel at the south end of Van Cortlandt Lake to funnel water from the brook into the sewer. The marshlands created by the brook and lake had drawn the ire of local residents and property owners, who believed them to be "unsightly and unsanitary". Of particular concern was the threat of the wetlands serving as breeding grounds for malaria-borne mosquitoes. The Broadway Outlet Sewer was completed in 1907.  In conjunction with the sewer project, from 1903 to 1911 the Parks Department completed a cleaning and improvement project for the Van Cortlandt Lake. This involved removing the original earthen dam and emptying the lake in order to dredge the lake bed to a lower depth. A new dam was installed to reform the lake. The drain pipe between the lake and Broadway sewer was constructed from 1911 to 1912. It was originally envisioned as cast-iron, but built using brick. Around this time, Tibbett Avenue was laid out and opened, while much of the marshland within the park and along the former river course was filled in.
  On June 25, 1927, Westchester County opened Tibbetts Brook Park near the northern end of the brook, on land previously confiscated from the Tippett estate. Much of the site had been a Yonkers city garbage dump located on the banks of the western brook tributary. The garbage and residential sewage seeped into the stream, which fed polluted water into Peckham's Lake. The lake had been used by residents as a swimming hole in spite of recommendations against it by health officials. The area immediately south of the lake had been a swamp which was a haven for mosquitoes. As part of the creation of the park, the original lake was filled in, while the swamp was dredged to form the current Tibbetts Lake. The brook, meanwhile, was diverted into a paved channel. The eastern tributary had been protected by fences and infrastructure from the nearby Old Croton Aqueduct. At the time the park was constructed, the southern portion of the Saw Mill River Parkway was built on top of the dump along the western tributary course.
  Between the 1930s and 1960s under the supervision of Robert Moses, several highways including the Henry Hudson, Saw Mill and Mosholu Parkways were constructed within Van Cortlandt Park, requiring Tibbetts Brook to be diverted into culverts under the roadways. The creation of the sewer at the south end of Van Cortlandt Lake and the construction of the highways induced siltation of the stream, leading to further creation of marshes. In addition, pollution from upstream and the highways, and spillover of chemicals used in the golf course led to the death of fish inhabiting the lake. In 1978, the fish population of the lake was restored.
  In 1979, four storm sewers along Midland Avenue in Yonkers (which forms the eastern boundary of Tibbetts Brook Park) were found to be illegally connected to the brook, pumping raw sewage into it which proceeded to enter
caption: The lake flows south into a drain pipe to the Broadway sewer
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