page_title: Fort Tryon Park
section_title: Site
hierarchical_section_title: Fort Tryon Park / History / Site
caption_attribution_description: Ft. Tryon Park near flagstaff, New York
context_page_description: Fort Tryon Park is a public park located in the Hudson Heights and Inwood neighborhoods of the borough of Manhattan in New York City. The 67-acre park is situated on a ridge in Upper Manhattan, close to the Hudson River to the west. It extends mostly from 192nd Street in the south to Riverside Drive in the north, and from Broadway in the east to the Henry Hudson Parkway in the west. The main entrance to the park is at Margaret Corbin Circle, at the intersection of Fort Washington Avenue and Cabrini Boulevard.
  The area was known by the local Lenape tribe as Chquaesgeck and by Dutch settlers as Lange Bergh. During the American Revolutionary War, the Battle of Fort Washington was fought at the site of the park. The area remained sparsely populated during the 19th century, but by the turn of the 20th century, it was the location of large country estates. Beginning in 1917, philanthropist John D. Rockefeller, Jr., bought up several of the estates to create Fort Tryon Park. He engaged the Olmsted Brothers firm to design the park and hired James W. Dawson to create the planting plan.
context_section_description: The northern portion of Manhattan was first known to be inhabited by the Wecquaesgeek tribe of Lenape Native Americans, who referred to the area around Fort Tryon Park as Chquaesgeck. When Dutch settlers inhabited the lower Hudson Valley in the early 17th century, they attempted to force the Native Americans out, and some of the Wecquaesgeeks continued to occupy the area. The tribe had moved out by 1669, but continued to hold onto their land claims until 1715. The Dutch referred to the park site as Lange Bergh (Long Hill), a name first given by Dutch settler Joost van Oblienus in 1691. At the time, Long Hill was a heavily wooded area that was part of the town of Harlem. As late as the 17th century, wild animals could be hunted on the northern portion of the hill, within the park's present site. In 1711, Harlem's political leaders decreed that a road be built through the area. When Harlem was subdivided the following year, the hill was split into multiple smaller lots.
  During the American Revolutionary War, the trees were cleared to make way for fortifications. At the time, Long Hill had been known as Mount Washington, while an outcropping in the center of the site was called Forest Hill. The latter was part of a series of fortifications that lined the steep cliff within the park site, which was known by the Americans as Fort Washington. The actual site of Fort Washington is less than a mile south at Bennett Park.  The park was an ancillary site of the Battle of Fort Washington, fought on November 16, 1776, between 2,900 American soldiers and 8,000 invading Hessian troops hired by Great Britain. Despite the American Continental Army's strategic position at the top of Long Hill, they were defeated after holding out for two hours. American soldier Margaret Corbin became the first woman to fight in the war and was injured during the battle; the southern entrance to the park bears her name. After the British victory, the outpost on Forest Hill was named after Sir William Tryon, the last British Governor of the Province of New York. The British made improvements to Fort Tryon, using it as Upper Manhattan's primary defensive post, before peacefully withdrawing from Manhattan in 1783. The Tryon name persisted even after the British withdrawal, even as many other colonial place names were being expunged of their British influence.
  As New York City expanded and prospered following the end of the Revolutionary War, the land comprising the park remained undeveloped, except for a few country estates. The first of these was created by Dr. Samuel Watkins, founder of Watkins Glen, who took ownership of multiple plots in 1818. Ownership of the Watkins estate passed to Lucius Chittenden, a merchant originally from New Orleans, in 1844. The Chittenden family owned the land until 1871. Part of the estate was sold in 1855 to August C. Richards, who built a Gothic-style stone castle called "Woodcliff", designed by Alexander Jackson Davis. Woodcliff was subsequently used as a summer home by General Daniel Butterfield, Boss Tweed, Alexander Turney Stewart, and William Libbey, whereupon it became known as "Libby Castle". Another portion of the Chittenden site was developed by William C. Muschenheim, later an operator of the Hotel Astor, who built an estate called "Fort Tryon Terrace". In contrast with the elaborate estates at the top of Fort Tryon, the plateau to the east was known as "Poverty Hollow" by 1851.
  Between 1901 and 1905, C. K. G. Billings combined Chittenden's, Muschenheim's, and Libbey's properties into a single estate. On the site, he built "Tryon Hall", a Châteauesque-style mansion with a swimming pool, horse stables, a formal garden, pergolas, and a winding 2,000-foot-long (610 m) driveway leading from Riverside Drive. The mansion also contained boat docks on the Hudson River and a garage to house his collection of 13 automobiles. Billings lived at Tryon Hall until 1915. Immediately to the north were Abbey Inn, a summer residence built on land that Willam Henry Hays had purchased in 1842, and another estate that Walter S. Sheafer
caption: Linden Terrace, located on the site of Fort Tryon
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