A visit to Vault Hill
Van Cortlandt Park, a gorgeous NYC park located in the Bronx, was once the property of the Van Cortlandts: a well-to-do Dutch family who lived on and farmed the land from 1694 to 1888. Some of them are still there.
Van Cortlandt Park's history as a plantation actually begins in 1646, when Adriaen Van Der Donck bought a large piece of land there. Over the years, his descendants built up a successful farm, even creating a lake by damming the brook to power a new gristmill.
The Van Cortlands arrived on the scene in 1694 when Jacobus Van Cortlandt bought the property. In 1748, his son Frederick built a mansion (which still stands) and moved his family into it. They lived there until about 1888.
Today, you can still tour the mansion, and I highly recommend it, as it's a beautiful building that, from the outside and at least one really creepy room on the inside, practically screams "I'm haunted."
It was Frederick who created the family burial vault, which also still stands, though most of the monuments have been removed due to graffiti.
In fact, there's a pretty good story about the vault. In 1776, with British forces occupying New York, Augustus Van Cortlandt--City Clerk at the time--had to find a safe place to hide the city records. And where safer than a family burial vault? He wrote to his cousin John Jay (yes, that John Jay: the Governor of New York and later the first U.S. Chief Justice) that he'd hidden the records in Vault Hill. And they remained hidden there for almost a year.
Today, the vault is a lonely, tree-shaded spot with massive stone gateposts and a forbidding black wrought iron fence. I would have loved to have seen the place before it was looted and graffitied, but you can't have it all.
On my last visit, the vault was surrounded by young green trees and speckled sunlight. Though I could hear the low murmur of a few hikers somewhere nearby, the woods hid them from my sight. As I turned to leave, I noticed a single golden rose growing in the forest, all alone. It was a better memorial than any weathered old gravestone could ever be.
I can't wrap up this post without mentioning that there is another burial plot in Van Cortlandt Park: the unmarked ground where the family's enslaved people were buried. While we don't know the exact locations of their graves, there is a memorial plaque today, and last time I visited, the spot was covered in beautiful white and purple flowers.
Kommentare