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Commissioner reports are great but remember they are the parks’ slant on things.
Robert Caro’s THE POWER BROKER does a number on Moses. Text includes input by various groups re the introduction of highways. The New York Times has articles by Moses which give his point of view and also editorial pieces opposing highway construction. If you can get a library copy of <span style=”text-decoration: underline;”>Urban Ornithology</span> by Paul Buckley, much of park history is given including how the land was divided/upset. The book is pricey and is for serious birders but has comment, references and maps that should be helpful to you.
There’s a lot on the web about the Filtration Plant Van Cortlandt Park – a search will bring you to a voluminous document.
Good luck!
A few more tidbits >
When the subject of the transfer of graves came up, a docent at the Van Cortlandt House indicated by a shake of his head that there was no re-interment.
A good while ago, I inquired about this via email to Woodlawn and did not get a response but I wasn’t very persistent. You may have better luck.In a letter to the New York Times (1962), the writer criticized the Parks Dept. for not caring for the Vault area. Charlotte Van Cortlandt responded (10/2/1962) that after Parks took over the area, the Van Cortlandts remained sole caretakers of the Vault. Charlotte lamented that much effort to keep the area clean and green too quickly became trampled on. Here’s the link which I just tried but could not access.
http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=9E0DE0D6103EE43BBC4053DFB6678389679EDE
Charlotte died 2/14/1972 and perhaps she was the last one to accept a caretaker’s role?
Would you continue to care for the area if ancestors were no longer there?
Perhaps some but not all were re-interred at Woodlawn?Not to say for sure that there weren’t graves moved and not marked but looking at the dates on the present stones in Woodlawn, the first is that of Charlotte Amelia Bayley, wife of Augustus Van Cortlandt and Daughter of Robert Henry Bunch 1826-1890.
Of interest to some is that the first Charlotte Amelia Bayley (1759 – 1805) was buried at the Vault. She was the step-mother of American Saint Elizabeth Bayley Seton, founder of the Sisters of Charity. Charlotte and Elizabeth’s father had separated. Charlotte was the sister of Catherine Amelia Barclay Van Cortlandt who was the second wife of Augustus Van Cortlandt (1728-1833) – which explains the Bayley vaults.
Of interest >
From John McNamara’s History in Asphalt, p 113 of Fourth Revised Edition, 2010
INDIAN ROAD. This is a private road into the Former “Fieldston” estate owned by Major Joseph Delafield,who gave it the name. In the 19th century, social clubs, athletic teams and political organizations
liked to adopt Indian names, and Squire Delafield indulged in the fancy.Sorry not to be able to help but somewhere someone says that the house was mistakenly attributed to van der Donck and could have been one belonging to Tippett. I’ll try to find the reference because the site I’m thinking of gives a reason to back this up (material that would not have been available during Donck’s time?) That being said, so much of what is written is repeated as fact when that is not necessarily so. All makes for interesting reading though.
