Van Cortlandt Park, the Bronx: 1,146 Acres, Public Golf and a 1748 House

The Van Cortlandt House stands in the southwestern corner of the park, near the Riverdale neighborhood: a 2½-story Georgian building with a rubblestone facade, L-shaped, with wings extending along the south and east sides. It is the oldest known surviving house in the Bronx. Keystones above its windows are carved as grotesque masks, several fireplaces are set with Dutch tiles, and a U-shaped stairway in the front hall carries turned balusters. It has been open to the public as a museum since May 28, 1897, and is operated by the National Society of Colonial Dames in the State of New York.

The Van Cortlandt Golf Course and the Mosholu Golf Course sit inside the park, both run by NYC Parks. The Van Cortlandt Golf Course opened on July 6, 1895 as a nine-hole course, expanded to eighteen holes in 1899, and its clubhouse dates to 1902; it is the oldest public golf course in the United States and is frequently called Vanny or Vannie. The park's own article credits Tom Bendelow, nicknamed the "Johnny Appleseed of Golf", with expanding it to 18 holes, and records a renovation in 2016. The clubhouse locker room was a filming location for the 1987 film Wall Street. Mosholu Golf Course was built in 1914, originally designed as an eighteen-hole course and now nine due to road construction; its driving range and putting green also function as a water treatment plant, and it is adjacent to the Woodlawn station on the IRT Jerome Avenue Line. Beneath that driving range, 160 feet underground, is the Croton Water Filtration Plant, which measures 830 by 550 feet — larger than Yankee Stadium — and processes up to 320 million gallons a day.

The Putnam Trail is 1.5 miles and rated easy, following the former New York and Putnam Railroad railbed and connecting to the South County Trailway; it was reconstructed in 2019 and 2020. The Old Croton Aqueduct Trail runs 1.1 miles and is rated easy to moderate; the Old Croton Trail enters New York City on the eastern side of Van Cortlandt Park. The John Kieran Nature Trail, 1.25 miles and rated easy, opened in 1987 and passes 13 stone pillars tested for the facade of Grand Central Terminal. The John Muir Trail, 1.5 miles and rated moderate, was established in 1997 and is the park's only east–west trail, connecting the three northern forested areas. The Cass Gallagher Nature Trail, 1.4 miles and rated moderate to difficult, is the hardest trail in the park: a loop through the rocky forests of the park's northwestern portion, given its current name in 1984 and repeatedly crossing a 3-mile cross-country trail.

Vault Hill, the Van Cortlandt family burial ground, was created in 1749 and holds the remains of Frederick Van Cortlandt. The Parade Ground began as grain fields and was converted into a sprawling lawn, used by the National Guard for brigade practice and later for recreational facilities and concerts; it was restored with construction-mitigation funds from the Croton Water Filtration Plant project, which also paid for the Sachkerah Woods Playground at the park's southeast corner. Van Cortlandt Stadium was added in 1939 on the site of a former swamp, and a pool followed in 1970. In the northeast of the park is Indian Field, where the Stockbridge Militia was attacked in August 1778.

Jacobus Van Cortlandt purchased the land from John Barrett around 1691. In 1699 he dammed Tibbetts Brook to power a sawmill and gristmill, creating the mill pond that became Van Cortlandt Lake. Frederick Van Cortlandt began developing the Van Cortlandt House on the property in 1748. He died before the house was finished; his will, signed on October 2, 1749, indicated that the house was almost complete, and he bequeathed the estate to his son Jacobus (James) Van Cortlandt. A family burial ground was created in 1749, later to be known as Vault Hill, and Frederick was buried there.

The property was used during the American Revolution between 1776 and 1783, by both Patriot and British forces. The house served as Washington's headquarters after his troops were defeated in the 1776 Battle of Long Island; the British general William Howe made it his headquarters on November 13, 1776; Washington stayed there again before the Battle of White Plains and returned in 1781 and 1783. In 1781 he came back to strategize with Rochambeau while their troops waited on what is now the Parade Ground and Vault Hill. Augustus Van Cortlandt hid city records under Vault Hill to protect them during the war, turning them over to the new American government afterward.

In August 1778, at Indian Field in the northeast of the park, approximately one mile north of Kingsbridge, the Stockbridge Militia was attacked in a cavalry charge by the Queen's Rangers, a Loyalist unit commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Graves Simcoe. The militia was a Native American unit of Mohican, Wappinger, Munsee, Tunxis, Shawnee and Housatonic people serving the Continental Army under Jehoiaikim Mtohksin and Abraham Nimham. By most accounts roughly 40 Stockbridge Militia were killed, while the Queen's Rangers suffered 1 cavalryman killed and 3 wounded. Survivors were discharged by Washington's order in September 1778 and paid $1,000.

The family sold the property to the City of New York in 1888 and it was converted to public parkland; the golf course followed on July 6, 1895. Between the 1930s and 1955 Robert Moses directed construction of the Henry Hudson and Mosholu Parkways, fragmenting the park into six pieces. The 1975 New York City fiscal crisis caused much of the park to fall into disrepair. A "Van Cortlandt Park Master Plan 2034" was published in 2014.

Woodlawn, at Bainbridge Avenue and Jerome Avenue in Norwood, outside Woodlawn Cemetery, is the northern terminus of the IRT Jerome Avenue Line and is served by the 4 at all times. It opened on April 15, 1918, built by the Interborough Rapid Transit Company as part of the Dual Contracts, and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places following 2005 renovations for its ornamental concrete design. It is not ADA-accessible, and the MTA announced in July 2025 that it would install elevators there. Its connecting buses are the Bx16, Bx34, BxM4 and Bee-Line Routes 4, 20 and 21.

Van Cortlandt Park–242nd Street, at West 242nd Street and Broadway on the border of Fieldston and Kingsbridge, is the northern terminal of its line and is served exclusively by the 1; the next stop to the south is 238th Street. It opened on August 1, 1908 as part of the Contract 1 system, designed by Heins & LaFarge in Victorian Gothic style, and is the only elevated terminal station left in that style from Contract 1. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on March 30, 2005, reference #05000226. It is not ADA-accessible; an elevator contract was awarded in December 2023, with construction anticipated to complete in 2026. Its connecting buses are the Bx9, BxM3 and Bee-Line Routes 1, 2 and 3.

Bus routes serving the park are the Bx9, Bx10, Bx16 and Bx34; the BxM3 and BxM4 express routes; and Bee-Line Routes 1, 2, 3, 4, 20 and 21.

The New York and Putnam Railroad's main line once ran through the park. Its main-line passenger service ended on May 29, 1958, and the corridor is now the Putnam Trail; the skeletal remains of Van Cortlandt station and a milepost marker, Milepost 6, are still in the park.