Pelham Bay Park
Park · Pelham Bay Park, New York
The largest public park in New York City, covering 2,772 acres (1,122 ha) with 13 miles (21 km) of shoreline at the western end of Long Island Sound — slightly more than three times the size of the 843-acre Central Park. It holds Orchard Beach, two golf courses, the Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum and 489 acres of wildlife sanctuary, and is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
History
The city acquired the land in 1887 and it officially became a park in 1888, paying $2,746,688 for land from multiple estates spread out over an excess of 1,700 acres; ownership passed to New York City in 1895 with the annexation of the Bronx east of the Bronx River. Before that the Siwanoy, the first Native American tribe to inhabit the Long Island Sound's northern shoreline, held the area: five sagamores deeded land here to Thomas Pell in 1654, signing near the site of the Bartow-Pell Mansion under the Treaty Oak, and the land became Pelham Manor after Charles II's charter of 1666. The Battle of Pell's Point was fought on Friday, October 18, 1776, in the Manor of Pelham, now the Bronx and Westchester County.
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More in Pelham Bay Park
- Pelham Bay & Split Rock Golf Courses · Attraction
- Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum · Museum
- Orchard Beach · Park