Pelham Bay Park | |
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Northern tip of Hunter Island in Pelham Bay Park
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Location within New York City
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Type | Municipal |
Location | The Bronx, New York, USA |
Coordinates | 40°51′56″N 73°48′30″W / 40.86556°N 73.80833°WCoordinates: 40°51′56″N 73°48′30″W / 40.86556°N 73.80833°W |
Area | 2,772 acres (1,122 ha) |
Created | 1888 |
Operated by | New York City Department of Parks and Recreation |
Public transit access |
Subway: Pelham Bay Park ( ) MTA New York City Bus: Bx29 Bee-Line Bus: 45 |
Pelham Bay Park is a public park located in the northeast corner of the New York City borough of the Bronx and extending partially into Westchester County. It is, at 2,772 acres (1,122 ha), the largest public park in New York City. The section of the park within New York City's borders is more than three times the size of Manhattan's Central Park. The park is operated by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation.
Anne Hutchinson's short-lived dissident colony, along with a number of other unsuccessful settlements, was located in what is now the park's land. The colony, though English, was part of New Netherland under Dutch authority; it was destroyed in 1643 by a Siwanoy attack in reprisal for the unrelated massacres carried out under Willem Kieft's direction of the Dutch West India Company's New Amsterdam colony. In 1654 an Englishman named Thomas Pell purchased 50,000 acres (200 km²) from the Siwanoy, land which would become known as Pelham Manor after Charles II's 1666 charter.
During the American Revolutionary War, the land was a buffer between British-held New York City and rebel-held Westchester. As such it was the site of the Battle of Pell's Point, where Massachusetts militia hiding behind stone walls (still visible at one of the park's golf courses) stopped a British advance.