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As we’ve been saying, over and over again, we need to start planning our travels again. This time, I’ll be delving more into the Van Cortlandt Park, and what you can do there.<\/p>\n
Having spent the better part of my elementary and teen years growing up on Broadway opposite Van Cortlandt Park in the northwestern portion of the Bronx, I hold onto many fond family memories. How easy it was just to cross the street and slide immediately into the grassy fields surrounded by woodsy rolling hills.<\/p>\n
My dresses would be returned to my mother with green stains from any given afternoon spent on Vault Hill, the Van Cortlandt family\u2019s original burial grounds. I can still hear my sister counting down for our hide-and-go-seek games and recall my first lessons in catching a ball during family picnics. For years I barely knew how steeped in history this oasis from the city was.<\/p>\n
\nThe land was purchased by Dutchman, Jacobus Van Cortlandt, back in 1694. His son built the family mansion in 1748. Now a museum, a national landmark, and the Bronx\u2019s oldest building, it is furnished to reflect the life of the 18th & 19th centuries. For a taste of New York in its earliest settlement days, spend an hour or two exploring the mansion and the surrounding grounds.<\/p>\n
Experience what George Washington did when he stayed there during the Revolutionary War (although the mansion was behind British lines) before he returned to New York City to do battle with the British Army.<\/p>\n