Fort Tryon Park and the Cloisters

Fort Tryon Park covers about 66.5 acres of rocky, wooded high ground in northwestern Manhattan, with long views across the Hudson River to the Palisades. The site holds the remains of a Revolutionary War outwork where Margaret Corbin made her stand, and a shell heap suggesting earlier Native American use. Early in the twentieth century only a few large estates occupied the land. John D. Rockefeller Jr. bought them, gave the park to the city, and kept about four acres for The Cloisters. Frederick Law Olmsted Jr. designed the landscape around the natural terrain, with pathways, terraces, gardens and a heather garden. The Cloisters, designed by Charles Collens and built between 1935 and 1938, serves as the park's focal point. It incorporates medieval cloisters, chapels and apses brought from France and Spain. Utilitarian ashlar structures built by the Parks Department in the 1930s complete the district.