Seton Falls Park

Waterfalls? In New York City? Seton Falls Park beckoned, so I climbed on a No. 5 train and rode it to the last stop in the Bronx to investigate.

It was a long haul, especially on a weekend when the No. 5 was really the No. 2 and vice versa (or something). But after a frustrating 10-minute pause just before the final station at Eastchester-Dyre Ave., I climbed down from the platform onto East 233rd Street in Eastchester – the Bronx neighborhood, not the identically named town in Westchester County to the north.

Hiking west a few blocks, I reached the northeast corner of the park, where the entryway looked promising.

Seton Falls Park is a squarish 35-acre tract described by the Parks Department website as "a woodland, wetland, and bird sanctuary" that "derives its name from the prominent waterfalls built in the park by the Seton family." I wondered how "prominent" the waterfalls could be.

Heading in from the northeast, the paved path ends at a circle. Along the way I saw the first of numerous trail-marker boulders, which as far as I know are unique among NYC's parks.

I didn't see the two dirt paths that extend from the circle, they're so overgrown; I came back to find them later, after I'd studied the map.

You can see how I missed this path the first time.

I went back out to East 233rd Street and continued west to the park's northwest corner, which promised a playground (where, on this beautiful weekend afternoon, finding people seemed likely) and the famous falls.

At the moment, the playground was just as deserted as those nearly impassable trails I'd failed to spot.

I won't hold you in suspense. I give you: Seton Falls.

A detail:

The best-known member of the Seton family is Saint Elizabeth Seton (1774-1821), founder of the American Sisters of Charity, and the first native-born American citizen to be canonized by the Roman Catholic Church. Many people, though – or at least one person (me) – know the Seton name from Seton Hall University, a Catholic institution in New Jersey founded in 1856 by Elizabeth's nephew James Roosevelt Bayley, the Bishop of Newark. This cousin of Theodore Roosevelt named the school in honor of his sainted aunt.

Coincidentally (I think), another Roosevelt, also named James, once owned the property that now includes Seton Hall Park. Saint Elizabeth's son William married into the family that owned it next, one of whose projects was to dam Rattlesnake Creek, which ran through the tract, thus creating the modest waterfalls we see today.

In the early 20th century the city acquired much of the onetime estate, intending to build a hospital for patients with contagious diseases. Years of community opposition to that plan led to the birth of Seton Falls Park.

You may be wondering: Here we are at Rattlesnake Creek; what happened to the rattlesnakes?

Probably sometime around 1900, the last rattlesnake left town, joining the other former residents, the Siwanoy Indians, in exile or death. In an entry on Rattlesnake Brook, Forgotten New York cites Bronx historian John McNamara as explaining that Eastchester's original families "signed a pact devoted to the destruction of the rattlesnake, and hit upon an unusual method to carry this out. They would set their pigs on them. Pigs find snakes of all types a delicacy, and their thick hide and layers of fat make them largely immune to snakebite."

I'd sure like to get a look at that pact.

To go with its miniature waterfalls, the park has miniature cliffs and modestly varied terrain. There's information about the terrain and the vegetation on this fact sheet from the Metro Forest Council.

Naturally, I'm partial to the natural areas. But there are sports facilities too. No one was on the tennis courts, but the sprinkler was drawing a few fans.

At one edge of the park, masked avengers tended to the landscaping. At another, where wildflowers bloomed, the aptly named Wilder Avenue met its end.

A final note: A number of online sources say that a Revolutionary War battle took place on these grounds. The Parks Department website notes that as part of the military action in The Bronx and lower Westchester, "One battle occurred in what is now Seton Falls Park in 1781, as the British retreated under fire by the patriots." My admittedly fairly cursory Internet research hasn't turned up any details or corroboration. If you have any knowledge of this bit of history, please leave a comment below.

All photos © Jon Sobel, Critical Lens Media

Fort Greene Park

Brooklyn's oldest park has so much history attached to it that narrating it all here would be an exercise in folly.

The Parks Dept. provides a very good sum-up here. But here are the highlights of Fort Greene Park in one sentence:

Inspired into existence by Walt Whitman and designated a public park in 1845, Fort Greene Park was designed by park gods Olmsted and Vaux (of Central Park and Prospect Park fame); named Washington Park, then renamed for the Revolutionary War and War of 1812 fort that had stood on the site; houses the remains of thousands of Revolutionary War prisoners beneath a monument designed by famed architects McKim, Mead and White; and has green, rolling hills, excellent old trees, and really nice-looking tennis courts.

A word about the name: the fort that stood here originally was called Fort Putnam, named for Col. Rufus Putnam, an officer in the French and Indian War, and not, per my first guess, General Israel Putnam of Bunker Hill fame, the son of Rufus's half-brother. When the fort was rebuilt for the War of 1812, it was renamed for General Nathanael Greene, who comes off in Ron Chernow's excellent biography Washington as the most heroic and trustworthy of all Washington's generals, a man who died in his 40s just a few years after the Revolutionary War's successful conclusion. This blog doesn't pass up an opportunity to pay respects to Nathanael Greene.

Fort Greene Park's singular attraction is the crypt bearing the remains of thousands of American Revolutionary War prisoners who were kept, and died, in horrible conditions on British prison ships in nearby Wallabout Bay (in the East River), along with the Prison Ship Martyrs Monument topped with its enormous Doric column marking the spot.

For more information and a glimpse inside the mausoleum, see Jason Cochran's site here. I've also embedded his video at the end of this post.

Seen from the monument plaza with the bronze eagles at the corners, the neoclassical visitors' center – also designed by McKim, Mead and White – is a nice-looking building, but seems small for the purpose. No wonder: it was originally a comfort station. Now it just contains one. Along with a cannon and other historical memorabilia.

What would a summertime visit to a picturesque park be without stopping to smell (or at least ogle) the flowers?

The old name, Washington Park, is preserved in the name of the street on Fort Greene Park's eastern border. Washington Park, the street, resembles the great cobblestoned sidewalks lining the sides of Central Park, but on a more domestic scale, and without the tourists and buses. Be sure not to miss it when you visit.

Few New York City parks are this loaded with history and beauty. And no other has a crypt like this below it. Be sure to pay Fort Greene Park a visit one day during your Brooklyn peregrinations; it's not one to be missed.