Fort George

Relic Hunting in Northern Manhattan

Reginald Pelham Bolton

“I chanced to visit an old inn near Fort George some years ago and I noticed a human skull that the proprietor kept among the bottles above his bar.  The man told me he had unearthed it, together with several swords and cannon balls, in his yard.  I offered to buy it, not caring much [...]

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A Grain Field in City Limits: Inwood, 1895

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A GRAIN FIELD IN CITY LIMITS NEW YORK HERALD July 14, 1895 It Waves at 211th Street Awaiting the Reaper and Is Manhattan’s Last IS ON HISTORICAL GROUND That Part of the Island Was Devastated by Two Armies in the Time of Washington POINTS OF INTEREST NEAR BY “RIPE and awaiting the scythe of the [...]

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Fort George Amusement Park

Fort George Amusement Park in turn of the century Inwood, New York City

In 1895, on the same spot where George Washington and his band of Revolutionaries defended a British assault after the Battle of Brooklyn, a glorious and magnificent amusement park rivaling Coney Island opened near the northeastern end of Manhattan. The Fort George Amusement park was located in what is now Highbridge Park between 190th and [...]

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Tornado on the Hudson

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In the summer of 1901 Gotham suffered the deadliest heat wave in New York City history. From June 29-July 6th  at least 989 individuals perished in weather so hot it melted asphalt and drove scores of New Yorkers insane. For a solid week New Yorkers cursed, collapsed, threw themselves into wells, leaped to their deaths [...]

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