Cloisters ca. 1915

Fort Tryon Park takes its name from the last British governor of New York, Major General Sir William Tryon. The area played a major role in the American Revolution, serving as a northern defense for Fort Washington. However, it was later lost to the British. After the war and during the nineteenth century the land went through many owners until John D. Rockefeller bought it in 1917 for the incredible amount of $35,000 an acre. After landscaping the property, he donated the land to the city for use as a public park. Fort Tryon Park opened to the public in 1935.

Rockefeller also played a major part in the creation of the Cloisters, the medieval-looking structure visible in this photograph, which opened to the public in 1938. As you walk through the park and come upon this structure, you feel as if you've been transported out of one of the busiest cities in the world right into the past. In spite of the many changes that the neighborhood of Washington Heights has been through, the many people who have come and gone, the Cloisters and the park remain the same, there for all New Yorkers to enjoy.