Riverdale Park

This text is part of Parks’ Historical Signs Project and can be found posted within the park.

What was here before?
The bedrock of Riverdale, the park’s namesake, is billion-year-old Fordham gneiss, the oldest rock formation in New York City. The Wiechquaesgeck inhabited this land prior to European contact. In 1645 the Dutch West India Company granted lawyer Adriaen van der Donck (c. 1618-1655) land in what is now the northwest Bronx and Yonkers. His heirs sold the property to Frederick Philipse (1626-1702), a prosperous merchant and one of the colony’s largest enslavers. The property was ultimately divided and passed through multiple families.

The Riverdale section of the Bronx began as a real estate venture in 1856, financed in part by the prominent Dodge, Goodrich, and Spaulding families. The construction of the Hudson Division of the New York Central Railroad in the 1850s, which included a stop in Riverdale, enhanced the appeal of the area. In the 1860s, the increased accessibility to Manhattan together with the magnificent views of the Hudson made Riverdale a popular site for summer mansions for the city’s elite.

How did this site become a park?
In 1888 the City started to acquire this waterfront property, and in 1943 the Dodges, Delafield and Douglass families donated 42 acres of property, abutting the railroad tracks along the Hudson, to the city for parkland. By 2013, the City obtained waterfront properties between West 232 and West 254 Streets, seeking to preserve the Riverdale shoreline from development.

Riverdale Park is known for its secluded beauty, thick woods, walking paths, spectacular views of the Palisades along the Hudson, and as a haven for birds. Twenty-seven species, including the screech owl, have been confirmed as breeding in the park. On top of the gneiss lies Inwood marble, which was once quarried to produce lime. Remains of two lime kilns stand in the park today.

Riverdale Park contains about 50 forested acres, including mature oak-hickory forest, which is on its way to becoming a mature or "climax" forest. The Alderbrook wetland and surrounding forest have benefited from a Natural Resources Group restoration project. Prior to restoration, the wetland was clogged by sediment from the Alderbrook stream, compacted soil around the railroad tracks, and invasive plant life. The restoration recreated the stream channel and open water area and replaced invasive forest vegetation with native.