REMARKS
Kate Lemos-McHale Present Joseph Rodman Drake Park Landmark Designation
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6 min
Kate Lemos-McHale, Director of Research at NYC LPC, and Steven Thompson, Director of Community and Intergovernmental Affairs at NYC LPC, present the landmark designation of Joseph Rodman Drake Park and Enslaved People's Burial Grounds. They emphasize the park's historic role in memorializing enslaved African and indigenous people. The landmark designation, supported by the community and local students, aims to preserve the site's historical resources and its significant African American history.
Speaker 3
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Good morning, chair Hanks, and welcome.
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And sub committee members.
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I'm Kate Lemus McHale, director of research at LPC.
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I'm joined by Stephen Thompson, our director of Community And Intergovernmental Affairs.
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And the first designation, we could go to the next slide, please.
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Is the designation of Joseph Rodman Drake Park in enslaved people's burial grounds, which is a park in Hunt's Point.
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Owned and maintained by the New York City Parks Department.
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Its designation as a landmark recognizes the history of enslaved African and indigenous people in the and New York City and memorializes the enslaved people buried here.
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At LPC's public hearing on November 14th, 6 people spoke in favor of designation, including representatives of the Bronxboro president's office, the New York City Department of Parks And Recreation, Hunt's Point Sleep, bearing ground project, historic districts council, New York landmarks conservancy, and loving the Bronx.
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The commission also received 71 written submissions in favor of designation, including 38 written by students at nearby PS 48.
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Who have been actively involved in researching the history here, and there was no opposition to designation.
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Next slide, please.
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Thank you.
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Drake Park is shown here bounded by Oak Point, Longfellow, and Hunt Pointe Avenue is in Drake Park health.
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It was identified for designation following a comprehensive survey of the Bronx, as well as part of our ongoing citywide survey to identify sites of significant African American history.
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The Hunt Willard Leggett Cemetery near the Park Center contains burials associated with these 3 families who establish farms on Hunt's point starting in the late 1600.
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Just to itself is the burial ground for the African and likely also the indigenous people they enslaved.
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The designation protects grave markers and other above ground historic resources as well as burials and below ground archaeological resources on the site.
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Next, please.
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Prior to European contact, Hunt's point was the home of the Muncy speaking's Sihuahua people.
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Its geography was drastically different than consisting of 2 small Peninsula's long neck and planting neck surrounded by a small bay that has been filled in.
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By the late 1600, Thomas Hunt Jr, for whom Hunt's point is named.
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And Gabriel Leggett, a wired Hunt's point.
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During the 1700, these two families were joined by members of the Willard family, and by the 17 twenties, They established a family cemetery just to the north of Hunt's Point Road.
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And it's likely that the enslaved people's burial ground on the south side of this road was also established at that time.
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Next, please.
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Slavery began in New York in 1625 when the Dutch West India company brought 11 enslaved people of African descent to the city.
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In the 1700, New York's enslaved African population was the largest in the north.
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Lake New York City Westchester County, which Hunt's point, was then a part of, was a slavery stronghold.
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The Hunt, Willett, and Leggett families were enslavers, and shown here are documents associated with them.
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The will of the revolutionary war hero, Thomas Hunt, directs the sale of the black people he enslaved.
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A list of American, African males in the 17 55 census of slaves in Westchester includes the first names of some he enslaved, Abram Titus Toby, Lily, and Jin.
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And a 1744 notice announces a reward offered for the return of an enslavement of African and indigenous descent to Gabriel Leggett.
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These documents show starkly how enslaved people were treated as property but often are the only records we have of who they were.
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They also reveal the likelihood that both African and indigenous people were buried in the Hunt's Point Cemetery.
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Next, please.
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Surrounded by an iron fence, the hunt will it legged cemetery is the dominant visual feature of Drake Park.
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It contains about 25 Brownstone and marble headstones dating from around 17 twenties.
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Also buried in this cemetery was poet Joseph Rodman Drake, and it is for him that the park was named when it opened in 1910.
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Next, please.
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About 25 feet south of the Hunt Willard Leggett Cemetery was the burial ground for the enslaved people who labored for these families.
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Today, a park pathway runs in the approximate location of the Old Hons Point Road, which historically separated the 2 cemeteries.
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No markers remain to memorialize the enslaved people buried here.
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The siding of the enslaved people burial ground close to, but separate from that of their enslavers was typical at the time, but the survival of this historical arrangement within the New York City park is very rare and remarkable.
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Next please.
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This undated photograph documents the grave markings that once existed in the slave people's burial ground.
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And numerous written accounts described their survival into the early 20th century.
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What became of them is known.
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Around 2013, a department of education official found this historic photograph in the collection of the museum of city in New York and inspired him to search the site.
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And so, Justin Philip Panaredes and Justin Zarko, a teacher at nearby PS 54, founded the Hunt's Point Sleeve Bearing Ground Project and engaged the school's elementary age students in their research.
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A state funded grant led to an archeological study that was completed, and ground penetrating radar documented about 4 potential burials in the Next, please.
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The name of the park was changed to recognize the history of this enslaved people's burial ground.
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And in 2021, the Parks department installed new signage for Joseph Rodman Drake Park and enslaved African burial ground.
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Drake park now memorializes enslaved people whose history in the area and final resting place within the park long went unrecognized.
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Today, the park is a site of historical importance and remembrance as well as a vital green space in an industrial section of the Bronx.
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This designation as a landmark further recognizes and protects the significant history, and I urge the council to vote to uphold it.
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Thank you.
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And we're going through so we could go to the next, please, and next again.
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Thank you.