![]() He is said to have harvested the last wheat grown on Manhattan Island, some of which was sent to the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Isham operated the property as a farm, but, according to his son, for pleasure and not for profit. Unfortunately because the milestone was made of soft brownstone, all the original lettering has worn away. When Isham found out about it, he had the milestone built into the wall, just north of the entrance to the estate, where it still exists. When Isham was having a wall built or reconstructed along the Broadway edge of the estate, a workman found an old milestone that reads "12 Miles from New York", which had once stood on the Kingsbridge Road (which became Broadway). Their piping song mingles with the whistling tugs on the Canal.Ī closeup of the milestone all the original writing has eroded away Wild birds sing in the four fruit trees and drink at the spring. The tree behind the spring looks like a peach tree. It is at the foot of one of four little fruit trees, which, with two others a short distance away, are all that is left of what was perhaps long ago a flourishing orchard. James Reuel Smith said about the spring in 1898 that It included 24 acres (9.7 ha) of land, the two-story house, a greenhouse, a gardener's cottage, a stable, and a cold spring, one of the few natural sources of fresh water in the area. Two years after first renting it, Isham bought the property as his summer estate. With four wings laid out as a cross, with the entrance to the house in the central area, improved the light and ventilation available for each of the wings, and the house's placement on a hilltop in the middle of Manhattan Island, with views of both the Hudson River to the west and the Harlem River to the east insured that the estate would always be subject to cool breezes. The two-story house had been built in the 1850s and was later described as ".an interesting brick and frame building of peculiar shape, having a spacious central hall with a winding staircase and gallery from which the rooms extend in three wings.". Ferris, a well-known physician who had died seven years earlier. In 1862, Isham rented as a summer residence a house and property in uptown Manhattan, in the neighborhood now known as Inwood, from the estate of Dr. He lived at 5 East 61st Street near Fifth Avenue. He was a patron of the American Museum of Natural History, a member of the prestigious Down Town Association, the New-York Historical Society and the Chicago Historical Society, the Metropolitan Club and the Riding Club, the National Academy of Design, the New England Club, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the New York Botanical Garden. William Bradley Isham (pronounced EYE-sham), was a leather merchant whose factories and warehouses were located at 91 and 93 Gold Street and 61 Cliff Street, and who also became the vice-president and later a director of the Bank of the Metropolis, and the president of the Bond and Mortgage Guarantee Company. Much of the rest of the park has trees and brush growing in a rather wild manner, although the center of the park at the top of the hill is a grass lawn. There is a public garden in the northeastern corner. This is a popular location for college geology classes to visit. Isham Park is noted at its southern end for some exposed marble outcroppings which date from the Cambrian period. ![]() The Isham mansion, which originally came with the park gift, was torn down in the 1940s due to its deteriorating condition. The extent of the current park now equals that of the original Isham estate. The park once extended to the Harlem River, but after the creation of Inwood Hill Park and the reconfiguration of area streets, the boundary became, for the most part, Seaman Avenue, although the baseball fields across the street are considered to be part of Isham Park and not Inwood Hill Park. It sits roughly between Broadway, Isham Street, Seaman Avenue, and West 214th and 215th Streets. The park was created in large part through gifts to the city from the Isham family of land from the William Bradley Isham estate. Isham Park is a 20-acre (81,000 m 2) historic park located in Inwood, Manhattan, New York City. Isham Park's central lawn, at the top of the hill (April, 2010) An outcropping of marble in Isham Park (July 2016) A ginkgo biloba tree in the park it was named one of New York City's "Great Trees" in 1985. 40★2′11″N 73★5′09″W / 40.86972°N 73.91917°W / 40.86972 -73.91917 The entrance to the park on Broadway near Isham Street (June 2016) The red stone marker to the right is the original 12th mile marker on the Kingsbridge road(Old Boston Post Rd.) from 189th st.
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