With vibrant colors and picturesque views, Fort Tryon Park looks something like a sanctuary, yet while walking around the twists and turns of the land, it was evident that there is a disconnect between the park and the surrounding community in which it inhabits. It’s always had a history of exclusion. Before it became the beautiful park we know it as today, the land was owned by Cornelius Kingsley Garrison Billings, a wealthy philanthropist and horse breeder. He bought the land because of its proximity to the Speedway, where he would race his horses. On the hilltop estate, he built a mansion which he named “Tryon Hall''. To add more to his displays of opulence, he built a 25,000 square foot trotting stable on the property, with a cost totalling $200,000. Today, the cost of his stable would be $6,773,000. In 1917, John D. Rockefeller Jr. bought the property from Billings with the hopes of developing a park that could do justice to the stunning views of the Hudson River and Palisades. The sons of the famous Frederick Law Olmstead designed the park. They implemented terraces, wooded slopes, promenades and pedestrian paths, aimed to highlight the natural beauty of it. After Rockefeller bought George Barnard’s collection of medieval art, The Cloisters was opened in 1938. Its inspiration comes from Romanesque monasteries, and has an array of cloisters taken from actual French monasteries. Although it includes two playgrounds, neither are on top of the hill, where most of the park and people visit. It was never designed to be a community space, sold from one right white philanthropist to another. Now, you’ll sparsely find people from the surrounding area interacting in the park, why would a largely immigrant, dominican population want to look at European medieval art.It’s target audience are its attendees: majority white, older people who sit and look at the Hudson River, and the collection of medieval art at The Cloisters. The park itself is on a hill, closed off from its surroundings, once again creating a divide between the communities of the area. .
