High on a rocky rise in Van Cortlandt Park sits a small, easily overlooked stone structure: the Van Cortlandt Family Burial Ground, also known as Vault Hill. The iron-gated chamber has stood here since 1749, when Frederick Van Cortlandt, patriarch of one of New York’s most powerful colonial families, was laid to rest inside.
At the onset of the Revolutionary War, the vault took on a curious new role. Fearing that city records would be destroyed during the British occupation of New York, Van Cortlandt’s son was told by the Provincial Congress to find a safe space for them. He hid them in the family vault, trusting its thick stone walls to protect them from British troops. Long after the Van Cortlandts’ estate was transformed into a public park in 1888, the tomb remained in place, its weathered façade a relic of the city’s colonial past.
Vault Hill itself rises 169 feet, among the highest points in the Bronx, and on clear days the Manhattan skyline can be glimpsed through the trees.
