Park watchers at crossroads over trail’s history

There’s no question that a celebration is in order to honor the hundreds of thousands of runners who have raced on Van Cortlandt Park’s cross-country course over the last century.

When that celebration should be held, however, is debatable. 

Is it next year? This year? Two years from now? 

The city says 1913 was the course’s first year, but the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park is certain it came into being a year earlier, in 1912, making its centennial anniversary this fall. And then there’s a third voice that’s been getting its say for years: the Tortoise and Hare statue in Van Cortlandt Park, the symbol of the legendary course, thinks it all started in 1914. It’s marble plaque, created in 1997, says so. 

So when will the party be?

The Department of Parks and Recreation, along with the Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy, plans to honor the course at an event next year, but Friends is hosting a 5k to celebrate 100 years next month. No word yet on what the statue is planning, but it’s likely pacing itself, taking its time to catch up with a massive party sometime in 2014.

It is widely accepted that the course opened in 1913. The Department of Parks and Recreation and the closely linked Van Cortlandt Park Conservancy have both posted that timeline on their respective websites.

A Parks spokesman confirmed that the department’s records indicate that the current course was first laid out in 1913. 

More than 20,000 people showed up to view what many consider to be the first race in 1913, according to an article in the New-York Tribune, but when local history buff and cross-country connoisseur Tom Carey set out to do his own homework on the subject he found New York Times articles describing cross-country races in November and December of 1912.

Mr. Carey, who is a member of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park and the Kingsbridge Historical Society, said he started talking to other people involved with the Friends and told them, “Wow, guys, this is the year.”

But he wondered how Parks could have gotten it wrong.  Perhaps they would not count any date before 1913 because the land was not named Van Cortlandt Park yet?  

The parkland was purchased along with a lot of other parkland in 1888 but Parks says it wasn’t named after the Van Cortlandt family until 1913 — when the department claims the first race was run there.

“Everything begins for [the Parks Department] in Van Cortlandt Park in 1913,” Mr. Carey said.

However, it seems the park had at the very least been borrowing the family name for some time, and according to one author, it was officially named Van Cortlandt Park when the city purchased it a quarter century before. 

On Dec. 7, 1912, the Tribune and The New York Times reported that thousands of people showed up to view a high school cross-country championship at “Van Cortlandt Park.” 

The race started on the polo fields, (the Parade Ground was used for polo). It had many of the same landmarks as the race a year later and it was even an official Parks event, according to the articles.

Bronx Parks Commissioner Thomas J. Higgins attended and acted as the “honorary referee,” according to The Times. He instructed two mounted policemen to lead the runners on the course, something he also reportedly did the following year. 

Both papers refer to the event as being in Van Cortlandt Park, and dozens of articles beginning in 1888 refer to it with Jacobus and Stephanus’ last name attached to it. 

Bronx Borough Historian Lloyd went as far as to offer evidence that the name was official. He referred to a book, The New Parks Beyond the Harlem, authored by John Mullaly, published in 1887. 

Mr. Mullaly writes that “before the close of another year,” the park will become the city’s and the land “now and hereafter to be known as Van Cortlandt Park, the title conferred upon it by legislative enactment.”

“It was always Van Cortlandt Park,” Mr. Ultan said.

So if it was always Van Cortlandt Park, then maybe the course differed between 1912 and 1913?

Though the course has changed many times as the park has changed, newspaper reports indicate that it was not altered between the two years in question. 

The Tribune mentions current Tortoise and Hare trial landmarks in its coverage, including “the polo field,” “the old aqueduct,” “the golf links” and the “bridge over the lake.”

The New York Times wrote that the 1912 high school championship — in which DeWitt Clinton High School finished second — was a held on a “new A.A.U. cross-country course at Van Cortlandt Park.”

“… the finish, however, being shortened so that the run would cover only about two and a half miles,” reads The Times article, dated Dec. 8, 1912, reflecting the current length of the course.

So when should we celebrate? 

Mr. Carey has an idea that would appease everyone except the statue.

“This could very well be a full year 100-year anniversary celebration,” he said.

The first celebratory event is being hosted by Friends of Van Cortlandt Park on Saturday, Nov. 17, at 1 p.m.

The 5k race is being held in conjunction with the ECAC and IC4A Cross Country Championships.