The Jerome Park Reservoir is a

reservoir A reservoir (; from French ''réservoir'' ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam. Such a dam may be either artificial, built to store fresh water or it may be a natural formation. Reservoirs can be created in a number of ways, including contro ...

located in

Jerome Park Jerome Park is a municipal park in the West Bronx of New York City. The park, along with the surrounding neighborhood of the same name, are both on land that was once Jerome Park Racetrack, which was founded by Leonard W. Jerome, grandfather o ...

, a neighborhood in the

North Bronx The North Bronx is the northern section of the Bronx, one of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. It is bordered by Westchester County, New York, Westchester County to the north, the South Bronx to the south, the Hudson Ri ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The reservoir is surrounded by

DeWitt Clinton High School , motto_translation = Without Work Nothing Is Accomplished , image = DeWitt Clinton High School front entrance IMG 7441 HLG.jpg , seal_image = File:Clinton News.JPG , seal_size = 124px , ...

, the

Bronx High School of Science The Bronx High School of Science, commonly called Bronx Science, is a public specialized high school in The Bronx in New York City. It is operated by the New York City Department of Education. Admission to Bronx Science involves passing the Spec ...

Lehman College Lehman College is a public college in the Bronx borough of New York City. Founded in 1931 as the Bronx campus of Hunter College, the school became an independent college within CUNY in September 1967. The college is named after Herbert H. Lehma ...

, and Walton High School.

History

Bronx transit and landmarks in 1896 (NY Times) - re-tinted Marble Hill detail

The reservoir was built in 1906 to serve the

New Croton aqueduct The New Croton Aqueduct is an aqueduct in the New York City water supply system in Westchester County, New York carrying the water of the Croton Watershed. Built roughly parallel to the Old Croton Aqueduct it originally augmented, the new sys ...

as part of the

New York City water supply system A combination of aqueducts, reservoirs, and tunnels supplies fresh water to New York City. With three major water systems ( Croton, Catskill, and Delaware) stretching up to away from the city, its water supply system is one of the most exte ...

. It is named for

Jerome Park Racetrack Jerome Park Racetrack was an American thoroughbred horse racing facility from 1866 until 1894. It was located in a part of Westchester County, New York that was annexed into the Bronx in 1874. Jerome Park Racetrack was the home of the Belmont Sta ...

, a part of the former Old Bathgate Estate (owned by Winston Churchill's maternal grandfather Leonard Walter Jerome 1817–1891, for whom the racetrack was originally named) which opened in 1866 and which was the site of the inaugural

Belmont Stakes The Belmont Stakes is an American Grade I stakes race for three-year-old Thoroughbreds run at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It is run over 1.5 miles (2,400 m). Colts and geldings carry a weight of ; fillies carry . The race, nicknamed Th ...

in 1867. The racetrack was condemned, bought by

and closed in 1889 to make way for the reservoir. ''See also:'' In 1996, residents organized under the leadership of Jerome Park Conservancy to stop the city from converting the site to a

water treatment Water treatment is any process that improves the Water quality, quality of water to make it appropriate for a specific end-use. The end use may be drinking water, drinking, industrial water supply, irrigation, river flow maintenance, water recrea ...

plant. It was thought that the noise, chemicals, and unsightly construction would decrease the quality of life for area residents, and have a negative impact on the learning environment at nearby schools. The reservoir was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2000. The related High Pumping Station had been listed in 1983. The treatment plant was built in another part of the

underneath

Van Cortlandt Park Van Cortlandt Park is a park located in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. Owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, it is managed with assistance from the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance. The park, the city's third-lar ...

. In connection with this work, the Croton system was taken offline and the reservoir emptied in December 2008. It was refilled and returned to service in early 2014. In November 2015, the DEP experimentally opened the perimeter to the public for tours.

References

External links

Jerome Park
at New York City Department of Parks and Recreation
Jerome Park Reservoir, Bronx
Kadinsky, Sergey ''Hidden Waters Blog'' January 5, 2017 {{authority control Historic districts on the National Register of Historic Places in the Bronx Reservoirs in New York (state) Water infrastructure of New York City Water supply infrastructure on the National Register of Historic Places Art Deco architecture in the Bronx Protected areas of the Bronx Infrastructure completed in 1906 Jerome Park, Bronx Lakes of the Bronx 1906 establishments in New York City