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The Sawkill or Saw-kill (the Dutch place-name for Saw Mill Creek) was the largest hydrological network on
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
island prior to the founding of the Dutch colony of
New Netherland
New Netherland ( nl, Nieuw Nederland; la, Novum Belgium or ) was a 17th-century colonial province of the Dutch Republic that was located on the East Coast of the United States, east coast of what is now the United States. The claimed territor ...
in 1624.
This stream began "within four blocks of the
Hudson River
The Hudson River is a river that flows from north to south primarily through eastern New York. It originates in the Adirondack Mountains of Upstate New York and flows southward through the Hudson Valley to the New York Harbor between N ...
":
A rill flowing east from the rocky ridge overlooking Bloomingdale Village, which rose near Ninth Avenue and 85th Street
85th Street is a westbound-running street, running from East End Avenue to Riverside Drive in the borough of Manhattan in New York City.
At Fifth Avenue, the street feeds into the 86th Street transverse, which runs east–west through Central P ...
, flowed in a southerly direction through Manhattan Square, where it spread into a little pond, and then turned east, crossing Central Park
Central Park is an urban park in New York City located between the Upper West Side, Upper West and Upper East Sides of Manhattan. It is the List of New York City parks, fifth-largest park in the city, covering . It is the most visited urban par ...
to Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...
, receiving three tributaries within its limits, two from the north and one from the south. At 75th Street near Third Avenue
Third Avenue is a north-south thoroughfare on the East Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan, as well as in the center portion of the Bronx. Its southern end is at Astor Place and St. Mark's Place. It transitions into Cooper Square ...
it was joined by another stream. Near this junction the old Boston Post Road
The Boston Post Road was a system of mail-delivery routes between New York City and Boston, Massachusetts that evolved into one of the first major highways in the United States.
The three major alignments were the Lower Post Road (now U.S. Ro ...
crossed it, and then from this point, the stream ran due east to its outlet near the foot of 75th Street
emptying into the
East River
The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens ...
between two rocky points.
Along its route the stream separated into two branches, with the name 'Sawkill' reserved for the southern arm of the creek.
The name for the smaller, northern stream is undocumented, but is recorded by the
Randel __NOTOC__
Randel may refer to:
People Given name
* Randel (given name), a masculine given name in the English language
Surname
* Andreas Randel (1806–1864), Swedish composer and violinist
*Don Michael Randel (born 1940), American musicologist
* ...
Map (1870) as entering the East River at 79th Street.
Early history
Undoubtedly, the stream received its name from the
saw mill
A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes ( dimens ...
that existed for some time "in the bed of
74th Street, about 250 ft east of
Avenue A."
The workers of the saw mill are thought to have been primarily the slaves of the
Dutch West India Company
The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ( ...
, whose lodgings, stationed at the mouth of the Sawkill until at least 1639, were referenced as "the quarter of the blacks, the
est Indiacompany's slaves" in the first landmark map of Manhattan Island, the
Manatus Map
The Manatus Map is a 1639 city map of New Amsterdam and other New Netherland settlements surrounding New York Harbor, with pictorial elements, and bearing the title '' on the North River''. Drafted during the period of Willem Kieft's directorsh ...
of 1639.
It is thought that the slaves would use the stream to
float the logs hewn by the mill to the East River, from which they would be transported to the newly established fort at
New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam, or ) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''factory'' gave rise ...
, at the southern tip of Manhattan Island, or thence to the Netherlands.
The creek originated at the present day site of the
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...
.
The creek ran through the park site, south of
Seneca Village
Seneca Village was a 19th-century settlement of mostly African American landowners in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, within what would become present-day Central Park. The settlement was located near the current Upper West Side ne ...
, originally exiting the park under
Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...
near 74th Street, where
Conservatory Water
Conservatory Water is a pond located in a natural hollow within Central Park in Manhattan, New York City. It is located west of Fifth Avenue, centered opposite East 74th Street. The pond is surrounded by several landscaped hills, including Pil ...
lies today, before emptying in the
East River
The East River is a saltwater tidal estuary in New York City. The waterway, which is actually not a river despite its name, connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates the borough of Queens ...
. To create the Lake the outlet was dammed with a broad, curving earth dam, which carries the East Carriage Drive past the Kerbs Boathouse (1954), at the end of the Lake's eastern arm, so subtly that few visitors are aware of the landform's function.
Arch Brook
Although local historian
Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes
Isaac Newton Phelps Stokes (April 11, 1867 – December 18, 1944) was an American architect. Stokes was a pioneer in social housing who co-authored the 1901 New York tenement house law. For twenty years he worked on ''The Iconography of Manhatt ...
regarded the Sawkill as, "the well known Saw-
kill
Kill often refers to:
*Homicide, one human killing another
*cause death, to kill a living organism, to cause its death
Kill may also refer to:
Media
*'' Kill!'', a 1968 film directed by Kihachi Okamoto
* ''Kill'' (Cannibal Corpse album), 2006
* ...
, which played an important part in the early days of Manhattan" by 1677, when the land was transferred from the
Dutch West India Company
The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ( ...
to Abraham Shotwell, the stream was known commonly as "ye run of water, formerly called ye saw mill creeke."
Eventually the saw mill was replaced by a leather mill and the Sawkill was dammed and arched over in the early-mid 19th century, creating a much smaller stream called Arch Brook.
It seems that the bridge traversing the Sawkill, however, remained a popular "Kissing Bridge" (first noted as such in 1806) throughout the 19th century.
Central Park
While even Arch Brook has long since disappeared, the waters of the Sawkill are still present in Central Park. Park planners used the remnants of the Saw-kill's source waters to create the picturesque
Lake
A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...
situated in the middle of the Park between 71st and 78th streets.
The upper portion of the Saw-kill within the Park was also utilized to connect the two bays of Ladies Pond, a small ice skating pond west of the Lake that was reserved for women's private use.
Until 1930, when Ladies Pond was filled in to serve as a pedestrian path, the Sawkill remained an active watercourse.
One of the rustic bridges built as part of the park still spans the former site of the Ladies Pond.
In 2000, it was dedicated the "Triplets Bridge", after Benjamin, Rachel and Justin Chasalow.
The Balcony Bridge also crosses over the former pond to the east.
Notes
References
External links
The Mannahatta ProjectNew Netherland Project
{{authority control
Central Park
New Netherland
Rivers of Manhattan
Rivers of New York (state)