Posts Tagged ‘Fort Washington Avenue’

Where is Manhattan’s highest natural point?

March 29, 2010

Sure, at 265 feet above sea level, it’s not exactly very high.

But when earthquake–triggered waves crash over Manhattan and you have no idea where to go, head to Bennett Park.

It’s a sweet little park—the borough’s highest ground—in Washington Heights on Fort Washington Avenue and 183rd Street.

The nearby area played a crucial role in American history.

Called Long Hill by early Dutch settlers, it became George Washington’s operations base during the Revolutionary War, thanks to its vantage point. 

Fort Washington was the site of a major defeat by British and Hessian troops. But hey, our side won the war.

An impressive monument on the Fort Washington side of the park commemorating the Battle of Fort Washington was put up in 1901.

The saint entombed in Washington Heights

January 23, 2010

Born in Italy in 1850, Frances Xavier Cabrini arrived in New York City in 1889, along with thousands of other European immigrants.

But instead of seeking a more prosperous life for herself in America, she came to New York to launch schools, orphanages, and hospitals for the poor—particularly in the impoverished Italian neighborhoods springing up all over the city.

By 1896, she had opened a school on the Lower East Side, an orphanage upstate, and Columbus Hospital in the East 20s. (It eventually morphed into Cabrini Medical Center, which closed in 2008.)

She even became a U.S. citizen in 1909 and lived for a time in Washington Heights.

Her death in 1917 was followed by beatification in 1938. Pope Pius XII then canonized her in 1946 and made her the patron saint of immigrants. 

Now, she’s back in Upper Manhattan.

Her body—well, actually a wax replica of it, according to The New York Times—has been on display in a glass box at a shrine at Mother Cabrini High School on Fort Washington Avenue for decades.