Joseph Rodman Drake Park in Bronx, New York

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Get directions Hunts Point and Oak Avenues
Bronx, New York, USA

Coordinates: 40.81034, -73.88255
Cemetery ID:

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Small cemetery started by the interment of poet Joseph Rodman Drake, who requested that he be buried near the Bronx River. The burial ground of the Hunt mansion consists of about fifty markers including names such as Hunt, Leggett, and Willett—all families associated with the settlement and development of the Bronx. The streets near the cemetery are named for prominent poets including Drake, Halleck, (John Greenleaf) Whittier, and (Henry Wadsworth) Longfellow. In 1905 the cemetery was saved from destruction by local literary enthusiasts. Four years later, Parks acquired the property. The park was named in honor of Joseph Rodman Drake in 1915. That year the Bronx Society of Arts and Science installed a seven-foot marble shaft inscribed with Halleck's words to mark Drake's grave. The Society placed another tablet in Drake's honor near the Lorillard Snuff Mill in the New York Botanical Garden. A 1934 survey at the site shows a stone dwelling, a metal garage, and a tool shed standing in the vicinity of the burial ground in 1934. These features were no longer in place when a major renovation was undertaken in 1953. At that time, an iron picket fence was installed around the cemetery, benches were placed along the paths and cinder sidewalks were built along the perimeter. In 1962 the timber curbs around the cemetery were replaced with concrete. Even as the surrounding neighborhood has grown more industrial, the pastoral beauty of the Joseph Rodman Drake Park endures.