Happy birthday to us! The New York State parks and historic sites system is now 100 years old, and we celebrated our founding and lit up almost two dozen landmarks around the state in Parks green and Centennial gold to mark the day last week.
Although several of our parks and historic sites have existed for more than 100 years—Washington’s Headquarters State Historic Site and Niagara Falls State Park, for example—it was on April 18, 1924, that the State Council of Parks (SCOP) was formed, creating our modern parks system.
A Centennial birthday cake at the newly opened Robert H. Treman exhibit reception in Ithaca.
Established by Governor Alfred E. Smith and the New York State Legislature in 1924, SCOP and subsequent voter support for a $15 million Bond Act placed the future of many of New York’s public lands in our hands. Alongside great partners, staff at our agency have served as stewards since then, preserving New York’s most treasured lands and historically significant places. Today our system spans over 250 properties in every part of the state, improving the lives of millions of New Yorkers and connecting communities to the outdoors.
Missed our birthday? No problem. We created a video recap documenting the events of the day. You can find this video, along with other Centennial content, on our YouTube channel. Be sure to subscribe if you haven’t already, as we’ll be adding even more announcement videos into this digital goody bag as the year goes on!
A stereographic photograph taken at the Prospect Point observation area of Niagara Falls. Image courtesy of the New York Public Library.
Beginning with the acquisition of Washington’s Headquarters in 1850, Blazing a Trail delves into more than 170 years of stories and milestone moments, divided into eight chronological eras. The timeline experience, showcased in a modern and mobile-friendly way, introduces important figures in the State Parks’ history and examines the social and political context of each era of our park and historic site system’s development. With our Centennial celebration already in full swing, additional eras will be launching throughout 2024, reminding New Yorkers that New York’s state parks are truly made for them.
Hispanic Heritage Month, spanning mid-September to mid-October, is a time for Latinx people in the U.S. to celebrate their roots. Through the vantage of Hispanic / Latinx staff, we reflect on the namesake for Roberto Clemente State Park — the sole park in our system named in honor of a Hispanic icon.
Roberto Clemente State Park first opened in 1973 as the Harlem River Bronx State Park. In that same year, the New York State Commission met to rename the park after the famous Puerto Rican Hall of Fame Baseball player, Roberto Clemente, who tragically died in a plane crash off the coast of Puerto Rico taking aid to Nicaragua.
The decision to rename the park after Clemente was not because he was a famous baseball player, but because he believed in helping people and doing good. He was truly a humanitarian. “Anytime you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on Earth,” he once said.
I am joyful to be a Latina “Boricua” and oversee the first State Park built in New York City, and especially proud that it holds the name of Roberto Clemente. When I was a young child, I remember my mother speaking about how, although we came from a town next to his, our cousins lived in the town Roberto Clemente came from. I often remember him and think of my baseball card collection.
In 2024, New York State Parks and Historic Sites will celebrate our Centennial, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of our parks and sites system. While we have incredible public properties older than the 100-year-old system, the Centennial celebrates the vital legislation that allowed us to build and expand our network of parks and sites, forging the system we know and love today.
As OPRHP Commissioner, I am reminded every day of the immense pride and enjoyment New Yorkers take in our facilities. To prepare New York State residents and visitors from around the world for the exciting year ahead, I recently embarked on a two-day journey to showcase the breadth of our parks and sites system, highlighting various activities and partnerships that make our system so unique.
The history of European swordsmanship is often presumed to be the story of white, cisgender men. But people of all genders and races have played leading roles in this story.
On April 23rd, 2023, Schuyler Mansion State Historic Site partnered with the Musicians of Ma’alwyck (including Ann-Marie Barker Schwartz , Norman Thibodeau, and André Laurent O’Neil), actor Devin Funnye, and historical fencer Reily Mumpton, to present The Match!, a celebration of the stories of two 18th century individuals who exemplify these contributions: Chevalier de Saint-Georges and Chevalière d’Éon.
Learn more about The Match event from Schuyler Mansion staff and the actors who played Saint-Georges and d’Éon.
Saint-Georges and d’Éon were both considered celebrities in late-18th century London, and were part of the entourage of the Prince of Wales (through which they made the acquaintance of Schuyler Mansion’s very own Angelica Schuyler Church, of Hamilton fame!). On April 9, 1787, when the Prince of Wales hosted a fencing tournament at his personal residence, contemporary accounts hailed the match between Saint-Georges and d’Éon as the capstone of the event.
In addition to being immensely respected fencers, Saint-Georges was a celebrated musician and composer, while d’Éon had a thrilling past as a soldier and spy in secret service to King Louis XV of France. If this were not enough to capture the interest of their contemporaries and modern audiences alike, neither figure fit neatly into societal assumptions about the identities of aristocratic 18th century courtiers and fencers: Chevalière d’Éon was a trans-woman, while Chevalier de Saint-Georges was a biracial Afro-Caribbean man.
Left: Portrait of Angelica Schuyler Church. She and her two sisters were depicted in the musical Hamilton. Right: Flier for The Match at Schuyler Mansion in Albany, NY.
Possibly born intersex, d’Éon had been assigned male at birth and raised as a son of the French nobility. Her espionage career eventually led to exile, forcing d’Éon to protect herself by threatening to publish incriminating documents about the king of France. In 1777, at the age of forty-nine, d’Éon agreed to return to France and turn over the documents on several conditions: that she be legally recognized as a woman, be given a full feminine wardrobe suitable to her status, and be allowed to wear her military honors earned while presenting as a man. Desperate to avoid scandal, the king agreed. From that point forward, d’Éon was able to live publicly as a woman.
Saint-Georges, on the other hand, was born not into nobility, but into slavery on the plantations of Guadeloupe. His life story is featured in Searchlight Pictures film, CHEVALIER, which hit theaters on April 21, 2023. The son of a white French planter and an enslaved African mother, he was sent to France at the age of seven, where he was legally free. There he studied many topics, including music and fencing. The specter of racism still followed him, however, as the Code Noir (“Black Code”) limited his freedoms. He likewise faced personal prejudices from fellow fencers and musicians. He did not back down to his detractors, however, besting many of them with sword or violin, and eventually secured the patronage of Queen Marie Antoinette herself. He later became an important voice in the French abolition movement, and an officer in the French revolutionary forces.
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