Morningside Park (New York City) on September 16, 1776. Year later, during the War of 1812 three blockhouse fortifications were built on the land. The park was first proposed by the Central Park Commissioners in 1867, after Andrew Haswell Green, Commissioner and Comptroller of Central Park, proposed that a park be built in Morningside Heights to avoid the expense of expanding the Manhattan street grid across difficult terrain. In 1870, the City of New York obtained jurisdiction of the property. The original design for the park, submitted by Parks Engineer-in-Chief M.A. Kellogg in 1871, was rejected by the Board of Commissioners for Public Parks. In
Claremont Park station (New York Central Railroad) the vicinity of 172nd Street/Wendover Avenue as far back as the late-1860s. Originally named Central Morrisania station, it was built at surface level along with the rest of the tracks. Realizing the railroad was causing suburban sprawl within what was then southern Westchester County, the New York City Parks Department acquired the site of the former Claremont Mansion one block to the west, and converted it into a park in 1881. The station was renamed for that park roughly around the time Claremont Park station was rebuilt by New York Central in the late 19th century, as part of a