Bell Tower Park

It is not a «park.» It is a big statue, with a nice bit of grass around the statue. But it’s not a «park.» It’s surrounded by traffic. I am giving it 5 out of 5 stars, because, FOR WHAT IT IS, it’s pretty beautiful. But you aren’t going to actually sit and hang out at it. It’s too small.

It’s nice they turned this round-​about near the highway into a little park but calling it a park is stretching it a bit. It does have a bunch of nice flowers planted around the circle and a bunch of park benches so in that regard it’s a nice little oasis in the intersection. The main draw to this circle is really the historic bell tower and the bell housed inside of it. The bell itself (which you can barely see and can’t go inside of the tower) was cast in 1762 for a Mexican monastery. General Winfield Scott captured the bell during the Mexican War (1846 – 1848). The bell was housed in NYC and moved to the tower in Riverdale in 1930. The bronze plaque affixed to all four sides of the tower lists the names of the local men who died during WWI.