3. The American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society

The now paved Sunset Lane:

Fort Washington Park exists today due to the tireless work of Andrew Haswell Green and his American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. Nineteenth-century preservation societies viewed the preservation of history and the protection of nature as intertwined. For them, some of the most scenic sites were also the locations of the most turbulent  events and therefore would be all the more valuable to future generations. Green was interested in preserving Fort Washington Park because of the unspoiled views it provided, because it was the site of a Revolutionary War fort, because it contained remnants from its American Indian inhabitants, and because possessed the largest collection of tulip trees on the Island of Manhattan.

Unfortunately today, there only only a couple of remaining tulip trees in the park and almost no American Indian relics left, which were still common to find as late at the 1920s.  However, not all was lost.