Jerome Park

Jerome Park is a 10.5-acre park in the Norwood section of the Bronx, adjacent to the Jerome Park Reservoir. The park and reservoir are named for Leonard W. Jerome, a 19th-century financier who built the Jerome Park Racetrack on this site in 1866. Jerome is perhaps best known today as the maternal grandfather of Winston Churchill.

The Jerome Park Racetrack was one of the premier horse racing venues in the country during the Gilded Age, attracting the social elite of New York for both racing and society events. The track hosted the first Belmont Stakes in 1867, one of the three races that comprise American Thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown.

When the racetrack closed, the city acquired the land and built the Jerome Park Reservoir (1906), which remains an active part of the city's water supply system. The reservoir's massive stone walls and open water create a distinctive landscape feature in the Norwood neighborhood.

The park features a running track, basketball courts, a playground, and open areas. The Reservoir Oval, a landscaped path around the reservoir's perimeter, provides one of the most popular jogging routes in the northwestern Bronx.

Jerome Park connects a modern Bronx neighborhood to the Gilded Age world of horse racing, high society, and a family line that would produce one of the most consequential leaders of the 20th century. Where thoroughbreds once raced for the social elite, neighborhood families now walk, jog, and play.