Did You Know? | The Bronx has its own Stonehenge and it’s getting a makeover – Bronx Times

The Grand Central Stones have been sitting at Van Cortlandt Park for more than 100 years and this month, they are getting a makeover.

Photo ET Rodriguez

After a brief hiatus, “Did You Know” is back. Test your knowledge of Bronx history with our monthly column, featuring interesting and otherwise unknown tidbits that expand on the lore of what is often referred to as the forgotten borough. And check back at the beginning of each month for the latest installment. 

Off the last stop on the 1 train, across the wide stretch of Van Cortlandt Park, about half a mile up the Putnam Greenway and tucked away off a walking trail sit the Grand Central Stones — 13 pillars, each standing at approximately 10-feet tall, making the Bronx home to its very own Stonehenge.

The Grand Central Stones, named after the eponymous train station, have been standing in Van Cortlandt Park for nearly 120 years. Made from limestone to marble to different types of granite, the stones were placed in the park by the New York Central Railroad in 1905 to test which rock would best weather the elements for use in building Grand Central Station (which was constructed from 1903 to 1913).

After a year, two types of stone were selected for the curtain wall of Grand Central Station — granite for the bottom parts and limestone for the top.

“I don’t know exactly what you can tell within one year,” chuckled Christina Taylor, deputy director of the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance. “But they’ve been up for 100 years now – so I guess any one of them would have worked.”

Originally there were 15 different stones, but records don’t show any trace of what happened to the other two, according to Taylor, who has worked for the park for more than 20 years. “It’s not like someone could have picked them up and walked away with them,” she said.

The whereabouts of the two missing stones remains an unsolved mystery, but the remaining 13 recently received a much-needed…