In the final part of our series "What's in a Name," we head to a neighborhood where there's a serious debate about what borough it actually belongs to. NY1's Erin Clarke filed this report.
If you’ve ever taken Metro-North through the neighborhood of Marble Hill, you’ll notice a wall of marble.
“There is a very low grade marble called Inwood,” says Bronx Borough Historian Lloyd Ultan. “There used to be a quarry in the area.”
Some believe Henry Hudson was the first European to come here.
“One stormy night he was coming down the Hudson River. To seek shelter he had his ship anchored off this beautiful hill," explains Angel Hernandez of the Bronx County Historical Society.
It’s clear where the neighborhood got it’s name from, but there is some confusion about where Marble Hill is located.
NY1 asked some residents where they think Marble Hill is.
“Far as I know, this is in the Bronx,” said one resident.
“Our zipcode is 104. That’s the Bronx," said another resident.
“It is the Bronx,” a third resident stated.
“That’s definitely Manhattan,” said a fourth resident.
Manhattan—really? It has a 718 area code. Sanitation, police and fire services from the Bronx. It is now attached to the Bronx mainland and separated from Manhattan by Spuyten Duyvil Creek.
"Marble Hill was part of Manhattan Island. It was this little piece of land that jutted right off of Inwood. Going back to the 1620s, it was so difficult to navigate on the Harlem River over Marble Hill," Hernandez says.
In 1895, the Army Corporation of Engineers cut through Marble Hill, making it an island that ships could easily pass around.
About 20 years later, Marble Hill was connected to the Bronx.
“Spuyten Duyvil Creek was actually filled in and now it’s 230th street in Manhattan between Manhattan and the Bronx. One side is Marble Hill and the other side is the Bronx,” says Thomas Casey, president of the Huntington Free Library.
A group of guys who call themselves the Great and Glorious Grand Army of the Bronx want to change that, so every year they re-enact a moment in 1939 when the Bronx borough president at the time, James Lyons, marched on Marble Hill to claim it.
“It’s evolved into actually taking over and incorporating the neighborhood and the nine and half thousand people of Marble Hill into the borough of the Bronx,” says Isaac Moore, Borough Protectorate of the group.
The movement hasn’t exactly been taken seriously, but the Grand Army is not backing down. They say they will keep doing this ever year.