Glen Island Park
park in Westchester County, New York, United States
Glen Island Park is a 105-acre (0.42 km2) waterfront park, located on Glen Island, on the Long Island Sound, New York. The park is owned and operated by Westchester County and shares the island with a privately operated but county-owned entertainment facility, the Glen Island Harbour Club (formerly the Glen Island Casino). The Glen Island Casino was a springboard to success during the 1930s Big Band Era, including that of Ozzie Nelson, Charlie Barnet, Claude Thornhill, Les Brown, The Dorsey Brothers and Glenn Miller. Westchester County residency is required for parking and beach access.
The island is situated between Davids, Neptune, and Travers islands in New Rochelle, and Hunter Island in nearby Pelham Bay Park, in the Bronx borough of New York City. Although now one island, the site originally consisted of one large main island in close proximity to at least four smaller nearby islands, a number of rocky outcroppings, low-lying flats, and salt marshes. The island includes remnants of some of the historic structures of Starin's Resort.
Starin's Glen Island was a summer resort on the island in the community of New Rochelle, developed by shipping magnate and U.S. Congressman John H. Starin in the late 19th century. Starin's resort, referred to as "America's pleasure grounds" was the first theme park in the country. The park's original design exhibited the five cultures of the western world on individual islands linked together with piers and causeways.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Glen Island Park” is park in Westchester County, New York, United States. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Glen, Island and Park, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “park in Westchester County, New York, United States” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 27, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5567832. Authority coordinates are 40.885, -73.784. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
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Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Glen Island Park”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Glen Island Park primary sources, Glen Island Park archive and Glen research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
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This entry incorporates text from “Glen Island Park” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.