White Plains, New York, has the feel of a suburban town that urbanized when nobody was looking. A little over 60,000 people live there, but during the day it’s estimated to have about a quarter million people working there.

Nevertheless, they haven’t forgotten their place in American history, and there is a space that marks where much of the Battle of White Plains took place in 1776. It’s a very suburban zone dropped between two urban zones, with a series of retail stores stretching for about a half-mile just 1000 feet away in one direction, and the Bronx River Parkway about 500 feet in the other (with the Bronx River itself another hundred feet away).

There are lots of historical plaques explaining what happened and when, but without these (and the cannon you can see in the cover art photo), you’d never know that a fierce battle once took place on these grounds.

Battle of White Plains Park is a lovely place to visit, but be forewarned that there is no off-street parking, no restrooms and the park closes at dusk because there’s no lighting. On the bright side, you can get all that just the other side of Central Avenue.

Now that I think about it, there’s probably no reason you couldn’t park your car at the McDonald’s and just walk down.

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