Late November 2014. I decided to walk most of the length of one of those Bronx roads with classic names I hadn’t paid all that much attention to, yet its name harks back to a lot of history… of course, I hope its name never changes. It’s an east-west route running from Mosholu Parkway east to where the Hutchinson River Parkway, Bruckner Expressway and New England Thruway all converge, and serves as something of a fast and furious feeder road for all three in its easternmost stretch.
The route, of course, is Gun Hill Road (I know it’s East and West, but I’ll just say Gun Hill Road for expedience’s sake).
My route today was pretty much straightforward (west on Gun Hill Road and Van Cortlandt Park South to Riverdale), but here’s the Google Map, regardless.
When I left off at the edge of Bronx Park in Part One, I was ready to talk about Gun Hill Road’s four consecutive bridges. By “consecutive” I can say that they are parallel to each other with no intervening streets separating them. They span roadways, rivers and railroads, and I cannot think of any other location in NYC where a road passes over four straight bridges.
The first two of these bridges are the oldest and most interesting of the quartet; traveling east to west, they are brick bridges dating to 1918, crossing the Bronx River and the roadway that marks the east edge of Bronx Park, Bronx Boulevard. (South of Burke Avenue, Bronx Boulevard becomes Bronx Park East.)
The first bridge crosses the Bronx River, New York City’s only true river, which begins as a trickle in Westchester County and empties into the East River (which is actually a tidal estuary). It formerly turned west and met the Hudson River, but a glacier impeded its progess there during the last Ice Age and the river was thereby diverted south. When Swedish pioneer Jonas Bronck settled in the area of the river in the mid-1600s, the river, which had gone by several Native American names, became known as “The Broncks’ River,” and the “the” has stubbornly remained as a prefix for Bronx borough, as well. Industrialization of the 1800s and 1900s turned the water brackish and unsustainable for life, but groups such as Bronx River Restoration and Bronx River Alliance have helped bring it back. Kayakers can now regularly be seen there, and it looks as wild as it must ever have been on its course through the Bronx Zoo and New York Botanical Garden. New parks have also sprung up along its banks, as well as reconstruction of older parks such as Starlight Park in West Farms.
These bridges are functional in design, with simple brick pillars and arches. They are fairly identical as they take Gun Hill Road over the Bronx River and just west of it, Bronx Boulevard.
What makes them interesting are the inscriptions on the decorative pillars that appear at he beginnings and ends of both bridges. They are marked with the letters “BRPR” and the date 1918. According to the late Bronx historian Bill Twomey, the letters stand for “Bronx River Parkway Reservation.” The Reservation parallels the Bronx River from the New York Botanical Gardens north to Kensico Dam, Valhalla, in Westchester County. It’s a 15.5-mile swath of parkland designed in the early years of the 20th century by the Bronx Parkway Commission.
Architect Charles Stoughton designed many of the bridges and other architectural elements in the BRPR, including this one. With his brother Arthur Alexander in the firm Stoughton and Stoughton, he also designed the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on Riverside Drive and West 89th Street.
Next in Gun Hill Road’s parade of bridges is the one that spans the Bronx River Parkway, constructed between 1907 and 1925 between the Sprain Brook Parkway in Bronxville and Kensico Dam Park in Valhalla in Westchester County and then extended gradually south from Bronxville to Soundview in the Bronx with the southernmost section opening in 1952.
4th and last in the parade of bridges spans the Metro-North Harlem Line tracks. There has been a railroad here since the early 1840s, when the New York and Harlem Railroad, incorporated in 1831, reached north to White Plains; by 1863 the line became the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad when Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt had attained control of all the various railroads connecting New York, Albany and Buffalo; the railroad became known as New York Central RR in 1935. The line was administered by Penn Central by 1969, Conrail in 1976, and finally by the Metropolitan Transit Authority in 1983. (Railroad history is convoluted and complicated; see this wikipedia entry for a fleshed out history of the Metro-North lines connecting NYC and Westchester County and Connecticut locations.)
One of the Bronx’ major colonial-era roads (Williamsbridge Road), a train station, and a major intersection, were named for a bridge operated by farmer John Williams crossing the Bronx River at today’s Gun Hill Road in the early 1700s. The settlement that sprung up near the bridge became known as Williams Bridge, later spelled as one word.
An elevated train used to run on Gun Hill Road between Webster Avenue and White Plains Road. The most tangible reminder of this is a shorter-than-normal Deskey pole at the off ramp of the Bronx River Parkway, the better to fit under the el structure. Until 1973, the last remnant of the Third Avenue El ran from The Hub at Third Avenue and East 149th Avenue north on Third and Webster Avenues and east on Gun Hill Road to a connection with the White Plains Road el, now serving the #2 train and sometimes the #5.
Passengers could obtain a free transfer at the Hub from the #2 and #5 by going upstairs at the East 149th Street stop. By 1973 the then- Transit Authority determined that this service was redundant (though now there’s no north-south el trains in the Bronx between the Grand Concourse and Westchester Avenue/Southern Boulevard) and scrapped it.
This photo from 1973 shows the el turning from Webster Avenue east onto Gun Hill Road. Service would end later that year and most of the structure would be removed by the next year, though a second deck of platforms on White Plains Road serving the Third Avenue El would remain in place until 2004.
Tiny building on the NW corner of Webster and Gun Hill Road with a French Second Empire-style mansard roof with dormer windows is almost engulfed by secondhand tires.
This building on the SE corner with the pawn shop can also be seen behind the el in the above photo. The Metro-North railroad is behind both buildings.
Moving west a few blocks to Hull Avenue, on the NE corner is a decades-old “privilege sign” that was sponsored, in this case, by Breyer’s Ice Cream, whose old logo is on the sign. William Breyer founded the company in 1866 in Philadelphia. Breyer’s was sold to what became Kraft in 1926, and was acquired by Unilever in 1993; Unilever proceeded to change the formula, and included additives, changing its taste and texture (when I was a kid Breyer’s was famed for having flecks of vanilla beans in its vanilla ice cream).
This sign is a classic case of “it gets the job done, why fix it?”
Come to think of it, my whole career has been a struggle between my desperate attempts to leave well enough alone vs. others’ desperate desires for change!
One of the many Moderne buildings along this stretch of Gun Hill Road at Perry Avenue. Apartment buildings of this type were constructed between 1928 and 1938.
Kings College Place runs for one block between Gun Hill Road and East 211th, at the southern end of Woodlawn Cemetery, as well as the Gun Hill Monument, located just inside the fence.
This is one of two NYC streets, or former streets with still-existing signs, that are reminders of King’s College, established in 1754 by royal charter of King George II. The first classes were held in a schoolhouse adjoining Trinity Cemetery on Broadway and Wall Street, with eight students in attendance. After changing its name in 1784 to Columbia College following the establishment of American independence, the school moved around Manhattan several times before becoming Columbia University, Manhattan’s entry into the Ivy League, and moving uptown to its present campus in 1897.
There is one more reminder of King’s College, then Columbia College, downtown. A chiseled street sign at West Broadway and Warren Street marks College Place, one of West Broadway’s former names. In 1760, Columbia moved into its own building on land donated by Trinity Church at present day Park Place, and then sold that property and moved uptown to East 49th Street in 1857, and the old Park Place building was demolished in 1860. The sign, though, will likely be there as long as its building exists.
The intersection of Bainbridge Avenue and Gun Hill Road is dominated by Montefiore Hospital, which dominates the local economy, and the Henry and Lucy Moses Research Institute (left). Named for a longtime hospital president who teamed with his wife in philanthropic work, the Research Institute was a 1965 project by architect Philip Johnson.
The Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids was founded in 1884 by Jewish philanthropists who wanted to do something for chronically ill people whom other hospitals of the day would not help. Montefiore quickly expanded and began an age of delivery system innovation, medical education and scientific research that it continues today as a premier academic medical center.
It was in 1890 that Montefiore was among the first to test tuberculin for the diagnosis of tuberculosis. In 1901, asthma patients at Montefiore were treated with adrenalin chloride—one of the earliest clinical uses of adrenalin.
Groundbreaking milestones continued with the development of the cardiotachometer in the 1920s, an innovative instrument to measure the heart’s beat. The device is now on display in the Smithsonian Museum. Montefiore would also build the foundations of its commitment to innovative health care when, in 1905, it established one of the nation’s first hospital-based departments of social work to meet the psychosocial and home-care needs of patients and their families. In 1912, Montefiore expanded its services and built a new hospital in the Bronx. Thus began a new era for Montefiore as it began partnering with the borough to create a world-class healthcare model accessible to anyone in need. Continuing to blaze trails, the first woman joined Montefiore’s house staff in 1916. — montefiore.org
In addition to the pizza palaces, Dunkin’ Donuts, and pharmacies lining Gun Hill Road opposite Montefiore is a surviving Blimpie, just west of Rochambeau Avenue, which I have filed away in my head for future reference. Blimpie makes a superior sub compared with Subway, which nonetheless has wrested the sub market away from Blimpie, unjustifiably, in the NYC area. My current Blimpie of choice is the Russian Tea Room of Blimpies on Washington Street in Hoboken, but I note all the extant locations.
Gun Hill Road intersects three subway or el lines and two have a Gun Hill Road station. The one nearby this locale is, however, named for Mosholu Parkway.
The #4 train, which runs on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, runs on Jerome Avenue in the Bronx, named for stock speculator and financier Leonard W. Jerome (1817-1891) who built the Jerome Park Racetrack, whose grounds is now occupied by the Jerome Park Reservoir. Jerome’s wish was to bring back horse racing to prominence after its abolition during the Civil War. The racetrack was a lavish affair with a grandstand seating 8000, a large dining room, a magnificent ballroom, polo, trapshooting and sleighing and skating in winter; the track also boasted clubhouse accommodations comparable to a luxury hotel. The Belmont Stakes, now at Belmont Raceway in Elmont, Nassau County, were held at this track between 1867 and 1890.
Jerome’s Brooklyn-born daughter, Jennie (1854-1921), was taken to Paris in 1867 by her mother to mingle with society; in 1874 she met Lord Randolph Churchill, they married, and their son, Winston, became England’s wartime prime minister.
The el, meanwhile, was constructed in stages and opened in 1917 and 1918. Most of Jerome Avenue is shrouded from sunlight by it, except for a southern stretch between the Macomb’s Dam Bridge and River Avenue, and a shorter stretch further north between East 198th Street and Bedford Park Boulevard.
Just as 5th Avenue (for the most part) is the divider between East and West numbered streets, Jerome Avenue assumes the same role in the Bronx. It was laid out as a plank road in 1874 and became a broad, tree-lined boulevard before the el arrived.
A wet November snow had fallen a few hours before I entered Van Cortlandt Park’s southeast corner at Jerome Avenue and Gun Hill Road.
Van Cortlandt Park is marked by rocky outcroppings made mostly of gneiss, a metamorphic rock with a distinctive banded texture. Streaks of mica can be found in the rocks, as well as quartz. Van Cortlandt Park’s Northwest Forest contains the park’s older-growth trees, featuring red, white and black oak, hickories, beech, cherry birch, sweetgum, red maple and of course, the incredibly tall and straight tulip trees. Fauna fans won’t be disappointed either as owls, bats, chipmunks, woodchucks and large gypsy moths, rabbits, raccoons, opossums and coyotes are all here and accounted for.
Van Cortlandt Park is divided by no fewer than three major roadways, the Henry Hudson Parkway, the Mosholu Parkway and the Major Deegan Expressway, yet is large enough to accommodate them all without losing its distinctive rural character. The 1997 John Muir Nature Trail as well as the Putnam Railroad and Croton Aqueduct Trails run through the park. It’s the Bronx’ second-largest park: Pelham Bay Park is NYC’s largest.
Gun Hill Road is nearly straight from Jerome Avenue east to the Hutchinson River Parkway, but it zigs and zags gently here to match the southern end of the park.
This, the west end of Gun Hill Road, or rather the west end of West Gun Hill Road, boasts several Moderne apartment houses similar to those arrayed along the Grand Concourse. What I admire most about them are the perpendicular corner windows.
No-barbecuing sign at Mosholu Parkway. These NYC Parks signs have a representation of a maple leaf with lettering in the Palatino font and are usually brown with gilt letters. Obviously though, the ones warning against fire hazards are colored red.
The past couple of decades have been a golden age for bicyclists in NYC as thousands of miles of bicycle lanes (protected and unprotected) have been added. The Gun Hill Road-Mosholu Parkway intersection also crosses the bike path associated with the Bronx Greenway, which runs from Van Cortlandt Park, southeast on Mosholu Parkway, Kazimiroff (Southern) Boulevard, Bronx Park East, and Pelham Parkway into Pelham Bay Park.
Mosholu Parkway, whose Native American name means “place of small stones.” I discuss both Mosholu and Pelham Parkways on this FNY page.
West Gun Hill Road’s western end is at Mosholu Parkway. However, a narrow. one-way road, Van Cortlandt Park South, runs along the park’s southern border west to Broadway, though it’s interrupted (see below).
St. Patrick’s Home, a facility for the aged and infirm, was founded by Carlemite Roman Catholic Sisters in 1929; this new building at the park’s edge was opened in 1989.
Gneiss is nice. Rock outcroppings like this, mainly composed of gneiss rock, were left as a glacier retreated thousands of years ago. In some cases they were dynamited to clear property, but in many of Manhattan’s parks from Central on north, and in Bronx parks as well, they were left in place as decorative elements. Don’t be surprised to see them in empty lots on side streets in upper Manhattan and the Bronx as well.
Between Mosholu Parkway and Gale Place, Van Cortlandt Park South has been given a set of retro Type F posts. This design, in a shorter, thinner-masted version, was mostly used on Manhattan side streets from 1910 to 1950 or so, but a newer, more robust design was commissioned by the Department of Transportation and has been used on 8th Street in Greenwich Village as well as Wyckoff and Metropolitan Avenues in Brooklyn and Queens.
Some of the Amalgamated Houses can be seen walking west along VCPS. I’ll quote from my notes for ForgottenTour #37, which explored this section of the Bronx in August 2009:
The Amalgamated was the first union-sponsored housing coopwerative in the United States, sponsored by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union under the leadership of Sidney Hillman (for whom Noble Avenue was renamed in 1950) and created by Abraham E. Kazan, “the founder of cooperative housing in the USA.” The first buildings between Sedgwick Avenue and Van Cortlandt Park South went under construction in 1927 and the latest additions were completed in 1970.
The structures were built inexpensively and with no frills, but they produced an attractive and comfortable environment for families and community interaction. Plus they had style. Similar to housing projects of today, they were a series of interconnecting high-rise buildings, organized around communal public space. But back then, the developer and the architect made an effort when it came to design. The public spaces were green spaces with paths, shaped gardens, and fountains. The buildings were designed in a Tudor style with large windows.
The houses are a remnant of a period (prior to a time when full knowledge of the butcheries of Joseph Stalin had become fully known and the totalitarian governments that had featured socialism were duly reviled) when Socialism and Communism were considered viable alternatives to the purely capitalist system espoused in the USA.
Amalgamated is one of 3 housing cooperatives in the northern Bronx created in the 1920s, along with the Sholem Aleichem Cooperative on Giles Place (we visited it on the tour) and the United Workers Cooperative Colony (Allerton Coops) which still displays the hammer and sickle symbol over some of its doorways.
For one block between Gale Place and Van Cortlandt Avenue West, Van Cortlandt Park South (yes, there are a lot of Van Cortlandt place names around here) is interrupted by a few flights of steps. Before the 1980s or so, VCPS was shown as a continuous line on most maps, but the grade is so steep here, I doubt this was ever a road open to motor traffic.
West of Van Cortlandt Avenue West, VCPS again becomes an important two-lane road. This photo, looking east, shows Van Cortlandt Avenue West on the right and the onramp to the Major Deegan Expressway on the left. You can also see the staircase.
The demise of the Deskey lamp has been greatly exaggerated. While they haven’t been manufactured for over 30 years, so many of them were built in NYC that it will take decades to replace them, though the ones whose parts don’t work anymore are removed. This one at VCPS and the Deegan is notable because it still has its unique-design orange fire alarm light cap at the top of the shaft, which itself does not light up anymore.
As Van Cortlandt Park South crosses the Major Deegan Expressway, it is also bridged over the “ghost tracks” of the old NY Central Putnam Railroad branch. This branch used to carry passenger traffic into Westchester County, though that was discontinued in 1958, with the line continuing as freight until about 1980. The right of way exists as a nature trail in Van Cortlandt Park, and the skeleton of the park’s RR station still stands. A more comprehensive history of the line can be found here.
The Major Deegan Expressway continues to the Bronx-Westchester border, where it becomes the NYS Thruway and runs to northern and western parts of the state. It is more properly known as the Thomas E. Dewey Thruway, after the midcentury mustachioed NYS governor who ran unsuccessfully for President against both FDR and Harry Truman.
Putnam Avenue West was apparently named for the railroad (it is located west of the railroad; there is no Putnam Avenue East).
West of the Deegan I found one of the largest unbroken expanses of concrete you’ll find in a NYC park, mysteriously circled with park benches. I’m stumped as to what Parks had in mind here. It’s accompanied by a park path called John Bachman Way, named for a former Bronx Parks Chief of Operations.
The south side of VCPS features the sprawling complex of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Church (most Catholics recognize the abbreviation “B.V.M.” The parish was established in 1928 but when the Deegan was constructed in the early 1950s, a new, aggressively Modernist church building was constructed in 1953 (I thought it looked much younger than that).
Many Catholic churches bear this name, which honors an incident found in the Gospel of Saint Luke in which Mary, pregnant with Jesus, visits her cousin Elizabeth, who is also pregnant with St. John the Baptist.
The church still has its old announcement board, perhaps left over from the older building.
A sculpture of the Visitation on the front lawn of the adjacent rectory makes it look as if the two cousins are trapped in a concrete slab.
This container, located on a side door of the church building, was probably used to dispense holy water (water blessed by a priest) but it looks suspiciously like an ashtray, and I imagine a number of people have assumed that as well.
Review Place runs north-south for a couple of blocks, ending at Van Cortlandt Park South. It is close to the park’s parade grounds and the name may have something to do with military marching bands making their way into the park. A similarly-named street in Blissville, Queens, Review Avenue, was home to processions on their way to the Calvary Cemetery gate.
Twin Oaks Triangle was built from a previously nondescript traffic triangle at VCPS and Broadway in 1989. The “twin oaks” are probably the ones on the right of the picture.
Just within the park entrance opposite Twin Oaks Triangle is a monument to a coyote found on the Major Deegan (after it was run over) in 2005, marking the first sighting of a coyote in NYC since 1946. Since then the wild canines have been reported, captured and set loose in less urban settings in several other locations around town, as they are apparently expanding their range.
Mention Broadway to an out-of-towner and the street’s elevated train, which shadows it from West 215th in Manhattan north to West 242nd in the Bronx isn’t the first thing that (s)he would think of. This is a historic route, though, as it was the first elevated branch built as the extension to a below-ground route. The original NYC subway ran from the now-closed City Hall station north, west and north again to Broadway at 145th Street in 1904, and was then extended in stages north, with the el part opening for business in 1908.
The Swiss chalet-style stations opened that year have stayed mostly intact.
West of Broadway, Gun Hill Road/Van Cortlandt Park South’s name changes once again to West 240th, which runs for a few blocks to Irwin Avenue. On the north side is one of NYC’s hidden soccer pitches, well-known to local clubs but not to the public at large, much like Ridgewood’s Metropolitan Oval. In 1926 the grounds were purchased by the Gaelic Athletic Association of Greater New York, which built a soccer field and a dance hall. This is also one of NYC’s little-known classic rock venues of the 1970s, as the Grateful Dead, Chicago, Edgar Winter, Johnny Winter, Jefferson Airplane, Allman Brothers Band, Ten Years After, Yes, ELP, Mountain, The Beach Boys, Humble Pie and Deep Purple all appeared here (pretty much the WPLJ-FM playlist in 1975).
The grounds were purchased by Manhattan College in 1991. The venue’s importance has dwindled in recent years, but it still is home to soccer, hurling and Gaelic football, both men’s and women’s teams. The dancehall/rock concert palace is now used for catering.
Having walked most of Gun Hill Road and the streets west of it, time to kick it in the head for another day, but not before noticing that some of the old ironwork from the West 238th Street station’s original days has been retained. The old potbelly stoves have been long replaced with electric radiators and Helvetica has replaced the old navy and white signs on the platforms.
2/8/15
59 comments
FNY fans as antique as I am may remember when the Third Avenue El crossed Williamsbridge, on Gun Hill Road, between the double-decked IRT station on White Plains Road and the 210th Street El station on Webster Avenue. The late Transit Historian Roger Arcara’s 30-minute video of Third Avenue El operations in The Bronx between 1955 and 1973 includes several sequences showing the El crossing Gun Hill:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pLUGijhwY0
Some viewers may have to scroll the YouTube page all the way “up” when it displays. For some reason, the page opens at the very bottom. I have no clue why. Sorry!
Reading about how Breyer’s Ice Cream no longer has vanilla particles in its ice cream reminded me of something. Am I the only one who has noticed that food companies are packaging their products in smaller containers? What we once knew as a half gallon of orange juice is now 58.5 ounces. What we thought is half gallon of Breyer’s is actually less than a half gallon! I could go on with this. And have you noticed that what we knew as Nabisco’s Vanilla Wafers are now known as “Nilla Wafers”. Why are they called Nilla Wafers? That’s because the ingredient list no longer list VANILLA as an ingredient.
Now back to Breyer’s Ice Cream. If you look at their packing, they no longer call it ICE CREAM. It’s instead called FROZEN DESERT. It’s bad enough they got rid of the vanilla particles, but they cut back on the cream! Well, I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!
Not to ruin the nostalgic party here, but Nabisco’s Nilla Wafers have always been named as such; Nilla is the brand name. It’s the generic brands that call themselves Vanilla Wafers. And Nilla Wafers have always used synthetic vanillin.
Interestingly, the Parks maple leaf is neither a maple leaf nor a similar looking sycamore leaf. It’s a generic leaf that sort of looks like both.
I never knew that the old, ubiquitous store signs were called “privilege signs;” I miss them along with the fake blinds on many windows. I remember the El on Gun Hill Rd and rode it in 1971 and just before it closed in April 1973. GHR between the Deegan and DeKalb Av are very familiar, we traveled that stretch 100’s of times going to my Grand Parents who lived on DeKalb Av. The stores on Gun Hill between Jerome Av and DeKalb Av in the 1960s are forever etched in my mind – there were privilege signs on stores for Coke, Breyers and 1-Hour Martinizing, there was a Community Center (Run by Montefiore?), there was a store which went back and forth between being a Carvel and a Card Store. There was a Bar/Restaurant at Jerome along with an AID Auto Parts store and an Eyeglass/Optometrist Store on the 3 remaining corners.
Question: What is the large building with the radio tower which is reminiscent of the old RKO Radio Pictures opening logo?
Not a direct answer, but local legend had it that the original St Patricks Nursing Home (mentioned in this blog) on Van Cortlandt Park South was actually the first home of RKO. Who knows?
The tall red brick building with the antenna on top was constructed as “Montefiore Apartments II” during the time I grew up in the neighborhood, (the first such apartment tower was constructed on Bainbridge Avenue near 210th St) intended to provide modern housing for staff at the hospital.
The antenna tower on top has an interesting, recent history. W-F-U-V, the radio station at Fordham University, won permission some years back to boost its signal. It began erecting its tower on campus, which caused a lot of opposition from supporters of the Botanical Garden who didn’t want it to spoil the views there. Constructed was halted for a time; eventually it was arranged to put the WFUV tower on top of Montefiore Apartments II.
I grew up in the neighborhood also. Do you remember the barber shop on corner of Rochambeau and Gun Hill? He used to sell postage stamps also. It is strange to see the photos. It brings back memories Irwin, Do you remember me? Ira Berkowitz
I got my haircut all the time when I was a kid. It was near the A&P
Irwin Gratz, three years have passed since you commented on the radio tower on what we referred to as “the doctor’s building” so the chance you will see this comment are small. My twin brother and I were good friends to your younger brother Mark. We attended PS 94 with Mark,classmates in the 1 class before we moved to California after graduating from 5th grade in June,1971. We also did Cub Scouts through Webelos with Mark at Montefiore Community Center. I can remember your apartment as we joined Mark after school numerous times over the years.
Additionally, your father prepared my father’s tax returns until we moved to Los Angeles.
Hope life has been kind to you and your brother.
sincerely,
Bill(Billy and David) Gralitzer
Third Ave. & 149 St aka The Hub. I remember it well. I worked in the neighborhood from 1972-74. The South Bronx was a government sponsored disaster area, if you know what I mean. I worked at the NYC DSS office, which was very busy thanks to too many misguided government schemes. It was quite a learning experience for me, much more so than college. One of the few highlights of my tenure there was a family owned Italian restaurant on 149th St complete with tiled floor & pressed tin ceiling. The waiter looked like Fred Gwyne; his mother did all the cooking, which was superb. Most of the customers worked in the Court House on the Concourse, Lincoln Hospital, or DSS. My fortunes changed in the Spring of 1974 & I departed for a better opportunity at 2 World Trade Center & I never went back (arsonists had destroyed most of it by then). Unfortunately, it was another one of those government schemes, one that the Social Security actuaries say will be insolvent by 2016. Thanks, once again, for the memories.
Heck of a lot of research went into this and I truly enjoyed re-visiting the hometown we left in 1992. I was hoping to spot the 50th Precinct (where I once worked). I can still smell the delicious aromas from “Stella D’Oro.” Also no mention of “Te Amo’s” on White Plains Rd. and Gun Hill, where I got my “Daily News” before climbing the steps to the train station on my way to work in Manhattan before retiring. Missed the restaurant where a scene of the “Godfather” was filmed; also on Gun Hill and White Plains Rd. Is the Russian Embassy in Riverdale still there? We left my Mom and Dad and Sister at the Woodlawn Cemetery in the company of many famous people. However, these are the personal memories of an 80 year old, but you have refreshed them. Thank you.
Yes, the Russian embassy is still in Riverdale.Te Amo is also still there (not sure if it’s still called that). The wonderful smell of Stella D’Oro used to waft up the hill during track practice. I so miss that.
Rose… We called it Evader Sweet Shop and the ‘Godfather’ restaurant was Louie’s. My memories as a child(1950s-1960s) rising my grandparents on E213 and various other relatives in the projects across from the Sweet Shop. A great time now long gone.
typo–That’s ‘visiting.’ !
I lived in the Gun Hill Projects from when it first opened in 1950-1969. Evander Sweet Shop was the place to go for ice cream sodas. Fred’s Barber Shop was in a building on Gun Hill Road just south of White Plains Road. Haircuts were $1.50. The building is still there and was there long before the projects were built. Also there was a department of health station just south of Gun Hill under the elevated El.
Should read east of White Plains Rd for location of the Barber Shop.
I gre up in the Gun hill Projects..attended Evander Chiled High School.TeAmo was the stationery and sweets store on the corner of White pLains and Gun Hill….., and yes Louie’s was under the el, where the famous Godfather scene was shot….great times, miss the old days…
I lived on Decatur Avenue at Gun Hill Road. Woodlawn Cemetery was at the end of Decatur and in those days we would go on a walk with our date through the cemetery or go the other way and walk through the Botanical Gardens sometimes walking as far as the Bronx Zoo. On White Plains Rd just past Gun Hill Rd going west there was the best Italian Pastry shop like no other … delizioso . I can smell it now. I got my wedding cake there.
Louie’s should’ve become a tourist destination after The Godfather opened. Instead it closed before the movie’s release, the owner fleeing town in debt to local loan sharks. No Kidding!
Michael C.
Perhaps one of the main reasons that Visitation church looks much younger than 1953 is the fact that it was remodeled back in the early 70s.
So why am I an octogenarian before FNY surprises me with the news that the stretch of Gun Hill Road between White Plains Road and Webster Avenue traverses four separate bridges? I always thought “Williamsbridge” covered the whole distance.
Thanks, Kevin. You keep on amazing us!
The four stacks of Ritz Crackers in a standard box of Ritz are all an inch shorter than they once were.
However, there are still 18 Mallomars in a box of Mallomars. If that ever changes, watch out for the apocalypse’s asteroid!
[Mallomars are almost impossible to buy anywhere west of the Appalachians, where exiled New Yorkers barely survive, but one can smuggle some through Amazon. I count every last one!]
“Gun Hill Road intersects three subway or el lines and each has a Gun Hill Road station.”
I can think of the 5 train stop on the Dyre Ave. Line and the 2 train stop on the White Plains Rd. line. What’s the third?
Well, you have me there because I thought the #4 Mosholu Parkway station was named Gun Hill Road.
The photo of the candy store on the corner of Hull Ave and Gun Hill Road brings back great memories for me as I lived on Hull Ave – right next to the cemetery – and would make almost daily visits to the candy store for lime rickeys, egg creams, capgun rolls and and candies. I went in there about ten years ago and remarkably the place was little changed. Back in the 50′ s it was jammed floor to ceiling with every imaginable toy, candy, cards, etc. Now it is more spare but the soda fountain was still there ! Right next door was a great pizza joint which has long since closed. My favorite memory of walking to PS 94 which was on Kings College Place (and is still there but has a different name) was stopping by the appetizer store which was about three stores form the corner where I made the right to go to school. On the way home, I would stop by and even as a 6 year old you could negotiate with the owner for a nickel or even penny pickle and if you had a dime – forgetaboutit.
Hi Paul,
I grew up in a second floor apartment at 245 E. Gunhill Road, and went to PS 94. Then on to PS 80 on Mosholu Parkway. I remember Green’s Candy Store across from the vacant lot where we went sleigh riding in the winter. Greens had a marble counter, great malted milk shakes and pretzels. Loads of comic books, and booths where you could read the comics and then put them back in the rack. Gunhill Road was sunny, with many trees on each side and safe to stay out after super to play potsie, A-my-Name-Is….with my Spalding, jump rope and roller skating. Don’t forget your skate key!! The Reservoir Oval was clean and beautiful.
After graduating from Music and Art HS in 1954, we moved to Florida. Thank you for this wonderful presentation of my childhood memory.
I lived on the 5th floor of 272 E. Gun Hill Rd. in the 70’s. My window overlooked the Oval Park. I used to play there all the time. I went to P.S. 94 then onto P.S. 76 when I moved to the, at the time, NEW Tilden Towers. I remember the corner stores, the barber shop, and the A&P. We used to hangout in Woodlawn and walk the back roads to DeKalb. Fun Times.
I lived on the 6th floor of 245 from 1965 to 1976
Debbie, did you know the Kaufman family that lived in apt 4g in the 60’s to the early 70’s? Jack,Marilyn,David,Steven,and Michael? They were our families closest friends and have been for almost 60 years. They moved to New City back in 1972.
We lived at 215 E. Gun Hill Rd,one block west of you:The building with Larry and Lori’s luncheonette on the corner of Tryon and E.Gun Hill.
Paul,
I was born and raised to age 5 on 3524 Hull Ave. I remember the candy store on the corner and a vague recollection of a small vineyard across from my building, probably in someone’s backyard. I attended P.S. 94 for kindergarten and was in Miss Joyce’s class in 1951-2.
Loved reading your memoir !
Steven
I lived at 316 east 211,st in the 50ties . I am 78 years old and I still remember all the stores from weather ave to Jerome ave on gun hill . Those were the beat times of my life
Hi Kevin: Actually, the East River is not an estuary. It is a tidal strait, linking New York Bay with Long Island Sound.
The reason the holy water dispenser looks like an ashtray is because it is not a holy water dispenser…it is an ashtray.
They were very common in the 70’s and 80’s – and maybe long before that. The smoker would put out their butts in the top part of the device. The picture shows that this one only has one half of the ‘clam shell’ that made up the top part of unit. The idea was that after the butts had cooled completely, you would push something on the upper rim and the clam shell would open up and the butts and ash would drop to the bottom. Eventually, you had to clean out the bottom by lifting it out of the holder and dumping it.
Kids would sometimes push the top, dropping a still smoldering butt into the bottom, which would set the other butts to smoldering. They thought it was great fun to have this smoldering mass stink up the surrounding area.
They are still available from Rubbermaid: https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/outdoor-grounds-maintenance/outdoor-ashtrays/wall-mount/wall-mount-well-urn-aluminum-9-5-w-x-8-h-x-9-5-d
Yes, it is an ashtray
Holy Water fonts are found inside the church.
In 1995, there was a bar across the street from Montefiore on GHR, with cleverest name: The Recovery Room. Not too far was a store called Pearl Pharmacy, that also dealt Lionel Trains.
Love this site. Thank you for the memories.
Great story..BTW–The Gaelic Park rock concerts ran between 1970-1972(I may be off a year). They were long gone by 1975. Classic concerts, some broadcast live on WNEW FM(?). Also- 1954’s great flick, Marty(Ernest Borgnine) has a scene at the GunHill Station(White Plains Rd & Gun Hill). Frank Sutton(Gomer Pyle) also in that scene. Just opposite what was Babbit’s Hardware. Great memories.
It was Babbins hardware. I lived across the street in what would later become a pretty famous building. it was 3531 White Plains Road. AKA . Louis Italian American restaurant. Alla, The Godfather execution scene. by Micheal Corleone Played by one of my favorite actors Al Pacino . In the scene you can see my bedroom window with the light on right above the restaurant.
Very interesting and informative, although it seems wrong to me given the subject and all the names mentioned that there’s no mention of the visionary French engineer who conceived of the boulevard. The Grand Concourse was conceived in 1890 by Louis Aloys Risse, a French immigrant and chief topographical engineer of New York City. There is a street named in his honor, Risse Street.
In such an in-depth article of so many streets named in honor of so many people it is a gross injustice to not mention Louis A. Risse. It’s a bit personal also, I’m Louis’ great-granddaughter.
Since its opening in 1909, The Grand Concourse has become “the Bronx’s most famous street,” connecting Manhattan to the North Bronx.
I grew up on hull avenue from 65 to 75, moved there when I was 3, corner of gun hill rd, the corner ice cream shops owner was Murray and a pizza store next door, had pinball, my first paying job, delivering pizza which I dropped upside down, but still delivered. Decatur ave, perry ave was our rivals, we would travel as far as Webster along banbridge up to Jerome and the front side of Woodlawn cemetery as we grew. “The Oval” was our patch of grass. Family came from Arthur avenue so we traveled there often. Remember the first Mickey d’s on banbridge when it opened. Movie theaters we used to sneak into and then under stage to get another movie in.
Maury’s birthday and my birthday was same day. Every year I would a a free cream soda. Pizza place pinball was the hangout
Great Site!
I lived at 250E. Gun hill Rd for the time of my birth, 1950, until 1954. My grandfather ran a small laundry across the street, The Gun Hill Laundry, which my father then worked at with my uncle. We all moved up to Rye, NY along with the business in ’54. Although my twin brother and I were only 4 when we moved out, we both shared vivid memories of Oval Park and Van Cortland Park. I also remember careening down the sidewalk on a tricycle near an A & P and somehow managing to climb over the fence surrounding the Oval at the age of 3 or 4. Yikes! There was a delicatessen on the ground level of the apartment building and possibly a toy store. Additionally, my father had lived at 250 when he was a kid (1930’s) and went to DeWitt Clinton.
I have been back several times and can recognize many architectural details of the surrounding apartment buildings. I am a retired architect so that may help, but those are such formative years, it is not surprising.
2 blocks north of Gun hill rd on WhitePlains Rd was LOUIES Restaurant where Michael Corleone killed Solazzo and the police Captain. You can hear the 5/2 train pulling out of the station as Michael departs.
Yes and the waiter in the scene is Louie! They filmed that scene in the early morning hours. My aunt lived in the projects and talked about all the activity/lights catching her attention from her 5th floor apt.
I have VERY warm memories of the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx. Born on Carpenter ave. Grandparents on E213th street-spent many a weekend(after moving to Jersey)visiting.(1960’s-1970’s). Took a drive through in the 90’s before moving to Florida. Sad-didn’t recognize ‘the avenue.'(WPR). Will never forget it. Great to see these pics yet sad in a way. I’m sure most of you know the feeling.. You only get to live it once and can only ‘go back’ on sites like this. Thanks.
JUST FOUND THIS – LIVED AT 3515 ROCHAMBEAU CORNER OF GUN HILL
FROM 1940 – 1962 ===DID P.S.#94 – JHS #80 – EVANDER CHILDS AND
HUNTER IN THE BX….THEN TO CONCOURSE VILLAGE AND LEFT FOR
FLORIDA IN 1969 – NOW IN WPB….THE WORLD KEEPS CHANGING…
THANKS FOR ‘THE MEMORIES,,,
Doris, Lived on corner of Decatur Ave and Gun Hill Rd. Went to PS 94 in the 40’s, then JHS 80 until 1956, then Evander Childs HS,(should have went to Hunter with my friends), graduated in 1959. A few years later moved to California. Just had to respond to your post. Carole
Someone may have mentioned it on this blog but in case they haven’t…for a real trip down memory lane..watch the 1954 Oscar nominated movie, ‘Marty.(Ernest Borgnine). Much of it filmed along White Plains Road. Clear footage of the station at Gun Hill and WPR, as well as many stores such as Babbits Hardware(owned by my aunts step father at the time), etc. Lots of familiar landmarks in the movie. Shot during a time when people were out walking and socializing on a Saturday night on the avenue long after dark. Great site.
Hello everyone, especially the author. I grew up in the Bronx in the 1970s. My sisters and I used to walk from E. 220th street to PS 41 everyday. Past Louies and the Evander sweet shop and Angelos produce. I also remember the Black Spades and getting jumped in the Bronx Park near Botanical Gardens. I loved all the architechure around there.
To this day I am terrified of the Bronx and the memories of crime I grew up with. The author must be incredibly brave to walk those streets to do the research He did.
what a great article! thanks for the info! I learned so much. I grew up on Gun hill and Laconia lived right there on the corner, in the 4 story apartment building posted above.
My uncle owned the building in the 70’s and 80’s along with “Colwells Driving School”, Which has now moved to the other corner of the block. ( after my uncles supposedly best friend cleverly stole the building right from under him that’s another story. ( Battle of the driving schools ).
I lived there for about 25 years. ( till 1998 ) I went to PS 76 and then to Olinville JHS. Unfortunately I didn’t go to high school, i already had rough times in olinville , so mom wouldn’t send me to Evander HS ( white girl blonde hair here lol ) not that it mattered to me but my safety did. Wow, I would go every where using either the 2 or 5 train. Skate key on Allerton was the hang out every weekend! what great times there. Allerton movie theater and shakes/egg creams at ” Hoffs”. Take the bus shopping on fordham best place to shop. around 17 I found ” La Mirage ” club and i was there every saturday… shout out ..kool Mike ski 😉
of course since i lived across the street i played many video games and pool and the ” Cue Lounge”. hot summers spent at “Tibbetts Pool” or on my roof called ” Tar Beach” we had mini kids pool, tennis table, pet rabbit cage, garden with tomatoes , it was awesome. I many great years in that building on Gunhill. wow cant believe there is STILL a pay phone there. I used to receive calls on that phone , and knew how to make free calls too what memories lol. thank you so much!! great job!
Wow Debbie. My great aunt and uncle owned(or managed) that building in the 50’s/60’s. He had a small appliance repair shop on that corner.
Don’t know if I’m posting twice..but…my great aunt and uncle managed that building on the corner of Laconia and Gun Hill in the 50’s/60’s. He had a small appliance repair shop on the ground floor corner. Small world.
I lived in the Tilden Towers apartment house across the street north of Evander Childs High School in the 1960’s. I remember that prior to the apartment building there was a declivity in the ground and an Italian family’s house was located there with a garden and goats in the yard. It was a picturesque remnant of an earlier age. In the late 1950’s or early 60’s there was a riot after an Evander Childs/Dewitt Clinton football game. Max Siegel was Evander’s principal. Windows were vandalized at Immaculate Conception Church and Louie’s (Evander Sweet Shop) and some single family homes. It resulted in the termination of football at Evander Childs for many years
When I was young, the tale was told that the Gun Hill Road was used to transport weapons. More accurately, on August 24, 1775 cannon were removed from New York City to a hill north of the Valentine-Varian House, for safeguarding. In 1776 some of the cannon were spiked by Tories on January 17, repaired by March, and removed by August. The local residents were calling the area “cannon hill” or “gun hill” (see Lloyd Ultan’s “LEGACY OF THE REVOLUTION: THE VALENTINE VARIAN HOUSE” 1983). In the front yard of the Valentine-Varian house, located on Bainbridge Avenue, south of Gun Hill Road, is a Civil War Soldier Statue that for many years was located in the Bronx River immediately south of the Gun Hill Road bridge from about 1895 until 1965.
Hello. A nice trip back to the past mixed with the present but i was surprised there was no mention of the Pink Lady, an “infamous” bar
on the corner of Gunhill and Webster, which sponsored a championship-winning softball team in the mid 60s. And almost cattycorner across from the bar was an all-night “greasy spoon,” where you could always get the most delicious tasting hamburgers after a night at the Pink Lady.
I grew up in the 50s off Gun Hill Rd and Allerton, specifically Seymour Ave and Morgan Avenues. I remember as a kid riding bikes with my best friend, Ginny, to go to “Arthur’s Candy Store’ on the corner of Allerton, and I think, Seymour.
Does anyone remember that store? I remember getting big fat milkshakes at the counter, and then getting all that delicious penny candy in the back of the store, and buying a Nancy Drew book on the paperback spinners
I grew up in the 40s and 50s on Tryon Avenue between gun hill and Woodlawn cemetery where my family uis now buried. Went to PS 94 then on to JHS80. Would always play at Reservoir Oval. My mother in law lived on Reservoir Oval during WwI and would tell stories of flirting with the soldiers who then guarded the reservoir from enemy poisoning attacks.. Many happy memories of the deli opposite kings college place. Fabulous hot dogs, French fries and pickles. Haunted Louie’s candy store at corner of Tryon and GHR. South side of gun hill were still Victory gardens (community gardens from WWII. My grandfather took me for a ride on the trolley on Jerome Avenue between mosholu and woodlawn…shortly before it was dismantled 1948(?). Worked at a&p on corner of perry Ave and went to Murray’s for break. Married at st. Anne’s. Those days the streets were friendly and all tree lined. Great place to grow up.