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East Bay Avenue
LEFT: Hunts Point Avenue near Drake Park. I did mention this was the Bronx Iron Triangle. RIGHT: New York Recycling Ventures, East Bay and Longfellow Avenues, which recycles between 60 and 80,000 tons a year. I missed the lengthy Longfellow Avenue mural, but the NY Daily News didn't.
The city has been diligent in replacing Triborough Bridge signs to Robert F. Kennedy Bridge signs, even way out here in Hunt's Point. RIGHT: East Bay Avenue and Faile Street.
Death of a Diner
Apparently, the torch has been put to a pair of classic Hunt's Point diners quite recently as of March 2009. Michael Engle and Mario Monti's Diners of New York, published in 2008 by Stackpole Books, treats the East Bay at East Bay Avenue and Faile Street as if it were still open, giving out its phone number. Walking past, though, it looks as if it has been closed for more than a year. Some of its old trim remains. It was built by the Kullman diner manufacturer in 1955 (above left photo shows it as it was). We'll see another deceased classic diner a little later on. The auto wrecker next door is still hanging in.
End of the Bronx
Approaching the East River, the streets become more and more barren, at least on the weekend. There is heavy industry, some manufacturing, and also toxic waste disposal and sewage treatment (seen below). This is the corner of Viele Avenue and Coster Street; Viele Avenue was named for General Egbert Lodovicus Viele (1825-1902), an Army engineer who produced the first draft of what would become Central Park. He was, of course, replaced on the project by Frederick Olmsted and Calvert Vaux.
Viele's relevance here is that he also was among the first to conceive of Hunt's point as a potential port and commercial center under the name East Bay Corporation, hence that street name. This, too, did not work out; but Viele's map of Manhattan's waterways and streams, produced in 1874, is still in use by engineers and builders today.
LEFT: On the south side of Ryawa Avenue is the Hunts Point Sewage Treatment Plant, constructed in 1951. It is not quite as dramatic as Greenpoint's Anareobic Digestion Boobs.
The Bronx is dotted with odd street names like Yznaga and Ryawa. It's likely that "Ryawa" is simply an anagram for one of Viele's projects, Railway and Water Association or perhaps, Railroad Yard and Warehouse Area.
Barretto Point Park
Barretto Point Park was constructed in 2007 on 5 acres of East River waterfront at Viele Avenue and Tiffany Street; its presence is heartening in that even in NYC's most out-of-the-way, visitor-unfriendly areas, a brand-new park with views of the towering Manhattan skyscrapers is available. There is even a beach ("La Playita"), but in March, no Bronx bathing beauties were in evidence.
Hopefully this will be your webmaster's only close approach to Riker's Island.
Using the zoom lens, I photographed North Brother Island from the park. Look closely and you can just about make out the top of one of the abandoned hospital buildings on the island. In 1886, Riverside Hospital was built here that treated and quarantined people with contagious illnesses. Its mission expanded to include other diseases such as TB, typhus, typhoid fever, and polio. The most famous patient was "Typhoid Mary" Mallon (1869-1938), who was perfectly healthy herself but was a virulent carrier of typhoid fever. After infecting several people between 1900-1907 Mallon was quarantined on North Brother but released on the condition she not work with food. However, she inflicted typhoid fever on 25 others, and was returned to North Brother Island, this time for life. The ill-fated General Slocum tour boat grounded here after catching fire in the East River in June 1904, taking the lives of over 1000, most Lower East Side German immigrants on a church picnic.
South Brother Island was used by early 20th Century Yankee owner Colonel Jacob Ruppert for several years as a personal resort island. The immortal Babe Ruth was known to practice his swing, walloping baseballs into the East River. I'm not sure if anything from Ruppert's era remains there. Both islands are now protected bird sanctuaries, but they do attract several intrepid urban explorers, such as ForgottenFans K. Jacob Ruppert (a descendant of the Colonel's) and Marie Lorenz and Moses Gates.
Both Brothers can be seen from Barretto's fishing pier, part of an old ferry dock.
The Midland Steel Warehouse Corporation operates out of several buildings in southwest Hunt's Point, including this densely windowpaned building on Oak Point Avenue and Worthen Street.
Imagine my surprise to find, across the street on Oak Point Avenue, a pair of Redbird subway cars, R-33 #8912 and 8913, on a short section of elevated rail! This is the NYCTA Tiffany Street Iron Shops, a training site for el structure maintainers. The el here is a replica complete with station platforms for training purposes. I was sure to photograph from the Oak Point Avenue median, to avoid any hassle from the security guard.
The Tiffany Yards are part of the Oak Point Yards, a repair facility -- freight facility connected to the Fresh Pond Yards in Queens by the NY Connecting Railroad.
There was one more surprise to be seen here at the Tiffany Yards -- an old station marker stanchion has been placed at the entrance. These used to be quite common in the five boroughs but only a couple of them are still in place...
At far left we see one, no longer standing, on Park Avenue at the Grand Central Terminal overpass, with the IRT blue indicator light. RIGHT, the West 190th Street station on Fort Washington Avenue near Fort Tryon Park.
Along Tiffany Street near Oak Point Avenue. This was the first restaurant I had seen on my trip, other than the burnt diners. RIGHT: the winged wheel wasn often used to mark garage facilities in the early 20th Century.
Celeste Diner, Leggett Avenue and Barry Street. Again, the aforementioned diner book mentioned the Celeste as being open in 2008. It was a 1960 Kullman. Photo right: Bridge and Tunnel Club
The Curse Of Your Webmaster: Several establishments I have frequented over the years have recently met with gruesome consequences. The Tibbett Diner in Riverdale, The Waterfront Crabhouse in Hunter's Point, and Totonno's of Coney Island have all suffered severe fire damage in 2008-2009. Of course, Chumley's, the Greenwich Village tavern where the ForgottenBook Party was held, suffered a wall collapse in 2007 and is slowly rebuilding.
The massive American Bank Note building can be glimpsed from Barry Street and Leggett Avenue. The street is named for Commodore John Barry, the "Founder of the American Navy." RIGHT: hand painted sign, Barry and Leggett.
Jacob Froehlich Millworks, established 1865, Barry Street between Leggett and Oak Point Avenues. Their building doesn't appear to have been built in 1865 (looks more 1900-1910-ish to me) but it's a gem-- a stolid brick factory with heavy window lintels in a region otherwise populated by low-rise garage facilities.
Preparing to leave Hunt's Point for now, we cross over the Amtrak tracks on the second classic 1906 truss bridge seen today, this one supporting Leggett Avenue. Oddly I found no lamps of any kind on the bridge -- it must be dark at night. When I passed under the bridge riding Amtrak, I had noticed that the masts once carried either crescent-moon or rad-wave incandescent luminaires, but these, too, have disappeared.
Southern Boulevard and Leggett Avenue. I have noticed on Bronx strolls, throughout the borough, that large apartment buildings located at busy intersections are often rounded, not angled as they are in other boroughs.
Anyone know how this came about? Are there bylaws for construction in the Bronx that necessitated this?
Former Ace Theatre, also known as the Congress, Southern Boulevard between East 149th and Avenue St. John. Surprisingly the commenters at Cinematreasures didn't know much about its history; can any Bronxites fill me in?
If you liked HUNT'S POINT, you'll like her sister, LONGWOOD
