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Summit Place is another road that looks down on a deep valley. We've seen the 50th Police Precinct building at Summit Place and Kingsbridge Terrace before in FNY, so I thought I'd show you some detail this time -- I can't not photograph it when I go by, though I can never find a time when full sun is shining on it. It was completed in 1902 by architects Arthur Horgan and Vincent Slattery. Note the inscription above the door: "50th" seems to have been added later,a and indeed it was because this was originally the 40th Precinct building. As the 1923 atlas shows, it has also been the 57th Precinct. These days, the grandeur is put to use as a community center.

WAYFARING: VAN CORTLANDT VILLAGE/KINGSBRIDGE HEIGHTS

Summit Place homes, between Kingsbridge Terrace and Heath Avenue. At Heath Avenue the grade is too steep for a road, so a step street suffices between Heath and Bailey Avenues. There is an interesting bit of survival here, and it naturally involves lampposts.

The lamp stanchions on the Summit Place steps are unique in the city. Of course, you know this by checking your copy of The System Electric Companies: Photographs of Street Lighting Equipment as of November 1934, where you would find these are Type 35s and they are "Special Posts -- Summit Place, Bronx." There were once over 300 different cast-iron and wrought-metal lampposts styles in NYC, but this is a rare survivor.

South on Heath Avenue. I give you 2009 (left) and 1909 (right). I know when I'd rather be, that is, if you could have TV, vaccinations and rock and roll in 1909. ( I have no idea what I'd listen to if I were alive in 1909. Classical and opera put me to sleep; I should listen to them after going to bed. I probably would have gone to J.P. Sousa concerts and other martial music.

Albany

Let's walk in a circle for awhile -- Albany Crescent, to be specific. This unusual path describes about a 180 degree circle from Kingsbridge Terrace west, north and northeast to Bailey Avenue and West 233rd Street. In colonial times this was a junction between the Albany Post Road and Boston Post Road, which continued on to their respective cities. In the Bronx, Van Cortlandt Avenue East and Boston Road northeast of Bronx Park overlay the path of the old Boston Post Road, while the Albany Post road is a bit harder to find -- a little bit of it can be seen west of Broadway from West 251st to 252nd streets in Riverdale (seen on this FNY Bronx Broadway page) and a lengthy, 6.6 mile stretch is preserved in Philipstown in upstate Putnam County.

Engine 81, Ladder 46 at Albany Crescent and Bailey Avenue. RIGHT: looks like an IPod ad but it's really for an energy drink.

ABOVE LEFT: frame houses, Albany Crescent south of West 233rd. The Major Deegan Expressway was actually built under the crescent -- note the steel beams that hold it up at West 231st Street. There is an overlook south of West 231st, but every dog in the neighborhood has been there. The Deeg connects the Triboro (RFK) Bridge with the New York State Thruway and was built in sections from 1935-1956.

Is there an Irish pocket in Kingsbridge Heights as in Riverdale and Woodlawn? Randall Og's and the Piper's Kilt face each other across West 231st at Albany Crescent.

The apartment at West 231st and Albany Crescent reminds me of the Shively Tenements (right) on East 77th Street and Cherokee Place in Manhattan, constructed to rehabilitate tuberculosis patients. I suspect the resemblance is coincidental.

Buddhist temple, 3075 Albany Crescent

Bailey Avenue

The turreted building at West 231st and 3072 Bailey Avenue was constructed, according to real estate records, in 1915, but looks older than that. It's one of my favorites in the neighborhood. I know nothing more about it, but the good news is...

...is that it seems at last to be undergoing a thorough restoration. Look at the detail on the wraparound porch, with the trefoils, etc.

A pair of longstanding churches face each other across Bailey Avenue: St. Nektarios Eastern Orthodox, and Kingsbridge Evangelical Lutheran at Summit Place. Nektarios, born Nektarios Kephalas (1846-1920) is a latter-day saint, recognized by Constantinople in 1961.

The attached houses on Bailey next to the Lutheran church seem quite old, perhaps 1900 or so. The one on the right contains the church parsonage.

Returning to Kingsbridge Terrace via Albany Crescent, of course I wondered how the red brick surface on West 230th, a block south, ws doing since I first Sliced it in April 2009.

I'm happy to report that the Department of Transportation has yet to discover this link to the past and present break from uniformity. It's only a matter of time before it gets a coat of asphalt so enjoy it while you can.

They are unmarked as such on maps, but West 230th ascends to Heath Avenue as a step street (above left) and West 229th (above right, left) crosses Kingsbridge Terrace as a step street.

Delirious Kingsbridge Heights

Between West 230th Street and Kingsbridge Road, some of Kingsbridge Terrace's modern-day veneer falls away and we enter a world of pure fantasy....

This castle redoubt at 2744 Kingsbridge Terrace guarded the realm against invading Riverdalians and the despised Norwooders. Boiling chicken fat was poured through the quatrefoil'd buttresses at any invader who chanced to mount a frontal assault. The castle was erected in 1914.

The AIA Guide to NYC weighs in: Close by the vast veterans' hospital [at 130 W. Kingsbridge Road] is this tiny monument, a stucco castle with numerous gables, balconies, crenellated turrets, a weathervane, a TV antenna, and a tunnel reputedly leading from the "dungeon" to the street.

Flanking the castle at 2744 are 2748 (above right) and 2730 (above left, below right). 2730's claim to fame is its adobe-style staircase.

The Cold Hard Facts of Life. Kingsbridge Terrace isn't a Landmarked District, so developers have been swooping in and delivering a brand of rough justice to the hill. These are across the street from the castle (left) and just south on the same side (right).

Time to call it a day. I followed Kingsbridge Road and West 225th Street to the Broadway el. We see the Broadway Bridge over the Harlem River (left) and the Marble Hill Houses on either side of the platform (right).