Recent station “improvements” and modernizations recently (12/13) claimed the remaining Mott Avenue mosaic signs at the #2 train station at 149th Street (years ago, its “NY Central” mosaic signs that pointed to a now-Metro-North station a few blocks away were spackled over).
Mott Avenue, which ran between East 138th and East 161st in southern Bronx, was absorbed by the Grand Concourse in the 1920s. Its legacy hasn’t completely disappeared, though; a substation at street level is still marked “Mott Avenue.”
The avenue, and the neighborhood of Mott Haven, are named for the 19th-Century Bronx industrialist Jordan L. Mott, whose name can still be seen on iron vents and some manhole covers around town.
12/12/13