This is the first of a series of five in which I try to explicate as best I can the names of the neighborhoods of each borough. Some of them are easily inferrable, while some of them have to be ferreted out, Holmes-like. Tackling the Bronx first, the only mainland borough…
The Riverdale Memorial Tower, Riverdale Avenue and Henry Hudson Parkway
RIVERDALE, NORTH RIVERDALE, SOUTH RIVERDALE
In the mid-19th Century the Spaulding, Dodge, Goodrich and other families (whose names ended up on area street maps) embarked on a real estate venture, calling it Riverdale because of the numerous brooks, streams and meadows in the hilly region.
Fieldston Road north of Manhattan College Parkway
FIELDSTON
The community, many of whose streets are private (I was discouraged from running a tour there by the neighborhood watch) , is north of Manhattan College, east and south of the Henry Hudson Parkway and west of Broadway. The area was purchased and subsequently developed by Major Joseph Delafield in 1829; he named it for his estate in England.
Edgehill Church, Independence Avenue near Kappock Street
SPUYTEN DUYVIL
This neighborhood tucked at the confluence of the Harlem and Hudson Rivers under the Henry Hudson Bridge has been known as Speight den Duyvil, Spike & Devil, Spitting Devil, Spilling Devil, Spiten Debill and Spouting Devil, among other spellings. In Dutch, “spuyten duyvil,” the mostly-accepted spelling these days, can be pronounced two ways; one pronunciation means “devil’s whirlpool” and the other means “spite the devil.”
In Washington Irving’s Knickerbocker History, a Dutch bugler vows to swim the turbulent waters of (then) Spuyten Duyvil Creek where it meets the Hudson during the British attack on New Amsterdam in the 1660s “en spijt den Duyvil,” or in “spite of the devil.” The Lenape Indians inhabited the land for hundreds of years before Europeans arrived; they called the banks of the creek “shorakapok” or “sitting-down place”. After a few hundred years, the name has been pared down and exists as a street name: Kappock (pronounced kay’ pock).
In the early 20th Century Spuyten Duyvil Creek was dredged and made deeper in order to allow commercial vessels to access the Hudson River via the Harlem River, which took over the creek’s route. This process first made the Manhattan neighborhood of Marble Hill and island, and later part of the mainland — the only bit of Manhattan found there.
The former 50th Precinct building, looking down Summit Place at Kingsbridge Terrace
KINGSBRIDGE and KINGSBRIDGE HEIGHTS
These neighborhoods take their names from a vanished bridge that spanned a rerouted creek. The story of the King’s Bridge can be found on a grime-encrusted plaque on one of the Marble Hill Houses, on Broadway just south of West 230th Street. The plaque is devilishly hard to read, since it’s out of range of sight from the street; you have to climb the short fence or walk around it. The plaque reads:
“Northwest of this tablet within a distance of 100 feet stood the original Kings Bridge and its successors from 1693 until 1913 when Spuyten Duyvil Creek was filled up.
“Over it marched the troops of both armies during the American Revolution and its possession controlled the land approach to New York City.
“General George Washington rested at Kings Bridge the night of June 26, 1776 while en route from Philadelphia to Cambridge to assume command of the Continental Army.
“This tablet was erected by the Empire State Society Sons of the American Revolution, June 27, 1914.”
Frederick Philipse built the first King’s Bridge, a tolled span over Spuyten Duyvil Creek, in 1693. Benjamin Palmer and Jacob Dyckman built a second bridge in 1759 to avoid paying the high tolls charged by Philipse. During his retreat from the Battle of Harlem Heights in 1776, General George Washington used both the King’s Bridge and Palmer and Dyckman’s free bridge to escape to White Plains. The original King’s Bridge has inspired a network of roads in Manhattan and the Bronx, some surviving, some not, named for it. The span survived till the excavations for the Harlem Ship Canal between 1913 and 1916.
The Rambling House, one of the many bars on Katonah Avenue
WOODLAWN HEIGHTS
This neighborhood is tucked neatly into a wedge of territory between Woodlawn Cemetery, Van Cortlandt Park, the Yonkers city line and the Metro-North Railroad/Bronx river/Bronx River Parkway. Its namesake cemetery was initiated in 1863 from an idea bu Reverend Absalom Peters, a theologian, poet and proponent of the Rural Cemetery movement in which burial grounds became ‘memorial parks,’ places to go and quietly contemplate, away from the clatter of the city. Woodlawn’s name evokes such serenity. The cemetery’s first interment was in 1865.
Mundy Lane, on the Bronx-Mount Vernon city line in Wakefield. The blacktopped section is in the Bronx, while the concrete surface is in Mount Vernon.
WAKEFIELD
This Bronx neighborhood at the city line, bordered by White Plains Road, East 233rd Street and Mundy Lane/Seton Avenue was surveyed in 1855 and given the name of the estate in Virginia where George Washington was born in 1732. His brother William inherited the house after their gather Augustine’s death, naming it “Wakefield.” The house burned down in 1779. Nearby, of course, is the town of Mount Vernon, named for the Washington family residence in Virginia.
PS 15, Dyre Avenue
EASTCHESTER
The further northeast in the Bronx you get to Westchester County, the further into Eastchester you penetrate … Eastchester is a neighborhood in the northeast Bronx that actually used to belong to Westchester County (the Bronx was formed from New York and Westchester Counties and became a county in 1914) and didn’t become a part of New York City until 1895.
It’s not to be confused with the current town of Eastchester which is actually northwest of here, in Westchester County. The Bronx neighborhood of Eastchester, along with Mount Vernon, used to be a part of the town of Eastchester in Westchester, but was annexed by the Bronx in 1895. Who’s on first?
The neighborhood includes Seton Falls Park, where rattlesnakes prowled as late as the 19th Century.
Co-Op City Boulevard
CO-OP CITY
The present-day housing project (really a complete neighborhood) is called Co-Op City because it consists of cooperative apartments:
A housing cooperative, or co-op, is a legal entity, usually a corporation, which owns real estate, consisting of one or more residential buildings; it is one type of housing tenure. Housing cooperatives are a distinctive form of home ownership that have many characteristics that differ from other residential arrangements such as single family ownership, condominiums and renting.
The corporation is membership-based, with membership granted by way of a share purchase in the cooperative. Each shareholder in the legal entity is granted the right to occupy one housing unit. A primary advantage of the housing cooperative is the pooling of the members’ resources so that their buying power is leveraged, thus lowering the cost per member in all the services and products associated with home ownership.
Another key element is that the members, through their elected representatives, screen and select who may live in the cooperative, unlike any other form of home ownership. wikipedia
The project was built along the Hutchinson River on what was known as Pinckney’s Meadows in the colonial era. It remained mostly empty in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, but it burst forth briefly in the early 1960s as Freedomland, a frontier-themed amusement park that ultimately was a financial failure. Co-Op City was built shortly after its demise.
Belden House, Belden Street
CITY ISLAND
From the ForgottenBook: Located on a spit of an island in Eastchester Bay in the extreme northeast Bronx, City Island is a transplanted New England fishing village seemingly beamed into the New York Metropolitan area. City Island was privately owned, first by the Pell family and then by the Palmer family, from 1654 until it became a part of the town of Pelham, in Westchester County, in 1819. The island became a part of New York City in 1895 when parts of the town of Pelham were annexed by NYC, and found itself in the Bronx in 1898 after consolidation, though it was still in New York County (the Bronx received a separate designation as a county only in 1914).
Benjamin Palmer, who owned the island in 1761, thought of it as a potential commercial rival to New York City, and so it picked up a new nickname (it previously had been called Great Minnefords Island). Of course it never rivaled New York City as a seaport but it did develop thriving seaside industries. Palmer’s group laid out streets and established two ferries to the mainland. Palmer, a staunch supporter of the Revolution, engaged the ire of the British, who plundered the island in 1776. Three years later, Palmer and his family were captured and forced to leave the island for Manhattan; he never returned to City Island.
The two World Wars saw City Island become a busy shipbuilding and sailmaking center, adding to its fishing and oyster industries. City Island was an important armament manufacturing center during World War II with the construction of submarine chasers, minesweepers and landing craft. In the postwar era, City Island began to develop as a resort, while island yachtyards Nevins and Minneford produced five America’s Cup winners: the Columbia (1958), the Constellation (1964), the Intrepid (1970), the Courageous (1974 & 1977; media mogul Ted Turner skippered the Courageous in ‘77) and the Freedom (1980). The USA won 24 consecutive America’s Cup yacht race championships between 1851 and 1983.
FNY has done two tours in City Island, in 2002 and 2012. In 2009 a film called City Island was set on and filmed there, featuring Andy Garcia and Julianna Margulies. Parts of Long Day’s Journey Into Night and The Royal Tenenbaums were filmed in a house on Tier Street that now belongs to the director of the City Island Nautical Museum (who graciously admitted both tours onto her lawn). The island community has been the setting for many other feature films and TV shows.
Dyre Avenue Line #5 train overpass at Boston Road and Needham Avenue
BAYCHESTER
Named for its proximity to the town, then neighborhood, of Eastchester and Eastchester Bay and Pelham Bay Park, Baychester remained suburban and even semirural until after World War II when streets were finally paved and homes built. Even today, some of the streets are sans sidewalks. The neighborhood id bisected by the old New York, Westchester and Boston Railroad, which was purchased by NYC in 1940 and made into first a shuttle elevated, then connected to the White Plains Road el at the 180th Street station (see below).
Pelham Bay Park War Memorial
PELHAM GARDENS, PELHAM PARKWAY
Englishman Thomas Pell, a physician, purchased a vast tract of over 9000 acres of land (most of what is now eastern Bronx) from the local Siwanoy Indians in 1654. Descendants of the Pells occupied the tract for nearly 150 years. By 1813 the acreage was sold out of the Pell-Bartow family (Ann Pell had married John Bartow), but in 1836 John’s grandson Robert reacquired the property and in 1842 built the mansion that still stands in Pelham Bay Park today. A small cemetery is also on the property in which is interred Pell family members going back well into the 18th Century.
NYC bought the house from the Bartows in 1888; in 1915 the Pell Mansion underwent a complete restoration by the International Garden Club organization, which continues to maintain the grounds, now numbering nine acres, as a public garden to this day. In 1946 the Mansion opened as a museum exhibiting furniture and painting from the 19th Century.
The town of Pelham in Westchester County, the Bronx and Pelham Parkway (usually abbreviated to Pelham Parkway), Pelham Bay Park, and even Pelham Cemetery in City Island are all named for Thomas Pell.
Gun Hill Road bridge crossing the Bronx River, the site of John Williams’ bridge
WILLIAMSBRIDGE
The name of this site comes from a bridge across the Bronx River that was named for John Williams. In the 18th century, Williams had a farm on the east bank of the Bronx River in the vicinity of Gun Hill Road and White Plains Road. Some credit him with building the first Bronx River crossing. Though the story remains unproven, his farm was closest to the earliest span, and by the 19th century the bridge and surrounding community became known as Williamsbridge. NYC Parks
The Williams Bridge Metro-North station (spelled with two words) and Williamsbridge Road were also named for John Williams’ bridge.
Catania Shoes, Westchester Avenue near Hobart Avenue
MIDDLETOWN
Middletown, south of Westchester Avenue and between the Hutchinson River Parkway and the Bruckner Expressway, is a bit puzzling because in the modern era, there are no clear two places it’s in the middle of. Perhaps it was so named because it was midway from the village of Westchester to the Pelham Bridge. The adjoining Stinardtown, just to Middletown’s northeast, was wiped out when Pelham Bay Park was created in the mid-1800s.
Stadium Avenue
COUNTRY CLUB
This neighborhood east of the Bruckner Expressway where it meets the Throgs Neck Expressway recalls the turn-of-the-20th Century Westchester Country Club that faced Eastchester Bay, on the old Layton estate (for which Layton Avenue is named). That club had disappeared by the 1920s, and has nothing to do with the modern Westchester Country Club.
“American Boy,” Pelham Bay Park
SPENCER ESTATES
The neighborhoods immediately south of Pelham Bay Park along Eastchester Bay are called Spencer Estates and further south, Country Club. In the 19th Century prominent merchant William Spencer married first one, then another woman from the tobacco-growing Lorillard family. William Spencer was a benefactor of the NY Public Library and son Lorillard Spencer was the publisher ofThe Illustrated American magazine.
East Tremont Avenue and Lamport Place
SCHUYLERVILLE
Fort Schuyler, located on a peninsula that juts into the East River near the Throgs Neck Bridge, and its namesake neighborhood bisected by East Tremont Avenue a couple of miles to the northwest, were named for Revolutionary War general and later US Senator from New York Philip Schuyler (1733-1804; pronounced SKY-ler).
As department commanding General, he was active in preparing a defense against the Saratoga Campaign, part of the “Three Pronged Attack” strategy of the British to cut the American Colonies in two by invading and occupying New York State in 1777. In the summer of that year General John Burgoyne marched his British army south from Quebec over the valleys of Lakes Champlain and George. On the way he invested the small Colonial garrison occupying Fort Ticonderoga at the nexus of the two lakes. When General St. Clair surrendered Fort Ticonderoga in July, the Congress replaced Schuyler with General Horatio Gates, who had accused Schuyler of dereliction of duty.
In 1789, he was elected a U.S. Senator from New York to the First United States Congress, serving from July 27, 1789, to March 4, 1791. After losing his bid for re-election in 1791, he returned to the State Senate from 1792 to 1797. In 1797, he was elected again to the U.S. Senate and served in the 5th United States Congress from March 4, 1797 until his resignation because of ill health on January 3, 1798. wikipedia
The former Charlie’s Inn, Harding Avenue
THROG(G)S NECK
Throgs Neck, mainland Bronx’ most southeastern redoubt, was named for a very early British settler, John Throckmorton, who arrived in the peninsula now capped by Fort Schuyler in 1642. Throckmorton, like Anne Hutchinson, had had religious differences with the rigid Puritans of New England, moved to Rhode Island with its founder, Roger Williams in 1636, and later decamped to the Bronx because he may have feared that Massachusetts would invade the tiny colony. Both the aforementioned Thomas Pell and Throckmorton had to pledge allegiance to the Dutch crown before being granted permission to settle. Throckmorton later fled Indian aggression and wound up in Rhode Island again and later, New Jersey.
The peninsula, or “neck” (cf. Little Neck in Queens) was bestowed an abbreviation of his lengthy name and Throgmorton Avenue, also a tribute, is a variant spelling. Throgs Neck is also occasionally spelled with a double g, especially by area residents. The explanation for all this may lie in the fact that in the early days of printing (which in Throckmorton’s day had been an industry for only about a century and a half) spellings were hardly standardized, and wouldn’t be until the days of Samuel Johnson and Noah Webster. However Throgs Neck is spelled, it is a peaceful, tranquil area with a couple of private communities that enjoy terrific views of the water-filled surroundings.
SILVER BEACH
When Silver Beach was initiated as a bungalow colony in the 1920s, just west of Fort Schuyler, it was named for the supposed color of the sand along its East River shoreline. Today the semiprivate community, whose residents formed a co-op arrangement in 1972, enjoy spectacular views of the Bronx-Whitestone and Throgs Neck Bridges and the distant Manhattan skyline.
Volunteer firehouse, Edgewater Park
EDGEWATER PARK
Edgewater Park is a second private community in the eastern Bronx, this one facing Eastchester Bay east of the Throgs Neck Expressway.
What really sets both communities apart from the nearby streets of Throgs Neck is that they are cooperatives — Edgewater Park has 675 single-family homes, Silver Beach Gardens 451 — whose residents own their homes but lease the land from owners’ collectives. Each owner pays a monthly maintenance fee for the upkeep of the streets,beaches and common areas and the signs that proclaim: “Private Property, No Trespassing, No Soliciting, No Loitering.” NY Times
Both Edgewater Park and Silver Beach have unique street lighting and street sign designs different from the rest of NYC.
Pelham Parkway station at White Plains Road
BRONXDALE
I’m unsure just when the name of Bronxdale was first applied to the neighborhood on either side of Pelham Parkway east of Bronx Park. The mane is straightforward and indicates a dale, or valley. Interestingly, Bronxdale Avenue begins south of the neighborhood and runs southeast to East Tremont Avenue, originally running through swampy territory called Bear Swamp, and Bronxdale Avenue was called Bear Swamp Road until the early 20th Century.
Lourdes recreation, Church of St.Lucy, Bronxville and Mace Avenues
ALLERTON
The Allerton neighborhood, bordering on Bronxdale, is named for east-west Allerton Avenue, the main shopping drag, that honors 19th-Century landowner Daniel Allerton, whose ancestors arrived on the Mayflower in 1620. Allertons are interred in Woodlawn Cemetery.
Morris Park Avenue
MORRIS PARK
In 1888, John P. Morris opened the Morris Park Racetrack where this neighborhood eventually wound up, naming it for himself.
From FNY’s Morris Park page:
The name Morris turns up a number of times in the Bronx, primarily from two different families: the Revolution-era Morrises: Richard, who arrived in the 1660s and first settled the South Bronx; Declaration signer Lewis, US Senator Gouverneur, and Robert, who was a 3-term NYC mayor in the 1850s.
The Morris of Morris Park was John A. Morris, whose Westchester Racing Association acquired 152 acres in 1888 on the outskirts of the old Bear Swamp (which was quite literally named) and built a huge racetrack and clubhouse there. As opulent as the racetrack was, though, it was in operation only from 1890 to 1904 (though a vestige of horse racing in the area, the Track Restaurant and Tavern, held down a corner at Eastchester and Williamsbridge Roads some distance from the old track until 1957). The track itself burned to the ground in 1910.
In 1908 the abandoned racetrack became the world’s first formal airfield and the American Eagle, the largest dirigible in history to that time at a full 105 feet in length, was built there, and one of the first gliders, piloted by 17-year-old Lawrence Lesh, was launched from the former track that year. And, in the early 1900s, the old racetrack was also used for speed and endurance races for the newfangled automobile, and a young Swiss driver named Louis once won a gold watch for driving a Fiat a the-record 52.8 MPH there. The driver along with his brother Gaston competed in many road races at the Morris Park track and Gaston won at Indianapolis in 1920. Of course, it was Louis Chevrolet (1878-1941), who ironically sold his share in the Chevrolet Motor Car Company he founded in 1911 to original partner William Durant in 1915, and returned to the racing business, as well as aeronautics. (The gold watch he won had been donated by Walter Chrysler.)
It was not until the 1920s that streets were cut through and houses constructed; the neighborhood was not “completed” until the 1970s!
St. Peter’s Church
WESTCHESTER SQUARE
What is now the Bronx used to be part of Westchester County and was ceded to the City of New York over time. West of the Bronx River (which bisects the borough) was annexed by NYC in 1874 while everything east of the river joined New York County by 1895. Until 1898, when NYC became an agglomeration of five boroughs, Manhattan and the Bronx were the same county: New York County. Finally, the Bronx became a county on its own in 1914. Today, the boroughs are coterminous as Manhattan occupies New York County, Brooklyn, Kings County, and so forth.
Westchester Square, even to the present day, appears to be a small town hub, clustering around the triangle formed by Westchester, East Tremont and Lane Avenues. The “town” has recently celebrated its 350th anniversary, having been settled here, as Oostdorp (‘east village’) by the Dutch in 1654 and taken over by the British with the rest of New Amsterdam in 1664. It became a busy port along Westchester Creek, which hastened its development; by 1693 St. Peter’s Episcopal Church was founded. The parish is still in existence. During the Revolution, patriots dismantled a bridge over the creek, delaying British advancement (the present-day bridge carries East Tremont Avenue).
World War I memorial, Castle Hill Avenue and Cross-Bronx Expressway
CASTLE HILL
Castle Hill was named for a slight elevation at what is now Lacombe and Castle Hill Avenues noticed by 17th-Century Dutch explorer Adrian Block, who thought it resembled a castle.
Westchester and Glebe Avenues
UNIONPORT
Unionport was a mecca for German and Irish immigrants in the mid-to-late 1890s. After the eastern Bronx was annexed to NYC in 1895 the streets were renamed for local luminaries and settlers, and Unionport was absorbed into what’s now Castle Hill. Unionport Road still runs as a main route from Castle Hill through Parkchester to Bronx Park. Its name seems to have something to do with the navigability of the adjoining Westchester Creek, and at one time it was hoped that a major port could be built here.
Hula girl terra cotta, Parkchester
PARKCHESTER
Parkchester, a large apartment complex (large enough to comprise an entire neighborhood) in the mid-Bronx, is bounded by White Plains Road, East Tremont Avenue, McGraw Avenue and (part of the way) by Castle Hill Avenue. The complex was built in 1941 by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company on 110 acres, some of which had been occupied by the New York Catholic Protectorate, a home for poor children. For its time, Parkchester was a pioneer in rental-unit engineering, as it included amenities like gleaming new bathrooms with non-slip bathtub bottoms, double sinks and cabinets in the kitchens — an innovation at the time. The complex boasted a bowling alley, recreation areas, the very first Macy’s branch outlet, and three movie theatres in or near it: The Loew’s American (still there as a multiplex), the Palace and the Circle.
Its name seems to be an imitation of place names like Eastchester and Baychester.
Mannequins, Westchester and Ward Avenues
BRONX RIVER
The neighborhood is found on the east end of its namesake river (the only true river in NYC) between the Cross Bronx Expressway, Soundview Park on the south and the Bronx River Parkway on the east.
Manhattan view from Bronx River and Cornell Avenues
CLASON POINT
Bronx historian, the late John McNamara: Isaac Clason was a wealthy merchant whose lands were subdivided into smaller estates. He purchased the east end of Cornell’s Neck in 1793-1794 and lived there for many years. A son, Augustus Washington Clason, had a nearby home which was eventually sold to Joseph J. Husson along with 15 acres of land.” Clason’s mansion eventually became an inn but was razed when the area became a beach club and acquired the name Harding Park.
Bronx River boating, Harding Park
HARDING PARK
The semiprivate community of Harding Park, located in the southwest end of Clason Point,was named in the Roaring 20s for President Warren G. Harding, who died in office in 1923 during a mostly unsuccessful and scandal-ridden administration. The bungalows are arranged along sidewalk-free streets that aren’t included on official street maps (but do show up on computer maps like Google).
Soundview Houses
SOUNDVIEW
When you think about it, “Soundview” as a name doesn’t make sense. Unless, of course, an adjacent body of water is called the Long Island Sound. It’s a matter of debate where theEast River leaves off and the Long Island Sound begins. I’ve always made it the Throgs Neck Bridge. In the 19th Century, the Sound was mapped as beginning somewhat west of where it does now, and when VClason pount Road was renamed Soundview Avenue in 1918, there was no confusion about it whatever.
Adams Street
VAN NEST
Van Nest is an old name and comes from Dutch colonial settler Pieter Pietersen Van Neste, who arrived in North America from Holland in 1647. However, the family is only honored here because of the Van Nest Land & Improvement Company, which began developing the neighborhood in 1892. Scions of the Van Nests became railroad company directors and developers but according to Bronx historian John McNamara, no Van Nest actually lived in the Bronx.
East 180th Street station, #5 IRT, Morris Park Avenue
WEST FARMS
West Farms took its name in the colonial era from farms west of the Bronx River, which served as the Bronx’ main geographical dividing line from then on up to the later 1800s. The Bronx became a part of New York City in sections between the years 1874 and 1898: all of the Bronx west of the Bronx River was annexed to the City of New York in 1874, while everything east of the river became part of the City in 1895. Soon after, in 1898, New York City consolidated with the city of Brooklyn and the boroughs of Queens and Staten Island. Though it was already a borough, the Bronx was a part of New York County until 1914 when it became a county in its own right. Today, New York County is coterminous with Manhattan.
East Tremont and Park Avenues
TREMONT and EAST TREMONT
The genesis of Tremont’s name is similar to that of Boston’s: while that city’s Tremont was named for three hills on the originally narrow peninsula where Boston grew and prospered, so the Bronx’ Tremont was named by its first postmaster for three hills in mid-Bronx: Mount Eden, Mount Hope and Fairmount. The main difference is that Bostonians pronounce it Treh’ mont, while Bronxites say Tree’ mont.
Arthur Avenue
BELMONT
Belmont, which takes its name from tobacco magnate Jacob Lorillard’s estate, is famous for its Little Italy centered along Arthur Avenue, with its panoply of small mom and pop shops purveying delicacies, and small, intimate restaurants. Lorillard’s imprint is all over the Bronx; the snuff mill employed on his tobacco farm can still be found deep within the NY Botanic Garden. The Lorillards owned nearly all of what would become The Bronx Zoo, the NY Botanical Garden, and the neighborhoods of Belmont, Bronx Park South and Norwood.
Poe Cottage, Grand Concourse
FORDHAM
The name Fordham was given by John Archer, a Dutch settler who had anglicized his name, when he established a community at 225th Street near the Harlem River in 1666. Alternatively, Fordham (house by the ford) originated as either as a reference to its location near a shallow crossing of the Bronx River or as a reference to Rev. John Fordham, an Anglican priest. wikipedia
Ursuline Academy
BEDFORD PARK
Bedford, England, inspired the name of the Bedford Park neighborhood when it was conceived and laid out in the 1880s. The British town also inspired the neighborhood’s use of Queen Anne architecture, and some of these grand old homes can still be seen crouching amid the area’s now-predominant multifamily apartment buildings. Norwood was originally part of the Varian family’s dairy farm. The Varians, who produced a New York City mayor, owned the oldest house in the area, which is still standing.
52nd Police Precinct, Webster Avenue
NORWOOD
Norwood was originally part of the Varian family’s dairy farm.
The name either comes from “North Woods” or from Carlisle Norwood, a friend of Leonard Jerome, the grandfather of Winston Churchill who owned the nearby Jerome Park Race Track in the 1860s. The neighborhood was laid out in 1889 by entrepreneur Josiah Briggs.
For a couple of decades in the late 20th Century, Norwood and its immediate neighbor to the south, Bedford Park, were major Irish enclaves, after immigrants from Northern Island during the era of The Troubles fled the auld sod and settled here, in Woodlawn Heights to the north, and in Queens’ Woodside. For a time Norwood became known as “Little Belfast” and was a hotbed for supporters of the Irish Republican Army, which sought to sever Northern Ireland’s ties with the United Kingdom by violent means. Eventually the Irish influence in the area lessened, as many Irish returned home to participate in the homeland’s roaring economy in the 1990s and early 2000s. Traces of Little Belfast, though, can still be found along Bainbridge Avenue. Norwood was where the Irish-American band Black 47 first attracted notice. Today Norwood attracts Hispanics, Indians, Asians, and New Yorkers looking for apartment bargains: some are still available for three figures!
Orloff Avenue steps
VAN CORTLANDT VILLAGE
The story of Van Cortlandt Park , ansd the neighborhood on its southwest corner, Van Cortlandt Village, begins in 1699, when future NYC mayor Jacobus Van Cortlandt bought a large tract of the Frederick Philipse holdings in the northern Bronx. The land was originally populated by the local Indians as early as 500-600 years ago.
In 1748, Jacobus’ son, Frederick, built Van Cortlandt Mansion, which still stands today. New York City obtained the land in 1888 and committed much of it to parkland.
The story goes that as buffalo (properly called bison) were overhunted in western states in the frontier era, putting them in danger of extinction, Dr. William Hornaday of the Bronx Zoo acquired a few buffalo and bred them on the zoo grounds. By 1907 the Bronx herd outstripped the Zoo’s resources, so a few bulls and cows were transferred to Van Cortlandt Park. Later that year, they were sent to Oklahoma, where some of the buffalo are still descended from the Bronx specimens.
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.
Hall of Fame for Great Americans
UNIVERSITY HEIGHTS
This neighborhood is set on high bluffs overlooking the Harlem River. The “University” is, or was, New York University, which had a substantial campus in the neighborhood which in turn became home to the Bronx Community College. The Hall of Fame for Great Americans, an outdoor portico featuring 97 busts of notable American men and women, is a fascinating attraction here that most New Yorkers have no idea exists.
Shuttleworth Mansion, Anthony Avenue and Mount Hope Place
MOUNT HOPE
This mid-Bronx neighborhood is named for one of the trio of now-leveled hills from which Tremont and Tremont Avenue also take their names.
Mount Eden Avenue
MOUNT EDEN
Another of the Tremont trio of hills, this one is named for an early 19th-century property owner, Rachel Eden.
Lorelei Fountain, Kilmer Park
CONCOURSE and CONCOURSE VILLAGE
These neighborhoods, famed for Art Deco and Moderne high rise apartment buildings, are named for the roadway that vertically bisects them, the Grand Boulevard and Concourse, designed by French-born engineer Louis Risse.
The Grand Boulevard and Concourse marches north from the Major Deegan Expressway to Mosholu Parkway through Mott Haven, Concourse Village, Mount Eden, Mount Hope (the Concourse is constructed on a hill), Fordham, and Bedford Park.
Eleven lanes wide from 161st Street north to Mosholu, the GB&C (shortened to Grand Concourse for the benefit of sign makers and cabbies) was built, from 161st Street north, in 1909 by engineer Risse. In 1927, it absorbed Mott Avenue, which ran from 138th north to 161st, and the older street was widened. The Grand Concourse became the Bronx’s showpiece as the Bronx County Courthouse, Yankee Stadium, and an array of elegant apartment buildings were constructed along its length. The Concourse and surrounding streets are a wonderworld of Art Deco…spend an afternoon along its length and observe the sumptuous buildings.
The Concourse is dominated by two separate architectural trends. The Art Deco style, characterized by highly stylized and colored ornamentation, ironworked doors, colorful terra cotta and mosaics, originated at the 1925 Exposition Internationale in Paris. Art Moderne, noted for its striped block patterns, cantilevered corners, stylized letterforms and generally streamlined appearance, first gained wide notice at the 1937 Exposition.
Claremont Parkway
CLAREMONT VILLAGE
The neighborhood, park, and parkway are named for Polish immigrant Martin Zboroski’s 19th Century estate, Clermont.
Herman Ridder Junior High School, Boston Road and East 173rd Street
CROTONA PARK EAST
Crotona Park is nowhere near the Croton Aqueduct, which runs through the western Bronx; it was named for a colony in ancient Greece famed for Olympic athletes. It was purchased from the estate belonging to Andrew Bathgate in the 1880s; a dispute with the Bathgate family prevented the new Crotona Park from being named for them. Bathgate Avenue today remembers these early Bronx gentry.
Dawson Street
LONGWOOD
Longwood Park was an 1870s estate owned by Samuel B. White, and Hunts Point was formerly a collection of country estates owned by the Casanovas, Barrettos, Spoffords, Failes, and other wealthy families, many of whose names now grace street signs.
In the late 19th Century Longwood and the surrounding area was subdivided into residential lots. A group of now-landmarked brownstone buildings was developed by Warren C. Dickerson for landowner George Johnson between 1897 and 1901 consisting of parts of Beck, Kelly and Dawson Streets and Hewitt Place between East 156th Street and Longwood Avenue. Designated a New York City Landmark District, its buildings are marked by their eclectic peaks and roof embellishments.
The region’s odd street layout… streets sort of undulate, twist and turn…was, in part, defined by the now-underground Sacrahong Brook, whose route is now nearly exactly copied by Intervale Avenue.
Former American Bank Note Building, Lafayette Avenue/Tiffany Street
HUNT’S POINT
Hunt’s Point had been first settled by Thomas Hunt in 1670; the Hunts joined the Morrises as the Bronx’ foremost landowning families in the colonial era. Hunt’s Point (not to be confused with Hunter’s Point in Queens) has been home to the New York City Terminal Market since 1965; much of the city’s fresh produce is purchased by merchants here. The former Fulton Street Fish Market relocated here from its long-standing facility on South and Fulton Streets in mid-2005.
Church of Saint Augustine, East 166th Street
MORRISANIA, MORRIS HEIGHTS, PORT MORRIS
Much of the southern Bronx was once owned by the colonial-era Morris family.
Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816) half-brother of Lewis Morris, was a political leader, diplomat, U.S. Senator, and American ambassador to France. He was an outspoken opponent to what he termed ‘unchecked popular democracy’. His son, G. Morris II, sold the estate to Jordan Mott.
Gouverneur Morris was outspoken and brash – nonetheless, he became ambassador due to his through knowledge of the French language and its nuances. In his youth, he would drive teams of horses without the benefit of reins, yelling and cracking a whip instead, but one day one of his teams ran off and he was dragged, winding up with a crushed leg. For the rest of his life he hobbled along on a wooden leg, like a Dutch predecessor, Peter Stuyvesant.
Lewis Morris (1726-1798) was an ardent supporter of American independence and served in the Continental Congress from 1775-1777, and in the NY state legislature between 1777 and 1790. He signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. His great grandfather (Richard, died 1672) had immigrated to New York through Barbados after being part of Oliver Cromwell‘s army in the English Civil War of 1648. He purchased the first tract of land in the Bronx that became the basis for the Morrisania manor. wikipedia
Also interred here is Judge Robert H. Morris (1802-1855), a three-term mayor of New York City from 1841 to 1844.
H.W. Wilson publishing company tower on University Avenue
HIGHBRIDGE HEIGHTS
The neighborhood arrayed east of where High Bridge ends at University Avenue and West 170th Street is named for the structure that bridged the Croton Aqueduct across the Harlem River. When High Bridge was built between 1837 and 1848 by architect John Jervis it actually connected two separate towns, since that area of the mainland would not become a part of New York County until 1874.
Originally, High Bridge featured massive stone arches (like Roman aqueducts had) for its entire length. The arches survive on the Bronx side, but the steel span was constructed in the 20s to allow navigation on the Harlem River. Water was carried in two 33”-diameter pipes, later replaced by a more massive 90” pipe. It was able to conduit as much as 24 million gallons of water per day.
High Bridge has featured a walkway since the 1860s, although it never had roads for auto or horse traffic. Edgar Allan Poe, a Bronx resident toward the end of his life, enjoyed frequenting the bridge. The walkway features attractive cast iron hand railings and interlocked red brick paving stones, along with views of High Bridge’s neighboring spans across the Harlem, the Alexander Hamilton and Washington Bridges. In 1960, the walkway was closed because of vandals throwing objects from the bridge onto boats plying the Harlem River.
High Bridge was rehabilitated (with higher fences) and reopened to the public in the summer of 2015.
Original Bronx Borough Courthouse, Third Avenue and East 161st Street
MELROSE
19th-century surveyor Andrew Findlay was Scottish-born and was a fan of the fiction of Sir Walter Scott, so this small neighborhood adjoining the first Bronx Borough Courthouse was named for one of Scott’s novels, Melrose Abbey.
Third Avenue and East 150th Street
THE HUB
One of the Bronx’ busiest shopping districts is at the confluence of Third, Willis and Melrose Avenues, as well as East 149th Street. In addition the IRT subway joined several trolley lines as well as the 3rd Avenue El once upon a time.
Estey Piano factory, Bruckner Boulevard and Lincoln Avenue
MOTT HAVEN
Jordan Mott built a tremendously successful iron works beginning in 1828 (the iron works continued to 1906), centered along the Harlem River from about Third Avenue to East 138th Street. His handiwork can be still seen all over town on airshaft and manhole covers built by the Mott Iron Works. Mott had bought the original property from Gouverneur Morris II in 1849; Morris was asked if he minded if the area was called Mott Haven, a name it had quickly acquired. “I don’t care…while [Mott] is about it, he might as well change the Harlem River to the Jordan.” The iron works produced practical and ornamental metalwork used worldwide.
2/23/14
178 comments
What a wonderful nostalgic trip thru the borough where I grew up.
Just wondering if you have ever taken a picture of the stairs that go down from the end of Van Cortland Avenue West at Gale Place? I spent many years playing on and climbing those steps.
Thanks for a great website with many trips through places I’ve enjoyed revisiting.
Correction – the stairs go down from Van Cortland Park South at Gale Place down to Van Cortland Avenue West.
correction- those stairs go down fro Gale Place,onto Orloff & FT Independence.
That is *another* (stone) step street Michael.
Top of steps is 238th St & Cannon Pl.
Any pics of the TRAIN YARD 241st and White Plains roaD… across FROM Osmon Place and Baychester
I was wondering about the “Bronx Beach and Pool” that was right next to the Throggsneck Bridge. It had been there before the bridge was built. I grew up near Clinton Ave. and Tremont where the Cross Bronx Expressway was starting construction. I remember going there with my parents in the 50’s and boxing champion,Jake LaMotta, along his beautiful blonde girlfriend and several rough looking characters. He would come there to relax and be seen many times. I actually spoke with him and the beautiful lady several times. Any information about this place send to billyeves1@gmail.com.
I lived on Manida St across the St from the bank note but I guess it was the back of the bldg. We used to play ace,king, queen up against the brick walls, great memories.
i was born in the Casle Hill area and then moved to Hunts Point and 167 Street… I truly appreciate the historic art you have presented to give us,Bronxites the memories that made us the very special people of an ordinary everyday neighborhood.The destruction of the sixties and seventies was NOT DONE BY US..but those who came in and burned down buildings and lived on prostitution and drugs.All my education was of the public schools in the southeast Bronx. But as is said..Times have changed.Thank you.
MOSHOLU, Hart Island, BARTOW, BROTHER ISLAND, CLAREMONT, EDENWALD, FAIRMONT, FORT SCHUYLER, JEROME PARK, LOCUST POINT, MELROSE,
OLINVILLE. RIKERS ISLAND. Some areas people called home or had a Post office
Will you be doing this all neighborhoods of the other boroughs as well or just The Bronx only?
I’m sorry to say that eventually I’ll subject people to the 4 other ones.
Great article full of a lot of interesting history. One thing that I found interesting was the neighborhood of Soundview, and how it received its name. Historically, by the late 19th century, most maps show the East River ending at the mouth of the Bronx River to the north (where the Soundview Neighborhood begins), and Flushing Bay to the south. Eastward of this point was where Long Island Sound was shown to begin. As the East Bronx (everything east of the Bronx River) was annexed to New York City in 1895, and by 1898, the western half of Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island were consolidated into Greater New York, it seems as the mapmakers moved the East River ever eastward; by as early as 1909, maps were now showing the East River ending, and Long Island Sound beginning, at Throggs Neck on the north and a point between Little Bay and Fort Totten on the south. Interesting how not only do political boundaries change, but in this case the perception of natural boundaries changed as well.
That was great. I’d like to know more about some of the buildings featured in the photos.
Kevin, thank you for featuring the neighborhoods of my home borough – the Bronx. I am curious why you call the neighborhood of Highbridge – Highbridge Heights. I went to school there, have many friends who grew up there and have seen many maps of neighborhoods in the Bronx and have never seen it called that. Is it a real estate term like Hudson Heights is now the westernmost portion of Washington Heights above 181st is now called by brokers? If so, I have never seen it anywhere.
laura, you are absolutely correct. my husband and I grew up in highbridge, no heights. circa 1940’s thru 1960’s. went to st. Eugene’s grammar school and sacred heart to the 8th grade. a wonderful experience. married at sacred heart church 1960. if things had not changed, we would still be there. the most wonderful, exciting and interesting experiences. yankee stadium and the polo grounds within walking distance. no need to own an automobile, bus and train accessible and sometimes the occasional taxi.
Russ (my husband) also grew up in Highbridge and always talks about the great neighborhood….We moved north almost 50 years ago (whereas I think you and Joe went the Florida route at some point). Having grown up in Incarnation (a great parish in Washington Heights), I also enjoyed the Highbridge neighborhood (from 1960 to 1965).
RoseMarie, he mentioned * Highbridge * and *also* Highbridge Heights- which is just North of Highbridge’s terminus at 170th St and University.
I too lived in Highbridge from about 1956-1965
My mom grew up in Highbridge, and never referred to it as anything else. She always mentioned Plimpton and Ogden Avenues, and also went to Sacred Heart School. She loved her neighborhood!
Went to st Eugene’s and sacred heart also great area and great times until it went bad should have a get to hethet of all people that lived in that area
Hey Hey Laura…i’ve been waiting for you..remember joseph h.wade jr.high on walton ave.and 175th street…i helped save two girls from getting a beat down there in 1958.
Laura, he said there was both HighBridge ( I onced lived in HighBridge also)
and *HighBridge Heights*- which was the area whete High Bridge ended ( 170th St and University) So that’d be just North of High Bridge.
I TOO GREW UP IN HIGHBRIDGE,SHAKESPEAR AVE AND 169TH STREET. MANY GREAT MEMORIES AND WE USED TO WALK THE BRIDGE FREQUENTLY TO GO INTO WASHINGTON HEIGHTS MOVIES OR, IN THE SUMMER, TO HIGHBRIDGE POOL..
Although I grew up in Queens, my father’s friend (Anton Wagner) had a German butcher (pork) store on Castle Hill Ave in the 50’s. He lived in Throggs Neck, and we visited often. We also went to German picnics and dances at the Castle Harbor (Zach’s) Casino on Havemeyer Ave.
fred your fathers pork store was between newbold ave and ellis ave on castle hill do you know the nam e of zachs casino before? it was called hoffman casino went to school with his son p s 36 on castle hill ave
This is another interesting piece. I look forward to reading the corresponding pieces on each of the other boroughs as they are published.
I know you have written about the Manhattan neighborhood of Marble Hill in the past, but you might find the history of the litigation over the question of what borough (and county) Marble Hill belonged to interesting. A court decision in 1984 ruled that Marble Hill was in the Borough of Manhattan, but Bronx County. The state legislature subsequently passed legislation clarifying a 1938 law that had been intended to settle the question (with Marble Hill in New York County) at that time. The details are here: http://www.nycourts.gov/reporter/3dseries/2007/2007_09955.htm
I have always found it interesting whenever you do a page on neighborhoods. Some of them were actually once places of their own before they were annexed by NYC and even had their own distinction. However, others aren’t much known by themselves and are usually associated with others in that matter. I do look forward to seeing you do the rest of the borough neighborhoods for the rest of NYC later on.
Nice Work, Kevin! Very Nice!
The Ryther- Purdy Lumber company of City Island manufactured wooden parkway poles for New York City’s “Ten Year Plan” for post war street lighting improvements.
Was the lumber company on Reville St. right on the corner of City Island Ave.?
Wow! Gargantuan post, Kevin. Wonderful.
Bring it on for the other four :-).
Kevin,
I’m disappointed.
Some consideration is due the Bronx habit of responding to “where do you live?” with the nearest major street or intersection. This is not Queens with every neighborhood having a name with real history (and its own zip code).
So some of what you have hear are the misunderstandings of modern non-Bronxites trying to impose names where there really weren’t any.
Concourse? Come on. If someone mentions the Concourse, that’s a street, not a neighborhood, except on the vandalized Hagstrom map. Baychester is an Avenue. Bedford Park is, well maybe a neighborhood, but more a street. Westchester Square is a Square. Bronx River is a housing project.
Van Cortland Village is the map name for the Amalgamated Houses.
The stairs in the photo are on W238, not Orloff Ave.
It’s Woodlawn, not Woodlawn Heights, High Bridge, not High Bridge Heights. By the way, Poe considered throwing himself from the High Bridge. Not sure I would say he enjoyed it.
If I said Woodlawn, I’d get killed by some people telling me it’s Woodlawn Heights. Neighborhood signs on Katonah say Woodlawn Heights.
Jonathan, I’m a Bronx-ite myself and the neighborhood names *were* and are known and used. I lived in HighBridge ( 1956-1965)as a little kid and later Riverdale. My Aunt and Incle in University Heights.
Matter of fact, although this was a good job , he left out some.
I live in Marble Hill which is part of New York County and Manhattan Borough but ask anyone on the street where they are and they almost always say The Bronx.
( sigh) yeah. Some even call it Riverdale now- which it isn’t. :-/
But, in the 60s Marble Hill residents referred to themselves as living in northern Manhattan.
I think they have 212 telephone #s so I think they are in Manhattan.
I guess it’s a joke now, though I hadn’t heard it before: Marble Hill-raised Fordham University’s President has said he’s from “Northern Manhattan – so far North that it’s in the Bronx.”
I thought you got them all, but where’s Park Versailles?
I’d wondered about that too. It should be noted that Parkchester was named for the neighborhoods on either side of it. ‘Park Versailles’ and ‘Westchester Heights’ which were shortened to ‘Parkchester’. It should be noted that the Loew’s American, the premier movie theater of Parkchester has closed it’s doors.
thanx for the history of the bronx I grew up in the throggs neck section from 1953 to 1963 on sampson ave you forgot to mention there was an army base on harding ave when i was a kid we used to go there on halloween trick er treating. I met one of my oldest friends on calhoun ave in 1953 and i got the nickname calhoun.
juan i lived in the bronx 1929 moved to throggs neck 1967 swinton ave betweenshurz ave and harding ave never knew of army base on sampson only army navy merchant marine basewas at fort schyler at the end of penny field ave please reply
It was an Army Air Defense Artillery site. Had two (I think) 90mm anti-aircraft guns.
I grew up at 2778 Schley Ave in Throggs Neck Projects. Went to kindergarten and 1st grade in the P.S.72 annex in the projects, 2nd grade at P.S.72 and then we were bussed to P.S.71 (now The Rose Scala School) at Hobart and Jarvis Ave. Mrs. Scala was principal at the time and was a wee bit intimidating (at least to a young kid) Anyway, lots of good memories.
That’s cool Calhoun! 🙂
I absolutely enjoyed reading about all of the Bronx neighborhoods. I grew up in Edgewater Park in the 60’s and 70’s. It was a magical place to grow up.
I also grew up in Edgewater from the time I was 4 years old until 1972. I only knew one Angela and she lived in C section, and at one time had a boyfriend named Freddie. Her last name begins with S.
Tommy, I lived in Edgewater from 1947 to 1997.I still have some family living there.I think Angela lived on the second row of “C”section in the around 70-C. She went out with a guy named Fred Scheffold and he lived in “E” Section I think it was 3-E. He perished in the WTC .He was a fire chief.EDgewater was a great place to grow up in.Maybe we know each other? Where did you live and who did you hang out with? REgards Mack
John
I am pretty sure I knew you, I’m assuming you were named after your father, who I know was a member of the Volunteer Fire Dept. I remember him giving the dedication on Memorial Day. I lived in 107B. Freddie was in my wedding. And yes we are both thinking that Angela is the girl we both knew from “C” section. Names of the people I hung out with were: Billy Z., Richey M., Pee Wee T., Jack G. (lived behind you?), Russel B., Mark S., Charlie M. (worked for the corporation). Maybe I am being over cautious by not using last names but you know how the internet is.
I lived at 10c 50 to 1965 Edgewater a great place to grow up. My brother-in-law Charlie who worked for the Shaw’s.
It’s great hearing about someone who knew Freddy Sheffold. Was heartbroken to see his name in the memorials after 9/11.I went all through grammar school with Freddy in my class at St. Frances de Chantal. I lived in Silver Beach from 1944-1967. What a great childhood. The beach a block away and freedom to roam our sequestered streets on our own. My cousin Bobby J. still lives in “The Beach’. We were fortunate kids. …living in the “country” and having the benefits of a world class downtown to visit on school trips.Simply the best… Linda M.
You left out Montefiore Hospital. They have now taken over the entire where I used to live.
While the Van Nests never lived in the Bronx their descendants did live on Ellsworth Ave in Yonkers which backed up to 263rd st in the Bronx. The Father was a illustrator for the New York Times and one of his sons ran the sail boat “Petrel” from Battery Park.
Wonderful job, Kevin. Any plans to publish this? If so, would it be in segments by borough? (I knew the Bronx like the back of my hand but the other boroughs were as familiar to me as Mars.)
Wish I could …
Loved the tour and remember many of them. The Bronx used to be great; wish it would come back!
The Bronx will never come back unless we return!
I do so agree! 🙂
I’m trying the locate (in Google Earth and Street View) the building used as illustration in west.farms_.jpg. It is titled “East 180th Street station, #5 IRT, Morris Park Avenue” All this Googleing hasn’t found it. Any pointers?
Thanks,
Ed G
Well, I found it. Street View has it all inside scaffolding. See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York%2C_Westchester_and_Boston_Railroad_Administration_Building
The housing project in the Soundview picture is the James Monroe houses. That building is 805 Soundview Ave. I should know. I grew up there.
Opps. My Bad. That building is 810 Soundview Ave. I’m from 800 Soundview. The building behind the parking lot. It’s being a long time since I visited.
Grew up in Highbridge. Lived there from 1946 to 1967. Today peole are unhappy because the is no subway west of the #4 train. To me it was a great place to grow up esp by the NYCentral railroad tracks. Also the area was great for sleigh riding
There was a bank at 74 Hugh Grant Circle in the 60s-70s, which was Dollar Savings back then. I believe that it is now an Emigrant Savings. The building is ancient and has beautiful hand painted murals on the inside walls. The murals tell of the early history of the Bronx, then the vast estate of Jonas Bronk. The story was that when visitors from Manhattan used to go to visit for weekend parties, they spoke of going to “the Bronks”, hence the origin of why we say the Bronx, not the Brooklyn or the Queens.
Dennis – no, no, no, no. Will this canard ever die? Look at it this way – in 1642, the Broncks were hardly having weekend parties. They were too busy surviving and dealing with the local Indians. The “The” in The Bronx finds its origin in the (common) use of the definite article when referring to a river. So you could say the “The” is once removed from the homestead and, instead, derives from the river. (This issue is debated annually on the Bronx Board. It just won’t die.)
I understood it to be The Bronck’s Land ( hence The Bronx)
In addition Bronck also had a farm so The Bronk’s land or farm= The Bronx
I worked at dollar savings bank in 1980,really nice mural. Good memories .
You also left out Hillside Homes, the neighborhood just west of Eastchester off Boston Post Road anchored by the 6-square block housing development built in the 1930s.
My old neighborhood, Crotona Park East! I went to Herman Ridder Jr. High – didn’t picture it that big when I was a kid, a long, long time ago. I lived on Crotona (Ave?) right across the street from Crotona Park (with its climeable Indian Head rock) near Boston Rd. Thanks for the memories.
I too went to Herman Ridder Jr. High, great memories. I lived on Crotona Park East, which now has single family dwellings. Are there any pics of the old Crotona Park East apartment buildings before 1980?
went to Herman Ridder first male teacher I ever had was Stanley Aarons wonder if he is still alive? And did you know the richest people today came from the Bronx?
Did you have an aversion to the West Bronx? A cursory mention of Mt Eden, Highbridge, Kingsbridge. You would have done yourself a favor by reviewing “Back in the Bronx” magazine, published by Steven & Susan Samtur [backinthebronx.com]. For a number of years now, they’ve used current and former Bronx residents’ reminiscence, comprehensive coverage of the borough as it was in the mid-twentieth century. I grew up in the ’40s & ’50s on University Avenue between Featherbed Lane and west 174th st. I saw very little in your photos dealing with the south and mid-western part of the boroough. No Cascades pool shown on Jerome avenue or, for that matter, Yankee Stadium. No Kingsbridge Armory, none of the many theatres on Fordham Road, no mention of the famous Jahn’s Ice Cream Parlour, little mention of churches, schools and synagogues, etc. In short, while I found your photos of “neighborhoods” interesting, I was disappointed to see so little of the other side of the Bronx while you appeared to be focused on the east Bronx.
Each neighborhood got only 1 photo.
Were it a comprehensive endeavour of more than one photo, Lowes Paradise would deserve its own photo along w. Jahns, Fordham Road shopping and the displayed Poe cottage; still a wonderful blast from the past! I wish I would have had that nice 180th St. train station where I spent too many hours of my life changing trains. Judging from the price of homes, the Bronx may undergo a renaissance. Of course it will largely depend on its ability to control the crime that largely lead to the middle class flight to the suburbs.Thank you for the great site.
What about St. Nicholas of Tolentine University Ave and Fordham Rd.
I grew up on Irwin Ave., went to PS 7 and Clinton. Worked as a kid at the Van Cortland boat house and my brother and I used traps to catch crabs in the Harlem river. Enjoy this review of the Bronx.
Thanks.
Love all the old pics of the Bronx, where I was raised. Would love to see more, or know of more web sites.
Thanks!
Thank you for this stroll down Memory Lane! Many interesting facts I never knew! A beautiful tribute.
went to Herman Ridder JHS first male teacher was Stanley Aarons, wonder id he is still alive? Did you know its a fact the richest people today hailed from the Bronx???
I grew up in a housing project at the corner of White Plains Rd and Gun Hill Rd in Williamsbridge, so I may have lived on what was once John William’s farm land – I never knew about that farm. This was so interesting; I will share it on Facebook.
I grew up on Magenta St. which ran from Bronx Boulevard up alongside the projects (711 building) and the playground a little past Evander Childs HS. Moved there when I was 5 and there was no project, just the farm. We had some old 16mm films and turned them into a VHS. There is film taken from the roof of my building (681 Magenta) and you can see Immaculate Conception church and beyond because there are no projects blocking them. Really miss the Bronx.
I grew up in that neighborhood on Colden avenue right where it intersects with magenta st. During the 50s & 60s, but moved to CT in 1973. I walked to Immaculate Conception school from kindergarten to 8th grade with my brother & sister. It was a great place to grow up & I remember there being little farms along Gun hill rd & many empty lots that we used to play in during the late 50s & early 60s before it got really built up! Fond memories of Freedomland & even rode my bike there with a friend when I was about 10 years old. You could do that back then with no problems. By the early 70s the area started to go downhill with crime, overbuilding, etc. & we left. I still miss those days & frequently drive past my old house when I go to places in the Bronx.
Hi Patti, A friend posted this article about neighborhoods in The Bronx. I was reading the comments and came across yours. I lived at 711 Magenta Street apartment 10H. I am going back a long time. I am 71 now. Your name sounds so familiar. Did you go to Evander Childs HS and then to St. Helena’s Business school? Would love to hear from you.
From White Plains, 1976-1978 I went out with a girl from 241st & WP Road.
Let’s say her first name was Margaret-100% Irish. She was hot and her clothes were always wrapped tight. Great makeup, nails, shoes, sparkly eyes, and teeth, magnetic personality.
We met at IONA College night classes.
She taught me the Bronx, the different Sections, the different ethnic sections, the new Art being painted on the IRT cars above ground in the Bronx.
She felt like an outcast of sorts because her friends from 238th south considered her 241st location as “Upstate”.
The time period was Mayor Koch, she taught me Disco, Bi-Centennial-Tall Ships into NY Harbor 7-4-1976, Son of Sam, Fordham Baldies, The Basketball Diaries, the NY Yankees Stadium renovation, Madison Square Garden Concerts-Eagles, Jersey Joe Brown, Elton, the great blackout of NYC, and other adventures…
Nice job on your description of the different sections of the Bronx. I salute you.
I lived on 241st and hung out on 241st and W.P.R. 1960 to 1978 went to 16 then SOUSA THEN Evander Childs I knew everyone in that neighborhood especially if they hung out or lived on 241st matter a fact I am with a girl today that I met in 1972 in the little park under the 241st bridge Yonkers side she lived on 242nd and W.P.R.behind the iron works .I know a Mageret that lived on 241st and baychester she had a brother robert I am trying to think of others .when we were younger we hung out at the corner 241st and baychester by the barber shop Petes.
You failed to mention The Villiage of Baychester. These are the houses right outside of section 5 Co-op City. This section was there way before Co-op City was built. I grew up in my father’s house that was built in 1927 on Palmer Avenue
Does anyone know what happened to the parkchester general hospital? All I can find online about it is the address: 1424 Parker Street, the Bronx and that it was replaced by townhouses.
rhonda the parkchester general hospital was closed many years ago it was on zeragaave westerchester hospital near tremont and zeraga now being use
I lived at 1440 Zerega Ave for many years in the 50’s and 60’s. . Joseph Letzia is right. Parkchester General was across from the corner where Trautman Ave ends at Zerega, a block from Weschester Ave.
Loved your tour of the Bronx where I was born and raised, left and returned to raise my children. Just wish you had included a photo of Bronx Park, the beautiful entrance to the Bronx Zoo, and the Enid Haupt Conservatory at the Bronx Botanical Gardens. Also, perhaps, a photo of Pelham Parkway where I spent a lot of time with friends. Would love to own a book of the five boroughs of NYC and hope you will consider it.
My family is the owner of the building at Glebe and Westchester Ave in the Castle Hill Section of the Bronx, Westchester Square Plumbing Supply. We moved here in 1968 from 2928 East Tremont Ave when the city built Lehman High School in westchester Square. We are currently celebrating 90 years and 4 generations in business. The building is older than the Bronx County (celebrating 100 years as a county).
Previous uses of the building were an auto parts dealer, a movie theater and a horse and buggy stable.
We recently received art work from the TAGpublicArtsProject.org giving the building an entirely different look.
My name is Bernard Kan. Lived on corner of Tenbroeck & Rhinelander Ave. my Dad was a friend of the Beider family. Lived on Lakeview, I think. I am 77 yrs old. I remember Bob Beider who is older then I. Is this Bob Beider that I remember or a son?
Hey Bernard…my husband grew up on tenbroeck between rhinelander and neill as did his mom…heknewyour family and I became acquainted with your sister louise when i moved here after we married. She sang if i remember correctly. My husband’s grandparents lived a few houses away….the caputo’s – his grandfather was Doc Csputo. And his parents are Ron and Elizabeth Hoina. The block is still beautiful and we are good friends with the family who bought your house.
That’s so cool Bob Beider! Thanks!
Great tour. I was looking for Orchard Beach out by City Island. No mention. It was a fabulous place to go when I was a kid even tho the water was less than swimmable. Used to call it Horses**t Beach.
That was so enjoyable and memorable. Thank you, I loved Pelham Bay
I have lived my childhood in the bronx, It was in my opinion the greatest place on earth to live. I wish we can turn the clock back so my children and grandchildren can enjoy what I had..I was blessed. Vinny
Great memories. I grew up in the Bronx at .1639 Fulton Ave, By Crotona swimming pool, PS 4 with a swimming pool where I learned how to swim. . Bathgate Ave, Ginzys toy store on Claremont Parkway.., also lived at 1411 Townsend Ave, at 170th St . Roberta Petermann ( now Known as Roberta Peters The opera Star grew up in Building B at 1411 Townsend Ave..Could always hear her singing and practicing .The Jerome Swimming Pool (also known as the Jerome Cascades ) Where I was worked as a beach
,boy, ocker room attendant and life guard, Also lived at 1457 Wilkins Ave. ,by the National laundry, I went to Samuel Gompers Vocational High school 145 th St & Southern Blvd Also lived at 1821 University Ave .Near the Park Plaza theatre.The Bronx was a great place.
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Leonard, I grew up in 1639 as well! Cool~!
is there someone who may remember the phelam heath inn before it had burned down next to driving range?
Yep, Pelham Pky & Eastchester Rd
Wonderful memories of our beloved Bronx. Grew up between Crosby & Edison Ave. Went to PS 14, then moved to LI. After marriage lived on Mullen Pl in the Silver Beach area. Husband attended PS 72 and Columbus High. Still love the Bx. Thank you.
I grew up between the Grand Concourse and Jerome Avenue near 172nd Street. What neighborhood is that part of?
Hey bella…did you attend joseph h.wase junior high on walton avenue?this is big tom if you remember. i knew leah wallace and susan speiser.. let me know.
Wow, thank you so much. My Dad and Grandfather were of German decent, and lived in the Bronx their whole lives and born there. There is a picture of a small church on Adams street, my Dad was Baptized there if I remember correctly, and just before I moved, my Grandmothers 1st cousins memorial was held there in 1995………….Thank you so much!! When I find the pictures I will post some. I know I have one of my Dad, sleigh riding down White Plains road, before it was even paved !! My Dad said the Bronx was country when he was growing up….he was born in 1911. So I say that I am 1/4 New York, 1/4 German and 1/2 Italian. Very proud to be from the Bronx, NY………10462.
Hello Carolyn Honold…Wow, indeed…glad I happened upon this site.
The house (parsonage) to the right of that small church on Adams St was my home from birth, 1947, till 1963….St. Luke’s Lutheran Church.
Did your dad go to that church during those years ?
My father (Rev. Hans Hohnsbein) was pastor there during the same years.
I also was baptized in that church, by my father.
Both my parents (and their parents) were of German decent.
The church was both English and German congregation (bilingual).
I am the youngest of 4 siblings and in that little church we experienced life as kids of the pastor and his wife.
My name is Vince Hohnsbein and would be glad to chit-chat via email if you care to.
My email is vchohnsbein@att.net
A bit of sloppy research regarding the East Bronx. Schuylerville may exist on maps but has always been a part of Throggs Neck for my 60 years and at least a century. Also Middletown was always referred to as part of Pelham Bay rather than a separate entity.
I lived in the parsonage pictured for Van Nest in the late 70’s. and grew up on Rowland Street close to Westchester Square. Great to see these pictures and the memories
You left out Olinville. At one time I believe it was considered part of Willaimsbridge, but evolved into a neighborhood with it’s own identity. My ancestors owned a significant amount of property and a florist and farm on the corner of White Plains Rd and Magenta St., (then Old Boston Rd and Julianna St) in the mid 1860’s. They’re buried in Woodlawn today.
Aweskme
I was born in the Bronx in 1935.The hospital was called Doctor Blacks and was changed to Parkchester Generai on Zerega Ave. I lived on Buck Street .Shopped at Joe Delilo’s Grocery And Ralph’s meat market on the cornor of Zerega and Maclay. Two Churches St Raymonds and Santa Maria.were close by. My grandparents lived on Blondell Ave. Thanks for the memories . Growing up in the Bronx was wonderful.
I lived on Maclay Ave from ages 6 to 9 (in the 1940’s ) During the depression and right through and after the war Joe Delllo kept half the neighborhood alive. For a few cents. housewives were given arm loads of vegetables. If they couldn’t pay he’d say you oculd charge it and then “lose” the charge sheet. Maclay ave was a vlilage where everyone looked out for each other and it was a true melting pot. No one ever felt a moment of discrimination regardless of their color or ethnicity. Don’t even get me started on the “get down off there” guys. Heavenly way to grow up. I’m so blessed.
There is no such neighborhood as “Middletown,” which is a road, not a ‘hood. Pelham Bay is the name of the neighborhood running more or less from on Westchester Avenue and Middletown Road to Westchester Avenue and Bruckner Boulevard. This is pretty basic stuff.
Tell it to Hagstrom, which marks it.
Kevin, I really don’t care what Hagstrom says as they are NOT Bronxites. The area of West 238th and Orlof was called Fort Independence. I went sleigh riding there. Bainbridge was also a neighborhood. Norwood wasn’t used by the majority of people. Pelham Bay included the train station at the end of the line, also included the land that Coop City was on. Ran all the way to City Island. Edgewater began life as a bungalow colony and then turned into a coop due to fights with The City. The Concourse was a broad avenue not a neighborhood.
I grew up in Stratton Park which was on the West Farms side of Parkchester (Beach, Commonwealth, Theriot etc.) I don’t know where it fits in here because it was not West Farms. I am not even sure its boundaries but East Tremont on one side and I think West Farms over that way, then Parkchester on the other end. I didn’t even know it had a name til I found a group online:)
Stratton Park is located between White Plains Road, East 177th Street (now the Cross Bronx Expressway Service Road). Bronx River Avenue and East Tremont Avenue. It is sometimes less commonly called Park Stratton or Park Versailles.
Name comes from John Stratton O’Leary, an Irish immigrant from County Kerry and real estate developer in the Bronx who built many of the apartment houses on Archer, Beach, Taylor, and Theriot Avenues. Stratton Park Little League played at nearby Noble Field in the 50s, 60s and 70s.
I grew up in Highbridge. There was not enough info about the section. All the info was about the bridge. Wish there was more about the area
I grew up in Highbridge. There was not enough info about the section. All the info was about the bridge. Wish there was more about the area
You can’t please everybody.
It was so nice to take a stroll back in time to see some landmarks still there. I’ll always miss NYC!
I’m originally from the Hunts Point area.
Thanks
THIS BROUGHT BACK BEAUTIFUL MEMORIES TOO MANY TO MENTIO BUT I WILL MENTION ADDEO’S BAKERY IN ARTHUR AVE SECTION THE BEST BREAD AND PORK BREAD IN THE WORLD, AND THE WORLD IS A BIG PLACE….AS BOB HOPE WOULD SAY “THANKS FOR THE MEMORIES”
Thank you for the trip down memory lane. I grew up in the Bronx in the 30s and 40s , went to Christopher Columbus High School which I understand is no longer a high school, and have never been back. I remember walking from my Morris Park Ave. – Williamsbridge Rd. neighborhood to City Island on
Sunday afternoons to join my “clam digger” friends.
NOT NO MORE, THE BRONX ,LOOKING FOR OLD BUILDING BEING BUILD IN THE BRONX 1900 TO 1940 THE START OF THE BRONX AND THE IRON WORKS FOR THE U S CAP IN WASKINGTON D C 149 STREET AND BROOK AVE 1840
Perhaps in a FUTURE edition or update you could include Andrews Avenue, Montgomery Avenue, Popham Avenue, and Undercliff Avenue, the latter of which is step-street-accessible from these avenues. At a low-elevation, Undercliff Avenue is a “hidden haven” from these other neighboring avenues.
Montgomery Avenue and Popham Avenue — the former Montgomery Estate — borders the old Ogden Estate, whose 19th Century stone-wall still exists, running along University Avenue from the 1889-built Washington Bridge to the corner of University Avenue & West 174th Street…across the street from Eddie’s Candy Store, a neighborhood favorite from the 1930’s through the early 1970’s.
This was so cool…Thanks. I grew up in the Castle Hill area on Randall Avenue in the late 60’s until the early 80’s. I live in Michigan now (since 1985)…another planet compared to the Bronx. I looked at all these areas of the Bronx and felt very nostalgic. I remember being a little kid going places all over the Bronx with my family visiting friends, family, shopping (Macy’s in Parkchester is where I bought my first 14k gold necklace). Then being a teen and going to quite a few locations listed here. Those were the best times of my life. This listing made me remember it like it was yesterday. The areas look almost exactly the same. I had a great childhood in the Bronx. It was NOTHING like being a kid is now. Even though kids these days have much more than we had, there is an angry, un-happy, entitled sense today’s young people seem to have. We went outside to play, came inside before dark for dinner, got a handful of gum/candy for $0.25…There were no $600-700 computers, phones and games. I went to P.S. 138. School was fun. We CARRIED armloads of books along with our loose-leaf binder (anyone else remember those huge denim covered, 3 silver ringed monstrocities lol).
Anyway, thanks for the backgrounds on the neighborhood and the pics. It was a nice stroll back home.
Great article. Would be nice to have accompanied with a map of all the neighborhood of the Bronx so I can visually see exactly where are all the neighborhoods are located with borders.I have been reading up a lot about the Bronx recently and am fascinated with all the old history and new developments going on shedding the terrible image of the Bronx burning. I’m particularly eager for the waterfront development along Port Morris/Mott Haven. I do hope they preserve the old. Is there a museum of the history of the Bronx?
Oh, I grew up in various building in the heart of the Bronx Burning of the South Bronx particularly Southern Blv./Hunt’s Point/Longfellow area. We moved so much due to fires. I saw so much but am so happy that the Bronx is turning around for the better and hopefully recapture the glory days of the early 20th century of being a great place to live.
I lived near Fox & Longwood and went to school at P.S. 39 and P.S. 62. Then on to JHS 60, which was all girls, and I understand no longer exists. That was before all the fires (1956-1963) Great neighborhood!
The correct name of the long north-south divide is “The Grand Concourse and Boulevard.” This is as per all the street signs going as far back as the 1950’s. As others have said it never was a ‘neighborhood.’ Very enjoyable article.
Actually, I remember some of the old maps listing it the other way: “Grand Boulevard and Concourse.”
OK, I am confused, or maybe the Bronx is confused. Born and raised on Fenton Ave (1946-1964) in that triangle formed by Boston Post Rd, Eastchester Rd and Gun Hill Rd.. It does not seem to belong to any neighborhood. Where am I going wrong?
Tommy ,I lived in Edgewater from 1947 to 1997.I have some family still living there.Angela lived in C around 70 maybe.She went out with Fred Scheffold from E section i think 3-E. He died at the WTC he was a fire chief. Maybe you and I know each other? REgards Mack
I was so excited to see St. Augustine Church on 166th Street. There is also a school across from the church. My old alma mater. I am now in my eighties and it seems just yesterday I was going to St. Augustine with the boys school across from the girls school. A long time ago they had a class reunion for all the classes from the 1930’s on up. I was so sad to see the stained glass windows had been taken out because of a leaking roof and the beautiful marble stations of the cross were gone and no one knew where they were. Why, when you go back to you former school it seems so small and the stairs so long and steep? Must be the old arthritic knees.
Your first pix of PS 15brought back memories I sent my first year teaching Kindergarten in 1962-63 at this school which was annexed to PS68 It was a darling four room school house an experience Ill always cherish alice kelly tiernan
Not sure why you needed my website but its there if you want to look. Just wanted to make a comment about Marble Hill which I grew up in back in the 50’s & ’60’s. Yes it is the only part of Manhattan on the mainland but back in the day we considered ourselves Bronxites and I still do. Not sure what people think nowadays. Note we had a Bronx zip code and were patrolled by both the 34th and 50th pcts. My father served in both and used to come home in a squad car for lunch. Also the NY Central did have a station called Spuyten Duyvil but now one called the area that, what it was, was the area next to the freight yard and underneath Riverdale, it was poor and run down and was known as Shantytown, I played little league with 2 boys from there in the Kingsbridge(Bronx) Little League at the field next to the Deegan up near Williams Funeral Home. Also didn’t see it mentioned that the Russians had a complex for their embassy officials in Riverdale overlooking the Palisades, I know because as smart assed teenagers we used to drive up there and harass the guards, how we never were shot is beyond me.
What about Sedgwick ave & Kingsbridge Road?
When you were asked “where are you from?” Castle Hill, was the answer. Swam at Castle Hill Pool, and when we were older hung out “down the end.” Dining out with the family was at Dominic’s restaurant on Westchester Ave. off the corner of Zerega. Played ball at “The Park” on Lafeyette Ave. off Castle Hill and harmonized on the corner of Castle Hill and Quimby Ave. in front of the Quimbe Bar.
Grew up in the Bronx on Brush Ave. in Ferry Point, a very small neighborhood . Love reading about the Bronx and I think it’s great how everyone loved growing up there. I too thought it was a fantastic place to live. Moved upstate and miss it everyday . The Bronx will always be home to me.
Co-op city is not a housing project
So now that the majority of residents in Co-op City are black and brown it’s suddenly a housing project? That is very divisive, wholly inaccurate and disappointing considering how useful and necessary your site is. I employ you to DO BETTER. I get that some people are still distraught over the lost of Freedomland but Co-op City’s history is richer than what you have chosen to mention. Perhaps you are waiting for the resident population to lighten in color before you are willing to rewrite what you have written wrong. Disgusted but mostly disappointed.
No disrespect is intended by the term “housing project.”
looking for old pics of a old soccer park,enclosed at the time ,off randall road on bronx side of throgs neck bridge.used to have a italian festival there called santismo croce.thanks
The Dutchless Washington Irving (1783-1859 ) put into circulation the notion that “Spuyten Duvyil” is Dutch for ‘in spite of the Devil’ and his misetymology (Dutch has no word or phrase meaning ‘despite’ or ‘in spite of’ that resembles “Spuyten” even remotely) has been uncritically copied times without number ever since.
The first and still only serious treatment of the origin of the English place name “Spuyten Duyvil” is on pages 122-147 of David L. Gold’s “Studies in Etymology and Etiology (With Emphasis on Germanic, Jewish, Romance, and Slavic Languages” (Alicante, Publicaciones de la Universidad de Alicante, 2009).
Depending on Dutch pronunciation of Spuyten Duvyil it can mean two different things, either ‘in spite of the Devil’ or ‘The Devil’s whirlpool (waterspout)’. It is an extremely turbulent stretch of water so the second meaning seems more fitting. Near to Spuyten Duyvil Creek is a stretch of water called ‘Hells Gate’. Great documentary on YouTube about the construction of The Harlem Ship Canal explains exactly why Marble Hill is considered part of Manhattan. I can heartily recommend The 1939 WPA Guide to New York, reprinted by The New Press in 1992, for descriptions of neighbouhoods of The Bronx back then and the more recent publications from The Bronx Historical Society. cheers to Mr Walsh for making the effort to shed more light on an interesting area of NYC
You mentioned Silver Beach and Edgewater but failed to include one of their sister neighborhood LOCUST POINT in Throg(g)s Neck.
St. Lucy’s Church is on Bronxwood and Mace Aves, not Bronxville as indicated in the caption under the picture.
I grew up in the Bronx now live in Florida but the Bronx will always be home to me. I went from child to adult there. I lived in an area of apartment buildings and single/2 family/multifamily homes. very diverse. I read the beginnings of Colin Powell’s book to see if it was factual and it was. I lived on then Stebbins Avenue. The community and my classmates were like a UN. I grew up there in the 1940’s so it had nothing to do with inner cities or any other such names. My friends were descendants of Italian, Jewish, Irish, West Indians (as myself), southern blacks, German, Spanish esp Puerto Rican, and Asian, you name it. We went to neighborhood schools, my 1st being PS 54 on Intervale Avenue/ Freeman Streets and then JHS 40 (Prospect Jr. High). I took the 3rd avenue el train to HS attending and graduating from Central Commercial H.S. in Manhattan. Life was simple but much better than today. All kids battles were not racist but it might have been putting some bully in their place. What was great was how kids could go running in and out of each other’s homes as children do easily learning about one another’s cultures without realizing that is what was happening. I’d like to find a picture of 3500 3rd Ave. My grandpa was a RE broker and he owned the building and maintained his office there – the BenWil Realty Corp. It was one of the few RE firms owned by a person of color. God those years were the best in any one’s life.
does anybody remember where singer’s beach was? the bronx colosseum? where was the big soccer oval where all the europeans played on sundays?
Starlight park around Longfellow& 17? St
Thank you so much for sharing this. I lived on Summit Ave.
As a child. Remember Wilson’s Publishing among other
Fond memories.
Does anyone out there know who Kelly Street was named after??…
a Captain Samuel Kelly, who owned property there in the early 19th Century
No Photos of the Quonset Huts on Bruckner Blvd.
Lived there until we moved to an “upscale” apt. in the Parkside Projects. which was a great place to grow up. Walking distance to Bronx Park, Bronx Zoo, and Allerton Ave. EL.
I remember the huts and a buddy lived there. My dad told me the story how they were built for returning servicemen. There is a picture in a Magazine on Clason Point and there is a mention of it in the book “The Bronx ..It was only yesterday 1935-1965” P. 5
This was great. Thank you
Raised in Fordham, on Valentine Avenue, around the corner from Poe Park. Went to PS 46 (wasn’t until many years later that I saw carved in stone over the main entrance that it was the Edgar Allen Poe Elementary School). Commuted to Hunter College HS on the #4 Woodlawn-Jerome from 60-66. Retired and living in BC Canada where every other woman is named Heather(back in the Bronx when I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s no one had that name and no one knew it was a plant) so up here I am called “Bronxie” and folks love my accent. Have been doing research on the Bronx. Haven’t been able to find out the ethnicity of Isaac Valentine (Valentine-Varian House) British? Dutch? Anyone know? Appreciate the help.
Consider updating the Highbridge entry. The bridge has been open to the public since June 2015.
Done
What was the neighborhood called at Tremont Avenue West of University Avenue to the Major Deegan Parkway….
Thank you really enjoyed every place you showed. I was born in The Bronx, 1st lived at 788 Fox Street. Went to PS 62, played at the PAL. Then moved to Arthur Ave n went to JHS 44, changed to JHS 118 since I was across the street. From there to Valentine Ave, then to what everyone called Riverdale but it’s Called Kingsbridge. As a Hispanic I have never lived with racism towards me. All those places I came from were mostly as most say white. Yet I loved n was loved by all and I am still here in The Bronx. Born,lived n lived. Plus worked from Alexander’s to a well known surgeon n mostly with The Bronx Children for more then 37 years. I am a proud Bronx Lady and love everyone. I’m like a child who sees no color but humans. Ask anyone on 231st,marble hill, Godwin. My people I love NYC, Together we are stronger. I love my babies at PS207 n their families. I love THE BRONX. THANK YOU AGAIN MR K. WELSH N MAY GOD BLESS YOU. KEEP ON GIVING US MORE HISTORY…..
I went to P.S. 62 from 3rd grade to 6th grade (1957-1960) and on to JHS 60! Do you remember the names of any of your teachers?
Grew up on Irwin Ave. and attended PS 7 and Clinton HS. Worked during the summer at the Van Cortland Park boat house and used traps to catch crabs in the Harlem river. Rode our bikes across the G W bridge to Palisades Park, learn to swim at Tidbits Brook pool.
Enjoyed the Bronx review, thanks.
This is a great site. I grew up in the Bronx in the Mott Haven Section; 141st and 3rd Ave, (the Patterson Houses). In the 60s it became the South Bronx with all of the negative images that went along with it. I see that the name Mott Haven is coming back. I remember the Saturday shopping to 149th street and 3rd Ave, the Herns Department store which had a big meat market. The many stores along 3rd Ave where you could get fresh fruits or the 5 and 10 cents stores where you could get a waffle and ice cream sandwich. There was the place where you could get a pina colata drink. I remember when the 3Ave El was still on 3rd Ave. Will you ever write something about St. Mary’s Park. I remember climbing the rock formations that were in the park. Thank you for the trip down memory lane.
Lived and grew up on Eastburn ave near 175th st. Put in 34 years with NYFD, retired as Captain in1993. Enjoyed your stories about the Bronx.
Living in Windermere florida with my wife Joan.. Marired 60 years. If you know me, please respond.
Nicely done Kevin – many thanks for your efforts.
My personal favorite is what realtors are now trying to call West Farms:
Parallelogram Under The Zoo.
Hi Kevin,
Thanks so much for all the work you put into this. It was a hoot after all these years to see the places I used to haunt. Great Job Kevin. Who knew I had such a talented cousin.
Hi Patti, A friend posted this article about neighborhoods in The Bronx. I was reading the comments and came across yours. I lived at 711 Magenta Street apartment 10H. I am going back a long time. I am 71 now. Your name sounds so familiar. Did you go to Evander Childs HS and then to St. Helena’s Business school? Would love to hear from you.
I grew up on Metcalf Ave. went to PS 107 grammar school. IS 131 junior high then Stevenson high school. Miss and loved the Bronx. So glad I grew up there! Great childhood memories. Had so many friends in which I am still in touch with a few. Was outside all day playing with friends until 6:00 when it was time for dinner. Kids can’t do that today. Best times!
I grew up on cruger avenue just off Burke avenue, and in 1972 moved out to bay shore on the island. Have slot of great memories from the good old Bronx.
Thank you so much for compiling a listing plus description of all these neighborhoods in the Bronx. I was born and raised in the Bronx, being a second generation Bronxite. I grew up in the Wakefield section which was right by the city lines of Mount Vernon and Yonkers. It was a great area to spend my childhood and seemed like country compared to the crowded apartment buildings of the South Bronx where my parents had lived prior to the 1950’s. Many backyards had their vegetable gardens with tomatoes being the primary crop. After the Revolutiinary War, Colonial Penfield, who served as an aide de camp to George Washington, started a farm there by White Plains Road. In regards to Woodlawn vs. Woodlawn Heights debate, on our side of the Bronx River we just called it Woodlawn. My husband and siblings who grew up there always called it Woodlawn. He once mentioned some people referred to it as Woodlawn Heights but he wasn’t sure if it was just a certain section or not. Btw Woodlawn was settled before the Revolutionary War. Thé Stockbridge Massacre of Native Americans fighting on the side of colonists took place in their section of Van Cortlandt Park and the British Colonel Simcoe drew a map of the area including a cluster of houses. His British redoubt or earthen barricade was in the southern section of Woodlawn Cemetery. Just a steep area of the hill is left and a sign, if it is still there.
Woodlawn Cemetery was originally part of a farm owned by Tories during the Revolutionary War. After the war, they lost ownership. By the Bronx Westchester border at the intersection of the Hutchinson Parkway and New England Thruway sits Split Rock, where the colonist Anne Hutchinson was killed by a local tribe. It is almost impossible to view since highways surround it. Luckily the Bronx Historian fought to save it from being dynamited in the 1960’s when the thruway was being built.
Thank you Kevin for this wonderful trip around the beautiful Bronx! I grew up in Kingsbridge Hts and went to HS at the Academy of Mt St Ursula, not Ursuline Academy…that is a sister school located in New Rochelle. The Bronx was such a fantastic place to grow up and explore. We had enormous freedom to roam on our own and felt safe doing so. My kids have had different experiences from my own, not bad at all, but will never understand the stories my husband and I tell of the fun we had as kids. Again, thanks for such an informative post.
Awesome recap, i love the bronx, thanks a lot !!!