Last November (2019) I was staggering around in the South Bronx, through Mott Haven, Morrisania, and Longwood, enjoying myself thoroughly since I don’t get into the Bronx as often as I should. My mood was also good because I was still amidst my long-term temp position at a very small design firm near Columbus Circle, which kept me with a roof over my head and pizza in my stomach; the job lasted until December 31, and then you know what happened to the world.
I was heading west on East 165th with a vague determination to get to the Hub at Third Avenue and 149th Street and its IRT trains, 2, 3, 4, 5, when I “stumbled” on Horseshoe Park, just east of Prospect Avenue, the main north-south drag. OK, I won’t kid you, I have long seen this unusual intersection on maps and had never seen it in person.
The Bronx street system is a rough eastern extension of Manhattan’s west of the Bronx River, even though the Harlem River interrupts Manhattan and the Bronx. Numbered streets go west to east, with Jerome Avenue the divider between East and West numbered streets. However there are no north-south numbered Avenues in the Bronx as there are in Manhattan, except for Third Avenue; when the Third Avenue El (closed in the Bronx in 1973) was extended across the Harlem River in the 1880s, streets along it were renamed for 3rd Avenue in Manhattan. And, tradition dictates that for the most part, 3rd Avenue is spelled “Third Avenue” in the Bronx. There will be a quiz.
Topography got in the way of creating a perfect street grid in the Bronx (as there is, say, in midtown Manhattan). There are hills, some steep, some not. One of those hills got in the way of East 165th east of Prospect Avenue and so, streets are rerouted around the hill, and a there is playground and sitting area called Horseshoe Park because of the curving route Rogers Place takes around it.
Intervale Avenue at East 165th Street looking west toward Horseshoe Park.
Rogers Place begins its curve around the north end of Horseshoe Park.
Pedestrians have the option of staying on East 165th, which is a step street through the park. The hill does not seem especially steep and it’s possible 165th could have been routed through it; I’ve seen much steeper in all five boroughs.
On the west side of the park at East 165th and Hall Place, there’s an apartment building with the “Bronx curve” rounded edge so many apartment buildings have in the Bronx, though this curve is a relatively mild one compared with the sweeping curves seen elsewhere in the borough.
Check out the ForgottenBook, take a look at the gift shop, and as always, “comment…as you see fit.”
9/18/20
2 comments
Despite having such a name, this park isn’t shaped like horseshoe, but it’s probably because it might have been named some other way.
I used to play there as a kid growing up on 165th. I never knew it had a name