LOST STREETS OF HUNTS POINT

TAKE a look at this section of a vintage 1922 Hagstrom Bronx map … I isolated Hunts Point. There is an entire section of streets that has been completely wiped out where the Hunts Point Cooperative Market is now. All north-south cross streets were eliminated in the early 1960s when the complex, which now hosts the former Fulton Fish Market, was constructed.

The eliminated streets had been built and weren’t paper streets, though the westernmost were paved and had houses along them; the easternmost were dirt roads, with sheds and warehouses, I’m not sure if there were streetlamps or signs. There were nine such eliminated streets:

STREET	ORIGIN
Payne Street	John Howard Payne, author of “Home Sweet Home”
Bacon Street	Sir Francis Bacon
Sacrahong Street	Stream separating Hunts Point from Morrisania; now buried
Farragut Street	Admiral David Farragut
Falconer Street	Poet William Falconer
Preble Street	Admiral Edward Preble
Kane Street	Explorer Elisha Kent Kane
Porter Street	Unknown
Dahlgren Street	Admiral John Dahlgren

Sections of Caswell, Ryawa, Viele, East Bay, Oak Point, Randall and Spofford Avenues as well as Edgewater Road along the Bronx River also were paved over to make way for the Hunts Point Market.

Today, a busy 4-lane roadway prosaically called Food Center Drive makes a semicircle in the market. Unlike the Brooklyn Navy Yard, it’s accessible to the public and even has a bicycle lane.

House on Payne Street in 1940. Photo: NYC Municipal Archives

Kane Street, at the east end, wasn’t as developed and was left unpaved, with some garages and sheds.

A short piece of Farragut Street, unmarked by the Department of Transportation, is a dead end off Food Center Drive. It leads to Hunts Point Landing, a public park.

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11/2/22