GROTE Street twists and turns through Belmont, the section of the Bronx most famed for the restaurants of Arthur Avenue and Dion DeMucci, who racked up hits in the 1960s with and without the Belmonts. The name of the street does not honor former Mets All-Star catcher Jerry Grote, who pronounced his name to rhyme with Brody. Rather, it was named for musician and member of the Bronx Board of Trustees Frederick Grote, who rhymed his name with boat.
Along with the northern leg of Third Avenue as well as East 182nd Street, Grote Street is actually the defunct southern end of Kingsbridge Road, which today ends at East Fordham Road and Bainbridge Avenue. Grote Street creates an oblong park plaza with Garden Street at Crotona Avenue called Whalen Grove; the Parks Department website is silent on the origin of this name but we can assume it was named for a different Whalen than Whalen Park in Norwood and Whalen Street in Riverdale, each named for two different people. Like many Irish names, Whalen can be spelled in alternate methods; I have cousins named Whelan, with the “e” coming first, but both are pronounced “whale” with an “n” at the end. Both are likely simplified spellings of the original name in Irish.
As for Garden Street, it comes in between East 182nd and 183rd, along with Grote, and so never got a number in the 19th Century when Manhattan east-west numbered streets were extended into the Bronx. It is named for South Carolinian attorney Hugh Garden, who was appointed by Confederate sympathizer (it is surmised) NYC Mayor Fernando Wood to what was called a Special Reception Committee.
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3/7/23