THIS is one of the many Irish-themed pubs on Katonah Avenue in Woodlawn Heights, though every persuasion is welcome. In fact the Irish inscription on the sign means “1,000 100,000 welcomes.” Woodlawn, or Woodlawn Heights, is a parallelogram of territory defined by the Bronx River, Van Cortlandt Park, Woodlawn Cemetery, and the Bronx-Westchester County Line, which forms the northern boundary of VCP but runs across several cross streets here. The neighborhood boasts several colorful street names, such as Kepler, named for the German astronomer Johannes Kepler (1571-1630); and Vireo, the small woodland bird (many Woodlawn streets once carried birds’ names such as Quail and Sparrow).
The main shopping street, Katonah Avenue, is from a Native American term meaning “great mountain.” Woodlawn Heights and southern Yonkers are located in a hilly region. Apparently, the avenue and the mid-Westchester County town were named independently.
According to the NY Times in 2011, 44% of Woodlawn’s population was of Irish extraction. A look at the businesses along Katonah Avenue will bear this out, with even the deli awning signs bearing an Irish symbol such as a harp or a shamrock. Woodlawn has been Irish since the 1840s, when Irish immigrants fleeing the mid-19th Century potato famine joined gangs building the Croton Aqueduct from several miles north down to the former reservoir where Bryant Park sits now. Woodlawn’s Irish population is always prominent, but ebbs and flows in association with Ireland’s economic situation: when it was flying high in the 1990s, it decreased here but when it guttered in the 2000s, more Irish arrived.
In Woodlawn, the Emerald Isle Immigration Center, and in Yonkers, the Aisling Irish Community Center, see to the needs of recent Irish immigrants. Surprisingly, most Irish expats now travel to Canada, New Zealand or Australia, since their immigration laws are not as arduous as the USA’s.
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4/3/23
3 comments
You mention the Aisling Center, which is on McLean Avenue, which might as well be considered the same neighborhood as Woodlawn Heights for any difference there is (hardly any).
Cead Mile Failte is 100,000 Welcomes
US immigration laws aren’t arduous, in general. Instead, ever since Ted Kennedy ushered in the latest iteration of the Immigration and Nationality Act almost sixty years ago, immigration from Europe was drastically decreased. Canada, Australia and New Zealand welcome English speaking, college-educated Europeans.