DEVOE Park occupies an uneven plot surrounded by West Fordham Road, Webb Avenue, Father Zeiser Place and University Avenue. Curving Fr. Zeiser Place, once a part of West 188th Street, follows an ancient brook. It was renamed in 1953 for the longtime pastor of St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church from 1917-1946, Blasius Zeiser.
Devoe, meanwhile, is an old Bronx name as various members of the Devoe family owned farms from the colonial era into the 1800s. Other place names in the Bronx include Devoe Avenue and Devoe Terrace.
Devoe Park is one of the Bronx’s most irregularly-shaped parks. Its plot was once occupied by the First Reformed Dutch Church beginning in 1705, with successive churches built in 1849 and 1902, the present Fordham Manor Reformed Church found on Reservoir Avenue north of Kingsbridge Road. The curving routes of Webb Avenue and Father Zeiser Place (once part of West 188th Street) overlay Valentine’s Creek, which was relocated below ground over a century ago.
When streets are renamed these days, in general the honored party gets only a subtitle under the old street name, but until the 1970s the city went whole hog and did a straight, complete rename (cf. Seaside Boulevard to Father Capodanno Boulevard in Staten Island, 7th Avenue to Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard and 8th Ave. to Frederick Douglass Boulevard in Harlem, and many others). Today, the honored party gets a sign underneath the longstanding name.
Facing the park at the southeast corner of University Avenue and West Fordham Road is the impressive Gothic St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church, dedicated in 1928. The parish was founded in 1906. It once supported a parochial grade school and high school, but they closed in 2019 and 1991, respectively. The church’s namesake was a 14th Century Italian Augustinian monk, who it is said had visions of Purgatory, “God’s waiting room.” He is invoked by faithful praying for souls waiting there fro admission to heaven.
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10/19/23
7 comments
In 1950 the host of the TV and radio show Truth or Consequences said that he would broadcast an episode from any town that officially renamed itself after the show. People in Hot Springs New Mexico took him up on the offer and the name change has lasted ever since.
I remember St. Nicholas of Tolentine from my days as an NYU Uptown student in the late 1960s. I am not Roman Catholic but knew many students who were, including one roommate who regularly attended Sunday Mass. In those days the parish was heavily Irish, with smaller groups of Italian and German Catholics. Today its congregants are predominantly Hispanic.
Always admired Bronx architecture (particularly churches), especially because you can actually see many of the details from different angles. Buildings in Manhattan or Brooklyn are almost always hemmed in by skyscrapers or apartments, and much of the details are lost.
It’s worth noting that the playgrounds in Devoe Park are topped off with what appear to be red energy domes, as worn by the band… Devo. Intentionality is unclear.
Back in the early 1950s the depth of the pool of water around the spray shower allowed a small kid to float a bit and not just run around the pole.
I grew up in that neighborhood in the 1950s-1960s. I was in that park almost every day as a child. Near the park entrance at Fordham Rd and University Ave there was a tree that was dedicated by Albert Einstein in the 1950s (I think connected to a visit to the then nearby NYU University Heights campus). There was a small brass plaque set into a cement pedestal commemorating the event. By the 1970s both the tree and the plaque were gone. The tree was a stump and plaque had been pried out of the cement pedestal.
Tolentine was my fourth high school pick. It’s a shame it’s gone now. What I remember most from this area is my parents taking me to Jackson’s Steakhouse located across the street from the park and further west on Fordham Road. I always loved going to Jackson’s because I could stare at the live lobsters in the huge tank when you walked in. I was also mesmerized by the live organ music. I had heard organs in church and at Radio City but never in the small proximity of a restaurant. That organ had so many different buttons and sounds that you could not help but be fascinated.