NONPAVED roads are now quite rare in NYC, but I have one all the way in the north end of Riverdale in the Bronx, between Spender and Huxley Avenues south of West 259th Street. It’s so out of the way that the paper maps I used until some years ago (Hagstrom, Georgaphia) didn’t show it at all and today, Google Maps misnames it as “Thorns Lane.” Nevertheless, Thorne’s the name (like former Mets radio/TV announcer Gary Thorne). In fact, Open Street Map makes the same error. No properties face on it, just the backs of houses on Mosholu and Huxley Avenues.
The plot thickens as a recent Google Street View (2022) shows a new sign with the “Thorns” spelling. This could be an error from the Department of Transportation that both GSV and OSM have picked up on.
Why Thorne? According to the late Bronx historian John McNamara in History in Asphalt, he believes the road is named for the Thorn brothers, Thomas and William, who owned a grain and feed warehouse on Spuyten Duyvil Creek in the 1880s. I think it’s a bit of a stretch unless it can be shown the Thorns owned property here.
The warehouses was located on a lost inlet of the creek named Thorn’s Basin. It was deep enough for ships and barges and was located where the creek, since dedged to become the Harlem River, met Tibbett’s Creek, since relocated underground, though plans call for it to be “daylighted.”
It all goes to indicate that ancient lanes can point to past history…
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11/16/23