HERE’S a tableau that’ll be familiar to Bronx residents in Norwood and Bedford Park: the Mosholu Parkway and in the background, the Tracey Towers. Mosholu Parkway is among the many Native American place names that have been woven into the city’s fabric (though when I saw it on maps as a kid, I thought it was a Japanese name!) . Mo-sho-lu, or “smooth stones” was the Algonquin name of Tibbett’s Brook running through the heart of what became the Bronx’s Spuyten Duyvil and Riverdale neighborhoods, since placed in underground sewers but now the subject of a proposal to expose it again in parkland areas.
In 1888, Mosholu Parkway was laid out as a true parkway, a relatively narrow carriage road lined with trees and foliage, along a former waterway known to the Dutch as Schuil Brook. Mosholu Parkway originally ran only between Bronx and Van Cortlandt Parks, with through traffic running in the center and local and commercial traffic on the service roads. The general concept of the parkway system, devised by master urban architect Frederick Law Olmsted in the 1860s, was to extend large parks by making the roads that connected them into parks themselves. Olmsted’s vision can be seen in Brooklyn’s Ocean and Eastern Parkways, and in the Bronx’s Mosholu Parkway and Pelham Parkway (whose official name is the Bronx and Pelham Parkway because it connects Bronx and Pelham Bay Parks). The parkway’s original stretch between the Bronx and Van Cortlandt Parks is still beautifully intact. Robert Moses was rebuffed in a proposal to turn the Mosholu and Pelham Parkways into expressways.
Tracey Towers refers to two twin buildings designed by architect Paul Rudolph, located in the Jerome Park neighborhood. The towers became the tallest in the borough when completed in 1972, at 400 feet (120 m), although the 404- feet tall River Park Towers took the title just three years later. Tracey Towers consists of nine windowless concrete tubes built with grooved blocks and without any setbacks. These blocks create asterisks which are divided by white slabs relative to each floor. Unlike most buildings in the city, the windows and balconies are placed in between the gaps formed by the concrete tubes. These tubes are also designed to spiral around a central keystone-like structure on a square-shaped plot. This design was chosen in order to align with Rudolph’s vision for a futuristic obelisk.
Tracey Towers is known for its robust representation of Ghanaian Americans new to the country or second or third generation. And their ample presence—complete with their own tenants association and yearly events highlighting the colorful culture of the West African country—has earned it a cute name among residents: “Little Ghana.”
It’s good to be back! For a couple of days I was using the wrong WordPress editor unawares, as overnight it decided to switch editors without explanation. I lost some type controls in the Classic editor, which was also importing blurry photos. Once deactivating it, I went back to what I was using, the Block editor. WordPress pros, if you knew why it would involuntarily switch like that let me know in Comments.
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1/28/25
11 comments
It’s MOSH-a-loo Parkway, NOT Muh-SHOO-luh Parkway, but the mispronunciation persists, for whatever reason. Although, as a child, I knew an older Jewish woman who jokingly referred to it as “MOYSH-e-leh,” “on account of so many Jews living there…” [true at the time]
When does the Dept. Of Homeland Security plan on “visiting” Tracey Towers?
There used to be a seltzer delivery truck that I would see occasionally in my far-upper Manhattan neighborhood. The street address stencil painted on the drivers door was ( I kid you not) Meshula Parkway.
I’m curious about something: there’s a bridge that runs over Webster Ave., adjacent to the Mosholu Parkway just to the north (and used as parking for the police station there now). It seems that it was constructed in the 1950s but never put into use. Was this intended to be a part of Robert Moses’ proposed-but-defeated transformation of Southern Boulevard into a more highway-like configuration? (This would have cut through the northern park of the NYBG, straightening a curve in the road.) Anyway, I know this view well as part of my regular running route.
The only bridge I see there is the Mosholu Pkwy bridge.
Brandon,
I do see the bridge-let to which you refer on “Gergle”, immediately to the east of The Mosh right where it comes to a “T” at the Botanical Gardens (near Frankie Frisch Field); in “Street View” there’s even a sign on the fence saying it is for the NYPD. You could very well be correct that it was part of the un-realized Moses plan, since it appears to be almost the same width as the extant Parkway structure, and therefore might have been intended to carry the future northbound roadway. That said, the structure also appears reasonably similar to the next northeastern span over the RR tracks (at E 204th St. & Webster), so perhaps this is just coincidence.
Interestingly, if you look at the 1924 and 1951 aerial surveys, you’ll see that only the bridge at 204th is present in the 1920s. The bridge in question appears to be new and unused in the 1951 photo. It’s just sort of an oddity, I guess, but I’d put money on it being built for the Moses plan!
That Bridge was also prt of the now discontinued third avenue subway line that ran up Webster Ave
Hi. That bridge crosses the Metro North tracks, linking Southern Blvd to the precinct house, but doesn’t cross Webster Ave.
As a Bronx High School of Science student, we would never go near Mosholu Parkway and DeWitt Clinton High School.
The best place to enjoy childhood!!