TRACEY AND MOSHOLU

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.

As always, “comment…as you see fit.” I earn a small payment when you click on any ad on the site. Take a look at the new JOBS link in the red toolbar at the top of the page on the desktop version, as I also get a small payment when you view a job via that link. 

1/28/25