UNTIL 1926 the northern end of Claremont Park in the Bronx was bordered by a single lane street first called Walnut, for numerous walnut trees in the area, and then Jane Street. Then, the street, newly named Mount Eden Parkway, was widened and center malls added between Walton and Weeks Avenue.
Malls, in the sense of grassy medians or lengthy green tracts, take their name from Pall Mall, a street in Westminster, London, England. Pall-mall, pronounced “pell-mell,” is a croquet-like game in which a ball is hit through an iron ring with a mallet. London’s Pall Mall, completed in 1661, was named for the game, which required a lengthy field. Malls have also come to mean large areas given over to stores and shopping.
Mount Eden itself, a hilly area included in Claremont Park, was named for landowner Rachel Eden who purchased the property in the early 1800s. Interestingly, she wasn’t the only Eden that found a place in property maps and street maps: the Edenwald estate founded by John H. Eden was located in Eastchester in the NE Bronx, and Edenwald Avenue runs through it. Moreover, a short lane in the Seaport area off Gold Street is called Edens Alley for Medcef Eden, who owned large tracts in Manhattan during the colonial era.
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4/10/25
2 comments
Mount Eden Parkway,
one of the city’s shortest at five block in length,
was designed to connect Grand Concourse to Claremont Park.
The guy at the right, sitting on the backrest with his feet on the seat, what, does he know a flood is soon coming and doesn’t want to get his feet wet? No wonder tbose benches have to be built so tough.