MUCH of the southern Bronx was owned in the colonial era by the Morris family. Richard Morris, originally from Wales, purchased a large estate called Broncksland from a Samuel Edsall in 1670; his grandson, Lewis Morris (1726-1798), served in the Continental Congress from 1775-1777, and in the NY state legislature between 1777 and 1790, and signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Gouverneur Morris (1752-1816) half-brother of Lewis Morris, was a political leader, diplomat, U.S. Senator, and American ambassador to France. Later descendant Robert Hunter Morris was mayor of NYC from 1841-1844. His son, Gouverneur Morris II, sold much of the estate to industrialist Jordan Mott in 1849, while a portion of Morrisania remained in the family until the passing of heir William H. Morris. References to the Morris family — and Jordan Mott– are all over the southern Bronx map.
Though the examples are dwindling, Morrisania and its neighboring areas. Mount Hope and Claremont, once featured exquisite residential housing. On this page shot on a snowy day in 2010, FNY features the Clay Avenue Historic District, a concentration of premier residential architecture. Elsewhere, Longwood features more.
One more of Morrisania’s pocket mansions is about to say goodbye. According to the Facebook group NYC Preservation News and Views, permits have been filed to build a four story apartment building on the site at 1200 Franklin Avenue, a turreted Queene Anne house constructed in 1894, designed by Michael J Garvin, also the architect of the old Bronx courthouse at Third Avenue and East 161st Street.
The area has already lost the Gothic St. Augustine Church, razed in the 2010s in favor of a high rise apartment building at Franklin and East 167th. The massive Renaissance-Baroque church dated to 1894, designed by architect Louis C. Giele.
Nearby is the huge Collegiate Gothic Second Battery Armory (later 105th Artillery Armory) at Franklin and East 166th was built between 1906-1911 by architect Charles C. Haight, with a later 1926 addition. In 2011 it is a community center and homeless shelter. The Second Battery artillery unit, founded in 1833, was associated with the 8th Regiment and served in the Civil War, as well as put down riots around town including the 1863 NYC Draft Riots. The building was occupied by he National Guard for several decades until 1988 — Nancy L. Todd, New York’s Historic Armories, State University of New York University Press, 2006
1200 Franklin photo: David Herszenson, NYC Preservation News and Views
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7/8/25
3 comments
Gouverneur Morris had many accomplishments, but he will best be remembered for his High Noon showdown with a whale bone.
they’re looters,pure and simple
That’s a damn shame… What a gorgeous building! ‘Guess we’ve learned nothing from all the previous razings… 🙁