WHERE: The northern part of the Grand Concourse and Mosholu Parkway, the southern fringe of Van Cortlandt Park, and Kingsbridge, Bronx
START: Kingsbridge Road subway station (D train), fully accessible
FINISH: 238 Street subway station (1 train)
DISTANCE: 3.1 miles (5 kilometers)
Photograph credits as noted. Map courtesy footpathapp.com.
Route of this walk, reading counterclockwise.
This walk was inspired by historic preservationist Thomas Rinaldi and his photographs of buildings on and near the upper Grand Concourse. This was built up mostly after World War I, after the elevated subway opened on nearby Jerome Avenue (today’s 4 train). The pace of construction accelerated after the Concourse subway (today’s D train) opened in 1933. The upper Grand Concourse offers a pleasing vista of mostly mid-rise apartment buildings of more or less uniform height. The building facades differ in their details, giving the observant passerby a lot to enjoy and think about.
The walk started at the Kingsbridge Road subway station. Unusually, one has to go down from the platforms to the fare control area. Kingsbridge Road passes underneath the Grand Concourse. The subway entrance abuts what was a streetcar stop when the station opened. From the fare control area, stairs and an elevator go up to the street.
At the intersection is a park and Poe Cottage, the onetime country home of Edgar Allan Poe. For some history of the house see the post entitled “A Raven, A Ram, A Two-Headed Eagle, and Prosciutto Bread” on “The Stair Streets of New York City” page.
In front of Poe Cottage: Mark, Yours Truly, Dan, Michael, Paul, Nathaniel. Photograph by a kind passerby.
Walking north on the Concourse we saw a lot of attractive apartment buildings.
Photograph by Michael Cairl.
Who was Luke Nee? Someone I wish I had met. The New York Times printed short biographies of people who died in the attacks on September 11, 2001.
LUKE NEE Bronx in His Blood
As a boy, Luke Nee played all the games that a Bronx sidewalk offered to kids on Minerva Place, just off the Grand Concourse: stickball, of course, and off-the-point and street hockey.
Right out of Cardinal Hayes High School, he answered a help-wanted advertisement for people with math skills and landed a job at Drexel Burnham Lambert. Before long, a half-dozen guys from the block followed. It was a small world, he would say, but he would not want to paint it.
At Drexel, he met Irene Lavelle, and they were married Sept. 11, 1982. After he had shifted to Cantor Fitzgerald, he would chew through a couple of novels a week on the train ride from Stony Point, N.Y., said his brother, John Nee. His Bronx roots showed: he shared a ticket plan for Friday night Yankee games with boyhood friends from St. Philip Neri School.
Mr. Nee, 44, made the simple pleasures glow. ''He treasured Irene and loved bringing their son, Patrick, to ballgames,'' said his brother. On summer weekends, he, Irene and Patrick would jump in the car, pick up a few relatives and head for the beach. And on Sept. 11, he made a final call of farewell and love to his family.
''Luke was just a friendly, kind, peaceful, and unaffected guy,'' said Mr. Nee. ''Meatball heroes, watch a movie with Patrick -- that was a Saturday night.''
Photograph by Mark Foggin.
Photograph by Michael Cairl.
At the corner of Bedford Park Boulevard we stopped to admire the architectural details of 2939 Grand Concourse, one of which is pictured below. Nathaniel in our group asked what I saw in this detail. I responded that I saw that here was fine embellishment of an apartment building in the Bronx, not on Park Avenue, so my appreciation was sociological as well as aesthetic.
Photograph by Michael Cairl.
On Bedford Park Boulevard, just west of the Concourse, is an odd mishmash of old and new buildings.
Photograph by Daniel Murphy.
Here and there one could see houses and other buildings that had not been replaced by apartment houses. The cornerstone of St. Philip Neri Roman Catholic Church is dated 1899 and was something more than a humble country church in what was then a thinly populated area. This is how the church looked in 1928; it is little changed now.
Photograph courtesy The New York Public Library via urbanarchive.org.
From the Grand Concourse we turned east on East 205 Street. At the corner of Mosholu Parkway and Lisbon Place we saw a handsome modern apartment building from 2012 that one in our group said would not have been out of place in Southern California or Miami.
170 East Mosholu Parkway. Photograph by Michael Cairl.
From Mosholu Parkway we turned west on East 206 Street to St. George’s Crescent and saw some beautiful apartment buildings, one in particular, 185 St. George’s Crescent, built in 1938. This is just stunning and was built for the middle class.
185 St. George’s Crescent (the light-colored building). Photograph by Michael Cairl.
Photograph by Michael Cairl.
Photograph by Michael Cairl.
Photograph by Michael Cairl.
St. George’s Crescent turns into Van Cortlandt Avenue, on the north side of which are the Pickwick Arms apartments (1925), a grand courtyard apartment building in a sort-of-Tudor style.
Pickwick Arms, 1927, seen from the intersection of Mosholu Parkway (left) and Grand Concourse. Photograph courtesy The New York Public Library via urbanarchive.org.
Interior courtyard, Pickwick Arms, 1928. Photograph courtesy The New York Public Library via urbanarchive.org.
From St. George’s Crescent we turned east on Van Cortlandt Avenue, then north on Mosholu Parkway, on a footpath that is in only fair condition. We passed underneath Jerome Avenue and the grand Mosholu Parkway subway station, passed DeWitt Clinton High School, and turned left onto Sedgwick Avenue, then right onto Dickinson Avenue and left onto Van Cortlandt Park South.
Across from Van Cortlandt Park South, on the south side of Van Cortlandt Park South, are the Amalgamated Houses. This is the oldest limited equity housing cooperative in the United States, sponsored by the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union starting in the 1920s. The older buildings have some beautiful details.
Photograph by Mark Foggin.
Photograph by Mark Foggin.
Photograph by Mark Foggin.
Photograph by Michael Cairl.
Just past Gale Place we descended the Van Cortlandt Park South stairs (81 steps), which I described in my post “3 South of Van Cortlandt Park” on “The Stair Streets of New York City” page. From there we went south on Bailey Avenue and west on West 238 Street to lunch at the Kingsbridge Social Club, which contrary to its name is not a private club but a place for pizza, pasta, and salad. The mirror in the washroom is a playful take on one of Kingsbridge Social’s specialties.
Photograph by Mark Foggin.
Lastly, some neat old signage seen along the way, described by photographer Mark Foggin as “Elegance in hyper-local advertising.”
This was a fine walk with a good group of friends, good exercise with plenty of interesting things to look at. Walks like this are my oxygen and the definition of fun and physical therapy.
At lunch at Kingsbridge Social Club, left to right Paul, Michael, Yours Truly, Joe, Mark, Dan. Photograph by one of the staff at Kingsbridge Social.