Route of this walk, reading from bottom to top.
WHERE: Stair streets at Naples Terrace, West 232 Street, Manhattan College Parkway, West 238 Street (Manhattan College Stairs), Bronx
START: 231 Street subway station (1 train, fully accessible)
FINISH: 238 Street subway station (1 train)
DISTANCE: 1.8 miles (2.9 kilometers)
Photographs by Michael Cairl. Maps courtesy of Google Maps.
The impetus for this walk was to climb the only two stair streets in the Riverdale section of the Bronx that I hadn’t already tackled. What made it even better was catching up with friends Joe and Eric, who live in the neighborhood.
Profile of this walk, reading from left to right.
We started out with a warmup climb of the Naples Terrace stairs (60 steps) that I’ve described before in the posts entitled “The Kingsbridge Trio +2,” “Over Hill and Through Riverdale,” and “Over Hill and Through More of Riverdale.” From there we continued to the West 232 Street stairs, 60 steps up. The bottom step is worn and the tread is angled downward, making the start of the climb more difficult. These steps are steep and in need of repair, and the stair risers are not of uniform height, The handrails, though nice, are set a bit too low. Look carefully at the two images below.
From the top of the stairs we climbed uphill on Riverdale Avenue, the main street of this neighborhood. From West 236 Street north there are many shops and restaurants on both sides of the street. Ahead lay the stair street at Manhattan College Parkway, 32 steps. The steps are in decent condition but the existing handrail is sinking into the ground and should be made vertical. A second handrail is needed, anchored in the retaining wall. From there we walked past the campus of the Fieldston Ethical Culture School and one of the city’s few private communities, Fieldston, to the Kingsbridge Social Club for lunch (worth a return visit or two) by way of the Manhattan College Stairs at West 238 Street, 120 steps down. See my previous posts “Manhattan College Steps +1” and “Over Hill and Through More of Riverdale.” A good number of Manhattan College students were getting a head-start on St. Patrick’s Day festivities, wearing shamrocks and heading down the stairs.
This was a fine way to wrap up my first cycle of stair streets in the Kingsbridge, Spuyten Duyvil, and Riverdale neighborhoods. Thanks to Eric and Joe for being great company. As of today I’ve climbed 96 of the city’s 115 stair streets, some more than once. I’ll surely be back in this area, probably before I’ve completed the first cycle.
Stair recap: Naples Terrace - 60 steps up, West 232 Street - 60 steps up, Manhattan College Parkway - 32 steps up, West 238 Street - 120 steps down, total 272 steps.