Route of today’s walk, courtesy Google Maps.
STAIR STREETS: West Tremont Avenue, West 176 Street, Clifford Place West, Davidson Avenue, Clifford Place, Henwood Place, Bronx
START: Morris Heights Station (Metro North Railroad, Hudson Line; fully accessible)
FINISH: Tremont Avenue subway ststion (D train)
DISTANCE: 2.7 miles (4.3 kilometers)
Photographs by Michael Cairl
Vertical of today’s walk, courtesy Google Maps.
This walk had it all: some points of interest, six stair streets, a lot of hills. Yes, the west Bronx is hilly, but yesterday’s walk was a treat and a good workout, on a sparkling day: comfortable temperature (around 25C/77F), low humidity, nice breeze.
Coming out of Metro North Railroad’s Morris Heights station, the first thing I saw was Roberto Clemente State Park. Roberto Clemente (1934 - 1972) was a star baseball player for the Pittsburgh Pirates. He died in a plane crash while delivering relief supplies to Nicaragua after a massive earthquake in 1972. I don’t know that Clemente had any connection to the Bronx but this excellent public park and swimming pool is a fine tribute to this great human being.
Inscription on the gate to Roberto Clemente State Park: “Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don’t, you are wasting time on earth.” This does not begin to sum up the man.
Statue of Roberto Clemente donated by Goya Foods long before Goya became politically controversial, and view of part of the park.
The first of the day’s stair streets was West Tremont Avenue, just east of the Morris Heights station, 59 steps. This was recently rebuilt and is in excellent condition, a good start to the steep climb up the first ridge, the summit of which is between Sedgwick Avenue and University Avenue. At University Avenue I crossed the University Avenue Malls, a continuation of the Old Croton Aqueduct Trail I wrote about in “West Bronx Mix.”
Two views of the West Tremont Avenue stairs, up and down, the down view showing Roberto Clemente State Park in the background; University Avenue Malls.
Jerome Avenue, in the shadow of the elevated #4 subway line, is in the valley between the two ridge lines on today’s walk. Sedgwick and University Avenues are atop the western ridge, and the Grand Concourse sits atop the eastern ridge. The walk down toward Jerome Avenue was progressively steep and included a hairpin curve onto West 177 Street that I had to negotiate slowly. This portion of Jerome Avenue is lined with small businesses selling car tires, fixing flat tires, body work, sound systems, and a whole host of other car-related things. The next stair street was West 176 Street, west and uphill from Jerome Avenue. The entrance to the stairs was obscured by a construction barrier but the 65 steps up to Davidson Avenue are in excellent condition. A short distance south was the next set of stairs, on Clifford Place West, 88 steps back down to Jerome Avenue.
West 176 Street stairs looking up and looking down; Clifford Place West stairs looking down (elevated subway structure in the background) and looking up.
A block south on Jerome Avenue, I turned onto the charmingly named Featherbed Lane. Curious as to the origin of this name, I found the following at https://imjustwalkin.com/2012/01/09/featherbed-lane/:
John McNamara, the great historian of the Bronx (who also walked every street in the Bronx!), wrote a book called History in Asphalt that explains the origin of every street name in the borough. I stopped by a library on my walk today to see what he had to say about Featherbed Lane:
There are three well-known versions of the origin of this name. During the Revolution, residents padded the road with their feather beds to muffle the passage of the patriots. Another story is that the spongy mud gave riders the effect of a feather bed. Still another tale is that the farmers found the road so rough, they would use feather beds on their wagon-seats to cushion themselves.
There is a fourth supposition advanced by a native of Highbridgeville that Featherbed Lane was a sly allusion to ladies of easy virtue who lived there. In short, it was the local Red Light district during the 1840s when work on the nearby Croton Aqueduct was going on. Unsuspecting real estate developers of a later time liked its quaint name and retained it.
Amusingly, there is a small park just off of Featherbed Lane — nothing more than a collection of a dozen or so benches arranged in a triangle — named "Featherbenches".
A block west of Jerome Avenue, leading up from Featherbed Lane, are the Davidson Avenue stairs. The stairs themselves are in very good condition but the handrails should be replaced. They are too low and do not extend the full length of the stairs, This should be an easy fix. There are 74 steps here.
Davidson Avenue stairs, looking up and looking down, the latter with the towers of “Billionaires Row” in Manhattan in the background.
From the top of the Davidson Avenue stairs I looped around to Mount Eden Avenue, crossing the usually congested Cross Bronx Expressway (Interstate 95/U.S. Route 1) continuing downhill to Jerome Avenue and then up a fairly steep hill to the Grand Concourse. I turned north on the Concourse, crossing over the Cross Bronx Expressway far below, to the excellent, recently rebuilt Clifford Place stairs, 78 steps down to Walton Avenue. There is a small plaza with benches at the entrance from the Concourse. Two blocks north on Walton Avenue was the last stair street for the day, the 54 steps on Henwood Place. The walk ended at the Tremont Avenue subway station, which is in the process of being made accessible.
The Cross Bronx Expressway from Macombs Road, the Clifford Place stairs looking down, the Henwood Place stairs looking up.
This whole walk was in a “community of color.” Nice people live here, smiling at this white guy with a cane. With the excellent weather, the physical therapy, and traversing many streets for the first time, this walk was a joy.
Stair count: 252 up, 166 down, total 418.