The western Bronx consists of a chain of high hills and valleys arrayed on the eastern banks of the Harlem River, heavily urbanized now, but formerly home to wealthy estates and thickly-wooded meadows. Highbridge Heights, roughly bordered by the Harlem River, Jerome Ave., and the Cross-Bronx Expressway, was in large part once the Marcher estate. The lord and lady of the property maintained a formal garden dedicated to the works of Shakespeare and displayed busts of him and some of his best-known characters. Modernity eventually encroached, and the property was sold off. Only Shakespeare Ave. is a current reminder of the Marcher estate and its garden. Yankee Stadiums, first and second, have been the linchpins of the region, opening in 1923 and 2009, both inaugurated by World Series champions.
For a variety of reasons, some practical, some political, the demolition of the Old Yankee Stadium was dragged out to an extremely slow process; by contrast, Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadows was done away with in a couple of months. A mini-city has been constructed in the south Bronx, with a new parking garage and Metro-North station also going up, along with the new park. A portion of John Mullaly Park on the north side of E. 161st, was eliminated to make way for the new place, and the ballfields that served the southwest Bronx were eventually relocated in Heritage Park, built on the Old Yankee Stadium site. The process should be sped up from the current sluggish pace.
Babe Ruth Plaza, on the north side of W. 161st along the New Yankee Stadium, was relocated from its former slot at 161st and the Grand Concourse, with that entire space now dedicated the Ruth’s teammate from 1925-1934, Lou Gehrig.
The late, great Bronx historian John McNamara recalled the construction of Yankee Stadium well and remembers the occasion in McNamara’s Old Bronx: “The first knowledge [I] had of the Stadium was in its construction period (1922) when a watchman would periodically send [me] to a River Avenue speakeasy for a can of beer. The watchman, an elderly native of Highbridgeville, was of Irish stock and could pray in Gaelic—a minor accomplishment he passed on to this writer… The second memory was holding Babe Ruth’s coat! This momentous occasion occurred after a game, and the players’ exit was lined with baseball fans, eager to see their heroes. Babe Ruth hurried out to the curb where a small roadster was parked, in readiness. It was a brisk fall day and the Babe was wearing a raccoon coat, then so popular in the ’20s, but when he attempted to get into the sports car, he was too bulky to fit in. He straightaway shrugged off the coat and looked around. ‘Here, kid, hold this a minute,’ he said to this writer, who was standing in awe and hero worship. The Babe then seated himself in the car, and reached for his coat with a nonchalant ‘Thanks, kiddo’ and drove off.”
That sounds exactly like the Babe I’ve read about.
The most distinctive building in the shadow of the New Yankee Stadium and overlooking Macomb’s Dam Park is the 1901-1902 American Female Guardian Society and Home for the Friendless, and current Highbridge Woodycrest Center, 936 Woodycrest Ave. It was constructed to house abandoned and needy children by then-prominent architect William B. Tuthill in limestone, brick and terracotta. It now serves as a long-term health care facility.
A look skyward at a building at Sedgwick Ave. and University Ave. reveals a 30-foot tall lighthouse cast in bronze. It was the home office of the H.W. Wilson Company, a bibliography and periodical index publisher; among their titles are the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature and Current Biography. The company also maintained a voluminous online reference database.
Halsey William Wilson began the indexing publisher with partner Henry Morris in Minneapolis in 1889 as a bookseller. Wilson tired of searching though publishers’ catalogs, and hit on an idea to publish his own catalog of new books that would be constantly updated. Wilson’s first Cumulative Book Index appeared in 1898, and by 1901 had expanded to include magazine articles. In 1911 the company moved to White Plains, NY and again in 1917 to the present location near the Harlem River. In 1929, the eight-story building with the lighthouse was built. The lighthouse, resting on an open book, is meant to “give guidance to those seeking their way through the maze of books and periodicals, without which they would be lost.” At night, the entire structure is lit: in 1998, the company’s centennial, the lighthouse was relit after being out of commission for several years.
The building is presently owned by Prime Storage, which has since painted the lighthouse black and imprinted its logo thereupon.
Park Plaza, 1005 Jerome Ave. opposite John Mullaly Park, may be the Bronx’s most famed apartment complex not located on the Grand Concourse. The massive Art Deco building was designed by architects Horace “Harry” Ginsbern (interiors) and Marvin Fine (exteriors) and constructed between 1929-1931, at about the apotheosis of Deco-ism, at least in the States. In the early 1930s, polychrome terra cotta was in vogue, and Park Plaza does it better than just about anywhere else. Ginsbern was known as “the genius of the Bronx” as he designed no less than 137 apartment buildings in the borough.
I used to think that this terra cotta panel at Park Plaza was a stylized version of High Bridge, but Constance Rosenblum explains in Boulevard of Dreams that it depicts an architect presenting a model of his new building to the Parthenon for approval. I’d have to think that High Bridge was not far from Marvin Fine’s consciousness when dreaming this up, though.
Here’s another terra cotta panel, above the door at the park house in John Mullaly Park across Jerome Ave., a colorful rendering of the Bronx flag. The Bronx borough flag was adopted in 1912. It’s described as the Dutch colonial flag (the Prinsenvlag of orange, white, and blue horizontal stripes), with the addition of the Bronck family arms encircled by a laurel wreath denoting honor and fame. The shield shows the face of the sun with rays displayed rising from the sea, signifying peace, liberty, and commerce. The crest is an eagle with its wings “displayed” (actually expanded) on a hemisphere facing eastward, representing “the hope of the New World while not forgetting the Old.” The motto is “Ne cede malis,” Latin meaning “Yield not to evil.”
Kevin Walsh is the webmaster of the award-winning website Forgotten NY, and the author of the books Forgotten New York (HarperCollins, 2006) and also, with the Greater Astoria Historical Society, Forgotten Queens (Arcadia, 2013)