The Northern Borough: A History of The Bronx by Lloyd Ultan

Author:Lloyd Ultan [Ultan, Lloyd]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2011-04-09T00:00:00+00:00

Public Transportation

Developers in the Annexed District supported the creation of parkland because they believed, with Mullaly, that this amenity would help attract more people to the area and would increase land values. Nevertheless, the transportation system needed great improvement to facilitate the movement between the business districts of the city and the mainland if the North Side were to grow into a full-fledged part of the metropolis.

Until the 1880s, the District’s residents had few options if they had to commute to Manhattan. A system of side paddle steamships plied the Harlem River. Commuters could board at Fordham Landing, at Morris Dock (which had been built years earlier by Lewis Gouverneur Morris), High Bridge and Mott Haven. This commute to the heart of the city was leisurely. The existence of the steamship line did foster the development of the shoreline near the High Bridge. Because the spectacular structure had become a tourist attraction, a few hotels opened just south of the span to accommodate those who wished to stay longer than one day. Nearby, an amusement park opened with the dock over which day trippers from the more crowded city neighborhoods disgorged.

The New York and Harlem River Railroad, and the New York and Hudson River Railroad of the New York Central System, provided faster access to Manhattan than the steamships. These railroads served the wealthy residents in the two Riverdales and the same customers as the steamships. The old towns of Morrisania and West Farms that had been built up by the Harlem River line had practically reached the limit of development it had provided. Railroad commuting was too high on a daily basis for most of the people who still resided in Manhattan.

The presence of the railroad, however, still had an effect on the development of the new Woodlawn Heights north of the cemetery. At the time of the 1874 annexation, it was still sparsely settled. The railroad’s location was enough, however, for developer Edwin K. Willard to donate land on 237th Street between Kepler and Katonah avenues to build the Woodlawn Heights Methodist Episcopal Church in 1876. About the same time, the first school in Woodlawn opened for about forty students in classes up to the fifth grade, and the first grocery store opened in 1875.

The railroad in that area began to have an effect on the development of the east bank of the river, which it paralleled, starting in 1885. A small bridge was built to connect the western edge of the town of Eastchester with the Woodlawn station. This access to the railroad enabled small villages to grow east of the river. When the country celebrated the one hundredth anniversary of independence in 1876, the village to the north took the name Mount Vernon, the farm in Virginia where George Washington had lived. The area to the south took the name of Wakefield, the Virginia plantation where Washington was born. There was already a Washingtonville station on the railroad north of Wakefield. In the 1880s, Germans began coming into Wakefield to work at the farms.

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