Bedford Park, Bronx
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bedford Park is a neighborhood in the borough of the Bronx in New York City bounded by Mosholu Parkway to the north, Bronx Park and Webster Avenue to the east, 194th Street and Kingsbridge Road to the south, and Goulden Avenue to the west. It borders the neighborhoods of Norwood, Fordham, and Kingsbridge.
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[edit] History
Prior to being a residential neighborhood, the area now known as Bedford Park was mostly farmland outside the town of Kingsbridge, then an unincorporated suburb of New York City. The area began to be developed with the construction of the Jerome Park Racecourse, for thoroughbred horse racing, by Leonard Jerome and August Belmont, Sr. in 1866. Jerome Park Racecourse became the first home of the famous Belmont Stakes horserace, part of the Triple Crown of the sport, until it was moved to Morris Park in 1890. To attract the wealthy to the Racecourse, Leonard Jerome built what is today Jerome Avenue. In 1874 the town of Kingsbridge was officially incorporated into New York City.
In 1890 the Belmont Stakes were moved out of Jerome Park Racecourse and it was sold. Construction was started to convert it into the Jerome Park Reservoir, to store fresh water from the New Croton Aqueduct. At the same time, the neighborhood of Bedford Park was beginning to take shape, with forty "villas" (suburban houses) were built on a 23-acre stretch, in a planned community modeled on the London "garden" neighborhood named Bedford Park. These villas became the namesake for Villa Avenue. The area became a part of the newly created Borough of the Bronx in 1898, and with the completion of Jerome Park Reservoir in 1906 became a valuable asset for the much-expanded New York City. The Italian and Irish immigrants who worked on the Jerome Park Reservoir project soon anchored the community there.
Also in 1906, Bedford Park Boulevard received its current name. It had been 200th Street since annexation, and was likely named after Edward Thomas Bedford, a director of Standard Oil, president of the Bank of the State of New York, who was an associate of Leonard Jerome. Bedford Park Boulevard is still often referred to as 200th Street and the New York Botanical Garden is just one of the many places that have used (or continue to use) a 200th Street address since the 1906 renaming. To this day, the US Postal Address Service still recognizes (and will continue to deliver mail to) 'East 200th Street' addresses. NYC's master database has East 200th Street cross referenced with Bedford Park Boulevard[East]. This means that NYC's maps, the 911 system, and any other systems also recognize East 200th Street addresses as alternates to Bedford Park Boulevard[East] addresses. The bridge that runs over the Metro North Railroad tracks (which can be seen from the station) says '200TH ST'.
The completion of the development process, however, required the completion of two major transportation projects: the Grand Concourse, a multilane thoroughfare based on the Champs Elysees in Paris, in 1916; and the extension of subway to the area with the IRT Jerome Avenue Line in 1917. Along with the rest of the borough of the Bronx, Bedford Park saw a boom in housing construction along the Grand Concourse in the post-World War I era. Much of this was from middle-class white ethnic (primarily Jews, Italians, and Irish) emigrants moving from crowded Manhattan to settle down in the area.
In the 1930s, unclaimed land near the Jerome Park Reservoir offered opportunities for New Deal-related construction to alleviate unemployment from the Great Depression. Three high schools (Walton, DeWitt Clinton, and the Bronx High School of Science) were built, along with the Bronx campus of Hunter College (now Lehman College). After end of World War II, in 1946 Hunter College's Bronx Campus served briefly as host of the United Nations.
[edit] Landmarks
[edit] Houses of worship
Among Bedford Park's oldest buildings are its churches and other religious institutions. The oldest church in the area, Bedford Park Congregational Church at the corner of Bainbridge Avenue and East 201st Street, dates to 1882. Its American Queen Anne-style design hints at Bedford Park's origins as a small rural community. It was designated a City Landmark in 2000. (New York City Landmarks Commission 2005)
On the Grand Concourse lies the Roman Catholic Church of St. Philip Neri. The church was built at the turn of the 20th century, and was dedicated to the Italian saint due to its origin as a mission church for immigrant Italian laborers, who also worked on the construction of the Jerome Park Reservoir. The corner stone of the church (dated 1889) was in fact quarried from what became Jerome Park Reservoir, and brought there by a horse-drawn carriage. (Greene 2002)
The Convent of Mount St. Ursula is located on Bedford Park Boulevard. It was established by a group of Roman Catholic nuns from the Ursuline order in 1892. The Academy of Mt. St. Ursula, an all-girls prep-school, is located there today.
[edit] Buildings
As a low-rise residential neighborhood, Bedford Park has a "skyline" of mostly five-story walkups. The most noticeable exception to this are the Tracey Towers, two 41-story apartment buildings close to the Jerome Park Reservoir. Designed by noted architect Paul Rudolph, they were completed in 1972 as a part of New York City's Mitchell Lama housing development initiative, aimed at allowing moderate-to-middle income families to stay in the area.
Closer to the rest of the skyline, the spires of Lehman College (the old Hunter College) cut into the sky. Built by the Works Progress Administration, the original buildings of the Lehman College campus were built in grey stone in the Collegiate Gothic style, with finials, turrets, and other decorative features. Additional buildings, including the Lehman Library and Center for the Performing Arts, were added in the style of modern architecture. The most recently built portion of the college, the APEX, has facilities for athletics and dance. The scenic campus, which spans into Kingsbridge, has been used as a shooting location for episodes of the television series Law & Order and its spin-offs.
[edit] Demography
In the United States 2000 Census2 of 2000, the area of Bedford Park comprises six tracts. These six tracts have a population of 29,377.
The racial makeup of the neighborhood is 33.68% White, 22.54%, African American, 1.00% Native American, 6.69% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 28.00% from other races, and 8.00% from two or more races. 52.77% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
Out of the total population, 34.50% (10,134 individuals) of Bedford Park residents, were born outside of the United States. An additional 8.37% were born in Puerto Rico, and are thus considered native born. Of the foreign born, 35.88% were born in the Caribbean, 16.98% in Eastern Europe, 10.76% in Central America, 10.19% in East Asia, 8.06 in South America, 7.85% in West Africa, 3.66% in South Central Asia, 2.79% in Northern Europe, and 2.65% in Southeast Asia. The countries which are represented by at least 2.5% (358 individuals) of the neighborhood's foreign born population are the Dominican Republic (28.19%), Korea (10.19%), Ghana (6.56%), Mexico (6.10%), Ecuador (3.54%), and Jamaica (2.98%), and areas that were (at the time of the 2000 Census) a part of Yugoslavia (6.30%).
[edit] Culture
Reflecting a population so greatly composed of foreign-born immigrants, there are distinct ethnic enclaves in Bedford Park. On 204th Street, between the Grand Concourse and Mosholu Parkway lies a small "Koreatown" in which a cluster of Korean restaurants, groceries, social clubs, and other businesses thrive. Out of the 800 West African-born residents of the neighborhood, 83% live in or around the Tracey Towers.
Bedford Park's ethnic diversity manifests itself in an assortment of ways besides the formation of enclaves. Among the national symbols one may see strolling the neighborhood include the double-headed eagle (the emblem of Albania), the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe (sacred to Catholic Mexicans), the shamrock of Ireland, the Arabic calligraphy of the shahadah (the Muslim profession of faith), or the coquí of Puerto Rico. A vast assortment of newspapers are sold in local convenience stores, including The Echo of Ireland, Albanian-language Bota Sot of Kosovo, and the Spanish-language local newspapers El Diario/La Prensa, and El Hoy.
Despite diverse national backgrounds, residents of Bedford Park have many ways in which to bond with one another socially. Abundant park space in Harris Field and Mosholu Park afford places for team sports such as soccer (the most popular sport in the world) and baseball (popular throughout the United States and Latin America).
As could be expected in a Bronx neighborhood, young people in Bedford Park identify mainly with the hip hop music and subculture, with a smaller number on the metal and punk rock scenes. In addition, many Latin immigrants "import" their musical genres, bringing such international styles as bomba, salsa, bachata, merengue, and tejano to the area. Bedford Park's blending of American and foreign cultures has led to the popularity of crossover genres, such as dancehall, reggaeton, and Rock en Español, as evidenced by the music emanating from car stereos and boom boxes.
Some divisions exist among residents of Bedford Park, mostly due to fluctuations of new populations both emigrant and immigrant. Some frequently discussed causes include immigrants' alleged lack of proficiency in English and unwillingness to adopt American customs, generation gaps between first-generation American children and their immigrant parents, and the trend of "white flight" to the suburbs.
[edit] Transportation
For a relatively small neighborhood, Bedford Park is plugged into several vital arteries of transportation.
[edit] Rails
The neighborhood is served by two New York City Subway stations, each commonly called simply "Bedford Park." Bedford Park Boulevard on the IND Concourse Line), a subterranean station underneath the Grand Concourse between Bedford Park and East 203rd Street, serves as the penultimate station for the D at all hours, and is end of the line for the B during rush hours. The other station is an elevated station on the 4 (IRT Jerome Avenue Line), above the intersection of Jerome Avenue and Bedford Park Boulevard. This station is referred to as Bedford Park-Lehman College for its proximity to the northern entrance to Lehman College and to avoid confusion with the other Bedford Park station.
Bedford Park also is served by the Botanical Garden station on the Metro-North Railroad's Harlem Line, located east of Webster Avenue on East 201st Street.
[edit] Buses
There are several MTA bus lines that criss-cross the neighborhood of Bedford Park, linking mainly to main transit hubs in the Bronx (such as Fordham Center). All lines in the Bronx have the prefix "Bx" , and the ones serving Bedford Park include the following: 1, 2, 22, 25, 26, 28, 34, 41, and 55.
[edit] Past Rail Service
The Area used to be served by the 200th Street station on the IRT Third Avenue Line, which was an elevated station located at Webster Avenue. It is now replaced by the Bx55 bus, which no longer has weekend service north of Fordham Road.
[edit] External links
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