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Here is another interesting shot from the photo archive that I mentioned in a previous topic:
The area depicted in the foreground is between West 225th Street and the Harlem River just East of Broadway. Currently, it is occupied by a shopping center including a Target and a Marshalls. The photo is entitled, “The Roman Catholic Orphan Asylum, Kingsbridge, Bronx, New York City, undated (ca. 1902-1919).” This dates the photo to around the time that the Yankees started laying the groundwork for a stadium at precisely this spot. I wonder if the construction equipment in the photo and the leveled area on the right are part of this effort?
[caption id="attachment_235" align="aligncenter" width="933"]
Screenshot from the March 29, 1914 New York Times[/caption]Reports on the construction, here and here, mention the presence of a stream or canal on the site that held up construction, which you can clearly see in the photo. What I’ve never been able to ascertain is why the park was never built here after all the planning and groundwork. Why did it end up at East 161st and River Avenue? Instead, the neighborhood got the Kingsbridge velodrome, a bike racing stadium that burned down in 1930. The aforementioned archive has a few photos where you can catch a glimpse of the rim of the velodrome here and here.
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With The Long Term deal with the Knights of Columbus and the shuttle to the Polo Grounds & Lexington Ave Line & the D line was on the drafting table, with all that space…Such a deal !
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Remember…The American League team received its approval to move from Baltimore to New York, but only in Manhattan. The “Yankees” had no choice but to build on the worse property in Manhattan, because the Giants had all the real estate for sale in a political lock. That being Marble Hill ( water and space problems) and Hilltop Park – ( small & rocky ) They chose Hill Top.. Later the Polo Grounds with the Giants and finally able to move to the Bronx. Co-op City area and Pelham Bay Park were possibilities also.
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I love the way that map shows that the pitcher and the outfielders would have been in different boroughs. Reggie Jackson and Mickey Mantle would have been Bronx Bombers but Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford… not so much.
I also like the newspaper clipping with the Poe reference–great find, Don. According to that article, the Kingsbridge Tavern had been in existence for 100 years–dating it to approximately 1813? If that is the same “hotel” indicated on the map shared by Tom, then it surely had to have been a successor to Hyatt’s tavern, right? That means it would have been older than stated in the article unless the previous structure was knocked down in favor of a newer building.
I could have sworn that I read that Poe frequented the other tavern in the area–the one at W. 230th and Broadway but I think it makes more sense that he would have gone to the Kingsbridge Hotel instead. I do not think the building at W. 230th was still functioning as a tavern by the time Poe lived in the Bronx. Not to mention that the Kingsbridge Hotel and the Poe cottage were both on Kingsbridge Road.
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History of The Hoboken Turtle Club on the Spuyten Duyvil
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In regard to The Hoboken Turtle Club, judging from the description of how the members ate (gorged), it wouldn’t surprise me that the majority of the men didn’t last into their 60’s before dying of either cirrohosis of the liver or arteriosclerosis, or both. Wow, what appetites! (Too bad about the turtles 8^(
If the purported history of the Kingsbridge Hotel is correct, what a shame that such history was ignored and disregarded. Is there even a plaque to commemorate the site? Probably not.
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Note reference to the “Kingsbridge Road” site.
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With regard to the Hilltop Park stadium, I believe that I located the new stadium that was being built at 221st street and Kingsbridge Road. According to the article, the construction was not completed, but some structure (yellow oval) is evident in the 1924 aerial photo below (from the NYC Then & Now app).
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