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From a search of this site I found the September, 2019 Photo Contest. In post # 1127 Alan Lasky provided a photo showing 3014 Godwin Terrace and 226 Kimberly Place, with the painted advertisements on the back wall. They are also in the picture above.
The Google Earth Pro app shows those two buildings behind the Post Office located at 5517 Broadway.
The NYCityMap app indicates that the Post Office building was erected in 1952 (however accurate that may be).
I say that Maurpat got it right! (Sorry, Thomas 8^)
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You are correct! That is indeed a photo from the construction of the Kingsbridge Post Office at W. 230th Street and Broadway in 1951.
Here is the full image taken from about Broadway looking to the northwest (the excavators are working close to Broadway and the old brown house that still stands on Godwin Terrace can be seen in the background):
And to Tom’s point, this site is very well known to local historians. I can’t think of a place in the Bronx with a longer and richer history. This is the approximate location of the “wading place,” where indigenous people could cross the Spuyten Duyvil creek to get to the island of Manhattan from the mainland. That’s because before the 20th century, the Spuyten Duyvil Creek flowed where W. 230th Street is today.
The animation below shows the corner of W. 230th and Broadway today and what that same scene looked like 200 years earlier. Note that the Spuyten Duyvil Creek flowed on the same course as W. 230th Street.
When the Kingsbridge Post Office was constructed in 1951, the construction site was excavated by local historian Theodore Kazimiroff and others. They found the buried remains of what was apparently a Revolutionary War soldier (he had a musket ball in his chest). Kazimiroff also found many indigenous artifacts and called it the “most notable” indigenous “village site” found in our area. This is the same approximate location of a colonial-era tavern, which was built in 1669. That tavern had a long history which I explain in this video if you are interested.
I have had my eye on the parking lot behind the post office for some time:
As far as I can tell, there has never been a building constructed where the parking lot is located. That means that there is a very good chance that cultural artifacts are still buried beneath the lot, as was true of the post office site. A few years ago, KHS member Julie Abell Horne helped me mark the parking lot site on New York State’s Cultural Resource Inventory System–hoping that an archaeological review would be mandated if the parking lot were ever developed. It now appears that the lot will be developed soon. Applications for building permits at the Department of Buildings indicate that a large apartment building will be built there (Block 5700 and Lot 78). It does not appear that there will be a mandated archaeological review. But I hope that an agreement can be reached with the developer to allow for archaeological monitoring through the excavation process. Otherwise important cultural artifacts could be hauled away in a dumpster.
A recent story in the Norwood News:
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The U.S. post service building at 5517 Broadway in Kingsbridge, Bronx was sold on September 6th, 2017 for $7,000,000. The sale was recorded on September 13th, 2017. 5517 is the address for one of the two buildings. I do not know if the Post Office will have to move again soon, but I do not see any details about the post office status.
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For anyone that is interested in this proposed development at W. 230th Street and Broadway, I have been asked by the Land Use Committee of Community Board 8 to appear at their meeting tomorrow, Thursday September 4th, to discuss the matter. We would like to work something out with the development company to ensure that human burial sites are not destroyed when the foundation for the new building is excavated. When the Kingsbridge Post Office was built in 1951 on the adjacent lot, multiple burial sites and ancient artifacts were uncovered on the property. This led Bronx historian Theodore Kazimiroff to call the site the “most notable” indigenous “village site” in our area.
The meeting starts at 7:00 PM and this is the Zoom link:
Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2114033690
Join Zoom Meeting by Phone: +16465588656,,2114033690# US (New York)
Meeting ID: 211 403 3690This topic is the last item on the agenda so there is no need to tune in exactly at 7:00 PM.
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