Possible Yankee Stadium Construction Site?

[ndembowski]

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?

Screenshot from the March 29, 1914 New York Times

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.

 

[Don Rice]

I never thought much about where Poe did his drinking when he lived up here, but in this 1913 clipping about the stadium they mention Poe’s connection with the Kingsbridge Tavern. From its location they must mean the Kingsbridge Hotel. From the St Joseph News Press Gazette, May 5, 1913.

[Thomas Casey]

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 !

[Thomas Casey]

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.

 

[Thomas Casey]

Plan for Stadium at Marble Hill

[ndembowski]

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.

[Thomas Casey]

Hotel Near Marble Hill Stadium  Broadway & 225th Street 

[Thomas Casey]

Now I wonder if the Yankees were not allowed to build the outfield into the Bronx ?   I never noticed the dividing curve

[Author]

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