Where was this Tennis Club?

[Zach Youngerman]

I recently came across this photo of a tennis club supposedly at Broadway and 240th street. It looks like it’s sitting in the marsh around Tibbetts Brook, but I’m confused as to exactly where this might be/what direction the photo is looking at. Near Gaelic Field?

Thank you!

[ndembowski]

That’s a good question, Zach.  I am intrigued by the building in the top right corner and the topography in the background.  You wouldn’t happen to have a photo in higher resolution, would you?  Or a link to the original?

I did find some references to the building in the 2003 Van Cortlandt Cultural Landscape Survey–although, its author is not too sure where this is either.  See below:

Here’s a closeup of the photo:

 

[Zach Youngerman]

Wow, Thanks for such a fast turnaround and great resource. Taking the chimney in your photo with a view toward Broadway, I’d think the photo I have is looking East/South.

I attached a close-up of the house.

Unfortunately I labeled all my photos/organized them based on what they showed, rather than their provenance. Ooof! Everything’s from the NY Historical Society, NYPL Digital Collections, or maybe this one is from the Bronx Historical Society.

[Peter Ostrander]

Very interesting photo and park house/shelter, never seen it before.  The initial photo shows what appears to be Tibbett’s brook flowing East of the house.  The photo showing the rear of the house looks to be taken from a hill south of the house.  So my guess is that when they dug  the storm /sewer drain to drain and hide Tibbetts Brook this house was likely in the way and removed.  What appears to be a hill south of the house where photo was taken was also likely removed or leveled to grade was we know today. Later in the mid-1930’s Robert Moses built the stadium and 36 tennis courts on West side of the new stadium in about the location of the park house (shelter) in question. Again just a possible scenario of events and very interesting photos.

 

 

[Zach Youngerman]

[Zach Youngerman]

I found this Tennis Club on an old map. So the water in the foreground is wetlands/low area

[Thomas Casey]

Not to add to the confusion, but here is a photograph from 1911 at a tennis match of the West Side Lawn Tennis Club.

Plus an other view of the Tennis House at Van Cortlandt Park in 1905

[Thomas Casey]

[Thomas Casey]

Americans lose in the Davis Cup Sept 11 1911 event  –  New York Times Sept 12

[Zach Youngerman]

Wow. Great progression from wetlands to cleared land to bleachers.

Thomas, where is that zoomed out photo from?

[Thomas Casey]

The west Side Lawn club is shown on the map previously sent.

The  Large image of the Tennis Club is clearly near the end stop of the train station at W. 242nd street.

The  Photo may have come from a parks dept  annual

 

[ndembowski]

Good sleuthing Zach and Tom.

It is surprising to me that the Davis Cup was hosted here.  That was and is still a major tournament.  Apparently, in 1911, they drew such large crowds in Kingsbridge that they decided to expand so the club moved to Forest Hills in Queens.  Using the clues you provided I was able to find a few more photos from the 1911 Davis Cup:

That is from the Library of Congress.  You can see the rail-yard shed and the smokestack on Manhattan College Parkway in the background.

Here is another one:

It is astounding how quickly the neighborhood changed in those years.  Just a couple of decades before that photo was taken it would have been wetland in the foreground with no tennis courts nor subway.

 

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