Gonzalez_FM 2/24/04 11:07 AM Page iii bTHE ronx EVELYN GONZALEZ columbia university press new york Gonzalez_FM 2/24/04 11:07 AM Page i the bronx the columbia history of urban life Gonzalez_FM 2/24/04 11:07 AM Page ii THE COLUMBIA HISTORY OF URBAN LIFE Kenneth T. Jackson, General Editor Deborah Dash Moore, At Home in America: Second Generation New York Jews 1981 Edward K. Spann, The New Metropolis: New York City, 1840–1857 1981 Matthew Edel, Elliott D. Sclar, and Daniel Luria, Shaky Palaces: Homeownership and Social Mobility in Boston’s Suburbanization 1984 Steven J. Ross, Workers on the Edge: Work, Leisure, and Politics in Industrializing Cincinnati, 1788–1890 1985 Andrew Lees, Cities Perceived: Urban Society in European and American Thought, 1820–1940 1985 R. J. R. Kirkby, Urbanization in China: Town and Country in a Developing Economy, 1949–2000 A.D. 1985 Judith Ann Trolander, Professionalism and Social Change: From the Settlement House Movement to Neighborhood Centers, 1886 to the Present 1987 Marc A. Weiss, The Rise of the Community Builders: The American Real Estate Industry and Urban Land Planning 1987 Jacqueline Leavitt and Susan Saegert, From Abandonment to Hope: Community-Households in Harlem 1990 Richard Plunz, A History of Housing in New York City: Dwelling Type and Social Change in the American Metropolis 1990 David Hamer, New Towns in the New World: Images and Perceptions of the Nineteenth- Century Urban Frontier 1990 Andrew Heinze, Adapting to Abundance: Jewish Immigrants, Mass Consumption, and the Search for American Identity 1990 Chris McNickle, To Be Mayor of New York: Ethnic Politics in the City 1993 Clay McShane, Down the Asphalt Path: The Automobile and the American City 1994 Clarence Taylor, The Black Churches of Brooklyn 1994 Frederick Binder and David Reimers, “All the Nations Under Heaven”: A Racial and Ethnic History of New York City 1995 Clarence Taylor, Knocking at Our Own Door: Milton A. Galamison and the Struggle to Integrate New York City Schools 1997 Andrew S. Dolkart, Morningside Heights: A History of Its Architecture and Development 1998 Craig Steven Wilder, A Covenant with Color: Race and Social Power in Brooklyn 2000 A. Scott Henderson, Housing and the Democratic Ideal 2000 François Weil, History of New York 2004 Gonzalez_FM 2/24/04 11:07 AM Page iii bTHE ronx EVELYN GONZALEZ columbia university press new york Gonzalez_FM 2/24/04 11:07 AM Page iv COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS Publishers Since 1893 New York Chichester, West Sussex Copyright © 2004 Columbia University Press All rights reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gonzalez, Evelyn Diaz. The Bronx / Evelyn Gonzalez. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0–231–12114–8 (cloth) 1. Bronx (New York, N.Y.)—History. 2. Bronx (New York, N.Y.)—Social conditions. 3. New York (N.Y.)—History. 4. New York (N.Y.)—Social conditions. 5. City and town life—New York (State)—New York—History. 6. Social problems—New York (State)—New York—History. I. Title. II. Series. F128.68.B8G66 2004 974.7'275—dc21 2003055206 Columbia University Press books are printed on permanent and durable acid-free paper. Printed in the United States of America c 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Designed by Lisa Hamm Gonzalez_FM 2/24/04 11:07 AM Page v To Pedro and Douglas Gonzalez_FM 2/24/04 11:07 AM Page vii CONTENTS List of Maps ix List of Tables xi Acknowledgments xiii 1. The Bronx and Its Neighborhoods 1 2. Early Beginnings 19 3. The Changing Landscape 41 4. Emerging Neighborhoods 59 5. Boosting a Borough 80 6. Urban Neighborhoods 94 7. The South Bronx 109 8. The Road Back 130 Notes 153 Bibliography 217 Index 249 Gonzalez_FM 2/24/04 11:07 AM Page ix LIST OF MAPS 1.1 The Borough of the Bronx with Former Ward Boundaries, 1874–1897 2 1.2 Neighborhoods in the Former South and East Bronx Sections, 1950 8 1.3 Towns in Lower Westchester County, 1840 9 1.4 Towns in West Farms and Morrisania, 1855 10 1.5 Subdivisions in Kingsbridge, West Farms, and Morrisania, 1847–1873 12 2.1 Mott Haven and Its Early Villages, 1870 20 2.2 Melrose, 1850s 27 2.3 Morrisania, Central Morrisania, and Eltona, 1850s 32 2.4 Woodstock, East Morrisania, and the Hunts Point– West Farms Tract, 1850s 34 3.1 Parks and Parkways in the Bronx, 1884 47 3.2 Suburban Rapid Transit, 1886–1920 53 3.3 Subway Routes in the Bronx, 1905–1920 57 4.1 Mott Haven, 1898 61 4.2 Hunts Point–Crotona Park East, 1879–1905 65 4.3 Estates in Hunts Point–Crotona Park East, 1879–1905 67 4.4 Melrose and Morrisania, 1915 72 6.1 Bronx Neighborhoods, 1940 95 7.1 Public Housing in the Bronx, 1950–1959 112 7.2 Public Housing in the South Bronx, 1969 123 8.1 Bronx Community Districts, 2000 136 Gonzalez_FM 2/24/04 11:07 AM Page xi LIST OF TABLES 1.1 Population of the Bronx, 1890–2000 4 1.2 Population of Southern Westchester, 1840 10 1.3 Population of Southern Westchester, 1840–1870 11 1.4 Subdivisions in Lower Westchester Towns, 1847–1873 13 1.5 Population of New York City, 1790–1880 15 1.6 Population of 23rd and 24th Wards, New York City, 1875 17 2.1 Estimated Population of Mott Haven, 1850–1875 23 2.2 Churches in Mott Haven Region, 1841–1873 24 2.3 Churches in Melrose Region, 1852–1872 28 2.4 Estimated Population of Melrose, 1865–1875 29 2.5 Estimated Population of the Morrisania–Hunts Point Region, 1849–1875 36 2.6 Churches in Morrisania–Hunts Point Region, 1847–1868 37 2.7 Estimated Population of Mott Haven, Melrose, and the Morrisania–Hunts Point Region, 1865–1875 39 2.8 Population of the Town of Morrisania and the 23rd and 24th Wards, 1865–1875 40 3.1 Parks and Parkways on the North Side, 1884 48 4.1 Population of Mott Haven, 1875–1900 63 4.2 Population of Hunts Point–Crotona Park East, 1892–1920 69 4.3 Population of Melrose, 1892–1920 73 4.4 Population of Morrisania, 1892–1920 76 4.5 Population of South Bronx Neighborhoods, 1892–1920 78 6.1 Population of South Bronx Neighborhoods, 1920–1940 97 6.2 Percentage of Foreign Born in the South Bronx, the Bronx, and New York City, 1910–1940 98 Gonzalez_FM 2/24/04 11:07 AM Page xii 6.3 Population of Blacks in the South Bronx, the Bronx, and New York City, 1910–1940 99 6.4 Population of Puerto Rican Born in New York City, 1910–1940 100 7.1 Population of Blacks, Puerto Ricans, and Hispanics in the Bronx, 1950–1980 110 7.2 Population of Blacks and Puerto Ricans in New York City, 1940–1960 113 7.3 Population of South Bronx Neighborhoods, 1950–1980 122 8.1 Population of South Bronx Community Districts, 1970–2000 137 8.2 Population by Race and Hispanic Origin in the Bronx, 1990–2000 144 8.3 Population of Hispanics in the Bronx, 2000 145 xii LIST OF TABLES Gonzalez_FM 2/24/04 11:07 AM Page xiii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This work would not have been possible without my mentor, Dr. Kenneth T. Jackson. It was he who suggested I write a dissertation on the Bronx and made sure I finished it. Years afterward, he urged me to enlarge the scope of the study and again pushed me to complete the manuscript. I am grateful beyond words. I also want to thank Dr. Michael Ebner, who introduced me to urban history, and Dr. Joel Schwartz, whose disserta- tion on Morrisania paved the way for my re- search. Two others deserve special mention: Leonora Gidlund, deputy director of the New York City Municipal Archives and a close friend, was always there with encouragement and cheer; and Dr. Isabel Tirado, dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at William Pa- terson University of New Jersey and also a friend, drove me on constantly. I also want to ac- knowledge the help of countless archivists and li- brarians, from my friend Director Kenneth Cobb of the New York City Municipal Archives to Laura Tosi and Peter Derrick of the Bronx County Historical Society. Gonzalez_FM 2/24/04 11:07 AM Page xv the bronx Gonzalez_Ch1 2/24/04 11:39 AM Page 1 THE BRONX AND 1 ITS NEIGHBORHOODS INTRODUCTION The home of the Yankees, the Bronx Zoo, and the Cross-Bronx Express- way, the Bronx is New York City’s northernmost borough (see map 1.1). It was once known for Fort Apache—the police precinct immortalized on film—and Charlotte Street—the place where Presidents Carter and Reagan saw what urban decay really was. During the 1960s and 1970s, the Bronx be- came a national symbol of urban deterioration. Neighborhoods that had held generations of Bronx families disappeared under waves of arson, crime, and housing abandonment, with solid blocks of brick apartment buildings turning into rubble-filled empty acres. The Bronx is also known for racial change and white flight. The South Bronx, in particular, went from being two-thirds white in 1950 to two-thirds African American and Hispanic by 1960. Forty years later, by 2000, the entire borough was almost all of black and Spanish-speaking ancestry.1 While the image of poverty and decay still lingers, the borough has un- dergone an “astonishing recovery” and a “tremendous community re- vival.” In recognition, the National Civic League gave the Bronx its “All- America City” award in 1997.