The Routes Not Taken Page 10

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  The Battle of the Northeast Bronx, Part 1

  The expansion of the subway system helped to bring social and economic change to the Bronx. As IRT lines extended to the northern reaches of the borough and the New York, Westchester, and Boston Railway (W&B) from Hunts Point to past the city line, developers of large properties recognized the land’s potential. “The faster the Interborough puts through service in operation on the White Plains [Road] line the quicker the communities adjacent thereto will develop and become thickly populated,” the Bronx Home News noted in 1917.1

  “These estate holdings show the high opinion with which the purchasers and their heirs regard Bronx real estate. It is only natural that the investing public, when it knows that so many business men and financiers invest their money in the Bronx, should follow their judgement and do likewise,” Elmer Dean Coulter, representing the Astor Estate, wrote in 1912. “That this judgement is good is shown by the profits the original owners obtain when they sell their properties.… The New York, Westchester and Boston Railway, running through what is known as the ‘Annexed District’ … with branches to New Rochelle and White Plains, extends through beautiful property, ideal for home sites. With this [rail] road and the additional means of rapid transit, the Bronx should beat its past record of more than doubling its population in ten years.”2

  John Masterson Burke owned land bordered by Gun Hill Road and Bronxwood, Throop, and Burke Avenues. He established the Burke Rehabilitation Hospital in White Plains and the Winifred Masterson Burke Relief Foundation, and donated land the city needed to open parts of Throop and Burke Avenues in 1913.3 Joseph P. Day and J. Clarence Davies auctioned off Burke’s Bronx property, 1,386 undeveloped parcels of land, on June 24, 1920; the proceeds benefited both charities.

  Day auctioned off other Bronx properties as well. He claimed to have sold “at least a third of the Bronx.”4 Even if viewed as hyperbole, he did sell huge amounts of land. Day advocated for expanding the Bronx’s rapid transit system, seeing a connection between the transit system and increased property values. He stressed the proximity between the properties and existing and planned rail lines.

  The New York State Transit Commission’s 1922 plan led the Bronx Board of Trade to issue proposals. The Transit Commission proposed extending the BRT’s Broadway line from 57th Street to 8th Avenue and 155th Street; the Board proposed extending it to the Bronx and running the Transit Commission’s 8th Avenue–Amsterdam Avenue line along Tremont Avenue to Fort Schuyler. They proposed a line along 2nd Avenue in Manhattan to connect with the Pelham line.5

  On November 24, 1924, Alexander Haring, Olin J. Stephens, Maurice Westergren, and Charles E. Reid of the Board of Trade met with Chairman John H. Delaney and the members of the newly formed Board of Transportation. They discussed their proposals and suggested more routes, including extending the Lenox Avenue line to the city line via the Grand Concourse, Jerome Avenue, and Katonah Avenue; connecting the 2nd and 3rd Avenue Els with the Pelham line; extending a proposed 1st Avenue line6 to Fordham Road via 3rd Avenue, Boston Road, and Southern Boulevard, extending the IRT Broadway line to the city line and building a spur from the White Plains Road line to the city line via Boston Road.7

  “The Bronx has before it a magnificent future, made more magnificent by the fact that from now on its growth will be largely from within and most healthy, because it shall be a natural growth,” Day said at the Bronx Industrial Exposition in February 1925. “The Grand Boulevard and Concourse has been splendidly developed with a fine type of modern apartment house. Sooner or later the great building movement that has made the Grand Boulevard and Concourse the foremost residential centre of the Bronx must swing to the east into the Bronx and Pelham Parkway, which is the finest in the world. This building movement has begun already with the erection of small homes, but it is only a question of time before this movement will be succeeded by the building of apartment houses.”8

  The Grand Boulevard and Concourse was the vision of Louis A. Risse, a French immigrant. He came to the United States in 1871, becoming a civil engineer for the New York Central Railroad. Risse mapped the Bronx’s Kingsbridge, West Farms, and Morrisania sections. After working in the private sector, he became New York City’s chief topographical engineer, developing the Grand Concourse and playing a major role in the mapping of other parts of the city.

  The BOT approved the Concourse line on March 10, 1925, running from the 8th Avenue line to Bedford Park Boulevard. The original plans called for a four-track line; one was later eliminated, a point of contention for Bronx groups. There were plans to extend the Concourse line to the Northeast Bronx, an area not served by rapid transit. The W&B served the area but didn’t enter Manhattan. Customers wishing to go to Manhattan had to transfer to the IRT at East 180th Street or in Hunts Point.

  A growing population required more transit service. In 1926 the Amalgamated Clothing Workers Union announced the purchase of land near Van Cortlandt Park to build apartment houses. Tenants moved into the Amalgamated Houses’ first 303 apartments in 1927, starting the co-op movement in the Bronx. Amalgamated was designed by the architectural firm of Springsteen and Goldhammer, which also designed the first phase of the Workers Cooperative Colony on Bronx Park East and the Shalom Aleichem houses by the Jerome Park Reservoir with the Yiddish cooperative Heim Gesellschaft.

  The Jewish National Workers Alliance sponsored the Farband Houses on Williamsbridge Road. The Typographical Workers Union sponsored buildings by East 180th Street. Four unions, including the International Ladies Garment Workers Union, sponsored the Thomas Garden Apartments on Mott Avenue (later the Grand Concourse’s southern extension).9 New apartment buildings went up along the Concourse, leading to a major increase in population and the growth of a new form of architecture, Art Deco.

  The Board of Estimate approved the 8th Avenue–Concourse line connection on March 24, 1927. Despite dissatisfaction over the missing fourth track and a direct downtown routing, no one opposed the plan, but Bronx transit advocates wanted more. Highbridge and University Heights residents formed the West Bronx Taxpayers Alliance, calling for service to their communities.10 The East Bronx Transit Committee supported a W&B extension to Manhattan’s West Side via 125th Street. “This plan, if successfully carried out, would revolutionize conditions in the section. It would make possible the development of large tracts that now lie idle and would advance business possibilities in this part of the city,” said Committee Chairman Alfred G. Illich.11

  Charles P. Giraud and James M. Welsch, working with the Park Avenue Improvement Association, had another idea. Home News editorials advanced their concept: continue the Concourse line along 5th Avenue and Central Park South to 6th Avenue, connecting with the IND there. The Home News made it a recurring theme. New York Board of Aldermen President Joseph V. McKee, the Bronx Board of Trade, and the Bronx Chamber of Commerce endorsed the plan.

  The BOT disagreed with Giraud and Welsch, believing that its Concourse line plan would resolve the problem of Bronx subway congestion. BOT Commissioner Daniel L. Ryan asked, “What revenue would the city derive from a line in the district running from 59th to 110th Sts. along Fifth Avenue? … In the main, this is a highly residential section and the present Lexington Avenue line serves it adequately. To build a subway under Fifth Avenue from 59th and 110th Streets would cost at least $40,000,000 [$1.01 billion in 2011 dollars, according to MeasuringWorth.com], with little prospect of an adequate return on the investment.”12

  Plans for other Bronx projects were examined in 1927. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Herbert Hoover appointed a group to find locations for regional airports in 1927. The Chamber of Commerce’s Airport Committee chairman, Major William F. Deegan,13 proposed a site between the tracks of the W&B and the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad by the Hutchinson River. The site ranked third out of a possible seventy-two locations.14

  Alderman Alford J. Williams and the Taxpayers Alliance of the Bronx met with Borough President Henry Bruckn
er15 on December 31 to plan a meeting with the BOT on January 10, 1928, that all Bronx Aldermen would attend. They proposed a line on 1st Avenue connecting the Pelham line with a branch along Lafayette Avenue; another line along Madison Avenue, connecting with the Concourse line at 161st Street; a Concourse line extension, running north to Gun Hill Road via Mosholu Parkway and Van Cortlandt and Bainbridge Avenues; and an extension to the 8th Avenue line to the city border via Riverdale Avenue.16

  Thomas McDonald suggested extending the 3rd Avenue El to the city line via Gun Hill Road and Laconia Avenue and a Boston Road line.17 Edward J. Walsh, William P. Sullivan, and Max Gross discussed the Giraud / Welsch plan. Ryan promised that the proposals would be studied.

  Bruckner asked whether the BOT considered new subways for the Bronx. Ryan said studies had been conducted though a decision had not yet been reached. “Can we hope for any increased rapid transit lines in the near future?” Bruckner asked. “There is nothing definite yet,” said Ryan. “As it is at present the Bronx is getting $60,000,000 of the $600,000,000 [$600 million in 1928 is $14.9 billion in 2011 according to MeasuringWorth.com] to be spent upon the subways now under consideration.”18

  Figure 4-1. Borough President Henry Bruckner in 1918. (New York Sun)

  The Home News editorial board was aghast at Ryan for saying that only 10 percent of subway construction money would go to the Bronx, and unhappy that no one protested:

  The interests of the Bronx would assuredly be served best if all Bronx officials and all Bronx organizations would concentrate on a single route—the one that would do most to cut down transit congestion here—and if all these forces would then present a unified front in demanding that the route determined upon be gotten under way.

  We are already sure of a subway along the Concourse. Why should not every local effort towards transit betterment be combined in one huge drive for the inclusion of that subway as part of a through trunk line under Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue or whatever downtown thoroughfare may be found most desirable?

  The Bronx certainly got no fair share in the $600,000,000 program.19

  Ryan answered a letter from Albert D. Phelps, a real estate broker, protesting the borough’s share of capital funding. He said the Board was considering a spur from the Concourse line at 192nd Street that would go east to Webster Avenue, connect with the 3rd Avenue Elevated, and continues to the 241st Street station on the White Plains Road line.20

  Figure 4-2. Major William F. Deegan in 1921. (New York Tribune)

  The Chamber of Commerce, the Bronx Real Estate Board, and the 170th Street Merchants Association campaigned for the Giraud / Welsch plan. At the Chamber’s January 26 meeting at the Concourse Plaza Hotel, Deegan, now Chamber president, appointed William A. Cokeley to chair their Public Utilities Committee.

  Bruckner wanted a low-key approach. Cokeley disagreed: “We’re going through with this protest in spite of the Mayor, the Borough President, the Board of Transportation and all others who object.… We may not do good, but we’ll at least be heard sufficiently to keep them from spending $10,000,000 in this fashion again. Our idea is to see that the Bronx is not discriminated against.”21

  The BOT, unaffected by calls for the Giraud / Welsch plan, awarded contracts for the Concourse line’s first section, from Manhattan to 161st Street and Ruppert Place, on January 27. Deegan and Fred Wurzbach, Board of Trade president, organized the Bronx Combined Civic Organization on January 31 at the Concourse Plaza. Cokeley would be the chairman and Wurzbach would be vice chairman. Their goal was building the Concourse line in accordance with the Giraud / Welsch plan.

  Henry F. A. Wolf of the Bronx Taxpayers Association was worried: “If we take the attitude that we want the four-track line or none we may get none.”22 “We want nothing but what we are entitled to, and that we should accept nothing but that,” Wurzbach responded. “We are entitled to a direct line to lower Manhattan, and we should get it. If necessary, we should organize a delegation of 2,500 to go down to City Hall and make our demands known. We don’t want relief. We want a cure.”23

  More civic groups and businesspeople joined the Bronx Combined Civic Organization, but the Board of Trade withdrew on February 1. Wurzbach told Deegan that a strong Board of Trade, working separately, but with the same purpose, would strengthen efforts for the Giraud / Welsch plan. He set up a meeting with the BOT.24

  Wurzbach assembled his committee. Leo Ehrhart,25 an engineer who worked with Joseph P. Day to develop parts of City Island and Hunts Point, chaired. Time was short. “We must induce the Board of Transportation to change its plans before they start removing dirt for the Concourse subway,” said Ehrhart. “Once that three-track subway is laid it will remain a three-track line until the end of time. Everyone knows that the third track will never have any use except as a storage yard for empty cars.”26

  The meeting was held on February 21 at the BOT’s Manhattan offices. Wurzbach and Ehrhart tried to discuss the Giraud / Welsch plan but spent more time on the defensive from Delaney’s comments: “This is part of the main line. If you have two tracks running all the way from 200th Street down to Fulton Street, without any change whatever[,] why is it a branch? There are only two tracks running to Washington Heights.”27

  Ehrhart responded: “We absolutely admit that we are getting a certain relief by this line, a great relief, but we feel, or know from an engineering viewpoint …”28 Delaney interrupted: “Mr. Ehrhart, if you persist in that attitude, I don’t want to give a certain relief to the Bronx. The Bronx is entitled to relief. The Bronx is entitled to a full line. In my judgment it is getting it. If the Bronx doesn’t want it, we will take the four tracks to Washington Heights.”29

  “We don’t want to lose what we have already accomplished,” Ehrhart said. “We don’t want to lose anything that has been accomplished.”30 All the Board of Trade members could talk about was reverse commutation, providing access to facilities like Hunter College (then in the Bronx).

  Ryan discussed service expansion: “I am not violating any confidence when I say that the members of the Board have given very serious consideration to the building of another rapid transit line with express service in the Bronx, but not in the westerly end—in the central and easterly end.”31 He later said nothing was imminent, but admitted there was room for a subway line between the White Plains Road and Pelham lines to Manhattan. The Board of Trade members promised to support the BOT, largely ending talk of the Giraud / Welsch plan. Wurzbach later said that while the Board of Trade supported its concept, it was more committed to the planned line Ryan discussed.

  Northeast Bronx residents and businesspeople focused on transit issues. McDonald discussed his proposed “Belt Plan” at a March 3 meeting. A meeting was scheduled for March 27 with McDonald, the Northeast Bronx Civic League, and the BOT concerning Northeast Bronx service. James Holler, the Civic League’s president, knew what his area needed:

  We have suffered from lack of transportation facilities for many years. It is time that we should receive recognition from the Board of Transportation and the city. Adequate facilities for our section will do what milk will do for a child.… We need a subway in our neighborhood. No one questions that statement. Commissioner Ryan said at a previous meeting that the section is undeveloped and cannot support a subway.… In answer to that statement we can point out that the Westchester Avenue east of the Bronx River was undeveloped before the subway was built on that avenue. Now that section is growing so rapidly it is difficult to keep pace with it.32

  Altermen Thomas McDonald and Peter Donovan presented the case for the Boston Road line. McDonald said the area was growing, with plans to widen the roadway underway and ground broken for new housing: “Unless the City authorities act quickly in this matter, these thousands of people will be without the proper transit facilities and the growth of the entire section would be stifled.”33

  Clarence Beach, a Throggs Neck real estate agent, criticized the Concourse line, and asked why the Fulton Street subway was
being built in Brooklyn and why it couldn’t be postponed.34 Delaney was contentious: “This Board will not change any of the plans for the subway now under construction. It intends to build all of the routes that have been authorized.”35 They argued until Delaney said, “I’ll have to ask you to dismiss this gentleman. He’s wasting our time and the time of those people here to be heard on the Bronx subway needs.”36

  Mary Helmbuch of the Throggs Neck Property Owners Association asked when help would come. “Back in 1924, apparently unified, the Bronx associations came before the Board of Transportation and recommended the Concourse subway, which we are about to build,” Delaney said. “I want you to know that we have in mind the needs of the East Bronx, and will take cognizance of them in considering the second part of the [IND] subway plan.”37

  Work on the Concourse line’s first section began in July 1928, and bids were received for its second section from Ruppert Place and 161st Street to 167th Street and the Concourse. The bids for the third section, to 175th Street, were due in September, and those for the fourth, to 183rd Street, were due in October. The bids for the rest of the line’s first phase would be in by the end of 1928. There would be a second one.

  On August 30, BOT Secretary William Jerome Daly told Wurzbach that Concourse line work had progressed to allow for planning an extension:

  The designing engineers have been instructed to design the northerly end of the Concourse construction at about 206th Street in such manner as to allow further extension easterly from the Concourse. Surveys and test borings have been authorized and are under way to locate a feasible route for the proposed easterly extension, so that the construction plan of the most northerly Concourse section may be designed for such a connection. Burke Avenue would be an appropriate on the easterly side of Bronx Park, if a practicable route between the Concourse and Bronx Park can be located, but no definite plan can be adopted until the information to be obtained by the surveys and borings is available.38