Bedford Park, Bronx

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Bedford Park is a neighborhood in the borough of the Bronx in New York City bounded by Mosholu Parkway to the north, Bronx Park and Webster Avenue to the east, 196th Street and Kingsbridge Road to the south, and Goulden Avenue to the west. It borders the neighborhoods of Norwood, Fordham, and Kingsbridge.

1 History
2 The Educational Mile
3 Landmarks
4 Demography
5 Culture
6 Transportation

[edit] History

Prior to being a residential neighborhood, the area now known as Bedford Park was mostly farmland outside the town of Kingsbridge, then an unincorporated suburb of New York City. The area began to be developed with the construction of the Jerome Park Racecourse, for thoroughbred horse racing, by Leonard Jerome and August Belmont, Sr. in 1866. Jerome Park Racecourse became the first home of the famous Belmont Stakes horserace, until it was moved to Morris Park in 1890. To attract the wealthy to the Racecourse, Leonard Jerome built what is today Jerome Avenue. In 1874 the town of Kingsbridge was officially incorporated into New York City.

In 1890 Jerome Park Racecourse was sold. Construction was started to convert it into the Jerome Park Reservoir, to store fresh water from the New Croton Aqueduct. At the same time, the neighborhood of Bedford Park was beginning to take shape. Forty "villas" (suburban houses) were built on a 23-acre stretch, in a planned community, named Villa Avenue.

The area became a part of the newly created Borough of the Bronx in 1898. The Italian and Irish immigrants who worked on the Jerome Park Reservoir project soon anchored the community there. In 1906, 200th Street was renamed Bedford Park Boulevard, likely named after Edward Thomas Bedford, a director of Standard Oil, president of the Bank of the State of New York, who was an associate of Leonard Jerome.

Development continued with the completion of the Grand Concourse, a multilane thoroughfare, in 1914; and the extension of subway to the area with the IRT Jerome Avenue Line in 1917. The Grand Concourse saw a boom in housing construction in the post-World War I era. Much of this was from middle-class (primarily Jews, Italians, and Irish) moving from Manhattan.

[edit] The Educational Mile

In the 1930s, unclaimed land near the Jerome Park Reservoir offered opportunities for New Deal-related construction to alleviate unemployment from the Great Depression. Three high schools (Walton, DeWitt Clinton, and the Bronx High School of Science) were built, along with the Bronx campus of Hunter College (now Lehman College). After end of World War II, in 1946 Hunter College's Bronx Campus served briefly as host of the United Nations.

[edit] Landmarks

[edit] Houses of worship

Image:St Philip Neri church, Bedford Park, Bronx, NY.jpg

Church of St. Philip Neri

Among Bedford Park's oldest buildings are its churches and other religious institutions. The oldest church in the area, Bedford Park Congregational Church at the corner of Bainbridge Avenue and East 201st Street, dates to 1882. Its American Queen Anne-style design hints at Bedford Park's origins as a small rural community. It was designated a City Landmark in 2000. (New York City Landmarks Commission 2005)

On the Grand Concourse lies the Roman Catholic Church of St. Philip Neri. The church was dedicated to the Italian saint due to its origin as a mission church for immigrant Italian laborers, who also worked on the construction of the Jerome Park Reservoir. The corner stone of the church (dated 1889) was in fact quarried from what became Jerome Park Reservoir, and brought there by a horse-drawn carriage. (Greene 2002)

The Convent of Mount St. Ursula is located on Bedford Park Boulevard. It was established by a group of Roman Catholic nuns from the Ursuline order in 1892. The Academy of Mt. St. Ursula, an all-girls prep-school, is located there today. It recently celebrated it's 150th anniversary with the class of 2005.

[edit] Buildings

Bedford Park is dominated by six-story walkups and three-story Victorian houses. The apartments on the Grand Concourse are taller. Tracey Towers are two 41-story apartment buildings close to the Jerome Park Reservoir. Designed by noted architect Paul Rudolph, they were completed in 1972 as a part of New York City's Mitchell Lama housing development initiative.

[edit] Lehman College

Lehman College was originally Hunter College's uptown campus. The Works Progress Administration built the original four buildings of the campus in grey stone in the Collegiate Gothic style, with finials, turrets, and other decorative features. Additional buildings, including the Lehman Library and Center for the Performing Arts, were added in the style of modern architecture. The newest building, the APEX, has facilities for athletics and dance. The scenic campus, which spans into Kingsbridge, has been used as a shooting location for episodes of the television series Law & Order and its spin-offs.

[edit] Demography

In the United States 2000 Census ² of 2000, the area of Bedford Park comprises six tracts. These six tracts have a population of 29,377.

The racial makeup of the neighborhood is 33.68% White, 22.54%, African American, 1.00% Native American, 6.69% Asian, 0.01% Pacific Islander, 28.00% from other races, and 8.00% from two or more races. 52.77% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.

Out of the total population, 34.50% (10,134 individuals) of Bedford Park residents, were born outside of the United States. An additional 8.37% were born in Puerto Rico, and are thus considered native born. Of the foreign born, 35.88% were born in the Caribbean, 16.98% in Eastern Europe, 10.76% in Central America, 10.19% in East Asia, 8.06 in South America, 7.85% in West Africa, 3.66% in South Central Asia, 2.79% in Northern Europe, and 2.65% in Southeast Asia. The countries which are represented by at least 2.5% (358 individuals) of the neighborhood's foreign born population are the Dominican Republic (28.19%), Korea (10.19%), Ghana (6.56%), Mexico (6.10%), Ecuador (3.54%), and Jamaica (2.98%), and areas that were (at the time of the 2000 Census) a part of Albania (6.30%).

[edit] Culture

Reflecting a population so greatly composed of foreign-born immigrants, there are distinct ethnic enclaves in Bedford Park. On 204th Street, between the Grand Concourse and Mosholu Parkway lies a small "Koreatown" in which a cluster of Korean restaurants, groceries, social clubs, and other businesses thrive. Out of the 800 West African-born residents of the neighborhood, 83% live in or around the Tracey Towers.

Bedford Park's ethnic diversity manifests itself in an assortment of ways besides the formation of enclaves. Among the national symbols one may see strolling the neighborhood include the double-headed eagle (the emblem of Albania), the icon of Our Lady of Guadalupe (sacred to Catholic Mexicans), the shamrock of Ireland, the Arabic calligraphy of the shahadah (the Muslim profession of faith), or the coquí of Puerto Rico. A vast assortment of newspapers are sold in local convenience stores, including The Echo of Ireland, Albanian-language Bota Sot of Kosovo, and the Spanish-language local newspapers El Diario/La Prensa, and El Hoy.

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Rail

The neighborhood is served by two New York City Subway lines:

Bedford Park Boulevard on the IND Concourse Line, a station underneath the Grand Concourse between Bedford Park Boulevard and East 203rd Street. It serves as the penultimate station for the D train at all times, and is terminal station for the B train during rush hours.

Bedford Park Boulevard–Lehman College on the IRT Jerome Avenue Line, an elevated station above Bedford Park Boulevard, just west of Jerome Avenue, served by the 4 train.

Bedford Park also is served by the Botanical Garden station on the Metro–North Railroad's Harlem Line, located east of Webster Avenue on Botanical Square.

[edit] Buses

There are several MTA bus lines that serve the neighborhood of Bedford Park including: Bx1, Bx2, Bx10, Bx22, Bx25, Bx26, Bx28, Bx34, Bx41, and Bx55. The MTA also operates express bus service to Manhattan, the BxM4a and BxM4b. The W4 and W20 Westchester County buses terminate in front of the Bedford Park Boulevard-Lehman College Station.