Station house for the FDNY’s Engine 87 (Marine), November 24, 1937. The Engine 87 marine company was established in 1908, with a station house on the Harlem River at 132nd Street. The company moved to the facility shown in Berenice Abbott’s photo in 1922. Construction of the Harlem River Drive caused the station house to move to the Lower East Side, at the foot of Grand Street in 1954, before the company was disbanded in 1954.

Grants Pickle Works, April 30, 1941. In the first half of the 20th century the Jennings Market was a a two-block shopping area for the mostly East European, Jewish, and Italian immigrant communities (many of whom had previously lived on the LES). The market's most famous tenant was 'Jake the Pickle Man' who peddled his pickles from five barrels on the sidewalk at Jennings and Charlotte Streets. The lines for his pickles could be a block long, and he was remember as very eccentric. Jake retired from the pickle business in 1961 and was sadly killed during a robbery in 1963. United Pickle, a fourth-generation family pickle factory in the Tremont section of the Bronx, was founded in 1897 and is still in operation. This company owns the trademark brand Guss' Pickles, which was the best-known Lower East Side pickle guy in the early 20th century. Though little can be specifically discovered about 'Grant's Pickle Works' seen here at Third Avenue and 137th Street, they were likely in good company among the pickle-loving community of the south Bronx.

The Bronx is named after Jonas Bronck, a Nordic European settler who arrived in the colony of New Netherlands in 1639. Bronck and his Dutch wife, Teuntje Joriaens, established their farmstead in what is now Mott Haven at the confluence of the Harlem River and Bronx Kill overlooking Randall’s Island. In 1670 much of the area was acquired by the Morris family, who established a large manor called Morissania. The family retained ownership—and the area remained sparsely populated—through the early 19th century. It was the arrival of the New York and Harlem Railroad line, announced in 1840, that finally persuaded the Morrises to embrace suburban development on their estate. Jordan L. Mott, the neighborhood’s namesake, purchased sizable tracts from the Morris family in 1841 and 1848. Hoping to create a “downtown of Westchester County” (of which this area was then still a part), he laid out streets and building lots and began marketing the new hamlet called Mott Haven. According to Mott’s plan, the southern portion was devoted to industrial uses, including his own iron works, all served by a purpose-built, 3,000-foot canal. The northern section was reserved for tidy residential buildings, protected by restrictive covenants from anything “pernicious to health or noxious or offensive to the neighborhood.” Other developers soon followed Mott to the South Bronx, purchasing large tracts from the Morris family and laying out their own suburbs such as Wilton (subdivided 1857) and North New York (1860)—now both part of the neighborhood of Mott Haven. The Morris family itself entered the development business, planning the industrial neighborhood of Port Morris. Development of these tracts was steady, if not as rapid as their promoters may have wanted. Mott Haven proper—which consisted of the area between Third Avenue and the Harlem River—was the most populous, containing a concentration of modest, mostly wood-framed, houses built for local factory workers. By the 1860s the area even boasted a few brick rowhouses, some of which still survive. Much of the area, however, remained in the hands of real estate investors waiting for the area to gain in value. The Panic of 1873 delayed this by several years, although around the same time, in 1874, the South Bronx was annexed into New York City, likely ensuring its eventual development as an urban neighborhood. The arrival of mass transit (the 1887 opening of the Suburban Rapid Transit Company’s 138th Street Station, later part of the IRT Third Avenue Elevated) provided the ultimate spark for the area’s growth. Within a decade or two, most of Mott Haven’s streets were completely built up with a diverse range of buildings, from comfortable single-family rowhouses, to larger multi-family tenements and apartment buildings. Industry also blossomed. Mott’s iron works, now controlled by his descendants, continued to expand. Other manufacturers moved into the area including a remarkable number of piano manufacturers. In fact, by the early 20th century the Bronx had (by one count) 63 piano factories—43 of them in Mott Haven—producing more than 100,000 instruments a year. Mott Haven’s dense industrial base meant the neighborhood was particularly hard hit by the deindustrialization of New York City in the mid 20th century. Though the South Bronx became a symbol of urban decay and disinvestment by the 1970s, it also remained a vibrant immigrant neighborhood with new institutions, such as the Teatro de Puerto Rico, moving into the many surviving historic buildings. The rich history and architectural distinction of Mott Haven has been recognized by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission through the designation of three historic districts (including the first in the Bronx) and several individual landmarks.

Pilgrim Pentecostal Church of God, 1936. In the 1930s the majority of African American churches in Harlem met in residences and storefronts. According to a study of the religious institutions in the neighborhood in 1930, 122 congregations met in spaces that were not churches or assembly halls, and the number of these homes and storefront churches was likely much higher. The Reverend of this Pentecostal Church was Elder Johnson, seen here descending the church steps. He presided over a flock of only 28 when this photograph was taken.

Ye Olde Barber Shop at 2193 Fifth Avenue in Harlem, 1939. These buildings were razed a few years later, ahead of the construction of the Lincoln Houses, a NYCHA development completed in December, 1948.