Bronx County Jail, 1940. Constructed as a Works Progress Administration project in 1937, the Art Deco Bronx County Jail was designed by Joseph Freedlander, who also created the Bronx County Courthouse and the Museum of the City of New York. The 350-cell jail building was well received (at least as an architectural feature), its ornamented facade of granite and limestone giving the impression of a stately office building. Highly visible, given its location only a few blocks from Yankee Stadium, the jail operated for more than 60 years. The jail, which was later more commonly referred to as the Bronx House of Detention, closed in 2000. A few years later the city struck a deal with a developer to demolish the building for the construction of the Gateway Center, a retail space and new park along the river. The development, now called the Bronx Terminal Market, is a shopping mall that encompasses both the former jail property and a former wholesale fruit and vegetable market. A number of architectural features, including ornate stone panels and the sculpted stone eagles were saved before the building was razed. These ornaments have been installed on the River Avenue facade of the new complex.

Dunbar Apartments, March 6, 1928. The Dunbar Apartments — named for the African American poet Paul Laurence Dunbar — are a six-building housing development built by John D. Rockefeller between 1926-1928, in response to a housing shortage in Harlem. The buildings, designed by architect Andrew J. Thomas, were the first large-scale garden apartment complex in Manhattan, and, according to the New York Times, “the first large cooperative project in the country built for occupancy by blacks.” However, the Great Depression caused many middle class residents to default on mortgages, leading Rockefeller to foreclose on the properties in 1936. The buildings were subsequently converted to rental units. In 1970, the Dunbar Apartments were designated a New York City Landmark.

Dunbar Apartments ARCHITECT: Andrew J. Thomas DATE: 1926-28 STYLE: Apartment The Dunbar Apartments, named after the famous Black poet of the turn of the century, Paul Lawrence Dunbar (1872-1906), occupies the entire block bounded by 149th and 150th Streets and Seventh and Eighth Avenues. It was the first large cooperative built for Blacks and was Manhattan’s earliest large garden apartment complex. Financed by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and designed by the architect Andrew J. Thomas, the building was completed in 1928 and was destined, from the planning and sociological points of view, to occupy a pivotal place in the history of the Harlem community. The complex consists of six independent U-shaped buildings, containing 511 apartments, and is clustered around a large interior garden court. Eight arched entrance ways lead into the court and to public staircases. With its lawns, shrubs and trees, the garden court provides a quiet, green oasis removed from the traffic and noise of the surrounding streets. Architecturally, the dominant note is one of simplicity. The architect successfully avoided the cold monotony of many later housing projects by breaking up the massive walI surfaces. He varied the heights of the buildings from five to six stories, alternately projected and recessed adjoining units and introduced a variety of window alignments and sizes. The warm tones and varicolored brick are set off by decorative accents of limestone. Handsome wrought iron balconies and window guards and architectural terra-cotta at the roof level complete the decorative scheme.