888 Grand Concourse, ca. 1985-2000. Designed by Emery Roth in 1937, the building has 84 apartments. According to promotional material, each apartment had a sunken living room, a bathroom for each bedroom and an abundance of closets. The Art Deco style checkered gold and black semi-circular entrance (a striking feature, dulled here due to the black and white film) remains.

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.

The home that once stood where the Bronx County Courthouse was erected.

888 Grand Concourse, entrance, ca. 1970-2000.

Doorway of 860 Grand Concourse, ca. 1970.

Bronx Post Office ca. 1954 In the 1930's most Federal buildings were classical in a derivation of Colonial Revival. A few of the best buildings, such as the Folger Library in Washington and the Federal Reserve Bank in Philadelphia have a blending of classical proportions with original details which can be called a classical essence and which Paul Cret tried to teach his students. The post office lobby is on the front of the ground floor, but remains rather simple, except for murals created by Ben Shahn. The exterior is of great beauty, however. The gray brick with the white marble trim gives an elegance to the simple rhythmic facade with the seven high arched openings, four windows and three with doors in the lower parts and glass above. The ornamentation, lettering, and sculpture relieve the walls of monotony.

The Grand Concourse is one of the most important avenues in the Bronx. Designed by Louis Aloys Risse, an immigrant from Lorraine, France, who had previously worked for the New York Central Railroad. Risse was appointed chief topographical engineer for the city in the 1890s. Many of the buildings along the Concourse were designed in the Art Deco style, creating a semi-consistent visual along the broad boulevard. Visit the past via the Grand Concourse. Discover the stunning architecture from civic monuments to Art Deco apartment houses to grand municipal structures.

Bronx County Courthouse, 1938. The nine-story Bronx County Courthouse was built between 1931-1934, two blocks east of Yankee Stadium. When the court opened in 1934, Mayor Fiorello La Guardia celebrated its dedication by declaring it the seat of the city’s government for three days. The Art Deco courthouse, designed by architects Joseph H. Freedlander and Max Hausle, has four identical facades, each with matching six-column entrance porticoes. A continuous frieze by Charles Keck depicts various conditions of city residents industry, hardship, and glory throughout history. The courthouse has been the seat of Bronx borough administration since the closure of Bronx Borough Hall in 1969. In 1988, it was renamed in honor of former Bronx district attorney Mario Merola.

Entrance to the Bronx County Building, ca. 1980. The Art Deco courthouse, designed by architects Joseph H. Freedlander and Max Hausle, has four identical facades, each with identical six-column entrance porticoes.

John M. Toucey Memorial Building, 1928. Constructed for use by the railroad men of New York Central, this stately stone structure was operated by the Railroad Department of the Y.M.C.A. The building was named as a memorial to John M. Toucey, who begun his career as a conductor at New York Central in 1855, before rising in the ranks to General Manager of the company in 1890. Dedicated in 1902, and situated near the rail lines in the south Bronx near the Harlem River, the brick building has been lost in the ensuing century.