East 162nd Street, north side, east from Melrose Avenue, April 20, 1941. No. 415 is the three-story home with porch in the middle-right of the frame.

While just nine blocks apart, Clay Avenue and the Grand Concourse appear to be in different worlds in terms of architecture and urban form. However, both the small-scale street of two-family houses and the wide thoroughfare lined with Art Deco apartment buildings help to tell the story of the development of this section of The Bronx. Both are located in what was historically the village of Morrisania, named for the English brothers Colonel Lewis Morris and Captain Richard Morris who purchased the land in 1670. In 1900, Ernest Wenigmann began amassing property on Clay Avenue with the intention of constructing 28 houses. Wenigmann commissioned architect Warren C. Dickerson, who had a reputation for designing many fine rowhouses across the borough. For the Clay Avenue development, Dickerson employed elements of the Renaissance Revival and Romanesque Revival styles, and while the houses are all different in their ornamentation, they are linked by the use of beige or red brick, as well as their similar massing and repetitive trends found on either side of the street. The houses were designed in pairs, with each house meant to house two families, but Dickerson subtly designed the houses so that each would give the appearance of a single-family dwelling. Thus, the aspirational middle-class homeowner could fit their family into one apartment while renting out the adjacent unit for additional income, all the while residing in what appeared to be a single-family home. The 28 houses on Clay Avenue were all constructed between 1901 and 1902, when Ernest Wenigmann began selling the properties. Within three years, the street was almost entirely occupied, illustrating the success of Wenigmann’s venture and Dickerson’s designs. Clay Avenue remains a beloved architectural ensemble and tight-knit community. In 1909, seven years after Wenigmann completed construction of the houses on Clay Avenue, the Grand Concourse was opened to traffic and became a crucial link between Manhattan and the still rural sections of The Bronx. The completion of the Jerome Avenue subway in 1918 and the introduction of real estate tax exemptions precipitated a wave of development that swept the Grand Concourse from 1922 to 1931. This period saw the construction of over half of the district’s buildings, primarily five- and six-story apartment houses situated on large lots and enlivened by decorative elements that evoked faraway places. The 1933 opening of the IND subway along the Grand Concourse sparked a second building boom from 1935 to 1945 that produced many now iconic Art Deco and Moderne style buildings. These structures feature terra cotta, mosaic tile, cast stone and beige brick in their designs. Although these buildings were executed in a range of architectural styles, many of them are representative of the garden apartment typology. This housing form, which developed in the late 1910s and 1920s, was principally characterized by medium-rise structures arranged around large courtyards. The neighborhoods surrounding Clay Avenue and the Grand Concourse shared in the precipitous population loss and economic decline that plagued much of The Bronx in the post-World War II era. Nevertheless, the community emerged from the turmoil to become the stable, dynamic and diverse area that it is today. The significance and integrity of this neighborhood’s built fabric prompted the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate two historic districts here: Clay Avenue (1994) and the Grand Concourse (2011).

3269-3273 3rd Avenue, 1934. The single story building at no. 3273 (at right) is a stationary and toy story that includes a doll hospital.

860 Melrose Avenue. ca. 1910. This narrow, but long two-story building on Melrose Avenue was likely a new construction at the time this photograph was taken. The storefront at the corner is occupied by a "fancy cash groceries" and just down the block (at no. 864 in the same building) is a fish and oyster market. The other storefront are empty and have "to let" notifications posted.

East 161st Street, north side, east from Melrose Avenue, 1941. The building just preceding the five-story tenements (with the marquee) opened as the Melrose Theatre in 1916. In the 1940s it was converted into a banquet hall known as the Ambassador Ballrooms. Today the building still stand—somewhat worse for the wear— and it used as a daycare center.

Hupfel's Brewery, 1898. The South Bronx was once a brewing mecca. As a German immigrant community with more open space than Manhattan, dozens of brewers set up shop here in the mid to late 19th century. Originally owned by a Xavier Grant, the business was purchased by Anton Heupfel in 1863 who later passed it along to his sons. The brewery was located on a steep slope between St. Ann's Avenue to Eagle Avenue. This hill provided an excellent spot for digging out caves. These naturally insulated spaces were perfect for aging and storing the lager that the brewery produced. When Prohibition came to New York's breweries, many continued to produce "near beer" (and real beer surreptitiously and illegally). Adolph Hupfel Jr. had a different plan. He converted his family business into a "mushroom plantation." The beer-aging caves were also well suited to mushroom growing, and the business produced more than 200,000 pounds of the crop per year. The brewery closed in 1938, presumably after returning to beer production when Prohibition ended in 1933. The Hupfel brewery still stands in ruins, the only 19th-century Bronx brewery building still extant. The tall red brick building can still be seen boxed in by the newer low-rise industrial buildings on St. Ann's Avenue south of East 161st Street.

Eagle Avenue Bridge, 1915. This 1915 photograph of 612 East 161st Street was taken from the Eagle Avenue Bridge. This steep hilly area of the Bronx necessitated a bridge over the road and the first crossing at this spot (seen here) was a steel structure with stairs allowing pedestrians to descend to the street below. The 1936 bridge, with one lane for traffic, a parking lane, and two sidewalks, no longer provides this access. (The older bridge also had much more attractive lamposts.) The buildings, such as this one, immediately adjacent to the bridge have long since been demolished and the steep slope of the hill here is much more visible today.

3353 Third Avenue, ca. 1916. A James Butler grocery store, one of hundreds that dotted the five boroughs in the early decades of the 20th century.

East 161st Street, at the northwest corner of Melrose Avenue, showing what was called the "city's tiniest house" in the 1927 book "The Bronx and its People," 1941.

Heinz 57 Warehouse, ca. 1910.