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).

Detail of typical milk keystone - Sheffield Farms Milk Plant, date unknown (post 1968).

Detail of typical terra cotta cowhead - Sheffield Farms Milk Plant, date unknown (post 1968).

Daughters of Jacob Home and Hospital, ca. 1920. Bronx architect Louis Allen Abramson designed the building of the Home and Hospital of the Daughters of Jacob with eight wings that radiated from the center, like the spokes of a wheel. Completed in 1916, the expansive building serviced as a Jewish nursing home, its unique layout providing the residential spaces with light and air access on three sides. In the late 1960s, the neighborhoods demographics had changed dramatically and the nursing home considered a move out of the city. Instead they elected to remain in their home and renovate and expand to continue their mission. Architect Abramson was hired once again (he was in his mid 80s by 1970) to design a modern senior apartment complex adjacent to the old home. Completed in late 1971, the new structure allowed the old building to be emptied, gutted, and brought up to code. The historic exterior of the old building was preserved and a second new building, to serve as a geriatric center, was completed later in the decade. Today both the 1971-built Abramson residence and the later Triboro Center are connected to the 1916 main building by pedestrian bridges.

"Webster Avenue, west side, north from East 165th Street, showing the pasteurization plant of the Sheffield Farms Company, 1938." The annex building at 1045 Webster Avenue (seen at left) that once housed part of the Sheffield Farms Company still stands and the company name is still visible on the front facade. Unfortunately the larger plant building at no. 1075 (in the background) and the massive bottle of milk that once topped the building are gone. The Sheffield Farms pasteurization plant was built in 1914 and was a state of the art facility, one of only two Class 1 gravity plants in the country. It had the largest processing capacity of any milk plant. In 1930 Sheffield Farms introduced the first paper-packaged milk container in the world. Designed by Frank A. Rooke, who designed four plants for the farm company, the original building featured decorative cows' head features on the facade, in addition to its oversized jug of milk. The milk processing functions ceased in the early 1970s, the building at no. 1075 was emptied of tenants in the late 1980s and demolished in the early 1990s.

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.

The Daughters of Jacob Home and Hospital was built on land that had been the William E. Morris estate. The grounds included a large mansion and a smaller stone structure used supposedly as a schoolhouse. The stone building was said to have been constructed in 1792, while the mansion was erected in 1816 by James Morris. His son William was a Civil War major general. According to various sources, former President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, was a frequent visitor to the home following his release from prison in 1869, though the connection to the house or the Morris family (who fought on the side of the Union) is unclear.

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.

Melrose Branch, ca. 1914. Opened on January 14, 1914, the Melrose Branch was the 10th of 13 branches designed by Carrère & Hastings, who also created the NYPL Main Branch. This library is perhaps the mostly substantially altered Carnegie in city (not considering those which were razed). Once a four-story classically proportioned building, the top two stories were removed during a rehabilitation project in 1959. The two-story building now has almost a mid-century design. During that renovation window and door openings were resized and the main facade was also refaced, similarly adding to its mid century look. Despite the drastic reduction of size, the library has continuously functioned since opening in 1914.

Archived at NYC’s Department of Records, these never-before-seen images taken by photographers at the Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) dramatically capture the disinvestment and physical decay that afflicted the Bronx from the 1970s into the 1990s. During this period, many buildings were abandoned, others destroyed by fire, and yet others demolished for the sake of public safety. Melrose, where the majority of the tour takes place, suffered particularly acute devastation. Returning to these same sites today reveals a stunning transformation: vacant buildings have been restored and made habitable again, and empty lots have given rise to new affordable housing. Melrose has experienced a particularly remarkable renaissance, with thousands of affordable homes created by HPD under the rubric of the Melrose Commons revitalization plan, from the low-rise row houses of Melrose Court (1994) to larger-scale apartment buildings like Elton Crossing (2018). The tour also goes north along Boston Road to Morrisania before terminating further west in Hunt's Point. It's here that some of the most striking examples of affordable housing preservation can be found, like on Fox Street where turn-of-the-century row houses photographed on the brink of demolition have since been carefully restored and saved for future generations to inhabit. As you walk from site to site, use the Urban Archive recreate tool to see these transformations for yourself! They’re the result of tireless work by community organizations and government agencies, and the forerunners of the affordable housing that HPD is producing at a record pace under the Housing New York plan, ensuring that our neighborhoods are stronger and more equitable for future generations. All photos by Paul Rice, Leonard Boykin, and Larry Racioppo.

1045-1073 Webster Avenue, date unknown (post 1968). This view shows both the original massive plant building and the smaller annex building. The large decorative milk jug has been removed.

Heinz 57 Warehouse, ca. 1910.