Anderson—Jerome Avenues Station, June 27, 1928. The elevated line, which crossed Jerome Avenue just north of East 162nd Street, was spur at the northern end of the IRT Ninth Avenue Elevated Line, before the tracks connected with the IRT Jerome Avenue Line at River Avenue (out of frame at right). The extension opened on in 1918, crossing the Harlem River via the Putnam Bridge, and thereby providing a Manhattan connection at the southern terminus of the New York Central Railroad's Putnam Division (the NYCRR had previously used the bridge to reach its 155th Street Terminal, which went out of service in 1918). When the main portion of the Ninth Avenue El closed in 1940, the Bronx spur remained open as the Polo Grounds Shuttle. The Bronx-Manhattan connection was discontinued on August 31, 1958, one year after the New York Giants left the Polo Grounds for San Francisco and three months after the NYCRR retired the Putnam Line. Today, the new Yankee Station (opened 2009) sits on the east side of Jerome Avenue, just up the road from the House that Ruth Built. On June 27, 1928 — the date this photo was taken — Ruth, himself, batted third and drove in two runs as a Yankees lineup also featuring Lou Gehrig defeated the Ty Cobb's Athletics 7-4, in Philadelphia. At the Polo Grounds, Mel Ott homered to lead the Giants to an 11-8 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

950 Sedgwick Avenue, ca. 1934. The 8-story building with the lighthouse is the home of the H.W. Wilson Company, a publishing firm that has been in business for over a century. Halsey William Wilson, who originally founded the company in Minneapolis, produced an old book that explained how he had the lighthouse built in 1929, after moving the business to New York. He wrote that the lighthouse was meant to symbolize the company's mission: “To give guidance to those seeking their way through the maze of books and periodicals, without which they would be lost.” In 1998, the lighthouse was relit after being out of commission for many years to celebrate the company's centennial.

"Construction of subway cut on West 162nd Street, just west of Anderson Avenue, November 1915. 68 West 162nd Street is the building at left." The tunnel was constructed as part of a project to extend the Ninth Avenue El service from 155th Street in Manhattan to Bronx points, while providing a connection to the New York and Putnam Railroad’s new Sedgwick Avenue terminus (the line had previously ended at 155th Street, after crossing the Putnam Bridge). The project was completed in 1918. Though part of an elevated line, transit engineers decided to tunnel through the West Bronx hillside in order to connect the Sedgwick Avenue station with the IRT Jerome Avenue Line (today’s 4 train) to the east. Ninth Avenue El service was discontinued in 1940, but the newer Bronx stations remained in service for the Polo Grounds Shuttle to 155th Street, Manhattan, until 1958.

Entrance to the Park Plaza Apartments, ca. 1995. The Park Plaza, built in 1931, is an early example of Art Deco apartment building architecture in the Bronx. Situated on the west side of Jerome Avenue at 164th Street, the Park Plaza entrance used to face Macombs Dam Park. Today, the southern section of that parkland has been replaced by the new Yankee Stadium. This black and white photo doesn’t do justice to the intricate polychrome terra cotta details that surround the entranceway and enliven the building’s facade.

The 159th Street Yard, ca. 1945. Just north of the Polo Grounds, the 159th Street Yard served the Ninth Avenue El until its closure in 1940. By 1942, the city was accepting bids for the yard to be dismantled, and for its scrap metal to be salvaged for the war effort. Eventually, the yard was cleared for the construction of the Colonial Park Houses (now the NYCHA Ralph Rangel Houses) between 1948-51.

View of Yankee Stadium, 1923 Constructed between 1922 and 1923, this stadium was the home of the New York Yankees for 85 years. (It also hosted the New York Giants football team from 1956 to 1973.) Yankee Stadium was funded entirely by Yankees owner (and brewer and politician) Jacob Ruppert. The 58,000 seat venue was double the size of most other baseball stadiums at the time. Yankee Stadium officially opened on Wednesday, April 18, 1923, with the Yankees' first home game played against the Boston Red Sox, and they won their first World Series pendant during that inaugural season. During its history, the stadium not only hosted sporting events, but concerts, Jehovah's Witnesses conventions, and papal masses. The highest attendance ever recorded was on August 3, 1958, with 123,707 people at the Jehovah's Witnesses International Convention. A substantial renovation in 1974 and 1975 saw the painting of the stadium's exterior, the removal of columns and the original roof, and the addition of a new upper shell, new seats, and an additional concourse. The field itself was also altered dramatically (with other field dimension changes made throughout the 1980s). The Yankees final game here was played on September 21, 2008, and by March of 2010, the entire stadium was demolished. Today the land once occupied by the iconic, original Yankee Stadium is a park complex called Heritage Field.

Aerial view looking north up Grand Concourse from about East 157th Street. Yankee Stadium in foreground

While New York does not have the real estate to devote to massive roadside attractions (think Palm Springs' dinosaurs, the Long Island's Big Duck, or a picnic basket-shaped building), it does have the perfect architectural feature for displaying weird and quirky attractions and advertisements: ROOFS. For more than a century New York building owner have looked up to their highest points as not just unusable real estate, but as the perfect location for signage, fabulous rooftop gardens, theatres, and the occasional giant jug of milk!

From the House that Ruth built to the Shot Heard ‘Round the World, New York has been home to baseball history for more than 170 years. Here are the places, some long-gone, where it happened.

FDNY Engine 68, Mack truck from 1978.

Yankee Stadium, date unknown.

Both the building at center (behind the trees) and the large boulder outcropping at right remain today. Just past the edge of the photograph on the right is where the new Yankee Stadium stands.