H.B. Claflin estate gatekeeper's house, 1923. Horace B. Clafin was a dry goods merchant who rose to prominence as the foremost wholesale merchant in the city in the early and middle 19th century. In the 1860s he began assembling a large estate in the then-rural countryside of the Bronx. The estate grew to more than 100 acres and eventually included three large mansions and a number of outbuildings (like this gatekeeper's lodge). The H.B. Claflin & Company became insolvent in 1914 and in 1919 the estate was divided and put up for sale (a section of the property had been earlier been sold to the city for the construction of the Jerome Park Reservoir). The property included about 300 lots which, while originally rural countryside, were by 1919 conveniently located near considerable mass transit infrastructure. Today the streetscape is densely populated with apartment houses and private residences.

University Avenue, west side, south from Fordham Road, ca 1913. In the late 1920s this streetscape would be replaced with St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church (near the corner) and brick apartment houses further south on the block.

Wagner Building, 1937. Constructed in 1937 for the businessman Constantin Wagner, Jr., the Art Deco structure epitomizes the streamlined look and decorative elements (here glazed terra cotta) of the style popular along the Grand Concourse. Early advertising for the building notes its advantageous location on commercial streets, near to public transit, as a well as new population centers (housed in the rising Deco apartment houses on the Concourse) and other shopping and entertainment. The building's Art Deco features remain today, though they have been largely obscured by massive chain store signage, in this case, the huge red and white sign for the stationary store, Staples.

William G. Schrafft was a Boston chocolate and candy maker whose confections were sold in stores owned by a businessman named Frank G. Shattuck. The original candy stores opened in 1898, and by 1909 the shops were selling lunch in addition to sweets. The first two Schrafft stores in New York were in Manhattan, but by 1930 more than 25 stores were open in the New York area. These luncheonettes catered to a largely female clientele, with a largely female front and back of house staff. A descendant of the original owner once said of the patrons, “Everyone wore hats and handmade suits. And if you were a lady, it was safe to sit at the soda fountain and drink gin from a teacup.”

St. Nicholas of Tolentine Church, 1937. The Roman Catholic parish of St. Nicholas of Tolentine was founded by Augustinian friars in 1906. After years of worship in smaller structures, work on the current Collegiate Gothic church, designed by Delaney, O'Connor & Schultz, began in 1927. The so-called “lower church” was completed in 1928, but work continued on the upper section of the building into the 1950s. The completed church was consecrated in 1957.

Fordham Manor Dutch Reformed Church, February 1940. The congregation of the Fordham Manor Reformed Church celebrated its 300th anniversary in 1996. In 1696 founding members of the church were given a charter by the King of England to built a chapel. The original sanctuary was constructed in 1706 nearby at what is now Devoe Park on W. 190th St. and University Ave. The original structure was burned to the ground by British troops during the Revolutionary War. The church moved to this plot on Reservoir Ave. in 1800 and the building seen in this photograph (with the four-story wooden steeple) was constructed in the 1849 and was razed 1940 to make way for the current structure.

Entrance to the Dollar Savings Bank, 2530 Grand Concourse, ca. 1970. Constructed between 1932 ans 1933 in a classic Art Deco style, the Dime Savings Bank is one of a number of highly visible Deco buildings on the Grand Concourse. Deigned by Adolf Muller of Halsey, McCormack \&Helmer (well known as bank architects), the bank building continued to grow after its original construction. In the late 1930s the building was extended 100 feet along the Grand Concourse and in 1950 a new 50 foot extension of the facade accompanied the building of a 10-story office block and 50-foot tower. The tower included four clock faces, which could be seen from the distance. Today none of the clocks are active (they are all stopped at different times). The main bank building served as a bank (lastly Apple Bank) until 2014. The tower has been vacant since the early 2000s. In 2013 both the tower building and the bank were purchased and the new owners noted their interest in renovating and filling both spaces, as well as, perhaps restoring the clocks.

"Grand Concourse, west side, north from but not including E. 184th Street, showing W.P.A. men repaving the west lane of the thoroughfare. Shown, too, is Loew's Paradise Theatre." The Loew's Paradise Theatre (seen the distance, flags flying in front) is one of five Loew's 'Wonder Theatres' opened in the New York City/New Jersey area in the 1929 and 1930. This large movie house, opened in September 1929, was designed by architect John Eberson in the Atmospheric style. In this type of design, particular to movie palaces, the construction and decoration of the interior gave the illusion of being in an outdoor setting, complete with celing paintings of the night sky. Both the exterior and interior of the theatre are landmarked and it is currently used as the home of the World Changers Church New York.