Montefiore Home, ca. 1910. Montefiore Home for Chronic Invalids was established in 1884 as a 25-bed facility on 84th Street and York Avenue. Named for a British Jewish philanthropist, the facility was moved to a larger building in 1888 on 138th Street, before finally settling in a new structure here at Gun Hill Road in the Bronx in 1912. The move to the more rural Bronx allowed for more outdoor space for the tubercular patients. In the early 20th century the hospital became the largest privately supported hospital for the chronically ill in the world. In the second half of the 20th century the hospital grew beyond caring only for the elderly and chronically ill, becoming a major medical center, that by the 1980s trained more physicians than any other American facility. The original building was demolished in the mid 1980s for a new eight-story structure.

During the 1910s, Joseph P. Day was a real-estate developer on the rise. He'd earned a formidable reputation by the age of 21 after auctioning off large swaths of land in Brooklyn and Queens. Day set his eyes on the Bronx as the next up-and-coming portion of the city. He commissioned photographer William D. Hassler to capture areas of undeveloped land—in effect creating a survey of a quickly growing city. Over two days in 1914, Day sold over four hundred lots of undeveloped land.

During the 1910s, Joseph P. Day was a real-estate developer on the rise. He'd earned a formidable reputation by the age of 21 after auctioning off large swaths of land in Brooklyn and Queens. Day set his eyes on the Bronx as the next up-and-coming portion of the city. He commissioned photographer William D. Hassler to capture areas of undeveloped land—in effect creating a survey of a quickly growing city. Over two days in 1914, Day sold over four hundred lots of undeveloped land. For 50 years, Joseph P. Day sold what amounted to one-third of the Bronx and one-third of Queens, in addition to portions of Brooklyn, Westchester County, and North New Jersey. He was a driving force in the real estate market. After auctioning off the land on Manhattan Beach, Day looked to the Bronx for new development. This circus tent was set up for one of his Bronx auctions. The auction's purpose was for the sale of the Pearsall Estate in the present-day Morris Park neighborhood. Before the sale, it had been divided into lots and given street names. On May 31 and June 1, 1914, Day sold 420 lots of undeveloped land in this area. He didn't stop there: in 1921, Day sold 1,500 homes in the Morris Park area in just 12 hours.

Woodlawn Heights is located in the northernmost section of The Bronx, bounded by the City of Yonkers to the north, Woodlawn Cemetery to the south, the Bronx River to the east and Van Cortlandt Park to the west. The area, originally part of the town of Kingsbridge, was one of the first to be annexed to the City of New York in 1874, along with West Farms and Morrisania. Just as the rest of The Bronx, these towns had previously been part of Westchester County. The remainder of the borough was annexed in 1895-96, prior to the 1898 consolidation of the boroughs to form the City of New York. In the 18th century, the area was known as Washingtonville, named in honor of General George Washington, who constructed a redoubt and stored munitions during the Revolutionary War in the southeast corner of what is today Woodlawn Cemetery. By the early 20th century, perhaps due to the prominence of Woodlawn Cemetery (established in 1863), area residents began calling the neighborhood Woodlawn Heights or simply Woodlawn. The area remains anchored, both in name and geography, by Woodlawn Cemetery, which is well known for its beautiful landscapes and some of the finest mausoleums in the country. For most of the 19th century, the area was largely rural, dotted with farms and woodlots. As is the case for most neighborhoods in the five boroughs, development was spurred on by the availability of transportation. The New York and Harlem Railroad (now Metro-North’s Harlem line) played a vital role in the development of Woodlawn Heights. The first section in lower Manhattan was constructed in 1832, and by 1841 this street railway had reached The Bronx. Although it was one of the first railroads in the United States, it was not very popular in its early days. Cornelius Vanderbilt acquired the Railroad in 1864 and merged it with the Hudson River Railroad five years later (this was a precursor to what became the New York Central Railroad). Even though ridership was still low, the presence of this rail line was very appealing to the founders of Woodlawn Cemetery, and, indeed, was a major factor in selecting a site for the cemetery (the railroad runs adjacent to the cemetery’s eastern edge). In 1891, Manhattan’s Third Avenue El extended to The Bronx, and in 1914-17, the IRT subway reached this area with a network of elevated lines that not only connected The Bronx to the rest of the city, but connected Woodlawn Heights to other parts of the borough. Of all these transit improvements, the extension of the subway to this part of the city had the greatest impact, transforming it into a low-density, suburban enclave. Much of the neighborhood was constructed around this time or just after. Early residents of Woodlawn were primarily German, Italian and Irish, and were members of the working class. Today, the neighborhood’s largely middle-class population of about 8,000 includes a significant portion that are of Irish descent, including more recent Irish immigrants. In fact, Woodlawn is affectionately known as New York City’s “Little Ireland,” physical evidence of which is found in its many Irish pubs along Katonah Avenue, its commercial spine, architectural flourishes like green trim and shamrock details, and its robust annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade. This familyoriented neighborhood features a charming array of detached, one- and two-family houses, some apartment buildings and hilly streets. In May 2016, Woodlawn was downzoned to maintain orderly growth and to avoid out-of-character mid- to high-rise development, thus preserving its low-rise residential character.