Fordham Plaza, Bronx
Fordham Plaza | |
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B-L60, B-L61, B-L62 |
Fordham Plaza, originally known as Fordham Square,[1][2] is a major commercial and transportation hub in the Fordham and Belmont sections of the Bronx in New York City, New York, United States. It is located on the south side of Fordham Road at Third and Webster Avenues, at the eastern end of the commercial strip along Fordham Road ("Fordham Center") that runs past Grand Concourse and Jerome Avenue to about Grand Avenue, and to the west of the Bronx's Little Italy district on Arthur Avenue in Belmont.
The plaza is located across from
Location
The name "Fordham Plaza" refers to a two-block-long area on the south side of Fordham Road between Webster Avenue to the west and Washington Avenue to the east. The area is bounded to the south by East 189th Street. Third Avenue runs up the middle of the area to Fordham Road; Park Avenue formerly ran north through the plaza as well, but currently ends at 189th Street.[4][5][6]
Fordham Place and One Fordham Plaza
There are two primary structures on the site. On the southeast corner of Fordham Road and Webster Avenue is Fordham Place (400 East Fordham Road), a brick structure occupying half of the western block. Existing since the 1910s,[7] it is owned by Retail Properties of America, Inc., and consists of a 7-story building and an adjacent 14-story building with mixed retail and office use.[8][9] Several stores occupy the complex,[5] including a Best Buy location and, until 2014, a Sears location (leading to the nickname of the "Sears Building"),[3][10] which has since been leased by Macy's.[11] It was previously known as the Roger's Building,[12] for the Rogers and Sons Department Store that preceded Sears.[8][10][9]
The second building is One Fordham Plaza (also stylized as 1 Fordham Plaza),
Bus terminal
In between the two buildings is the
The market area, concession stands, and the remainder of Park Avenue in the Plaza (used only for bus turnarounds and layovers, as well as local deliveries to Fordham Place) were demolished as part of the "Fordham Plaza Reconstruction Project" from 2013
Fordham University
Located across from the plaza to the north is Fordham University's Rose Hill campus and its associated William D. Walsh Family Library and Fordham Preparatory School. Across Washington Avenue to the east is Theodore Roosevelt Educational Campus (formerly Theodore Roosevelt High School). The Bronx Library Center of the New York Public Library is located nearby at Kingsbridge Road. The plaza is located near several attractions of Bronx Park, including the New York Botanical Garden and the Bronx Zoo.[4][23] Fordham Plaza is part of the Fordham Road Business Improvement District,[21][23][28] which extends west to around Jerome Avenue past Grand Concourse and includes much of the "Fordham Center" commercial district.[6][29]
History
Previous development
In the 1840s, what is now the intersection of Fordham Road and Webster Avenue was a rural junction in the town of West Farms, characterized by farmland and cottages with a few small businesses.[30] At the site of Fordham Plaza at Washington Avenue was the Powell Farm House, the oldest residence in the neighborhood which was built at the turn of the 19th Century as part of the Union Hill Farm. A boarding school was also present on the farm grounds. Originally owned by the Bayard family, it came under the control of Rev. William Powell in 1830.[1][2][31][32] Powell, who started the boarding school, was the founder of the St. Peter's Church, Chapel and Cemetery Complex in then-Westchester County (now Westchester Square, Bronx).[31][32][33] At the northwest corner of the Fordham Road-Webster Avenue intersection was Nolan's Hotel, said to have been visited by George Washington, and frequented by local Fordham resident Edgar Allan Poe.[1][2][34]
Major development in the area began with the opening of St. John's College (now Fordham University) in 1841.
Creation and early years
Plans to create Fordham Plaza as a park or development were proposed around 1911. At the time, much of the property in the area was owned by the New York Edison Company (now Con Edison).[43] A political headquarters for the Tammany Hall political party, the North End Democratic Club, was also located in the area.[30][44] The area was known as Fordham Square,[1][2][42] which was also the name of the park at the northeast corner of Fordham Road and Webster Avenue (today's Rose Hill Park).[45]
In 1912, the city municipal engineers released plans to construct a plaza between Third and Park Avenues south of Fordham Road. This would involve removing the wooden bridge at Fordham Road across the railroad tracks, and covering the then-
The plaza was built in the 1920s in conjunction with the reconstruction of the railroad station, which was completed by 1926.[52][53][54] A 1938 map shows the name "Fordham Plaza" identifying the current plaza area above the Metro-North tracks.[24] In 1943, the area was rezoned from a business district to a retail district in an effort to make it the "Times Square of the Bronx".[55]
In the 1940s and again in the 1960s, the United States Postal Service (USPS) sought land for a new post office site to serve as the central facility for the Bronx, replacing the Bronx Central Annex on 149th Street.[13][56][57] In 1964, the building site (now planned as a Federal Building and post office) was placed at Washington Avenue and Fordham Road, with a final design plan created in 1967. It was to be named after Bronx House of Representatives member Charles A. Buckley, who oversaw the project, following Buckley's death in 1967.[13][56][58][59] The project ultimately fell through due to federal opposition from the administration of President Richard Nixon, in part due to the plan to name the site after Buckley.[13][60][61]
Redevelopment efforts
In 1973, the Fordham Road – 190th Street elevated station was closed along with the rest of the Third Avenue El,[62][63] in part to encourage development in areas such as Fordham Plaza and The Hub.[64][65] The elevated structure was removed by 1977.[66] Also in 1973, a shopping complex (called Fordham Plaza Development or Fordham Road Plaza Development) was planned for construction on the undeveloped Postal Service site, anchored by the E. J. Korvette department store. The 10-story site would have contained office space for Con Edison and extended south to 188th Street, with 189th Street to be demapped. The project would also include a parking garage, a car dealership, and a scaled-down version of the planned central post office.[65][67]
The project had been proposed in part to stave off blight and economic downturn in the area due to the
Later redevelopment
In 1981, the Sears location on Webster Avenue opened within the former space of the Rogers Department Store branch.[8][9][10] In October 1984, a groundbreaking ceremony was held for One Fordham Plaza, the successor to the mall project of the 1970s and the first new office complex in the borough in over 25 years. The Skidmore, Owings & Merrill-designed structure was built on the 5.5-acre (2.2 ha) former Postal Service property that had been a vacant urban-renewal site for over a decade prior; the USPS was paid $1.4 million in 1983 to give up the plot and move to a smaller site one block south on East 188th Street,[71][60][14] which is now the Fordham Post Office.[4] The structure was complete by 1985,[72] and it opened in August 1986 at the cost of about $65 million.[32][73][74] Upon opening, it was predominantly leased by city and state agencies, while much of the retail space was vacant.[15][16][14][75] The building was over 95 percent occupied by 1991.[76]
Prior to the 1990s, what is now the Fordham Plaza Bus Terminal was a peddler's market, metered parking lot, and bus layover area. In the 1980s, it was proposed to redevelop the site into a bus terminal and public space. Construction began in 1995, paving the plaza with cobblestone and adding the bus shelters and obelisk sculptures.[24][22][77] It was officially opened on August 28, 1997.[78]
In 2004, the Sears Building was purchased by the Acadia Realty Trust and P/A Associates.[8] A year later, an expansion project was announced.[79] On March 29, 2007, groundbreaking began on the expansion of the complex, renamed Fordham Place, which would build a new 14-story mixed use structure on two parking lots adjacent to the Sears building. It was the first mixed-use development in the borough since the opening of One Fordham Plaza.[8][80] The Sears store closed that year due to the project. The new Fordham Place, however, brought several new outlets, including the borough's first Best Buy location, a Walgreens pharmacy, and a new smaller Sears store.[8][81] The enlarged complex opened in February 2009.[82][83]
Mayor
Transportation
Twelve
The plaza is located directly above the Metro-North's Fordham station, one of the busiest in that system. The main entrance and ticket office is located across Fordham Road, while a secondary entrance (consisting of two stairways to the respective northbound and southbound platforms) is located at the north end of the plaza bus loop.[4][87][89][90]
With the closure of the Third Avenue El in 1973,
See also
- The Hub, Bronx, another major shopping and transportation hub on Third Avenue and 149th Street in the South Bronx.
- Norwood News, local newspaper.
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External links
- Media related to Fordham Plaza, Bronx at Wikimedia Commons