The Laying Out Of Pelham Avenue in 1869

Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site
Located at http://www.historicpelham.com/.
Please Click Here for Index to All Blog Postings.

During the late 1860s, efforts were underway to shorten the distance to travel between Fordham and City Island.  One of those efforts involved the development of the roadway we know now as Pelham Avenue.  Commissioners were appointed to lay out the roadway.  Additional Commissioners of Estimate and Assessment were appointed to arrange rights of way, surveys and working the road.  Additionally, arrangements were made a short time later to open and grade the Eastern Boulevard from Pelham Bridge to the junction of Southern Boulevard and Leggett's Lane.  Slowly, roadways to shorten the distance to Pelham were being built.  Brief articles concerning these matter appeared in The New York Times.  The text of a few such articles appears below, each followed by a citation to its source.

"Westchester County.

Pelham-avenue, now being laid out, and opened from Pelham bridge to the railroad depot at Fordham, will be 100 feet wide, and the Commissioners have decided to lay out a sidewalk on each side twenty feet wide; and also contemplate obtaining authority to plant shade trees along the centre of each sidewalk, and form a sloping lawn on the sidewalk between the shade trees and the gutter or edge of the carriage road.  The distance between Fordham and Pelham bridge by the present circuitous route is about seven miles, while by the new avenue, it will be less than three miles, and will also open a new, and much shorter route to City Island."

Source:  Westchester County, N.Y. Times, Jun. 23, 1869, p. 2.

"More Westchester Avenues.

The Commissioners appointed to lay out, open and grade a new boulevard between Fordham and Pelham Bridge, also the Commissioners of Estimate and Assessment in the matter, met on Tuesday last, inspected the proposed route and approved of the same.  Although the length of the new avenue will be only about five miles, it will render accessible 5,000 acres of land which is at present completely isolated.  The new boulevard is expected to add much to the wealth of the towns through which it will pass.  The Commissioners are authorized to expend $20,000 per mile for right of way, surveys and working the road, but as it will cross a long marsh, it is thought that $40,000 per mile will be required for the construction of a substantial and smooth road."

Source:  More Westchester Avenues, N.Y. Times, Sep. 2, 1869, p. 8.

"WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

The contract for opening and grading the Eastern Boulevard from Pelham Bridge to the junction of the Southern Boulevard and Leggett's-lane, a distance of about five miles, has been awarded to Messrs. M. & T. DUNN, who are to complete the work by the 1st day of May, 1871.  It is estimated that it will cost $20,000, which will make the cost of the entire improvement $100,000."

Source:  Westchester County, N.Y. Times, May 8, 1870, p. 8.

Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site
Located at http://www.historicpelham.com/.
Please Click Here for Index to All Blog Postings.

Plans to Widen Shore Road in the Town of Pelham in 1869

Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site
Located at http://www.historicpelham.com/.
Please Click Here for Index to All Blog Postings.

The post-Civil War boom brought development pressures to the sleepy Town of Pelham. Shortly before the railroad branch line was opened through the area that became the Village of Pelham Manor, there was an effort to improve the roads that led through the area. One such road was today's Shore Road, also known as Pelham Road. An article appeared in the May 8, 1869 issue of the New York Herald describing plans to improve and widen that road. The text of the article appears immediately below.

"THE EASTERN BOULEVARD.

-----

The people on the Sound and shore from Pelham ot [sic] Morrisania are perfectly jubilant over the idea of having their long neglected district opened by means of one of the most magnificent boulevards in Westchester county. The line of the road is to commence at Pelham bridge, following and widening the old Pelham road as far as the residence of John Hunter; thence in a southerly direction through the lands of John Farnham and John Van Antwerp to the Arnow homestead on Willow lane; by and along Willow lane, following the same and widening it to 100 feet, its entire length to Schuylerville, at McGroey's Hotel, on the Fort Schuyler road, then crossing the same and running in a direct line to the southerly side of the Oakland (Ferris') Nursery, on Westchester creek. A drawbridge one hundred feet wide is to be built here to cross into Unionport, following Sixth street and widening the same; thence through Unionport and the lands of Francis Larken, Bradish Johnson and R. H. Ludlow, to the southern boulevard at Morrisania, thus making a splendid drive, on a road one hundred feet wide, direct from the new Harlem bridge. The act passed the Legislature on Thursday, and by the terms of the bill the work is to commence immediately. The commissioners, Abraham Hatfield, Thos. Jay Byrne, Wm. Watson, George Cooper and Hugh Lunny, have called a meeting to be held at the office of Judge Byrnes, in Westchester, on Thrusday next, the 13th inst., to organize and appoint officers and take action at once in furthering the work to completion. The road is to cost $20,000 per mile; and the commissioners are authorized to raise the amount by issuing bonds of the town, payable in equal portions yearly for twenty years. The work will be finished by the 1st of September next, when a perfect 'belt boulevard' of Westchester county will be completed - i.e., this boulevard through Unionport connects with the Southern Boulevard at Morrisania, the Southern Boulevard with the Great Central Boulevard at Fordham, it, in turn, running to Yonkers and White Plains.

The rise in value of property already is fabulous on the entire line of the road both at Throg's Neck and Unionport, the demand for lots at the latter place being almoust incredulous. Two hundred per cent would be a low estimate of the advance in real estate since the news first came of the passage of the bill. Taken in connection with this that the Portchester and Second Avenue Railroad bill, passed a day or two since, received the Governor's signature and became a law, it is not difficult to estimate the sudden importance of landowners or the elation of the masses. In order to display action in the latter matter the directors have called a meeting for Wednesday next, with a view to not only break ground but to put six squads of laborers to work at once, for they declare it to be their determination to have the cars running through Unionport to New York six months from th first day of June.

And now that facilities for travel to and from the city have at last been opened the people may speedily expect to see Westchester, long noted for its beauty picturesqueness and salubriousness of climate, become one of the most famous and fashionable summer resorts in the State. Persons doing business 'in the city' have long felt the need of and desired just such a romantic spot as this, where they can remove their families during the hot summer months and enjoy with them the soft balmy air, good bathing, &c., without the fear of fever and ague, or incurring the mosquito plague."

Source: The Eastern Boulevard, N.Y. Herald, May 8, 1869, p. 10, col. 2.

Please Visit the Historic Pelham Web Site
Located at http://www.historicpelham.com/.
Please Click Here for Index to All Blog Postings.