Parkchester South Condominium | Bronx, New York
by Hank de Cillia An earlier version of this article was published in 1999 in a book entitled “The Bronx: Lost, Found and Remembered”, written and edited by Stephen M. Samtur & Martin A. Jackson in association with Back in the Bronx Magazine. (Visitwww.backinthebronx.comfor a copy).
Catholic Protectory Airview'38 (Pre-Construction)
Parkchester Airview'41 (Completion)
2nd Grade Class at St. Raymond's
de Cillia Family ___ c. 1950
Flanagan Kids at Oval c. 1950
With Grandmother in Front of 1590 Metropolitan in 1944
Move-In c. 1941
Unpaved Ballfield c.1950
Summer Pageant in Ballfield c.1951
Chorale Group in Ballfield c.1951
Original Ballfield c.1942
Metropolitan Oval c. 1948
_____Dominic Cafaro c.1942____ |
PARKCHESTER…THE GRAND OLD NEIGHBORHOOD™
I'll never forget picking up the Sunday New York Times in 1980 and reading an article in the Real Estate section about Parkchester in the Bronx, New York. My wife Pat and I, both born and raised there, had been living in Massachusetts since the late sixties and lost contact with the place. The Times article began "Located on 129 acres in the southeast Bronx, Parkchester is---". I couldn't believe my eyes! Only 129 acres? In 1972, together with two other couples (also from Parkchester) we almost purchased a 135 acre parcel of land in western Massachusetts to build our homes 'collectively' (you remember those days, don't you?). It immediately dawned on me that just 3 families might have lived on a piece of property in Massachusetts that was larger than where more than 12,000 families lived in the Bronx! Parkchester. Yes, that's right. When construction was completed in 1941 by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company (Met Life), Parkchester had 12,273 apartments, making it the largest housing 'project' in the world at the time. Just as amazingly, about 50,000 people would come to live in those apartments, during its peak population period from the late 1940's to the early 1960's. You're probably assuming I hated it and will start comparing Parkchester to Calcutta, but quite the opposite is true. I loved every minute of that shoulder-to-shoulder living experience, and so did virtually every other Parkchester alum I've spoken to over the years since we left. Before telling my personal story, I need to acknowledge, however, that the planning, design and construction of Parkchester is probably a significant story unto itself. Some comments are warranted here. As a result of the 1929 Stock Market Crash, Met Life had experienced a substantial decrease in the value of its financial holdings and the company began to look for ways to make alternative investments. Before 1938, insurance companies were prevented by New York State law from investing insurance funds in housing projects, but Met Life began lobbying Sate officials to amend the law. At the same time, they started researching large tracts of land in New York City that might be purchased to build and manage a housing project. Of particular interest was a very large parcel in the southeast Bronx owned by the New York Catholic Protectory, which was a somewhat notorious home for young boys who were either orphans or juvenile delinquents. On February 17, 1938, the State law was amended and on April 7, Met Life announced it had acquired the Catholic Protectory property, "to build the largest integral housing project so far planned and built in the United States", according to Frederick H. Eckers, Chairman of the Board of the company. The press release went on to state, "the size of the project will permit the planning of a completely balanced community containing all facilities for family life." Just a few months later, Met Life broke ground on Parkchester. The project took over three years to complete and cost $50,000,000. It was managed by a "Board of Design", consisting of a group of mostly independent planners, architects, construction managers and landscape architects, and one owner's representative from the company. No expense was spared. For example, Parkchester's chosen architectural firm, Shreve Lamb and Harmon, had designed the Empire State Building and its landscape designers, Clark and Rapuano, had done the 1939 World's Fair! The most striking aspect of Parkchester's design, however, was its spatial layout. It contained only half the apartments that could have legally been built, in a random pattern rather than the typical New York City grid, and it set aside over half the total space for "social' uses (i.e. parks, playgrounds, walkways). Some urban planners have criticized this unique design because it also set Parkchester aside from the nearby neighborhoods---one and two family homes in the grid plan---but I believe the scale of the project in relation to those small homes surrounding it warranted the distinction, even from the point of view of the people who lived outside the project. The space layout was also controversial in accommodating automobiles because there were only two "thru" streets, Metropolitan Avenue and Unionport Road, and an Oval in the center of the project that had to be negotiated to drive through the Project. All other streets were actually dead end driveways for tenants. This design turned out to be inspired because even to this day, Parkchester is not dominated by automobile traffic and is very pedestrian friendly. The original Met Life press release concluded, "This is an undertaking of unusual character with respect to community planning in its relation to health, social amenities and family life. The development of its many features by the specialists constituting this Board of Design will be watched with keen interest by everyone acquainted with what has been done both here and abroad. While carefully studied and determined to be a sound investment for company funds, it may well be characterized as a contribution in the public interest." Lofty goals, to be sure, especially at a time when the Great Depression was still consuming the Nation's attention. In examining the backgrounds of the seven member Board of Design (established to operate independently of Met Life management), three people should be credited with a primary role in Parkchester's social development---architect Richmond H. Shreve who headed the Board of Design and conceived the basic standardized building designs that were economical to construct, landscape designer Gilmore D. Clarke who probably was the key influence on the overall project layout as well as its landscaping, and George Gove who represented Met Life, was a former secretary of the New York State Board of Housing and likely contributed the ideas as to the desired tenant make-up. Also, in spite of his commonly held beliefs about racial separation, Met Life Chairman Frederick H. Ecker is acknowledged as providing the initial vision for this project. According to a major article in The Architectural Forum of December 1939, "Parkchester had to fit into Met Life's Master Plan for better U.S. living conditions---the largest, healthiest quarters that could be provided at the comparatively lowest rent scale. A necessary corollary to these indoor aids to living was the requirement that ample outdoor recreational facilities be provided." The Forum article went on to say, "Parkchester's architecture is a simple, frank expression of plan. Ornamentation---what there is of it----consists mainly of playful statues (500 accordion players, skiers, girls with umbrellas, etc.) above entrances. Most of it is terra cotta, most of it in several colors. For general effect, the project relies solely on the relation of one building to another. And since the eye can take in only one small part of Parkchester at one glance, the uniformity of its buildings is not as overbearing as might be expected. The project is endless repetition in fact, but much less so in effect." Besides the building ornamentation, Parkchester's sculptural centerpiece was the statuary in the Oval, conceived by Raymond Barger and called "Fantasia". Barger's inspiration for the playful water figures came from his childhood memories of growing up on the Potomac in Maryland. I called Parkchester home from my birth in January 1944 until October 1966 when Pat and I got married in St. Raymond's Church and immediately moved to Tuckahoe in Westchester County. Actually, we didn't get to Parkchester until we were one week old, since we were born two days apart in nearby Westchester Square Hospital. My parents, Kay and Harry de Cillia, moved to Parkchester in 1941 from Isham Street in the Inwood section of northern Manhattan. My mother was then a clerk at the Met Life headquarters in Manhattan, which apparently helped them get in. I'm told it was very difficult to get accepted for Parkchester; you had to fill out long applications and even provide photos! (Unfortunately, this latter requirement enabled Met Life to keep people of color out, a common housing practice at the time and the only blemish on Parkchester's record that I can remember.) Kay and Harry were overjoyed to get into Parkchester, but very anxious about their standing in the new community. For example, after my father died in 1974, my mother told me this story. At the time they moved in 1941, Harry was working in the South Bronx as a steel fabricator----not a white or even blue collar job. To get to work, he would walk from our apartment through the Oval to Hugh Grant Circle and take the IRT (now the '6') a few stops south. He was so concerned about fitting in that he bought two suits and a brief case just to go to work. Every day, he would put on a suit, put his lunch in the briefcase and set out for the subway station with the other 'executives' heading for work. Upon arriving at the metal fabricating shop in the South Bronx, he would change into his real work clothes. Mom told me he did this for over a year, until he realized they wouldn't get thrown out for him dressing inappropriately. No kidding. Parkchester was so large it took more than three years to complete. It was literally a "town within a city", as described in a New York Times Magazine feature article in 1941. In describing the place back then, author John Stanton noted, "Parkchester has a staff of 500 employees. In charge of them all is 'Mayor' Frank C. Lowe, lecturer on public housing management at New York University and formerly resident manager at the Hillside development in the Bronx. The staff includes gardeners to take care of the parks and recreation directors to coach the teams that flourish on its playfields…Parkchester has its own police department and a large staff of 'service men' to keep everything working." The project was divided into North, South, East and West 'Quadrants' which everyone mentioned to describe where they lived and played. There were several playgrounds in each quadrant (over 20 in all) with swings, monkey bars, tetherball and basketball courts, but the North Quadrant also had the enormous Ballfield, the focal point of project-wide youth activities. For example, the famous “Indian Pageant” was held there every year, when literally hundreds of kids would dress up as Native Americans and parade around. Every Parkchester playground had a Recreation Office in the nearest apartment building on the ground floor, where both male and female "Rec" Teachers supervised all activities. They organized and ran everything: chess & checker clubs, arts & crafts groups, ping pong tournaments, basketball leagues, softball games, etc. Most parents would let their kids (including even preschoolers!) go down to the playground after school, or for the whole day on weekends and in the summer, coming home only for lunch and dinner. It's interesting to note that although our activities were highly organized and supervised, we were actually independent of our parents. Besides the ballfield and the many playgrounds, we also had our own 2,000 seat movie theatre, the Loews American, inside Parkchester, and three others on the perimeter---the Palace on Unionport Road, the Circle on Hugh Grant Circle and the RKO on Castle Hill Avenue. There was so much to do that most kids don't remember ever getting much beyond Parkchester until they went to High School! Parkchester had its own stores of all types, drug stores, deli's, newspaper or stationery stores, supermarkets and even three bars, the Manor House, the Park House and the Chester House. The biggest store was Macys, where my mother worked in toys, records and sporting goods for 15 years after she left Met Life. My collection of 45's was the envy of all my friends, and whenever I wanted some game or sporting item, my mother would have it "put in the window" and then buy it at a marked down price as a display item the next day. Some of the other well known retail stores in Parkchester when it first opened included Cushman's bakery, Thom McAn shoes, St. Clair's restaurant, Cornell clothing (possibly named after Cornell University where several of Parkchester's architects attended school), Horn and Hardardt's Automat, Lerner's women's clothing, Womrath's books and greeting cards, Safeway and Gristede's supermarkets, several Parkchester News stores that also sold candy, a few Laundrette's (because washing machines were not permitted in apartments), Loft's Candies and Plymouth women's clothing. I was raised as a Catholic and went to one of the two Catholic Grammer Schools in Parkchester, Saint Raymond's, on the northeast corner. The other was Saint Helena's, on the southwest corner. Most Catholic kids went to either of these schools, while the Protestant and Jewish kids went to one of the Public Grammar Schools...PS102, or PS106. Pat and I were in the second and third grade together at St. Raymond's (after that, boys and girls were placed in separate classes right through eighth grade. Guess why?). We still have our 2nd grade class picture (below) with our teacher, Sister Liguori, and 53 kids! There were six classes in each grade and we weren't even baby boomers---we were war babies, born during World War II. I'm sure St. Helena's and the Public Schools were just as packed, too. Here's a unique Parkchester Christmas story. On the Northern boundary of the project, along East Tremont Avenue, ran the train tracks. It was some kind of depot area, and there must have been eight sets of tracks running side-by-side. Every year, in early December, an entire train with 40-50 cars would pull up to the tracks closest to East Tremont Avenue, completely filled with Christmas trees! I'm told over 8,000 trees were on board. They would open the car doors and sell trees right on the tracks for the next three weeks to all the Parkchester families, who would walk them home to their apartments. It was a major production for everyone in the family to be involved in picking out their tree. After Christmas, the trees would be placed in huge piles on the island along the centers of Metropolitan Avenue and Unionport Road, to be picked up by the 'garbage men'. We sure had a great time building tree forts before they arrived. Parkchester consisted almost exclusively of 8 story buildings with one elevator and 13 story buildings with two. (Note to former residents: yes, the "top" floors on the elevators said 7 and 12 respectively, but the first floor was actually Main.) Most apartments had one, two or three bedrooms, but just one bathroom regardless of size. My family lived in a two bedroom unit---Apartment 3G at 1590 Metropolitan Avenue in the East Quadrant---Mom and Dad, my sister Cathy, my grandmother (Nanny) and me. Mom and Dad slept in the living room on a fold out bed, Cathy and Nanny shared one bedroom, and the prince had his own bedroom! I can guarantee you my childhood personality development was positively affected by this fortunate occurrence In grammar school, all my friends lived in my building ("building buddies") and we played right outside on the front stoop, or in the nearby East Playground. On cold or rainy days, the elevator and staircases in our building were perfect for hide and seek. We learned how to stop the elevator between floors during our games, which really endeared us to the grown-ups on their way home from a hard day's work. The staircases were also ideal for playing cards later as teenagers, also on bad weather days; in our case, however, we played bridge for money because poker was too boring. It was a strange sight, indeed, to see this bridge club smoking cigarettes and playing cards in the staircase. As a teenager, it was very important where you "hung out" in Parkchester, and what "crowd" you were in. During high school, I hung out in the North and had over 90 kids in my crowd, all within two years of each other in age. We had only one kid who was a year younger than the rest, and he was called the rookie. The sheer volume of kids and closeness in age is amazing in retrospect, but quite normal to me at the time. Luckily, most of us got involved in sports, mainly basketball for the boys in my crowd. I still tell people that basketball saved me from a life of crime. Each playground basketball court was held by the best players at the time---survival of the fittest. I still remember the day my crowd beat the older guys and we took over the court. They never came back. We mostly played three-on-three half court, because twelve guys could play at the same time on a full court instead of ten. If you won you stayed on the court---with the right team you could play all day. So many other memories come to mind about growing up in Parkchester. Bob Dylan once described his lyrics as "chains of flashing images". Here are some of my images as a kid that former Parkchesterites might recall... ...watching the retired men play shuffleboard near the Purdy Street playground... Parkchester was a monumental social experiment...and it worked. Virtually all of the middle class families that moved there between 1940 and 1965 bettered themselves, as a result of living in that unique place. Although I have lost contact, I've heard it continues to work for the families living there today; ironically now, mostly people of color. I'm aware that some social scientists have derided the "controlled social environment" of Parkchester that was created by Met Life and I might have shared that viewpoint if I hadn't lived there. I certainly went on to protest against much of the conformity and convention of the times, starting in the late sixties, but I don't feel that way about growing up in Parkchester, even in retrospect. As a member of the first generation of children born and raised in Parkchester, I cannot conceive of a more ideal environment in which to have grown up. Having said this, I can't explain why all of us desperately wanted to move out the moment after we got a job, got married, or both. I'd like to think it's because living there gave us a glimpse of how much more we could achieve, but I'm not sure. Later, Pat and I raised our daughter Amy in a private home in a small Massachusetts town with a great school system, but we often wish she had the same experience as we did growing up in a wonderful place like Parkchester. Because the entire project was built at the same time by a single developer, it didn't have the unique ethnic qualities found in other smaller Bronx neighborhoods that evolved independently. But Parkchester may have achieved something greater, as a true melting pot, at least for the people of various ethnic and religious backgrounds that did live there together. They say you can't go back, but we certainly took something enormously valuable from that life experience worth revisiting. However, the nagging question I have had is, "Could a Parkchester ever happen again?" Well, I recently came to realize that the answer may be “It already has!” The Parkchester that I lived in until the late 60’s was owned by Met Life and then sold to a another developer. During the next two decades or so, it was not well cared for, but then Parkchester was bought by the current owners who have invested heavily in improving the place. They even reinstituted the Recreation Department under the direction of Steve Huston who has expanded the services provide to residents, adults and children alike. It is very gratifying to me that the current residents may be enjoying many of the amenities that I had as a kid and I hope to find out much more about how Parkchester is today.
|
