Cabrini Boulevard spans the Manhattan neighborhood of Hudson Heights, running from West 177th Street in the south, near the George Washington Bridge, to Fort Tryon Park in the north, along an escarpment of Manhattan schist overlooking the Henry Hudson Parkway and the Hudson River. It is the westernmost city street in the neighborhood except for a one block loop formed by Chittenden Avenue and West 187th Street.
Cabrini Boulevard was originally named Northern Avenue. It was renamed for Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first American canonized as a Roman Catholic saint, in 1938, the year of her beatification. (She was canonized in 1946.) Her remains are enshrined at the St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine, at 701 Fort Washington Avenue, just east of Cabrini Boulevard.
Cabrini Boulevard is the site of two historic affordable housing developments in New York City, both by real estate developer Charles Paterno.Hudson View Gardens, started in 1923 is one of the oldest housing cooperatives in the United States. The architectural plan of Castle Village was copied in most of New York City's post-war social housing.