Grand Concourse (Bronx)
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Grand Concourse Historic District
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Art Deco apartment buildings along Grand Concourse.
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| Location | The Bronx, New York |
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| Coordinates | 40°49′50″N 73°55′15″W / 40.83056°N 73.92083°WCoordinates: 40°49′50″N 73°55′15″W / 40.83056°N 73.92083°W |
| Architect | Multiple |
| Architectural style | Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals, Art Deco, Other |
| NRHP Reference # | 87001388 |
| Added to NRHP | August 24, 1987 |
The Grand Concourse (originally known as the Grand Boulevard and Concourse) is a major thoroughfare in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. It was designed by Louis Aloys Risse, an Alsatian immigrant who had previously worked for the New York Central Railroad and was later appointed chief topographical engineer for the New York City government.
Some of the neighborhoods that Grand Concourse runs through include Claremont, Concourse, Fordham, Mott Haven, Mount Eden, Mount Hope, and Tremont.
Risse first conceived of the road in 1890, as a means of connecting the borough of Manhattan to the northern Bronx. Construction began on the Grand Concourse in 1894 and it was opened to traffic in November 1909. Built during the height of the City Beautiful movement, it was modeled on the Champs-Élysées in Paris but is considerably larger, stretching four miles (6 km) in length, measuring 180 feet (55 m) across, and separated into three roadways by tree-lined dividers, so some minor streets did not cross the Concourse. The cost of the project was $14 million (worth $403,032,000 today). The road originally stretched from the Bronx Borough Hall at 161st Street north to Van Cortlandt Park, although it was expanded southward to 138th street in 1927 after Mott Avenue was widened to accommodate the boulevard.
The IRT Jerome Avenue Line of the New York City Subway opened a few blocks west of the Grand Concourse in 1917, initiating a housing boom amongst upwardly mobile, predominantly Jewish and Italian, families who were fleeing the crowded tenements of Manhattan. In 1923, Yankee Stadium opened near the Grand Concourse at 161st Street, down the hill from the Concourse Plaza Hotel. South of Fordham Road, the palatial Loew's Paradise theater, one of the Loew's Wonder Theatres and at one time the largest movie theater in New York City, was constructed in 1929.
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