Edgewater Park is a small waterside co-op community of 675 single-family homes in the

Throggs Neck Throggs Neck (also known as Throgs Neck) is a neighborhood and peninsula in the south-eastern portion of the borough of the Bronx in New York City. It is bounded by the East River and Long Island Sound to the south and east, Westchester Creek on ...

section of the

Bronx The Bronx () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the state of New York. It is south of Westchester County; north and east of the New York City borough of Manhattan, across the Harlem River; and north of the New Y ...

, north of the Cross Bronx Expressway (

I-95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from US Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the Canadia ...

) near the

Throgs Neck Bridge The Throgs Neck Bridge is a suspension bridge in New York City, carrying six lanes of Interstate 295 (I-295) over the East River where it meets the Long Island Sound. The bridge connects the Throggs Neck section of the Bronx with the Bay Ter ...

. Its beaches overlook Long Island Sound. Its sister communities are Silver Beach, south of the Cross Bronx Expressway, as well as Harding Park.

History

Edgewater Park once housed a mansion built by George T. Adee in 1856. Eventually, in 1923, he leased the land to Richard W. Shaw Sr. an Irish immigrant who was a member of St. Ann's Episcopal Church in

Morrisania Morrisania ( ) is a residential neighborhood in the southwestern Bronx, New York City, New York. Its boundaries are the Cross-Bronx Expressway to the north, Crotona-Prospect Avenue to the east, East 161st Street to the south, and Webster Avenue ...

and invited church youth to camp on the grounds which became known as Edgewater Camp. Campsites eventually developed into

bungalows A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is either single-story or has a second story built into a sloping roof (usually with dormer windows), and may be surrounded by wide verandas. The first house in England that was classified as a b ...

and by around 1918 a full-fledged bungalow had developed along the coast areas while other sections remained farmland and grazing land. Ruts from early auto traffic became roads. After

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

the community was divided into sections A, B, C, after the names of Army camps; D and E Sections were added later. In 1954 Shaw died. By this time, Edgewater Camp had become a community of full-time residents and became known as "Park of Edgewater" or "Edgewater Park." The community became a

co-op A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-control ...

in 1988.

Culture

The Edgewater Park Volunteer Fire Department holds an annual Memorial Day Parade. The community celebrates a

Ragamuffin parade A Ragamuffin parade is an annual occurrence in communities in the New York metropolitan area. The parades feature children in their Halloween costumes, and typically are held in October or on Halloween. The holiday formed around 1870, a few years ...

to kick off the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Its “Labor Day Olympics” has a 100-year tradition.

Controversies

In 2010 the Edgewater Park Owners Cooperative, Silver Beach, and a local real estate broker were sued by Fair Housing Justice Center for racial discrimination in its buying and selling practices. According to the suit, the policy requiring prospective buyers to gain the endorsement of three existing co-op owners served to block African Americans from access to the communities, a charge community residents denied. In 2013 a settlement was reached that ended discriminatory buying and selling practices at Edgewater Park. Approximately 40% of Edgewater Park homes are located in the “1% annual chance floodplain” and this is expected to increase to 75% by the 2050s with global warming.http://www1.nyc.gov/assets/planning/download/pdf/plans-studies/resilient-neighborhoods/edgewater-park/summary-report-edgewater-park.pdf?r=1 Edgewater Park has been designated as one of New York City's “Resiliency Neighborhoods,” a group of communities that have experienced or are at risk of facing flooding.

References

{{Bronx Neighborhoods in the Bronx Condominiums and housing cooperatives in the Bronx Throggs Neck, Bronx