Jerome Avenue is one of the longest thoroughfares in the

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

borough A borough is an administrative division in various English-speaking countries. In principle, the term ''borough'' designates a self-governing walled town, although in practice, official use of the term varies widely. History In the Middle Ag ...

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 ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. The road is long and stretches from

Concourse A concourse is a place where pathways or roads meet, such as in a hotel, a convention center, a railway station, an airport terminal, a hall, or other space. The term is not limited to places where there are literally pathways or roadways or t ...

to Woodlawn. Both of these termini are with the

Major Deegan Expressway Interstate 87 (I-87) is a north–south Interstate Highway located entirely within the US state of New York. It is most of the main highway between New York City and Montreal. The highway begins at exit 47 off I-278 in the New York ...

which runs parallel to the west. Most of the

elevated An elevated railway or elevated train (also known as an el train for short) is a rapid transit railway with the tracks above street level on a viaduct or other elevated structure (usually constructed from steel, cast iron, concrete, or bricks ...

IRT Jerome Avenue Line runs along Jerome Avenue. The

Cross Bronx Expressway The Cross Bronx Expressway is a major freeway in the New York City borough of the Bronx. It is mainly designated as part of Interstate 95 (I-95), but also includes portions of I-295 and U.S. Route 1 (US 1). The Cross Bronx begins ...

interchanges with Jerome and the Deegan. Though it runs through what is now the

West Bronx The West Bronx is a region in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The region lies west of the Bronx River and roughly corresponds to the western half of the borough. The West Bronx is more densely populated than the East Bronx, and is clo ...

neighborhood, Jerome Avenue is the dividing avenue between nominal and some named "West" and "East" streets in the Bronx;

Fifth Avenue Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping ...

, and to a lesser extent, Broadway, also splits Manhattan into nominal "West" and "East" streets.

Street description

The south end of Jerome Avenue is at exit 5 of the

. The road begins as a divided highway, intersecting with 161st Street, which goes east to

Yankee Stadium Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer. Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the orig ...

and the 161st Street–Yankee Stadium station of the IRT Jerome Avenue Line (served by the ). Jerome merges into the road to the Macombs Dam Bridge and heads north, paralleling

Macombs Dam Park Macombs Dam Park ( ) is a park in the Concourse section of the Bronx, New York City. The park lay in the shadow of the old Yankee Stadium when it stood, between Jerome Avenue and the Major Deegan Expressway, near the Harlem River and the Macom ...

. After some intersections with local roads, Jerome Avenue intersects with 167th Street which at the intersection which, west of there, is named Edward L. Grant Highway. Just east of the intersection is the 167th Street station, another station along the way. Several blocks north, 170th Street intersects, just before crossing the Edward L. Grant Highway. Mt. Eden Avenue intersects in Morris Heights and the

does soon after. North the intersection with Tremont Avenue, Burnside Avenue intersects as Jerome Avenue leaves Morris Heights. 183rd street is the next major intersection, in University Heights. Fordham Road, both East and West intersect in University Heights. Saint James Park is passed to the east of Jerome, south of the intersection with Kingsbridge Road. As Jerome passes

Lehman College Lehman College is a public college in the Bronx borough of New York City. Founded in 1931 as the Bronx campus of Hunter College, the school became an independent college within CUNY in September 1967. The college is named after Herbert H. Lehman ...

, Bedford Park Boulevard (200th Street) intersects. Jerome Avenue then crosses the Mosholu Parkway on an overpass, after passing the Mosholu Yard. After Mosholu Parkway, Jerome Avenue enters the Norwood neighborhood. There, Jerome Avenue intersects with Gun Hill Road, with

Van Cortlandt Park Van Cortlandt Park is a park located in the borough of the Bronx in New York City. Owned by the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, it is managed with assistance from the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance. The park, the city's third-lar ...

to the west. The final station on the IRT line is located just before intersecting Bainbridge Avenue. Jerome Avenue continues, cuts between Van Cortlandt Park and Woodlawn Cemetery, after which it enters Woodlawn. Jerome Avenue comes to an end at the Major Deegan and 233rd Street. The road continues as a service road for the Major Deegan, until it reaches the Bronx-Westchester border, where it becomes Central Park Avenue (

NY 100 New York State Route 100 (NY 100) is a major north–south state highway in Westchester County, New York, in the United States. It begins parallel to Interstate 87 (I-87) at a junction with the Cross County Parkway in the city of ...

), one of the main streets of the city of Yonkers.

History

Jerome Avenue was put together as a

plank road A plank road is a road composed of wooden planks or puncheon logs. Plank roads were commonly found in the Canadian province of Ontario as well as the Northeast and Midwest of the United States in the first half of the 19th century. They were oft ...

in 1874 for $375,000. It appeared on maps as Central Avenue, because it started from Macombs Dam Bridge to Jerome Park Racetrack. Borough President Louis F. Haffen selected contractors in 1897 to pave Jerome Avenue. Three sections of the road were to be remodeled, costing the Bronx about $136,505. The street was to be renamed after an unknown city alderman. Kate Hall Jerome, wife of Lawrence Jerome, was furious, replacing all the signs with the name Jerome Avenue in honor of Jerome Park Racetrack opened by her husband's financier brother, Leonard Jerome in 1866. When the subway line was commissioned, Jerome went from rural road to commercial artery. The southern part of the avenue, from the intersection with 161st Street, formed the western edge of

. The parkland was alienated by the state legislature to enable construction of a new

. Lower portions of the thoroughfare were demapped by the City Planning Commission, followed by the Department of City Planning's 2006 release of the ''Bronx Harlem River Waterfront Bicycle and Pedestrian Study''. The Park Plaza Apartments at 1005 Jerome Avenue, one of the borough's first and most prominent

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...

apartment houses and a New York City

landmark A landmark is a recognizable natural or artificial feature used for navigation, a feature that stands out from its near environment and is often visible from long distances. In modern use, the term can also be applied to smaller structures or f ...

since 1981, was overlooked in the environmental impact statement and is now in the shadow of the completed new stadium. In March 2018, the

New York City Council The New York City Council is the lawmaking body of New York City. It has 51 members from 51 council districts throughout the five boroughs. The council serves as a check against the mayor in a mayor-council government model, the performance of ...

voted to approve the rezoning of 92 blocks in the South Bronx, centered along Jerome Avenue from 165th to 184th Streets. The rezoning will allow developers to construct 4,600 housing units along the corridor, including 1,500 affordable housing units. At the time of the rezoning, the corridor consisted mainly of small businesses, warehouses, and auto-parts shops.

Transportation

The

New York City Subway The New York City Subway is a rapid transit system owned by the government of New York City and leased to the New York City Transit Authority, an affiliate agency of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA). Opened on October ...

's Jerome Avenue elevated line, served by the , runs along most of Jerome Avenue. The now-demolished

Ninth Avenue elevated The IRT Ninth Avenue Line, often called the Ninth Avenue Elevated or Ninth Avenue El, was the first elevated railway in New York City. It opened on July 3, 1868 as the West Side and Yonkers Patent Railway, as an experimental single-track cab ...

merged with the Jerome Avenue line south of the 167th Street station. The first station along the Jerome Avenue elevated line is the 161st Street–Yankee Stadium station, served by the . All of the Jerome Avenue Line's elevated stations north of 167th Street, with the exception of Bedford Park Boulevard–Lehman College, are located directly above Jerome Avenue. The line and the have their northern terminus at Woodlawn, at the eastern edge of

. The Jerome Avenue Line south of Kingsbridge Road opened on June 2, 1917. The Bedford Park Boulevard, Mosholu Parkway, and Woodlawn stations opened on April 15, 1918. The Bx32 between Mott Haven and

James J. Peters VA Medical Center The James J. Peters VA Medical Center, (also known as the Bronx Veterans Hospital), is a US Department of Veterans Affairs hospital complex located at 130 West Kingsbridge Road in West Fordham, Bronx, New York City. The hospital is the headquar ...

supplements the IRT Jerome Avenue Line between 176th Street and Kingsbridge Road, running under the el between 175th Street and 195th Street. The runs to/from Fordham and the BxM4 express bus run on Jerome Avenue for short lengths.

Major intersections

References

{{coord, 40, 51, 42.22, N, 73, 54, 6.61, W, region:US, display=title Streets in the Bronx