King of Crotona
A rare run up to the Bronx for Forgotten New York, up to Crotona Park.
Remembering that I don’t write enough Bronx posts, I set off to parade around the near geographical center of the Bronx in the Crotona Park area.
Crotona Park, the neighborhood and the park, isn’t near the Croton Aqueduct, which runs through the western Bronx; it was named for a colony in ancient Greece famed for Olympic athletes. It was purchased from the estate belonging to Andrew Bathgate in the 1880s; a dispute with the Bathgate family prevented the new Crotona Park from being named for them. Bathgate Ave. today remembers these early Bronx gentry.