Sedgwick Avenue is a major

street A street is a public thoroughfare in a built environment. It is a public parcel of land adjoining buildings in an urban context, on which people may freely assemble, interact, and move about. A street can be as simple as a level patch of dirt, ...

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 ...

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 ...

. It runs roughly parallel to

Jerome Avenue Jerome Avenue is one of the longest thoroughfares in the New York City borough of the Bronx, New York, United States. The road is long and stretches from Concourse to Woodlawn. Both of these termini are with the Major Deegan Expressway which ...

, the Major Deegan Expressway, and University Avenue. Sedgwick Avenue is one of the longest streets in the western part of the Bronx, running from

Mosholu Parkway Mosholu Parkway is a hybrid freeway-standard parkway and grade-level roadway in the borough (New York City), New York City borough of the Bronx, constructed from 1935 to 1937 as part of the roadway network created under Robert Moses. The roadway e ...

at the north to

Macombs Dam Bridge The Macombs Dam Bridge ( ; also Macomb's Dam Bridge) is a swing bridge across the Harlem River in New York City, connecting the boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. The bridge is operated and maintained by the New York City Department of Trans ...

at its southern end, about 800 feet (250 m) west of

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 origi ...

. A smaller Sedgwick Avenue continues into

Yonkers Yonkers () is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. Developed along the Hudson River, it is the third most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City and Buffalo. The population of Yonkers was 211,569 as enu ...

, north of

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 ...

and east of the

Saw Mill River Parkway The Saw Mill River Parkway (also known as the Saw Mill Parkway or the Saw Mill) is a north–south parkway that extends for through Westchester County, New York, in the United States. It begins at the border between Westchester County and the Bro ...

History

From the early 20th century until the 1970s, Sedgwick Avenue is one of the busiest thoroughfares in the Bronx, having streetcars, buses, and train stations. In around 1900, it was a popular road for weekend bicycle tours and military marches to

. From 1918 to 1958, the

Sedgwick Avenue Sedgwick Avenue is a major street in the Bronx, New York City. It runs roughly parallel to Jerome Avenue, the Major Deegan Expressway, and University Avenue. Sedgwick Avenue is one of the longest streets in the western part of the Bronx, run ...

elevated station operated at

Webster Avenue Webster Avenue is a major north–south thoroughfare in the Bronx, New York City, United States. It stretches for from Melrose to Woodlawn (on the Bronx- Westchester borderline). The road starts at the intersection of Melrose Avenue, East 165t ...

.Se
IRT Ninth Avenue Line 9th Avenue ElPolo Grounds Shuttle
an
New York Central Hudson Division Sedgwick Ave Station in Forgotten BronxTransit
New York City Mayor

Bill de Blasio Bill de Blasio (; born Warren Wilhelm Jr., May 8, 1961; later Warren de Blasio-Wilhelm) is an American politician who served as the 109th mayor of New York City from 2014 to 2021. A member of the Democratic Party, he held the office of New Yor ...

signed a bill on February 26, 2016 renaming 42 streets and places in New York City. One of the renamed blocks was a block where 1520 Sedgwick Ave is located which was renamed “Hip Hop Boulevard" after

DJ Kool Herc Clive Campbell (born April 16, 1955), better known by his stage name DJ Kool Herc, is a Jamaican-American DJ who is credited with contributing to the development of hip hop music in the Bronx, New York City, in the 1970s through his "Back to ...

who threw a "back to school jam " at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue, and at that party, hip-hop began. DJ Kool Herc had moved his parties to Cedar Park, "attracting

b-boy Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in ...

s and cool kids from across the Bronx n1974."

Route description

The avenue starts as a northbound service road, running north–south, to Major Deegan Expressway ( Interstate 87) at around the

Morris Heights, Bronx Morris Heights is a residential neighborhood located in the West Bronx. Its boundaries, starting from the north and moving clockwise are: West Burnside Avenue to the north, Jerome Avenue to the east, the Cross-Bronx Expressway to the south, and ...

is adjacent to this section of the avenue. It splits northeast and becomes two-way at around West Tremont Avenue;

Roberto Clemente State Park Roberto Clemente State Park is a state park in Morris Heights, Bronx, New York City. The park is adjacent to the Harlem River, the Major Deegan Expressway ( Interstate 87), and the Morris Heights station on Metro-North's Hudson Line. History ...

is at this intersection, and the

University Woods University Woods, also known as Cedar Park, is a small woodland park in the University Heights neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City. Overlooking the Harlem River, the park sits between Sedgwick and Cedar Avenues. After having been named " ...

, overlooking the

Harlem River The Harlem River is an tidal strait in New York, United States, flowing between the Hudson River and the East River and separating the island of Manhattan from the Bronx on the New York mainland. The northern stretch, also called the Spuyte ...

, a small wood land crested between Sedgwick and Cedar Avenues, is also nearby. Along this stretch, the Putnam Line had a station at Sedgwick Avenue. The NYPD's Strategic Response Group 2 stationhouse is located on Sedgwick Avenue at 169th Street. Sedgwick Avenue remains a primary thoroughfare through University Heights and

Kingsbridge Heights Kingsbridge Heights is a residential neighborhood geographically located in the northwest Bronx, New York City. Its boundaries are Van Cortlandt Park to the north, Jerome Avenue to the east, Kingsbridge Road to the south, and the Major Deegan Expr ...

; ZIP codes include 10463, 10467, and 10468. The Sedgwick Avenue station was a train station on the abandoned section of the

IRT Ninth Avenue Line 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 cable ...

from 1918 until 1958. The

New York City Housing Authority The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is a public development corporation which provides public housing in New York City, and is the largest public housing authority in North America. Created in 1934 as the first agency of its kind in the U ...

has a number of large apartment complexes along the avenue. The avenue then turns east, and runs near the west and north sides of the

Jerome Park Reservoir The Jerome Park Reservoir is a reservoir located in Jerome Park, a neighborhood in the North Bronx, New York City. The reservoir is surrounded by DeWitt Clinton High School, the Bronx High School of Science, Lehman College, and Walton High Schoo ...

intersects with Sedgwick Avenue at its northern end. There are

buses A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...

and formerly streetcars along the avenue. Bus routes include . This mostly two-way thoroughfare passes two historic sites: * The

Hall of Fame for Great Americans The Hall of Fame for Great Americans is an outdoor sculpture gallery located on the grounds of Bronx Community College (BCC) in the Bronx, New York City. It is the first such hall of fame in the United States. Built in 1901 as part of the U ...

directly overlooks Sedgwick Avenue. *

is credited with helping to start hip hop and rap music at a

house concert A house concert or home concert is a musical concert or performance art that is presented in someone's home or apartment, or a nearby small private space such as a barn, apartment rec room, lawn, or backyard."VIDEO: House concert in Royal Oak," '' ...

at 1520 Sedgwick Avenue.

References

{{Bronx streets Streets in the Bronx