Cute Cottages in Not-So-Cute Part of The Bronx

While on a recent visit to The Bronx, I noticed this string of adorable, colorful, little cottages. Given their diminutive size, and that they sit on the edge of Port Morris, a former center of industry, I'm assuming they were build as workman's cottages. They reminded me of similar housing on Dennet Place in Carroll Gardens and Verandah Place in Cobble Hill.

These homes are on E. 137th Street. On one side there is an empty lot, on the other an old factory. The buildings have an interesting feature in that they all have staircases leading down to a square yards of considerable dimension. When I was there, some were filled with snow and ice. Others were filled the junk. I'm guessing the bad old days of The Bronx, back in the 1970s, these sunken cement days could have save havens for all sorts of nefarious activities.

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Down By the Old Mill

I was stunned when I walked by this old mill building in Port Morris, a former industrial section of the southern Bronx which is little discussed in the daily goings-on of the City. It's a simple building, but by the brickwork and the shape and number of the windows, it looked immediately to my eyes like a relic of the Industrial Revolution, the kind of mill that immigrants slaved in during the latter 19th century; something out of Dickens. And it seems to be in perfect condition.

Taking a close look, I saw the building was the work of Philip Knitting Mills. Our friends at Forgotten New York tell us: "Morris Philip (who has an appropriate first name in this part of the Bronx) was the firm’s founder. Besides having patents for some specialized knitting machines, he’s most famed for inventing the Philip Cup, the splash proof coffee cup lid. The Philip Cup factory was located at 26 Bruckner Boulevard."

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