Gail Averill just sent me some more information on Park Hill’s former railroad connection:
Yonkers Rapid Transit Railway was incorporated March 18, 1879 as a three mile spur of the New York City & Northern Railroad connecting New York City (155th St) to Getty Square through the Park Hill, Lowerre & Caryl sections of Yonkers. In 1894 it became part of the New York Central Railroad - Putnam Branch. In 1942 the NYCentral filed for abandonment of the Yonkers branch, citing annual losses of $71,000. Despite opposition from Yonkers the ICC approved the petition. The fight went to the Supreme Court which refused the stay of cessation of service but did stop the scrapping of the line. However, on Dec. 12, 1944, the court denied a rehearing and nine days later the New York Central began scrapping the Yonkers Rapid Transit Railway for the WWII effort.
Remnants of the infrastructure remain visible. The stone abutments of the bridge that carried the tracks over McLean Ave. is visible on the North side of McLean opposite the parking lot of the Parkside Diner. The line passed from there into what is now the lower part of Sutherland Park, between Undercliff & South Broadway, to the Park Hill Station which stood on the current site of 254-260 Broadway. Walking along this route through the woods you can still see some evidence of concrete ‘curbing’ along the old rail bed.
Behind the Park Hill station was a stairway of cut stone steps to Undercliff Street and the lower elevator house. Part of the wall is still there, just below the triangle where Park Hill Terrace turns of Undercliff.
The Park Hill Elevator was built for the American Real Estate Company by Otis Elevator in 1895 - a water powered cable car that ran from the lower house behind the station to Alta Ave at the top of the hill. The upper house on Alta Ave. is basically intact and is now a private home. The structure of the elevator platform is still visible in the rear. The lower house was essentially destroyed by a fire in the early 1990s but was rebuilt, not as an exact copy but in an appropriate style, as a 3 family apartment. After the American Real Estate Company was dissolved, the elevator was owned by a group of Park Hill residents who formed Park Hill Properties, Inc. A ride on the elevator cost 5 cents but the elevator lost money (it seems that the cost of water ($900 annually) was a large factor in this loss. There was dispute with the City over bills for water which supplied pressure to power the elevator but was not actually “used” and was then piped to buildings on South Broadway and re-billed) In 1931 the City agreed to buy the elevator for $21,000 but title never closed because of political wrangling. Park Hill Properties closed the elevator in October, 1934. Despite various private and neighborhood efforts the elevator passed on a mortgage to the First National Bank & Trust Co which became defunct in 1935. It was among properties scheduled for the Auction of the bank assets but did not find a buyer.
So, let’s lobby the MTA to bring it back - it’ll cut down on my wife’s commute, that’s for certain.
