HAER Report

Dedicating the Parkway

On July 23, 1925, the New York Times announced that the 15.5 mile Bronx River Parkway drive would be completed and opened to the public the following week. This prediction proved premature. The BPC had planned to open the parkway earlier, but various problems hampered construction and delayed the official dedication ceremony until the fall. A strike by workers finishing the pavement on the Scarsdale Bridge slowed progress in that section. Downer reported that work was being rushed on completion of the Valhalla Bridge in hopes of opening it in August. The bridge opened on August 15, closing the last remaining gap in the parkway drive and allowing the BPC to open the road north of White Plains to the public. The New York Times noted this achievement with great fanfare.(257)

Despite earlier plans to stage a ceremony in October, the Bronx River Parkway Reservation was officially dedicated on November 5, 1925. The celebration began at the southern end of the BRPR where guests gathered for the removal of a barrier across the roadway, an action intended to symbolize the parkway’s official opening to public use. Guests proceeded by motor vehicles on a tour of the entire length of the parkway, arriving at Valhalla Bridge, where the dedication ceremony took place.(258) Tablets on the bridge parapets commemorated the occasion and summarized the history of the BRPR. The tablets listed the names of the commissioners and provided the dates of the parkway’s inception and completion. Hayden and Stoughton were credited with the bridge design. Other information included BRPR statistics and a brief history of the BPC.

An impressive array of dignitaries spoke at the dedication ceremony. The speakers included Stephen T. Mather, Director of the National Park Service; Frederick P. Close, Chairman of the Westchester County Board of Supervisors; Joseph P. Hennessy, Commissioner of Parks for the Borough of the Bronx; W. Delavan Baldwin, President of the Westchester County Park Commission, and the architect Charles Stoughton. All three commissioners expressed their thoughts as well.

New York Governor Alfred E. Smith could not attend, but he sent a letter praising the project. Smith characterized the parkway’s completion as "a milestone in the growth of City of New York, of Westchester County, and of the State itself." Casting the Bronx River Parkway as the latest heir to New York’s tradition of outstanding recreational improvements, which included such seminal developments as Central Park and Riverside Drive, he commended the commissioners for their commitment to the project, especially during the early days when funding was still uncertain. Thanks mainly to their hard work and perseverance, Smith asserted, the Bronx River Parkway, would "create a standard for all parkways in this country" and provide the impetus for additional park and parkway development throughout the state. Smith observed that the Bronx River Parkway had shown that parkways were not simply scenic amenities, but that they could improve the regions through which they passed, increase property values and tax revenues, reduce travel times to an unprecedented degree, and provide broad-based benefits for urban residents seeking fresh air and wholesome outdoor recreation. Taking advantage of the occasion to press the case for quick action on other parkway projects in the metropolitan region, Smith lamented that there were still "selfish and short-sighted people left, even in the suburbs of great cities, as on Long Island, who think they can stop park developments, block the way for great parkways and divert the public into the alleys and waste spaces where the owners of great estates cannot even see them."(259)