FOXHURST
Geographic Setting
Bounded by Sheridan Boulevard to the east, the Bruckner Expressway to the southeast, East 163rd Street and Prospect Avenue to the south, Crotona Park to the northwest, Louis Niñé Boulevard to the northeast, and Freeman Street to the north, Foxhurst occupies a compact section of the South Bronx defined by its convergence of rail lines, parklands, and historic boulevards. Nestled between Longwood, Hunts Point, and Crotona Park East, the neighborhood sits atop gently sloping ground that descends toward the Bronx River Valley. Its grid of Intervale Avenue, Simpson Street, and Fox Street—from which it takes its name—intersects a landscape dominated by midrise apartment buildings, school campuses, and the constant hum of nearby expressways and subway lines.
The 2 and 5 trains, running above Westchester Avenue and Southern Boulevard, form the neighborhood’s transit spine, connecting residents quickly to both Manhattan and the northern Bronx. To the northwest, Crotona Park provides green relief and recreation, while to the southeast, the industrial and commercial zones near the Bruckner Expressway mark Foxhurst’s transition toward Hunts Point’s working waterfront. The neighborhood’s built environment—an intricate mosaic of early 20th-century tenements, NYCHA housing, and modern affordable developments—speaks to more than a century of change, resilience, and renewal.
Etymology
The name “Foxhurst” originates from Fox Street, one of the neighborhood’s central thoroughfares, which first appeared on 19th-century maps of the former Town of West Farms. The “-hurst” suffix derives from an Old English term meaning a wooded hill, an aspirational embellishment added by late-19th-century developers who sought to market the area’s elevated terrain and fresh air to prospective residents. “Foxhurst,” then, was both a geographic and promotional invention—a name evoking rustic charm for what was, at the time, an emerging urban neighborhood on the city’s expanding northern frontier.
Over time, the name came to represent not just a street or real estate tract, but an entire community—a working-class enclave that mirrored the Bronx’s broader evolution from suburban farmland to urban heartland.
The Neighborhood
Origins through the 19th Century
Before the extension of New York City’s street grid, the land that would become Foxhurst lay within the rural expanses of West Farms, a settlement established in the 1660s by English colonists along the Bronx River. Through the 18th and early 19th centuries, this area consisted largely of meadows, woodlots, and modest farms, with dirt paths leading south to the Harlem River crossings.
The arrival of the New York and Harlem Railroad (1840s) and the incorporation of West Farms into the City of New York (1895) brought rapid transformation. Developers subdivided old estates into rectangular blocks, and by the 1890s, the grid of Prospect Avenue, Intervale Avenue, and Fox Street was fully surveyed. Streetcar lines connected Foxhurst to the commercial hubs of Southern Boulevard and Westchester Avenue, drawing immigrant families from Manhattan’s crowded Lower East Side.
At the dawn of the 20th century, Foxhurst emerged as a stable residential district of four- and five-story tenement buildings, catering to Jewish, Italian, and Irish working-class families employed in nearby factories and warehouses. The establishment of Crotona Park (1888) and the construction of the Subway’s White Plains Road Line (1904) solidified Foxhurst’s position as an accessible and livable South Bronx community.
Early 20th Century: Tenement Growth and Community Building
By the 1910s and 1920s, Foxhurst was fully urbanized. Its streets filled with uniform rows of walk-up apartment buildings, small bakeries, kosher butcher shops, and synagogues that anchored a thriving immigrant culture. Southern Boulevard became the neighborhood’s commercial artery, linking the district to bustling retail centers in Longwood and Westchester Square.
The IRT subway brought both opportunity and density: thousands of families moved in, drawn by affordable rents and short commutes to Manhattan’s factories, docks, and markets. Public schools, corner candy stores, and movie houses—such as the long-vanished Intervale Theatre—gave the area its village-like intimacy. Street games, stoop conversations, and open-air pushcarts filled the summer streets.
The neighborhood’s social fabric was sustained by tight-knit ethnic associations—Jewish mutual aid societies, Italian parishes, and neighborhood halls—each contributing to the borough’s famously self-contained local life. Yet by the late 1930s, overcrowding and aging infrastructure foreshadowed challenges to come, as the Depression slowed repairs and the city began planning for slum clearance and new housing models.
Mid–Late 20th Century: Upheaval, Exodus, and Renewal
The decades following World War II marked profound change. As white ethnic families left for the suburbs in the 1950s, Puerto Rican migrants arriving in New York settled in Foxhurst and neighboring Longwood, reshaping the neighborhood’s cultural identity. However, disinvestment, redlining, and the construction of the Sheridan Expressway (1958) and Bruckner Expressway (1961) carved destructive boundaries through the community, isolating it from the Bronx River and accelerating urban decline.
The 1970s were Foxhurst’s crucible. Amid the South Bronx’s fires and fiscal crisis, many buildings were abandoned or destroyed, and poverty deepened. Yet even in its hardest years, Foxhurst’s residents—particularly the Puerto Rican and African-American communities—organized to reclaim their neighborhood. Local groups such as the People’s Development Corporation and Banana Kelly Community Improvement Association emerged as national models of grassroots urban renewal, taking over abandoned properties and converting them into cooperative housing.
During the 1980s and 1990s, city reinvestment programs and community development corporations (CDCs) began rebuilding block by block. New NYCHA housing, affordable co-ops, and renovated prewar buildings replaced derelict lots. The Bronx’s cultural renaissance—anchored in Latin music, street art, and hip-hop—found resonance here: Foxhurst became part of the creative corridor that linked Crotona Park, Hunts Point, and the South Bronx’s broader artistic rebirth.
21st Century: Resilience, Diversity, and Renewal
In the 21st century, Foxhurst has reemerged as a dense, diverse, and upwardly mobile community. The population—predominantly Puerto Rican, Dominican, Mexican, and West African—reflects the global character of the Bronx today. New schools, parks, and housing developments—particularly along Louis Niñé Boulevard and Fox Street—have revitalized the landscape. Fox Playground, Raúl Guerra Playground, and proximity to Crotona Park provide vital green spaces for recreation, while the reopening of Starlight Park and restoration of the Bronx River Greenway have reconnected the neighborhood to its natural waterways.
Community organizations continue to shape the area’s social infrastructure, supporting youth programs, environmental education, and tenant rights. The legacy of urban activism remains visible in local murals, block parties, and annual cultural festivals celebrating the Bronx’s resilience and Latin identity. Transit access—via the 2 and 5 trains and multiple bus routes—keeps Foxhurst a transit-rich and desirable location for families seeking affordability within the city.
While challenges persist—economic inequality, overcrowding, and the lingering effects of highway construction—Foxhurst today embodies the South Bronx’s enduring ability to rebuild from within.
Spirit and Legacy
The spirit of Foxhurst is one of defiance and rebirth. Once a symbol of urban decline, it has transformed into a testament to the power of community persistence and cultural pride. Its story—written in murals, rebuilt tenements, and the rhythm of salsa drifting from open windows—echoes the broader narrative of the Bronx itself: a borough that fell, fought back, and now thrives through the strength of its people.
New York City
Use this custom Google map to explore where every neighborhood in all five boroughs of New York City is located.
The Five Boroughs
One of New York City’s unique qualities is its organization in to 5 boroughs: Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, The Bronx, and Staten Island. These boroughs are part pragmatic administrative districts, and part vestiges of the region’s past. Each borough is an entire county in New York State - in fact, Brooklyn is, officially, Kings County, while Staten Island is, officially Richmond County. But that’s not the whole story …
Initially, New York City was located on the southern tip of Manhattan (now the Financial District) that was once the Dutch colony of New Amsterdam. Across the East River, another city was rising: Brooklyn. In time, the city planners realized that unification between the rapidly rising cities would create commercial and industrial opportunities - through streamlined administration of the region.
So powerful was the pull of unification between New York and Brooklyn that three more counties were pulled into the unification: The Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island. And on January 1, 1898, the City of New York unified two cities and three counties into one Greater City of New York - containing the five boroughs we know today.
But because each borough developed differently and distinctly until unification, their neighborhoods likewise uniquely developed. Today, there are nearly 390 neighborhoods, each with their own histories, cultures, cuisines, and personalities - and each with residents who are fiercely proud of their corner of The Big Apple.
