Mosholu Parkway
Mosholu Parkway is the last intermediate stop on the 4 train with a rarely used middle track, with no scheduled service to operate through it. Trains are rarely diverted to skip Mosholu Parkway because If trackwork is being done not in the vicinity of Mosholu Parkway but only in locations farther south, trains can stop at this station, and then switch onto or off-of the Express track between here and the next stop south Bedford Park Blvd. This is because of the yard leads south of the station (only in the Manhattan-bound direction) to and from the Mosholu Yard. Trains deadheading to and from the yard from Woodlawn can use the Express track to avoid blocking regular service when they have to make another reverse move around the Bedford Park Blvd station to enter and leave the yard.
The station is on the only one on the 4 train in the Bronx, except for the 161 Street-Yankee Stadium station complex, to be built with multiple entrances and fare control areas. The station is also clad in concrete (although renovations removed a lot of concrete from the station area to brighten the station entrances up), not the normal iron and steel of an elevated structure. This is because of its very visible location above Jerome Avenue where it along with Jerome Avenue beneath crosses above the super wide, Mosholu Parkway corridor on a double-height bridge. Mosholu Parkway is a parkway with parkland surrounding a highway. Unlike other parkways of this era, Mosholu Parkway is closer to an urban boulevard surrounded by parkland (including a nice bike path) with a non-divided highway and some grade intersections, and isn’t a freeway that doesn’t allow trucks and has low bridges like lots of other Parkways in and around New York City. The urban boulevard and surrounding parkland is so wide in the area of the station that it’s two boundary service roads, Mosholu Parkway North and South’s intersections with Jerome Avenue are just beyond the ends of the platforms.
The station, when I first visited pre-renovations in 2003, had cream colored corrugated full height metal windscreens along both platforms. This allowed no views from the platforms down to Mosholu Parkway four stories below and the surrounding parkland. Only one station entrance was opened at the time, the northern entrance, with the southern one’s staircases down to street level enclosed by concrete on the outside with unsavory windscreens along the sidewalks of Mosholu Parkway making them look abandoned. The one station entrance was clad with concrete walls at all three levels including along the platform, on the mezzanine and at street-level. Windows provided some natural light into the station, but otherwise the mezzanine felt historic but dimly lit (closer to a subway than an elevated station). Two staircases led down from each platform to the mezzanine, each by a mosaic name tablet that said Mosholu Parkway. On the mezzanine were historic mosaics for Uptown Trains and Downtown Trains. Passengers reached the street through two sets of two dark staircases (surrounded by concrete with some windows) that led down to each side of Jerome Avenue, arriving at a single entrance landing along each side of Jerome Avenue (for a still intact example something similar to this entrance design, visit the Woodlawn station, it didn’t get its street stairs daylighted during its renovation).
A renovation between 2006 and 2008 completely modernized the station. For the renovation trains didn’t need to bypass the station in both directions for a full closure like the rest of the stations on the Jerome Avenue line. Instead by reopening the formerly closed southern entrance, work could be done one platform at a time and the northern entrance was fully closed for rebuilding. Lots of historical concrete-work was removed including the historic name tablets along each platform, and along the sides of the station, with all entrances now conventional (albeit double wide) staircases with red canopies. The concrete work removal was done to brighten up the station, including the entrances. The platform walls are still full height, but with lots of portions made of wire-mesh allowing views down to Mosholu Parkway below and natural light able to penetrate the platforms. The platforms that are canopied for nearly their entire lengths with just small, exposed portions at the ends of both platforms, each of less than a car length (this was the same pre-renovation).
To leave the station there are now two exits with the reopening of the formerly closed southern mezzanine and station house a permanent addition. This entrance is now unstaffed and basically outdoors, with no doors and windows and just full height fencing (using the design normally used to separate the paid and unpaid areas) for walls, underneath the structurally required concrete pillars and arches. Two staircases lead down to the mezzanine from about a car length from the southern end of each platform. Here are High Entrance/Exit Turnstiles (3 High Entrance Turnstiles, two additional Exit Only turnstiles) that lead out to two conventional streetstairs, that turn 90 degrees at an intermediate landing and lead down to each side of Jerome Avenue, just north of the intersection with Mosholu Parkway South (the southern service road).
The token booth (and only open entrance before the station’s rebuilding) is located towards the northern end of each platform above two car lengths from the northern end. Here two staircases lead down from each platform meeting at a lower landing. A set of doors leads from each platform into each side of the renovated station house. The station house feels modern and generic with no more mosaics and some translucent glass block walls providing some natural light where the windows used to be. After going through the turnstiles, double sets of doors on each side of the station house each lead out to a single staircases (that turns 90 degrees at an intermediate landing) down to each side of Jerome Avenue, about 200 feet south of the intersection of Mosholu Parkway south.
Photo 1-4: February 1, 2004; 5-10: April 4, 2004; 11-27: April 14, 2007; 28-48: January 6, 2011
Arts For Transit at Mosholu Parkway
Metromorphosis/Birth of a Station, 2008,
Fused Glass
By Corinne Grondahl
