The first Bronx subway stop on the 6 train from Manhattan leaves you a block from 138th Street and Alexander Avenue. Once known as “Doctors Row” and “The Irish Fifth Avenue,” Alexander Avenue between here and 141st Street boasts gorgeous row houses dating to the 1870s.
If you swoon over original details and don’t mind living sandwiched between a couple of housing projects, this could be the block for you.
Though now considered part of the catch-all South Bronx, the neighborhood is in the tiny Mott Haven Historic District. Once a thriving community dominated by Mott Ironworks and piano factories, Mott Haven fell victim to the usual urban blight in the 1960s and 1970s.
In the 1990s, antique shops, lofts, and a couple of cafes on nearby Bruckner Boulevard have helped revive the area. It feels pretty safe, yet reports of the neighborhood’s Soho-fication are, well, premature. Luckily, remnants of old Mott Haven still remain, like this piano ad.
Check out the brick sign on the old Mott Ironworks building, on the Harlem River. J. L. Mott is Jordan Mott, an industrialist who bought the land from the Morris (as in Morrisania) family in 1828.
Tags: Alexander Avenue, Mott Haven, South Bronx
Ephemeral New York 
September 5, 2008 at 5:17 am |
[…] Mott Haven has more to offer, like its own historic district and some gorgeous blocks along Alexander Avenue. Check them out here. […]
May 5, 2009 at 8:55 pm |
Unbelievably beautiful area in the South Bronx! Thanks for showing the good that still exists there.
December 18, 2009 at 2:07 am |
[…] Doctors’ Row—well, at least the brownstones, if not the doctors—still exists in the South […]
April 11, 2010 at 11:28 pm |
it is a great area. My grandma immigrated to the states in the 1960s and has lived in the Bronx ever since. I just hope this area has not been invaded by hipsters and wannabe manhattanites like its has happened in Harlem.
September 4, 2012 at 3:42 pm |
I HAVE LIVED IN MOTT HAVEN PROJECTS AND I WENT TO ST PUIS V CATHOLIC SCHOOL MY WHOE LIFE.. NEW YORK IS THE BEST CITY IN THE WORLD AND MOTT HAVEN JUST MAKS IT GREAT.
March 25, 2013 at 4:55 am |
[…] Here’s another beautiful stretch of Bronx rowhouses, kept up well with Romanesque detailing and stained glass windows. […]
April 5, 2013 at 12:19 am |
I was born at Bronx Hospital lived at 581 East 137th Street, near Willis and Cypress Avenues for the first 7 years of my life.
April 18, 2013 at 1:31 am |
During a recent visit from my home in CA to The Bronx where i was born and lived until 1978, I was just on Alexander Ave at a 5-Star sushi restaurant called CeeTay. Food is great as mentioned by many reviews and by friends in NYC. “Go South Bronx!” May it continue to grow stronger.
February 22, 2015 at 7:54 pm |
My parents lived across from these beautiful Row Houses on Alexander Ave for many years.. Wow what memories
August 12, 2016 at 8:18 pm |
I honestly disagree! I was around there and I found this beautiful town houses. Please go check E 167th St Grant Ave on google maps. It’s where they have the orange and green houses.
November 4, 2016 at 12:33 pm |
[…] turns left. Ahead on Alexander are beautiful rowhouses at the start of a stretch once known as Doctors’ Row. The Mott Haven Historical District begins on the next block. To the right is the attractive St. […]
November 6, 2016 at 2:06 pm |
[…] turns left. Forward on Alexander are lovely rowhouses at first of a stretch as soon as often called Doctors’ Row. The Mott Haven Historic District begins on the following block. To the correct is the enticing St. […]
August 27, 2018 at 6:13 am |
[…] was a descendant of the Mott Haven Motts; a prominent businessman who ran his family’s Bronx-based iron […]
September 23, 2022 at 1:17 am |
[…] from local Native Americans (or from Dutch leaders; sources differ) in today’s Morrisania or Mott Haven neighborhood, on the other side of the Harlem River. He cleared the land and built a stone house “covered […]
August 29, 2023 at 5:56 pm |
I was actually in the brownstone on the corner of 139th Street and Alexander Avenue. I went to St. Jerome’s School with the daughter of the family who owned that home in in the 1950’s, 1960’s or possibly later. What a beautiful home.