At the tail end of Highbridge Park, at about 158th Street and Edgecombe Avenue in Harlem, lies a decrepit staircase. It’s in bad shape, fenced off from pedestrians.
So where did it lead to? It’s the last remnant of the Polo Grounds, home to the New York Giants baseball team from 1890 until 1957, when they departed for San Francisco.
The staircase took fans down to the stadium, which was built against a cliff here called Coogan’s Bluff.
You can still read the plaque on one the landings: “The John T. Brush Stairway Presented By the New York Giants.”
John T. Brush was the Giants’ owner who rebuilt the Polo Grounds after a fire in 1911. The team dedicated the then-new staircase to him in 1913, who had died a year earlier.
Tags: Coogan's Bluff, Edgecombe Avenue, Harlem mystery, Highbridge Park, John T. Brush staircase, mysterious staircase, New York Giants baseball history, Polo Grounds
Ephemeral New York 
October 4, 2010 at 2:41 pm |
Fame really is fleeting. Can’t help but wonder if the buildings funded by people like Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg will meet the same fate…
October 4, 2010 at 2:41 pm |
Beautiful photo.
October 4, 2010 at 3:02 pm |
thanks!
October 4, 2010 at 2:50 pm |
I just saw this last Friday & have been wondering what the heck it was….. Very cool! I found some other mystery staircases on my journeys around the heights & often wonder how to find out where they once led too…
October 4, 2010 at 2:53 pm |
That’s a beautiful story. But I wonder who was this Coogan fellow? I own a short street in Riverdale that my father purchased at auction way back when. It was called Coogan’s Alley. It’s no longer called that but has a street number sign that city put up in the last couple of years. I’ve always wondered who Coogan was though.
October 4, 2010 at 3:05 pm |
Coogan was a local real-estate bigwig and Manhattan borough president in 1898. Maybe he owned Coogan’s Alley?
October 4, 2010 at 5:12 pm |
[…] would be complete without a vine-strewn stone staircase to nowhere. Ephemeral New York takes a brief trip down the stairs on 158th Street and Edgecombe Avenue, “the last remnant of the Polo Grounds, home […]
October 5, 2010 at 1:32 am |
[…] later), “under Coogan’s Bluff.” which had been turned into Highbridge Park. The stair shown above was a shortcut for fans from the street through the park down to the stadium, which was […]
October 5, 2010 at 8:04 pm |
I’ve got to say that this was a solid read. I actually felt like I’ve learned something new and exciting! Thank you so much.
January 12, 2011 at 5:37 am |
[…] York Titans. Formed in 1960 as part of the new American Football League, the Titans played at the crumbling Polo Grounds—former home turf of baseball’s New York […]
April 7, 2011 at 4:37 am |
[…] 1921, after sharing the Polo Grounds in Upper Manhattan with the Giants for a decade, the two team were butting heads—especially with the Yankees selling more […]
November 25, 2011 at 12:28 pm |
new york jets…
[…]The mysterious staircase near 158th Street « Ephemeral New York[…]…
September 3, 2012 at 1:23 am |
[…] plaque is rusted and old—a faded bit of New York baseball history, like this secret staircase that once led to the Polo Grounds. Like this:LikeBe the first to like […]
September 3, 2012 at 3:28 am |
Sadly, the secret staircase is no more… I had been on it last summer (2011) but when I went looking for this Spring, it was newly fenced off and torn down. The area is being renovated…
September 3, 2012 at 11:50 pm |
That whole area should be demolished or torn down what a crap hole is this area. Drugs and wel
fare.
December 31, 2017 at 2:56 am |
[…] 155th. The restored Polo Grounds Stairs had reopened in 2014 after years of talk and being “a mystery” as recently as […]