This week Wakefield has the honor of being the first Harlem Line station south of White Plains I’ve featured. Before starting the Harlem Line Panorama Project, I had never ventured to any of these stations. After this weekend though, I’ve been to most of them. On the current schedule of a station a week, the tour will finally be over at the end of January. And once that is over I think I’ll do a full tour guide for whoever might be interested in seeing the Harlem Line as well… I’m planning to include info about good food, history, art (including Arts For Transit works) and nature along the way, and which stations aren’t to be missed. Anyways, back to the tour…

Traveling south, Wakefield is the first Metro-North station in the Bronx, and is the northernmost neighborhood of the city. It borders Westchester county, specifically the city of Mount Vernon. The two are both linked to the first president of the United States: George Washington. Wakefield was the name of the place where he was born, and Mount Vernon the name of the place he died. The two stations of Wakefield and Mount Vernon West are in fact very close – so close that you can see the station from the platform of the other.

At Wakefield you can make a connection to the subway, Wakefield – 241st Street is located six blocks from the station. The platform is rather small, and can only accommodate four cars. Just south of the station the New Haven Line diverges, and from the station you can see the M2s going by on the other side of the tree line. Historically Wakefield had been a place where passengers changed trains. Electric trains served south into the city, and riders going north transferred to steam trains.

All of the photos below are from the Historic American Buildings Survey Repository at the Library of Congress, Prints and Photograph Division, in Washington, D.C. Photos were taken by Stephen L. Senigo May 1988, as a preliminary portion of a project called the Mid-Harlem Station Improvements. Each of the eight stations to receive improvements were photographed and researched. The research was written into a report, and contained Physical History, Historical Context, and Architectural Information about the station. Diagrams of the station and the improvements come at the end of the report. All of this information was retrieved digitally from the Library of Congress’ American Memory site.

North White Plains

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Hartsdale

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Scarsdale

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Crestwood

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Tuckahoe

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Fleetwood

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Bronxville

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Mount Vernon West

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