Once upon a time, this rooster's kin might have crowed the daily wake-up call.
In the 1860s, when a Catholic protectory was established here to provide vocational training for boys, and, separately, for girls, this 129-acre site was Westchester County farmland. When the site was acquired by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in the late 1930s, it was part of the Bronx, and the protectory was ringed by tenements and detached homes. Within in a few short years, Met Life erected what was then "the largest integral housing project so far planned and built in the United States."
Many of the buildings are ornamented with terra cotta statues and bas reliefs. Some, such as the standing figures that decorate the movie theater, are clearly fanciful. Others depict laborers, in vigorous poses, or scenes from family life. (It should be noted that when built, the apartment complexes had a whites-only policy, not the case today.) Still others depict animals, both domestic and wild. The puffin is a stranger to our land, but a startled deer may still make an appearance in the Bronx, even today.
See a (not-at-all comprehensive) album of Parkchester statues and decoration
Parkchester apartment complex
Centered on Unionport Rd. at Metropolitan Ave., Parkchester, Bronx
