EWEN AVENUE, NO. 2565
Spuyten Duyvil
OCTOBER 12, 1935. ABBOTT FILE 8

Ewen Avenue, No. 2558, discarded image

The village of Spuyten Duyvil grew up after the Civil War, when Isaac G. Johnson established a highly successful iron foundry on the parcel of land at the confluence of the Hudson and Harlem Rivers. (The name Spuyten Duyvil was probably derived from a Dutch phrase meaning "in spite of the Devil.") The foundry was conveniently located next to the freight yards of the New York Central Railroad at the edge of Spuyten Duyvil Creek, which connected the two rivers. In 1923, the City of New York decided to build the Harlem River Ship Canal, which required the filling of the creek and the closing of the foundry. Although the canal was not cut until 1936, the area fell into decline after the foundry was sold.

Abbott made two exposures on Ewen Avenue, a village street of widely spaced buildings and no sidewalks. At no. 2565, she photographed a bar-and-grill; a photograph of a frame house at 2558 Ewen Avenue was discarded from the project.

The bar-and-grill was demolished in 1939, and Ewen Avenue no longer exists. When the freight yards were abandoned in the 1960s, the surrounding area was cleared, and apartment buildings and a high school have since beenbuilt near the site.

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