"If we kick them out, they won't be able to find another location on Manhattan Island. They'll have to move to the Bronx or Long Island. The fans will forget about them, and they'll be through." - John McGraw, Giants manager (1)
When the Giants evicted the Yankees from the Polo Grounds in 1921, manager John McGraw believed that the franchise was doomed, because they would not be able to find land to build a stadium in Manhattan. He thought that the outer boroughs were not populated enough to support a team and that people who lived in Manhattan would not want to travel to see a baseball game. However, the Bronx had been steadily growing since the turn of the century, and was able to support the Yankees throughout their history at Yankee Stadium.
Prior to 1874, the Bronx was a bucolic and sparsely populated region. In 1874, the section of the Bronx west of the Bronx River became a part of New York City. The territory east of the Bronx River was annexed to the city in 1895, three years before the official consolidation of the five boroughs of New York City.(2) From 1900 to 1920, the population of the Bronx tripled, due in large part to the extension of the IRT subway line to the Bronx and to the availability of better housing for the poor. The "new-law" tenements were the result of the 1901 housing act that outlawed the old dumbbell shaped tenements, and regulated all new tenement buildings. Clifford Hood said of the new tenements "For $16.00 to $20.00 dollars a month residents could rent a brand-new apartment that included two bedrooms, a combined dining-living room, a kitchen with hot water and a gas range, and an interior toilet and bathtub. These new-law tenements had good heating and lighting, carpeted hallways, and tastefully decorated foyers and facades." These new tenements, affordable for many of the people living in the slums of the Lower East Side, attracted people to the Bronx.(3) Thus, the Bronx became a place for the poor and working class with middle class aspirations.
The Bronx also began to attract wealthier people with the construction of elegant apartment buildings on the Grand Concourse. Completed in 1908, the Grand Concourse, the main boulevard in the Bronx, was becoming the place to live for many middle class and upwardly mobile New Yorkers, much like Fifth Avenue and Park Avenue in Manhattan. The Grand Concourse further increased the population and desirability of the Bronx.(4)
"A boulevard is a promenade, a drive, an avenue of pleasure, everything in fact except a commercial thoroughfare." - Louis Risse, an engineer who envisioned the Grand Concourse as a magnificent boulevard modeled on the Champs- Elysee in Paris(5)
The Grand Concourse
After World War I, the population of the Bronx continued its dramatic growth. Between 1920 and 1930, the number of Jews on the Lower East Side fell from over 700,000 to under 300,000. Most of them moved to the Bronx. By 1930, the Jewish population in the Bronx was 585,000, nearly half the population of the borough. New rapid transit facilities made it possible for people to live in the Bronx and work in Manhattan. Demand for housing was tremendous and land was relatively inexpensive in the west Bronx. All these factors brought more people to the Bronx, and thus, more people could easily attend Yankee games.
The Bronx gave the Yankees new life, allowing them to succeed in their new stadium. However, the Yankees and Yankee Stadium also gave the Bronx new life. The land immediately around Yankee Stadium was particularly impacted by its construction. Business owners could have confidence in the future, because they knew that for decades to come there would be people coming to Yankee Stadium for games. Many opened businesses catering to baseball customers and Yankee fans. Restaurants, garages, bars, a theatre, and a hotel prospered thanks to Yankee Stadium.(6)
However, once the Depression hit, much of the Bronx, including the Grand Concourse, began to deteriorate.(7)
