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On our way to Sts. Peter and Paul School each day we passed the old Bronx Courthouse on Third Ave. and 161st Street. The old place had been the scene for many big trials before the new courthouse was built on the Grand Concourse. We kids, of course, had neither knowledge nor sense of its historical significance and we seldom entered its gloomy halls. It was a large imposing gray stone building partially hidden by the "El" structure. In front of the courthouse, mounted on a two-story granite base overlooking Third Avenue, was a large statue of a woman. The courthouse walls were constructed of large blocks separated by deep horizontal and vertical slots. These slots were great footholds for neighborhood boys for climbing up the courthouse walls and onto the large statue base. When I was about twelve we moved for a short time to a house on Brook Avenue just opposite the courthouse. Mom looked out the window a few days later and became almost hysterical when she saw me up on the courthouse wall at about the second story. I was told to get down immediately and get into the house. When I came upstairs, I tried to tell her I had done this climb many times but it did not appease her. I was grounded.
The court had a jail lock-up on 161st Street that we parochial school kids passed by daily. We often watched the prisoners being herded into the big van by the police for transportation to the new courthouse. Unfortunately this lockup also gave us experience with violence in that relatively peaceful time. One Sunday morning a neighbor died on his way to Mass. He was hit by a cop's bullet fired at an escaped prisoner just as he rounded the corner. I can still remember the blood drenched sidewalk at the corner of Third Avenue and 161st Street.In yet another incident, during an attempted escape from the jail, a spent police bullet hit a woman as she watched from the window of the second floor Draft Office opposite the courthouse. Fortunately she receive only a minor injury but it resulted in a startling photo on the front page of the Daily News showing the bullet lodged in the woman's throat.
My brother Joe and I had a close call when a fugitive from the courthouse ran through our baseball game on the sandlot field on St. Ann's Avenue directly behind our school. I remember crouching in the dirt as detectives ran around us and chased him while firing their pistols as they ran. I saw the man run down the avenue and pass my brother Joe who was playing the outfield out on the sidewalk. Joe and a man who was walking his dog both dove under a parked car, their motion as quick as a stunt in a movie. We immediately took up the chase. At the corner of 159th street the fugitive ran through a group of mothers with their baby carriages who sat on the steps of the then-new apartment house. The cops held their fire until the fugitive tried to scale a rear fence and we watched as a detective shot him down in full view of the mothers and little children.The Courthouse has piqued the curiosity of others till this day. See the attached linkage to other web sites for more current information. Bronx Borough Courthouse Photo Log
The LTV Squad Photo Log