Park Hill, Yonkers, N.Y.: A ‘Secret Neighborhood’ Overlooking the Bronx
New York Times
Overlooking the Bronx Developed in the 19th century as a retreat for the wealthy, Park Hill is full of contrasts, with a mix of turreted mansions and modest postwar houses.
The land of Oz? Not quite — although there are yellow bricks peeking out from beneath the asphalt on Overcliff Street. “It’s like stumbling upon some secret neighborhood,” said Sandra Cardona, a vice president of a hotel company, who landed there in 2014 with her partner, Guillermo Garita, an architect.
Previously, the couple rented a loft in the financial district of Manhattan. But Ms. Cardona, who enjoys painting at home, was feeling cramped in her live-create situation. Familiar with Yonkers from a brief stint in a rental more than a decade before, she thought it might have what she was looking for. And it did, in the form of a 1929 red-brick house, with four bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, hardwood floors and an unusual Georgian-meets-Tudor facade, that cost in the “low $700,000s,” she said.
The house, which the couple shares with their rescue dog, Zaha (as in the late architect Zaha Hadid), has plenty of room to spare, allowing Ms. Cardona to commandeer a bedroom for that long-sought dedicated space for art.