P is for Paradise

June 2005

At one time, and apparently it was quite some time before this picture was taken, Paradise was a nightclub in the Bronx, where Courtlandt Avenue dead-ended at East 163rd Street. The building with the tattered awning on the left was the club, I think.

This is an interesting area to look at from above. There's a railroad siding running in a large curve behind all the buildings on either side of this alley, so they all have curved walls in the rear. The siding arcs north for two blocks, then heads southeast for another block before petering out at East 163rd Street and Brook Avenue.

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Of course, as we see here in the current Google Street View, they've paved Paradise, and put up a parking lot. But not to worry, for the Bronx holds more than one Paradise:

Loew's Paradise Theater on the Grand Concourse at 187th Street looks a little decrepit in this image from around 2003-04, but I understand the place has been rehabbed and currently operates as a performing arts center.