A Buried Building

Beginning in 2016, I have been finding architectural fragments in the Bronx River. Chunks of brick, concrete, and a bit of terra cotta occassionally fall into the riverbed as the bank gradually erodes. 

When the Bronx River Parkway was built in the 1920s, the river itself was redesigned as a restoration and beautification project that included the clearance of hundreds of buildings from the areas along the river. Apparently the rubble from some of those buildings was used as fill when they realigned the stream, and now, a century later, a little bit of it has gradually been resurfacing as the forces of nature take their turn reshaping the river.

Among the fragments I have stumbled upon are four pieces from the same terra cotta cornice that surfaced years apart, two of which fit with one another. They are enough to piece together the design of this band of the vanished building's facade.