Crestwood is a neighborhood in Yonkers, New York. Located in northeastern Yonkers, Crestwood borders the Bronx River where it meets the Village of Tuckahoe. Because the main part of Crestwood is served by the Tuckahoe post office, many residents identify their location as Tuckahoe or Crestwood, rather than Yonkers.
The creation of the Bronx River Parkway (BRP) had a profound impact on the geography of the Crestwood/Tuckahoe area. When construction began in 1917, one of the overarching objectives of the road designers was to "conveniently accommodate the large amount of traffic expected and to display to the traveler the principal interesting features without despoiling it" (from the 1909 Bronx Parkway Commission Report). The Parkway was completed in 1925 and had far-reaching sociological consequences. As part of the right-of-way purchases, lots belonging to Crestwood had to be bought up, and roads cut in two. Traveling northbound on the BRP, after exit 5 to Crestwood, one can see the earlier pattern of cross-streets extending from the left-hand side of the roadway across to the right-hand side. A newer off-ramp on the northbound side now leads into what was a roadway that had to be removed to facilitate the construction of the parkway.
Closer to Crestwood station, several grandly built homes occupy the hilly ground overlooking the river.
Crestwood has been home to Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary since 1962, when the seminary purchased the former Adrian Iselin estate from the Sisters of Charity. Crestwood is also home to the Catholic Church Annunciation and the Annunciation School.
The Bronx River serves as the town line between several Westchester communities, dividing the City of Yonkers from the Town of Eastchester, with its villages of Tuckahoe and Bronxville. The Harlem Line of the Metro-North commuter railroad runs along the Bronx River and has two stops in the Village of Tuckahoe. Since both stations could not be named Tuckahoe, the southern station down by the Village Hall is named Tuckahoe for the area east of the station, and the northern station Crestwood for the area to the west, in Yonkers. This leads many Tuckahoe residents to refer to northern Tuckahoe as Crestwood.
This train station was depicted on the cover of The Saturday Evening Post issue for November 16, 1946, in the painting Commuters, by Norman Rockwell.