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Bronx

Parkchester

A 1940s brick city of terra-cotta figures, ringed by Bangla Bazaar and Mexico City burritos.

Photo: Jim.henderson · CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Parkchester was built all at once. Between 1939 and 1942 the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company raised a planned city of 171 red-brick buildings around lawns, curving paths and a central oval with a fountain — homes for some twelve thousand families. Look closely at the walls and you will find hundreds of small terra-cotta figures and plaques: animals, musicians, athletes, set into the brick by a team of sculptors.

Around the edges of the complex, the neighborhood has become something MetLife never planned. Starling and Castle Hill Avenues hold Bangla Bazaar, a dense run of Bangladeshi groceries, sweet shops and steam-table restaurants, and Mexican kitchens have been part of the same blocks for two decades. Under the elevated 6 on Westchester Avenue, a taqueria serves weekend barbacoa to a line of neighbors.

It is an easy place to eat cheaply and well: samosas from a fresh tray, a burrito the size of a small pet, a molcajete bubbling on the table. Walk the oval afterward, and look up at the terra-cotta.

171 brick buildings and a fountain oval from 1939–42

Terra-cotta animals and figures set into the walls

Bangla Bazaar on Starling and Castle Hill Avenues

Burritos, barbacoa and steam-table curries under the 6

Local notes

The terra-cotta of Parkchester

The complex holds about 500 terra-cotta statuettes and 600 plaques made by nine sculptors, among them Joseph Kiselewski and Raymond Granville Barger. Barger also made Fantasia, the fountain installed in 1941 in the central oval, now named Aileen B. Ryan Oval.

Bangla Bazaar

The blocks around Starling Avenue, Olmstead Avenue and Castle Hill Avenue are lined with Bangladeshi-owned groceries, sweet shops and restaurants. Evenings — and every night during Ramadan — are the busiest, with families shopping and eating after iftar.

Through the lens

Walk the oval in morning light for the fountain and the brick facades; get close to the corners and entrances to find the terra-cotta figures. Starling Avenue is a busy shopping street — colorful signage and produce displays, best photographed in the early evening glow, with permission when people are the subject.

Editorial draft — core details last reviewed October 19, 2026. Confirm practical details with the official site before you go.

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