as a service road for the Major Deegan, until it reaches the Bronx-Westchester border, where it becomes Central Park Avenue (NY 100), one of the main streets of the city of Yonkers. History Jerome Avenue was put together as a plank road in 1874 for $375,000. It appeared on maps as Central Avenue, because it started from Macombs Dam Bridge to Jerome Park Racetrack. Borough President Louis F. Haffen selected contractors in 1897 to pave Jerome Avenue. Three sections of the road were to be remodeled, costing the Bronx about $136,505. The street was to be renamed after an unknown city alderman. Kate Hall Jerome, wife of Lawrence Jerome, was furious, replacing all the signs with the name Jerome Avenue in honor of Jerome Park Racetrack opened by her husband's financier brother, Leonard Jerome in 1866. When the subway line was commissioned, Jerome went from rural road to commercial artery. The southern part of the avenue, from the intersection with 161st Street, formed the western edge of Macombs Dam Park. The parkland was alienated by the state legislature to enable construction of a new Yankee Stadium. Lower portions of the thoroughfare were demapped by the City Planning Commission, followed by the Department of City Planning's 2006 release of the Bronx Harlem River Waterfront Bicycle and Pedestrian Study. The Park Plaza Apartments at 1005 Jerome Avenue, one of the borough's first and most prominent Art Deco apartment houses and a New York City landmark since 1981, was overlooked in the environmental impact statement and is now in the shadow of the completed new stadium. In March 2018, the New York City Council voted to approve the rezoning of 92 blocks in the South Bronx, centered along Jerome Avenue from 165th to 184th Streets. The rezoning will allow developers to construct 4,600 housing units along the corridor, including 1,500 affordable housing units. At the time of the rezoning, the corridor consisted mainly of small businesses, warehouses, and auto-parts shops. Transportation The New York City Subway's Jerome Avenue elevated line, served by the , runs along most of Jerome Avenue. The now-demolished Ninth Avenue elevated merged with the Jerome Avenue line south of the 167th Street station. The first station along the Jerome Avenue elevated line is the 161st Street–Yankee Stadium station, served by the . All of the Jerome Avenue Line's elevated stations north of 167th Street, with the exception of Bedford