Overview

Norwood was settled as a diverse neighborhood from the start. It became an official part of New York City in 1873 as a section of the Bronx county. The first major wave of residents that came to the area was affluent European immigrants who were looking to escape from the extreme overcrowding of Manhattan. The demographics of these early residents was unique, as they were mostly immigrants, and came from all different countries and backgrounds. Protestants, Catholics, and Jews lived with each other in close proximity. From the Great Depression into the post World War II era, a group of Puerto Rican families looking to escape crowded communities in upper Manhattan came into the neighborhood, bringing further racial diversity. When the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 was enacted,  the former quota system that restricted immigration from certain areas such as Eastern Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia was abolished, triggering a wave of immigrants-Dominicans, Bangladeshis, Albanians, Guyanese, and Ghanaians, some of whom settled and formed mini ethnic enclaves in Norwood. A wave of new Irish immigrants that came in the late 1960s and 1970s to evade economic troubles settled mainly in Norwood, establishing the neighorhood’s predominant identity as “Little Ireland” for almost thirty years, leading it to be nicknamed “Little Belfast”. They have largely left, some returning to Ireland, others moving further north into Woodlawn and Yonkers. Today, the neighborhood is back to its status as a multiethnic community where, when walking along the streets, one can see shops and establishments catering to people of the many backgrounds, a commercial representation of the diversity of the residents.