Morris Park, the Bronx: Racecourse Lots and Hospital Campuses

Morris Park Avenue carries most of the neighborhood's addresses: the Morris Park Library at 985, the Morris Park Inn at 1024, Patricia's of Morris Park at 1082, John Dormi & Sons Funeral Home at 1121, which Joseph Garofalo, a World War II veteran, persuaded to display his collection of medals and war memorabilia, naming it the Bronx Military Museum, and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine's Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus at 1300. Loreto Park is bounded by Morris Park, Haight, Van Nest and Tomlinson Avenues, and is named for Alfred Loreto, a police officer of 1870 Hering Avenue who was killed on July 21, 1950 while foiling an attempted kidnapping of his neighbor. The park was renovated in 2012 at a cost of about $500,000 and reconstructed in 2021 and 2022 at about $2,000,000, reopening in April 2022.

The hospitals stand off the avenue. Jacobi Medical Center is at 1400 Pelham Parkway South, Calvary Hospital at 1740 Eastchester Road, Montefiore Medical Center's Jack D. Weiler Hospital at 1825 Eastchester Road, and Bronx Psychiatric Center at 1500 Waters Place. The college's site was chosen for ample land and proximity to the adjacent Bronx Municipal Hospital, then under construction — the hospital that opened in 1955 as the Bronx Municipal Hospital Center and is now Jacobi. Jacobi and Einstein were the first medical school and municipal hospital to enter into a formal affiliation agreement at the same time they were both built.

Morris Park is bounded by Neill Avenue and Pelham Parkway to the north, Eastchester Road to the east, the Amtrak Northeast Corridor tracks and Sackett Avenue to the east and south, and Bronxdale Avenue and White Plains Road to the west. It borders Van Nest to its southwest, Parkchester and Westchester Square to its south, and Pelham Parkway to its northeast.

The neighborhood's Columbus Day parade began in 1977, and Tony LoBianco, Chazz Palminteri, Regis Philbin and Joe Pepitone are among its past Grand Marshals. After Italy won the 2006 World Cup, over 30,000 flocked to the neighborhood for an all-day party. Notable people from Morris Park include Cara Buono (b. 1971), Mary Higgins Clark (1927–2020), Jake LaMotta (1922–2017) and Andrew Velazquez (b. 1994).

John Albert Morris was the majority shareholder of the Morris Park Racecourse and Leonard W. Jerome its president. The track opened on August 20, 1889, with the jockey Isaac Murphy riding on opening day, on land in a part of Westchester County that was annexed into the Bronx in 1895. It hosted the Preakness Stakes in 1890, and the Belmont Stakes was run there from 1890. Thoroughbred racing continued until the final race on October 15, 1904.

The property outlasted the racing. Automobile racing followed, and the Aeronautic Society of New York leased the grounds as an aerodrome from 1907 to 1909, with Glenn Curtiss giving a flying exhibition there in June 1909. Fire damaged the stables on April 10, 1910, after which the property was divided into lots for the current neighborhood; by 1921 the former clubhouse had become a factory to manufacture ornamental iron.

The local subway is the IRT Dyre Avenue Line, the 5 train, which runs under the Esplanade. Morris Park station stands at Paulding Avenue and Esplanade, is served by the 5 at all times, and serves both Morris Park and Pelham Parkway. It opened on May 29, 1912 under the New York, Westchester and Boston Railway and closed on December 12, 1937; on May 15, 1941 a shuttle service was implemented between Dyre Avenue and East 180th Street. The station is Spanish Mission style, designed by Alfred T. Fellheimer, who also led design work on Grand Central Terminal, and it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on July 6, 2005.

No Metro-North station currently serves Morris Park. A Metro-North station named Morris Park is planned on the New Haven Line as part of Penn Station Access, alongside new stations at Co-op City, Parkchester/Van Nest and Hunts Point. In August 2024 the New York City Council voted to rezone 46 city blocks in Parkchester, Van Nest and Morris Park around the Parkchester/Van Nest and Morris Park stations, as part of the same project. Phase One is tentatively targeted for 2027; as of October 2025, three of the four stations could still open as early as 2027 if Amtrak agreed to expedite the work, but the Hunts Point station would still be delayed.

The Bx21 runs between Mott Haven, at East 138th Street and Lincoln Avenue, and Westchester Square, at Westchester Avenue and Lane Avenue, with Third Avenue, Boston Road and Morris Park Avenue among its primary streets. The Bx39 runs between Clasons Point, at Soundview Avenue and Cornell Avenue, and Wakefield, at East 241st Street and White Plains Road, primarily via White Plains Road, the neighborhood's western boundary; it has a third terminus at Williamsbridge, at White Plains Road and Gun Hill Road, served overnight only and also reached via White Plains Road. A T113 shuttle bus is listed as running on Morris Park Avenue and Williamsbridge Road between East 180th Street and Eastchester–Dyre Avenue.

The Amtrak Northeast Corridor tracks form part of the neighborhood's boundary.