It’s unclear what the true story is behind the name Norwood, a moniker that’s surprisingly common around the world (there’s a Norwood in South Australia). It could be the namesake of Carlisle Norwood, a friend of Leonard Jerome, a flamboyant moneyman whose fame rewarded him with a street bearing his name. Or it could be a melding of “North Woods” as origin stories as far as some Norwood cities and towns go.

Whatever the backstory, the Norwood section of the Bronx is unlike the others identified across the globe. A bygone feel courses through Norwood, one of the borough’s leafiest neighborhoods, with one foot in its suburban past, thanks to century old single-family homes and one foot in the present, given the constant presence of development within the community’s intricate network of streets (one can thank engineer Josiah Briggs, who also has a Bronx street named after him, for the nifty layout). Those include Perry, Decatur and Hull avenues, streets named after famous officers involved in the War of 1812. Its perpetual foot in the past is solidified, thanks to some of the Bronx’s oldest homes: the Valentine-Varian House and the Keeper’s House, home of Mosholu Preservation Corporation, which publishes the Norwood News.

Betty Diana Arce, a Norwood resident, arrived to her neighborhood more than 30 years ago. “The neighborhood was like a little village with all of the essentials,” said Arce. “A good school (PS 56), supermarkets, hardware stores, beauty salons, three really good restaurants, nearby parks where my kids could play, and one of the best pizzerias in the Bronx.”

Norwood is one of those areas whose strength in community lies in its amenities. Williamsbridge Oval Park is by far one of the key go-to parks in the neighborhood with a recreation center, a multi-purpose field that could host outdoor movie nights, and a track and field, one of the few public ones in the Bronx. One could argue the park is Norwood’s heart. After all, it lies directly in the center of the neighborhood whose boundaries—from Webster Avenue between East Gun Hill Road and Mosholu Parkway North, from East Mosholu Parkway North, between Webster Avenue and West Gun Hill Road–form a kind of pizza slice shape.

Some residents confuse Norwood with Bedford Park, its neighbor to the west. A much larger neighborhood, Bedford Park likely gets its name from Edward Thomas Bedford, an entrepreneur and friend of Leonard Jerome.

“Bedford Park is special due to the great mixture of private homes, rentals, and co-ops. It has great mass transit facilities which make for easy access to Manhattan, Westchester County and Connecticut,” said Barbara Stronczer, president of Bedford Mosholu Community Association, a civic group. “The proximity of the Four Bronx Institutions [Montefiore Medical Center, New York Botanical Garden, The Bronx Zoo, and Fordham University] is also another plus for the community. Bedford Park also has several landmarked buildings said Stonczer.”

Norwood’s main business attraction is Bainbridge Avenue and East 204th Street, a strip once dominated by local mom and pops that’s seen the introduction of regional stores. Walk up and down the corridor at any point and you’ll find a kind of commercial buzz that could rival the local Jerome-Gun Hill Business Improvement District, an L-shaped commercial strip home to some 200 establishments.

With all its good, there is somewhat of a sense of waning community involvement from residents on a local level. With folks worried about putting food on the table, offering input on neighborhood issues is a luxury they just can’t afford.

Its main roads, East Gun Hill Road, Webster Avenue, and Mosholu Parkway give Norwood a transient sense. It’s in Norwood’s intricate warren of streets where you’ll find neighbors who’ve carved a home there for some 50 years or more. An area once dominated by middle class Jews, Norwood later saw a burgeoning wave of Irish citizens that inspired a bevy of bars lining East 204th Street. A new wave of residents, including Bangladeshi and Hispanic families are now contributing to the local economy.

For some, caring for their neighborhood has become a lifelong project. It’s been that way for Sally Dunford, executive director of West Bronx Housing, a tenant advocacy group. Dunford, a fourth generation Norwood resident, enjoys her stay in Norwood. It helps that her rent is “comparatively low,” but it’s an added bonus to her true intentions in raising four sons in Norwood.

“The real reason we’ve stayed has been our neighbors. We’ve always had great neighbors,” said Dunford. “The colors of the faces have changed and the language spoken has changed, but we have always been surrounded by caring people.”