Mott Haven is a primarily residential neighborhood in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of the Bronx.

[13] In 1639, the Dutch West India Company purchased the land of today's Mott Haven from the Wecquaesgeek (groups of Lenape tribe).

The peace treaty between Dutch authorities and the Wecquaesgeek chiefs Ranaqua and Tackamuckwas was signed in Bronck's house.

[15] A small part of the larger swath of land known as Morrisania, it was purchased by Jordan Lawrence Mott for his iron works in 1849.

From the end of the 19th century through the 1940s, Mott Haven was a mixed German-American (north of East 145th Street) and Irish-American neighborhood (south of East 145th Street), with an Italian enclave west of Lincoln Ave.[17] The first Puerto Rican settlements came in the late 1940s along the length of Brook Avenue.

[citation needed] It was organized by the veterans of the Irish Republican Army, who marched every Easter Sunday, down Willis Avenue from the Hub to East 138th Street, then west to St. Jerome's.

The Star of Munster Ballroom at the northeast corner of Willis Avenue and East 138th Street was a center of Irish music for decades.

[21] The Chase Manhattan Bank at Third Avenue and East 137th Street was originally the North Side Board of Trade Building (1912).

This area of poverty would spread in part due to an illegal practice known as blockbusting and to Robert Moses building several housing projects in the neighborhood.

Later attempts to market Mott Haven as the "Piano District" and the South Bronx as "SoBro" have not found traction.

[23] There has been a significant wave of residential redevelopment in the neighborhood especially along East 138th Street corridor with developments such as "The Joinery", the first luxury mid-rise condominium in the area,[24][25] in addition to recently built affordable housing such as "Borinquen Court" and "Tres Puentes" apartment complex.

The neighborhood is largely Puerto Rican, with smaller numbers of African Americans, Mexicans and Dominicans present.

[3] Based on data from the 2010 United States Census, the population of Mott Haven and Port Morris was 52,413, a change of 3,383 (6.5%) from the 49,030 counted in 2000.

[33] In 2018, an estimated 29% of Mott Haven and Melrose residents lived in poverty, compared to 25% in all of the Bronx and 20% in all of New York City.

Based on this calculation, as of 2018[update], Mott Haven and Melrose were considered to be low-income relative to the rest of the city and not gentrifying.

In the last two decades, construction of modern two- and three-unit rowhouses and apartment buildings has increased the percentage of owner-occupiers.

The seventeen NYCHA developments in Mott Haven illustrate the various types of public-housing initiatives in vogue in New York City over the decades.

[citation needed] It is produced by students at the City University Graduate School of Journalism and edited by Joe Hirsch.

[30]: 14 The concentration of fine particulate matter, the deadliest type of air pollutant, in Mott Haven and Melrose is 0.0086 milligrams per cubic metre (8.6×10−9 oz/cu ft), more than the city average.

[30]: 6  The percentage of Mott Haven and Melrose students excelling in math rose from 18% in 2000 to 37% in 2011, though reading achievement decreased slightly from 25% to 24% during the same time period.

[54] Mott Haven and Melrose's rate of elementary school student absenteeism is more than the rest of New York City.

[31]: 24 (PDF p. 55) [30]: 6  Additionally, 62% of high school students in Mott Haven and Melrose graduate on time, lower than the citywide average of 75%.