Almost none of Riverdale's best October events charge admission. Wave Hill's biggest days of the month line up with its free-admission policy. Every Van Cortlandt Park Alliance event on the calendar is free or volunteer-run. The money in this month's plans goes to the restaurants and shops along Broadway at 242nd Street, which have spent two years behind a green construction wall across from the park.
| Date | Event | Where | Cost at the gate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thu, Oct 8 | Starlight Cinema: Ratatouille | Van Cortlandt Park Parade Ground | Free |
| Sat–Mon, Oct 10–12 | Indigenous Peoples' Weekend | Wave Hill | Free on Monday, Oct 12 |
| Sat, Oct 17 | REIMAGINING: Fall Get-Together | Enslaved African Burial Ground, Van Cortlandt Park | Free |
| Thu, Oct 22 | Bread Making with Arnie Adler | Riverdale Neighborhood House, 5521 Mosholu Ave. | Check with host |
| Sun, Oct 25 | Halloween: Wags to Witches | Van Cortlandt House Museum lawn | Free |
| Wed, Oct 28 | Final Youth Run Farm Stand of the season | Train Park, Gale Place and Orloff Avenue | Produce for sale |
| Thu, Oct 29 | Wave Hill-O-Ween | Wave Hill | Free |
| Sun, Nov 1 | Veterans Day Ceremony | Memorial Grove, Van Cortlandt Park | Free |
Wave Hill's free days follow the week
Regular grounds admission at Wave Hill is $10 for adults, $6 for students and seniors 65 and older, and $4 for children 6 and up. It drops to zero all day on Thursdays. That free day doesn't cover organized groups. The grounds normally open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and last entry is 30 minutes before closing.
This month, those rules make two of Wave Hill's biggest dates free.
Indigenous Peoples' Weekend runs October 10 through 12, with nature programs, hands-on activities, and a walking tour about the Lenape Saunksquas, the female leaders who shaped an early Dutch-Indigenous alliance. On Monday, October 12, Wave Hill opens even though it is normally closed Mondays, and admission is free for everyone. Wave Hill says not every activity runs all weekend, so check the schedule before you go. For families, the Family Art Project on Saturday, October 10, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., is making corn husk dolls.
Wave Hill-O-Ween falls on Thursday, October 29, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. The event is free, and so are the grounds that day. Registration runs through Wave Hill's site, and the event goes ahead rain or shine. Its page describes a family garden scavenger hunt, music on the lawn, and drop-in art.
The season continues into November with Nighthunters: An Evening Owl Adventure on Friday, November 13, from 5 to 8:30 p.m. That's a Friday, so the Thursday rule doesn't apply. Check the listing for pricing.
Van Cortlandt Park fills the rest of the month for free
On the east side of the neighborhood, the Van Cortlandt Park Alliance calendar for October covers nearly every week, and the main events cost nothing.
Starlight Cinema, the free Four-Legged Friends film series that the Alliance presents with Horace Mann School on the Parade Ground, lost its September 25 screening to high winds. Ratatouille moved to Thursday, October 8. Like Wave Hill-O-Ween, it lands on a Thursday, so a free afternoon at Wave Hill and a free movie on the Parade Ground fit into the same day. Evening programming starts at 5:30 p.m., and the film begins at last light.
On Saturday, October 17, REIMAGINING: Fall Get-Together runs from 1 to 4 p.m. at the park's Enslaved African Burial Ground. It opens with a live performance by musician Juan Usera and The Sambuco Tribe, followed by an activity led by a Bronx-based artist. In the same time slot, artist Michele Brody is making paper and using it to cast fallen trees from the Van Cortlandt forest for an upcoming exhibit. Visitors can join the work.
On Sunday, October 25, Halloween: Wags to Witches fills the Van Cortlandt House Museum lawn from 1 to 5 p.m. The Alliance, the museum, and the Urban Park Rangers are hosting a free afternoon for families and their dogs, with crafts, face painting, and stories with LINC. That morning, from 9 to 10:30 a.m., the NYC Bird Alliance leads one of its four fall bird walks in the park.
The Youth Run Farm Stand at Train Park, at Gale Place and Orloff Avenue, sells produce Wednesdays from 2 to 7 p.m. Its last day is October 28. It accepts WIC, FMNP checks, EBT, SNAP, Fresh Connect checks, cash, and cards. On October 7, Caribeando at the Farmstand adds a Caribbean music and dance workshop from 3 to 5 p.m.
The month ends at Memorial Grove. Volunteers with the Alliance and Bronx Community Board 8 will clean up the grove on Tuesday, October 27, and the annual Veterans Day Ceremony follows there on Sunday, November 1, at noon.
Across Broadway, two MTA projects at once
The park's free events all run directly across from the Van Cortlandt Park–242 St station. The green barrier along Broadway there belongs to the station's accessibility project. That work adds a two-stop elevator from street to platform and replaces the west-side Broadway staircase and canopy. It also includes platform repairs, fire-protection upgrades, new station art, and permanent pedestrianization of the Manhattan College Parkway ramp. Community Board 8's construction plan puts work and staging in the Broadway parking lane between West 242nd Street and Manhattan College Parkway, with substantial completion forecast for the fourth quarter of 2026. The MTA broke ground in October 2024. As of September 14, 2026, the MTA's accessibility page still listed the station as under construction, with no revised end date.
A separate MTA contract covers painting and steel repairs on the elevated structure over Broadway from West 225th to West 242nd streets, about 1.2 miles. The work moves north in phases of roughly 1,000 feet, and the final segment, 240th to 242nd Street, is expected in summer 2027. The state contract record lists an end date of August 24, 2027. Even after the station barrier comes down, work on the elevated structure overhead will continue into next year.
Station work has already changed service. From September 18 to 21, the 1 train skipped 242 St from late Friday night until early Monday, and free shuttle buses ran between 238 St and 242 St. Before a weekend trip to the park, check the MTA's live alerts.
The storefronts behind the fence
In November 2025, The Riverdale Press described the businesses beside the station as "the small cluster of restaurants, liquor stores and delis that line the strip across from Van Cortlandt Park." The green fencing narrows the sidewalk, blocks storefronts from view, and removes parking. Lou Porco owns Broadway Joe's Pizza, which his father opened in 1969. He told the paper, "Business is down over 40 percent and it's getting worse and worse because I'm losing customers that can't park." He also said he had lowered the rent for the deli next door, a space he owns, to keep it from closing.
Richard Berroa co-owns Claudy's Kitchen, a family-run Peruvian restaurant on the strip. "Initially we were told six months, then a year, then more," he said in the same report. After an April walkthrough with the MTA, the city's Department of Small Business Services said it had widened sidewalks and set up a direct contact and an update channel for business owners.
That report is almost a year old. The Press's August 21, 2026 story on the corridor still describes businesses on Broadway and West 242nd Street facing ongoing MTA construction that many owners say is driving customers away.
The merchants have organized
The Kingsbridge-Riverdale-Van Cortlandt Development Corporation, or KRVC, received a $100,000 city grant this year to strengthen BAMBA, the Bailey Avenue Merchants and Broadway West 238th Street Alliance. KRVC is the only Bronx organization to receive a Fiscal Year 2027 Merchant Organizing Grant. The money will fund corridor improvements, business spotlights, another BAMBA Fest, and a new mural, KRVC's tenth in the north Bronx. It will also pay for a digital and physical small-business directory, aimed especially at the Broadway and West 242nd Street businesses partly hidden by construction. No date has been announced for the 2026 festival.
Norman Martinez is a BAMBA board member and owns Home BX Steakhouse at 224 W. 238th St. He told the Press that the alliance has connected owners who used to work largely on their own. At the 2025 BAMBA Fest on West 238th Street between Broadway and Bailey Avenue, Claudy's Kitchen at 5981 Broadway served empanadas, and Home BX Steakhouse served oysters, wings, skewers, and eggplant croquettes.
Sunday, October 25 puts several of these places within walking distance of each other:
- NYC Bird Alliance walk in Van Cortlandt Park, 9 to 10:30 a.m.
- Halloween: Wags to Witches on the Van Cortlandt House Museum lawn, from 1 p.m.
- Dinner across Broadway at Broadway Joe's Pizza or Claudy's Kitchen, or a few blocks south at Home BX Steakhouse on West 238th Street.
Midweek, the Riverdale Neighborhood House calendar lists Bread Making with Arnie Adler on Thursday, October 22, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 5521 Mosholu Ave.
Construction on this corridor affects the buildings along it as much as the businesses. At Falchiere Group, we combine brokerage with renovation and construction management, so we track projects like the 242nd Street station work and the elevated-structure contract that runs through 2027. If you own property near Broadway in Riverdale or Kingsbridge and want a clear picture of how a long construction timeline could affect your plans, schedule a consultation.
