19th CENTURY BRONX

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19th CENTURY BRONX

"19th CENTURY BRONX"

This is the corner of 159th Street and Washington Avenue. The 42nd Precinct can be seen partially to the right. To the left brick apartment buildings and frame houses can be seen with stores on the street level. This photo taken in 1909 also shows us delivery horse wagons lined outside waiting to make more domestic trips. - Photo courtesy of The Bronx County Historical Society

Here's another photo taken in 1909. This one shows work being done on the Grand Concourse. This is the tunnel that would eventually carry traffic along 175th Street. - Photo courtesy of The Bronx County Historical Society

From Westchester Avenue at Westchester Square, looking northwest, we can see the buildings and stores on E. Tremont Avenue as seen in this photo taken in 1910. Among the businesses were a Knickerbocker Market, the Westchester News Company, a bar, a theater, a bakery, a restaurant, Peterson's Drugstore and a grocery store. A horse trough and a drinking fountain can be seen in the center. There were no elevated train tracks or train station yet. All the buildings on E. Tremont Avenue are still there to this day, although most are operating as other businesses. - Photo courtesy of The Bronx County Historical Society

On Soundview and Lafayette Avenues back in 1921 was a very busy place. It was the site of The Fuellner Family Farm. Here we see some members of the family gathering tomatoes to be packed in the wooden crates sitting in the field in the center to the right. The apartment buildings in the background are on Eastern Boulevard. Today, the James Monroe Houses (projects) sit in this exact spot and Eastern Boulevard became Bruckner Boulevard. - Photo courtesy of The Bronx County Historical Society

Here's the Huntington Free Library on Westchester Square as it looked in this photo in 1922. Reading could be done inside this charming Victorian Gothic building but books were not allowed to be borrowed or removed from its place. This library still stands today. It is located next to the Apple Bank. - Photo courtesy of The Bronx County Historical Society.

Take a look at this aerial view of the Fuellner Farm in the middle of the 1940s when this photograph was taken. It was located on Soundview and Lafayette Avenues. Most of the old buildings are gone and most of the top soil of this farm was removed and used in the new Parkchester development a few miles away. Today, the James Monroe Houses are in this exact location. - Photo courtesy of The Bronx County Historical Society

Fordham and University Avenue Trolley 1946

This is Fordham Road at University Avenue in 1946. This was a very active trolley car stop. The "B" in front of the trolley car would let its passengers know that this was a Bailey Avenue Line. Notice the street was paved with cobblestone or Belgian Blocks as they were called. Others just sit quietly across the street in Devoe Park . - Photo courtesy of The Bronx County Historical Society.

Here's New York Yankees great Joe Dimaggio holding the hand of Mrs. Babe Ruth as The Bronx Borough President James J. Lyons looks on at the dedication ceremonies of Babe Ruth Plaza in 1949. The plaza was built at 161st Street near Yankee Stadium and it's still there today. - Photo courtesy of The Bronx County Historical Society

This is Rochambeau Avenue and the corner of 206th Street as seen in this photo from 1950. These are some of the elegant apartment buildings that were built back in the 1920s. The apartments were very spacious and had 4 to 6 rooms. They were a close walking distance away from the IND "D" Grand Concourse subway line. However, many residents started owning their own cars and parking space was begining to be scarce. - Photo courtesy of The Bronx County Historical Society

"19th CENTURY BRONX"

Back in the 1800s the village of West Farms was a very pleasant little village. Despite its name, West Farms was not a farming community by any chance.

Here's A Brief History of The Bronx in The 19th Century:

1813 - Mattias Lopez, starts the first newspaper to be published in The Bronx called "The Westchester Patriot" in West Farms.

1841 - Archibishop John Hughes, establishes St. John's College, today's Fordham University, the first institution of higher learning in The Bronx.

1841 - Jordan L. Mott, bought a piece of land in the South West Bronx. He also invented the coal burning stove, a modern marvel of its time. He passed away in 1866. In those days, the Mott Haven Section of The Bronx was his town.

1846 - Edgar Allan Poe, moves to the Village of Fordham, created by the presence of a railroad stop there, in a vain attempt to cure his wife, Virginia, of Tuberculosis. While living there, he writes"Annabel Lee" and "The Bells". It's his last home. He dies in 1849.

1861 - Gas lighting is first introduced in The Bronx.

1863 - The Iron Dome of the Capitol Building in Washington, DC, is manufactured in the Janes and Beebe (later Janes and Kirtland) Iron Works on 149th Street and Brook Avenue, then shipped to Washington, DC by boat for assembly on site.

1865 - Woodlawn Cemetery is opened.

1867 - Leonard W. Jerome, opens the Jerome Park Racetrack. There, he begins the "Belmont Stakes", which is run there until the park closes in 1890. To attract wealthy New Yorkers to the track, he builds what we all know today as Jerome Avenue.

1874 - The towns of Morrisania, West Farms and Kingsbridge are annexed to New York City, becoming the 23rd and 24th Wards. These Wards are placed under the control of the Department of Public Parks.

1884 - Over what was once the route of Tibbett's Brook, Mosholu Parkway is constructed. Mosholu means "smooth stones".

1886 - The Third Avenue EL (elevated train) is extended into The Bronx.

1887 - Electricity is introduced in The Bronx.

1897 - The first public high school, later named Morris High School is established.

1898 - The City of Greater New York is created as a federation of five boroughs with the 23rd and 24th Wards becoming the borough of The Bronx. Louis F. Haffen is elected the first Borough President.

1899 - The Bronx Zoo, the largest zoo in America is designed by Heins and LaFarge.

This is the Dog-EE Den Drive-In-Restaurant in 1956. It was located on Bruckner Boulevard near White Plains Road. The price of a meatball hero was 70 cents. A veal cutlet parmagiana was $1.00. If you wanted lettuce and tomatoes with any of your sandwiches it would have set you back an extra 10 cents. A large soda was 25 cents and a small soda was 15 cents. - Photo courtesy of The Bronx County Historical Society.