History of the Bronx
By Art Landes with Richard M. Sherwin
Origins of the Bronx
The location of the now Borough of New York City is south of Westchester County, northeast and east of the Borough of Manhattan, north of the Borough of Queens across the East River. Today the Bronx contains the poorest congressional district in the United States as well as middle-income neighborhoods like Riverdale, Fieldston, Spuyten Duyvil, Schuylerville, Pelham Bay, Pelham Gardens, Morris Park, and Country Club. Some buildings, almost abandoned in the last 30 years, now have apartments selling for $350,000 — while gunfire and drug deals are always only a few blocks away.
The name Bronx originated with the Swedish-born Jonas Bronck, who established the first settlement in the area as part of the New Netherland colony in 1639.
Recent History
The Bronx was mostly a rural area and then in the late 19th century it grew into a railroad suburb.
The South Bronx was a manufacturing center for many years and was noted as a center of piano manufacturing in the early part of the 20th century. There were 63 piano factories employing more than 5,000 workers.
Bronx Piano Factory in Mott Haven
Grandeur of the Bronx
The Grand Concourse was once called the “Park Avenue of the middle class” because it is lined with art deco buildings. It has magnificent proportions comparable to even those of the Champs-Elysees in France. It has also been compared to Miami Beach’s Ocean Drive because of its architectural style.
After World War I extensions of the Subway contributed to increases in population. Immigrants came to the Bronx, resulting in a major boom in residential construction. Included in the groups were Irish, Italian, Jewish, French, German and Polish immigrants. By 1937, 592,185 Jews lived in the Bronx, making up 43.9% of the population. Over the next 70 years, the number plummeted. In 2011, 54,000 Jews lived in the Borough.
Many synagogues still stand but most have been converted to other uses. My synagogue, Temple Adath Israel on 169th Street and the Grand Concourse, became a Seventh Day Adventist Church in 1963 but the building still remains with the Temple Adath Israel name still embossed at the top of the building.
Demographic Shift
After World War II white flight accelerated, and migration of ethnic and racial minorities continued. The South Bronx went from being two-thirds non-Hispanic white in 1950 to being two-thirds black or Puerto Rican in 1960.
The Sudden Changes in Co-Op City
From the early 1960’s to the early 1980’s the quality of life changed. Historians say that it was caused by:
- The construction of Co-Op City, which drained middle-class residents from older tenement buildings in the borough’s southern and western fringes.
- The Cross-Bronx Expressway destroyed existing residential neighborhoods and created instant slums.
- The development of partially subsidized high-rise public housing projects cut into the architecturally middle-class milieu of the borough.
- Redlining became prevalent. That is when banks refuse to give families or small businesses a loan because they are in a particular area and therefore are considered a poor financial risk. That also cut into the moral fabric of life.
- Intentional reduction of municipal services such as firefighting or refuse disposal.
- Rent Control laws made it less profitable and more costly for landlords to maintain existing buildings with their existing tenants than to abandon or destroy those buildings. The more successful builders left the borough to go to the burgeoning borough of Queens.
The Bronx is Burning
Parts of the Bronx were literally on fire.
The phrase was attributed to Howard Cosell during Game 2 of the 1977 World Series between the New York Yankees and the LA Dodgers. During the game ABC television switched to a generic helicopter shot of the exterior of Yankee Stadium, where an uncontrolled fire could clearly be seen burning in the area surrounding the park. Many believe Cosell intoned, “There it is ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning”. Later it was determined that without Cosell or the other announcer actually phrasing it that way, that’s what the video inferred.
CAUSE OF THE DETERIORATION
The early 1980’s saw South Bronx property values plummet to record lows. Large number of tenements and multi-story, multi-family apartment buildings were left vacant by white flight AND sat abandoned and unsalable for long periods. Middle class minority group members also started to migrate out of the borough.
This was coupled by a stagnant economy and an extremely high unemployment rate. This attracted criminals, including street gangs, which were exploding in number with large-scale drug dealing. The abandoned property also attracted large numbers of squatters including poor people, drug addicts and the mentally ill.
EXPLANATION OF THE TIME PERIOD
The 1960’s can be remembered as the age of riots. In the Bronx many resented the government, the police and firefighters. That led to a high rate of fires. In the deprived, impoverished world of the South Bronx, people believed it was better to burn the neighborhood, called “the ghetto,” than to continue to acquiesce in its everyday life.
Revitalization
Since the late1980’s significant development has occurred with the creation of affordable housing under a “Ten-year housing plan,” mostly in the South Bronx. Some subway lines actually saw an increase in ridership. Retail chains such as Marshalls, Staples and Target opened stores in the area. Banks opened branches, rising from 106 in 1997 to 149 in 2007. Several boutique and chain hotels have opened in recent years in the South Bronx. New developments include the Bronx General Post office at 149th Street and the Grand Concourse (also known as The Grand Boulevard and Boulevard of Dreams). The Grand Concourse is a 5.2 mile main street in the west Bronx. It’s one of New York City’s great streets, steeped in history. It’s now being converted into a marketplace, with boutiques, restaurants, bodegas and office space.
The Kingsbridge Armory was redeveloped as the Kingsbridge National Ice Center.
In 2006, a $220 million project was begun for capital improvements and natural restoration of 70 Bronx Parks.
There are four primary shopping centers in the Bronx: The Hub at 149th Street; the Gateway Center, previously known as the Bronx Terminal Market, just south of Yankee Stadium; Southern Boulevard in the East Bronx; and the classic Fordham Road area.
The Fordham Road area
The Lowe’s Paradise
The Lowe’s Paradise, a staple for graduations, rock shows and first-run movies, has undergone several renovations. The venerable theater had a ceiling that recreated the nightime star-studded sky. The giant theater, one of the biggest in all NYC, also featured a third level so high up that you could be necking or more with no one watching. Its famous ceiling was eventually recreated in several Las Vegas casinos.
Krum’s candy store/restaurant
Across from the theater was the famed Krum’s candy store/restaurant, which featured great food and deserts.
Before and after a movie, or during holidays, this family run bakery had waiting lines that stretched for blocks or up two flights of stairs. Today Fordham Fried Seaford and Chicken occupies the sit of the old Krums.
Alexander’s
Their motto was, “Uptown it is Alexander’s”
If shopping was your thing, Alexander’s featured kncokoffs of upperclass clothes, appliances and other budget goods for the lower middle class of the area. Alexander’s also expanded to all the boroughs, Long Island and New Jersey, only to be sold many years later for the value of the real estate. A mini-mall opened at its location on Fordham Road and the Grand Concourse.
During the 1950s and 60s, the Bronx led all boroughs in students advancing into college. In fact, it produced more judges, scientists, and professors than almost any geographical area.
The Bronx High School of Science, Morris HS, Celia Cruz Bronx High School of Music, High School of Violin and Dance, Columbus HS, Evander Childs, Roosevelt HS, The Bronx High School for Law, Government and Justice, Herbert Lehman High School and The High School of American Studies are some of the better known high schools.
Colleges include Fordham University, Manhattan College, Lehman College (previously known as Hunter College), Hostos Community College, Bronx Community College, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Mercy College and the State University of New York Maritime College. Maybe only 50% of those school still exist today.
Sports
Yankee Stadium is located at 163rd Street and River Avenue. It used to be at 161stStreet and River Avenue but was torn down. The new stadium was built on what was Macomb’s Dam Park, which included Babe Ruth Stadium where I played baseball in my high school years. Macomb’s Dam Park also included a baseball field complex that was directly to the west of third base inside. The second Yankee Stadium was a large rehabilitation of the original park built in 1923.
The change in demographics late in the 1960s resulted in more soccer fields, increased basketball courts and weirdly even some ice hockey rinks near the new Yankee Stadium.
New York City’s oldest tennis club is NOT in Queens, but still right near the new Yankee Stadium. The 100-year-old public club was built because Jews and Italians were not allowed in other clubs. It was designed like those clubs, with artificial grass, clay playing surfaces, an eatery and ample parking. It is even nicer today. Modernized after its slight move away from Yankee Stadium.
A true story: Baseball fields are built so that the sun sets in the west, and will not be in the eyes of the batter. Instead, It would be in the eyes of the fielder. Therefore, left handers are known as Southpaws because the way the field is set up means that the left hand faces the south. However, the field behind Yankee Stadium the field was built so that the sun would be in the eyes of the batter. Pitching for Taft High School, I once struck out nine batters in a row because the sun was in their eyes. Only one umpire would be assigned to some of the High School games and he would be stationed behind the pitcher SO THE SUN WAS NOT IN HIS EYES.
The Yankee Stadium neighborhood circa 1950 and 1960
Famous Buildings
Lewis Morris Complex
The Executive Towers
The Fish Building
The Concourse Plaza
The Concourse Plaza was a luxury hotel at Grand Concourse and 161st Street in the Bronx. If you could afford it, the main ball room offered weddings, bar mitzvahs AND political events.
Groundbreaking for the 12-story hotel took place in 1922, and it was opened in a lavish ceremony on October 22, 1923.
New York Governor Al Smith, the guest speaker for the event, praised the hotel: “After seeing this new structure, I am convinced that anything can go in the Bronx.”
The hotel maintained a grand ballroom; four smaller banquet halls, and two meeting/dinner rooms. For years it was the best location in the Bronx for social, business, and fraternal events.
Tito Puente’s band played in the grand ballroom every New Year’s Eve for a dance that drew 1200 people. Political campaigns would stop by the hotel for rallies and fund-raising events, and one of the most whimsical events occurred when John F. Kennedy, the Democratic Party candidate for the U.S. presidency, was greeted at the hotel on November 5, 1960, with a sign that read “The home of the knishes thinks Jack is delicious.”
It also was the place that sports teams like the Yankees, football Giants and their competition often stayed. When you had a GO pass (general organization pass from your school) you could get into games for 35 cents.
For a long time, this was the most famous place for High Holy Day services for wealthy Jews in the area. Right across the street was the Joyce Kilmer Park, where 1000s of Jews could be dressed in their holiday best once a year. At different times of the year, you could see kids sledding during show storms or bathing in the fountains at either end of the park in the summer.
Today, the hotel is a senior citizens residence owned and operated by the New York City municipal government.
Bronx Newspapers, Magazines
While the borough (not Brooklyn) reportedly developed 75% of the great New York newspapermen, many started their careers at The Bronx Press-Review. The newspaper was established in 1940, and remains the longest-publishing weekly newspaper in the Bronx.
Another newspaper, The Bronx Home News, was originally known as The Home News. James O’Flaherty, Jr. founded it in 1907 and began printing that Jan. 26. It was published in the Bronx and it served the Bronx and northern Manhattan. Dorothy Schiff, president and publisher of the New York Post, purchased it in 1945 and it merged with the Post in 1948.
Back to the Bronx is the only consistently run magazine and web site available today.
A Sample of the famous people of the Bronx
Former General and Secretary of State Colin Powell was a proud graduate of Morris HS.
Eddie Carmel – the giant in the circus was from the Bronx. (I actually saw him in the halls of Taft High School where he was a fellow student).
Dion DiMucci of Dion and Belmonts, Larry Chance and the Earls…who lived near the Earl Theater… Stanley Kubrick–film director, Vic Ziegel – sports writer, award-winning columnists, and bestselling authors Paul Sann and Mark Sherwin all hail from the Bronx.
Neil deGrasse Tyson – director of the Hayden Planetarium, Sholom Aleichem – author, James Baldwin – playwright, Edgar Allen Poe – author, Mark Twain – author, Herman Wouk – author, Joey Bishop – entertainer, Red Buttons comedian and actor, George Carlin comedian, Tony Curtis – actors, Peter Falk, Chazz Palminteri, –actor, Robert Klein – comedian, Jerry Orbach – actor, Carl Reiner –comedian, Regis Philbin, Calvin Klein – clothing designer, Ralph Lauren – clothing designer. Singer-actor Jennifer Lopez.
Billy Joel, Al Pacino, Bobby Darin, Lauren Bacall, Kerry Washington, and our favorite singer Eydie Gorme.
In September of 1927 President John Fitzgerald Kennedy’s family moved from Brookline, Mass., by private railroad car to the Riverdale section of the Bronx.
He makes the list of famous people who lived in the Bronx. And it also should also include a tow-headed little athlete named Dickie Sherwin, from Sheridan Avenue… who would eventually marry beautiful Susan Davis, of the Grand Concourse….at the historic Concourse Plaza.
Other Bronx Highlights and low lights
In the 1960, an infamous gang called the Fordham baldies allegedly terrorized the entire borough for a few years. Featured in the fictitious movie the Wanderers , I am not sure they ever left Fordham Road…no less conquer the entire borough,
Aside from The Wanderers, there are other famous Movies About the Bronx
- The Warriors
- A Bronx Tale
- Fort Apache the Bronx
- Bonfire of the Vanities
- The Joker – according to the movie lived on Anderson Ave in the Bronx and the staircase scenes WERE filmed at the staircase that connected Anderson Avenue at the top to Shakespeare Avenue at the bottom in the neighborhood where I grew up.
Want to read more? Here are some books about the Bronx:
Bitter Bronx
Bonfire of the Vanities
The Beautiful Bronx
Boulevard of Dreams
Bronx Requiem
The Old Neighborhood
Kramer vs Kramer
Just Kids from The Bronx
Billy Bathgate
Engine Company 82
Art’s Favorite Yankee Stadium Story:
When my son was two years old, I decided to take him to his first MLB game. The Mayor’s Trophy game was between the Yankees and the Mets. We lived on 178thStreet and the Grand Concourse so it was easy to take the D train from the Tremont Avenue Station to the 161st Street Yankee Stadium stop.
I knew my 2-year-old son could not stay more than two innings so I bought tickets in the bleachers to allow for a quick get-away. So, the game starts and most of the crowd in the bleachers were of Latin-American heritage. They were obviously speaking in Spanish. My son grew up watching Sesame Street and they do teach Spanish on that show. My son hearing the Spanish around him went into speaking the Spanish he knew – uno, dos, tres etc. I laughed but those around us probably did not understand what was going on.
TIME AND AGAIN
On a recent tour of the borough last year, a group of Bronx reunion people raised in the 1950s and 1960s discovered a slew of new high-rise office buildings near the new Yankee Stadium.
And driving by the Fordham Road section of the Bronx, we saw the classic main street of the North Bronx being rehabilitated.
Where the 1950s version of fast food, Nedicks, and Addie Valens and G&R Bakery were, there is now a huge McDonalds and a very nice Caribbean, Mediterranean and Hispanic food court.
In the 60s, you could go on the roof of a building across from the Yankee Stadium and make out and watch the game.
If you are in the outfield of the new Yankee Stadium, you can see people on the rooftops a few blocks away, where you once again see blankets and binoculars, as if it were 1956.