History

Welcome2TheBronx to Receive Historic District Council’s Grassroots Preservation Award

This year, along with other organizations and residents from throughout New York City, Welcome2TheBronx™ will be receiving the Historic District Council Grassroots Preservation Award—the very organization who has been involved in the creation of almost all of the 110 historic districts in New York City.

According to HDC Deputy Director Nadezhda Williams, Welcome2TheBronx™ was chosen, “as the 2015 Grassroots Award Friend in the Media winner for your coverage of landmark and land use issues in The Bronx including the sad story of PS 31.”

In the Bronx, Art Fills an Abandoned Neighborhood Landmark – Camera Obscura – Curbed NY

For a community that has only in recent years emerged from the fires, blight, and civic neglect that once scarred the South Bronx landscape, the courthouse’s reopening felt a bit like a homecoming. “It’s like they are seeing an old family member, long lost,” observed Regine Basha, who curated the exhibit for No Longer Empty. “This isn’t our building—it belongs to the community. We just set up the structures through which we could listen to the stories.”

Bartow-Pell Mansion; The Jewel Of The Northeast Bronx

Hidden from plain view, Bartow-Pell Mansion has been sitting inside what is now modern-day Pelham Bay Park—New York City’s largest park at 2,772 acres—since 1842 after 6 years of construction.

You’ve probably passed right by it along Shore Road as you pass Split Rock Golf Course taking the back road into Westchester or simply on your way to Orchard Beach.

It is a place steeped with history that not only occupies the mansion but the land it rests upon and even Pelham Bay Park itself.

42 Years Ago Today The Third Avenue El Took Its Last Ride

Although long gone from our borough, the Third Avenue El continues to live in the consciousness of Bronxites near and far.

42 years ago today, the Third Avenue El ran for the last time and eventually dismantled leaving parts of Melrose without access to the subway and swaths of Morrisania, Tremont and other areas it ran through without any service at all. Take a ride and watch a historical video of the beloved Third Ave El.

Sneak Peak for Tonight! Inside The Abandoned Old Bronx Borough Courthouse: Gothamist

Tonight is the night we’ve been waiting for! From 6PM – 9PM The Old Bronx Courthouse will finally open to the public for the next three months for No Longer Empty’s ‘When You Cut Into The Present The Future Leaks Out’ featuring the works of 27 artists scattered throughout 3 levels of this gorgeous landmark building.

Going Green and Curbing Gentrification: How the Bronx is Doing it Differently | 6sqft

On the heels of the many articles on The Bronx, with the majority being pro gentrification/developer focused pieces, here comes a refreshing article over at 6sqft that talks about how The Bronx is doing things differently and working to curb gentrification.

It’s not everyday that we get an article acknowledging that we are, in fact, waging a war against the powers that be that want gentrification. There are many that do not understand the implications of gentrification and think that it can mean something good or be something different.

The Grand Concourse, Boulevard of Bronx Dreams

“THE Grand Concourse, the four-and-a-half-mile boulevard that for much of its life was described as the Champs-Élysées of the Bronx, has often sat for its portrait, as have many of the handsome buildings along its flanks. But there is one image that captures in poignant fashion exactly what the street represented in the mid-20th century.

It is a grainy black-and-white snapshot of a boy named Sam Goodman, a third-generation boulevard resident, wearing a dressy coat and hat and standing in front of the Lorelei fountain in Joyce Kilmer Park. Anyone who knew the area would recognize the luscious white-marble concoction of mermaids and riverfront siren, which had been created in Germany in 1893 and brought to the Bronx with much fanfare six years later.

Netflix & Baz Luhrmann’s ‘The Get Down’ Cast Revealed; No Latinos To Be Found

So much for Baz Lurhmann’s casting call seeking African American or Latino males.

The Bronx and Hip Hop community has been abuzz about Baz Luhrmann’s Netflix series ‘The Get Down’, due out in August 2016, ever since it was first announced several months ago. Most of the chatter was whether or not outsiders would get our story right (Welcome2TheBronx was the first to raise this issue) and now it seems we may have been right: Not one Latino cast member was introduced this week.

Historic Poe Cottage Now Open 4 Days A Week

The 203 year old house in the village of Fordham where the great poet Edgar Allan Poe spent the last years of his life is now open 4 days a week for all to enjoy and absorb the history of this celebrated man and his life. Visitors can now enjoy a visit to the cottage on Thursdays and Fridays from 10AM – 3PM, Saturdays from 10AM – 4PM, and Sundays from 1PM – 5PM.

More details below in the press release issued by the Bronx County Historical Society who manages this great, historic treasure of our borough:

Press Release: Exhibition opens at Old Bronx Borough Courthouse on April 23

New York, March 20, 2015 – No Longer Empty (NLE) is pleased to present When You Cut into the Present the Future Leaks Out at the Old Bronx Borough Courthouse. Curated by Regine Basha for NLE, the exhibition is one of seven projects to receive the Neighborhood Challenge Award. Built 1905–1914 and attributed to architects Michael John Garvin and Oscar Florianus Bluemner, the Courthouse, once boasting granite floors, lavish stairways, and bronze doors, remains adorned by a statue of Lady Justice. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in Bronx County, the Beaux Arts-style building has been shuttered for 37 years.