by Bill Twomey (Author)
Once a part of Westchester County, the Bronx was annexed to New York City in the nineteenth century. The South Bronx came to be defined as the area in the southwest part of the borough between the Harlem River and the Bronx River, with Fordham Road generally considered as the northern boundary. Less urban than nearby neighborhoods in Manhattan, the South Bronx attracted countless numbers of immigrants arriving in New York City in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Choosing to raise their families in what was then a country setting, they helped to make the South Bronx one of the most culturally diverse sections of New York. Churches, schools, ballparks, and streets of the old neighborhoods come back to life on the pages of South Bronx. This book revisits the Third Avenue trolley, Old West Farms, the Third Avenue El, tar beach, and the cobblestone roadways of a bygone era. The breweries and old-time taverns that were once such a vital part of the culture of the South Bronx are found anew in these pages. The Schnorer Club, the Elks Club on the Concourse, the Concourse Plaza Hotel, and Yankee Stadium come to life in this stunning collection of more than two hundred images.