Lillian Edelstein, 2F
Lillian Edelstein, a self-described “housewife,” became the leader of the East Tremont Neighborhood Association and kept up a valiant fight against Robert Moses and the Cross Bronx Expressway.
A Bronx de Chirico
I chose this photograph for the strangeness of the long, sloping, vanishing building, which makes me think of Giorgio de Chirco’s Mystery and Melancholy of a Street.
Two East Tremont buildings
Two of the East Tremont buildings destroyed to make way for the Cross Bronx Expressway.
Four Duryea’s
City Island, the Bronx.
The shadows
A kid stuck minding the baby carriage, and lots of long shadows in the foreground.
Southern Boulevard spect-op
“Excuse me, mister, whaddaya doin’?” “Takin’ pictures for the tax records.” “Whaddaya, gonna make me pay more taxes?” “No ma’am, it’s just for the records. It’s a WPA project.”
Tip-Top Diner
A Bronx diner. “Tip-top” goes back to 1702.
Recently updated
Some history for the Loring Grill.
Loring Grill
A Fordham Road diner.
Recently updated
Nick DeMaio and the Eldorado, now with a 1974 advertisement.
Recently updated
Nick Demaio and the Eldorado: Now with a color photograph of the Bronx bar and the Third Avenue El.
Bronx games
Shuffleboard and horseshoes.
The Oteris and Marty
Arthur Avenue: a baccalà store, and two butcher shops, one where the opening scene of Marty was filmed.
On Arthur Avenue
Arthur Avenue Noodle & Macaroni Manufacturing.
On Arthur Avenue
Women in hats (a mother–daughter pair?), two women in aprons, a man with a cap, a window full of . . . cans of olive oil maybe?, a mystery storefront with . . . fabrics on display?, sawhorses, a sidewalk entrance to a cellar, a tough customer with a tie, improbable watering cans, and a baby carriage.
Recently updated
A Bronx candy store and the meaning of “light lunch.”
A Bronx candy store
Right across from a school.
Density and amenities
I like urban density. The southwest corner of the intersection of East Fordham Road and Jerome Avenue was full of it. And look at all the amenities: a mailbox, telephone booths, and public transportation.
Recently updated
Nick Demaio and the Eldorado, now with photographs from a wedding party’s visit to the El D.
Recently updated
Nick DeMaio and the Eldorado, now with an artifact.
“Home of Piccalilli”
A Bronx tax photo.
Outtakes (11)
“Uptown, it’s Alexander’s.”
Lunch plans
Lunch in the good ol’ Bronx.
Recently updated
Nick DeMaio and the Eldorado: Now with a c. 1939–1941 photograph.
Recently updated
Nick DeMaio and the Eldorado: Now with a photograph of a BAR sign, salvaged by Fordham students after the El D’s destruction.
The Bronx
“The more I hear of them cozy little towns, the better I like the Bronx.”
A corner in Marty
I’ve long wanted to track down this corner hardware store. Why? Because it’s there, in the Bronx, in Marty (dir. Delbert Mann, 1955).
Recently updated
A post about Nick DeMaio and the Eldorado, now with photographs of the Bronx bar and its owner.
Represent
“He can’t look a child in the face and justify why this country is throwing them in cages, so instead he tells us I should go back to the great borough of the Bronx and make it better, and that’s what I’m here to do.”
A bookstore in the Bronx
Tomorrow is Independent Bookstore Day. And in The Bronx it’s opening day for a new independent bookstore, The Lit. Bar.