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The Bronx: In Bits and Pieces

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The following review by Aleksandrs Rozens of Bill Twomey's The Bronx in bits and pieces was published in The Spring/Fall 2007 issue of The Bronx County Historical Society Journal, of which I am the editor. It is being sent to Amazon with Mr. Rozens permission.


The Bronx in bits and pieces. By Bill Twomey.
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Growing up in The Bronx, my friends and I would play many games in the parks and greens near Jerome Park Reservoir. Best of these was a rocky area between Claflin and Webb avenues near the Our Lady of Angels parish house. There the rocks and thick brushes were ideal for games boys usually play. There was hide and seek, imaginary battles with¬ space men ¬and cowboys and Indians or reenactments of war movies we had seen on television. The rocks in this park rose above street level and there were park benches that allowed a nice view of the Jerome Reservoir. Usually my grandmother would sit there while I played on the rock outcropping.¬
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Somewhere near this patch of rocks that to us grade schoolers seemed like a mountain but today is not much more than an outcropping was a plaque revealing that in that very area between Webb and Claflin George Washington's troops had an encampment.

I don't know if the copper or iron plaque is still there today, but it always made a big impression on me. Suddenly the history that I read about in books borrowed from the Eames Place public library seemed real and tangible. The men of Landmark history books with their colorful pictures ¬of ¬Revolutionary War¬ could have marched through The Bronx.
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Reading ¬Bill Twomey's The Bronx in bits and pieces made me remember that play area. It also rekindled an interest in The Bronx's role in the Revolutionary War era. Twomey's collection of historical vignettes offer more than a fascinating run through history. They¬ give meaning to the different names of neighborhoods and street signs and offer a sense of what The Bronx was, not just in its Revolutionary War era, but in the years after.
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This is a book that tells of a time when The Bronx was farmland and its rivers ¬had water mills. There have been maritime disasters off of its shores and artists have been lured to the islands off its coastline.
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What this book could have had but doesn't is a map for each chapter offering readers an idea of where different places are. But that's fine with me. I used a combination of city ¬bus and subway maps to get an idea of where Twomey took me.
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You can read The Bronx in bits and pieces starting from page one and work your way to page 280. But, ¬I have a feeling that many readers will hop around the book, exploring different chapters without any sequence and let their curiosity guide them. For those interested in the region's religious ¬history, there are chapters that look back at the borough's different places of worship. Some may find interest in details about ¬its schools, while athletes may be intrigued by the borough's history of sporting events and its different parks.
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Perhaps the most fascinating is a chapter focused on the history that unfolded along The Bronx's shoreline. Think of it: some of The Bronx sits on the Hudson River, then there are the East River and the Harlem River, the treacherous waters of the Hell Gate and also Long Island Sound. All border The Bronx.
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The first chapters I dipped into were pages devoted to the borough's old history. Most of us are familiar with the¬ Valentine-Varian House. It is ¬not in its original location. The house, today at Bainbridge and 208th Street, was located on what is now ¬Van Cortlandt Avenue East, ¬and Woodlawn Road, today's Bainbridge Avenue. The land was owned by the Dutch Reformed Church but then was sold to Isaac Valentine, a blacksmith, in 1758. Valentine had a blacksmith shop and tended a farm in the area and was part of the American militia during the Revolutionary War.
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Glovers Rock in Pelham Bay Park, meanwhile, was named for John Glover who commanded the Massachusetts 14th regiment. When the British landed at Rodman's Neck on October 18, 1776, they numbered 4,000 and were intent on advancing to White Plains. Glover, who was from Marblehead, Massachusetts, and his men engaged the British and their Hessian mercenaries on what is now Split Rock Road. They delayed the British forces long enough for Washington to complete his retreat from Manhattan to White Plains.
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Many of us know ¬Gun Hill Road today ¬as a busy thoroughfare. But before there was asphalt there was another world. Twomey tells us of a skirmish--again in the American Revolution--near Williams' Bridge, which ran over the Bronx River. The date was January 25, 1777 and George Washington's General Heath set cannon up at what today is the southeast corner of Woodlawn Cemetery--not far from the end of the Number 4 subway line today. Back in 1777, Heath fired two rounds at the British pushing them back. ¬Heath, based in Peekskill, directed raids in The Bronx, Twomey tells us.
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It is interesting to think what The Bronx then was in its unborn state. Take away busy Jerome Avenue, and Kingsbridge and Fordham roads. Strip away the buildings and the elevated Number 4, 5 and 6 lines. What did Heath think of the place? What did the British--having sailed across the Atlantic to fight in the colonies think of it? What did they see? Did the Bronx River flow in the same pattern that we know today? Are the wilds of Van Cortlandt Park any indication of what the borough was like?
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Fort Independence is where we have Giles Place today, but back then it was manned by Hessians, troops for hire from Germany. We also discover that Aaron Burr, then 21 years old, would make history in The Bronx's West Farms Square. Burr and forty of his men captured a British block house in 1779.

Twomey also¬ introduces us to Spy Oak--roughly where Westchester and East Tremont avenues are today. This old oak tree was used to hang a British spy. That spy was Lieutenant Nathan Palmer, who was hanged by General Israel Putnam. There are stories that this oak was haunted as Twomey ¬notes:¬
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The limb from which the spy was hanged allegedly withered when cursed by the doomed man and many a story has emerged from those passing this haunted locale. There was a much used well nearby and when two young girls passed the famed oak to fetch water from the well, a strange man in uniform approached them and when he was just a few feet away, he just disappeared.
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That sinister¬ tree was cut down in 1933. Many of us would expect such a ghost story from a tiny Massachusetts hamlet, but hearing it about a Bronx locale seems almost wonderfully out of context or out of place. Which makes Twomey's collection of historical vignettes even more engrossing. Our opinions, expectations and characterization of The Bronx are challenged. Could Edgar Allan Poe--while staying at his cottage in The Bronx--have heard of this local legend of Spy Oak? Was he inspired by it?
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Closer to our time,¬ today, ¬we learn of a Quonset-hut village set up in The Bronx. These were pre-fab homes for families between 1946 and 1952. I doubt any of these exist today, but I sure wish they did. What an amazing museum they'd make. Back then, they were used by the New York City Housing Authority to house veterans with ¬families. These units were known as the Bruckner Houses and then there were the Castle Hill homes. These homes had a wall dividing them in half and housed two families. Some even had small gardens.
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Ever wonder why homes in Parkchester, built by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, have slightly larger bricks? The insurance giant--also behind notable projects like Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town--found it could save money by using larger building materials. Twomey says that builders cut ten percent off their labor costs by using larger bricks.
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Having visited City Island many times, explored its coast with a rented motor boat and walked along the ¬Hudson¬ River near Spuyten Duyvil, ¬I was curious about what Twomey uncovered about The Bronx's coastline.
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Edgar Allan Poe--whose cottage is at the junction of Kingsbridge Road and the Grand Concourse--headed to the High Bridge span that crosses the Harlem River. The High Bridge carried iron pipes with fresh water to Manhattan as part of the Croton Reservoir system that opened in the early 1840s, but the tall span was a bit of a¬ destination because of its¬ great view. Hart Island, off City Island, may in fact be Heart Island. The British naval cartographers charted is as Heart Island in 1775, maybe, as Twomey notes, because it is heart shaped. During the Civil War, Hart Island was a training facility and the city would later buy it for a potter's field. Hart Island was also used as a spot to isolate New Yorkers infected by Yellow Fever. Later it housed drug addicts. The Jesuits--who we know best for their Fordham University--built a chapel on Hart Island in 1939. The history of Hart Island gets more colorful. During World War Two, German prisoners of war were kept on the island, and later it was used as a Nike missile base during the Cold War.
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The Bronx's¬ North Brother Island is some 2,000 feet off the borough's shore and was claimed by the Dutch West India Company in 1614. A lighthouse was built in 1869 and guided vessels through Hell Gate until the 1950s. After World War Two, there was student housing on North Brothers for GIs going to college. Not far from North Brother Island the paddle wheeler, General Slocum, had a notorious accident: ¬a fire¬ in 1904 ¬killed 1,358 people out for a day trip who were members¬ of a Lutheran Church in Manhattan.
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Rikers Island, believe it or not, is part of The Bronx. The island, with its view of LaGuardia Airport's runways, is best known as the site for the city jail. It became a prison when the Blackwell Island penitentiary on Randalls Island fell into disrepair. The prison on Rikers Island was build in 1932. You may want to get a nautical map for some locales in Twomey's book. For example, near City Island there is Rat Island, which was a haven for writers and artists in the 1930s.

For many of us who grew up in The Bronx, Twomey's collection of vignettes of the borough's past will be a fun read and it is sure to confirm what we always knew. The borough is a rich brew¬ of history. Little did we know that it goes back to the birth of our nation. Who would have thought that George Washington's men raced back and forth over what today is Pelham Parkway or Fordham Road? For those who did not grow up in the borough, Twomey's The Bronx in bits and pieces will challenge the negative associations of the borough and may even kick up a more positive interest. You can almost imagine tour groups on buses cruising through The Bronx, searching out clues to¬ its Dutch, Colonial America, Civil War and 20th century histories. For me, it reinvigorated a desire to explore the old neighborhood again.

¬ Aleksandrs Rozens
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The Bronx In Bits And Pieces is an thoroughly entertaining book about one of the most special places in the United States The Bronx. Savor Bill Twomey's wealth of knowledge of the Bronx that will delight you for many years.

As a Bronx native, its a pleasure to read this book. It captures the feeling of Bronx neighborhoods, the people and the sense of belonging that I fear we've lost as many of us have moved away. Thank you, Bill for a job well done!