Pudding Rock, 1883. According to the NYPL description of this image... A truly immense glacial boulder, rising 25 feet in the air, and being 30 feet in diameter. On one side was a natural fire-place, where the Indians used to enjoy their corn feasts and oyster banquets. Under its cool shade, the Huguenots rested on their long Sabbath Day journeys from New Rochelle down to the old French Protestant Church in lower New York. After serving as a natural landmark to early settlers and to travelers in stage coaches en route from New York to Boston, it has finally been blasted into countless fragments so as no longer to "obstruct the march of civilization." Supposedly the local English farmers thought the massive rock looked like great big Christmas plum pudding, and so they named it the Pudding Rock.

3269-3273 3rd Avenue, 1934. The single story building at no. 3273 (at right) is a stationary and toy story that includes a doll hospital.

Franklin Ave (foreground) at the north east corner of East 166th Street, showing the Allendorf Residence, 1901. The Allendorf Residence was a wooded plot of land on a rocky slope. The plot included a wood-frame house seen in this photograph. In 1903 the New York City Armory Board chose this site for the location of a new permanent armory for the Second Battery. Designed by a former militia man and architect of institutional buildings, Charles C. Haight, the armory was the first of its kind in the Bronx. Constructed from 1908 to 1911, the asymmetrical building has bold massing and Gothic features. The building was used until the 1980s for the functions for which it was built. Today the armory houses a women's homeless shelter.

Loew's Burland Theatre, 1938. The Loew's Burland originally opened in 1896 as an open air theatre that was only open during the warm summer months. The theatre seen in this photograph opened in 1913 and had both an indoor and outdoor theatre that could house more than 3000 patrons total. Not originally opened as a Loew's theatre, it is not clear when it became part of that circuit. The theatre closed in 1971 and is currently occupied by a laundromat.

New York Public Library, Woodstock Branch, ca. 1915. This Bronx Carnegie Library was designed by the venerable firm of McKim, Mead & White and constructed in 1913-1914. The Renaissance Revival building shares many of the same features as other NYC Carnegies including brick with limestone cladding and the general shape and palazzo-style front. It is almost identical to the West 40th Street Branch, also designed by McKim, Mead & White, and finished a year before this one.

Boston Road, at the northeast corner of East 166th Street, showing the Elton Mansion, 1901. This plot is today occupied by the 1904-completed Morris High School.

Morris High School, ca. 1900. Morris High School was the first public high school in the Bronx when it opened in 1897. The school moved into it's C.B.J. Snyder-designed, Collegiate Gothic building in 1904. The school was notable for its large, church-like auditorium (now a designated interior landmark), which featured stained glass windows, steel-ribbed vaulted arches, and a pipe organ.

Prospect Theatre, April 26, 1938. Opened November 12, 1910, the Prospect Theatre was designed by Charles E. Horn, with interior decoration and murals by French artist, Arthur Brounet. When completed it was one of the largest theatres in the Bronx with seating for 1,600. The original offers of the venue were legitimate theatre, vaudeville, burlesque, and Yiddish theatre. By the 1930s the space was converted into a movie theatre (an all too common transformation of New York theatres). This April 1938 photograph captures the marquee advertises 'I Met My Love Again' with Joan Bennett and Henry Fonda. The theatre was operated by RKO for many years. The recently history of the still-standing building is unfortunately bleak. It is unclear exactly when the movie theatre went out of business, but the space was renovated in 2000 for a short-lived concert venue. While the restoration was comprehensive, the concert hall was an unsuccessful business venture that closed in 2006. Over the next few years the venue was occupied (also short-lived) by a church who largely gutted the interior. As of 2018, the building remains in rough and neglected condition, inside and out, with no concrete plans for its future.

Woodstock Presbyterian Church, 1938. This brick neo-Gothic church was constructed in 1906 for the Woodstock Presbyterian Church. That congregation occupied this building until it merged with the Home Street Presbyterian Church in 1938 and moved to their quaint wood-frame 1910 church at 1017 Home Street. Since 1938 the church had been owned by the St. Augustine Presbyterian Church, which was established that year. A popular community for African American and Puerto Rican neighbors, the church boomed during the 1940s and 1950s. The founder pastor, Edler Garnett Hawkins, was the first African-American moderator of the General Assembly of the United Presbyterian Church and active in the civil rights movement. St. Augustine is still an active congregation today.

Eagle Avenue Bridge, 1915. This 1915 photograph of 612 East 161st Street was taken from the Eagle Avenue Bridge. This steep hilly area of the Bronx necessitated a bridge over the road and the first crossing at this spot (seen here) was a steel structure with stairs allowing pedestrians to descend to the street below. The 1936 bridge, with one lane for traffic, a parking lane, and two sidewalks, no longer provides this access. (The older bridge also had much more attractive lamposts.) The buildings, such as this one, immediately adjacent to the bridge have long since been demolished and the steep slope of the hill here is much more visible today.

Each month the Landmarks Conservancy celebrates New York City’s extraordinarily rich architectural heritage by featuring a different building style or function. So, in September, as the new academic year begins, we’ll explore New York’s historic public schools designed by the prolific architect C.B.J. Snyder. With more than 1,500 schools and 1.1 million students, the New York City Board of Education is the nation’s largest public school system and one of the oldest. Snyder served as Superintendent of School Buildings for the Board of Education between 1891 and 1923. As Superintendent, he is credited with the design of more than 400 structural projects — including more than 140 elementary schools. Snyder worked in several styles, including Beaux-Arts, English Collegiate Gothic, Jacobean, and Dutch Colonial. He preferred mid-block locations away from busy and polluted avenues. One of his signature motifs was to design spaces for learning that would offer a respite from noisy streets and poverty.

3353 Third Avenue, ca. 1916. A James Butler grocery store, one of hundreds that dotted the five boroughs in the early decades of the 20th century.

Franklin Theatre, 1928. Built by successful theatre owner and producer B.S. Moss and named for Benjamin Franklin (Moss was a Franklin fanboy), the Beaux-Arts venue opened in 1921. Designed by famed theatre architect Eugene DeRosa, the space had a capacity for nearly 3000 patrons. Originally presenting Keith-Albee vaudeville and movies, the theatre eventually became strictly a movie house. In 1954 the theatre was robbed at gunpoint. While a movie was playing, the manager and two staff were forced to hand over $2,500 and their own jewelry, before being handcuffed to water pipes. The victims called out for almost an hour before they were heard by a few movie-goers. The theatre closed by the 1960s and the space was converted into a supermarket. The building was demolished in the 1980s and a garden apartment complex was constructed in the site.

Morris High School 1110 Boston Road, The Bronx 1904 Founded in 1897 as Peter Cooper High School, the first co-educational high school in New York City, the building that today houses the Morris High School was built in 1902 and is considered to be one of architect C.B.J. Snyder’s masterpieces. Noteworthy is the school’s façade in the popular Collegiate Gothic Revival style which evokes the belief that education, ideals, and beauty should be equally available to all students regardless of their neighborhood. In one of the finest interiors of any New York City school, Morris High has an elaborate 800-seat auditorium featuring Tudor arches, stained glass windows, highly decorative Gothic elements, and a W.W. Kimball Co. pipe organ. The auditorium was restored in 1991 and today is known as Duncan Hall. Among her famous alumni is Armand Hammer (industrialist), Milton Berle (comedian), and General Colin Powell (former U.S. Secretary of State). In 1982, the school building along with the surrounding area was designated as the Morris High School Historic District and in 1983 was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.