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.

Hupfel's Brewery, 1898. The South Bronx was once a brewing mecca. As a German immigrant community with more open space than Manhattan, dozens of brewers set up shop here in the mid to late 19th century. Originally owned by a Xavier Grant, the business was purchased by Anton Heupfel in 1863 who later passed it along to his sons. The brewery was located on a steep slope between St. Ann's Avenue to Eagle Avenue. This hill provided an excellent spot for digging out caves. These naturally insulated spaces were perfect for aging and storing the lager that the brewery produced. When Prohibition came to New York's breweries, many continued to produce "near beer" (and real beer surreptitiously and illegally). Adolph Hupfel Jr. had a different plan. He converted his family business into a "mushroom plantation." The beer-aging caves were also well suited to mushroom growing, and the business produced more than 200,000 pounds of the crop per year. The brewery closed in 1938, presumably after returning to beer production when Prohibition ended in 1933. The Hupfel brewery still stands in ruins, the only 19th-century Bronx brewery building still extant. The tall red brick building can still be seen boxed in by the newer low-rise industrial buildings on St. Ann's Avenue south of East 161st Street.

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.

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.

Third Ave. at 166th St., looking north. Shoring used in reconstruction of Third Ave, 1914. The Third Avenue elevated line was original constructed in 1875-1878 by the New York Elevated Railway Company. The line traveled from South Ferry at the lower tip of Manhattan to 129th Street at the northern tip. The extension over the Harlem River came in 1886, with the construction of more northern Bronx stations between 1887 and 1920, when it reached its final terminus at Gun Hill Road. The railway line was merged and bought out a number of times before 1905. Manhattan Railway took over control of the New York Elevated Railroad in 1879. In 1891 they also took over the Suburban Rapid Transit Company, which operated the line that crossed the swing bridge over the Harlem River. In 1902 it all became a part of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company, when Manhattan Railway leased the line for a period of 999 years! It was at this time the line was also electrified. In the 1910s, as part of the Dual Contracts that constructed a number of new subway lines, the Third Avenue line was triple-tracked (the work for that is depicted in this image). The third (center) track in the Bronx opened in 1916. The Third Avenue line in the Bronx outlived part of the elevated line that traveled through Manhattan. The Bronx section closed and was demolished in 1973.

Heinz 57 Warehouse, ca. 1910.

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.