"Echo Park (Bronx): An early view of the small park on the west side of Valentine Avenue, between East Tremont and East Burnside Avenues, ca.1900." This park was called Echo Park for more than a hundred years due to the echo that can be heard between the two large rock masses that monopolize the landscape. The park was renamed Richman Park in 1973 to honor Julius J. Richman, who served on Mayor Lindsey's West Bronx Neighborhood Task Force and was chairman of the Twin Parks Association and the Urban Action Task Force. In 1997 the 'Echo' part of the original name was added back parenthetically.

2050 Grand Concourse, ca. 1910. By the early 20th century the Lodge #871 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks of The Bronx was one of the largest community of Elks in the city. Needing a larger space, they commissioned architect James Riely Gordon, who created a Italian Renaissance style clubhouse. The building's design included a clubroom, lounging room, billiard room, library, Secretary's room, buffet, a gallery that sat 670, and a roof garden. The Elks remained in this building until the 1980s. Later tenants included a local non-profit, but the building was abandoned by 1995. In 2008, St. Barnabas Hospital announced plans to demolish the old Elks Lodge and erect a 10-story facility on the site. As of spring 2018 the lot is empty and overgrown with a 'for sale' sign on the fence.

"250 East 178th Street. Apartment building. Detail of corner window, 1937."

2121 Grand Concourse, 1936. Designed by the architect of so many Grand Concourse Art Deco apartment houses, Horace Ginsbern, 2121 is called by the AIA Guide to New York City "the most stylish on the Concourse." The zigzag facade and corner wrapping windows are visually striking in a way that even the other sleek, classy Art Deco buildings on the Concourse can not compare. Don McGregor, a graphic novel pioneer and Marvel Comics writer and editor (he is well known for his work on the Black Panther) once lived here.

"4192-4194 Park Avenue, adjoining the S.E. corner of E. Tremont Avenue, showing an abandoned, old frame house, 1938." The wood-frame home seen at right was likely demolished soon after this photograph was taken. The ground level windows are covered with posters and ads, such is the life of an abandoned storefronts. The larger sign just below the dormer windows marks this building as the one time Tremont Dog and Cat Hospital. The building on the left at no. 4196 remains with its stone arched door frame.

Tremont Towers apartment building, 1938. This uniquely curved apartment building was designed by Jacob M. Felson in the mid to late 1930s. Felson was a Russian immigrant to the U.S. In 1938 he became the president of Fleetwood Enterprises, Inc., which specialized in building apartment buildings. In addition to his apartment houses, he is also known for designing movie theatres and parking garages. This simple Art Deco apartment house is one of his lesser known works, though he designed quite a few more elaborate Deco buildings in this neighborhood.

Bronx Savings Bank, 1930. The constructions dates for this bank building are a bit of a mystery. This classically-inspired bank building stood likely from the early 1930s until 2016. (After its life as a bank ended, it was a restaurant and event space.) The area surrounding the building is being redeveloped, and in 2016 there was an agreement to preserve certain architectural and historical elements, and incorporate the Bank’s facade into the lobby at the entrance of a new building. But the building has been entirely demolished as of the start of 2017.

250 East 178th Street, 1937. A distinctive Art Deco apartment building with attractive curved fire escapes. The decorative block projections at the roof line seen in this photograph have unfortunately since been removed.