Railroad tracks came through the area now known as Fordham as early as 1842 by the New York and Harlem Railroad. The names of the railroad companies that passed through this station changed a number of times throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Currently this station serves both the Harlem and New Haven Lines of Metro-North Railroad. One of the busiest stations in the current Metro-North system, the station house, likely built in the late 19th century, still bares the name of the Metro-North predecessor, New York Central Railroad, over the main doors.

Edgar Allan Poe, one of America’s greatest writers, spent the last years of his life in this modest cottage in the Bronx.

Between 1954 and 1957, the Municipal Art Society surveyed historic buildings in all five boroughs to create a database of potential landmarks to preserve. Local residents and MAS staff compiled individual sheets devoted to about 200 buildings. Each sheet outlined the building’s date, location, and style and provided a description and a small photograph. This is the list of Bronx buildings with descriptions by architectural historian Agnes A. Gilchrist.

This 1923 building once housed the Jacob H. Schiff Center, a Jewish community and cultural center and synagogue. Schiff was a banker and philanthropist. He acquired funding from European investor to assist in building America’s railroads, mines, and other infrastructure enterprises. He strongly held to the German-Jewish tradition of communal welfare. He was involved in building and supporting American civic, cultural, and educational institutions. These acts included lobbying for New York State government reform, donating a large sum to Cornell University, and the building of community spaces such as this one in the Bronx.

The two story wood-frame home seen in this 1936 photograph was once the home of Riker Carroll Livingston, a mechanical engineer involved in the early plans for flood control of the Mississippi River. The home was replaced a year later by a 7-story Art Deco residential building. The brick building to the left of the wood-frame home is the former Fordham Library Center of the New York Public Library. Built in 1923, the building closed as a library in 2005 when the nearby and brand new Bronx Library Center opened.

Once a series of four wood-frame houses on East 188th Street between Elm Place and Marion Avenue, only the corner house remains (though so too does the large tree seen in this 1938 photograph).

Administration Building ca. 1954 The Administration Building (now known as Cunniffe House) was originally a country house of the Greek Revival Period. The interior has been remodeled to serve as offices and the original character of the house is lost. The exterior, however, has remained with the west facade unaltered. Wings have been added at the north and south. The east facade has been recently stuccoed and a new door has been added. The original character of the house is only in the west facade. IT is of great interest in itself and as a comparison with the Bartow Mansion also in the Bronx. The native stone has been shaped but not smoothed. The rich palmette motifs in the marble cornices above the windows are the most striking feature. The tripartite window in the center of the second floor has a full entablature. The square marble porch with both piers and Ionic columns is a good example of the 1830's Greek Revival Porch.

The small white farmhouse now known as Poe's Cottage was built circa 1812. The structure once occupied a plot across the street from its current location in Poe Park (once a large apple orchard). In 1846 poet Edgar Allan Poe and his wife Virginia began renting the cottage for $100 a year. Virginia, who suffered from tuberculous, died in 1846 and Poe lived in the cottage, at least part of the time, until his death two years later. Around the turn of the 20th century, the home was in danger of demolition because of the proposed widening of Kingsbridge Road. A local literary group petitioned for the house to be moved across the street and to have a park created around the structure. Poe Park opened in 1902 and was a bucolic area of winding paths, trees, and flowerbeds. In 1913 the home was moved once more (only a few hundred feet) to its current position and has been in the care and custody of The Bronx County Historical Society since 1975.

"Children filing into the library after the formal opening with a public celebration." This photograph depicts the 1923 opening day of the Fordham Branch of the New York Public Library. The land for the building was purchased in 1917 but the First World War delayed the construction. The McKim, Mead, and White-designed building was originally called the Bronx Central Library and, when opened, was the largest library building in the borough. The building included a lecture space and was used to teach local immigrants communities (Irish, Italian, and Jewish) how to read and write English and adjust to American culture. The children lined up in the opening day photograph were likely the children of these local immigrant communities.