The Bronx in the Innocent Years, 1890-1925

THE BRONX IN THE INNOCENT YEARS, 1890-1925 offers the moving & eloquent testimony of a community that experienced the many & far-reaching changes of the early years of the twentieth century. The decades when a pail of draft beer cost a dime; when Bronx residents could earn $2.00 as extras in D.W. Griffith's local studio; when a vacation could be spent at Orchard Beach, a tent colony that was built & dismantled each summer; when the Bronx was the "piano hub" of the country; when pigs & rabid dogs roamed the streets; & when malaria was still a powerful threat are presented in a series of first-person accounts of Bronxites who grew up in the innocent years. They tell of living through the era's joys & disruptions, & of the daily miracles that told them that a way of life was disappearing. Complementing these eye-witness accounts is a gallery of rare photographs from the archives of The Bronx County Historical Society that offers a vivid & beautiful glimpse into the past that changed New York City's northernmost borough from a group of small rural villages to a vital urban center.