Page 252 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - New York City

250  NE W Y ORK CIT Y AREA B Y AREA

The Bronx

This borough was originally a relatively prosperous
suburb, its Grand Concourse lined with lavish apartment
buildings. Serious poverty emerged only in the 1950s,
and when the South Bronx was left to burn in the 1970s,
the entire borough became a byword for urban decay.
Despite a few signs of gentrification, the South Bronx
remains one of the city’s poorest areas. The rest of the
borough features historic mansions, tranquil parks,
an outstanding botanic garden and zoo, and the
Yankee Stadium.
A memorial at the beautiful
Woodlawn Cemetery
5 Poe Cottage mother, Maria in search of fresh
rural air. Sadly, soon after they 6 Woodlawn
2640 Grand Concourse. Tel (718)
881-8900. q Kingsbridge Rd. arrived at the cottage, Virginia Cemetery
Open 10am–3pm Thu & Fri, died of tuber culosis. Heart- Webster Ave and E 233rd St. Tel (718)
10am–4pm Sat, 1–5pm Sun. & 9 broken, Poe managed to write 920-0500. q Woodlawn. Open 8:30am–
Poe Park Visitor Center: 2650 Grand a few revered works while 4:30pm daily. Closed public hols. ^
Concourse. Open 8am–5pm Tue–Sat. in mourning, including the 7 8 ∑ thewoodlawncemetery.org
7 ∑ bronxhistoricalsociety.org moving poem Annabel Lee,
which was written in memory
Built as a modest laborer’s of his wife. Maria outlived them Established in 1863, Woodlawn
dwelling around 1812, this both, and moved out of the Cemetery is the burial place of
white-clapboard house, set cottage shortly after Poe’s many a wealthy and distinguished
incongruously today in the mysterious death in Baltimore New Yorker. Memorials and
midst of working-class Latino two years later. tombstones are set in beautiful
housing blocks, was Edgar Today, the restored cottage grounds. F. W. Woolworth and
Allan Poe’s rural home from contains several rooms set up many members of his family are
1846 to 1849. The charming to look as they did during Poe’s interred in a mausoleum only a
house originally stood on farm- time. There is also a small gallery little less ornate than the building
land a short distance away of artwork from the 1840s that carries the family name.
on East Kings bridge Road, but within the vicinity. The pink marble vault of meat
it was moved here (at the The elegant Poe Park Visitor magnate Herman Armour is
northern tip of the specially Center stands separate from oddly reminiscent of a ham.
created Poe Park) in 1913. the actual house. Designed by Other New York notables
Although Poe was already the Japanese architect Toshiko buried here include Mayor
relatively successful as the Mori, the educational facility Fiorello La Guardia; Rowland
writer of The Raven, he was features rotating art exhibitions Hussey Macy, the founder of
dogged by financial problems and, interestingly, its sharply- the great department store;
in the mid-1800s. He moved in angled roof vaguely resembles author Herman Melville; and
with his wife, Virginia, and her a raven. jazz legend Duke Ellington.

Traditional Italian specialty market in Belmont, a district of the Bronx

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