Publications
The Bronxville Journal
Although Bronxville is small, it has a rich history. For more than two centuries notable and colorful -- as well as ordinary -- public citizens have left interesting legacies. The Bronxville Journal, edited by historian Marilynn Wood Hill, captures many of their stories, illuminating little-known aspects of Bronxville from the early 19th century to the present in its annual editions.
Volume I
Volume I, published in 2002 under the guidance of editor Marilynn Hill, featured Francis Edmonds, one of New York’s leading bankers, who was equally talented as an artist; Harriet Hubbard Ayer, a socialite who lived in Bronxville’s insane asylum; the early women of the Bronxville School PTA; a tribute to Frieda Wildy Riggs; an engaging piece on Edmund Clarence Stedman, a blue-eyed poet who was as comfortable at the center of New York City’s literati as he was in the canyons of Wall Street, and the words of Paul Goldberger on The Power of Place, the subject of the first Brendan Gill Lecture.
Volume II
Volume II of The Bronxville Journal, released in 2003, had an equally fascinating line-up: the Bronxville life of late-night television talk-show host, Jack Paar; the story of Samuel Alexander Scribner, a circus owner and burlesque businessman; an interesting but little-known connection between the architect of Bronxville’s Concordia College and Ellis Island; and William Lawrence's plan for Sarah Lawrence College, the "finishing school for girls" that has become the outstanding college we know today.
Volume III
Articles in Volume III of The Bronxville Journal, published in fall of 2004, ranged from those who were passionate about art to those who protested war. Art Historian Meg Hausberg explored the relationship between Lawrence Park artist Otto Bacher and James McNeill Whistler. Sarah Underhill, who grew up in Bronxville in the 1970s, revisited a poignant episode in the village's past in "The Mothers' March for Peace," a protest against the Vietnam War. Marcia Lee, former mayor of Bronxville, reflected on "When the Lawrence's Left Bronxville," the departure of the family whose name in the first half of the 1900s was almost synonymous with Bronxville. And historian Marilynn Hill looked at village life in the mid-1800s by discussing medical practice and care in early Bronxville as recorded in several diaries of the period.
Volume IV
Three Bronxville artists who created set designs for some of America's top theaters at the turn of the twentieth century are featured in Volume 4 of The Bronxville Journal, released in Fall 2009. Dale Hanson Walker, great-granddaughter of one of the artists, has shared family mementos as well as memories in her lively story of this seldom explored aspect of theater history. Also in this edition is a biographical essay by Village Historian Eloise Morgan about a Lawrence Park resident who is said to have been the inspiration for the adventure hero Indiana Jones. Lifetime village resident Anne Fredericks reminisces about the election of 1936 when responses may have appeared subdued by today's standards, but emotions also ran strong among many Bronxville residents. Local politics four decades later is the subject of an article by former Bronxville mayor Marcia Lee, who looks at the women's liberation movement of the 1970s as well as other social changes of that era that helped reshape the character of village government.
Marilynn Hill featured one of the Hotel Gramatan's many notable resident guests, Varina Howell Davis, widow of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, who left a unique record of her hotel stay that is little known to Bronxvillians today. And, finally, this fourth collection of local historical essays showcases two other approaches to preserving history -- the poetry of John Barr, a nationally recognized poet, and visual records from the portfolios of contemporary photographer Judith Watts Wilson and some of her Bronxville predecessors who have captured scenes of the village at different moments throughout a century of Bronxville history.
For more information, or to purchase The Journal, please call Marilynn Hill at 914 961 6790.
Click here to purchase The Journal.
Volume I
Volume II
Volume III
