Search results
Mar 18, 2009 · Conceived in 1890 as a way of connecting Manhattan to the northern Bronx, the Grand Concourse was designed by Louis Aloys Risse, an Alsatian-born engineer, and opened in November 1909. To honor the centennial of the Grand Concourse, the Bronx Museum of the Arts has organized a yearlong, three-part exhibition. The first installment ...
- Early History
- First Residents
- Recent History
The idea of the Grand Concourse came from a French immigrant named Louis Aloys Risse who conceived it in 1890 as a way to connect Manhattan to the northern Bronx, which back then was known as the Annexed District. Risse envisioned a wide boulevard stretching for miles that would rival the Champs-Élysées in Paris which was his inspiration in designi...
The first residents were mostly Jewish and Italian residents, many with professional backgrounds from doctors to lawyers and just the average American upwardly mobile middle-class family. New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission wrote: “During the 1920s, the Bronx, anointed as “the wonder borough,” emerged as New York’s fastest growing borou...
It wasn’t until the early 2000s, when crime began dropping, that things started to turn around. Interest in preserving the history of the Grand Concourse grew and in 2011, a large portion stretching from 153rd Street to 167th Street was designated as the Grand Concourse Historic District by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. Sadly...
Media Gallery. Born in Saint-Avold, France, Risse graduated from a Christian Brothers school with high honors, immigrating to the United States in 1868 at the age of seventeen and settling in the Bronx. From 1868 to 1869, he surveyed and created maps for the New York and Harlem Railroad. Risse drafted a street map of the town of Morrisania ...
Jan 5, 2016 · The roadway’s designer, Louis Aloys Risse, was a French immigrant who had previously worked for the New York Central Railroad. He envisioned the Grand Concourse as New York’s version of the Champs-Élysées—only longer—and the project would span 180 feet across, with bicycle paths, pedestrian sidewalks and three distinct roadways split ...
A French immigrant and life-long civil servant by the name of Louis Aloys Risse was named its Chief Engineer. Risse, who spoke little English and had moved to The Bronx from his native St. Avoid, near the Franco-German border, was a visionary whose ideas earned him the moniker “crazy Frenchman.”. He began designing a “Grand Boulevard ...
Apr 19, 2024 · It was conceived in 1890 by Louis Aloys Risse, a French immigrant and chief topographical engineer of New York City. Since its opening in 1909, it has become “ the Bronx’s most famous street ...
The Grand Concourse, designed in the late 1800s by Louis Aloys Risse and built between 1902 and 1909, was the Champs-Elysees of the Bronx. Shaded by trees, with traffic separated by wide lush medians, the 1939 WPA Guide to New York City called the concourse the “Park Avenue of middle-class Bronx residents.”. The hotel was first envisioned ...
