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Aug 14, 2019 · Today we’re taking a stroll down the Grand Concourse, the beautiful and grand boulevard in The Bronx designed by French immigrant Louis Aloys Risse using Paris’ Champs Élysées as his inspiration. 1150 Grand Concourse / Irma and Paul Milstein Division of United States History, Local History and Genealogy, The New York Public Library.
- 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...
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 ...
Apr 3, 2013 · Grand Concourse—a majestic Bronx thoroughfare designed by Louis Aloys Risse in 1890 and opened in 1909—is a worthy attraction for architecture, history and culture buffs. It runs from 138th Street all the way up to Mosholu Parkway, with extravagant facades and noteworthy structures dotted along its entire length, though the designated ...
Apr 17, 2024 · The Grand Concourse is also known as the “Champs-Élysées of the Bronx, which is what the road’s French designer, Louis Aloys Risse, intended when he designed it. Later, Risse would work for ...
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 ...
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 ...
