Grover Goes Home to His Old-New South Bronx Neighborhood
By Kennedy Buckley
I grew up in the South Bronx’s Mott Haven neighborhood attending St. Jerome elementary school from ’37 to ’45. The area was mostly a mix of Irish, Italian, and German. It started to change during WW II when Puerto Ricans came; then big public housing projects replaced tenements. After two kids, my family became part of the “white flight” to New Jersey in ’62. It’s now mostly Mexican, with a smattering of those who never left.
A former classmate contacted me to attend a 50th reunion. The original old neighborhood school, built in 1871, was well maintained: no graffiti, no broken glass in those old wooden windows, and still graduating students. A tour of the classrooms showed assignments proudly displayed, with enthusiastic students and teachers there, anxious to explain it all. The spirit of achievement was obvious as we toured familiar floors of classrooms and a well equipped computer facility.
The Ursuline Sisters have been long replaced by Mexican nuns and mostly male teachers. Our day included a hot meal in the old basement gym, now the lunchroom, manned by volunteers. In the old days everyone went home for lunch, but now all the parents work.
Despite all the area’s changes, it has remained a viable productive neighborhood that has evolved, but it works. The Pastor has even decorated the church alter with strings of colored lights to make the new parishioners feel at home in their new “South Bronx neighborhood.”
Soundtrack: From “On the Town” the MGM film from 1944. You know, “The Bronx is up and the Battery’s down.” Click on “watch on YouTube”
Still lookin’ for the Hippodrome. Need a new guidebook I guess.
Thanks Paul for that photo, it brings back more old memories. That is the west side of Alexander Ave. from 138th St. to 139th. It was THE street for professionals, etc…our Doctor’s office was in one of those bldgs. and two of my classmates lived there. Don was in our “gang” and we played cards for money (pennies) at a big table in his house. The other, wise guy Graham, was a discipline problem and often in trouble in class. His father was famous because when his radio station’s regular program had a problem and there was dead silence over the air, Mr. White sang, a capella, until the regular show came on. Back then there were penalties for dead air.
At the left in the pic is the infamous 40th Precinct’s Police Station House. Word was the cops used a rubber hose to the stomach of trouble makers. The tall building beyond is where my parents lived after their tenement, a block away, was torn down.
The people ride in a hole in the ground.
(What ever happened to Jules Munshin?)