Press Celebrates Grand Concourse Birthday

Intersections: The Grand Concourse at 100, published by Fordham University Press, celebrates the history of the famous Bronx boulevard through a collection of pieces written by historians and contemporary museum curators.

The book, edited by Antonio Sergio Bessa, includes two original texts by Alsatian-born engineer Louis Risse, who designed and oversaw the construction of the Grand Concourse. It is co-published with the Bronx Museum of the Arts, where Bessa is director of programming.

November 2009 marks the 100th anniversary of the Grand Boulevard and Concourse, which stretches more than four miles from 138th Street to the Mosholu Parkway. The Concourse was modeled on the Champs Élysées in Paris and described in the 1939 WPA Guide to New York as “the Park Avenue of the middle-class,” it offered residents amenities not seen before in the city, including private bathrooms and central heating.