The Bronx County Historical Society

The Bronx County Historical Society, founded in 1955, is a private, non-profit, educational and cultural institution chartered by the NYS Board of Regents. The Society, the historical agency for The Bronx, a county of New York State and a borough of the city of New York, is dedicated to the collection, preservation, documentation and interpretation of the history of The Bronx from its earliest historical references in the 17th century through the present. The Society disseminates information to the general public, students, historians, urban planners and staff of other museums and libraries on the historical, social and economic development of The Bronx. It utilizes its collections in exhibitions, both in-house and traveling, historical research, production of publications, educational and cultural programming, and in the operation of a Research Library, The Bronx County Archives and two national landmark historic houses as museums, the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage and the Valentine-Varian House/Museum of Bronx History.

It all started in September 1955 with a simple question a reader of the “Bronx Bandwagon” column in the New York Post Bronx edition posed to the journalist Burt Gumpert: “Why is there no Bronx Historical Society?” Recognizing a need for such an institution, Gumpert asserted that a historical society will be created by the end of that year. Soon enough, Gumpert, along with another seven individuals, met at the dental office of Dr. Theodore Kazimiroff to begin The Bronx County Historical Society. The Society began to give public lectures to discuss object collections, local history, and to build up support from fellow Bronxites. So entertaining and informative were these lectures that the audience size began to increase, prompting The Society to seek larger venues. After outgrowing the West Farms branch of the New York Public Library, The Society briefly operated in other libraries and churches, Fordham University and Lehman College. Walking tours became very popular at this time, while an annual journal began with its first printing in 1964, making it one of the premier history periodicals in the tristate region today. Then, in 1965, the historic Valentine-Varian House on Bainbridge Avenue was donated to The Society by William C. Beller, thus establishing the first permanent headquarters of The Bronx County Historical Society. Three years later, The Society opened the house as the Museum of Bronx History, the borough’s very first museum celebrating its historic heritage.

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