28 



THE BOROUGH OF THE BRONX 



Chairman of Executive Committee : Henry K. Davis. 



Looking back a quarter of a century, and comparing conditions 

 then with those of today, we cannot help but marvel at the re- 

 markable growth of the Borough in commerce, population and 

 achievement during that short period. From what was formerly 

 a slow, slumbering unprogressive community, there has sprung 



Home Street, Looking East from Union Avenue in 1883 



up a great, vigorous and flourishing cosmopolitan community, 

 which today, if it were a separate and distinct city, would rank in 

 population as the seventh city in the United States, and the third 

 in the State of New York. 



What may be heralded as the birth of the new Bronx began 

 in 1895, when the maps of the streets and highways west of the 

 Bronx River were completed. The Bronx at that time contained 

 about 100,000 inhabitants. In five years the population doubled, 



