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Posts by Angela Spitzer

Once Upon a Movie Theater: The Story of Belmont Library

Nestled on a small tree-lined side street just off Arthur Avenue in "the heart of Little Italy, the Bronx" rests the Belmont Library and Enrico Fermi Cultural Center, proudly celebrating 30 years of service this fall. "What the Hester and Mott Street corner is to Little Italy in Manhattan," wrote the New York Times in 1980, "the Arthur Avenue and East 187th Street corner is to the Italian shopping district in the Bronx. It is a central location." The anachronistic neighborhood radiates with old-world flavor: the yeasty smell of baking semolina bread, savory meats and cheeses, and percolating coffee. "Even if you've never lived there, if 

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Lamenting the Greater Fall: 19th Century Prison Reform and The Women's Prison Association Records

November 27, 1846: "William Haynes, a native of Ireland, has been in this country about two years and six months.  He was sent to Blackwells Island three months for selling pernicious books."

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