August 31, 2011:   Because it collects and displays millions of items, Washington's Smithsonian Institution bears the nickname "the people's attic."  Bronxville's own "attic" is in a basement--the basement of the Bronxville Public Library.

Its formal name is the Local History Room, and it houses many thousands of items.  Before the room was established, some village records and memorabilia were stored in the library's actual attic.  "It was a terrible place to work in, especially on a hot day," recalls Mary Huber, who served as village historian for twelve years.  "People sometimes brought things to the library to be stored, even paintings."

Ms. Huber holds a master's degree in decorative arts and is a fellow of the Francis du Pont Winterthur program.  She has also worked at the Yale University Library and Sleepy Hollow Restorations.  She was succeeded in her capacity as Bronxville Village historian by Eloise Morgan, a graduate of Harvard Law School who is assistant to the president of Concordia College, Viji George.

The Local History Room was first developed under the guidance of Jean Bartlett, who served as the first official village historian for twenty-one years.  Bertrand Burtnett, grandson of Alexander Masterton, one of the village's earliest settlers, had served as an unofficial village historian years earlier, and the photographs and documents in his collection are among the oldest items in the Local History Room today.

Before the Local History Room was organized, some material had been in a vault in Village Hall, some in the files of The Bronxville School, some in the files of the Bronxville Public Library, and some in the Eastchester Historical Society.  Anticipating the creation of a space devoted to local history some day, Ms. Bartlett preserved and catalogued historical materials in her own 1950s home on Prescott Road.

Space for the Local History Room was set aside on the lower level of the library and converted in 1982 to a carpeted room with cupboards, shelves, and file cabinets.  A professional archivist was hired, and acid-free products for preservation were purchased with funds from the Anne Hutchinson chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Village of Bronxville.

Donations to the archives were spurred by the celebration of the village's 75th anniversary of incorporation in 1973.  Funding came in part from publication of the jubilee journal Bronxville Views and Vignettes.

In 2001 the room was remodeled, expanded, and furnished with archival storage units during a major library renovation made possible by the $4 million sale of a Childe Hassam painting from the library's collection.  A climate-control system dedicated to the Local History Room was among the improvements.

Today the Local History Room is primarily a documentary archive of early Bronxville.  One of the striking artifacts is a framed poster marking a 1909 Westchester Historical Society pageant celebrating the county's history from 1664 to 1846.

Several histories of the Village are kept there, including Sketches of Lawrence Enterprises, Around Bronxville (part of the Images of America Series), and the crown jewel, Building A Suburban Village, which commemorated the village's centennial.  Appropriately the volume was edited by Ms. Huber and Ms. Morgan.  It has just been reprinted and is available at Womrath Bookshop.

The collection also includes books written by notable Bronxville residents such as Kate Douglas Wiggin, author of the children's classic Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm; aviation pioneer Eddie Rickenbacker; television personality Jack Parr; and celebrated horticulturalist Louise Beebe Wilder.

The latest Bronxville history book, published in 2010, is Bronxville Views: The Past in Picture Postcards, assembled by Ms. Morgan.  A four-color volume, it is heavily illustrated with vintage postcards of the village that were obtained on eBay.  It is on sale at Bronxville Village Hall and at Womrath Bookshop.  Ms. Morgan has also tapped eBay for such other village memorabilia as a leather-bound handwritten ledger recording expenses and revenues of the Bronxville Public Library from its founding in 1906 through 1924.

One corner of the room holds an assortment of artifacts, with such items as a tablecloth from the Hotel Gramatan and a bottle from the Gramatan Springs Company.

The history room's collections also include thousands of black-and-white photographs, old telephone directories, atlases, census records, DVDs of former Mayor Marcia Lee's television interviews with over 110 local notables, records of Miss Covington's Dance Studio, 19th-century diaries and histories of companies that once flourished in Bronxville such as the Ward Leonard Electric Company, back issues of the Villager, a magazine published by The Bronxville Women's Club between 1923 and 2003, and the records of now-defunct civil organizations such as the American Field Service and the Bronxville League for Service.

An almost-complete set of Bronxville's weekly hard-copy newspapers from 1902 to 2006 is available either on microfilm or in bound volumes.  Many of the newspapers were microfilmed through a grant Ms. Morgan obtained from New York State.

The collection includes the Bronxville Review, founded in 1902, the short-lived News, the Bronxville Press, published in the 1920s and 1930s before merging with the Review in 1937 to become the Review Press, and the Reporter, which later merged with the Review Press to become the Review Press Reporter, the main local paper covering Bronxville news after World War II until 1995 when its most recent owner, Gannett Co., Inc., cut back severely on staffing.  Also available are copies of most articles appearing in MyhometownBronxville.com since its inception in September of 2007, including obituaries.

Given the village's past as an artists' colony, it is no surprise that many requests are received for information on painters and sculptors who worked here.  The collection has also provided materials for two major shows of Bronxville artists at the Hudson River Museum.  Among frequent inquiries are those for obituaries, accounts of the Lawrence family's real estate holdings in the village, and material on the prolific architect Lewis Bowman.

Inquiries about the history of Bronxville and requests for appointments at the Local History Room should be addressed to Ms. Morgan either by phone at 914-779-9391 or by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..  Most can be answered by telephone, e-mail, or letter.

The village's historians have served without pay.  They are part of a network of 1,300 historians who serve jurisdictions ranging from New York City to isolated Adirondack regions.  The position of village historian in New York was established in 1917, and members have included Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was the historian for the Town of Hyde Park while he was governor of New York.

Pictured here:  Eloise Morgan, current Bronxville Village historian.