Talk Bronx New York

The Bronx’s Hidden Treasures: Church Celebrates Legacy Of Bronx Notables

When people talk about the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States, it’s a safe bet the South Bronx and St. Ann’s Episcopal Church probably don’t enter the conversation. But perhaps they should be included.

“You have two of the founding fathers of the country that are buried here,” explained Bronx Borough Historian Lloyd Ultan.

Gouverneur and Lewis Morris, brothers, were little-known founding fathers of the country, who were born in the Bronx and buried in the borough at St. Ann’s.

“Lewis Morris was one of the revolutionary leading forces in this area and he went to the Continental Congress, and as a member of the Continental Congress, he signed the Declaration of Independence,” said Ultan.

Lewis’ half brother, Gouverneur, played an historic role, as well.

“Gouverneur Morris was one of the principal framers of the Constitution of the United States,” explained Ultan. “He was given the task of writing the Constitution in some sort of literary style. So it is written in his style and therefore he is called the pen-man of the Constitution.”

Gouverneur Morris is buried in a tomb on St. Ann’s property. Lewis is buried in a crypt under the church. Several other prominent Morris family members are buried here. Historians say Gouverneur’s wife was famous, too. Ann Cary Randolf Morris was a direct descendant of Pocahontas and she was a quite feisty woman for her day.

The family built the church in 1841 as a shrine to honor their legacy, and the hidden treasure is the oldest functioning church in the Bronx.

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At robotics team practice at Herman Ridder Junior High School, from left: Carl Jules, Azeem Yousaf, Gary Israel, Harold Smith and Sabrina Fletcher. 

South Bronx School Kids Build Grades Like Lego Blocks

At the end of a distinctly pugilistic day of sixth grade, Abdoulie Lemon was escorted by a dean to the industrial-arts classroom that doubled as the detention pen. No sooner had he restlessly settled into his chair than he caught sight of a dozen students gathered in rapt attention around a table at the other end of the room.

Not being the obedient sort at this point in his scholastic career, Abdoulie left behind the dean and the chair to check out the hubbub, he recalled recently. He saw on the tabletop a sort of motorized cart made mostly of Lego pieces.

“I want to play,” he said, shifting from tough guy to eager child with no intermediate step.

“It’s not a toy,” one of the students at the table answered. “It’s a robot.”

The dean begrudgingly gave Abdoulie a five-minute parole to watch the robot scoot to and fro across the tabletop. And in those five minutes, Abdoulie’s life changed.

What he was seeing, he soon learned, was a practice session for the robotics team at Herman Ridder Junior High School in the Bronx. There was practice every afternoon, and more practice or a competition on most Saturdays.

By now, two years later, Abdoulie is a veteran of the team. Last year, he traveled with the Ridder Kids, as their matching T-shirts proclaim them, to a national Lego robotics championship in Atlanta. At the end of this April, the squad plans to go to Japan to participate in an exhibition.

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