The Museum of Bronx History (MBH)

The Museum of Bronx History (MBH) at the Valentine-Varian House is a historic house in the Bronx. Built in 1758, it is the oldest farmhouse left in the city. The house stayed in the Varin family from its construction until 1905; it was once the residence of the 63rd Mayor of New York City, Isaac Varian. Today, it houses the Museum of Bronx History after its restoration in the 1960s.

The Bronx County Historical Society (BCHS), founded in 1955, is a non-profit educational and cultural institution chartered by the New York State Board of Regents. BCHS is the historical agency for The Bronx, a county of New York State and a borough of the city of New York. It is dedicated to the collection, preservation, documentation, and public interpretation of the history of The Bronx and lower Westchester County from its earliest human habitation by Indigenous peoples through the present.

BCHS disseminates information on the historical, social, and economic development of The Bronx to the general public, schools, students, historians, community members, activists, urban planners, and staff of other museums and libraries. It utilizes its collections in exhibits, both in-house and traveling, historical research, oral history projects, production of publications, and educational and cultural programming. BCHS operates a research center with a research library, the Bronx County Archives, and two national landmark historic house museums, the Edgar Allan Poe Cottage and the Museum of Bronx History at the Valentine-Varian House.

The common theme in all of these activities is the promotion of pride in The Bronx through recovering and preserving the borough’s place in the history and development of the region and the nation. The buildings maintained by BCHS are major attractions and also serve as anchors around which dynamic communities develop and thrive.