Pick of the week - The Bronx Zoo before it was the Bronx Zoo

Pick of the week - that you can visit: The Bronx Zoo!  Many vintage books - this one about to be an antique - are much more interesting when signed by the owner. In this case Newtown’s own Mary Hawley. She took a trip on Thanksgiving Day in 1920 to what is still today the largest metropolitan zoo in the world.


Now called the Bronx Zoo (insert thoughtful cheer here) it was the required destination for elementary school students in a 50 + mile radius. At least it was when I went there - pretty sure my lunch cooler is still there in the lost and found waiting for me.

Mary is known for donating money and property to Newtown, among those properties is the Edmund Town Hall. Named for her father and the source of some confusion over the years, I am sure. Where is Newtown's Town Hall? In the Edmund Town Hall! Is that in the town of Edmund? And so on...