A shelter for the wealthy, a mansion for artists.

 
The Andrew Freed­man Man­sion, a won­der­ful build­ing in the Bronx, was designed specif­i­cally as a retire­ment home for wealthy peo­ple who had lost their for­tunes. “For many years this landmark has existed in a kind of open-but-closed limbo. Its ground floor is almost always full of children, in day care and in a Head Start program. Two elegant ballrooms and a book-filled library above have been maintained for weddings and other events, and for several years the Bronx Museum of the Arts, has offered outdoor film screenings and other cultural programs.”

The clip above is part of a series of 1-minute video vignettes we shot in the Bronx sponsored by a grant from the New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) and produced by students and faculty at Lehman College.