NEW ROCHELLE, NY — How did New Rochelle look from the air in the 1930s – 1950s? How does it look today? Visitors to the New Rochelle Public Library’s Lumen Winter Gallery will have the opportunity to see first-hand during the library’s November exhibit, “A Bird’s Eye View of New Rochelle, Past and Present.”
Over 100 images will be on display, juxtaposing historic aerial and birds-eye view photographs from the library’s local history collection with contemporary aerial shots that were captured this past summer by local photographer Louis Vaccaro. The free exhibit will be on view from Wednesday, November 9th – Wednesday, November 30th during regular library hours.
Most of the historic images were taken by commercial aerial photographers just before and after the construction of 1955, in the mid-1950s, and were donated to the library by collector Dominic Bruzzese. Similar angles from above were shot by Mr. Vaccaro as he flew above New Rochelle in a helicopter. The photographs by Mr. Vaccaro, a self-professed “amateur photographer,” are frequently as stunning as the views.