In an otherwise informative news story about the Academy of Mount St. Ursula in your July 10-23 issue, the reporter seems a bit confused concerning the use of geographical terms in past centuries. He writes that in 1892, the Ursuline Sisters “acquired a plot of farmland in northwest Bronx County, an area now known as Bedford Park,” on which they built the Academy.
Actually, the name Bedford Park has been in continuous use since the 1870s.  On the other hand, in 1892 there was no geographical area called “the Bronx” or “Bronx County”; the site of Mt St Ursula was in the City and County of New York.  Between 1874 and 1898, the section of New York City lying north and east of the Harlem River was known as the “North Side” or the “Annexed District.” Before 1874, all of this area was part of Westchester County.
The concept of “the Bronx” as a geographical area was introduced in 1898, when Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island were added to New York City and the city was organized into five boroughs, not all of which were (or had previously been) separate counties. The Borough of the Bronx was presumably named after the Bronx River, although some historians may disagree about this. In any event, the Borough of the Bronx continued to be part of New York County until 1914, when it was designated Bronx County.
Roy Felshin