It was dedicated in 1901, and honorees were elected at five-year intervals from 1900 through 1970, and in 1973. During its heyday the election of new honorees was considered a national news event, and the choices of honorees were a topic of lively public debate.
According to Mimi Sheraton, when she was growing up in the 1930s "the Hall of Fame was famous" and one of her mother's favorite put-downs was "You must think you belong in the Hall of Fame."<refname=sheraton>Sheraton, Mimi (2000), "My Bronx: Yesterday's Heroes, Up On Pedestals," ''The New York Times,'' December 15, 2000, p. E37</ref>
Honorees include many names that are still familiar ([[Wilbur Wright|Wilbur]] and [[Orville Wright]], [[Benjamin Franklin]], [[John Philip Sousa]]) and some that seem quite obscure: (Naval officer and oceanographer [[Matthew Fontaine Maury]], astronomer [[Maria Mitchell]], jurist [[Rufus Choate]]).
The Hall of Fame includes a 630-foot outdoor colonnade featuring 98 bronze busts and commemorative plaques. The colonnade has places for 102 busts and 102 honorees have been elected, but due to lack of funding the last four busts were never commissioned. Many of the busts are the work of notable sculptors such as [[Daniel Chester French]] and [[Augustus St. Gaudens]], and the National Sculpture Society once designated the colonnade "the finest collection of bronzes in America."<ref name=sheraton/>
It also includes three buildings: the Gould Memorial Library, a Hall of Languages, and a Hall of Philosophy. The Gould Memorial Library was used as a setting in the movies [[A Beautiful Mind]], [[The Thomas Crown Affair]], and [[Sophie's Choice]]. In 2004, the J. Paul Getty Trust donated $228,000 to repair the badly deteriorating building.<ref>Arenson, Karen W. (2004) "Regilding a Bronx Landmark," The New York Times, July 30, 2004, p. B1</ref>