WHERE: Harlem, Harlem Heights, Sugar Hill, and Washington Heights, Manhattan
START: 135 Street subway station (2 and 3 trains, fully accessible)
FINISH: 168 Street subway station (A and C trains, fully accessible)
DISTANCE: 2.6 miles (4.2 kilometers)
Photographs by Michael Cairl and, where noted, by Matt Summers.
Route and profile of this walk, reading from bottom to top. Map courtesy footpathapp.com.
History is all around us in this city, and I mapped out this walk to include a good chunk of history, much of which hides in plain sight. My friend Matt and I met for this walk in front of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, an important research unit of The New York Public Library. From the NYPL website:
Founded in 1925 and named a National Historic Landmark in 2017, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture is one of the world’s leading cultural institutions devoted to the research, preservation, and exhibition of materials focused on African American, African Diaspora, and African experiences. As a research division of The New York Public Library, the Schomburg Center features diverse programming and collections spanning over 11 million items that illuminate the richness of global black history, arts, and culture.
Established with the collections of Arturo Alfonso Schomburg [97] years ago, the Schomburg has collected, preserved, and provided access to materials documenting black life in America and worldwide. It has also promoted the study and interpretation of the history and culture of people of African descent. In 2015, the Schomburg won the National Medal for Museum and Library Service and in January 2017, the Schomburg Center was named a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service, recognizing its vast collection of materials that represent the history and culture of people of African descent through a global, transnational perspective. Today, the Schomburg continues to serve the community not just as a center and a library, but also as a space that encourages lifelong education and exploration.
For much more information about this special place go to https://www.nypl.org/about/locations/schomburg.
Across Lenox Avenue from the Schomburg Center is the Harlem Hospital Center, a major “safety net” hospital for the community. We walked up to and west on West 137 Street, past Mother African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. Founded in 1796, this is the oldest A.M.E. Zion congregation. “Mother Zion” has been at this location since 1925, the building having been designed by the early African-American architect George W. Foster, Jr. From there we went around the corner to West 138 Street to have a look at Abyssinian Baptist Church. From The AIA Guide to New York City, Fifth Edition:
Random ashlar "Collegiate Gothic" (the building would be at home at Princeton or Yale), doubly a landmark in Harlem due to the charisma, power, and notoriety of its spellbinding preacher, Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (1908-1972), 14-term member of the House of Representatives. The church has established a memorial room, open to the public, containing artifacts from his life. Call before you visit.
From Abyssinian Baptist we walked west past Strivers’ Row. These row houses occupy the full block of West 138 Street to West 139 Street, from Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard to Frederick Douglass Boulevard. These were built between 1891 and 1893 as the King Model Houses, to the designs of some of the leading architects of the time, among whom was Stanford White. Again from The AIA Guide to New York City, Fifth Edition:
Despite Harlem's ups and downs, the homes and apartments retained their prestige and attracted (by 1919) many successful blacks in medicine, dentistry, law, and the arts such as W.C. Handy [232 W. 139], Noble Sissle, Fletcher Henderson [228 W. 139], Eubie Blake, and architect Vertner Tandy [221 W. 139]. As a result, Strivers' Row became a popular term for the district in the 1920s and 1930s.
From the WPA Guide to New York City (1939):
West 138th and 139th Streets, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, are known in Harlem as STRIVERS' ROW because so many Negroes aspire to live in the attractive, tan-brick houses on these two tree-shaded streets. The residents are mostly of the better-paid, white-collar and professional class; some rent furnished rooms in order to meet the comparatively high rental. The 130 dwellings were designed by Stanford White and erected shortly before the Negroes came to Harlem. The most interesting section of the row is the north side of 139th Street. Here dark brick and terra·cotta facades enriched with wrought-iron balconies and delicate entry porch roofs, were designed with considerable artistry in the spirit of the Florentine Renaissance.
When built, these houses were not open to “Negroes.”
Unusually for Manhattan, these houses include an alley in the rear, originally for keeping horses. In the second image below, note the sign on the pillar: PRIVATE ROAD WALK YOUR HORSES.
Across West 138 Street is a small church that had me wondering about its origins. Again, the AIA Guide provides an answer:
Victory Tabernacle Seventh Day Christian Church/ formerly Coachmen’s Union League Society of New York City. 252 W. 138th St., bet. Adam Clayton Powell. Jr. Blvd. and Frederick Douglass Blvd. 1895-1896. … It was built to sell life insurance to residents of this newly opened "suburb” of Harlem, particularly to those living in the King Model Houses.
Row houses in the Dorrance Brooks Square Historic District.
Continuing across Frederick Douglass Boulevard we came upon the Dorrance Brooks Square Historic District and row houses that would be right at home in my neighborhood in Brooklyn. It is named after Dorrance Brooks (1893-1918), an African-American soldier who died while serving in the segregated military during World War I. He was a member of the 369th Infantry Regiment, better known as the Harlem Hellfighters. The area is a residential neighborhood consisting mostly of Renaissance Revival- and Queen Anne-style row houses built in the late 19th and early 20th century. The district was home to many notable African American thinkers, artists, actors and doctors during the Harlem Renaissance (1920s-1940s), including intellectual W.E.B. DuBois, performer Ethel Waters and sculptor Augusta Savage. (Source: https://www.thecuriousuptowner.com/post/get-to-know-beautiful-dorrance-brooks-square-harlem-s-proposed-new-historic-district.)
At this point Matt and I were by no means done with our history walk. We walked up St. Nicholas Avenue and west up the steep hill of West 141 Street, to Hamilton Grange, the home of Alexander Hamilton, 1776 graduate of King’s College (now Columbia University), one of the authors of the Federalist Papers and the first Secretary of the Treasury. The Grange was completed in 1802 and Hamilton’s enjoyment of it was short, as he was killed in a duel with Vice President Aaron Burr two years later.
Hamilton Grange. Photograph by Matt Summers.
From the Grange we crossed West 141 Street and walked up Hamilton Terrace, past more fine row houses to West 144 Street and then to Convent Avenue. Convent Avenue north of City College is tree-shaded and has many fine row houses. I’ve described this area in a previous post, “Hamilton Heights, Sugar Hill, Polo Grounds” on the “The Stair Streets of New York City” page.
We continued north along Convent Avenue, West 150 Street, and St. Nicholas Terrace to the Harlem River Driveway and the John T. Brush Stairway across from the site of the Polo Grounds stadium, demolished in 1964. See a fuller description in the aforementioned post. Up the 96 steps we went to Edgecombe Avenue. This is Sugar Hill, so named because life was sweet up there. Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Lena Horne, and Paul Robeson were among the many famous people who lived on or near Edgecombe Avenue. We turned onto West 160 Street and another steep hill to the Morris-Jumel Mansion (1765). This was built as a country estate by Roger Morris (1727 - 1794), a colonel in the British Army, for himself and Mary Philipse, middle daughter of Frederick Philipse, second Lord of the Philipsburg Manor. She owned a one-third share of the Philipse Patent, a vast landed estate on the Hudson River which later became Putnam County, New York. (Source: Wikipedia).
Corner of the Morris-Jumel Mansion. Photograph by Matt Summers.
Lithograph of Madame Jumel, 1852.
The mansion served briefly as George Washington’s headquarters in 1776 after his army fled Brooklyn, when it was retreating from Manhattan. The British would occupy what is now New York City for the rest of the Revolution. As the Morrises were Loyalists (to the British Crown), their lands, including this house, were seized by the revolutionary government of the Colony of New York and sold to pay war debts, and for a time afterward the house was an inn and tavern, conveniently located near the Albany Post Road. In 1810 the house was bought by Stephen Jumel, a wealthy Frenchman, for himself and his wife, the former Eliza (Betsey) Bowen (1775 - 1865), who grew up in a brothel in Providence, Rhode Island. The Jumels were not accepted socially in New York. After Jumel’s death under suspicious circumstances, Eliza inherited this house and his large fortune, and shortly after Jumel’s death married Aaron Burr. (Perhaps it is more correct to say he married her.)
The house is on a tree-shaded plot on one of the highest points in Manhattan and is open to the public.
From there we crossed Jumel Terrace to walk along Sylvan Terrace, described in the post “Sylvan Terrace” on “The Stair Streets of New York City” page and from there walked to the last stop on this tour, West 165 Street and Broadway. This building, the former Audubon Ballroom, lay derelict for years until Columbia University acquired it and built a new interior behind a restored façade. The Audubon Ballroom was where Malcolm X was assassinated in 1965. Born Malcolm Little, he was a vocal advocate for black empowerment and the promotion of Islam within the black community. History is all around us, in plain sight. The building now houses the The Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial and Educational Center (Betty Shabazz was Malcolm X’s wife). This area is now dominated by Columbia’s Health Sciences Campus and the various parts of Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center. Presbyterian Hospital is on the site of the former Hilltop Park, the home of the New York Yankees (formerly the Highlanders) until 1920. Columbia’s College of Physicians and Surgeons is the oldest medical school in the United States and predates the Revolution.
Former Audubon Ballroom. Photograph by Matt Summers.
In less than three miles we traversed a lot of history, and with the hills and stairs I got in some good physical therapy. As with all my favorite walks around this city, all of it was well off the tourist trail. I recommend this walk to anyone.