232 East 113th Street William Schickel & Co. 1886 Though it was built when East Harlem was largely rural, Our Lady Queen of Angels is located on a hidden cul-de-sac within NYCHA’s Jefferson Houses. The charming neo-Romanesque structure, flanked on either side by a convent and rectory, was constructed at the request of New York Archbishop Corrigan for East Harlem’s German immigrant population. It is known for its association with Father Bonaventure Frey, co-founder of the Capuchin Franciscan Catholic Order in the United States. Frey, an important figure in the Catholic Church, was given the task of building the church and its congregation, acting as Superior in the church’s infancy. Due to a lack of priests and declining attendance, and despite opposition from parishioners and elected officials, the Archdiocese closed dozens of churches in the region, including this one, in 2007. Its school remains open, but despite popular support for preservation, the future of the church itself is uncertain.

My Archive Summer 2019 “My great grandmother Adele Felitti (third adult from the left) and family in front of her father Dr. Pasquale Felitti's Italian "Farmacia Del Vesuvio" in East Harlem, 1916 (personal family photo). A neighborhood physician and much-revered friend to the community, Dr. Felitti succumbed to pneumonia on Christmas day 1915 not long before this photo was taken. Dr. Felitti saved the life of a newborn baby just days before his death, which was said to have hastened his decline. His grieving daughter Adele in part dealt with this by attending Columbia school of pharmacy, graduating in 1918 and becoming the pharmacist for the family business. She died when I was about 14 years old." —Conor Welch

My Archive Spring 2019 "The photo of the house is No. 405 East 114th Street in East Harlem, near the corner of East 114th and 1st Avenue. It was taken about 1906-1907. Dr. Pasquale Felitti and family, my great-great-grandfather, a neighborhood physician. He died tragically on Christmas Day 1915 of pneumonia. About a week earlier he braved snowy cold weather to save a mother in labor in the tenement next door and paid with his life. He saved the baby and mother. He left his wife and seven children, but all persisted and lived incredible lives." —Conor Welch

Public School 172 on East 108th Street, 1920. Originally built as P.S. 172 in 1889, the building became condos in 1987.

The northwest corner of Third Avenue and 109th Street, 1912. Storefront signage includes "John Armstrong Real Estate"; "Conservatory of Music," offering lessons in piano, violin, mandolin, guitar, and bass; and "B. Rosenfeld Diamonds, Watches, and Jewelry."

Aguilar Branch, NYPL, 1928. The Aguilar Free Library was a library structure built between 1898 and 1899 in an Art Nouveau style by the architecture firm Herts & Tallant. The firm was well-known for their work on theaters. Largely funded through the philanthropic support of Grace Aguilar, a popular British novelist and essayist of Sephardic Jewish descent, the Free Library merged with NYPL in 1903. In 1904 the same architecture firm extensively renovated (and nearly tripled in size) the original building. Funded by the Carnegie bequest the new library had an exaggerated classical style with two massive columns flanking the three-story facade. This feature and the iron and glass structure that fills in most of the rest of the facade, this branch is distinctive among the Carnegie libraries.

My Archive Spring 2019 "Dr. Pasquale Felitti was my great-great-grandfather, a neighborhood physician. His pharmacy was at 2222 First Avenue. This photo was 1916 in front of the pharmacy, the building still stands today but is in rough shape. I wrote a nearly 1000 page book about this family, and there exists no other book like it on any Italian family from East Harlem. I'm very proud of the book, and even more proud to claim a family heritage connection to them." — Conor Welch

Former Italian Savings Bank 204 East 116th Street Designed by C. P. H. Gilbert 1923 Presently the R. G. Ortiz Funeral Home, this handsome structure was originally the Italian Savings Bank, whose name was engraved in the limestone façade where the funeral home’s name is now located. The building, which has undergone some alterations, was designed by noted architect Cass Gilbert, whose many commissions include the Woolworth Building in Lower Manhattan. The former bank, resembling a triumphal Roman arch, stands as one of many reminders of East Harlem’s formerly sizable Italian immigrant population.

Three penitent women march barefoot, opposite 2131 First Avenue, as part of the Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parade, July 1927.

My Archive Summer 2019 “This is my great-great-grandfather Pasquale Felitti's Italian Farmacia del Vesuvio at the corner of East 114th Street and 1st Avenue in East Harlem. Across the street is Jefferson Park, ca. 1910. I had the photo restored and color tinted, which adds vibrancy and energy to this once-thriving Italian community.” —Conor Welch

Frame houses on the south side of East 109th Street, east of Second Avenue, 1934. The sign visible on the top floor reads "School of Music."

At left is the northwest corner of First Avenue and 108th Street, with storage tanks of the Consolidated Gas Co. visible between 110th and 111th Streets, in the background. Photographer P.L. Sperr notes "wine equipment" on the sidewalk in front of what was then 2060 First Avenue, in the foreground. Today, Public School 146 and post-war housing developments occupy the east side of First Avenue.

East Harlem, the neighborhood covering a broad swath of Upper Manhattan north of 96th Street and East of Fifth Avenue, has historically been known for its prominent populations: in the early 20th century, Italian Harlem; the Latino community of Spanish Harlem in later years. These photo's from the New York Public Library's Milstein Division provide a snapshot of daily life uptown, from street scenes to Feast Day parades.

The sidewalk on the west side of First Avenue, below 108th Street, outside the Pizzeria Sorrentina Spaghetti House, 1934. Photographer P.L. Sperr notes that the building across 108th Street is "fairly new, since 1925." By 1934, the Italian population of East Harlem exceeded 100,000. In the background, Consolidated Gas Co. storage tanks between 110th and 11th Streets.

My Archive Spring 2019 "A photo in front of our house, Fourth of July 2007. Dan Evans in Uncle Sam tails, Roxana Evans, and Mugsy the dog." —Dan Evans

151 East 116th Street Henry Devoe 1870 Since 1948, Casa Latina has sold sheet music and instruments to patrons from all over the city. In addition to being the longest-running music store in East Harlem, it also bears the distinction of being the nation’s first Spanish-language music store. Its founder, Bartolo Alvarez, was a Puerto Rican musician and record executive. The business moved to this location in 1962 and its colorful storefront has been a neighborhood icon and an important meeting place ever since. The building in which the store resides was built in 1870 as one in a row of brownstones, and has been heavily altered over the years.

St. Ann's Roman Catholic Church on East 110th Street, 1930. Designed and built by Nicholas Serracino in 1911, in the year 1913 more than 1000 babies were baptized in this church.

(Henry C. Pelton, 1937) This grand brick, limestone and granite structure was the first city-owned and citybuilt health facility in Manhattan, authorized by Mayor LaGuardia and funded by the Public Works Administration. It was built to provide health clinics, hygiene services and health education for students and the broader public. The structure resembles a classical temple rendered in the streamlined Art Deco style, its vertical brick panels standing in for columns and its wide brick band inscribed with the words “DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH CITY OF NEW YORK” standing in as its pediment. The two-story rooftop and western annex additions likely date to the 1950s.

Former Benjamin Franklin School 280 Pleasant Avenue Designed by Eric Kebbon 1940 This stately building was originally constructed by the NYC Board of Education after designs by Eric Kebbon, architect and superintendent of school buildings from 1938-51. The school was founded by educational theorist Leonard Covello, the nation’s first Italian-American high school principal, who believed in a community-centered approach to learning and the importance of integration and bilingual education. Covello devoted his career to improving the lives of immigrant children, and the school, which hosted a large number of Italian immigrants and subsequently Puerto Ricans, became an important touchstone for his theories. In 1945, Frank Sinatra famously visited the school after a race-related incident broke out between groups of African American and Italian-American students. To ease tensions, Sinatra, one of the country’s most famous Italian-Americans, performed the reconciliatory song Aren’t You Glad You’re You? The school closed in 1982 due to poor performance, and was transformed into the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, which offers a rigorous curriculum and high graduation rate.

Our Lady Queen of Angels Church 232 East 113th Street Designed by William Schickel & Co. 1886 Though it was built when East Harlem was largely rural, Our Lady Queen of Angels is located on a hidden cul-de-sac within NYCHA’s Jefferson Houses. The charming neo-Romanesque structure, flanked on either side by a convent and rectory, was constructed at the request of New York Archbishop Corrigan for East Harlem’s German immigrant population. It is known for its association with Father Bonaventure Frey, co-founder of the Capuchin Franciscan Catholic Order in the United States. Frey, an important figure in the Catholic Church, was given the task of building the church and its congregation, acting as Superior in the church’s infancy. Due to a lack of priests and declining attendance, and despite opposition from parishioners and elected officials, the Archdiocese closed dozens of churches in the region, including this one, in 2007. Its school remains open, but despite popular support for preservation, the future of the church itself is uncertain.