Regent Theater ARCHITECT: Thomas W. Lamb DATE: 1912-13 STYLE: Theater An elegant architectural design, the Regent was built to elevate the presentation of movies and was one of the first luxurious movie theaters in New York City. The theater was controlled by the real estate interests of the Little family, prominent printers, for nearly forty years. Located in Harlem at the comer of two thoroughfares which were popular for entertainment venues, the Regent was operated as a movie and vaudeville house for some fifty years, as an innovative setting for movie presentations.

Huddlestone Arch was designed by Calvert Vaux and Jacob Wrey Mould and built in 1866. Located near the northern end of the Ravine, it is made entirely of rough, uncut boulders and was constructed without the use of any binding material.

As the city grew and changed, Olmsted and Vaux’s design for Morning Side Park changed with it. In their first plan of 1873 the grandest of the park entrances was to be at the corner of Manhattan Ave and West 110th Street (Cathedral Parkway). This corner was closest to the northwest corner of Central Park just a short block away and one can imagine the designers envisioning park goers strolling back and forth between the two parks. Here we see a major change that most certainly made them rethink that approach. This 1879 eastward looking view of the elevated train tracks built along 110th Street just south of what would become Morningside Park, show what a changed prospect now presented itself to the designers. Olmsted and Vaux’s second 1887 plan for the park took into account this dramatically changed condition. It retained but played down the southern entrance and made more of the grand staircase leading into the middle of the park from Morningside Drive at 116th Street.

110th Street Curve, also known as “suicide curve,” 1913. In 1879, the elevated tracks of the IRT Ninth Avenue Line were extended northward from the 104th Street station. At 110th Street, the trestle turned 90 degrees to the right on 110th Street, before turning uptown again at Eighth Avenue. The 110th Street station and adjacent tracks earned the nickname “suicide curve,” as the high elevated railway had become a destination for jumpers. In 1927, the New York Times reported that local business owners were concerned that the curve’s reputation was a deterrent to customers. The Ninth Avenue El ceased operations in June, 1940, and the railway was dismantled shortly thereafter. While many sources claim the tracks stood a dizzy 100 feet above street level, a 1940 dispatch in the New York Times quoted the project superintendent overseeing the trestle's demolition, who claimed a maximum height of 56 feet. Today, the elevated tracks former right of way is still visible at the southeast corner of 110th Street and Columbus Avenue: older buildings are set back from the corner, while more recent single-story construction occupies the land once underneath the tracks.

New York Public Library, 115th Street branch. July 18, 1928. The 115th Street branch, a Carnegie-funded library designed by McKim, Mead & White, opened in November, 1908. The small, three-story Renaissance Revival building is styled as an Italian palazzo, with a heavily rusticated limestone facade and symmetrical arched windows. In 2017, the library was renamed the Harry Belafonte 115th Street Library, after the musician, activist, and Harlem resident.

Block House No. 1. This stone fort, which sits on top of the large rock, is the oldest original structure in Central Park (Cleopatra's Needle was created elsewhere and moved). It is one of a number of fortifications built in the area during the War of 1812 (and the only one that survives). Despite the threat that prompted their construction, none of the forts were used in wartime combat and they were abandoned when the war ended, soon after being built. It was later used for ammunition storage.

When you’re planning to build some of the world’s most spectacular and challenging tunnels, you need to know ahead of time what you’ll be digging through. Is it soil, sand, or stone? Is the stone strong and secure or friable and likely to collapse? To know what the bedrock is like, you need a drill rig to dig it out from hundreds of feet below the surface. The drill extracts geological core borings, cylindrical samples that provide a cross-section of subsurface conditions and let engineers know whether the area is good for tunneling and what construction methods should be used. The drill bits are tubular and loaded with shot or embedded with diamonds to cut around the core, like a drinking straw plunging into a milkshake (except really, really hard!).

Parkway Hospital, August 3, 1928. The Parkway Hospital, a private 70-bed facility on the north side of Central Park, opened to the public on January 5, 1929. The West 110th Street building became the Italian Hospital during the 1950s. In 1973, Italian merged with Columbus Hospital, creating the Cabrini Medical Center and shifting care to a new facility in Gramercy Park.

Ansehe Chesed Synagogue ca. 1910 Jewish residents were a significant presence in post-Civil War Harlem, which at the turn of the twentieth century was the nation's pre-eminent middle class Jewish neighborhood. If, in their religious structures, Harlem's Jews avoided Christianity's distinctive Gothic mode, but they were not averse to presenting a "churchly" appearance. Temple Ansche Chesed was completed in 1909 on a fine corner site at Seventh Avenue and West 114th Street. The structure is built of brick, limestone, and terra cotta. It was lit naturally by means of an enormous skylight, the stained glass of which depicted traditional Jewish symbols. Congregation Ansche Chesed was a Reform congregation, with mixed seating for men and women and prayers conducted in English. It also boasted a fine organ. Since 1927, the congregation has worshipped in a similar building by Edward Shire located at 251 West 100th Street. Reflecting Harlem's history of changing demographics, Temple Ansche Chesed was adapted in 1926 as Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal, a Spanish Roman Catholic church, and then became Mount Neboh Baptist Church in 1980.

Huddlestone Arch, 1895. This dry-stacked arch was made of uncut boulders, forming its shape without the use of mortar or any kind of support structure. In this photograph is Robert L. Bracklow, a photographer, and (presumably) Mary Granger, his lifelong partner.

Ansche Chesed Synagogue, ca. 1910. The Congregation Ansche Chesed was established in 1828 by a group of German, Dutch and Polish Jews who split off from Congregation B'nai Jeshurun. The community was originally based on the Lower East Side and their first purpose-built synagogue was on Norfolk Street (now the Angel Orensanz Center). As the city expanded northward, the community moved in that direction as well. After calling a number of buildings home the congregation, now consisting of traditional German Jews and recent immigrants, settled in a new building in fashionable Harlem on 114th Street. The grand synagogue was fashioned as neo-Classical temple with a large portico and massive columns. Designed by Edward I. Shire, the cornerstone dates the building with dual dates, 1908 and 5668, on the Hebrew calendar. The building served the community well, but by the 1920s a larger space as needed. A new synagogue was constructed on the corner of 100th Street and West End Avenue. The community moved to that space in 1928. The building at 114th Street became the Roman Catholic Church of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal (Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Milagrosa), which served the Hispanic community in Harlem. Since 1980, it has housed the Mount Neboh Baptist Church.

Harlem churches have been an important part of the historical shaping of the neighborhood. For decades, they have been centers for community bonding and healing. Many of these churches have been involved with social movements like the fight for civil rights and the abolition of slavery. Many historic Harlem churches have lost some of their popularity as time has passed, but they still hold spiritual importance in their neighborhoods. As property values rise in an ever-gentrifying city, a few churches have been struggling to stay open as tithes and parishioners have dwindled. However, the members remain hopeful. On this walk, interact with structures of beauty and importance in the Harlem community.

General Memorial Hospital, 1917. This still standing fortresslike French Renaissance building was constructed in 1887 as the New York Cancer Hospital, the first medical facility to focus solely on cancer. The planning and design of the building reflected prevailing ideas about illness, its causes, and treatment on that era. The hospital was funded by, among others, John Jacob Astor III, who wished to refute the stigma of cancer (in the Victorian period, cancer thought to be contagious and a disease of the poor or those with lacking hygiene). The patients were kept in the round towers, as it was believed that germs flourished in corners. The large windows in the circular towers allowed for more light, better ventilation, and a better view of the patients for the medical staff. Given the low survival rate of cancer patients in the early years of cancer research, the building became known as a death trap (with cancer advancement came an improved reputation). In the 1950s the building became a nursing home, but the operation shut down in 1974 with claims of patient abuse and crumbling facilities. The city designated the building a landmark in 1976, which saved it from demolition over the next few decades as plans were put forth for reuse, but none came to be. All the while the building continued to deteriorate and became a den for drug addicts during New York's roughest years. Finally, in 2001 a new owner began work on a residential tower on the west side of the lot. September 11th halted work, but in 2002 new loans and Columbia University's purchase of apartments in the new tower turned the tide. The tower was completed and the old hospital was restored and renovated into 17 luxury units. The roofs were fixed, the mortar repointed, and original windows were replicated.

The upper portion of Central Park is perhaps the less visited section of New York's man-made oasis but includes some lovely areas. Take a look at some of the lesser-known spots in the park.

New-York Cancer Hospital ARCHITECT: Charles C. Haight DATE: 1884-86 STYLE: Hospital Although the construction of the hospital was essentially finished in 1886, the opening was delayed a year because of difficulties in establishing proper sewer connections and the necessity of erecting two additional buildings; one a small mortuary building, no longer standing; the other, a boiler-house. laundry, and servant dormitory, still standing at 32 West I06th Street. When the New York Cancer Hospital opened, it was the first hospital in the United States and only the second in the world to be devoted exclusively to cancer patients (the other was the London Cancer Hospital). The death of President Ulysses S. Grant from cancer in 1885 was a factor which helped arouse public interest in the funding of the hospital. It was not until the 1880s that cancer was being seriously studied for the first time, and the New York Cancer Hospital was anxious to establish itself as a proper scientific institution. It promoted the use of surgical techniques for cancer treatment and the belief that this helped save lives. Many of the cancer patients were treated free of charge.

The Wadleigh High School for Girls 215-25 W. 114th Street, Harlem 1902 Hailed as “a triumph of architectural skill,” The Wadleigh High School for Girls was among the first public high schools built in New York City and the first high school for girls. Designed in the Colligate Gothic style by school architect C.B.J. Snyder, the impressive red brick and buff limestone structure boasts a 125-foot tower. Constructed at a total cost of $900,000 inclusive of furnishings and equipment, The Wadleigh’s 3,000 student capacity had 80 classrooms, 3 gymnasia and a 1,500-seat auditorium and was the first school building to have electric elevators. In February 1903, the New York Times described The Wadleigh as “the finest high school building in the world.” Notable alumnae include actresses Jean Stapleton and Isabel Sanford.

In this view from 1911 we see the rugged topography of the site which is just one block wide but 13 blocks long. The Olmsted and Vaux design highlights the natural setting by creating two linear path systems, one broad and meandering and the other cutting through the Manhattan schist and hugging a massive buttressed retaining wall along the park’s western edge.

This photo shows tunneling under Central Park for the Lenox Line. Unlike cut and cover, these tunnels are deep underground and cannot be built by digging through the street. Drillers made holes for dynamite that helped explode the rock, and then excavators removed the spoil and cleared the way for the shield, a device that kept workers safe as they dug. The shield is a temporary support that acts to protect the workers from falling debris as they chip away at rocks ahead of the shield and put in place permanent support walls behind it. Sandhogs used pickaxes, shovels, air powered drills, and sometimes dynamite, to break through the rock.

The park was designated a Scenic Landmark of New York City in 2008. Today there are only ten other designated Scenic landmarks in the city. This photo shows the Washington and Lafayette monument in the small triangle formed at the intersection of Morningside Avenue and Manhattan Avenue on the eastern edge of the park at 114th Street. The triangle is included in the Scenic Landmark designation. The statue was added to the triangle just a few years after the park’s completion and is by Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi the sculptor of the Statue of Liberty. In the right hand corner of this photo in the far distance we can make out the park overlook at 116th Street on the western edge of the park. As we said, it’s a narrow park!

135 West 115th Street. Remodeled apartments, 1941.

Elevated railroad at 110th Street and 8th Avenue, ca. 1895.