Saint Paul Roman Catholic Church ARCHITECT: Neville & Bagge DATE: 1907-08 STYLE: Romanesque Revival, Church Saint Paul Roman Catholic Church, completed in 1908, is significant as an excellent example of the late Romanesque Revival style. Designed by the firm of Neville & Bagge, the facade incorporates both medieval and classical features. It is also historically significant as one of the earliest Roman Catholic parishes in Manhattan, serving the East Harlem neighborhood since 1834. Dominating the street facade are symmetrical corner towers, an extraordinary row of five entry portals, and large round-arch stained-glass windows with simple geometric tracery. These dramatic windows on the front and side facades figure prominently in the design and their construction was facilitated by the building’s structural use of steel and concrete. Typical Romanesque Revival features include round-arch openings, towers, steep roofs, and carved medieval-style ornamentation.

Trolley in traffic on Lenox Avenue (now Malcolm X Boulevard), ca. 1930. In 1895, the Metropolitan Railway Company opened a streetcar line along Lenox Avenue from 110th Street to the Harlem River, and later connected to the Lexington Avenue surface line, via 116th Street. The Lenox Avenue streetcar line operated until 1935; the route was later converted to bus service. At left is Bickford’s, a department store and restaurant chain, at 101 West 116th Street. The Bickford’s building survives, but the top band of cornice detail has been removed. Just out of frame at left is the entrance to the 116th Street station of the IRT Lenox Avenue subway line.

2002–2008 5th Avenue Designed by Christian Brand 1868 These Italianate brownstone houses are survivors of the early development that started in Harlem beginning in the 1860s but was temporarily halted because of the Panic of 1873 and the economic depression that followed. They predate the oldest buildings in the designated Mount Morris Park Historic District and are virtually intact.

Renamed in honor of Marcus Garvey in 1973, the park was built largely as a green space for Boss Tweed's Tammany Hall cronies, many of whom lived uptown by the 1860s. The land for the park had been purchased by the city in 1839, but landscaping was long delayed. Its design was eventually supervised by Ignaz A. Pilat, who would later serve as an able associate of Frederick Law Olmsted during the creation of Central Park.

Businesses on West 124th Street, off of Lenox Avenue, 1932. Storefronts include: Lenox Auto Renting Co.; Harding Hand Laundry; and L. Pelzling, Tailor. Today, the second story cornices and wooden clapboards have been removed, but underlying structures remain.

In 1837, the New York and Harlem Railroad extended its Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue) tracks to Harlem. In 1872, the tracks south of 98th Street were sunk below ground to reduce their street-level impact, and in 1874, a brownstone viaduct was built where the tracks emerged above ground (later the line continued northward with the construction of a steel viaduct). The viaduct, which, from 102nd to 110th Streets, allows vehicular and pedestrian crossing via rounded archways, had a lasting impact on the neighborhood. While the grand rowhouses west of Mount Morris Park (now Marcus Garvey Park) thrived, those to the east were replaced with subsidized housing. Beneath the tracks from 111th to 116th Streets is La Marqueta, a marketplace that originally served as an informal gathering place for pushcart vendors until the city officially sanctioned it in 1936. Around that time, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia waged war against the city’s pushcarts, which were widely believed to be a traffic menace and sanitation hazard. La Marqueta became one of several enclosed markets operated by the city, with merchants renting stalls. It reached its apex in the 1950s and 1960s with over 500 vendors, and was an important cultural hub for the neighborhood’s Hispanic population. After decades of decline, the City Council allocated $3 million to revitalize the market in 2014.

Janes Walk 2023 Our Lovely Tour Guide: Kathy Bensen-Haskins As we make our way to the first stop on the tour, we will give you some background on Landmark East Harlem. It was founded in 2015 by a coalition of organizations and individuals whose mission is to protect the special character of the neighborhood. We do this by working to secure City landmark designation and State and National Register listing for individual properties and historic districts in East Harlem. We also advocate for contextual new development and adaptive reuse of older properties. We have succeeded in getting three individual buildings designated by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission and East Harlem’s first historic district listed on the State and National Registers. We hope the area we are about to tour will be the second historic district so listed later this year. In 2020 we commissioned a historic preservationist to conduct a reconnaissance historic resource survey for the area we are about to tour. Later this year, the New York State Board for Historic Preservation will meet and review nominations for both individual structures and districts, and we hope it will recommend the district for listing on the State Register of Historic Places. It will then be forwarded to the National Park Service for review and listing on the National Register.

Temple Israel, ca. 1907. The Temple Israel Reform congregation was incorporated in 1873, first worshipping in a series of rented and temporary spaces in East Harlem, then in a converted church at Fifth Avenue and 125th Street. The congregation was primarily composed of German immigrants, part of what was then a large Jewish community in Harlem. In 1906, the congregation broke ground on its own space, a Neoclassical limestone synagogue at the corner of Lenox Avenue and 120th Street. However, Temple Israel’s Lenox Avenue tenure was to be short lived; Harlem’s Jewish population began to shift to other parts of the city, and Temple Israel followed suit, moving to a new, Upper West Side synagogue in 1920. The Mount Olivet Baptist Church, the current tenants, purchased the Lenox Avenue building in 1925.

Accident on Lexington Avenue at the intersection of 121st Street, July 21, 1915.

Subway construction at 116th Street and Lenox Avenue, August 10, 1910.

Mount Morris Brownstones: 6–10 Mount Morris Park West Designed by James A. Ware 1891 This row of brownstone houses has recently been restored and is in beautiful condition. The architect, James A. Ware, is most recognized for his development of the dumbbell tenement.

While the vast majority of people experiencing homelessness in New York City reside in homeless shelters there are reasons why this isn't a viable option for some: Safety Concerns: Fear of violence or theft within crowded and shelter environments. Mental Health Challenges: Mental health conditions may be exacerbated by the chaotic and crowded nature of shelters Bureaucratic Hurdles: Complex intake processes are not always accessible to people who lack documentation/identification requirements or the capacity to understand these hurdles Loss of Autonomy: Shelters often have strict rules and regulations, limiting personal freedom and autonomy. Maximum Capacity: Shelters are frequently either overcrowded or declared full. While not devoid of all of the issues prominent in homeless shelters, alternative spaces of refuge, have offered many people, Consistent communities of people whom they trust, Safety by means of public the mutual surveillance that occurs on streets and sidewalks A greater degree of autonomy and less strict regulation than a facility would require. For most, these places of refuge would be subway stations or sidewalks in proximity to prominent buildings. There are unique locations that have been consistent spaces of refuge embedded in communities and in proximity to historical landmarks. As the city battles the surmounting housing crisis, it can be easy to dismiss the issue due to lack of space. However, there are parts of the city that have been enveloped in history and can provide a substantial amount of real estate to accommodate a few hundred that have resorted to squatting or sleeping on the streets. While systemic change is necessary, the following examples of unusual spaces that have paved the way to affordable housing can provide a refreshed perspective. This City Story will engage with the subject of alternative places for refuge by exploring 3 locations in New York that are/have been used as such.

Mount Olivet Baptist Church (Temple Israel) 201–203 Lenox Avenue Designed by Arnold W. Brunner, 1906–07 This Neo-Classical limestone building looks like a Roman temple, yet it was originally constructed as a synagogue. Arnold W. Brunner designed many synagogues, including Shearith Israel located on Central Park West, 10 years before this building, in 1897. If one looks closely, Stars of David can be found adorning the building. Mount Olivet, the first African-American congregation on Lenox Avenue, has occupied this building since 1924. The congregation was organized in 1878 and continues to worship at this site today. This building is an example of religious structures in Harlem serving different religions and cultures over time as residents change.

ST. PAUL’S RC CHURCH, MANHATTAN Address: 121 East 117th Street (aka 115-125 East 117th Street) Constructed: 1907-08 Architect: Neville & Bagge This grand church and school were designed by the noted firm of Neville & Bagge in the Romanesque Revival style of brick clad in Indiana limestone. In addition to commanding a strong presence on East 117th Street, the complex provides an important spiritual and cultural link to East Harlem’s past. The parish of St. Paul’s was established in 1834 to serve the northern reaches of the city, when Harlem was sparsely populated and rural, and bears the distinction of being one of the city’s first Roman Catholic churches. The present structures replaced the earlier church and school buildings, which were located roughly on the same site.

New York Public Library, Harlem Branch. March 20, 1928. A Carnegie Library designed by the McKim, Mead & White firm, the Harlem Branch opened to the public in January 1909. It replaced an earlier Harlem Branch library which, according to the NYPL, had been in operation as early as 1826.

The cast-iron frame watchtower predates the surrounding park's completion. Built in 1856 by Julius Kroehl, it occupies the highest point in the area. A watchman in the tower constantly looked out for fires and sounded the alarm by ringing an enormous bell. Samuel F. B. Morse's telegraph would eventually put such towers out of business. This tower, which ceased operations in the 1870s, is the only surviving watchtower in the city.

Also known as the Mount Morris Turkish Baths, June's Landmark Spotlight for NYC Pride Month is located at 28 East 125th Street. Built in 1889-90 by C. Abbott French & Co., the structure was designed as a blend of two popular styles at the time, neo-Grec and Queen Anne.

Protestant Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity ca. 1932 Inspired by Henry Hobson Richardson's Trinity Church in Boston (1872-1877), Harlem's Holy Trinity is built of granite with bands of reddish brown Longmeadow sandstone. Its three buildings are highly individual but still coherent as a group. A particularly masterful touch is the cluster of homelike chimneys that balances the institutional center lantern. On the interior, the church is fifty feet square at the crossing, with shallow transepts and a raised chancel embellished with carving, stained glass, and mosaics. Because of two devastating fires, these decorations supplied by the Tiffany Studios no longer exist.