Gus Hill's Minstrels, 1935. Gus Hill (born Gustave Metz) was vaudeville performer who was originally known for his juggling of large pins, called Indian clubs. Hill became a burlesque and vaudeville impresario. He founded the Columbia Amusement Company and was the president of the American Burlesque Association. The building seen here was constructed circa 1869. The Minstrels likely performed in a space within the building, which as various times also hosted political meetings and a gymnasium. The unseen ground floor of this large structure included a garage, a Chinese laundry, a paint store, a drugstore, a produce stand, and a restaurant.

125th Street Branch, NYPL, July 18, 1928. Constructed as the Harlem Branch in 1904, the library on East 15th Street is a McKim, Mead & White building. It was given its current designation when a new library was named the Harlem Branch upon completion in 1909. (That branch is on West 124th Street.) The three-story facade is of an Italian Renaissance palazzo style. The semi- circular decorative sections over the second floor windows (called tympanum) depict iconography of classical architecture such as laurels and anchors. The one over the center window depicts a shield with part of the seal of the City of New York: a four-blade windmill (representing the Dutch settlers), two beavers, and two flour barrels (symbolizing the two most important exports of New Amsterdam: furs and flour).

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.

Welcome! This is a digital tour companion for our 2024 Jane's Walk tour on May 4th, 2024, led by Kathy Benson-Haskins, co-founder of Landmark East Harlem (landmarkeastharlem.org). For those who don’t know, Jane’s Walk is a global festival of volunteer-led walks inspired by urbanist Jane Jacobs and occurs annually during the first weekend in May. And the Municipal Art Society of NY hosts the largest of the fests right here in New York City—this year some 165 tours over the three days. This walk focuses on the original village of Nieuw Haarlem, established by the Dutch in 1658 when New York was New Amsterdam. We are currently standing two blocks south of the village center, but I wanted to start here because there are two interesting sites that I want you to see beforehand. The first is one of the three most recent buildings to be designated New York City landmarks.

Gristede Brothers, ca. 1921. Founded by two teenage brothers, Diedrich (Dick) and Charles Gristede, in 1888, Gristede's would become a city mainstay over the next half century. The original small grocery store, located at 42nd Street and 2nd Avenue, prospered and within 50 years the grocery store had become a successful chain with more than 150 stores in the city, Westchester, Long Island and Connecticut. This 128th Street location opened in a new purpose-built structure in 1920. Today the building still stands, sans the 'Gristede Brothers 1920' lettering that once graced the triangular pediment at the top.

New York Public Library, 125th Street Branch ARCHITECT: McKim, Mead & White DATE: 1904 STYLE: Renaissance Revival McKim, Mead & White’s philosophy was that the libraries were designed to serve two purposes: to be specific to their neighborhood yet universal in character, and to be expressive of a municipal building type. The striking Renaissance Revival-style building is of the palazzo type. The building is clad in rusticated Indiana limestone and is three stories high and three bays wide. Large arched windows dominate the first floor with an entrance offset to the right with an arched glass transom above. The tall second-floor window openings are topped by arched decorative transom panels. The third floor has three small square windows that pierce the façade, creating a clerestory.

"127th Street, north side, west from No. 29. In the background is St. Andrew's Protestant Episcopal Church, at No. 1-9 East 127th Street, July 28, 1932." This block of East 127th Street between Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue has been give the honorific name of “Langston Hughes Place.” Hughes lived in an apartment on the top floor of the brownstone at no. 20 (approximately halfway down the block on the left) between 1947 and 1967. The 1869-built rowhouse was designated a New York City Landmark in 1981 due to its connection to Hughes.

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

A direct means of making Harlem's first apartment buildings more attractive to potential tenants was the practice of including an ornate banking room on the ground floor. In fact, before 1920, bank buildings that did not include apartment suites were uncommon. The Mount Morris Bank/Morris Apartments was the result of a limited competition that included McKim, Mead & White. Designed by Lamb & Rich and completed in 1884, the structure housed apartments that were later transformed into offices. Splendidly devised, the cherry-red brick and terra-cotta structure exhibited a stylistic lineage derived from Romanesque, Queen Anne, and Dutch sources. It was one of Lamb's great achievements. One of about six small banks founded in late nineteenth-century Harlem, the Mount Morris Bank was by 1913 absorbed by a mightier citywide financial institution, the Corn Exchange Bank. The building itself was partially destroyed by arson in 1997.

Columbus Theatre, 1896. Oscar Hammerstein I opened the Columbus Theatre on 125th Street in 1890. It presented lighter theatrical fare than its sister theater down the street, the Harlem Opera House. The playhouse was sold to F.F. Proctor and renamed Keith & Proctor's 125th Street Theater, showing vaudeville acts. The Proctor/Keith partnership ended in 1911. Films had been added to the theater's program by the time, and it was renamed Proctor's 125th Street Theatre. The theater was taken over by RKO in the 1930s and closed in 1953.

Storefront law offices in East Harlem, May 18, 1938. These law offices, run by the two sons of founder David Flam, occupied 165 East 121st Street for 25 years. Located directly across the street from the Harlem Courthouse, the firm offered an array of court-related services. A variant image shows two lawyers, perhaps the brothers Flam, standing at the front door. Abbott rejected this version, however, in which the men detracted from the colorful names stenciled on the plate glass. Only weeks after Abbott’s photograph, the firm moved to larger quarters at 181 East 121st Street. Today no. 165 is an overgrown vacant lot, and the rest of the block is largely abandoned. The imposing courthouse, built in 1891 and long neglected, was granted landmark status in 1967 and is under renovation.

Take your mother for a stroll around East and Central Harlem above 125th Street, straddling Fifth Avenue, the traditional dividing line between East and Central Harlem. Members of Landmark East Harlem (LEH) will introduce you to the treasures of the second historic district that LEH has proposed for listing on the National and State Registers of Historic Places. Featured sites include 19th-century wood-frame houses, Victorian-era rowhouses, landmarks associated with James Baldwin and Langston Hughes, former church buildings that have been given new purpose, and the brownstone stoop that served as the site of the iconic 1958 photograph of jazz musicians by Art Kane for Esquire magazine.

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.

Northwest corner of 125th Street and Lexington Avenue looking west, March 15, 1915.

Election in East Harlem, October 28, 1912. Political banners promoting Republican candidates line the streets at Lexington Avenue and East 125th Street, a little over a week before Election Day. In the Presidential race, Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate, defeated the incumbent Republican William Howard Taft; Theodore Roosevelt, running as a candidate of the Progressive Party, having failed to secure toe G.O.P. nomination; and Socialist candidate Eugene V. Debs. In the background, the elevated 125th Street station of the New York Central Railway is visible.

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.

East 128th Street and Harlem River Drive Handball Court Keith Haring 1986 Famed graffiti artist Keith Haring (1958-90) painted two colorful murals on both sides of a concrete handball court in 1986. The design is composed of Haring’s signature kinetic figures and abstract forms in bold outlines, cautioning youth against crack, an addictive and dangerous form of cocaine whose use had reached epidemic proportions. The Crack is Wack mural is a lasting reminder of Keith Haring’s talent and legacy. A foundation in his memory was established, which continues to support the preservation of the mural. Photo courtesy Marina Ortiz, East Harlem Preservation, Inc.

Kopper House, ca. 1920. Referred to as the "oldest house in Harlem" at the beginning of the 20th century, the Kopper House was built in 1790 by architect Johann Hermann Raub for his family. As can been seen pointedly in this photograph, the front of the house (the porch at right) was constructed in brick, while the rear was clapboard. The front of the house was rendered in the more expensive material and the eventual layout of the street (here 124th Street) provided the stark view of the two halves. Originally the house would have been surrounded by a large plot of land and an orchard of fruit trees brought to this country by its builder. The house, referred to as "Haunted House" in a 1924 NY Times article about it, survived into the early 1930s but it is unclear when it was finally demolished.