2460 Second Avenue, ca. 1928. Up until 2015, this site was a bus depot operated by the New York City Transit Depot. The city-owned site will become the Harlem African Burial Ground and Cultural Center, slated for completion in 2021. An 1820 map indicates that the plot was initially owned by Nathaniel G. Ingraham. A church and slave burial ground occupied the portion of the lot closest to the Harlem River. In the late 19th-century, the lot became Sulzer's Harlem River Park, an amusement park that covered the entire block between First and Second Avenue and 126th and 127th Street. Herman Sulzer opened the Harlem River Park after his father gave him the land in 1878. The property included various entertainment venues such as a large casino, restaurants, meeting rooms, and a carousel. However, it was not to last. On an unfortunate late November morning in 1907, the park caught on fire. The New York Times reported "strong northeast wind all over Harlem," leading to the fire to spread into a $200,000 disaster. The paper chronicled a dramatic scene of a woman who worked for the casino jumping from a window to escape flames engulfing the building's staircase. She survived the fall but broke both her ankles. Nor were only employees affected! Ernest Sultzer, the president of the park at the time, owned an apartment on the second floor of the casino. Upon hearing of the fire, he rushed home to rescue his wife, who was trapped inside. She was saved, but only three exterior walls of the casino remained after the blaze. The nearby 126th Street station of the Second Avenue Elevated was spared as firefighters worked diligently to stop the flames from spreading. A new, much larger casino was built one year later. By World War I, Sultzer's Park had been sold to the city of New York and was being used for a different purpose. The New York 15th National Guard Infantry Regiment, or the 369th Regiment, an all-black infantry unit, was housed in barracks and trained before deployment on the site. The property was acquired by Cosmopolitan Productions in 1918. The company was a brainchild of William Randolph Hearst in conjunction with Adolph Zucker of Paramount Pictures. Heart's publications, such as Cosmopolitan Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, and Good Housekeeping would warm up readers to the storylines of Cosmopolitan Production's movies before they were released. Thus, by the time they hit the screen, the films would have already captured the public's attention. In a particularly unlucky incident, the lot caught fire once again in the morning hours of February 19th, 1923. The Times reported that the second fire razed "the studio's electrical equipment and scenery, and almost the entire wardrobe," though its reels were salvaged. To properly contain the fire, Con Edison had to shut off electricity to the entire surrounding area. The neighborhood was left without power until six in the evening when the flames finally subdued. Hearst rebuilt the studio after the fire, but split with Zukor to merge with Goldwyn Pictures. Goldwyn provided a studio in Culver City, California for the production company to operate out of while the Harlem studio was rebuilt. In 1924, Marcus Loew of Metro Pictures Corporation acquired Goldwyn-Cosmopolitan and re-named it Metro-Goldwyn. By the time the new building was completed, the film company was called Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer after a subsequent merger. MGM occupied the lot until some time after the mid-20th century.

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).

This story is about the lot between First and Second Avenues between 126th and 127th streets. The city is presently redeveloping this block-spanning lot into a cultural center, memorial, and mixed-use development. The memorial will commemorate the African Burial Ground, which was part of the Dutch village of Nieuw Harlem. The excavation of the cemetery took place after the New York Transit Depot closed the bus depot that had operated on the site. The project will be called the Harlem African Burial Ground Memorial and is planned for completion in 2021. Between the cemetery and bus depot, this lot has taken on quite a history in its own right. Take a look at the history of this corner in Harlem.

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.

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.

The Bronx is named after Jonas Bronck, a Nordic European settler who arrived in the colony of New Netherlands in 1639. Bronck and his Dutch wife, Teuntje Joriaens, established their farmstead in what is now Mott Haven at the confluence of the Harlem River and Bronx Kill overlooking Randall’s Island. In 1670 much of the area was acquired by the Morris family, who established a large manor called Morissania. The family retained ownership—and the area remained sparsely populated—through the early 19th century. It was the arrival of the New York and Harlem Railroad line, announced in 1840, that finally persuaded the Morrises to embrace suburban development on their estate. Jordan L. Mott, the neighborhood’s namesake, purchased sizable tracts from the Morris family in 1841 and 1848. Hoping to create a “downtown of Westchester County” (of which this area was then still a part), he laid out streets and building lots and began marketing the new hamlet called Mott Haven. According to Mott’s plan, the southern portion was devoted to industrial uses, including his own iron works, all served by a purpose-built, 3,000-foot canal. The northern section was reserved for tidy residential buildings, protected by restrictive covenants from anything “pernicious to health or noxious or offensive to the neighborhood.” Other developers soon followed Mott to the South Bronx, purchasing large tracts from the Morris family and laying out their own suburbs such as Wilton (subdivided 1857) and North New York (1860)—now both part of the neighborhood of Mott Haven. The Morris family itself entered the development business, planning the industrial neighborhood of Port Morris. Development of these tracts was steady, if not as rapid as their promoters may have wanted. Mott Haven proper—which consisted of the area between Third Avenue and the Harlem River—was the most populous, containing a concentration of modest, mostly wood-framed, houses built for local factory workers. By the 1860s the area even boasted a few brick rowhouses, some of which still survive. Much of the area, however, remained in the hands of real estate investors waiting for the area to gain in value. The Panic of 1873 delayed this by several years, although around the same time, in 1874, the South Bronx was annexed into New York City, likely ensuring its eventual development as an urban neighborhood. The arrival of mass transit (the 1887 opening of the Suburban Rapid Transit Company’s 138th Street Station, later part of the IRT Third Avenue Elevated) provided the ultimate spark for the area’s growth. Within a decade or two, most of Mott Haven’s streets were completely built up with a diverse range of buildings, from comfortable single-family rowhouses, to larger multi-family tenements and apartment buildings. Industry also blossomed. Mott’s iron works, now controlled by his descendants, continued to expand. Other manufacturers moved into the area including a remarkable number of piano manufacturers. In fact, by the early 20th century the Bronx had (by one count) 63 piano factories—43 of them in Mott Haven—producing more than 100,000 instruments a year. Mott Haven’s dense industrial base meant the neighborhood was particularly hard hit by the deindustrialization of New York City in the mid 20th century. Though the South Bronx became a symbol of urban decay and disinvestment by the 1970s, it also remained a vibrant immigrant neighborhood with new institutions, such as the Teatro de Puerto Rico, moving into the many surviving historic buildings. The rich history and architectural distinction of Mott Haven has been recognized by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission through the designation of three historic districts (including the first in the Bronx) and several individual landmarks.

125th Street approach to the Triborough Bridge, 1937.

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.

Willis Avenue Bridge, viewed from East Harlem, Manhattan, ca. 1934. The Willis Avenue bridge opened in 1901, connecting traffic from Manhattan's First Avenue to the Bronx and points north. The bridge was replaced by a new span in 2007. The bridge is also notable to veterans of the New York City Marathon: the bridge falls at the five-borough course's 20-mile mark.

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.