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17 East 128th Street image

17 East 128th Street
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17 East 128th Street ca. 1864 This charming building is one of the few surviving wood frame houses in Harlem, built when Harlem was still a rural village separate from New York City. Designed with Second Empire and Italianate elements by an unknown architect, the house is clad in wood clapboard and features a full-width porch and a slate mansard roof. The house stands as a reminder of Harlem’s early history before being annexed to the city in 1873. 17 East 128th Street is a designated New York City Individual Landmark .
Wurts Bros. Residence image

Wurts Bros. Residence
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"Wurts residence, ca. 1912. The Wurts brothers were the premier architectural photographers of early 20th century New York City — in fact, they took this photo!"
UNIA, Advance Division image

UNIA, Advance Division
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Advance Division of the Universal Negro Improvement Organization, 1939. The UNIA, founded by Marcus Garvey in 1914, advocated universal black solidarity and exerted considerable influence prior to Garvey’s 1925 deportation. The organization was headquartered on 135th Street in Harlem, and operated hundreds of chapters worldwide. The buildings on in this photograph were demolished by Robert Moses, under the pretense of slum clearance, for the construction of the Lenox Terrace housing development, which now occupies the superblock between 132nd and 135th Streets, Fifth Avenue, and Malcolm X Boulevard (then Lenox Avenue).
2004 Fifth Avenue image

2004 Fifth Avenue
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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.
H.C.F. Koch & Company Building image

H.C.F. Koch & Company Building
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H. C. F. Koch & Company Department, ca. 1891. C. F. Koch & Company was established in 1860 in Greenwich Village as a purveyor of dry good and "fancy good." The business successful moved uptown to the Ladies Mile shopping district by the 1870s. Shocking their competitors in the neighborhood, Koch announced that they would close their 20th Street store for a move to Harlem in 1890. The Harlem building, designed by architect William H. Hume, was a five-story shopping emporium. Opened in 1891, the store sold its previous ware but, according to a contemporary article, also offered "a full line of millinery, china and glassware, bedding and furniture, shoes, boys’ clothing, etc." The building also featured passenger elevators, electric lighting, and a pneumatic tube cash system. The store remained successful through the mid 1920s but suffered as the neighborhood demographics shifted in the late 1920s and early 1930s. They closed in 1932 after the founder passed away. Somewhat surprisingly though the 1891 building remains on 125th Street looking very much like it must have 125 years ago.
Mount Morris Park West image

Mount Morris Park West
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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.
Lenox Lounge image

Lenox Lounge
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Lenox Lounge, ca. 1985. The Lenox Lounge opened in 1939 and quickly became a favorite Harlem spot for musicians and those in search of great jazz, classy interiors (the bar’s legendary Zebra Room was known for its zebra skinned walls), and good drinks. By the 1960s there was less jazz activity in the neighborhood bars and by the end of the 20th century, the Lenox Lounge had deteriorated. In 1999-2000 it underwent a restoration to bring back its period details like the Zebra print walls and geometric floor tiles, while at the same time booking live jazz once again. Sadly, due to rent increases the club closed at the end of 2012. A new owner planned to keep the interiors for a new venue, while the owner who sold the building (and retained the rights to the Lenox Lounge name) planned to open a new club nearby. Neither plan came to fruition and the structure was demolished in 2017
Lenox Lounge image

Lenox Lounge
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Lenox Lounge, 1961. This legendary art deco lounge survived for decades before submitting to changing tastes and development. Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and a host of jazz greats all played here.
Orient Theatre image

Orient Theatre
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Orient Theatre, June 24, 1927. The Orient Theatre was in operation by 1915 and had a seating capacity of 600. The theatre remained open until the early 1950s. In 1952, famed Brooklyn Dodger Jackie Robinson opened a menswear and appliance store in a portion of the building which had previously housed the theatre.
Hotel Theresa image

Hotel Theresa
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Hotel Theresa ARCHITECT: George & Edward Blum DATE: 1912-13 STYLE: Terra-cotta The Theresa entered the national limelight in 1960 when Cuban premier Fidel Castro chose to stay at the hotel while visiting New York to speak at the United Nations General Assembly; while at the Theresa, Castro hosted a visit from Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev. The Hotel Theresa, built in 1912-13, is significant in the history of Harlem, America’s most prominent African-American community, as one of the most important social centers of that community. It is a major work by the noted architectural firm of George & Edward Blum, exemplifying this firm’s singular approach to ornamentation and inventive use of terra-cotta.
161 West 129th Street image

161 West 129th Street
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161 West 129th Street, ca. 1932.
A Great Day in Harlem: Celebrating Extraordinary Lives and Legacies image

A Great Day in Harlem: Celebrating Extraordinary Lives and Legacies
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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.
Salem Methodist Episcopal Church image

Salem Methodist Episcopal Church
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Salem United Methodist Church, not dated. The Salem United Methodist Church was founded in 1881 as a mission church of a larger congregation. The community first met in a storefront and then a private home. By 1908 Salam was recognized as a separate church from St. Mark's Methodist Episcopal. By the 1920s the congregation had grown to more than 600 and the chapel and meeting rooms used by the parish in brownstones at 133rd Street and Lenox Avenue were no longer sufficient. The congregation moved into this building at 129th Street in 1924. The Calvary Methodist Episcopal Church had moved to the Bronx and sold this late 1880s-built Romanesque Revival church. Between 1908 and 1948 Salem was led by Rev. Frederick A. Cullen, pastor, activist, and adoptive father of poet Countee Cullen. It was here that Cullen married Yolande Du Bois, daughter of W.E.B. Du Bois in 1928. The wedding was a major social event in the history of the Harlem Renaissance. The opera singer Marian Anderson was also a congregant. In the 1950s, the community undertook an interior restoration that honored the historic character of the building but included new floors, organ, pews, and heating and cooling infrastructure. Today the church remains the home of the Salem United Methodist Church.
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church image

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church
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Saint Andrew’s Church ARCHITECT: Henry M. Gordon DATE: 1872-73 STYLE: Gothic, Church The architectural composition of Saint Andrew’s Church is distinctive and picturesque in the Gothic manner. Constructed of rock-faced granite, the Church’s rugged appearance has a solid quality and great dignity. The interesting massing of structural elements culminates in a handsome clock tower, adjacent to the south transept on 127th Street. Two graceful pointed-arch openings on each side of the belfry give form and deep shadow to the tower, while the slate-covered spire is adorned at each corner by delicate turrets. Cruciform in shape, the plan has galleries in the transept and side aisles in the nave. Simple buttresses, at the exterior of the south aisle wall, lend structural support and considerable interest to the design.
Hotel Theresa image

Hotel Theresa
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"Settling in for what they initially assumed would be a temporary stay at Harlem’s Theresa Hotel, Anna and Merritt \[Hedgeman] set about looking for employment and permanent housing… The Theresa offered a suite of rooms at a reasonable rate, a central location, and a bit of celebrity. The stately white terra cotta and brick hotel had only recently opened its doors to black guests, but now a bevy of black entertainers, artists, and socialites called the “Waldorf of Harlem” home… The tallest building in Harlem, standing on the corner of 125th Street and 7th Avenue, now Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard, and near Frank’s Restaurant, the Apollo Theater, the Harlem Opera House, the African Memorial National Bookstore, and Blumstein’s Department Store, the Theresa literally offered a window on Harlem’s political, social, and cultural life. Anna and Merritt would become two of the hotel’s high-profile residents, a group that included writer Zora Neale Hurston, socialite Grace Nail Johnson, Negro Yearbook editor Florence Murray, and entertainer Bill 'Bojangles' Robinson." For more on the social world at Harlem's Theresa, check out this article by Jennifer Scanlon on the forgotten civil rights pioneer Anna Hedgeman in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.
29 East 127th Street image

29 East 127th Street
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"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.
Uptown Frame Houses image

Uptown Frame Houses
Story

Harlem was once a quiet suburban village. Until the mid-19th century, the area was largely undeveloped; most structures were isolated, free-standing frame houses. This collection surveys some of the frame houses that once stood in Upper Manhattan — including a few hardy examples that have survived to the present day.
52 West 132nd Street image

52 West 132nd Street
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52 West 132nd Street, ca. 1932.
St. Paul's German Lutheran Church image

St. Paul's German Lutheran Church
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Saint Paul’s German Evangelical Lutheran Church ARCHITECT: Schneider & Herter DATE: 1897-98 STYLE: Neo-Gothic, Church Faced in bluish-gray Vermont marble, the church building is a distinguished example of late nineteenth-century neo-Gothic church design. The symmetrical tripartite facade, featuring projecting corner towers with prominent spires, is enriched with gabled arches, lancet windows, finials, and an impressive rose window of leaded opalescent glass with jewel work. After nearly a century of use, the church’s grandeur and architectural integrity are very much apparent.
170 WEST 130 STREET image

170 WEST 130 STREET
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Originally constructed for the Baptist Church of the Redeemer, this freestanding Romanesque Revival style building is of great cultural importance to the city for its ties to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s-60’s. After changing hands several times, it was sold in 1936 to the Friendship Baptist Church, founded by the Rev. Dr. John Iverson Mumford. From the beginning, the church supported Civil Rights. Its second pastor, Dr. Thomas Kilgore Jr., was an associate of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who delivered a sermon here in 1955. Among Rev. Kilgore’s other local and national Civil Rights efforts, he led the church to found the House of Friendship Community Center, which, in 1963, became the National Headquarters for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, organized by Bayard Rustin. The congregation, still active today, was deeply involved in organizing the Harlem community’s participation in that historic March. In addition to its social and political significance, 170 West 130th Street’s façade is architecturally significant as the work of Vertner Woodson Tandy, the first African-American architect registered in New York State. The House of Friendship Community Center is located in the Central Harlem West -- 130-132nd Street Historic District.
West 133rd Street Playground image

West 133rd Street Playground
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Playground on West 133rd Street, undated photo. The West 134th Street bath house is visible at upper left. The buildings in this photo would all be razed ahead of the construction of the Lincoln Houses.
"Phase 3" Delights in City History image

"Phase 3" Delights in City History
Story

As New York battles the Coronavirus pandemic this summer, city businesses and public spaces are re-opening in phases. In Phase 3, libraries, tattoo parlors, spas, massage and nail salons, basketball and tennis courts, dog runs, and public beaches are among the spaces to open back up to the public—including some of these long-standing New York City establishments.
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church image

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church
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St. Andrew's Episcopal Church ca. 1912 St. Andrew's, the first Protestant Episcopal congregation in Harlem, was organized in 1829 and opened its first church on Fourth (now Park) Avenue between 127th and 128th Streets the following year. Several additions enlarged the church before fire destroyed it in 1871. The next year, the congregation broke ground on the same site for a new church designed by Henry M. Congdon (1834-1922). The Gothic-style building was completed in 1873. St. Andrew's grew along with Nieuw Haarlem, a village established in 1658 by Peter Stuyvesant and bounded by the Harlem River, Morningside heights, 110th Street, and 155th Street. Because of the congregation's steady growth and the noise and smoke of the railroad along Park Avenue, a larger building on a different site was deemed necessary for St. Andrew's. In 1888, the building firm of Mahoney and Watson was hired to dismantle the church, brick by brick, and to reassemble and enlarge it on its present site, the east side of Fifth Avenue between 127th and 128th Streets. The larger building, shown here, accommodated congregants from the "aristocratic apartment houses and the popular brownstones'" of the neighborhood, populated primary by Germans and Irish and graced by such amenities as Oscar Hammerstein's Harlem Opera House on West 125th Street.
12 West 129th Street image

12 West 129th Street
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12 West 129th Street, ca. 1932. This building was erected in the late 19th century by William Paul and Thomas Wilson. The two men, carpenters and business partners, had purchased the lot late in 1862 to construct a two-and-a-half-story house that they initially addressed as "129th off Fifth." Since 1862, this house has seen numerous alterations. The Moorish-inspired porch was added in 1882-83 after John Simpson, the founder of the Estey Piano Company, and his family moved into the home. A full third story was added in 1896 when an order of Franciscan Sisters took over the property. The Sisters converted the home into a convent and reception home for poor children. According to the 1900 census, six sisters resided here; in 1903, one priest, four sisters, and eight servants were in residence; in 1920 there were nine sisters; and in 1925, there were five sisters and fifteen children between the ages of two and nine. In order to accommodate its new use, the Franciscan Sisters made many grand changes to the home—including enlarging the building itself. Now known as 12 West 129th Street, the home is a landmarked building and one of the last free-standing houses in Harlem.
Harlem Branch, NYPL image

Harlem Branch, NYPL
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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.
Hotel Theresa image

Hotel Theresa
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Hotel Theresa ca. 1934 Built by Gustavus Sidenberg, a lace dealer who named the hotel for his late wife before marrying another Theresa, the Hotel Theresa was hailed as a triumphant testament to Harlem's arrival as a self-contained district. It was the tallest Harlem structure of its day, retaining that distinction until 1973, when the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. state office building was erected. The structure's height, together with the stylized sunrise on the façade, symbolized the builder's hopes for all the good things modernity was still to bring to Harlem. Sidenberg maintained a strict policy that excluded black people, except as servants. Many other hotels, theaters, and department stores discriminated against blacks during the years now celebrated as the Harlem Renaissance. Not until 1937, nearly twenty years after African Americans came to dominate Harlem's population, was this discriminatory policy rescinded at the Hotel Theresa. New black owners welcomed boxer Joe Louis, singer and actress Lena Horne, and dancer and singer Josephine Baker, as well as Cuban premiere Fidel Castro. Senator John F. Kennedy would choose the Hotel Theresa as his forum when he asked Harlem blacks for their support, and Malcolm X would form the Organization of Afro-American Unity in the top floor's double-height dining room.
Harlem Opera House, 211 West 125th Street image

Harlem Opera House, 211 West 125th Street
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Harlem Opera House ca. 1905 Impresario Oscar Hammerstein's 1,800-seat Harlem Opera House was designed by one of the city's most productive theater specialists, J. B. McElfatrick & Sons. The facade was ornately embellished with arabesque panels and a hierarchy of pilasters; allegorical statuary surmounted its crowning parapet. Its interpretation of European architecture was as free as that of any Disney castle. Jules Hurtig and Harry Seamon took over the Harlem Opera House around 1903 and operated there until they leased a newly-built theater at 253 West 125th Street (corner of Lenox Avenue) in 1914. Hurtig & Seamon's (New) Burlesque Theatre played to an all-white clientele, but in 1928, that structure became the Apollo Theatre.
Mt. Morris Bathhouse image

Mt. Morris Bathhouse
Story

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.
Metropolitan Baptist Church image

Metropolitan Baptist Church
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Metropolitan Baptist Church ARCHITECT: John R. Thomas DATE: 1884-85 STYLE: Gothic, Romanesque Revival Designed in two sections by different architects, the Metropolitan Baptist Church (originally the New York Presbyterian Church) is a fine example of the many new churches built in Harlem during the late 19th century at a time when the local church represented wealth and stability to the community. The building is distinguished by a somewhat unusual blend of the Gothic and Romanesque Revival styles, both favored in part for their imposing character, and reflects the importance of its original congregation. The earlier section of rough-faced limestone church, fronting on West 128th Street, was planned by John Rochester Thomas in 1884. It housed a small lecture room/chapel and was erected with the intention of adding a principal auditorium structure at a later date. The addition, comprising the Seventh Avenue facade and the northern section of the church, was completed in 1890 and designed by Richard R. Davis. Davis’ extension, with its dominating gable and towers, complemented the Thomas design incorporating many details from the earlier structure.
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church image

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church
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St. Andrew's Protestant Episcopal Church, ca. 1908. In 1829, St. Andrew’s became the first Episcopal parish in the Village of Harlem. After its first church on East 127th Street was destroyed in an 1871 fire, architect Henry M. Congdon designed a new Victorian Gothic structure as its replacement. In 1889, the Congregation elected to move to a new site at 127th Street and Fifth Avenue in order to better reflect the geographic distribution of its pewholders (in the 19th century, it was commonplace for churchgoers to rent their pews). Rather than build a new church, Congdon was enlisted to develop a plan for a new building incorporating elements of the current structure. Today’s church is Congdon’s relocated St. Andrews, with additional features added and adaptations made to suit the new site, including a 125-foot slate-clad clocktower.
Park & Tilford Building  image

Park & Tilford Building
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Park & Tilford ca. 1908 By the time the Park and Tilford building was completed in 1907, architect B. Hustace Simonson had emerged as a leader in duplex apartment design. His fashionable reserve is well-represented here: Ionic pilasters on the upper floor correspond to the ground story's Ionic piers and engaged columns. Only the entrance to the offices has any decorative flourish-a flowery garland. Park and Tilford was one of New York's most prestigious purveyors of fine spirits, choice groceries, and tobacco. The rich of Harlem shopped here in the 1910s, and a teenage Henry Roth (later to become an acclaimed writer) worked as a delivery boy. Delivering groceries throughout the neighborhood, he observed that Harlem was a divided community: white gentiles shopped primarily on 125th Street, Jews on 116th Street, and African Americans on 135th Street. Roth appreciated all too well that there were many places where he, a Jew, was no more welcome than were black newcomers. Fearing the effects of the anticipated enactment of Prohibition and faced with an increasingly poor and black neighborhood, Park and Tilford closed its doors in 1919.
Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and 126th Street image

Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and 126th Street
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Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and 126th Street ca. 1964 Following the killing of James Powell, a fifteen-year-old boy, by police, on July 16th, 1964, Harlem and Bedford-Stuyvesant erupted into six consecutive nights of rioting and protests. Disparate groups in both communities, outraged at continued racism and police brutality, organized a series of meetings that looked for solutions in the form of everything from passive protest to active revolution. Throughout the riots, protestors clashed with the police, whose presence and anti-riot tactics were inflammatory for the grieving neighborhood. Four thousand New Yorkers were said to have taken part in the riots that ended on July 22nd, leaving one rioter dead, and hundreds more injured and arrested.
146 WEST 131 STREET image

146 WEST 131 STREET
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Originally constructed for the Baptist Church of the Redeemer, this freestanding Romanesque Revival style building is of great cultural importance to the city for its ties to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s-60’s. After changing hands several times, it was sold in 1936 to the Friendship Baptist Church, founded by the Rev. Dr. John Iverson Mumford. From the beginning, the church supported Civil Rights. Its second pastor, Dr. Thomas Kilgore Jr., was an associate of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who delivered a sermon here in 1955. Among Rev. Kilgore’s other local and national Civil Rights efforts, he led the church to found the House of Friendship Community Center, which, in 1963, became the National Headquarters for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, organized by Bayard Rustin. The congregation, still active today, was deeply involved in organizing the Harlem community’s participation in that historic March. In addition to its social and political significance, 170 West 130th Street’s façade is architecturally significant as the work of Vertner Woodson Tandy, the first African-American architect registered in New York State. The House of Friendship Community Center is located in the Central Harlem West -- 130-132nd Street Historic District.
All Saints Roman Catholic Church image

All Saints Roman Catholic Church
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All Saints Roman Catholic Church Complex ARCHITECT: Architect: Renwick, Aspinwall & Russell DATE: Year Built: 1883-1893 STYLE: Italian Gothic Revival, Venetian Gothic Revival, Gothic Revival The Roman Catholic Church of All Saints, with its lively and animated design and exceptionally fine ornament, was created by one of New York’s leading nineteenth-century architects, James Renwick, Jr., of the firm of Renwick, Aspinwall and Russell. Among the many churches he designed during his long career, the Church of All Saints has been called his best. Constructed over the course of several years, the church (1883-93), parish house (1886-89) and school (1902-04) formed an important anchor for the rapidly expanding Harlem neighborhood when they were built, and continue that role today. Renwick, architect of the original Smithsonian building in Washington, designed many of New York City’s most beautiful and well-known churches, including Grace Church and St. Patrick’s Cathedral. The Church of All Saints is his most fully evolved Italian Gothic Revival style design, an unusual stylistic choice for a late nineteenth century church in New York. The building displayed the texture, shape and color variations that were so important during that period due to the influence of the writings of John Ruskin. The facades of All Saints combine the mixed tones of light and dark brick, terra cotta and stone, with an assortment of window shapes and sizes in a building which is both spirited and inspiring. The neighboring parish house displays elements of the Venetian Gothic Revival style, with its stone balconies pierced by pinwheeling designs, and its narrow windows topped by filled gothic arches. The school building, located north of the church along 130th Street and completed several years later by Renwick’s nephew, William W. Renwick, displays a simpler version of the Gothic Revival style, with plain brick wall surfaces juxtaposed with light-colored stone and areas of elaborate terra-cotta ornament.
Protestant Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity image

Protestant Episcopal Church of the Holy Trinity
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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.
102 West 129th Street image

102 West 129th Street
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Fire at 102 West 129th Street, May 5, 1925. A fire was discovered in the basement of No. 102 West 129th Street, at Lenox Avenue, in the early morning hours of Tuesday, May 5. All tenants were evacuated without serious injury.
Lenox Lounge image

Lenox Lounge
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This bar is renowned for its history as a performance venue in Harlem, hosting such greats as Billie Holliday, Miles Davis and John Coltrane and patrons such as James Baldwin and Langston Hughes in its famed Zebra Room. The exterior and interior contain hallmarks of the Art Deco style including the graphic signage on the front of the building. It has been used in numerous television shows, music videos and movies. The bar was restored in the late 1990s. Note- The Lenox Lounge is no longer open.
St. Andrew's Episcopal Church image

St. Andrew's Episcopal Church
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My Archive Spring 2019 "My parents' wedding day in 1958." —Teri Graham
Corn Exchange Bank, Harlem Branch image

Corn Exchange Bank, Harlem Branch
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311 Lenox Avenue, 1920. The better known and more prominent location of the Corn Exchange Bank in Harlem occupied a large lot at the corner of 125th Street and Park Avenue (built as the Mount Morris Bank in 1883 and taken over by the Corn Exchange in 1913). Bu,t with the success of the bank, further expansion in the neighborhood was undertaken in 1919. A four-story house was purchased near the corner of 125th and Lenox Avenue. It was quickly demolished and a new bank structure designed by S. Edson Gage was quickly constructed, featuring a large arched window.
Lafayette Theatre image

Lafayette Theatre
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Lafayette Theatre, 1936. Known to Harlem locals as "the House Beautiful", the Lafayette Theatre was a Renaissance-style building that became a neighborhood landmark. Completed in 1912 to the plans of theatre architect, Victor Hugo Koehler, the two-story, 1500 seat venue was the brainchild of Lower East Side banker, Meyer Jarmulowsky (of the Jarmulowsky Bank family). Initially, African Americans were only allowed seating in the balcony and then were permitted to buy seats in the orchestra, but were charged double the cost of a ticket for a white patron. Through complaints and the loss of revenue, due to this policy, the theatre made a change. One year after opening, the Lafayette became one of the first major theatres to desegregate. This action brought larger black audiences, and a contemporary critic suggested that this would mean more serious black productions. The Lafayette Players, Harlem's first black legitimate theater group, was founded here in 1916 and the theatre and its adjacent nightclub hosted some of the well-known performers of the day, including Bessie Smith, Moms Mabley, Leadbelly, and Duke Ellington. The theatre closed in the 1930s but was revived as part of the Works Progress Administration's Negro Theater Project. In 1936, its most famous production debuted: a performance of "Macbeth," which moved the action to a Caribbean island, directed by 20-year-old Orson Welles. Referred to as "Voodoo Macbeth," the show played here for 10 weeks before transferring to Broadway and having a national tour. The theatre closed once again in 1951 and the building was purchased by the Williams Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. While the interiors were altered, other than removing the marquee, the exterior remained unchanged until 1990. That year the church demolished the exterior, which was unprotected, and replaced it with a somewhat Brutalist marble and concrete facade. The building and its abutting structure to the south, which once housed the Ubangi Club, a nightclub known for its openness to all races, genders, and sexual orientations, were demolished in 2013. The replacement apartment house is called The Lafayette.

Photos(405)

75 West 127th Street image

75 West 127th Street

Manhattan: 127th Street (West) - Lenox Avenue (1) 75-71 West 127th Street, north side, east of Lenox Avenue. These are three 3E--story frame houses with stucco fronts. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 370. (2) The same. 1932\. P. L. Sperr. Md2A:
75 West 127th Street image

75 West 127th Street

Manhattan: 127th Street (West) - Lenox Avenue (1) 75-71 West 127th Street, north side, east of Lenox Avenue. These are three 3E--story frame houses with stucco fronts. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 370. (2) The same. 1932\. P. L. Sperr. Md2A:
59 WEST 127 STREET image

59 WEST 127 STREET

Photo © NYC Municipal Archives
48 West 128th Street image

48 West 128th Street

48-50 W. 128th Street, New York City, undated \[ca. 1921]. Some emulsion damage ot neg.
49 West 127th Street image

49 West 127th Street

Manhattan: 127th Street (West) - Lenox Avenue 49-47 West 127th Street, north side, east of Lenox Avenue. Both of these are four-story frame houses, No. 49 with a combination brick and stucco front and No. 47 all brick front. Both these houses were formerly three-stories. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 602.
128th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard  image

128th Street and Malcolm X Boulevard

Bicycling, New York Streets. Mr. Dixon \[Dickson] and his wife on bicycles and their son on a tricycle on Lenox Avenue near 128th Street, New York.
45 West 127th Street image

45 West 127th Street

Manhattan: 127th Street (West) - Lenox Avenue 45-41 Aest 127th Street, north side, between Lenox and Fifth Avenues. Nos. 45-43 are now four-story frame houses with brick fronts. They were formerly three-stories with basements. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection,Wuseum of the City of New York. Negative No. 607.
65 West 128th Street image

65 West 128th Street

Manhattan: 128th Street (West) - Lenox Avenue 65 West 128th Street, north side, east of Lenox Avenue. This is a three-story frame house. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 291.
40 West 128th Street image

40 West 128th Street

Manhattan: 128th Street (West) - Lenox Avenue 40-46 West 128th Street, south side, east of Lenox Avenue. No. 42 is a three-story frame house. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 285.
46 WEST 127 STREET image

46 WEST 127 STREET

46 WEST 127 STREET image

46 WEST 127 STREET

44 and 46 West 127th Street
46 WEST 127 STREET image

46 WEST 127 STREET

59 West 128th Street image

59 West 128th Street

Manhattan: 128th Street (West) - Lenox Avenue 59-57 West 128th Street, north side, east of Lenox Avenue. These are three-story frame houses with stucco fronts. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 287.
57 West 128th Street image

57 West 128th Street

Manhattan: 128th Street (West) - Lenox Avenue 57-67 West 128th Street, north side, east of Lenox Avenue. Nos. 57-59 and 65 are three-story frame houses with stucco fronts. July 31, 1932. P. L. Sperr.
52 West 129th Street image

52 West 129th Street

52 W. 129th Street, New York City, undated (ca. 1920).
38 WEST 129 STREET image

38 WEST 129 STREET

West 126th Street and Lenox Avenue (Malcolm X Boulevard) image

West 126th Street and Lenox Avenue (Malcolm X Boulevard)

\[Lenox Avenue and 126th Street: IRT Lenox Avenue Line] Survey photograph of subway construction at Lenox Avenue and 126th Street on the IRT Lenox Avenue Line. View north on Lenox Ave from the crosswalk at 126th Street.
United Lutheran Church image

United Lutheran Church

Manhattan: 126th Street (West) - Lenox Avenue 74-80 West 126th Street, south side, east of Lenox Avenue. The United Lutheran Church, 74-76 West 126th Street, is at the left. No. 78, in the centre, is a 12estory frame house. No. 80, on the right, is the Plantation Club. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 76.
27 West 127th Street image

27 West 127th Street

Manhattan: 127th Street (West) - 5th Avenue (1) 27 West 127th Street, west of and adjoining the N.W. corner of Fifth Avenue. No. 9 has a stucco front and No. 7 has a brick front; both are three-story frame houses. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 599. (2) The same. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 363.
Park & Tilford Building  image

Park & Tilford Building

Park & Tilford. Taken from across the street of dry goods store at 314-316 Lenox Avenue at 126th Street (noted on original envelope) with large electric sign.
Park & Tilford Building  image

Park & Tilford Building

Park & Tilford. Taken from across the street of dry goods store at 314-316 Lenox Avenue at 126th Street (noted on original envelope) with large electric sign.
35 West 128th Street image

35 West 128th Street

Manhattan: 128th Street (West) - Lenox Avenue 37-35 West 128th Street, north side, between Lenox and Fifth Avenues. Number 37 in the foreground is a four-story frame house. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 295
Park & Tilford Building  image

Park & Tilford Building

Park & Tilford. Taken from across the street of dry goods store at 314-316 Lenox Avenue at 126th Street (noted on original envelope) with crowd on sidewalk and delivery trucks.
35 West 128th Street image

35 West 128th Street

Manhattan: 128th Street (West) - Lenox Avenue 37-35 West 128th Street, north side, between Lenox and Fifth Avenues. No. 37 is a 32-story frame house. July 31, 1932. P. L. Sperr.
Park & Tilford Building  image

Park & Tilford Building

Park & Tilford. Taken from across the street of dry goods store at 314-316 Lenox Avenue at 126th Street (noted on original envelope) with large electric sign.
Park & Tilford Building  image

Park & Tilford Building

Sports Bicycling, N.Y. 1897. A group of cyclists, men and women, who are about to round the corner, turning from Fifth Avenue onto 124th Street; pedestrians on the corner by a streetlamp.
26 West 127th Street image

26 West 127th Street

Manhattan: 127th Street (West) - 5th Avenue (1) 24-26 West 127th Street, north side, west of Fifth Avenue. No. 26 is a 22-story frame house. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 371. (2) The same, from a slightly different angle. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 71.
102 West 129th Street image

102 West 129th Street

102 West 129th Street, New York, New York, United States
Public School 68 image

Public School 68

Manhattan: 128th Street (West) - 7th Avenue 116 West 128th Street, south side between Seventh and Lenox Avenues, sh owing P.'. 6B. Board of Education, N.Y.C.
35-13 West 129th Street image

35-13 West 129th Street

Manhattan: 129th Street (West) - Lenox Avenue 35-13 West 129th Street, north side, between Lenox and Fifth Avenues. July 31, 1932. P. L. Sperr.
9 West 127th Street image

9 West 127th Street

Manhattan: 127th Street (West) - 5th Avenue 9 West 127th Street, north side, west of Fifth avenue. This is a thres-story frame house with a stucco front. 1932\. J. Clarence Davies Collection, Museum of the City of New York. Negative No. 600
15 West 126th Street image

15 West 126th Street

Manhattan: 126th Street (West) - 5th Avenue (1) 5-17 West 126th Street, adjoining and west of the N.W. corner of Fifth Ave. Building shown at Nos. 13-17, is a hall of the Finnish Educational Society. This site was formerly occupied by 3-two story frame houses. March 6, 1936. P. L. Sperr. (2) A view of the Finnish Hall (Nos. 13-17), and apartment house (No. 11) adjoining. March 6, 1936. P. L. Sperr. NO REPRODUCTIONS. Neg R: 4012 (3) Three brown stone front houses (Nos. 5-7-9), adjoining the Scoville School, which is directly at the N.W. corner proper. March 6, 1936. P. L. Sperr.
15 West 126th Street image

15 West 126th Street

Manhattan: 126th Street (West) - 5th Avenue (1) 5-17 West 126th Street, adjoining and west of the N.W. corner of Fifth Ave. Building shown at Nos. 13-17, is a hall of the Finnish Educational Society. This site was formerly occupied by 3-two story frame houses. March 6, 1936. P. L. Sperr. (2) A view of the Finnish Hall (Nos. 13-17), and apartment house (No. 11) adjoining. March 6, 1936. P. L. Sperr. NO REPRODUCTIONS. Neg R: 4012 (3) Three brown stone front houses (Nos. 5-7-9), adjoining the Scoville School, which is directly at the N.W. corner proper. March 6, 1936. P. L. Sperr.
43 West 125th Street image

43 West 125th Street

Manhattan: 125th Street (West) - Lenox Avenue W. 125th Street, north side, east from (No. 43) but not including Lenox Avenue. June 21, 1934. P.L. Sperr
119 West 128th Street image

119 West 128th Street

Manhattan: 128th Street (West) - 5th Avenue No. 119 West 128th Street, south side, showing the west side Boarding Stables. P. L. Tperr August 21, 1941 NWeg 1e ~-70S
12 West 129th Street image

12 West 129th Street

Assissian Institute image

Assissian Institute

Manhattan: 128th Street (West) - 5th Avenue 17-9 West 128th Street, north side, west of Fifth Avenue. Nos. 17-15 is the Assisian Institute. No. 9 is a three-story frame house. July 31, 1932. P. L. Sperr.
7 West 127th Street image

7 West 127th Street

Manhattan: 127th Street (West) - 5th Avenue 5-17 West 127th Street, adjoining, and west of the N.W. corner of Fifth Avenue. No. 7 is a three-story frame house with a brick front and No. 9 is a three-story frame house with a stucco front. July 28. 1932. P. L. Sperr.
46 WEST 130 STREET image

46 WEST 130 STREET

Astor Row: 8-62 West 130th Street
9 West 126th Street image

9 West 126th Street

Manhattan: 126th Street (West) - 5th Avenue (1) 5-17 West 126th Street, adjoining and west of the N.W. corner of Fifth Ave. Building shown at Nos. 13-17, is a hall of the Finnish Educational Society. This site was formerly occupied by 3-two story frame houses. March 6, 1936. P. L. Sperr. (2) A view of the Finnish Hall (Nos. 13-17), and apartment house (No. 11) adjoining. March 6, 1936. P. L. Sperr. NO REPRODUCTIONS. Neg R: 4012 (3) Three brown stone front houses (Nos. 5-7-9), adjoining the Scoville School, which is directly at the N.W. corner proper. March 6, 1936. P. L. Sperr.
23 WEST 129 STREET image

23 WEST 129 STREET

Corn Exchange Bank, Harlem Branch image

Corn Exchange Bank, Harlem Branch

Corn Exchange Bank, Harlem Branch Possibly at the intersection of Lenox Avenue and West 125th Street.
Church of the Advent image

Church of the Advent

Manhattan: 128th Street (West) - 5th Avenue 7-1 West 128th Street, west of and adjoining the N.W. corner of Fifth Avenue. No. 7 is a three story frame house. No. 5 is the Church of the Advent. July 31, 1932. P. L. Sperr.
19 WEST 129 STREET image

19 WEST 129 STREET

Photo © NYC Municipal Archives
19 West 125th Street image

19 West 125th Street

Manhattan: 125th Street - 5th Avenue 19 to 1 West 125th Street, west of, adjoining, and at the N.W. corner of Fifth Avenue. The four-story building with bay windows, seen in the centre, is a Y.M.C.A. branch, while the four-story buildings to the left of it are dormitories May 5, 1928 P.L. Sperr
19 West 125th Street image

19 West 125th Street

Manhattan: 125th Street - 5th Avenue 19 to 1 West 125th Street, west of, adjoining, and at the N.W. corner of Fifth Avenue. The four-story building with bay windows, seen in the centre, is a Y.M.C.A. branch, while the four-story buildings to the left of it are dormitories May 5, 1928 P.L. Sperr
2064 5 AVENUE image

2064 5 AVENUE

17 WEST 129 STREET image

17 WEST 129 STREET

Photo © NYC Municipal Archives
130 West 129th Street image

130 West 129th Street

2056 5 AVENUE image

2056 5 AVENUE

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