Richard Webber Harlem Packing House LP-2595 Landmark East Harlem nominated this building to the Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2017, and it was one of three East Harlem buildings that were designated New York City landmarks in 2018. Constructed in 1895 and originally part of a larger commercial slaughterhouse, meat packing and retail complex, it was designed in the Romanescque Revival style by the architectural firm of Bartholomew & John P. Walther for the prominent butcher Richard Webber. The style is Romanesque Revival. The central bay of the façade includes the building’s date 1895 in carved stone, and prominently features terra-cotta cow head reliefs symbolizing the building’s original function. The building is an intact reminder of East Harlem’s commercial and industrial past. Richard Webber, an English immigrant, started a small butcher shop in East Harlem in the late 1870s. The company was very successful, expanding into a large complex with a staff of 500. At the time of his death in 1908, Webber was described by the New York Times as “one of the largest butchers in this city if not in the United States.” served a variety of functions. Currently it houses a Ferguson Plumbing Supply showroom. Limited alterations, including infilled windows and painted masonry at the base do not diminish its strong architectural character or presence.

Harlem Art Park. The City of New York originally acquired the first part of this property, a plot directly behind the Harlem Courthouse, as a site for a public bath in 1929. The bath never materialized and the site lay vacant for nine years. By 1938, the land had become a popular informal sitting park, but the Parks Department did not acquire jurisdiction over the land until 1945. Sylvan Place was closed off in the early 1980s between East 120th and East 121st Streets to be used as a park by the Casabe Houses, the neighboring senior citizen housing development. On October 30, 1992, about half of the closed off road was assigned to Parks and added to the existing park, doubling the size of the park. This painted steel piece dedicated in 1985 was the first commissioned work by the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs’ Percent for Art program. Jorge Rodriguez's Growth rises directly from the cobblestones of the park. The sculpture's flowing shapes, at once reminiscent of plants, birds, and insects, reinforce the theme of renewal inherent in this park.

The village of Nieuw Haarlem centered around the former Market Square at East 121st Street and Third Avenue where the farmers in the area gathered to sell their produce. Nothing is left of the 17th century village, but in this very small area are a landmarked courthouse, an historic church, and a charming group of row houses.

Harlem Courthouse, aka Harlem Community Justice Center, 170 East 121st Street. LP-0297 This is the second and last landmarked building on this tour and it TOO is obscured by scaffolding! Harlem Courthouse is the oldest jail structure still standing in New York City. It was built in 1891-93 and designed by Thom & Wilson in the Romanesque Revival style. The brick, brownstone, bluestone, granite and terra cotta building features gables, archways, an octagonal corner tower and a four-faced clock. The banner across the front reads “9th District Civil Court.” It was built for the Police and District Courts and now houses Youth Court. It was designated a NYC landmark in 1967 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. The entryway on 121st Street still has its original marble floors, and a marble and iron spiral staircase. In 1936, during the New Deal, Federal Art Project artist David Karfunkle painted two murals, "Exploitation of Labor” and “Hoarding of Wealth" on its third floor. The murals, like much of the rest of the interior, are badly in need of restoration.

171 East 121st Street, Elmendorf Reformed Church The current Elmendorf Reformed Church was built in 1893-94 to designs by architect Joseph Ireland and was originally the parish house and It was founded as a parish house and Sunday school\[3] for the First Collegiate Church of Harlem, which had its beginnings in 1660 as the Low Dutch Reformed Church of Harlem or Harlem Reformed Dutch Church, the first house of worship in Harlem. As early as 1668 the church had a separate burial ground for enslaved and free Africans. What is even more tantalizing is that the original church site “was afterward used as a negro burying ground,” according to a 1910 historical sketch of the Reformed Low Dutch Church of Harlem by the Rev. Dr. Edgar Tilton Jr. This would make it one of exceptionally few remaining African-American historical sites from the colonial period. The original African cemetery, located at the present day 2460 2nd Avenue, was discovered in 2008 at the 126th Street Depot of the MTA’s Regional Bus Operations. Work on the Willis Avenue Bridge east of the burial ground involved digging and the eventual unearthing of over 140 bones, bone fragments, and a skull. Analysis of the skull determined that it was most likely that of a woman of African descent. A Harlem African Burial Ground Task Force was formed under the leadership of then City Council member Melissa Mark-Viverito and the Reverend Patricia Singletary, pastor of Elmendorf Church, which had maintained the cemetery until 1858 when it was built over. The mission of the task force is to create a memorial on the site.

Sylvan Court, 157-161 East 121st Street off Sylvan Place, between 120th and 121st, Third and Lexington Off Sylvan Place is a charming group of seven brick rowhouses, at least one of which, according to local lore, contained a brothel to serve the employees and clients of the Harlem Courthouse. They were built around 1900, designed by an unidentified architect, and In all likelihood were carriage houses. According to William Morache, “Their arrangement is an anomaly from the Manhattan street grid and reflects the original street layout of Harlem prior to the Commissioners’ Plan of 1811.” As I understand it, two of the houses are owned by the neighboring Elmendorf Reformed Church, and the rest by individuals. I know the woman who owns No. 1 Sylvan Court, aka 117 East 121st Street, and have been to parties there. It is very narrow but surprisingly roomy, with a finished basement and a lovely little back garden.

Taino Towers 211-223 East 122nd Street Four Towers and connecting podium buildings designed by architect Gerard Silverman of Silverman and Cika opened in 1979. The name of the development, referring to the Taino who were indigenous to Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands, reflects the cultural make-up of East Harlem at the time. Each of the towers is named for a different important Taino leader: Guarionex, Agueybana, Guanina, Yuisa. The project marks an interesting turning point in the city’s history, straddling the transition between civic optimism of the 1960s and urban collapse of the 1970s. Although the project was finally approved and started under President Richard M. Nixon, it is something of a memorial to the Great Society and the War on Poverty. Ronald Reagan, candidate for President in 1980. criticized it as “luxury housing for the poor.” Altogether it provided East Harlem with 656 apartments and cost about $60 million.

Third Avenue’s role as a commercial center dates back to before there was a Third Avenue and it remains so today. This department store building was built in 1910 to designs by architect Walter H.C. It probably replaced smaller commercial buildings similar to its adjacent neighbors. The owner of the building at the time of construction was the Reformed Low Dutch Church of Harlem, reflecting the continued landownership of one of Harlem Village’s oldest institutions. Historic images show the building as the Weil Brothers furniture store in 1919.

According to Department of Buildings records, this commercial tenement was likely built in 1867 to designs by an unidentified architect. Its current appearance is likely the result of alterations in 1886 by one R. Loma, which added the second-floor storefront windows. The building is remarkably intact above the contemporary first-floor storefronts. It retains its Italianate segmental cast-iron lintels, which likely date from 1867. The exquisite second-floor commercial windows represent Third Avenue’s heyday as a commercial corridor in the late-nineteenth century. We found in the collection of the Museum of the City of New York an advertisement for a cabinet maker at this location. and in the city’s archives a tax photo from the 1930s.

Like 2258 Third Avenue, these three-story pre-law tenement shop buildings were built in 1867, also to the designs of unidentified architects. They are among the oldest surviving buildings in the survey area. In contrast to other similar buildings across the avenue, these retain much of their historic character including their utilitarian brick facades, modest fenestration, and historic wooden cornices. The southernmost building has a historic alteration with a wide commercial window with an ornamented lintel at the second floor which was likely added around the turn of the twentieth century. Their ground story storefronts have been altered through continued commercial use. These buildings reflect the earliest period of urbanization in Harlem as Third Avenue became the first commercial corridor in Harlem in the mid-nineteenth century. They were likely always home to shops or businesses at the ground story, although the upper stories may have served as residential tenements, storage, or workspace. Despite their maintenance issues and alterations, they retain enough integrity to visibly convey this early period of Harlem history.

We began this tour looking at a building under renovation, and we end it with a building under renovation, although this one we can see much better.This tenement building is an outstanding architectural example of the type and one of the few surviving tenements on this stretch of East 124th Street. It was designed in 1883 by the notable New York firm of Cleverdon & Putzel, known for designing many buildings throughout various historic districts. The red-brick Queen Anne façade features arched ground-story opening, projecting pilasters and vertical divisions, and corbelled brickwork. The most outstanding features of the façade are the pair of faceted projecting cast-iron oriels stretching from the second to fourth stories. The elegant metal cornice also features brackets and elliptical swags on the frieze. The building has been previously determined to be Eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places by State preservation staff.