Harlem, New York

Harlem, New York, is probably best known for being the center of black cultural and intellectual life in the United States since the 1920s. But over the course of the last two centuries, members of numerous racial and ethnic groups have called this section of upper Manhattan home. Harlem's physical boundaries have been perpetually shifting and expanding, but Harlem has been—and continues to be—much more than a location to its inhabitants. Harlem has, at different points in its history, represented gentility, opportunity, hope, the exotic, the erotic, urban decay, and most recently, urban renewal.

The Dutch town of New Harlaem was founded in 1658. It was during the early decades of the 19th century, however, that Harlem took much of its modern shape. Today, the area north of 96th Street to 116th Street and east of Fifth Avenue is generally considered Spanish Harlem. Central Harlem, as the rest of the neighborhood is known, spreads northward from 110th Street to 155th Street west of Fifth Avenue and east from Morningside Avenue to the Harlem River.

From its creation through most of the 19th century, Harlem remained quite isolated from the rest of Manhattan. Harlem was home to Dutch, English, and French families of wealth and standing who desired that Harlem remain an exclusive community where only “the best” families lived. Alexander Hamilton, for example, built an estate in Harlem that was completed in 1802.

By the 1840s and 1850s, a large wave of immigrants, including significant numbers of Irish, moved into Harlem, either buying land at inexpensive prices or simply occupying abandoned lots and establishing the first poor immigrant communities in the affluent rural village.

After the Civil War, the Irish were joined by other European immigrants. Although Harlem is known as a predominantly black community today, this was not always the case. Between 1870 and 1920 Harlem's black residents were outnumbered by its German, Italian, and Jewish inhabitants. The Jews and Italians who came to Harlem between 1880 and 1910 moved to northern Manhattan from older downtown ethnic enclaves in search of economic opportunities. A Harlem address was a sign of social mobility for members of these groups, as it was considered one of the most attractive residential areas in Manhattan. By 1910, Harlem was home to more than 100,000 Jews.

Harlem's population growth during the late 19th century was spurred by the construction, between the 1870s and 1890s, of transportation lines—particularly elevated train lines—that spanned the length of Manhattan. After Harlem was annexed by Manhattan in 1873, the building of a transportation infrastructure continued to connect Harlem to the rest of the island. As it became easier to commute to other areas of Manhattan, Harlem became much more densely populated.

By the turn of the 20th century, those African Americans who could afford the higher costs were also trying to move out of the downtown Tenderloin district to Harlem. Although blacks who attempted to rent in Harlem faced resistance from white residents, moving to Harlem was still desirable. It was considered a sign of social mobility just as it had been for the Europeans who had come a generation earlier. The African Americans who moved to Harlem paid higher rents than elsewhere in the city, but during the early years of black migration, they also lived in better quarters than they had anywhere else. A housing slump in 1904 and 1905 caused by overbuilding in Harlem, as well as the efforts of prominent African [Page 323]Americans such as Phillip Payton, who established the Afro-American Realty Company, meant many more blacks began owning and renting property in Harlem.

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