Category: History

  • The Rise, Fall, and Rise of the Corn Exchange Building

    The Rise, Fall, and Rise of the Corn Exchange Building

    Ephemeral New York has a great article out on how the Corn Exchange building (Park/125) – formerly the Mount Morris Bank – has looked in photos over the years. The Harlem Bank building (built in 1884, and now with Ginjan Cafe on the ground floor), was and is perfectly located for easy access to upstate…

  • Fidel Castro in Harlem

    Fidel Castro in Harlem

    On this day back in 1960, a German press photographer captured a mounted NYPD officer controlling a crowd of pro-Cuban Dominicans who were in Harlem, near the Theresa Hotel, to show their support for the new Cuban regime. Note that JFK had not yet been elected – that would come in November of 1960 –…

  • New Look For the National Black Theater

    New Look For the National Black Theater

    The National Black Theatre’s site will look very, very different by 2024 when the new building is expected to be finished. The NBT will occupy the first four floors of the building with over 200 residential units above. The architect, Frida Escobedo is working with Handel Architects who is behind the Sendero Verde project (currently…

  • Written on the official stationary of the Harlem Messiah

    Written on the official stationary of the Harlem Messiah

    It’s not often you come across an item like this in Ebay which purports to be “Written on the official stationary of the Harlem Messiah.” The item is ephemeral from the 1930’s Depression-era faith community of Father Devine, who led many Harlemites into hope when so many faced an unprecedented wall of economic and racial…

  • A Wooden Harlem House

    A Wooden Harlem House

    Ephemeral New York had a great article about a small, two-story wooden home on West 124th Street, here in Harlem. Today the location is the back of Whole Foods (essentially their loading dock) : But in the 19th century (and into the early 20th century) a small wooden home with a charming Victorian porch held…

  • Painting Mystery

    Painting Mystery

    Looking at this painting you’d never guess it was from the Harlem Renaissance artist/designer Aaron Douglas: This undated painting is said to be of Harlem, but Ephemeral New York, hasn’t been able to figure out where in Harlem (on the Hudson, or on the Harlem Rivers) it was based: At an unknown date, he also…

  • Frederick Douglass Circle

    Frederick Douglass Circle

    At the northwest corner of Central Park lies Frederick Douglass Circle, a memorial plaza featuring an eight-foot bronze sculpture of the famed abolitionist leader, women’s suffragist, editor, orator, author, and statesman. While Douglass is an integral figure in American history, it took time for the sculpture and accompanying renovation of the area to come about—a…

  • Where One Gathers the Wood to Make Bows (aka, Manhattan)

    Where One Gathers the Wood to Make Bows (aka, Manhattan)

    William Starna (Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the State University of New York College at Oneonta) has a fascinating short article on the Origins of the Name Manhattan: The event is a storied one. In 1626, Peter Minuit purchased a large island at the mouth of the Hudson River from unknown and unnamed although otherwise Munsee-speaking…

  • The Train Used to Stop at 110th Street

    The Train Used to Stop at 110th Street

    Above is a rendering of the 110th Street station in 1876 on what became the Metro-North line on Park Avenue. Note that above 110th street the train line was not on an iron el platform, and instead was on a solid masonry platform. You can see spacious upper Manhattan farmland, a few brownstones (long since gone…

  • Households with Someone Who Uses Electric Medical Equipment

    Households with Someone Who Uses Electric Medical Equipment

    How Calculated:  Estimated number of households reporting someone using electric medical equipment; expressed as percent. Source: New York City Housing and Vacancy Survey (HVS) A Sign of Our Times A month or two ago I thought this sign for Unk’s Place with a masked Unk, is the kind of image that historians will be able to…

  • Saint Cecilia’s

    Saint Cecilia’s

    Landmarks East Harlem and the Urban Archive have a great piece on St. Cecilia’s Church on East 106th Street between Park/Lexington: https://www.urbanarchive.org/stories/YXyVct8Ucm7 Here is the church in the 19th Century: By the 1940’s the area had built up (note the white hospital complex on 5th Avenue and Central Park in the distance, above the Metro…

  • Traveling While Black

    Traveling While Black

    Make sure to visit the Schomburg Library before the end of the year to see the fantastic exhibit “Traveling While Black”. The Director, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Kevin Young notes: Since the start of their experience in the Americas, Black people have been defined by travel, displacement, and resistance.  Whether in the…