The classic Central Park West, art deco, dual tower apartment building known as The Eldorado (between West 90th and 91st Streets), has an interesting link to Harlem.
The Eldorado’s current tenants include many names that you likely recognize: Alec Baldwin, Faye Dunaway, Moby, Garrison Keillor, Tuesday Weld, Bruce Willis, Ron Howard, Bono, Carrie Fisher and Michael J. Fox.
What you may not know is that The Eldorado was bought in 1954 by the famous Harlem pastor: Daddy Grace.
Daddy Grace was the charismatic leader of, and the founder and first bishop of the predominantly African-American denomination the United House of Prayer For All People. He was a contemporary of other religious leaders such as Father Divine, Noble Drew Ali and Ernest Holmes. Daddy Grace, an innovative Christian evangelist, faith healer, pastor and bishop, used his unique worship style to birth a distinctive religious institution on the American scene. Many of his followers claimed miraculous acts of faith healing while attending services and others saw his ministry as a sign from God of the imminent return of Jesus Christ.
Marcelino Manuel da Graca, using the anglicized version of his name, Charles Manuel (Emmanuel) Grace, began using the title “Bishop”. In 1919, he built the first House of Prayer in West Wareham, Massachusetts at the cost of $39. He later established branches in Harlem (the “Mother House”, Charlotte, North Carolina, Newark, New Jersey, and beyond.
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Bishop Grace traveled America preaching and establishing the United House of Prayer for All People. The Constitution and By-Laws of The United House of Prayer, promulgated in 1929, stated that the purpose of the organization in pertinent part was “to erect and maintain places of worship and assembly where all people may gather prayer and to worship the Almighty God, irrespective of denomination or creed.” He traveled extensively throughout the segregated South in the 1920s and 1930s preaching to integrated congregations years before the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s and the religious ecumenical movements which followed.
(the Harlem church after a recent major renovation – Frederick Douglass Blvd. and West 124th Street.
Bishop Grace died in 1960 and is buried in the Pine Grove Cemetery in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
Trader Joe’s Is Coming To Harlem
Trader Joe’s is coming to Harlem on West 125th Street. The new store will be located between the State Office Building and the Staples/Marshall’s building. Opening in 2022.
Trader Joe’s will soon open a new grocery store in Harlem, the chain’s first location in Upper Manhattan. The store will occupy 28,000 square feet of ground-floor space of the forthcoming Urban League Empowerment Center at 121 West 125th Street.
Developers responsible for the new property include The Prusik Group, BRP Companies, L+M Development Partners, and Taconic Partners. When complete, the Urban League Empowerment Center will also house the new headquarters and conference center for the National Urban League, as well as the Urban Civil Rights Experience Museum, New York State’s first civil rights museum, and a new Target.
Additional components will include 170 units of supportive and affordable housing for low-income New Yorkers making 30 to 80 percent of Area Median Income.