Harlem’s Finntown

Harlem’s Finntown

In the early 20th century, an area of East Harlem around Fifth Avenue and just north of 125th Street was known as Finntown. According to the blogs,  This is Finland  and Finland Abroad, immigrants from Finland clustered in this area opening clothing stores, a bathhouse, bakery, beauty parlour and gathering places. In 1917, the New York United Finnish Branch of the Socialist Party bought the building at 2056 Fifth Avenue and West 127th Street that now houses apartments. It was named Työväen Talo (Workers’ House), and known as Fifth Avenue Hall according to Finland Abroad. 

The Finnish War Veterans in America gathered at 18 East 125th Street. Finnish Hall was at 15 West 126th (now the Pilgrim Cathedral). The headquarters of the Loyal Finns was at 43 East 125th Street (the same address was home to Dapper Dan’s boutique in the 1980s). And a Finn newspaper, the New Yorkin Uutiset, while based in Brooklyn, had an office in Harlem.  

While it’s difficult to find much about Finntown, it was an early site of integration through the socialist leanings of the Finnish community. A funeral for the Black head of the Young Workers Party was held at the Finn Hall at 15 West 126  in 1931 and a newspaper listing from The Daily Worker on May 21, 1932, invites people to a Scottsboro Musical Program, of “Famous Negro and Finnish Artists,” for the price of 25¢, likely to support the nine Black teenagers who were being prosecuted for rape based on fabricated evidence in the infamous Scottsboro, Alabama, case.

Not much remains of Harlem’s Finntown nor has much been written about it as the other Finntown in New York City, located in Sunset Park, became the main destination for the Finnish community. However, a Finnish couple who met at a party in Harlem before settling in Brooklyn, Anja and Mauno Laurila, wrote a short book in 2011, Memories of Finnish Harlem: 1888–1955,  featuring interviews with former inhabitants of Finnish Harlem who remembered the welcoming community that was often the first stop for newly arrived Finns. (It’s hard to find a copy so if anyone has it, please let the HNBA writers know!)

KD/ER