The Harlem Neighborhood Block Association

Neighbors united to improve the quality of life in Harlem

Tag: Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd.

7th Avenue

Posted on by Harlem Shill

Ephemeral New York highlighted a postcard recently that featured a broad, earthen boulevard, stately apartment buildings, and horses and carriages.

The postcard clearly states it was taken on 7th Avenue, but where? Ephemeral New York suggested that the regularity of buildings on view would suggest it’s uptown, in Harlem.

Taking a careful look at the colored image, you can see a commercial space on a corner, with a neighboring building that has a distinctive ground floor with segmented masonry details (note the onlookers, observing the horses and carriages):

Further on, into the distance, you can see a red bricked building with a limestone 1st floor and protruding cornices at the top. Note the two windows from the corner, then an open courtyard, then 4 windows, then another courtyard.

Using Google Streetview, the location becomes clear. The commercial building in the postcard that seems to spell out …65LOW… ? Is on the corner of ACP and West 112 Street, and now houses the New Ebony Motel:

Note how a former entrance has been blocked.

And the distinctive red brick and limestone buildings north of the New Ebony Hotel are clearly still around:

As Seen In Harlem

Harlem’s Museum of Civil Rights

Posted on by Harlem Shill

The National Urban League has chosen Jennifer Scott to be the founding executive director and lead curator of The Urban Civil Rights Museum being built on West 125th Street between ACP and Lenox.

The new museum will center the Urban League’s Empowerment Center in Harlem and house the NUL’s headquarters along with 170 units of affordable housing, retailers like Target and Trader Joe’s, and office space with below-market rent for community groups and nonprofits including One Hundred Black Men of New York and Harlem’s Jazzmobile.

The $242 million complex is scheduled to open in early 2025.

The museum will showcase the “long fight for justice in the North” – like the Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance – “from early African American communities to the current Black Lives Matter era,” Scott said.

Scott also has longstanding ties to New York City. An anthropologist and public historian, she has taught for more than 20 years at The New School on subjects including race and ethnic studies, cultural anthropology, and civic engagement. She also worked for nearly a decade at Brooklyn’s Weeksville Heritage Center, a memorial to a free Black community living there before the Civil War, where she helped redevelop the center’s programming and restore the historic site.

For more, see this Gothamist article.

A Postcard of Graham Court

Posted on by Harlem Shill

Graham Court Apartments were built on Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd between 116th and 117th Streets. One of the Astors (think Astor Row on 130th Street and Astoria and Astor Place…) built the complex in 1901 using the architectural firm Clinton and Russell,

The complex has a gracious entrance and courtyard and is 8 stories tall. the building is landmarked, and thus extensive work over the last few years has all had to be done under the eye of the landmarks commission.

Pan Fried Chicken

Eater has a great article on restauranteur Charles Gabriel who has been cooking in Harlem for decades, beginning with Copeland’s, but now is opening a number of pan fried chicken restaurants.

Gabriel worked at the Copeland’s (a neighborhood soul food spot) for 22 years — first as a dish washer, then as a cook — before setting off on his own. He sold hot dogs and barbecue from a folding table along Amsterdam Avenue, then opened a food truck and a series of storefronts of varying names: Charles’ Mobile Soul Food Truck, Charles’ Country Pan-Fried Chicken, and Charles’ Southern Style Kitchen.

Now Charles Pan-Fried Chicken gets its turn, a small takeout and delivery restaurant with enough standing room for a dozen or so people to yell for trays of barbecued ribs or smothered turkey wings.

Slobert is partially to credit for the change in direction. The hospitality veteran, who grew up going to Copeland’s while Gabriel was a chef there, is the restaurant’s chief operating officer, an odd title for a two-location, family-run business, but one that reflects his dreams of national expansion. “Originally we were supposed to do one restaurant,” Slobert says, but plans changed after takeout started to take off at Charles Pan-Fried Chicken during the pandemic. “I thought, ‘Why not take over the world?’”

Read more, here:

https://ny.eater.com/2022/3/28/22971521/charles-pan-fried-chicken-opens-harlem-nyc

Fashion on ACP

Posted on by Harlem Shill

Edwing D’Angelo’s atelier on Adam Clayton Powell is unlike any other storefront in Harlem. His custom-made clothing (one of a kind and made for you and your event) is complemented by ready-to-wear items showing in his windows.

Mosaics

Posted on by Harlem Shill

When you think of mosaics and ecclesiastical architecture, Harlem does not come to mind. However, the Shiloh Baptist Church at 131st and Adam Clayton Powell has a remarkable, 3 story high external mosaic on its facade.

Note the hair styles of the people looking up to the central cross.

And those turned away in shame:

Adam Clayton Powell Blvd, looking north from 130th Street

1910-1920?

And looking from the same spot, today

https://www.google.com/maps/@40.8121306,-73.9459916,3a,75y,30.41h,67.53t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sZcwknfrC_c6-yqR9kOxP2Q!2e0!7i16384!8i8192

Consumer Debt Workshop Tonight

Tonight Ephesus Church is sponsoring an important workshop on Consumer Debt – how to avoid it, and if you get caught, how to get out of it. Tonight at 7:00 PM

Open Zoom and enter Meeting ID 948 2969 36611 Passcode 009058 or call 929.205.6099

Pet Friendly?

Posted on by Harlem Shill

Localize looked at the data for pet friendly rental listings and came up with this:

Top pet-friendly Manhattan neighborhoods

  • Morningside Heights: 98%
  • Upper West Side: 84%
  • Greenwich Village: 83%
  • Washington Heights: 80%
  • East Harlem: 79%

While New Yorkers love their pets, many property managers don’t share the sentiment. The following neighborhoods are more challenging to find buildings that allow pets.

Worst neighborhoods for pet-friendly listings

  • Brooklyn: Park Slope (16%), Bedford Stuyvesant (24%), Crown Heights (33%)
  • Manhattan: Harlem (17%), East Village (19%), LES (23%)
  • Queens: Astoria (21%), Glen Oaks (29%)

While Park Slope had a higher overall score due to its proximity to dog parks and other amenities, it also ranks as a difficult neighborhood to find pet-friendly listings due to low inventory. It’s still possible to find pet-friendly apartments in the areas listed above, they just have the least number of available listings currently on the market. 

For more, see:

https://www.localize.city/blog/pet-friendly-neighborhoods-nyc/

The Tree of Hope III

On the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Blvd’s median, you can see a sculpture – The Tree of Hope III – at the location of the original Tree of Hope that was a talisman to performers in Harlem’s many clubs.

The style of the sculpture – the colors and form in particular – certainly situate it as a product of the early 70’s, but it has a vibrancy and panache that works (even if it’s too small for the location).